spiracy, he was condemned for high treason, and beheaded. The

family, however, were so fortunate as to preserve their hereditary estates, which were largely increased by the grants obtained out of the confiscated church lands by the grandson of Sir John, who was a favourite of Henry VIII. The family continued to increase in power and possessions; and though stanch loyalists, they emerged unscathed from the fiery ordeal of the great civil war, and a junior member of the house was rewarded for his loyalty by being created a baronet, as was also the then head of the family. Under Sir John Wyndham, who flourished in the early part of the seventeenth century, the family extended its branches in all directions. His second son became the ancestor of the famous statesman, William Windham of Felbrigge; another of his sons became the progenitor of the Wyndhams of Dunraven castle; the Wyndhams of Dinton derived their origin from a third, and the Wyndhams of Cromer from a fourth. The fourth in descent from this prosperous gentleman was Sir William Wyndham, Bart., an influential statesman who took a very prominent part in political affairs during the reigns of Queen Anne and of George I. He was born in 1687, and after completing his education at Eton, and Christ church, Oxford, he spent several years in foreign travel. Soon after his return home he was elected member for the county of Somerset, and continued to hold that position in all the subsequent parliaments of Queen Anne. After the change of ministry in 1710 Sir William was made secretary at war, and in 1713 he became chancellor of the exchequer. When the quarrel took place between Oxford and Bolingbroke, Wyndham adhered to the latter, and was entirely in his confidence, and not free from suspicion of complicity in the treasonable designs of the ministry. On the death of Queen Anne, however, and the consequent downfal of the tory administration. Sir William endeavoured, though without effect, to conciliate the favour of the new sovereign. On his dismissal from his office, which was conferred on Sir Richard Onslow, he became a strenuous opponent of the government, and zealously defended the duke of Ormond, and the earls of Oxford and Strafford, upon their impeachment. His violent conduct excited strong suspicions that he was in correspondence with the exiled family, and on the breaking out of Mar's rebellion in 1715 Sir William was arrested and sent to the Tower. He was set at liberty, however, without a trial, through the judicious clemency of the government (though there can be no doubt that he was deeply implicated in the Jacobite conspiracy), and continued during the remainder of his life to offer an active but more cautious opposition to the government. He delivered the most violent, and probably the best, speech which was made against Walpole's famous excise scheme in 1733, but his speech in favour of the repeal of the Septennial act in 1734 was even more able and better reasoned. Sir William died in 1740, in the fifty-third year of his age. His death left a great void in the ranks of opposition, for he was not only an able leader, but a powerful debater. His eloquence, in the opinion of a competent judge, was not less effective than Pulteney's, and rendered him worthy to be the rival of Walpole, and the friend of St. John. Speaker Onslow, though he admits him to have been haughty and arrogant in temper, and not eminent in any branch of literature, says, "In my opinion Sir William Wyndham was the most made for a great man of any that I have known in this age. Everything about him seemed great. There was no inconsistency in his composition, all the parts of his character suited and helped one another." Swift loved and praised him; Bolingbroke deeply deplored his loss; and Pope extols him as "the master of our passions and his own." His morals, however, were not unblemished; and in his youth, at least, he exposed himself to the imputation of freethinking. Onslow, the speaker, said of him—"There was much grace and dignity in his person, and the same in his speaking. He had no acquirements of learning; but his eloquence, improved by use, was strong, full, and without affectation, arising chiefly from his clearness, propriety, and argumentation—in the method of which last, by a sort of induction almost peculiar to himself, he had a force beyond any man I ever heard in public debates. He had not the variety of wit and pleasantry in his speeches so entertaining in Daniel Pulteney; but there was a spirit and power in his speaking that always animated himself and his hearers; while the decoration of his manner, which was indeed very ornamental, produced not only the most attentive, respectful, but even a reverend regard to whatever he spoke." Sir William married Catherine, second daughter of the Proud duke of Somerset, and on the death of his grace's son Algernon in 1750, without male issue. Sir Charles Wyndham, eldest son of Sir William and Lady Catherine, succeeded to the earldom of Egremont and barony of Cockermouth; the last duke of Somerset having obtained these dignities by patent in 1749 with remainder to the sons of his sister. He was succeeded by his eldest son George, earl of Egremont, F.R.S., F.S.A., who was born in 1751. He was educated at Eton, and from his earliest years displayed that fine taste, liberal spirit, and patrician magnificence for which he was distinguished throughout his long life. His natural fondness for the fine arts was strengthened and confirmed by his residence for a considerable time, before he came of age, at Dresden and Vienna, where he regularly spent a portion of every day in the renowned galleries of these cities. At first he purchased pictures by the older masters; but he very soon intimated to Mr. Phillips, the eminent Royal academician, his fixed resolution to buy thenceforth none but modern productions, observing at the same time that he could most beneficially patronize the arts, and render them useful and honourable to the country, by encouraging genius and talent at home; and to this amiable and patriotic resolution he adhered through life. Many of the finest pictures produced in our day in England, and the very finest works of sculpture, were the result of the earl of Egremont's munificent commissions, while at the same time he did not neglect the young and unknown aspirant to fame. Hundreds who were toiling in obscurity, and struggling with adverse circumstances were secretly aided by him, and brought forward into notice and ultimate independence. "To learn that a man of genius was neglected and in trouble," says Mr. Phillips, "was sufficient inducement to lead the earl in search of the sufferer, and to purchase his work even when he had scarcely room for those already in his possession, till at length he felt compelled (desirous of not ceasing to do good) to build a very extensive gallery for their reception, attached to his noble mansion at Petworth." At this seat, "princely Petworth" as it was called, he collected one hundred and seventy pictures, and twenty-one pieces of sculpture, besides several others in his houses at Brighton and London—the productions of modern artists, of whom forty-six are painters, and eight sculptors. Lord Egremont's liberality, however, was not limited to this field; his charities were as prompt and ample as their occasions were numerous. In the course of the last sixty years of his life, he distributed, in acts of charity and liberality, the sum of £1,200,000 or about £20,000 yearly. The delicate and unostentatious manner in which his charities were dispensed, added much to their value. A single anecdote may serve to show how careful he was that his left hand should not know what his right hand did. Lord C, a venerable and respected nobleman, was known to be much embarrassed, and a subscription was opened at White's to relieve him. Lord Egremont was applied to, and he gave an indefinite answer. A few days afterwards he called on the receiver of the subscriptions, and putting a cheque for £10,000 into his hand, said, "There, put my name down for £500, and say nothing about the rest." The earl of Egremont took a deep interest in the amelioration of the condition of the working classes, and in agricultural improvements. He was a vice-president of the Board of Agriculture, and of the Society for Bettering the Condition of the Poor; and under his skilful and liberal management the rental of his magnificent estates was nearly doubled. Though he took no prominent part in political discussions, his lordship possessed great political influence. He was one of the most powerful supporters of Mr. Pitt's policy; and during the crisis of the French war, he raised and put himself at the head of a regiment of volunteers. He held for sixteen years the office of lord-lieutenant of Sussex, and discharged its duties with great diligence and acceptance. It is deeply to be regretted that a man so noble and amiable in his character, possessed of so many accomplishments, and so faithful in the discharge of his public and social duties, should not have been equally exemplary in his most important domestic relation. But the earl was never married, and he left a family of six children, three sons and three daughters, by the daughter of one of the under-masters of Westminster school. His sons have attained high rank in the army, and one of them served with distinction in the Peninsular war, and in the campaign of 1815, and was severely wounded at Waterloo. His lordship's second daughter married the late earl