CHAP. CLXI. A. D. 1805. Creevery's account of Thurlow helmstone. No other meeting with Thurlow took place, and the "Delicate Investigation" proceeded the misconduct of both the illustrious parties continuing to scandalise the nation long after he had left this world. The Brighthelmstone was now his favourite retreat. Diary I have before quoted for an account of his reconciliation at Bright- with Horne Tooke, gives a lively representation of the life he led there in his declining days: -"Another very curious person whom I saw a great deal of in the autumn of 1805, sometimes at the Pavilion, sometimes at other houses where the Prince dined, and repeatedly at his own house, was Lord Thurlow, to whom the Prince always behaved with the most marked attention and deference. "Thurlow had declined greatly in energy from his encounter with Horne Tooke at Lady Oxford's. He used to read, and ride out in the morning, and his daughter (Mrs. Brown) and Mr. Sneyd the clergyman were both always occupied in procuring any strangers, or any other persons who they thought would be agreeable to the old man, to dine with him—the party being thus ten or twelve every day, or more. I had the good fortune to be occasionally there with my wife, which was a civility we owed to some former attentions from her to one of his daughters in the county of Durham, and however rough he might be with men, he was the politest person in the world to ladies. These two or three hours of his at dinner were occupied in lying in wait for any unfortunate slip or ridiculous observation that might be made by any of his male visitors, and whom, when caught, he never left hold of, till I have seen the sweat run down their faces from the scrape they had got into, and the unmerciful exposure he made of them. Having seen this property of his, I took care of course to keep clear of him, and have often been extremely amused in seeing the figure those have cut who came with the evident intention of shewing off before him. Curran, the Irish lawyer, I remember was a striking instance of this. I dined with him at Thurlow's one day, and he (Thurlow) just made as great a fool of him as he did formerly of Tooke. He was always dressed in a full suit of clothes of the old fashion, great cuffs and massy buttons, great wig, CLXI. A. D. 1805. long ruffles, &c. His black eyebrows exceeded in size any CHAP. I have ever seen, and his voice, though by no means devoid of melody, was a kind of rolling murmuring thunder. He was a man of great reading, particularly classical, and was a very distinguished as well as most daring converser. I never heard of any one but Mr. Hare who had fairly beat him, and that this happened I know from persons who were present. Hare turned the laugh against him more than once at Carlton House and at Woburn. "Sir Philip Francis, whom I knew intimately, and who certainly was a remarkably quick and clever man, was perpetually vowing vengeance against Thurlow, and always fixing his time (during this autumn of 1805) for making an example of the old ruffian,' as he called him, either at the pavilion, or wherever he met him; but I have seen them meet afterwards, and though Thurlow was always ready for battle, Francis, who on all other occasions was as bold as a lion, would never stir. The grudge he owed to Thurlow was certainly not slightly grounded. When Francis, and General Clavering, and Monson, were sent to India in 1773, to check Hastings in his career, their conduct by one party in parliament was extolled to the skies, whilst, on the other hand, Lord Thurlow in the House of Lords said, the greatest misfortune to India and to England was, that the ship which carried these three gentlemen out had not gone to the bottom of the sea in her passage.' "Lord Thurlow was induced to dine with George Johnstone, who being the most ridiculous toady of great men, and aspirer to what he thought genteel manners, said to him, I am afraid, my Lord, the port wine is not as good as I could wish,' upon which Thurlow growled out, I have tasted better.' "On one occasion one of the caterers of company for Lord Thurlow's amusement thought he had secured a great card, when he took Sir an F. R. S., a solemn conceited pedant of great pretension on very moderate foundation, to call upon him. In mentioning the circumstance afterwards, Lord Thurlow merely observed, A gentleman did me the honour to call upon me to-day, indeed, I believe he was a knight !' CHAP. CLXI. "He was fond of good music, and was I believe a critic in it. When he came into the drawing-room after dinner, he A. D. 1805. generally put his legs up on a sofa, and one of his daughters Jerningham's ac count of played on the piano forte some of Handel's music, and though he might sometimes appear to be dozing, if she played carelessly, or music he did not like, he immediately roused himself, and said 'What are you doing?' "As a proof of the attention and deference' above mentioned always paid to Lord Thurlow by the Prince, I may add that one day when Thurlow was engaged to dine at the Pavilion during the race week, Sir John Ladd arrived at Brighton, and the Prince invited him to dinner. The Prince was in the room before Thurlow arrived, and mentioned to one of the party his fear that Thurlow would not like the company, and when the old Lion' arrived the Prince went in to the anteroom to meet him, and apologised for the party being larger than he had intended, but added, that Sir John Ladd was an old friend of his, and he could not avoid asking him to dinner;' to which Thurlow, in his growling voice, answered, I