When Lord Chesterfield’s Son Came Home From Abroad

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 18975, 27 March 1936, Page 12

When Lord Chesterfield’s Son Came Home From Abroad

"THERE is no mistaking which Lord .Chesterfield, though 11 carls have borne the title'which lh,ey took from the town with the twisted church spire. The British public has remembered 6n,ly the fourth, Philip Dormer Stanhope. "Yet this fourth Earl of Chesterfield was a far bigger person than is generally supposed, and those who delight in the eighteenth century may be assured of many agreeable hours if they take to their fireside a nen- study of Chesterfield and his world which has just appeared from the sparkling pen of Professor -Samuel Shell aba rger. "If I say that the author writes after the Trevelyan rao.del, the cognoscenti will understand. This book is fascinating from, cover to cover; the pages glow with colour and sparkje with the stars and jewels and tine brocades of the high personages which are .here momentarily recalled fo life from the shades." —Mr. J. B. Firth, in the-Sunday Times, London. It is generally recognised that Lord Chesterfield's famous work, "Letters to His Son," provides the best evidence of the profligacy of society life hi the eighteenth Century. But while the "letters" reveal the- low moral standard of the period. Professor Samuel Shellabnrger's book, "Lord Chesterfield," gives a study of the man who eschewed all morals and worshipped 'the world, the flesh and the devil." Eeaped The Only Harvest Possible. Lord Chestelield reaped the only harvest that was possible, and died :i miserable, lonely old man, and the son Philip, to whom he sent the famous letters, not only died before him but failed completely to carry out his father's wishes—the would-be polished man of society was a boor and as ill-mannered as a country yokel. The professor's account of .Philip's return after his training abroad is finely expressed:

"One dined well at Chcstcr/ield Mouse; the table glittered iwlh silver

and was covered with delicacies. Philip, to whom eating meant apparently much more than fin occasion for small talk, allowed his gaze to fasten on 'an oval silver .dish con-

'aining a .quantity of excellent .baked gooseberries, then a rarity, snowed over with a rich covering of whipped cream.' Lady Chesterfield served him abundantly, but Philip, longing for more, could not bear to see the nurses changed without another 'iclping of his favourite dish.

"He beckoned the servant who was unloving it, and hurrying so as not 'o delay the next course, placed the silver dish still foaming with cream under his chin and began to 'lap it up in hasty spoonfuls.' The eyes of the company centred on him.. Was it .or this that young Stanhope hkd -pent five years on the Continent, had lie.cn presented at Courts, had been introduced in celebrated salons? Foreign Polish.

"Was it to tiiis end that such experts as Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, the Duke de Nivernais, the Princess Borghese, Lady Hcr.yey, and the Marquise de Monconscil, not to speak of their distinguished host him; self, had polished and refined him? Was this the easy manner acquired by foreign residence? —then, reflected the company behind arched eyebrows and twitching lips, they thanked God lor an English training. Philip hipped i u.

"There are certain trivial, moments that search t.hc heart with a whitehot scalpel. Across the anguish

■ if. Chesterfield'.s mind would have Hashed his ludicrous hopes, contrasting with this reality. He felt the ridicule and could read (none better), the thought of the, company. Never in his life, perhaps, did his self-control undergo a harder test or rise more brilliantly to the occasion.

"There was but one thing to do. Ho expressed the unspoken . raillery, and by putting himself at the head ■f the mockery, drew the fangs of the joke. Calling to a valet, who -tood at attention behind Philip's •hair, he remarked casually, '.Tohn, .v.hy do you not fetch the strop and ;ho razors? You see your master is >oing to shave nimself.' And at every word he twisted the knife in his own wound."