Holland House (Volume 1) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. CHARLES JAMES FOX. If the second Lord Holland appear rather as a passive holder of the name than as an active ornament of his family, in a very different light figures his younger brother. Charles James Fox earned for himself such a reputation in the annals of English history, that, notwithstanding he was only a younger son, he is perhaps by some looked upon as the head of his family; while others, forgetful of his father's and grandfather's services, may be excused even for considering him as the first of his name. In the same spirit, we would give him a prominent position on these pages, although he was never a proprietor CH. III.l C. J. FOX A SPOILT CHILD. 81 of Holland House, and although Holland House was not even his birthplace. He was born on January 24th, 1749 (n.s.), in Conduit Street; but during much of his early life Holland House was his home. There we know that he joined in the private theatricals, when the part of Jane Shore was played by the beautiful Lady Sarah Lennox, with whom he is there also associated in a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds.1 There too occurred the well.known incident of the wall, which incident, well known as it is, must ever find its place in an account of Charles James Fox's youth. A wall was condemned, and Lord Holland had promised young Charles James that he should witness its demolition. By some accident, however, the boy was not present when the wall was knocked down; but Lord Holland, acting up to the principle of keeping faith even with a child, had the wall built up again, in order that it might be demolished before his eyes. Although this would help to prove that the child was a spoilt one, it would seem a pity to draw an unfavourable inference from a story which at least suggests the father's ...