“In 1799 our Literary Club lost one of its noble members in the Duke of Leeds, to whom I had become known from the time of his marriage with Lady Emily d’Arcy, the daughter of my first patron, the Earl of Holdernesse. I had had the honour, also, of frequently meeting him, while Marquis of Carmarthen, in Italy; where he acquired a taste for good modern music, and whence he remembered fragments of Italian operas, and particularly of the opera L’Artigiano felice, to his last hours. He kindly visited Farinelli when at Bologna, and was cordially embraced by him, as the son of his great patron while in England. When he became acquainted with the Miss Anguishes, four young ladies of great accomplishments, and of extraordinary musical powers, he grew fond of the old, or Handelian school of music: and the eldest of these young ladies, whom he afterwards, in second espousals, married, made him a perfectly happy domestic man. He desired Boswell to set him up at our club, which he was fond of visiting; and where his remarkable good breeding and courteous demeanour could not but be appreciated; though he escaped not, from those members who thought themselves more learned, or better informed than himself, the common club-censure of being fonder of talking than listening.
“This year I had much pleasure at the Assemblies of Lady Palmerston, [Pg 272] whose exhilarating character rendered them peculiarly lively. The elegant mansion of her well-known lord, the Viscount, in Hanover Square, was fitted up and furnished with exquisite taste; and its walls were covered with pictures of the first masters; the chief of which had been collected by his great ancestor, Sir William Temple; to which he had added some chef d’oeuvres of modern artists; particularly of Sir Joshua Reynolds, of whom he was still more a friend and admirer than a patron.”
