precluded explanation; and he surrendered his judgment to a very foolish custom, which proved nothing either way.* The parties met on the 21st of September, near the Telegraph on Putney Heath, Lord Castlereagh attended by Lord Yarmouth (afterwards Marquis of Hertford), and Mr. Canning by Mr. Charles Ellis (afterwards Lord Seaford). Having taken their ground (in sight of the windows of the house where Pitt died!) they fired by signal, and missed. The seconds endeavoured to effect an accommodation, but failed, and they then declared that, after a second shot, they would retire from the field. The principals again fired, and Lord Castlereagh's ball entered Mr. Canning's thigh, on the outer side of the bone. According to some accounts of the meeting they were placed to fire again, when the seconds, seeing the blood streaming from Mr. Canning's wound, interfered, and so the affair ended.† Mr. Canning afterwards published an account of the whole transaction, which was rendered necessary by certain statements published by Lord Camden. Lord Castlereagh's secretary also issued *Contemporary opinion ran strongly against Lord Castlereagh. Wilberforce blames him for having sent the challenge, not on the impulse of the first angry feelings, but after chewing the cud of his resentment for twelve days.-" Life," iii., 431. In another place, he ascribes the challenge to his lordship's "Irish education and habits,"-p. 427. These censures are inconsistent. The Irish habit is more hasty and hotblooded. If Lord Castlereagh did deliberate for twelve days, it must have been because his quick nature had undergone a sea-change. Sir Samuel Romilly blamed both parties. He says that Lord Castlereagh's "honour" was in no way impeached by what had happened, and that Mr. Canning deserved censure for accepting a challenge upon such grounds.-"Memoirs," ii., 300. The leading Tory publications took the same view of the false conclusion drawn by Lord Castlereagh from his own premises. † Wilberforce tells us that two pistols, thrown away by the combatants, were found upon the ground, and that Lord picked up one of them and carried it off, his gardener securing the other. a" detail," as he described it," of the original cause of the animosity," which was answered by a "statement" from Mr. Canning. Mr. Canning's wound was fortunately slight, and after a short confinement at his house, Gloucester Lodge, in Brompton, he was sufficiently recovered to attend the Levee on the 11th of October, and resign the seals of the Foreign Office into the hands of his majesty. Mr. Huskisson resigned with him, nobly sacrificing his ambition to his friendship.* The infirm Duke of Portland, shattered and wrecked by these disasters, went into retirement and died. The administration was at an end. There never *"Speeches of the Rt. Hon. W. Huskisson," p. 51. was a more disinterested proof of attachment, for Mr. Huskisson's office (under Secretary to the Treasury) was in no way involved in the quarrel, and Mr. Perceval in vain entreated him to remain. Mr. Sturges Bourne gave a similar testimony of his friendship by resigning at the same time. RANELAGH was in its meridian glory, about the middle of the eighteenth century. The crowds of people it drew westward, steaming along the roads on horseback and afoot, suggested to some enterprising spectator the manifest want of a place of half-way entertainment, that might tempt the tired pleasure-hunter to rest awhile on his way home, or, perhaps, entice him from the prosecution of his remoter expedition on his way out. The spot was well-chosen for the execution of this sinister design. It lay between Brompton and Kensington, just far enough from town to make it a pleasant resting point for the pedestrian, and near enough to Ranelagh to make it a formidable rival. Sometimes of a summer's evening there might be heard the voices of brass instruments, coming singing in the wind over the heads of the gay groups that were flaunting on the high-road, or, through the fields on their excursion to Ranelagh; and, sometimes, decoyed by the sound, they would follow it, thinking they had mistaken the path, and never discover their mistake until they found themselves in the bosky recesses of Florida Gardens. Florida Gardens, laid out in the manner of Ranelagh, and Vauxhall, and the Mulberry Garden of old, flourished about sixty years ago: after that time, the place fell into waste and neglect, although the site was agreeable and even picturesque in its arrangements. It was bought by the Duchess of Gloucester, who built a handsome residence upon it, which being in the Italian style, was at first called Villa Maria; but subsequently, in consequence of the duchess making the house her constant resort in the summer months, became generally known by the name of Gloucester Lodge. Her Royal Highness died here in 1807, and Mr. Canning purchased her interest in the estate from her daughter the Princess Sophia. It was in this charming retreat-profoundly still, And violet banks where sweet dreams brood that Mr. Canning, during the long interval which now elapsed before he returned to office, passed the greater part of his leisure. We avail ourselves of this interval of repose to group together, with a disregard for chronological unity, which we hope the reader will not be disinclined to tolerate, a few waifs and strays of personal and domestic interest, otherwise inadmissible to an audience without risk of intrusion. There are parentheses of idle fancy and memory-gossip in every man's life— wet days when he turns over old letters at the fire-sideor indolent sunny days, when he can do nothing but bask in the golden mists and run the round of his youth over again in his imagination. Such lazy hours may be fairly represented by a few indulgent pages of disjointed memorabilia. The grounds of Gloucester Lodge were shut in by trees. All was seclusion the moment the gates closed. "The drawing-room," says Mr. Rush, "opened on a portico from which you walked out upon one of those smoothlyshaven lawns which Johnson, speaking of Pope's poetry, likens to velvet." Here Mr. Canning received the most distinguished persons of his time, Gloucester Lodge acquiring, under the influence of his accomplished taste, the highest celebrity for its intellectual re-unions. His own feelings always led him to prefer home parties, and, as has already been noticed, he rarely went abroad, except amongst close friends or on occasions of ceremony. His private life was not merely blameless, but quite admirable; he was idolised by his family; and yet, says a noble contemporary, such was the ignorance or malevolence of the paragraph writers, that he was described as a "dinerout."* The wit which sparkled at these entertainments was of the highest order: but there was something even better than wit—a spirit of enjoyment, gay, genial, and playful. Mr. Rush gives us an amusing account of a scene which took place at a dinner at Gloucester Lodge, immediately after the breaking up of Parliament. Several members of the diplomatic corps were present. Canning, Huskisson, and Robinson, were like birds let out of a cage. There was a great deal of sprightly small talk, and after sitting a long time at table, Canning proposed that they should play at "Twenty Questions." They had never heard of this game, which consisted in putting twenty questions to find out the object of your thoughts, something to be selected within certain prescribed limits. It was arranged that Mr. Canning, assisted by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was to ask the questions, and Mr. Rush, assisted by Lord Grenville, was to give the answerss-the representatives of, probably, nearly all the monarchs of * "Historical Sketches," &c. By Lord Brougham. |