The Express.
London, England, 1848-08-07 00:00:00

THE DUKES OF BUCKINGHAM.

, The dustiest road out of t..wn just now is the road
'to Stowe. There resort our halttrelensed legislators, self-
ernencipated hankers, elderly ladies, pilgrims to watering-
places, sportsmen err route to the moot., capitalists and
carioeity-mongers, pCture dealers and connoisseurs, bargain-
boot n and Jew broke re—in fact, aU who have either money
or curiosity—all who have either an eye to business or to a
holiday—make Stevie their point of attraction or their halt-
ing place, or the scehe of their excursion.
Without moralising upon such an event, of which within
recent dates we hove hod two er three examples, besides that
of Scree berry.hilt, it may be fairly ventured that there
are few who silk! Stowe without some regretful feel-
ing that what are called " reverses" should have necessitated
such an entire break up and dispersion of a great family as
well as of all that it had gat ered together. Some particu-
lars about these Dukes of Buckingham may not be mal-
apropos, cspeciolly as their history is not to be found in the
catalogue of the auctioneer. They are not to ha confourded
with the aspiring subject to whom Richard 111. was ind,bte d
for his throne, and who, in return, so unceremoniously struck
off his head; nor with the favourite of Charles 1., whom
Velma arsa,sinatea, nor with the witty and unfortunate ad-
herent of that mouser ifs son. The present family of Buck-
ingham, whose hooows and accumalations have, perhaps,
be en us great, are no descendants of either, and have become
exalted by means widely uifferent from those which led to
the advancements of former inheritors of their distinguished
itle.
At the commencement of the last century there was mated
at a small estate, celled Wootton, in the county of Bucks, a
family of the name of Grenville, occupying the position of
country squire., but not otherwise distinguished or remark-
able.
They are said to have held lands in the county from
the time of Henry the First. Une of them had represented
Buckieghamsbire in the parlfunchts of the Common- "
wealth, and once or twice a Mr. Grenville had been se-
lected to fill the office of high sheriff.
The estate immedi ettly alljacent to Wootton was the pro-
perty of Stowe, possessed by the ancient and honourable
house of Temple. This family 's ancestry trace back to Leofric,
Earl of Chester, and the celebrated Lady Oodles, his wife,
to whom the geed citizens of Coventry are traditionally de-
clared to be indebted for their privileges. Leofric was the
representative of the Earls of the Heptarch kingdom of
Merda, and his descendants bore as their arms the " Eagle
displayed," which was the ensign of that division of
Englar.d. . . .

