Varying estimates have been found of his character. He was considered clever and cultured, but licentious and eccentric. He was a great collector of art and in later life he openly professed materialistic opinions. Lord Bristol fell in love with Wilhelmina, Countess von Lichtenau, King Frederick William II of Prussia's mistress, and by his bearing and often unusual and ostentatious style of dress he gave fresh point to Voltaire's original saying: "when God created the human race, he made men, women and Herveys".