KNOLE 271 



In 1674 Charles Sackville succeeded to the 

 Middlesex estates, and the next year was created 

 Earl of Middlesex and Baron Cranfield, becoming 

 the sixth Earl of Dorset three years later. 



His taste turned to literature rather than to 

 politics, and he was justly admired for his Ana- 

 creontic poetry. He was an honest partisan of 

 James II., till he found that monarch's injustice, 

 cruelty, and bigotry past enduring, then he became 

 a friend and favourite of King William's. Dorset 

 is a marvellous case of universal popularity. There 

 was never a dissenting voice in the praise showered 

 upon him. 



The whole literary world of his day looked 

 up to him in the matter of letters ; as Prior 

 (whose genius was fostered under Dorset's care) 

 writes : " Dryden determines by him, under the 

 character of Eugenius, as to the laws of dramatic 

 poetry. Butler owed to him that the Court tasted 

 his ' Hudibras ' ; Wycherly that the Town liked his 

 ' Plain Dealer ' ; and the Duke of Buckingham 

 deferred to publish his ' Rehearsal ' till he was sure 

 that my Lord Dorset would not rehearse upon him 

 again. La Fontaine and St. Evremont have acknow- 

 ledged that he was a perfect master in the beauty 

 and fineness of their language and all that they call 

 Les Belles Lettres. Nor was this nicety of his 

 judgement confined only to books and literature, 

 but was the same in statuary and painting. 



