https://www.historytoday.com/archive/di ... leadership
His reputation as a snappy dresser was, in those days, supposed to count against him, but frankly who wouldn't be charmed by such a comfortable looking velvet coat. As HT mentions :
As more recent history perhaps makes plain, the guy was dead-cert political success....foreign-looking, flamboyant, bitingly witty, cynical and overdressed. His finances and past relationships with women were suspect. He was too clever and pleased with himself by half, and he wrote novels.
(I was told at school that he was the original object of the the nonsensical English aspersion : "too clever by half" that has hung around nearly 200 years)