We are not Roing to discuss the virtues or peccadillos of
the Lady Godiva—

116
Improving pull through every generation,
Until it centered in an only von,
Who had im only aintur."

The " enly son " was a Sir Richard Temple, a gallant
officer in the army of the Duke of Marlborough; the " only
sister" was wooed and won by " neighbour Grenville," who
doubtless considered the match a great one, though probably
he was far from anticipating the honours of which it was
destined to he the precursor. At the termination of the wars
Sir Richard Temple wan created Baron Cobham, with the
usual remainders; but having no heirs, although many years
married, he obtained, soon after the accession of George 1.,
an extension of his honours under a new creation as baron
land viscount, with remainder to his sister and her descend-
ants. Viscount Cobham dying soon after was succeeded in
hie titles and elate. by Mrs. Grenville, who was cos:nosed of
enfficient interest to obtain for herself another step in the
peerage, being created Countess Temple, with reversion
ul th- dignity of earl to her heirs male.
The Countess Temple had two sons,—Richard, who
succeeded her, and died without iesue, and George, who was
treasurer of the navy in the reign of George 11., and Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer in an early administration of George
111. This Mr. George Grenville left three sons—G, orge,
of whom we shall have to speak presently ; the Right Hon.
Thomas, who, dying at an advanced age, left that ma,gni-
deent literary legacy to the rattion, of which Sir Robert Peel
detailed the particulars on Friday night; William Wynd-
ham, who was afterwards the celebrated Lord Gren-
ville, the usuciate of Fox in the administration of
1806, and who died without issue so recently II.91831; and four
daughters married respectively to the late Sir Watkin Wil-
liam, Wynn, Lord Carystoot, the Earl Puterscue, and Lord
Braybrooke. Here may be said to have ended the line of
Temple-Grenville, for the neat representation of this family
obtained stili more distinguished honours.
George, the eldest grandson of the Countess Temple,
succeeded to her estates' but can scarcely he said to have
seteceerled to her name. He, like his grandfather, saw the
advantages of marrying an heiress, and there was one appa-
rently ready made for him. Robert, the last Earl Nugent,
the representative of a distinguished Irish family, had an
only daughter. The Roe Temple married her, quartered
the arms of Nugent with those of Grenville and of Temple,
secured the privilege of piquing Nugent before all titles what-
*Geyer, obtained au Irith peerage for his wife, an Baroness
Nugent, with remainder to his second son, and a step in the
Brltieh peerage for himself by elevation to the Marquisate of
Backiegham with remainder to his eldeet;son. Thin was the
emily of Temple.Nagent-Grenville.
'rho fortunes of this family, thus twice raised by dist:lee
guishel marriaues, were to be still further exalted by the
next representative. Richard, the son of the Ist Marquis of
Buckingham and the Baroness Nugent, eclipsed even his
father and groat-grandfather in matrimonial allignee. The
daughter and sole h. it of James Septets, last Duke of
Chandos of the line, honoured him with her hand,
At sixteen she came oat; preiented, vaunted,
Rhe put all coronets Into commotion :
At cabmen, though below her feet still panted
A hecatomb of suitors with devotion,
She had concealed to create again
That Adam, c.tli'd " the happiest of men."
More than honouring the Marquis of Buckingham with her
hand, this lady b ought the royal blood of the l'hentegenets
into the femily of the Buckingham ;hire anutre, far she was
the sole deice:Want of floury Grey, Duke of Suffolk, and
Frances, his wife, which Frances was the daughter and heir
of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, by Mary, Queen Dow-
ager of France, the daughter of Henry VII., our king. The
Marquis of Buckingham was, of course, raised to the duke
dam: he assumed the additiooal names of Brydges Chandos,
and died in 1836, leavir,g an only sou, the present Duke of
Buckingham, Richard Plantagenet Temple Nugent Brydges
Chandos Grenville.

Thus, we s T that in the peerage of Great Britain laurels
may be won by marriage as well u by war, or by wisdom.
Three distinguished alliances, within a century, elevated the
house from insignificance to the highest h,nours conferred
upon subjects. Garters, University chancellorships, place,
patronage, and preferments, have all been theirs for 'netts-
sive generations. But, still, as ever, "Man heapeth up
riches, but cannot tell who shall gather them."
' It was the second inheritor of the dukedom of Buckin
ham, who, in the days of the second Charles, wasted his sub-
Every one rernem;:tn the ulasterlY
character by Lord Gatdrdt
stance, and sank to beggary as a consequence of imprudence.
by Burnet, the fearfullysketch given of his
the noble portrait drawn of him
eztrcastic description of his latest
hours by Pope, and the living likeness handed down to us
by Dryden :

In Nuandering wealth was his peculiar art,
Nothing went unrewarded, but desert •
Beggared by fools, whom still he found too late,
Be has kilo jesting, they have his estate."
A second time has a second duke of Buckingham fallen
from the high pinnacle to which wealth had raised him.
None who examine the elaborated rooms or saunter
through the shafted groves of Stowe, but must be visited with
some sort of melancholy regret as the fart recurs to them.
But adversity teaches wisdom; and we may hope that higher
motives than mere agarandurment, more extended sym-
pathies than those indicated by persistence in promoting
clam legislation, views Ile biassed by seltint•rtin, and toa-

eminently broader, bolder, and nobler objects, may lead to
recovery from the fate in which the House of Buckingham
appears to be engulfed. Unhampered by the care of the
estates they have aggrandised—tree from the trammels of the
display and magnificence which the Leads of their louse
have thought it right at any cost to support—the younger
branches of this family have done beforetime good service to
the state; and therefore, whilst we cannot now feel other
sentiment than cold pity for the resulss produced neither by
misfortunes nor by accidents, we may express • generous
desire that even an great a fall should not be utterly un-
supported.