have no objection, Sir, to Sir John Ladd in his proper place, which I take to be your Royal Highness's coach-box and not your table.' "One day at dinner at his own house, he heard one of the company use the word 'chromatic,' as he thought affectedly. What does he say?' growled out Thurlow, and made his poor victim attempt to explain his meaning in a manner that probably cured him of using the word for the rest of his life. He was very particular about the dessert, and on one occasion when I was present, a dish of peaches being brought to him which he found great fault with, — he had the whole dessert, which, for Brighthelmstone, was a fine one, thrown out of the window!" Again, we have the Ex-chancellor, in the autumn of the following year, when he was very near his end, presented to Thurlow at us in a very striking manner by Mr. Jerningham, the brother Brighthelmstone. of Lord Stafford. Sept. 1806. "We afterwards dined at to meet Lord Thurlow, and his daughter Mrs. Brown. A large party were assembled there. I was never more struck with the appear CLXI. A. D. 1806. ance of any one than with that of Lord Thurlow. Upon CHAP. entering the drawing-room, where he was seated on a sofa, we were all involuntarily moved to silence, and there was a stillness which the fall of a pin would have disturbed. He did not move when we came into the room, but slightly inclined his head, which had before hung down on his breast. He was dressed in an old-fashioned grey suit buttoned very loosely about him, and hanging down very low; he had on a brown wig with three rows of curls hanging partly over his shoulders. He was very grave and spoke little. His voice is rough, and his manner of speaking slow. Lord Thurlow is, I believe, only seventy-five; but from his appearance I should have thought him a hundred years old. His large black heavy eyes, which he fixes at intervals upon you, are overshadowed with perfectly white eyebrows, and his complexion is pallid and cadaverous. Upon literary subjects he ordinarily converses with much seeming pleasure, but having been this morning to the races he was fatigued and said very little. At dinner he drank a good deal, but nothing afterwards. In the course of conversation Mr. Mellish being remarked as a great favourite of the populace, Lord Thurlow said, "They like him as a brother blackguard;' and then added, I am of their opinion: I dislike your pious heroes: I prefer Achilles to Hector, Turnus to Eneas.' Lord Thurlow has a surprising memory, and will not allow the want of it in any one else; but says it is want of attention, and not of memory, that occasions forgetfulness. Being asked how long it was since he had been in Norfolk, he replied,About fifty or sixty years ago.' He went home very early, calling loudly for his hat, which I remarked as being of black straw, with a very low crown, and the largest rim I ever saw. It is easy to see that in his observing mind the most trifling incidents remain graven. Thus upon Lady J. being asked a second time at the end of dinner whether she would have any wine, Lord Thurlow immediately exclaimed in a gruff voice, Lady J. drinks no wine!' "We went to-day to dine at Lord Thurlow's, and upon being summoned from the drawing-room to dinner, we found him already seated at the head of his table in the same CHAP. CLXI. A.D. 1806. The year 1806 fatal to great men. Death of Pitt and Death of costume as the day before, and looking equally grave and ill. Lord Bute being mentioned, and some one observing that his life was going to be written, Lord Thurlow sharply observed, 'The life of a fly would be as interesting.' Thurlow's career in this world was now near its close. The year 1806 was remarkable for the death of several of the greatest men England ever produced. In January the proud spirit of William Pitt, unable longer to witness the utter discomfiture of his foreign policy, and the triumph of his country's foes, had fled to another state of existence; and his illustrious rival and successor had scarcely begun to exercise the functions of the high office, which, after such struggles, he had attained, when he too was summoned away while forming plans for the glory of England and for the liberties of mankind. A few hours before the demise of Charles James Fox,— an event which, from the important part he was then performing, excited universal interest and general sympathy †, · Thurlow, who had formerly filled so large a space in the public eye, breathed his last-almost unobserved and unpitied. Soon after the dinners just referred to, while he still remained at Brighthelmstone, he was suddenly seized with an attack of illness, which carried him off in two days. I have not learned any particulars of his end, but I will hope that it was a good one. I trust that, conscious of the approaching change, having sincerely repented of his violence of temper, of the errors into which he had been led by worldly ambition, and of the irregularities of his private life, he had seen the worthlessness of the objects by which he had been allured; that having gained the frame of mind which his awful situation required, he received the consolations of religion; and that, in charity with mankind, he tenderly bade a long and last adieu to the relations and friends who sur Law Magazine, vol. vii. 90., "Life of Lord Thurlow," to which the public is first indebted for this interesting account. Even Walter Scott, a bitter political opponent, after a beautiful tribute to the services of Pitt, exclaimed: "Nor yet suppress the generous sigh Because his rival slumbers nigh." |