be Gramont, not Grammont.]

The accounts prefixed to the different editions of his works, down to the
year 1805, are very imperfect; in that year a new, and, in general, far
better edition than any of the preceding ones, was published in Paris,
to which a sketch of his life was also added; but it contains rather just
criticisms on his works, than any very novel or satisfactory anecdote
concerning himself. It is not pretended here to gratify literary
curiosity as fully as it ought to be, with regard to this singular and
very ingenious man; some effort, however, may be made to communicate a
few more particulars relative to him, than the public has hitherto,
perhaps, been acquainted with.

Anthony Hamilton was of the noble family of that name: Sir George
Hamilton, his father, was a younger son of James, Earl of Abercorn, a
native of Scotland. His mother was daughter of Lord Thurles, and sister
to James, the first Duke of Ormond; his family and connections therefore,
on the maternal side, were entirely Irish. He was, as well as his
brothers and sisters, born in Ireland, it is generally said, about the
year 1646; but there is some reason to imagine that it was three or four
years earlier. The place of his birth, according to the best family
accounts, was Roscrea, in the county of Tipperary, the usual residence of
his father when not engaged by military or public business.

[In September, 1646, Owen O'Neale took Roscrea, and, as Carte says,
"put man, woman, and child to the sword, except Sir George
Hamilton's lady, sister to the Marquis of Ormond, and some few
gentlewomen whom he kept prisoners." No family suffered more in
those disastrous times than the house of Ormond. Lady Hamilton died
in August, 1680, as appears from an interesting and affecting letter
of her brother, the Duke of Ormond, dated Carrick, August 25th. He
had lost his noble son, Lord Ossory, not three weeks before.]

It has been always said, that the family migrated to France when Anthony
was an infant; but this is not the fact: "Sir George Hamilton," says
Carte, "would have accompanied his brother-in-law, the Marquis of Ormond,
to France, in December, 1650: but, as he was receiver-general in Ireland,
he stayed to pass his accounts, which he did to the satisfaction of all
parties, notwithstanding much clamour had been raised against him." When
that business was settled, he, in the spring of 1651, took Lady Hamilton
and all his fami