ABSTRACT
Henry Luttrell was born the illegitimate son of Henry Lawes, Lord Carhampton, a soldier and politician. He rose to be one of the most well known figures in London high society. Through his father’s influence Luttrell secured a seat for Clonmines in 1798, ‘which he subsequently commuted for a pension’. Luttrell had a strong connection to the Holland House circle of Whigs, and was accordingly well known to many high society figures. His Letters to Julia consist of four epistles and in terms of genre are Horatian satires on the upper echelons of London polite society. This is not to suggest for a moment that the Letters are apolitical; on the contrary, they comment with a good deal of barbed wit on what Luttrell sees as an essentially moribund and indeed corrupt political society. Yet the overall tone of the Letters aims at dispassionate observation rather than vituperative personal abuse in the Juvenalian manner.
