William John Chute, Esq. 71 



mitted ; and his old schoolfellow's son, Mr. Arthur 

 Perceval, was the clergyman who ministered to him 

 in his last illness. From Harrow he went to Clare 

 Hall at Cambridge, and afterwards spent some time 

 at Angers in France. The consequence was that he 

 could speak French with a very good accent, and 

 was fond of burlesquing the shrugs and grimaces of 

 the old-fashioned French mode of salutation. 



Mr. Chute succeeded to the family property on the 

 death of his father in 1790; and in the same year 

 was returned on the Tory interest for the county of 

 Hants, together with Sir William Heathcote, the 

 grandfather of the present baronet ; but this success 

 was sullied by a great affliction to Mr. Chute in the 

 death of his beloved brother Chaloner, who was 

 carried off by a fever contracted by his exertions in 

 canvassing. His opponents had been Lord John 

 Russell, father of the late Duke of Bedford and of the 

 present Earl Russell, and Mr. Clarke Jervoise of Ids- 

 worth House, and the contest had been a severe one. 

 Mr. Chute lost his seat for a few months in 1806, 

 when the death of Pitt gave occasion for the short- 

 lived administration of Fox and Grenville, known at 

 the time by the title of ' All the Talents.' On this 

 occasion Sir WilHam Heathcote retired, and Mr. 

 Chute fought the Tory battle in conjunction with 

 Sir Henry Mildmay of Dogmersfield Park ; but in 

 those war-times the Portsmouth Dockyards supplied 

 so many voters who were nominees of the existing 

 administration, that they could generally turn the 

 balance between the Whig and Tory constituencies 

 of the county ; and accordingly Mr. Chute and his 

 colleague were beaten by Mr. Herbert, the great 



