The fituation of public affairs at that time being fuch as required, in our national councils, the utmost exertion of wisdom and integrity, his lordship was urged, by one of his friends, to exchange his retirement for a more public fcene, in an ode, of which the following is the conclufion :

To Laureftinum's groves retir'd,
Your Pliny fled from care,

Yet, when his country's voice requir'd,
He fill'd the conful's chair.

Then, like that conful, lend your aid
To prop our tott'ring walls,

For Rome demands you from the shade,
And hoary Nerva calls.

Dr. Swift's Hiftory of the four last years of queen Anne (mentioned in the Remarks on Swift, Letter XXIV.) being published in the year 1758, lord Corke defired his friends to contradict the report of his confenting to give the public fo pernicious a piece. "The more it is ex"amined (faid he) the lefs it will an"fwer the end either of the author or "of the publisher."

In that year his lordship fuftained the feverest domeftic affliction that could befall him, by the death of his excellent

lady,

lady, Margaret countess of Corke and Orrery, who died, after a fhort illness, in Great Marlborougb-ftreet, London, November 24. This fhock, however, he fupported like a man, like a christian, and with refignation again "fubmitted "to the will of heaven." Her ladyship left iffue, Edmund +, born November 21, 1742, and lady Lucy‡, born May 27, 1744.

Still, like Pliny, " taking refuge in "his ftudies as the only retreat from "grief," lord Corke published, in the beginning of the year 1759, in one volume octavo, Memoirs of the Life of Ro

+ So named from his amiable relation, Edmund duke of Buckingham before mentioned. On the death of his brother, Hamilton earl of Corke, &c. in January, 1764, he fucceeded to the titles of his family, and is the seventh earl of Corke and Orrery. His lordship married, August 25, 1764, Mifs Anne Courtenay, one of the daughters and coheireffes of Kellond Courtenay, Efq; knight of the shire for the county of Huntingdon, and niece to the earl of Sandwich. Their iffue are lady Lucy Ilabella, born August 10, 1766, Edmund lord vifcount Dungarvan, born October 21, 1767, Courtenay, born September 3, 1769, and Hamilton, born September 23, 1770.

Married, July 10, 1765, to George lord vifcount Torrington.

bert

bert Cary, earl of Monmouth, from an original manuscript presented to him by a relation, with a preface, and explanatory notes. A fecond edition of it was published in 1760. Prefixed is a fhort but tender dedication to his youngeft son, 66 though laft, not least in love," dated Marlborough-street, January 13, 1759, and figned "Now, alas! your only "parent." There is also, as a frontispiece, "the royal proceffion of queen Eliza"beth to vifit her coufin-german Henry "lord Hunfdon, governor of Berwick, engraved from an old painting by Marc Garrard, mentioned by Mr. Walpole *, and others.

2

In September following, his lordship had also the misfortune to lose his eldest fon, Charles lord vifcount Dungarvan, and though, by the declining state of health under which he had long laboured, his family and friends were prepared for the ftroke, yet (as his father has obferved, on a fimilar occafion +) "nature

Lady Elizabeth Spelman, daughter to the earl of Middleton.

* Anecdotes of painting, vol. 1. p. 143. The death of Fundanus's daughter. Pliny, B. v. Ep. 16..

"is revulfed, when a child is buried by

:

a parent

The earl furvived this lofs about three years, dividing his time between his houfe in Great George-ftreet, Westminster, and his feat in Somerfetfhire, till an hereditary gout, which all his temperance could only parry, not fubdue, put an early period to his earthly existence at Marston-boufe, November 16, 1762, in the 56th year of his age, the fame age at which his father died. His remains were depofited, near thofe of his fecond lady, in the burial-place of his family in Frome church..

* Lord Dungarvan left iffue, one daughter, the Honourable Henrietta Boyle, born in 1755. His relict, lady Dungarvan, was married to Thomas lord Bruce, Feb. 17, 1761.

See the following work, p. 177. His greatgrandfather, the firft earl of Orrery, who died in 1679, was afflicted with the fame diforder. See Biograph. Britann. vol. ii. pp. 904 and 909.

Neceffe eft tanquam immaturam mortem ejus defleam: fi tamen fas eft aut flere, aut omnino mortem vocare, qua mortalitas magis finita quam vita eft. Plin. Lib. ii. Ep. 1. .. I must look upon his "death as untimely, and I weep for him: yet I ought not to fay, he is dead; he only breaks "loofe from life, and rushes into immortality." Lord Corke's translation.

66

His lordship was fucceeded in his titles and estates by his fecond fon, Hamilton (then) lord viscount Dungarvan, and one of the representatives in the British par Jiament for the borough of Warwick.

The character of John earl of Corke, as a writer and as a man, may partly be collected from his own works, and partly from the teftimonies which have been given of him by fome of the most diftinguifhed among his contemporaries. I fhall only beg leave to add, that, in every domeftic and social relation, in all the endearing connections of life, as a huf band, a father, a friend, a master, he had few equals. The luftre which he received from rank and title, and from the perfonal merit of his family, he reflected back, unimpaired and undiminished, and though "the post of honour" which he chofe and preferred was "a

* This noble earl did not long furvive his father. He was appointed High-fteward of the univerfity of Oxford by the earl of Litchfield, the chancellor, in 1763, and dying at Marston-house, unmarried, January 17, 1764, his titles and eftates devolved to his half-brother, Edmund, the prefent earl, as mentioned in a former note.