The only son of the Rev. Dr. Vesey Stanhope, an unscrupulous idler, willing to sponge on his unwilling father, or on an unloved wife if such could he provided for him without undue exertion on his part. Goaded by his sister Charlotte, he proposed to Eleanor Harding, but with no success.

"His great fault was an utter absence of that principle, which should have induced him, as the son of a man without fortune, to earn his own bread.... He was habitually addicted to making love to ladies, and did so without any scruples of conscience.... He had no principle, no regard for others, no self-respect, no desire to he other than a drone in the hive, if only he could, as a drone, get what honey was sufficient for him. He was certainly very handsome. [his eyes] of so light and clear a blue as to make his face remarkable. His light hair was very long and silky coming down over his coat, His beard had been prepared in holy land, and was patriarchal. He never shaved, and rarely trimmed it. It was glossy, soft, dean, and altogether not unprepossessing.... His complexion was fair and almost pink, he was small in height and slender in limb, but well-made, and his voice was of peculiar sweetness.... His costume cannot be described, because it was so various; but it was always totally opposed in every principle of colour and construction to the dress of those with whom he for the time consorted" - Barchester Towers