Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

In 1755, he and Samuel Johnson had a dispute over A Dictionary of the English Language. Eight years previously, Johnson had sent Chesterfield an outline of his Dictionary, along with a business offer for promoting the proposed work; Chesterfield agreed and invested £10. Although Chesterfield wrote two anonymous articles for World magazine shortly before the dictionary's publication praising both Johnson's exhaustive editorial work and the dictionary itself, Johnson was disappointed at the lack of interest in the project from Lord Chesterfield during compilation of the dictionary. Upset with what he saw as a lack of support from an avowed man of letters and patron of literature, Johnson wrote the Letter to Chesterfield, which dealt with the dynamics of the patron–artist relationship.^[2] Chesterfield was not offended by the letter but rather, was impressed by its language. After receiving it, he displayed it on a table for visitors to read and, according to Robert Dodsley, said "This man has great powers" and then he "pointed out the severest passages, and observed how well they were expressed". Adams told Johnson what was said, and Johnson responded, "That is not Lord Chesterfield; he is the proudest man this day". Adams responded, "No, there is one person at least as proud; I think, by your own account, you are the prouder man of the two". Johnson, finishing, said, "But mine, was defensive pride".^[6]

In the 1760s, Chesterfield offered a cogent critique of the Stamp Act 1765 passed through Parliament by George Grenville's ministry. In a letter to his friend, the Duke of Newcastle, Chesterfield noted the absurdity of the Stamp Act because it could not be properly enforced, but if made effective, the Act would anyway generate a revenue no greater than £8,000 per year, but the annual cost of reduced trade from the American colonies would be about £1,000,000.^[7]

Letters to His Son

Eugenia Stanhope, the impoverished widow of Chesterfield's illegitimate son,

As a handbook for worldly success in the 18th century, the Letters to His Son give perceptive and nuanced advice for how a gentleman should interpret the social codes of etiquette and good manners:

... However frivolous a company may be, still, while you are among them, do not show them, by your inattention, that you think them so; but rather take their tone, and conform in some degree to their weakness, instead of manifesting your contempt for them. There is nothing that people bear more impatiently, or forgive less, than contempt; and an injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult. If, therefore, you would rather please than offend, rather be well than ill spoken of, rather be loved than hated; remember to have that constant attention about you which flatters every man's little vanity; and the want of which, by mortifying his pride, never fails to excite his resentment, or at least his ill will....^[8]

Samuel Johnson said of the letters that "they teach the morals of a whore, and the manners of a dancing-master" as a means for getting on in the world, implying that Chesterfield promoted good manners as a method of advancement rather than because of their inherent moral value.^[9]

Despite having been an accomplished essayist and epigrammatist in his time, Lord Chesterfield's literary reputation today derives almost entirely from Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774) and Letters to His Godson (1890), books of private correspondence and paternal and avuncular advice that he never intended for publication.^[2]

Need for legitimate heir

In 1768 Chesterfield's illegitimate son, Philip Stanhope, died in France of

Left without a legitimate heir to his lands and property (he and his wife had no children together) Lord Chesterfield acted to protect his hereditary interests by adopting his distant cousin and godson, Philip Stanhope (1755–1815), a descendant of the 1st Earl of Chesterfield, as his heir and successor to the title of Earl of Chesterfield.^[2]

Death

Chesterfield died on 24 March 1773, at Chesterfield House, Westminster, his London townhouse. His godson and adopted heir then became Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl of Chesterfield.^[10]

Legacy

In literature

Decades after his death, Lord Chesterfield appears as a character in William Makepeace Thackeray's novel The Virginians (1857). He is also mentioned in Charles Dickens' novel Barnaby Rudge (1841), wherein the foppish Sir John Chester says that Lord Chesterfield is the finest English writer:^[11]

Lord Bacon

deep, and decidedly knowing; but the writer who should be his country's pride, is my Lord Chesterfield.

Places

In the UK, Chesterfield gave his name to

Chesterfield coats, popularized by the 6th Earl, are woollen overcoats with velvet on the collar for both men and women.

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