‘The Greatest Friendship of My Life’
‘The Greatest Friendship of My Life’
This chapter introduces the seventh duke of Newcastle-under-Lyme, Blacker’s principal tormentor in his ‘tempestuous affairs’ who nevertheless continued to look upon his friendship with Blacker as the greatest friendship of his life. Heirs to a troubled family history, the physically impaired ‘little duke,’ as he was known, and his profligate younger brother Lord Francis, who succeeded him as eighth duke, had little in common other than their devotion to Blacker. On coming of age, Francis, in compliance with the terms of his grandmother’s will, added the name Hope to his patronymic, thereby securing a life interest in estates in Ireland and England, with an estimated annual income of £20,000. Along with the notable library and collection of Old Master paintings, antique sculpture, and vases assembled by his Hope forebears in the great neo-classical country house at Deepdene, Surrey, came the fabled Hope diamond and with it a full measure of the bad luck traditionally associated with its ownership. By the time he was twenty-eight, Francis was declared bankrupt.
Keywords: Eton, newcastle prize, Linky, Linny, Gladstone, Clumber, forest farm, Carrie, Sherard, George Lewis, Albemarle Club, queensberry, Tranby Croft, Gordon-Cumming, Edward Clarke
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