HAMILTON, ANTHONY, Count, author of the Memoirs
Hamilton, of Count Gramont, was a cadet of the noble Scottish family of that name, and was born in Ireland about 1646. He was educated in France, but after the Restoration passed over to London, where he met the Chevalier, afterwards Count de Gramont. This nobleman, temporarily banished from the French court, fell in love with Hamilton's sister, and engaged to marry her. As soon as his term of exile had expired he set out for Paris, neglecting to fulfil his engagement. Anthony and a younger brother of the bride took horse, and overtaking the fugitive at Dover, asked him if he had forgotten nothing in London. "Pardon, gentlemen," said the Count, "I forgot to marry your sister." He returned, and the ceremony was performed. Hamilton made frequent voyages to France to see his sister and her husband; and on one of these occasions was chosen by Louis XIV. to figure in Quinault's ballet of the Triomphe de l'Amour. Exiled with James II., who had warmly befriended him on account of his attachment to the Catholic religion, he spent the remainder of his days at St Germain, where he wrote his delightful works, and where he died in 1720, at the age of about seventy-four.
Of Hamilton's works, the best and the best remembered is his Memoires de Gramont. It is indeed the cleverest book of its class in existence. Though no one who reads it can fail to see its frivolity, it is impossible to lay it aside without reading on to the end. The pictures of the court of Charles II. which it contains, are like the best pieces of Boucher. Expressing almost nothing, they yet possess charms and attractions denied to the far more ambitious efforts of greater minds. Though the grossest indelicacy is often hid by a mere veil of gauze, and is thus doubly dangerous, especially to the young reader, there is yet a grace, a truth to nature, and a gaiety in the work that make it one of the most pleasant, as it certainly is one of the most valuable records of the dissolute court of the Restoration. Hamilton's other works, once much in vogue, are now forgotten. There have been many editions of the Memoires both in France and England. One of the rarest is that printed by Horace Walpole at the Strawberry Hill press, of which only 100 copies were thrown off; better still is the London edition of 1792; but best of all is that of 1811, with sixty-three portraits, and many notes and illustrations, some of which are said to have been furnished by Sir W. Scott. One of the best editions is that of Paris in 4 vols. 8vo. 1812, or 5 vols. in 18mo. 1813.