MEMOIRS, BIOGRAPHIES, Etc. 



7 



COKE OF NORFOLK AND HIS FRIENDS : 



The Life of Thomas William Coke, First Earl of Leicester of 

 the second creation, containing an account of his Ancestry, 

 Surroundings, Public Services, and Private Friendships, and 

 including many Unpublished Letters from Noted Men of his day, 

 English and American. By A. M. W. Stirling. With 20 

 Photogravure and upwards of 40 other Illustrations reproduced 

 from Contemporary Portraits, Prints, etc. Demy Svo. 2 vols. 

 32/. net. 



*«.* The na?7ie of Coke of Norfolk was once known throughout the civilized world, now 

 it is familiar to very few. Coke occupied a unique position in his generation : as a 

 landlord-owner he was credited with having transformed the agriculture of both 

 hemispheres ; as a politician he remained for over half a century the " Father" of the 

 House of Commons, exercising by the force of his example a peculiar influetice upon the 

 political world of his day. He was offered a peerage seven times for his services by seven 

 different Prime Ministers. Coke was especially fortunate in his friendships, and he 

 preserved his correspondence. The letters of the noted men of his day recreate Coke's 

 generation for us, and we see many famous men in a guise with which we are but little 

 acquainted. We see Lafayette as the humble farmer, absorbed in rearing his pigs and his 

 cattle; Lord Hastings as a youth climbing a volcano during an eruption; George IV as 

 the fickle friend, pocketing humiliation in order to condone deceit, or, at a period of 

 exciting national danger, filling his letters to Coke with characteristically trivial 

 speculations whether the Sergeant whom he was sending to recruit the Holkham Yeomanry 

 would, or would not, get drunk. Again, we see Fox as a slovenly schoolboy playing pitch- 

 and-toss at Eton ; Nelson, but as the delicate son of an obscure Norfolk clergyman. 

 Incongruous in their endless variety, the characters move across the pages — Pope 

 Clement XIV, Louise of Stolberg, Dr. Parr, Amelia Opie, Honest King William, 

 tlte Duke of Sussex, Chantrey, Lord £rskine, Gainsborough, Roscoe, Sir James Smith, 

 Sir Humphry Davy — statesmen, scientists, artists, literati, a great international 

 train, amongst whom, and perhaps more remarkable than all at that especial date, are 

 celebrities from the United States— at a date when, be it remembered, all who came thence 

 were looked at askance as the recent foes of England, and were, as Raitres remarks — 

 "Foreigners, and of a nation hitherto but little known in our circles." Ami for all this 

 we have had to wait sixty-five years, because, of the many biographies commenced, the one 

 that swallowed up all the rest was eventually lost. A feature of this book is the wealth 

 of illustrating material, including many hitherto unpublished pictures by famous hands. 



DEVONSHIRE CHARACTERS AND STRANGE 



EVENTS. By S. Baring-Gould, m.a., Author of " Yorkshire 

 Oddities," " Mehalah," « Tragedy of the Caesars," etc. Demy 

 Svo. 21j.net. 



*»* Notices of some of the most singular characters and events connected with the 

 County of Devon— a county that has been exceptionally prolific of such. The personages 

 named, and whose lives are given, belong to a lower plane than the great men of the 

 county who have made their ?nark in history. But the range of characters is really 

 wonderful. Tke volume is profusely illustrated with reproductions from old and 

 rare prints. 



THE HEART OF GAMBETTA. Translated 



from the French by Violette Montagu. With Portraits and 

 other Illustrations. Demy Svo. Js. 6d. net. 



