The Young Lord George Grenville

Before attending Brasenose College, Lord George was tutored at Stowe. An early tutor was a Mr Glover who was described by Elizabeth Fremantle in 1799 as ‘an unpleasant man. ’[i] Later tutored by Thomas Winfield [ii] who, in common with many of the tutors at Stowe, was rector of nearby Finmere. From the age of eleven, George grew fat like his parents:

 [...] Lord George and Lady Mary are grown monstrously large and shockingly fat. [iii] [18th December 1799.]

Arrived at Stowe soon after 2 o’clock, and found all the dear party assembled. I found all looking well, but the growth of Lord George was beyond every thing. [iv] [29th September 1805.]

Each year, he hosted a supper for the poor children of the Stowe estate on his birthday:

Today was Lord George’s [eleventh] birthday. He gave a supper to the poor children and a shilling apiece; there was 80 of them, the servants danced. [v] [30th December 1799.
This being Ld. George’s birthday, who is now 12 years old, he gave a potatoes feast to the poor children, with a shilling’ apiece, the Servants had a gay ball, and I was obliged to join in the dance. [vi] [30th December 1800.]

Betsey Wynne records a similar dinner on 5 January 1805 and it can be assumed they took place most years while George was young. Despite the kindness he showed at the dinners, George could be temperamental and difficult. On one occasion he beat a boy for no reason and even boasted of his bad behaviour in a ditty sent to Stowe Librarian Charles O’Conor: [vii]

Lord G. Grenville in

the act of striking on

the A. of a booted boy

whom he met in S[torn]

James’s Square, an[torn] for no reason but b[torn]

cause he dared to

wear boots June 14

1801

O’Conor was a paternal figure and was well aware of this boisterous temper; on one occasion seeking assurances from George’s friends that he had not been engaged in ‘profligacy, or debauchery or vile company.’ [viii] Despite the arrogant, difficult side to George’s character, he was often a comical and amusing young man:

Lord George was as usualy truly comical, and made us laugh a great deal. [ix] [25th October 1805.]

At seventeen,he remained lively and playful. In a light-hearted letter to Anna Eliza Brydges, Maria Nugent complained:

 [George] really makes these old Gosfield walls shake with his Oxford Indelicacies […] It was only last night that he asked M^rs Thurlow the Parsons wife before a large Party of the Neighbourhood assembled whether she knew the simile of the Devil & the Nightman. Yesterday too he kissed old Betty the Lousing woman for half a Crown in the presence of the whole Village & in short I am anxious to get away from this Place so many scandalous things are transacting—not to mention his pulling off Miss Mcnamara’s wig and pronouncing Miss Mcnamara as Invisible. [x] [18th April 1806.]

In 1809, George travelled to Portugal to join Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington), partly to avoid further trouble at home: ‘Truly he could keep me out of mischief and it would be a most interesting service to see.’ [xi] Whether he was engaged in any military action is not known, but he was still in Portugal in October 1810, when he wrote a typically cheeky note to Charles O’Conor from the University of Coimbra:

How are ye Cocky? And so you are still in the land of the living bespatting on the other side the Atlantick with the foulness of your faded goose quill and clearing I’ll be bound as white as paper the consciences of half the female and one third the male population at Stowe. [xii] [c. October 1810.]

On his return to England in January 1811, George endured a very stormy passage:

They had a most stormy and dangerous voyage of nineteen days, twice prepared for action, were nine days in the Bay of Biscay, in a violent Gale... & prepared to throw every thing overboard. For three days they tossed off the French coast in Quiberon Bay, off Ireland in Bantry Bay—nearly driven by the wind to Newfoundland. [xiii] [15+ January 1811.]

Fortunately, after a year and a half abroad, George was much changed for the better. His mother told O’Conor:

I cannot let it go without one line to say we are all well & very happy. George is in a higher bloom than I ever saw him—& every thing we could wish. He longs to see you & is always saying so. Could you not take a trip to see him. He is a dear good hearted boy. [xiv] [16+ January 1811.]