killed the King of Sweden; Mirabeau the chief author of the French
Revolution. He was godfather to this boy. Before you re-instate the
Bourbons, should you not extirpate such a man?


Shortly after the return of the Stanhopes to town in 1807 they entertained
a guest of a very opposite character, but nearly as remarkable for
eccentricity as was the hermit of Whitley. In Walter Stanhope's journal
for January 30th of that year is recorded a dinner party of strangely
incongruous elements. "This night there dined with us Wilberforce,
Wharton, Smedley, Skeffington, Sir Robert Peel and Ward."

John William Ward, afterwards Lord Dudley, was the son of a former
Yorkshire neighbour of the Stanhopes, Julia, second daughter of Godfrey
Bosville of Gunthwaite. As such he was an _habitue_ of their
entertainments both in London and the country, and was much liked by them
in spite of his peculiarities, which occasionally led to most awkward
_contretemps_.

An exceptionally brilliant man, agreeable, a profound scholar, a witty
_raconteur_ and noted for a remarkable memory, of which several surprising
instances are still recorded, Mr Ward, in common with so many of his
contemporaries, was also a celebrated _gourmet_, and experienced the
popularity of the host who provides dinners of unusual excellence for his
friends. In view of these recommendations, his eccentricities were treated
with leniency by those who suffered from them; none the less, they were
apt to occasion most of his acquaintances, including the Stanhopes,
considerable alarm. For, a singularly absent-minded man, Mr Ward was not
only in the habit of unconsciously uttering aloud his most secret
reflections in a voice which could not fail to reach the ears of those