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                           _Some Eccentrics
                              & a Woman_




_First Published in 1911_

[Illustration: A VIEW from the PUMP ROOM, BATH.]




                           _Some Eccentrics
                              & a Woman_

                          _By Lewis Melville_


                               _London_

                            _Martin Secker_

                       _Number Five John Street_

                               _Adelphi_




NOTE


Of the eight papers printed here, “Some Eighteenth-Century Men About
Town,” “A Forgotten Satirist: ‘Peter Pindar’,” “Sterne’s Eliza,”
and “William Beckford, of Fonthill Abbey,” have appeared in the
_Fortnightly Review_; “Charles James Fox” appeared in the _Monthly
Review_, “Exquisites of the Regency” in _Chambers’s Journal_, and
“The Demoniacs” in the American _Bookman_. To the editors of these
periodicals I am indebted either for permission to reprint, or
for their courtesy in having permitted me to reserve the right of
publication in book form. “Philip, Duke of Wharton” is now printed for
the first time.

    LEWIS MELVILLE




_Contents_


                                                               PAGE

  EIGHTEENTH CENTURY MEN ABOUT TOWN                              13

  SOME EXQUISITES OF THE REGENCY                                 47

  A FORGOTTEN SATIRIST: “PETER PINDAR”                          103

  STERNE’S ELIZA                                                129

  THE DEMONIACS                                                 161

  WILLIAM BECKFORD OF FONTHILL ABBEY                            189

  CHARLES JAMES FOX                                             219

  PHILIP, DUKE OF WHARTON                                       253

  INDEX                                                         283




_List of Illustrations_


  “A VIEW FROM THE PUMP ROOM, BATH”                  _Frontispiece_
    _A Facsimile Reproduction of a Drawing by Richard Deighton_

  SIR JOHN LADE                                   _To face page_ 16
    _From the Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds_

  THE PRINCE OF WALES                                  "    "    48
    _From the Miniature by Cosway_

  LUMLEY SKEFFINGTON                                   "    "    80
    _From a Contemporary Miniature_

  PETER PINDAR                                         "    "   112
    _From the Painting by John Opie_

  LAURENCE STERNE                                      "    "   144
    _From the Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds_

  WILLIAM BECKFORD                                     "    "   192
    _From the Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds_

  CHARLES JAMES FOX                                    "    "   224
    _From the Painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds_

  PHILIP, DUKE OF WHARTON                              "    "   256
    _From a Contemporary Painting_




                 Some Eighteenth-Century Men about Town


When his Royal Highness George, Prince of Wales, afterwards George
IV., freed himself from parental control, and, an ill-disciplined lad,
launched himself upon the town, it is well known that he was intimate
with Charles James Fox, whom probably he admired more because the King
hated the statesman than for any other reason. Doubtless the Prince
drank with Fox, and diced with him, and played cards with him, but
from his later career it is obvious he can never have touched Fox
on that great man’s intellectual side; and, after a time, the royal
scapegrace, who would rather have reigned in hell than have served in
heaven, sought companions to whom he need not in any way feel inferior.
With this, possibly sub-conscious, desire, he gathered around him a
