Horace Walpole declared, had a noble wildness in them: crowds followed
the battalions when the king reviewed them in Hyde Park; and among the
gay young officers in their scarlet uniforms, faced with black, in their
buff waistcoats and gold buttons, none was so conspicuous for martial
bearing as Lord Onord, although classed by his uncle 'among the knights
of shire who had never in their lives shot anything but woodcocks.'

But there was a peculiarity of character in the young peer which shocked
Horace. 'No man,' he says in one of his letters, 'ever felt such a
disposition to love another as I did to love him. I flattered myself
that he would restore some lustre to our house--at least not let it
totally sink; but I am forced to give him up, and all my Walpole
views.... He has a good breeding, and attention when he is with you that
is even flattering;... he promises, offers everything one can wish; but
this is all: the instant he leaves you, all the world are nothing to
him; he would not give himself the least trouble in the world to give
any one satisfaction; yet this is mere indolence of mind, not of body:
his whole pleasure is outrageous exercise.'

'He is,' in another place Horace adds, 'the most selfish man in the
world: without being in the least interested, he loves nobody but
himself, yet neglects every view of fortune and ambition. Yet,' he
concludes, 'it is impossible not to love him when one sees him:
impossible to esteem him when one thinks on him.'

The young lord, succeeding to an estate deeply encumbered, both by his
father and grandfather, rushed on the turf, and involved himself still
more. In vain did Horace the younger endeavour to secure for him the
hand of Miss Nicholls, an heiress with £50,000, and, to that end, placed
the young lady with Horace the elder (Lord Walpole), at Wolterton. The