Gentle Shepherd (The)

George Grenville, the statesman, a nickname derived from a line applied to him by Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham. Grenville, in the course of one of his speeches, addressed the House interrogatively, “Tell me where? tell me where?” Pitt hummed a line of a song then very popular, “Gentle shepherd, tell me where?” and the House burst into laughter (1712–1720).