Worsley,
of the Board of Works, alone divided the palm; he rode more gracefully.
Elwes was by far the boldest rider.
The Duke of Portland (who died in 1809) was among the _delicciae_ of each
form at Westminster, in all that appertained to temper, the tenderness
and warmth of feeling, suavity of approach, and the whole passive power
of pleasing. Thus much internal worth, tempered with but little of those
showy powers which dazzle and seduce, gave early promise that he
would escape all intriguing politics, and never degrade himself by the
projects of party; for a party-man must always be comparatively mean,
even on a scale of vicious dignity; in violence, subordinate to the
ruffian; in chicane, below a common town-sharper.
He had, happily, no talents for party; he was better used by nature.
He seemed formed for the kindliest offices of life; to appreciate the
worth, and establish the dignity of domestic duties; to exemplify the
hardest tasks of friendship and affinity; to display each hospitable
charm.
All that he afterwards did for Chace Price, and Lord Eduard, appeared
as a flower in its bud, in Dean's-yard and Tothill-fields, with the
fruit-woman under the Gateway, and the coffee-house then opposite.
In his school-exercises, fame is not remembered to have followed any but
his Wednesday evening themes: some of them were incomparably the best of
the standing.
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