Whilst he lived on the terms with his wife which is described even by
the French as being a '_Menage de Paris_,' Lord Hervey, found in another
quarter the sympathies which, as a husband, he was too well-bred to
require. It is probable that he always admired his wife more than any
other person, for she had qualities that were quite congenial to the
tastes of a wit and a beau in those times. Lady Hervey was not only
singularly captivating, young, gay, and handsome; but a complete model
also of the polished, courteous, high-bred woman of fashion. Her manners
are said by Lady Louisa Stuart to have 'had a foreign tinge, which some
called affected; but they were gentle, easy, and altogether exquisitely
pleasing.' She was in secret a Jacobite--and resembled in that respect
most of the fine ladies in Great Britain. Whiggery and Walpolism were
vulgar: it was _haut ton_ to take offence when James II. was
anathematized, and quite good taste to hint that some people wished well
to the Chevalier's attempts: and this way of speaking owed its fashion
probably to Frederick of Wales, whose interest in Flora Macdonald, and
whose concern for the exiled family, were among the few amiable traits
of his disposition.
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