It was the misfortune of the Earl of Portland to survive, if not the good opinion, at least the long-cherished attachment of his master. The appearance at court of Arnold Van Keppel, afterwards created Earl of Albemarle,-a man as remarkable for his agreeable qualities as the other was deficient in them,-proved a death-blow to Portland's influence over the King. Nevertheless, William, though he neglected, did not entirely forget his early favourite, and when the King was on his death-bed, one of his last acts was to order the Earl to be summoned to his presence. When Portland entered the sick chamber William was unfortunately speechless. The King, however, recognised his early friend, and gave an affecting proof that his services and attachment were not forgotten, by carrying the hand of the Earl to his heart.

After the death of King William, the Earl of Portland was deprived by Queen Anne of the Keepership of Windsor Great Park, which she conferred on her favourite the Duchess of Marlborough. It was a source of revenue of which he could well afford to be stripped, as he was regarded at this period as one of the richest subjects in Europe. Portland had latterly lived in great retirement at his seat at Bulstrode, in Buckinghamshire, where he died, after a week's illness, of a pleurisy and malignant fever, on the 23rd of November,

1709, in the sixty-first year of his age. of his age. His remains were interred under the east window of Henry the Seventh's chapel at Westminster.

The Earl of Portland was twice married; first to Anne, daughter of Sir Edward Villiers, and sister of Edward Earl of Jersey, by whom he had three sons and five daughters; and secondly, to Jane, sister of Henry Viscount Palmerston, and widow of John Lord Berkeley of Stratton, by whom he had also a large family. By his first wife he was the father of Henry, second Earl, and first Duke of Portland, ancestor of the present Duke.

233

ARNOLD VAN KEPPEL,

EARL OF ALBEMARLE.

Descended from an ancient Dutch family, and born in 1670.— Accompanies William to England as Page of Honour in 1688. -His rise owing to the intrigues of Lord Sunderland, and the King's mistress, Mrs. Villiers.-Is appointed to several distinguished posts, and created Earl of Albemarle.-Made a Knight of the Garter in 1700.-Is highly honoured in Holland, and made General of the Dutch forces. His popularity with the English nobility.-His character by Burnet.— Reflections on William's system of favouritism.-Albemarle's gallantry in the field. Is favourably noticed by Queen Anne, after William's death.-Deputed by the States General of Holland to congratulate George the First on his accession to the English thronc. Is afterwards appointed to receive Peter the Great on his arrival at Amsterdam in 1717.-Duke of Marlborough's interview with him at Tournay.-Died at the Hague in 1718.

THE name of this nobleman is seldom mentioned without praise, and as the Dutch companions of King William were not, generally speaking, favourites with the English nation, the encomiums were probably deserved. As the character of a royal favourite has ever been eminently odious in this country; and, more especially, as the fact of the favourite being a foreigner was unlikely to render his position more popular, or his elevation less envied, it was undoubtedly a great triumph

to the Earl of Albemarle to have overcome the host of prejudices which he encountered at the commencement of his career, and finally to have rendered himself as agreeable to the English nation, as he was beloved by the monarch who exalted him.

Arnold Joost van Keppel was descended from an ancient Dutch family, who appear to have been Lords of Keppel in Guelderland at least as early as the twelfth century. He was the son of Asewolt van Keppel of the Voorst, by Reineza-AnnaGertruyde, daughter of Johan van Lintello tot de Mars, and was born in 1670. The names of his father and mother are sufficiently uninteresting and unpronounceable to deter us from diving more deeply into a Dutch pedigree.

The story of the Earl of Albemarle,-which varies between the pleasures of a courtier's life and the occasional fatigues of a military campaign,— unfortunately presents but few particulars likely to interest the reader. In 1688, he accompanied King William to England as one of his as one of his pages of honour, at which period also he seems to have been occasionally employed in the Secretary's department. In the performance of such subordinate offices he would probably long have continued unnoticed and unknown, but for the intrigues of Lord Sunderland and the King's mistress, Mrs. Villiers, whose object it was that he should supersede the King's early favourite, the Earl of Port

land, in the royal favour. Their project proved successful, and to the interested intrigues of these court profligates the young Hollander was indebted for his extraordinary rise.

The progress made by Keppel in the King's affection seems to have exceeded even the sanguine expectations of his libertine patrons. The first appointments conferred on him were those of Groom of the Bedchamber and Master of the Robes; and he was still but twenty-one when William despatched him on a mission of ceremony to congratulate the King of Bohemia on his arrival in the Flemish territories. Fresh honours rapidly followed. On the 10th of February, 1696, he was created, by letters patent, Baron Ashford, of Ashford in Kent, Viscount Bury in Lancashire, and Earl of Albemarle in Normandy ;—the latter a proud title, as it had been selected by the Plantagenets to grace their own line. The last occasion on which it had been conferred on a subject was when Monk recovered England for their

successors.

In addition to these distinctions, the King appointed his favourite a Lord of the Bedchamber; in 1699, he conferred on him the command of the First Life Guards; and on the 14th of November, 1700, honoured him with the Order of the Garter. Among other and more substantial favours, he made over to him his favourite seat of Loo in Holland, and by his last will bequeathed him the lord