attained to fourscore and ten years. James II. had been familiar with Stephen Fox from his earliest days. He continued him in his offices and favour when he came to the throne, and offered to raise him to the peerage, but this honour Fox steadily refused, as he knew the King's object was to gain over to the Catholic religion a man who was universally honoured and respected. Fox declined the Bishop of London's personal solicitation to subscribe the invitation to William of Orange, or to aid in any way his coming to England. When William was seated on the throne, Fox submitted, and loyally served his country; but he never liked the King, and was the object of his disfavour when he opposed the bill for a standing army. He outlived his first wife, and the whole of his large family of ten children, excepting one daughter, the Countess of Northampton. In his old age, when seventy-six, fearing that he should be left childless, he married a second time, and took for his wife Miss Christian Hope, of Grantham. By her he had three children; two of whom, Stephen and Henry, became peers of the realm-Stephen, as Earl of Ilchester, and Henry, as first Baron Holland of Foxley. Full of years and honour, this true English worthy died at his seat at Chiswick, October 28, 1716. His body lay in state at Chiswick, and was then removed to his native place Farley, where, in the family vault, beneath the church he had rebuilt, it now reposes. As Sir Stephen Fox was the "founder" of the family, it will be evident from the facts here narrated, that he was a man of whom the noblest in the land might be proud to boast, as having raised an obscure name to dignity and fame. He was more than a great man-he was a good man.

At his death Sir Stephen Fox left his two sons, Stephen and Henry, respectively twelve and eleven years of age. Stephen, his eldest son, was created Baron Ilchester, county of Dorset, 1741, and Earl of Ilchester in 1756. From him descends the present William Thomas Horner Fox Strangeways, fourth Earl of Ilchester, who succeeded to his title in 1858, and is the direct representative of his great grandfather, Sir Stephen. With this family we are not at present concerned. The position which Sir Stephen had attained was sure to open a way for advancement to his sons, if they proved themselves worthy of following so noble a father. Henry Fox, the second son, accepted his father's political example, and devoted himself to a political life. It must be remembered that his father died when he was a youth of eleven years age; and therefore he lost the benefit of that paternal counsel, which is inestimable. He possessed, in many respects, the same

of

qualities as his father; but the greatest and best quality of all he lacked. Henry Fox was an ambitious, laborious, persevering man. He did his utmost not only to sustain, but to advance the influence and position of his family. Having been educated at Eton, be entered Parliament at an early period as a supporter of Sir Robert Walpole, and filled with credit various lower offices of State, until in 1746 he was appointed Secretary at War. With him commenced that hereditary rivalry which has so important a place in the reign of George III. between the houses of Pitt and Fox. It is a remarkable fact that William Pitt (Earl of Chatham) was member during a long number of years for the same city which Henry Fox's father and half brother had represented; so that Salisbury boasted both of a Fox and a Pitt for its members. The rivalry between Henry Fox and William Pitt first took distinctive form in 1751, upon the discussion of the Regency Bill, after the death of Frederick, Prince of Wales. About this time Fox was appointed Secretary at War. He had already made for himself a strong and powerful connection by his marriage in 1744, with the Lady Georgiana Carolina Lennox, daughter of the second Duke of Richmond. The marriage was clandestine, and therefore was regarded as a romantic event. The Duke and Duchess knew of Henry Fox's preference for Lady Georgiana, but regarded him an unsuitable husband for their daughter. They elected a bridegroom of their own choice, who was to be presented on an appointed evening. When the evening arrived, Lady Georgiana, determined to avoid the meeting, shaved off her eyebrows, and so rendered herself unpresentable. Being left for the night in disgrace, to the enjoyment of her solitude, advantage was taken of the opportunity, and when next her parents met her, it was as the wife of Henry Fox.

The marriage proved happy, and there are abundant records at Holland House to indicate the deep attachment which the Duke's daughter always cherished towards her husband. Most significant of all is the motto, "Re e Marito," which she selected for her coat of arms on being created Baroness Holland in 1762. This wifely mottoshowing her great pride in being made a Peeress was, that the honour was derived as much from the political services of her husband as from the favour of the Crown-remains conspicuous under her escutcheon in the great drawing-room and in the library of Holland House. In 1757, when Lord Temple was dismissed, and through Lord Mansfield negotiations were opened with the Duke of Newcastle and Mr. Pitt, a coalition Cabinet was formed, in which Newcastle was First Lord of

