xviii A FEW MEMOIRS OF 
eighth Earl of Pembroke, was General William Herbert, 
who distinguished himself greatly in the public service, 
and also had the good fortune to marry Eliza Wyndham, 
distinguished as the great-grand-daughter of the Duke of 
Somerset and of Elizabeth Percy, who was a sister of the 
last Earl of Northumberland, of the old continental line 
of Joscelyn of Louvain. General William Herbert was, 
therefore, on these accounts, raised to the peerage, with 
the title of Earl of Carnarvon, in 1793. 
The third son of this first Earl of Carnarvon was the 
Hon. and Rev. William Herbert, subsequently Dean of 
Manchester, and the father of the subject of these me¬ 
moirs. Hence, it is clear that our own “ Frank Forester,” 
the modern author, was a descendant of the proud Per- 
cys, the irascible Joscelyns, and the ducal Somersets, 
commingled with the agricultural Herberts, as well as 
the literary and liberty-loving Sidneys. On the maternal 
side, besides the original Welsh blood of the Montgomery 
stock, he inherited an Irish influence of the very highest 
character, his mother being the Hon. Letitia Allyn, second 
daughter of Yiscount Allyn of Kildare, one of the Irish 
representative peers, and a branch of the princely Lein¬ 
ster line. This estimable lady is now living in May Fair, 
London. Herbert’s father, the Dean of Manchester, is 
best known to American readers as the author of “Attila.” 
He was a profound scholar, and died in 1817. 
Henry William Herbert was born in London on the 
7th of April, 1807, a year which has been made famous 
by giving America her Longfellow and her Willis. Un¬ 
til the age of twelve, Master Henry was taken charge of 
by private tutors in his father’s house, which, in those 
days especially, was a general resort for parliamentary 
wits and distinguished scholars. On entering his teens, 
Henry was sent to Dr. Hooker’s academy at Brighton, on 
the Sussex coast. In April, 1820, commencing his four- 
