Strangford

Strangford, VISCOUNT. Percy-Clinton-Sydney Smythe was born 31st August 1780, studied at Trinity College, Dublin, and entered the diplomatic service. He succeeded to the title as sixth viscount in 1801, was secretary of legation at Lisbon, and later ambassador successively to Portugal, Sweden, Turkey, and Russia. He was raised to the English peerage as Baron Penshurst in 1825, and died 29th May 1855. His translation of the Rimas of Camoens he published in 1803.—His youngest son, PERCY-ELLEN-FREDERICK-WILLIAM SMYTHE, was born at St Petersburg, 26th November 1825, and had his education at Harrow and Merton College, Oxford. He entered the diplomatic service, early acquired an unexampled command of languages, and served as Oriental secretary during the Crimean war. In 1857 he returned home to succeed as eighth and last viscount, thereafter lived mostly in London, immersed in philological studies ranging from Turkish, Persian, Arabic, and Afghan to Basque, Celtic, and Lithuanian, and died there, 9th January 1869. In spite of his phenomenal acquirements, he wrote little more than a few Saturday, Pall Mall, and Quarterly articles. His Selected Writings: Political, Geographical, and Social, was edited by his widow (2 vols. 1869), who also published his Letters and Papers upon Philological and Kindred Subjects (1878). See Fonblanque's Lives of the Lords Strangford (1878).