, fourth earl of Sandwich, son of Edward Richard Montague, lord viscount
, fourth earl of Sandwich, son
of Edward Richard Montague, lord viscount Hinchinbroke,
and Elizabeth only daughter of Alexander Popham, esq. of
Littlecote in the county of Wilts, was born in the parish
of St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster, Nov. 15, 1718.
He was sent at an early age to Eton school, where, under
the tuition of 'Dr. George, he made a considerable proficiency in the classics. In 1735, he was admitted of Trinity college, Cambridge, and during his residence there,
he and the late lord Halifax were particularly distinguished
for their college exercises; and were the first noblemen
who declaimed publicly in the college chapel. After
spending about two years at Cambridge, he set out on a
voyage round the Mediterranean, his account of which has
recently been published. Mr. Ponsonby, late earl of Besborough, Mr. Nelthorpe, and Mr. Mackye, accompanied
his lordship (for he was now earl of Sandwich) on this
agreeable tour, with Liotard the painter, as we have noticed in his article (vol. XX.) On his lordship’s return to
England, he brought with him, as appears by a letter written by him to the rev. Dr. Dampier, “two mummies and
eight embalmed ibis’s from the catacombs of Memphis a
large quantity of the famous Egyptian papyrus fifteen
intaglios five hundred medals, most of them easier to be
read than that which has the inscription TAMttlN a marble vase from Athens, and a very long inscription as yet
nndecyphered, on both sides of a piece of marble of about
two feet in height.
” This marble was afterwards presented
to Trinity college, and the inscription was explained by
the late learned Dr. Taylor, in 1743, by the title of Marmor Sandvicense.