The son of the first Marquis was also a man worthy of mention — "a tall personable man, rather regardless of his dress," according to a contemporary authority. He succeeded as second Marquis in 1805 and died four years later.
His first act on succeeding to the title was to disperse the fine collection of literary and artistic treasures which his father had collected in Lansdowne House. The pictures went in all directions, but the invaluable Lansdowne MSS. were purchased en bloc by the British Museum.
But although the second Marquis showed so little care for these treasures, he proved his appreciation of the collection of antique statues, which he took over from the executors of the first Marquis, at £6,000 or £7,000.
It was this nobleman who tried to emulate Sir William Petty's principle of a double-bottomed ship, with somewhat disastrous results. Eccentric in most things, he took pride in emerging from Lansdowne House in the coldest weather without an overcoat or gloves, and in town he became a marked man.