[1] After studying at the University of Edinburgh and Brasenose College, Oxford,[2] and after a tour of Europe, Folkestone settled at Coleshill, in Berkshire, which remained his favourite home for the rest of his life.

By the time of the Duke's resignation in March 1809, Folkestone was emerging as the leader of the younger radicals in the Commons and featured in several of James Gillray's cartoons.

[3] The plight of the rural and urban poor, and the repressive measures taken against them by the government, drove Folkestone finally in 1821 to publicly advocate a reform of parliament.

At the general election of August 1830, there was radical pressure on him to bring in William Cobbett for Downton, which was in his gift, but Radnor feared alienating the conservative Whigs and thus jeopardising the cause of parliamentary reform.

He still wanted to see universal suffrage and a secret ballot, but he was prepared to support Grey's measure to achieve some sort of reform, albeit a very conservative one.

He was a lifelong student of political economy and was deeply influenced by the writings of Adam Smith, Jeremy Bentham, Thomas Robert Malthus and David Ricardo.

For many years, tariffs had been imposed on grain imports to protect British farmers from foreign competition, which had the effect of artificially inflating food prices in the interests of landlords.

He remained the only peer who strongly supported repeal throughout the debates that raged between 1839 and 1846 and was accused of inviting the destruction of landed property and of bringing down the civil and religious institutions of the state.

In November 1843, at a bye-election in Salisbury, Radnor's younger son by his second marriage, Edward Pleydell-Bouverie, stood unsuccessfully with the support of the major players in the Anti-Corn Law League.

Radnor's eldest grandson, Alfred Buckley, wrote to his mother from Eton commiserating on 'Ned's defeat' but was delighted that she had met Richard Cobden and John Bright and hoped that she would 'improve her acquaintance' with them.