1627.] OF THE MARQUIS OF WORCESTER. 13 



by all writers, in alluding to his character. In his 

 youth (it is said) he was remarkable for his athletic 

 acquirements, distinguishing himself by the manly 

 exercises of riding and tilting, in which he was perhaps 

 superior to any of his contemporaries. But we have no 

 reason to extol the grandson for like success in these 

 chivalric exercises. 



We conceive he was otherwise disqualified, that he 

 was too light of weight and too short in stature. He 

 appears to have been of slender figure, and rather 

 under than above the middle standard in height. In 

 another point, indirectly perhaps affecting this same 

 matter, he did not possess that easy, boisterous speech 

 which armed assailants may often be called on to assume, 

 to strike terror into a foe, by throwing him off his guard. 

 He himself acknowledges, later in life, to this vocal 

 defect, when, in writing to Charles II. he admits that 

 he takes up the pen, as he says, &quot; To ease your Ma 

 jesty of a trouble incident to the prolixity of speech, 

 and a natural defect of utterance which I accuse myself 

 of.&quot; &quot; The prolixity of speech&quot; any one may imagine, 

 both from the letter in which this passage occurs, as 

 well as in the noble lord s general correspondence 

 throughout his life ; it seems to be a style in which the 

 close of each sentence, or its matter, suggests the next, 

 to be followed again in like manner, until the main 

 subject becomes so overlaid as to be lost in needless 

 verbose amplification. But he could and did write 

 tersely enough on occasion. No man could then better 

 display the admirable art of compressing large mean 

 ing into small compass. If eloquence in speaking 

 u troubled&quot; him, eloquent writing assuredly cost him, it 

 would appear, vastly more trouble in the labour of the 

 pen. We suspect that concentration of thought was 

 natural to him, but its elaboration to produce that 



