BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF ADMIRAL SIR CHARLES KNOWLES, BART

Summary

After a life of generous toils endur'd,

The Gaul subdu'd, or property secur'd,

Ambition humbled, mighty cities storm'd,

Or laws establish'd, and the world reform'd;

Clos'd their long glories with a sigh to find

Th' unwilling gratitude of base mankind!

Pope.

To preserve the laurel which Fame had planted around the tomb of the naval hero, is a duty, whose importance is very sensibly impressed on our minds. We are anxious not only to relate the brilliant achievements of the present age; but, as it were, to renovate those splendid actions that have been dimmed by the political atmosphere in which they appeared, and whose glory was shorn of its beams by the envious and calumniating spirit of the day.

Admiral Sir Charles Knowles was the son of an Earl of Bambury, and a French gentlewoman of rank and uncommon beauty. She was much noticed by Lady Wallingford, and also enjoyed in a considerable degree the friendship of the Duchess of Dorset.

The Earl of Bambury, father to Mr. Knowles, appears to have been ill calculated for a consort so amiable and accomplished. Having dissipated about 20,000l. abroad in fashionable vices, and acquired that knowledge of the world which is esteemed so essential a finish to a liberal education; he left his son to form himself for the future service of his Country in the school of adversity, which gradually established the firmness of his character, and produced an habitual patience under fatigue or disappointment.