railings, he should see the explosion. The workmen blew it down in
the boy's absence: his father had the wall rebuilt in its old form
that it might be blown down again in his presence, and his promise
kept. He was sent first to Westminster School, and then to Eton.
At home he was his father's companion, joined in the talk of men at
his father's dinner-parties, travelled at fourteen with his father
to the Continent, and is said to have been allowed five guineas a
night for gambling-money. He grew up reckless of the worth of
money, and for many years the excitement of gambling was to him as
one of the necessaries of life. His immense energy at school and
college made him work as hard as the most diligent man who did
nothing else, and devote himself to gambling, horse-racing, and
convivial pleasures as vigorously as if he were the weak man capable
of nothing else. The Eton boys all prophesied his future fame. At
Oxford, where he entered Hertford College, he was one of the best
men of his time, and one of the wildest. A clergyman, strong in
Greek, was arguing with young Fox against the genuineness of a verse
of the Iliad because its measure was unusual. Fox at once quoted
from memory some twenty parallels.

From college he went on the usual tour of Europe, spending lavishly,
incurring heavy debts, and sending home large bills for his father
to pay. One bill alone, paid by his father to a creditor at Naples,
was for sixteen thousand pounds. He came back in raiment of the
highest fashion, and was put into Parliament in 1768, not yet twenty
years old, as member for Midhurst. He began his political life with
the family opinions, defended the Ministry against John Wilkes, and
was provided promptly with a place as Paymaster of the Pensions to
the Widows of Land Officers, and then, when he had reached the age
of twenty-one, there was a seat found for him at the Board of