Online Encyclopedia

Search over 40,000 articles from the original, classic Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition.

CHARLES JAMES FOX (1749-1806)

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V10, Page 762 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
Spread the word: del.icio.us del.icio.us it!

See also:

CHARLES See also:JAMES See also:FOX (1749-1806)  , See also:British statesman and orator, was the third son of See also:Henry See also:Fox, 1st See also:Lord See also:Holland, and his wife, See also:Lady See also:Caroline See also:Lennox, eldest daughter of See also:Charles Lennox, 2nd See also:duke of See also:Richmond . He was See also:born at 9 Conduit See also:Street, See also:Westminster, on the 24th of See also:January 1749 . The See also:father, who treated his See also:children with extreme See also:indulgence, allowed him to choose his school, and he elected to go to one kept at Wands-See also:worth by a See also:French refugee, named Pampelonne . In a very See also:short See also:time he asked to be sent to See also:Eton, where he went in 1757 . At Eton he did no more See also:work than was acceptable to him, but he had an inborn love of literature, and he laid the See also:foundation of that knowledge of the classic See also:languages which in after years was the delight of his See also:life . The vehemence of his See also:temper was See also:con-trolled by an affectionate disposition . When quite a boy he checked his own tendency to fits of See also:passion on learning that his father trusted him to cure his defects . That he learnt anything, and that he See also:grew up an amiable and magnanimous See also:man, were solely due to his natural worth, for no one ever owed less to See also:education or to See also:family example . The relations of Lord Holland to his sons would be difficult to parallel . He not only treated them, and in particular Charles, as See also:friends and companions in See also:pleasure from the first, but he did his best to encourage them in dissipation . In 1763 he took Charles for a tour on the See also:continent, introduced him to the most immoral society of the time and gave him See also:money with which to gamble . The boy came back to Eton a precocious See also:rake .

It was his See also:

good See also:fortune that he did go back, for he was subjected to a wholesome course of ridicule by the other boys, and was flogged by Dr See also:Barnard, the headmaster . In 1764 Charles proceeded to See also:Hertford See also:College, See also:Oxford . At Oxford, as at Eton, he read literature from natural liking, and he paid some See also:attention to See also:mathematics .

End of Article: CHARLES JAMES FOX (1749-1806)
[back]
C FOX
[next]
EDWARD FOX (c. 1496-1538)

Additional information and Comments

There are no comments yet for this article.
» Add information or comments to this article.
Please link directly to this article:
Highlight the code below, right click and select "copy." Paste it into a website, email, or other HTML document.