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R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

R,CHARD MONCKTON MILNES was born in the year - OUDL Home

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2 The Marquess of Creweher journal that he immediately said: 'Oh, no, I will not:accept ei<strong>the</strong>r; with my temperament, I should be dead<strong>in</strong> a <strong>year</strong>'. This prompt refusal rema<strong>in</strong>ed a puzzle toeverybody. Robert Milnes <strong>was</strong> a close follower of Cann<strong>in</strong>g,and <strong>in</strong> general sympathy with <strong>the</strong> Government.He <strong>was</strong> a scholar, and a man of very wide read<strong>in</strong>g, besidesenjoy<strong>in</strong>g cheerful society and be<strong>in</strong>g a brillianthorseman and shot, so that nei<strong>the</strong>r diffidence nor healthcould have been <strong>the</strong> real obstacle, and it can only besurmised that he <strong>was</strong> deterred by <strong>the</strong> restrictions ofoffice, and by <strong>the</strong> dread of hav<strong>in</strong>g to give up country lifefor <strong>the</strong> greater part of <strong>the</strong> <strong>year</strong>. When he died, just fifty<strong>year</strong>s later, Lord Palmerston wrote to rem<strong>in</strong>d his sonthat it <strong>was</strong> Robert Milnes's refusal of office which hadfirst opened <strong>the</strong> political gateway to himself <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> postof Secretary at War.Accord<strong>in</strong>gly, Richard Milnes grew up as <strong>the</strong> son of acountry gentleman, not of a M<strong>in</strong>ister, though his fa<strong>the</strong>rrema<strong>in</strong>ed <strong>in</strong> Parliament for a number of <strong>year</strong>s. An illnessprevented his be<strong>in</strong>g educated at Harrow, and he spenthis time with a tutor, ma<strong>in</strong>ly <strong>in</strong> <strong>the</strong> country, but with alittle travel to Scotland and elsewhere, until he went toCambridge <strong>in</strong> 1827. It is never easy to estimate <strong>the</strong>importance of <strong>in</strong>tellectual groups as <strong>the</strong>y flourish atdifferent periods, and <strong>the</strong> Cambridge set of that day grewup <strong>in</strong>to <strong>the</strong> mid-Victorians, whose aims and achievementsit is now <strong>the</strong> fashion to belittle; but, to us of <strong>the</strong> generationwho succeeded <strong>the</strong>m, it certa<strong>in</strong>ly seems that aUniversity at which Whewell and Thirlwall were Collegetutors, and where Charles Buller, John Sterl<strong>in</strong>g, R. C.Trench, Julius Hare, Cavendish (<strong>the</strong> seventh Duke ofDevonshire), and Stafford O'Brien were undergraduates,shortly followed by <strong>the</strong> three Tennyson bro<strong>the</strong>rs,Thackeray, Ralph Bernal Os<strong>born</strong>e, G. S. Ven&bles, <strong>the</strong>Lush<strong>in</strong>gton bro<strong>the</strong>rs, James Spedd<strong>in</strong>g, Arthur Hallam,

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