ZTbc Cofees of feolfcbam 205 



one of great value and antiquity, and has a further 

 interest from the fact that Coke obtained it under such 

 peculiar circumstances that he was arrested and im- 

 prisoned, and only released at the urgent solicitations of 

 the Grand Duke of Tuscany, who acted under strong 

 pressure from the Countess of Albany, of whom he, too, 

 like the young Englishman, was deeply enamoured. The 

 price paid for the statue was 1,500. 



On his return to England after these romantic 

 adventures Thomas William Coke prepared to settle 

 down as an English country gentleman, and as a first 

 step crushed his sentimental attachment for the beautiful 

 Countess Louisa under foot and took to himself a wife, 

 a woman as beautiful if not as charming as his first 

 love to wit, Jane, sister of James, first Baron Sherborne, 

 and youngest daughter of James Lennox Button, of 

 Lough Crew, county Meath. 



On April nth, 1776, Wenman Roberts Coke died, and 

 Thomas William succeeded to the estates of Longford, 

 in Derbyshire, and Holkham, in Norfolk. In the same 

 year, very much against his will, for sport was far more 

 to his taste than politics, he consented to become 

 Member for Norfolk in the Whig interest, and with only 

 one short break he represented that constituency for 

 thirty years. To quote one of his eulogists : " He has 

 ever been the independent, bold, uncompromising enemy 

 of every species of aggression upon the liberty or the 

 property of his countrymen, and has ever denounced 

 with unswerving zeal every form of corruption." 



He was among the minority who voted against the 

 American War in 1776, and he moved the petition 



