236 DEATH AND CHARACTER OF LORD TENTERDEN. 



tuous, than was always pleasant to others. Such was he to the last, 

 qwuu ab incepto. The present writer knew him from the age of 

 twelve years. Even at that early age the same mental characteristics 

 displayed themselves. He kept his friend in order in the same way, 

 as he afterwards kept the court in order. That friend always 

 knew, felt, and bowed to his superiority. In his presence, he always 

 had the awe that his own momentary ebullitions, and the temporary 

 warmth in which his imagination dressed a subject, would be detected 

 and dispelled by a speed which he could not resist. Lord Tenterden's 

 turn of mind, from boyhood, was grave, reflecting, and rationative. 

 It was strict intellect. He was not gifted with any striking talent of 

 humour, wit, imagination, or fancy. It was a mistake to suppose him 

 slow ; he exercised deliberation as an imperious duty : but was gifted 

 with an extraordinary native sagacity. His laboriousness was the 

 more virtuous, because he did not lose labour for labour's sake, as 

 some do. He had no enthusiasms, no predilections, no peculiar bents. 

 He cultivated in every thing what is called good sense, and rectitude 

 of mind. Propriety therefore, correctness, polish, and elegance, are 

 the characteristics of his compositions, rather than great elevation, 

 or splendour, or eloquence. In this attempt at the most conscientious 

 discrimination the writer conceives that he is doing the memory of the 

 departed WORTHY the most honour. 



All high-flown and general praise goes for nothing with the pub- 

 lic. It receives nothing favourably which does not meet the assent 

 of its judgment and knowledge. But that praise which finds an 

 echo in the bosoms of the intelligent will remain there unforgotten. 

 Since the time of Lord North, no such Chief as Lord Tenterden has 

 sat upon that bench. It is for the honour of Kent that it produced 

 another of the greatest judges of the land, Lord Hardwick. 



The present writer is not sure that he is entitled to give the fol- 

 lowing specimen of Lord Tenterden's Latin poetry in his latter days, 

 and still less the whole relation of the origin of his Lyrics on a dif- 

 ferent subject, viz. " Botanical Descriptions." 



" John Williams* of the norther circuit, now the queen's attorney 

 general, who is an admirable scholar, sent me four or five Greek 

 epigrams of his own. I had a mind to thank each of them, and 

 found I could do so with great ease to myself in ten Hendeca-sylla- 

 bles. This led me to compose two trifles in the same metre on two 

 favourite flowers, and afterwards some others (now I think twelve in 

 all) in the different Horatian metres ; and one an Ovidian epistle, of 

 which the subject is the ' Forget Me Not/ One of the earliest is an 



* Lord T. prefaces this by saying " I must tell you how this fancy of recom- 

 mencing to humour Latin metres, after a cessation of more than thirty years, 

 began. Brougham procured for me from Lord Granville a copy of some poems 

 printed by him under the title of Nug&, chiefly his own, one or two I believe of 

 Lord Wellesley, written long ago ; and a piece of very good Greek humour by 

 Lord Holland." 