the Treasury, Pitt, Secretary of State, and Fox, Paymaster of the Forces. Henry Fox's character has been severely censured during his tenure of this office. That he became a rich man is a fact: that he became so by misuse of his office, and at the expense of the public, was an assertion openly made, though never clearly proved. No one would select the age of the First Georges as a period signalized by purity, patriotism, and a high standard of public morality. Fox contented himself by doing as he saw others do. If his ethics were lax, so, he would have argued, were the political and social morality of his times, and he was no worse than others. He had ever a keen outlook upon the main chance. He was probably-it may, perhaps, be said certainly -a jobber; and in the days of his daring, brilliant, political life, he treated the idea of public morality with the same indifference with which many other scheming, successful men have regarded it. George Selwyn, "Old Q" (the Duke of Queensbury), and a circle of the vivacious spirits of the times, were his associates. As long as he enjoyed office, and could exercise patronage, he did not need admirers and "friends." The dark days, however, arrived. Broken health, melancholy, and mortification became his lot. He built a fantastic villa at Kingsgate (near Margate) for his diversion, on which Gray wrote his bitter stanzas, commencing

"Old, and abandoned by each venal friend,

Here Holland took the Friar's resolution,
To smuggle a few years, and strive to mend
A broken character and constitution."

Whatever may have been the errors of Henry Fox in his political life, his home life was certainly in every way a contrast to his public and social existence. At home he was the object of the tenderest love: he was a devoted husband, and a most kind and indulgent father.

For some years after his marriage he had tenanted Holland House on lease from Edward Rich, the last Earl of Holland and Warwick. On that nobleman's death (see p. 54), the estate reverted to Elizabeth Rich, wife of William Edwardes, Esq., by whom it was sold in 1762 to Henry Fox. For a length of time the venerable mansion had been neglected, but as soon as it came into the possession of Fox it was thoroughly restored. The illustration appended to this article, giving a view of the room in which Addison died, will serve to show how jealously the Fox family have respected

the traditions of the house, and striven to preserve the apartments, which, from the reign of James I. to the reign of George IV., have been associated with names (especially in statesmanship and literature) that will cling to the house, so long as it resists and defies the encroachments of an ever-expanding and increasing Metropolis. From Henry Fox's time to the present, this has been the home of the Barons Holland: for it must be observed, that while his wife was created Baroness Holland, of Holland, county of Lincoln, in 1762, Henry Fox was himself raised to the peerage the following year by the title of Baron Holland, of Foxley, Wilts. An amusing anecdote is told of Henry Fox, at the time of his death. A day or two before that event, his old friend Selwyn called to ask after him, and to propose a visit. Selwyn had a morbid taste for seeing dead persons. This peculiarity was known to Fox, who, on being told of Selwyn's desire to come and see him, replied, "Oh, by all means. If I am alive, I shall be delighted to see George; and I know that if I am dead he will be delighted to see me."

He died July 1, 1774, and his remains were conveyed to Farley, where they were interred in the vault with his father. In the same place, two years later, his brother, the Earl of Ilchester, was interred. Lord Holland left three sons. The eldest, Stephen, was born in 1745, and at the age of twenty-one, in 1766, married Mary, daughter of John Fitzpatrick, first Earl of Upper Ossory. The second son was the famous Charles James Fox, who was born in 1748. The "Memoirs of Charles James Fox," edited by Earl Russell, have made his life so familiar to the present generation, that it would be superfluous to repeat in this place either incidents or anecdotes so easily met with elsewhere. Stephen Fox, as represented in the pictures of Holland House, must have been a man of a heavy, animal nature. He looks like one fond of self-indulgence, and therefore we are not surprised to find, that within six months of his father's decease he was stricken with apoplexy, and died in December, 1774, aged twenty-nine, leaving an infant son, one year old. The history of this family, and the description of the house, will be concluded in the next chapter.

Song.

MARY O'MARA.

MARY O'MARA, I think that I see theo

Still blooming and young,

Crown'd with a beauty as dazzlingly beaming

As poet e'er sung;
Lovers, deep-sighing,
All-emulous vying,

Thy love to secure;

While 'twas mine to adore,

And my lot to deplore

For thy minstrel was poor,

Mary O'Mara.

Mary O'Mara, the lordly O'Hara

Might make thee his own;

For his lineage was high, while the light of thine eye

Might have challeng'd a throne!

If his love rise

To the worth of the prize

He hath captur'd in thee,

Then a homage is thine
That a saint in her shrine

Scarcely deeper may see!

Mary O'Mara.

Mary O'Mara, I think that I hear thee,

With voice like a bell,

So silver-sweet ringing, the minstrelsy singing

Of him who lov'd well;

Of him, who, still loving,

And hopelessly roving

In regions afar,

Still thinks of the time

That he wove the sweet rhyme

To his heart's brightest star