It was that of a man who, in the union
of wit and good sense with politeness, had not a competitor. These
qualities were matured by the advantage which he assiduously sought and
obtained, of a familiar acquaintance with almost all the eminent wits
and writers of his time, many of whom had been the ornaments of a
preceding age of literature, while others were destined to become those
of a later period.'
The accession of George II., to whose court Lord Chesterfield had been
attached for many years, brought him no political preferment. The court
had, however, its attractions even for one who owed his polish to the
belles of Paris, and who was almost always, in taste and manners, more
foreign than English. Henrietta, Lady Pomfret, the daughter and heiress
of John, Lord Jeffreys, the son of Judge Jeffreys, was at that time the
leader of fashion.
Six daughters, one of them, Lady Sophia, surpassingly lovely recalled
the perfections of that ancestress, Arabella Fermor whose charms Pope
has so exquisitely touched in the 'Rape of the Lock.' Lady Sophia became
eventually the wife of Lord Carteret, the minister, whose talents and
the charms of whose eloquence constituted him a sort of rival to
Chesterfield.
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