... You have children to educate and provide for, you have
all your senses, and can enjoy all the comforts both of domestic and
social life. I am in every sense _isole_, and have wound up all my
bottoms; I may now walk off quietly, without missing nor being missed.'
The kindness of his nature, corrupted as it was by a life wholly
worldly, and but little illumined in its course by religion, shone now
in his care of his two grandsons, the offspring of his lost son, and of
their mother, Eugenia Stanhope. To her he thus wrote:--
'The last time I had the pleasure of seeing you, I was so taken up in
playing with the boys, that I forgot their more important affairs. How
soon would you have them placed at school? When I know your pleasure as
to that, I will send to Monsieur Perny, to prepare everything for their
reception. In the mean time, I beg that you will equip them thoroughly
with clothes, linen, &c., all good, but plain; and give me the amount,
which I will pay; for I do not intend, from this time forwards, the two
boys should cost you one shilling.'
He lived, latterly, much at Blackheath, in the house which, being built
on Crown land, has finally become the Ranger's lodge; but which still
sometimes goes by the name of Chesterfield House.
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