ncluding his renown. Most of the presents which fools or flatterers had
made him, had long since been sent _chez ma tante_; a few trinkets and
pictures, and a few books, which probably he had never read, constituted
his little store.[21]

Bath and Tunbridge--for he had annexed that lesser kingdom to his
own--had reason to mourn him, for he had almost made them what they
were; but the country has not much cause to thank the upholder of
gaming, the institutor of silly fashion, and the high-priest of folly.
Yet Nash was free from many vices we should expect to find in such a
man. He did not drink, for instance; one glass of wine, and a moderate
quantity of small beer, being his allowance for dinner. He was early in
his hours, and made others sensible in theirs. He was generous and
charitable when he had the money; and when he had not he took care to
make his subjects subscribe it. In a word, there have been worse men and
greater fools; and we may again ask whether those who obeyed and
flattered him were not more contemptible than Beau Nash himself.

So much for the powers of impudence and a fine coat!

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 19: Warner ('History of Bath,' p. 366), says, 'Nash was
removed from Oxford by his friends.']

[Footnote 20: A full-length statue of Nash was placed between busts of
Newton and Pope.]

[Footnote 21: In the 'Annual Register,' (vol. v. p. 37), it is stated
that a pension of ten guineas a month was paid to Nash during the latter
years of his life by the Corporation of Bath.]

PHILIP, DUKE OF WHARTON.

Wharton's Ancestors.--His Early Years.--Marriage at
Sixteen.--Wharton takes leave of his Tutor.--The Young Marquis
and the Old Pretender.--Frolics at Paris.--Zeal for the Orange
Cause.--A Jacobite Hero.--The Trial of Atterbury.--Wharton's
Defence of the Bishop.--Hypocritical Signs of Penitence.--Sir
Robert Walpole duped.--Very Trying.--The Duke of Wharton's
'Whens.'--Military Glory at Gibraltar.--'Uncle
Horace.'--Wharton to 'Uncle Horace.'--The Duke's
Impudence.--High Treason.--Wharton's Ready Wit.--Last
Extremities.--Sad Days in Paris.--His Last Journey to
Spain.--His Death in a Bernardine Convent.

If an illustration were wanted of that character unstable as water which
shall not excel, this duke would at once supply it: if we had to warn
genius against self-indulgence--some clever boy against
extravagance--some poet again