374 
LORD HOUGHTON. 
of tlie last century that Richard Slater Milnes became possessed of 
the Great Houghton and Fryston estates, and took up his residence 
at Fryston Hall. This My. Milnes, ^vho was the grandfjither of the 
deceased peer, represented the city of York in Parliament from 1784 
until 1802. His sou, Mr. Robert Pemberton Milnes, of whom mention 
has already been made, married the Hon. Henrietta Maria Monckton, 
daughter of Robert, fourth Viscount Galway, in 1808, and the eldest 
child of this union was Richard Monckton Milnes, afterwards Lord 
Houghton. Mr. Pemberton Milnes was a man of great distinction, 
who might, if he had been disposed, have taken a very important 
place in the political w^orld. It was, if we mistake not, in the Ministry 
of Mr. Canning that Mr. Milnes received the offer of the Chancellor- 
ship of the Exchequer. This offer he declined, and during the latter 
part of his life he lived in comparative retirement at Fryston Hall. 
His only son, Richard, was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, 
where he graduated in 1831. Even at that early time lie had won 
distinction for himself, and had formed many notable friendships. 
He was already known as a speaker of singular felicity and as a poet 
of high promise. After leaving Cambridge he travelled extensively 
in the East, and the fruits of his observations of Eastern life have 
been preserved for ns, not merely in the memorial of " A Tour in 
Greece," but in poems which are destined to live in English literature, 
and which have given their author no mean place among the poets 
of England. In 1837, having returned from abroad, he was elected 
one of the Members for Pontefract in the House of Commons. He 
began his political career under tlie influence of Sir Robert Peel, and 
he was, of course, at that time a supporter of the Conservative party. 
But his instincts were far too liberal, and his mind too enlightened, 
to permit him to remain in the Conservative ranks at the time when 
the great feud over the repeal of the Corn Laws took place. He 
clung to Sir Robert Peel, supporting him warmly in the great work ; 
and after his death he gradually advanced further in his Liberalism, 
transferring his allegiance from Peel to Palmerston, and eventually 
becoming distinguished as a thorough -going supporter of Liberal 
principles and Liberal statesmen. He declined an offer from Lord 
Palmerston, of a seat on his Administration ; but he gave it his entire 
