John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire

John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire (1723 - 1793) was an English nobleman and politician.

The son of John Hobart, 1st Earl of Buckinghamshire by his first marriage, he was educated at Westminster School and Christ's College, Cambridge. He was Member of Parliament for Norwich from 1747-56, having also been elected for St Ives in 1747 but opting to sit for Norwich. He held office as Comptroller of the Household in 1756 and as a Lord of the Bedchamber from 1756-67. He was ambassador to Russia from 1762-5 and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1776-80. In the latter role he had to concede free trade and measures for relief of Romanists and Dissenters.

He died without surviving male issue and was succeeded by his half-brother.

The second Earl had a hidden talent. He was said to have composed many poems, some more dubious than others. The following is accepted to have been composed during a 'masterbatory reverie' - while the 2nd Earl mused on news from his brother-in-law in Naples during 1954 about how the pox inflicted his compatriots. It starts as follows;

In Flannel were his limbs array'd
With spittel smear'd and snot;
Attended by a nurse-like shade
That held a spitting pot.
Feebly the spector took his stand,
All withered, wan and sick,
Supporting, in a shrivled hand,
His oozing shankered prick.
Behold! thou faithless wretch, he cried,
The fiend that's doomed by fate,
The injured fair ones cruel wrongs
fully vindicate.
I am the Pox, the scourge of sin,
You soon shall feel my smart,
My baleful venom lurks within
Your vile offering part.
Fanny the deadly taint conveyed
Through treacherous condum's crack...

See Jeremy Black: the British abroad the Grand Tour pp205

ource

*"Concise Dictionary of National Biography"