High art, low behaviour
WAS the 1st Viscount Gage the Sue Gray of the 18th century? Perhaps a closer parallel might be Kathryn Stone, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards. In the wake of the 1715 Jacobite Rising, a commission was set up to dispose of estates forfeited by rebels. Two of the commissioners, Denis Bond and John Birch, MPs and lawyers both, were responsible for the fraudulent sale of the vast Derwentwater estates. It was
