Lord Chesterfield's letters, Part III

Some nuggets therefrom

One remnant of the insignificance of Philip Stanhope’s life compared to his parents’ and stepmother’s expectations for him is that there is no surviving portrait of him. Not even a sketch or a silhouette remains of him, at least to public knowledge (as always it is possible the Stanhope family has such objects but haven’t made them available). The reaso…