Lanterna Rally

Author: Philip Gibbs

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-10

Total Pages: 484

ISBN-13: 9781331080800

Excerpt from The Romance of George Villiers First Duke of Buckingham, and Some Men and Women, of the Stuart Court I Suppose that among those who daily pass Villiers Street and Buckingham Street in the Strand, or stop to glance at the grey stone-work in the Embankment Gardens, which was once the river gate to York House, scarcely one in a thousand gives a thought to George Villiers, first Duke of Buckingham, whose ghost - if ghosts walk - must surely haunt these streets and this site of old-time splendour. But to those who read history the memory of Buckingham is curiously haunting. The tradition of a personal beauty dazzling to the eyes of his contemporaries still lingers in old letters and old memoirs, and this beauty of the man which was the origin of his astonishing fortune, still has some power, in mere remembrance, to move hearts in his favour, though reason may condemn him. Yet he had many shining qualities beyond his handsome face. In two Courts, where there were many men of splendid presence and high intellect, George Villiers, whose intellect was not so trained and subtle, bore them down by a daring magnificence, and careless arrogance, and brilliant charm of manners. The favours that were lavished on him by two kings he took lightly, and being raised from quite a humble estate (though a gentleman by birth) held his place easily as Lord Paramount over many great noblemen whose rank was theirs by inheritance. He had few friends beyond his Royal masters - though many flatterers - after he had attained the pinnacle of his prodigious fortune, and many hated him with a deadly and dangerous hatred. Yet he was perfectly careless of their enmity, and defied them with a laughing grace or with imperturbable insolence. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.