and under a sense of domestic tyranny, except what his own reflection bred. I must, however, do justice to my grandfather by saying, that he had an acknowledged love of honour, justice, and truth, which ought to balance his excess of severity. As far as I can learn both were the characteristics of the House of Lixnaw for many generations, and are distinguishable to this day in the small remains of it. I hope I have introduced a degree of softness into it, but I must acknowledge, out of regard to the truth, with which I profess to write these memoranda, that it has arisen more from self-discipline, good company, and observation of the world, than from my own nature.
"If it had not been for the disadvantages I have described, my father, with his fortune and the favour of accidents, would, I am persuaded, have made a distinguished man. He had an uncommon good plain understanding, great firmness, and love of justice, saw things public and private en grand, but was not broke to the world's little activity; had all the habits and principles of his father's Court worked into his very nature, and no notion of governing his children particularly except by fear. My mother, on the other hand, was active to excess, and enterprising as far as her talents could carry her one of the most passionate characters I ever met with, but good-natured and forgiving when it was over with a boundless love of power, economical to excess in the most minute particulars, and persevering, by which means she was always sure to gain her ends of my father, who, upon the whole, loved a quiet life.[1] If it had not been for her continual energy my father would have passed the remainder of his life in Ireland, and I might at this time be the chief of some little provincial faction.[2]
"In Scotland, I suppose I saw the last of the feudal lords, like my ancestors, in the person of the last Duke
- ↑ John, Earl of Shelburne, married his first cousin, Mary Fitzmaurice of Gallant. There is a letter at Holland House to Lord Holland from Lord Kildare, attributing the faults of the character of Lord Shelburne to his mother.
- ↑ Mary, Lady Shelburne, died in 1780. Walpole, alluding to her death, speaks of her "superabundant cunning" (Correspondence, vii. 475). John, Earl of Shelburne, bought the Bowood property. His monument is in the mausoleum in the park.
