The eccentricities of the Hervey family in the eighteenth
century caused it to be said that when God created the world he
made men, women, and Herveys. By far the most eccentric of them all
was Frederick Hervey (the subject of this biography), Earl of
Bristol and Bishop of Derry. Traveller, politician, rabble-rouser,
scholar, collector and the subject of a series of amorous
adventures, his life was a continual source of amazement to his
contemporaries. Horace Walpole condemned his profligate folly, John
Wesley praised his plenteous good works, and George 111 denounced
his as 'that wicked prelate'.
As a patron of the arts he was responsible for building three
great houses, of which Ickworth in Suffolk is now the only
survivor. As a traveller he spent money lavishly and startled
foreigners by his extraordinary dress (the many Bristol hotels in
Europe are named after him). In politics he was a staunch Whig and
though an Anglican Bishop he bravely defended the rights of
Catholics and Presbyterians in Ireland, joining vigorously in the
movement for emancipation and reform. His political intrigues in
Europe at the time of the French Revolution landed him, for a brief
spell, in prison but failed to suppress his irresistible zest for
life and adventure.
Frederick Hervey lived the sort of life that was well suited to
Brian Fothergill's biographical penchants that always flourished on
the more outre margins of eighteenth and early nineteenth century
history.
Faber Finds is reissuing four of Brian Fothergill's books: "The
Cardinal King," "The Mitred Earl," "Nicholas Wiseman" and The
"Strawberry Hill Set."
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