With Illustrations from Drawings by

H. K. BROWNE AND JAMES GODWIN.

85 C 6188 929.72

LONDON: PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET.

GEORGE VILLIERS, SECOND DUKE OF BUCKINGHAM.

Signs of the Restoration.-Samuel Pepys in his Glory.-A Royal Company.-Pepys

'ready to Weep.'-The Playmate of Charles II.-George Villiers' Inheritance.—

Two Gallant Young Noblemen.-The Brave Francis Villiers.-After the Battle

of Worcester.-Disguising the King-Villiers in Hiding. He appears as a

Mountebank.-Buckingham's Habits.—A Daring Adventure.-Cromwell's Saintly

Daughter.-Villiers and the Rabbi.-The Buckingham Pictures and Estates.-

York House.-Villiers returns to England.-Poor Mary Fairfax.-Villiers in the

Tower. Abraham Cowley, the Poet.-The Greatest Ornament of Whitehall.—

Buckingham's Wit and Beauty.-Flecknoe's Opinion of him.-His Duel with the

Earl of Shrewsbury.-Villiers as a Poet.-As a Dramatist.-A Fearful Censure!

-Villiers' Influence in Parliament.-A Scene in the Lords.-The Duke of

Ormond in Danger.-Colonel Blood's 'Outrages.-Wallingford House, and Ham

House. Madame Ellen.'-The Cabal.-Villiers again in the Tower.-A Change.

~The Duke of York's Theatre.-Buckingham and the Princess of Orange.-His

last Hours.-His Religion.-Death of Villiers.-The Duchess of Buckingham.

p. 1.

COUNT DE GRAMMONT, ST. EVREMOND, AND LORD

ROCHESTER.

De Grammont's Choice.-His influence with Turenne.--The Church or the Army ?--

An Adventure at Lyons.-A brilliant Idea.-De Grammont's Generosity.—A

Horse for the Cards.'-Knight-Cicisbeism.-De Grammont's first Love.-His

Witty attacks on Mazarin.-Anne Lucie de la Mothe Houdancourt.-Beset with

Snares. De Grammont's Visits to England.-Charles II.-The Court of

Charles II.-Introduction of Country-dances.-Norman Peculiarities.-St. Evre-

mond, the Handsome Norman.-The most Beautiful Woman in Europe.-Hor-

tense Mancini's Adventures.-Madame Mazarin's House at Chelsea.-Anecdote of

Lord Dorset.-Lord Rochester in his Zenith.-His Courage and Wit.-Rochester's

Pranks in the City.-Credulity, Past and Present. Dr. Bendo,' and La Belle

Jennings. La Triste Heritière.-Elizabeth, Countess of Rochester.-Retribution

and Reformation.-Conversion.-Beaux without Wit.-Little Jermyn.—An In-

comparable Beauty.-Anthony Hamilton, De Grammont's Biographer.- The

Three Courts.La Belle Hamilton.'-Sir Peter Lely's Portrait of her.-The

Household Deity of Whitehall.-Who shall have the Calèche.-A Chaplain in

Livery.-De Grammont's Last Hours.-What might he not have been?

BEAU FIELDING.

P. 47

On Wits and Beaux.-Scotland Yard in Charles II's day.—Orlando of The Tatler.'-

Beau Fielding, Justice of the Peace.-Adonis in Search of a Wife.-The Sham

Widow.-Ways and Means.--Barbara Villiers, Lady Castlemaine.--Quarrels with

the King. The Beau's Second Marriage.-The Last Days of Fops and Beaux.

P. 91

OF CERTAIN CLUBS AND CLUB-WITS UNDER ANNE.

The Origin of Clubs.-The Establishment of Coffee-houses.-The October Club.-The

Beef-steak Club. Of certain other Clubs.-The Kit-kat Club. The Romance of

the Bowl.-The Toasts of the Kit-kat.-The Members of the Kit-kat.-A good

Wit, and a bad Architect.- Well-natured Garth.'-The Poets of the Kit-kat.-

Charles Montague, Earl of Halifax.-Chancellor Somers,-Charles Sackville, Lord

Dorset.-Less celebrated Wits

WILLIAM CONGREVE.

P. 103

When and where was he born?-The Middle Temple.-Congreve finds his Vocation.

-Verses to Queen Mary.-The Tennis court Theatre.-Congreve abandons the

Drama.-Jeremy Collier. The Immorality of the Stage.-Very Improper Things.

-Congreve's Writings.-Jeremy's Short Views.-Rival Theatres.--Dryden's

Funeral. A Tub-Preacher.-Horoscopic Predictions.-Dryden's Solicitude for

his Son.-Congreve's Ambition.-Anecdote of Voltaire and Congreve.-The Pro-

fession of Mæcenas.-Congreve's Private Life.— Malbrook's' Daughter-Con-

greve's Death and Burial

BEAU NASH.

p. 121

The King of Bath.-Nash at Oxford.- My Boy Dick.'-Offers of Knighthood.-Doing

Penance at York.-Days of Folly.-A very Romantic Story.-Sickness and Civi-

lization.-Nash descends upon Bath.-Nash's Chef-d'œuvre.-The Ball.-Im-

provements in the Pump-room, &c.-A Public Benefactor.-Life at Bath in

Nash's time. A Compact with the Duke of Beaufort.-Gaming at Bath.-Anec-

dotes of Nash.-' Miss Sylvia.'-A Generous Act.-Nash's Sun setting.-A

Panegyric.-Nash's Funeral.-His Characteristics

PHILIP, DUKE OF WHARTON.

P. 145

Wharton's Ancestors.-His Early Years.-Marriage at Sixteen.-Wharton takes leave

of his Tutor.-The Young Marquis and the Old Pretender.-Frolics at Paris.-

Zeal for the Orange Cause.-A Jacobite Hero.-The Trial of Atterbury.-Whar