Lord Barrymore at Eton
During the eighteenth century, writes Bill Hooper, ‘barbaric anarchy’ reigned at Eton.
When, in 1784, Richard, seventh Earl of Barrymore, entered Eton, he was better equipped than most of his schoolfellows to deal with the rigours of what, in a tough age, was a very tough school.
A parentless child, he had all the orphan’s self-reliance. His father had died at the age of twenty-eight; and Richard’s mother, having never recovered from the shock of her husband’s early death, followed him to the family vault two years later, when the young peer was only eleven.
Richard possessed, moreover, a toughness acquired in the company of his rustic companions at the family seat, Marbury Hall, Cheshire, and afterwards at Petersham, near Richmond, the estate of Caroline, Countess of Harrington, his maternal grandmother, to whose guardianship he had been entrusted.
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