FOX, CHARLES JAMES (1749–1806), statesman, third son of Henry Fox [q. v.], afterwards Baron Holland of Foxley, and Lady Caroline Georgina, daughter of Charles Lennox, second duke of Richmond, grandson of Charles II, was born in Conduit Street on 24 Jan. 1749; Holland House, which was then rented by his father, being under repair. He was a clever, lively child, and a great favourite with his father. When his mother grieved over his passionate temper, Henry Fox said that he was a ‘sensible little fellow,’ and would soon cure himself; nothing was to be done ‘to break his spirit’ (Wraxall, Memoirs, ii. 2). At his own request he was in 1756 sent to a school at Wandsworth, kept by a M. Pampellone, where there were many boys of high rank, and in the autumn of 1758 he went to Eton, where Dr. Philip Francis [q. v.] was his private tutor. At Eton he was studious and popular. Unfortunately in 1763 his father, then Lord Holland, who ‘brought up his children without the least regard to morality,’ interrupted his school life by taking him with him to Paris and to Spa. During this excursion, which lasted for four months, Lord Holland encouraged the boy to indulge in vice, and at Spa sent him to the gaming-table well supplied with money (Life and Times, i. 4). Fox returned to Eton, and the tone of the school is said to have suffered from the ‘extravagant, vulgar indulgence’ with which his father treated him and his brother (Early Life, p. 52); he learnt to write creditable Latin verses, had a good acquaintance with French, took a prominent part in the school debates and recitations, and was looked upon by his schoolfellows as certain to become famous as an orator. In October 1764 he entered at Hertford College, Oxford, then much frequented by young men of family. Unlike his companions, Fox studied diligently, giving much time to mathematics, which he liked ‘vastly,’ and professed to consider ‘entertaining’ (Memorials, i. 19). He visited Paris in the spring of the next year, returned to Oxford in July, and spent the greater part of the long vacation in study. He left the university in the spring of 1766, having spent his time there to good purpose; for he read much of the early English dramatists, and acquired the power of enjoying Latin and Greek literature, which proved an unfailing source of pleasure to him in later life. In the autumn he joined his father and mother at Lyons, and spent the winter with them at Naples. When they returned to England in the spring, he remained in Italy with two friends of his own age. He joined Lord and Lady Holland in the autumn at Paris, and spent the winter with them at Nice, for he was a good and affectionate son. In the spring of 1768 he returned to Italy with his cousin, Lord Carlisle, and visited Bologna, Florence, and Rome. On his homeward journey he called on Voltaire at Ferney, and was received graciously. His birth and connections secured him a welcome at foreign courts, and his father's great wealth enabled him to travel magnificently, and indulge every whim, however extravagant. At the same time he did not give himself up to frivolity. He visited picture galleries with appreciation, perfected himself in French, learnt Italian, and studied Italian literature. He returned to England on 2 Aug., and soon afterwards made a short tour with his elder brother Stephen and his wife in the Austrian Netherlands and Holland.
As a young man Fox was strongly built; his frame was large, and he had a handsome face, bright eyes, high colour, and black hair. He soon became very stout, and his enemies considered that in manhood his swarthy countenance had a ‘saturnine’ aspect, but his smile was always pleasant (Wraxall, Memoirs, ii. 3). From childhood he was courted for his gaiety, originality, and genius. He was perfectly good-natured, eager, warm-hearted, and unselfish. With great natural abilities, a singular quickness of apprehension, and a retentive memory, he combined the habit of doing all things with his might. He was, as he said, a ‘very painstaking man,’ and even when secretary of state wrote copies for a writing-master to improve his handwriting (Rogers, Table-talk, p. 85). He delighted in literature and art, his critical faculty was acute, and his taste cultivated. Poetry was to him ‘the best thing after all,’ and he declared that he loved ‘all the poets.’ He had already acquired a considerable store of learning, and the works of his favourite authors, Greek, Latin, English, French, Italian, and in his later years Spanish, never failed to afford him refreshment and, when he needed it, consolation. He was fond of exercise, and even after he had become very fat retained his activity; he played cricket and tennis well, loved hunting, racing, and shooting, and was a good walker and swimmer. During his long tour he constantly referred in his letters to acting plays; he took pains to excel as an amateur actor, and retained his love for this amusement for some few years. Unfortunately his father's
