The Wits and Beaux of Society | Page 2

p. 148
LORD HERVEY.
George II. arriving from Hanover.--His Meeting with the Queen.--Lady
Suffolk.--Queen Caroline.--Sir Robert Walpole.--Lord Hervey.--A Set
of Fine Gentlemen.--An Eccentric Race.--Carr, Lord Hervey.--A
Fragile Boy.--Description of George II.'s Family.--Anne Brett.--A
Bitter Cup.--The Darling of the Family.--Evenings at St.
James's.--Frederick, Prince of Wales.--Amelia Sophia
Walmoden.--Poor Queen Caroline!--Nocturnal Diversions of Maids of
Honour.--Neighbour George's Orange Chest.--Mary Lepel, Lady
Hervey.--Rivalry.--Hervey's Intimacy with Lady Mary.--Relaxations of
the Royal Household.--Bacon's Opinion of Twickenham.--A Visit to
Pope's Villa.--The Little Nightingale.--The Essence of Small
Talk.--Hervey's Affectation and Effeminacy.--Pope's Quarrel with
Hervey and Lady Mary.--Hervey's Duel with Pulteney.--'The Death of
Lord Hervey: a Drama.'--Queen Caroline's last Drawing-room.--Her
Illness and Agony.--A Painful Scene.--The Truth discovered.--The
Queen's Dying Bequests.--The King's Temper.--Archbishop Potter is

sent for.--The Duty of Reconciliation.--The Death of Queen
Caroline.--A Change in Hervey's Life.--Lord Hervey's Death.--Want of
Christianity.--Memoirs of his Own Time. p. 170
PHILIP DORMER STANHOPE, FOURTH EARL OF
CHESTERFIELD.
The King of Table Wits.--Early Years.--Hervey's Description of his
Person.--Resolutions and Pursuits.--Study of Oratory.--The Duties of
an Ambassador.--King George II.'s Opinion of his Chroniclers.--Life in
the Country.--Melusina, Countess of Walsingham.--George II. and his
Father's Will.--Dissolving Views.--Madame du Bouchet.--The
Broad-Bottomed Administration.--Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland in Time
of Peril.--Reformation of the Calendar.--Chesterfield
House.--Exclusiveness.--Recommending 'Johnson's Dictionary.'--'Old
Samuel,' to Chesterfield.--Defensive Pride.--The Glass of
Fashion.--Lord Scarborough's Friendship for Chesterfield.--The Death
of Chesterfield's Son.--His Interest in his Grandsons.--'I must go and
Rehearse my Funeral.'--Chesterfield's Will.--What is a Friend?--Les
Manières Nobles.--Letters to his Son. p. 210
THE ABBE SCARRON.
An Eastern Allegory.--Who comes Here?--A Mad Freak and its
Consequences.--Making an Abbé of him.--The May-Fair of
Paris.--Scarron's Lament to Pellisson.--The Office of the Queen's
Patient.--'Give me a Simple Benefice.'--Scarron's Description of
Himself.--Improvidence and Servility.--The Society at Scarron's.--The
Witty Conversation.--Francoise D'Aubigné's Début.--The Sad Story of
La Belle Indienne.--Matrimonial Considerations.--'Scarron's Wife will
live for ever.'--Petits Soupers.--Scarron's last Moments.--A Lesson for
Gay and Grave. p. 235
FRANCOIS DUC DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULT AND THE DUC DE
SAINT-SIMON.
Rank and Good Breeding.--The Hôtel de Rochefoucault.--Racine and
his Plays.--La Rochefoucault's Wit and Sensibility.--Saint-Simon's

Youth.--Looking out for a Wife.--Saint-Simon's Court Life.--The
History of Louise de la Vallière.--A mean Act of Louis Quatorze.--All
has passed away.--Saint-Simon's Memoirs of His Own Time. p. 253

SUBJECTS OF THE ILLUSTRATIONS
VOLUME I.
PAGE
WHARTON'S ROGUISH PRESENT (Frontispiece)
VILLIERS IN DISGUISE--THE MEETING WITH HIS SISTER 14
DE GRAMMONT'S MEETING WITH LA BELLE HAMILTON 74
BEAU FIELDING AND THE SHAM WIDOW 85
A SCENE BEFORE KENSINGTON PALACE--GEORGE II. AND
QUEEN CAROLINE 172
POPE AT HIS VILLA--DISTINGUISHED VISITORS 194
A ROYAL ROBBER 217
DR. JOHNSON AT LORD CHESTERFIELD'S 226
SCARRON AND THE WITS--FIRST APPEARANCE OF LA BELLE
INDIENNE 247

PREFACE.
When Grace and Philip Wharton found that they had pleased the world
with their "Queens of Society," they very sensibly resolved to follow
up their success with a companion work. Their first book had been all
about women; the second book should be all about men. Accordingly

they set to work selecting certain types that pleased them; they wrote a
fresh collection of pleasant essays and presented the reading public
with "Wits and Beaux of Society". The one book is as good as the other;
there is not a pin to choose between them. There is the same bright easy,
gossiping style, the same pleasing rapidity. There is nothing tedious,
nothing dull anywhere. They do not profess to have anything to do with
the graver processes of history--these entertaining volumes; they seek
rather to amuse than to instruct, and they fulfil their purpose excellently.
There is instruction in them, but it comes in by the way; one is
conscious of being entertained, and it is only after the entertainment is
over that one finds that a fair amount of information has been thrown in
to boot. The Whartons have but old tales to tell, but they tell them very
well, and that is the first part of their business.
Looking over these articles is like looking over the list of a good club.
Men are companionable creatures; they love to get together and gossip.
It is maintained, and with reason, that they are fonder of their own
society than women are. Men delight to breakfast together, to take
luncheon together, to dine together, to sup together. They rejoice in
clubs devoted exclusively to their service, as much taboo to women as
a trappist monastery. Women are not quite so clannish. There are not
very many women's clubs in the world; it is not certain that those which
do exist are very brilliant or very entertaining. Women seldom give
supper parties, "all by themselves they" after the fashion of that "grande
dame de par le monde" of whom we have spoken elsewhere. A
woman's dinner-party may succeed now and then by way of a joke, but
it is a joke that is not often repeated. Have we not lately seen how an
institution with a graceful English name, started