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My guest! We, too, have wonders to behold,
Numberless, both by water and by sod;
For to the frogs the son of Saturn gave

CHAP.
CLXI.

A lot amphibious, to leap on earth,

And under water hide their body safe.

If thou would'st these explore, they are at hand :
I'll take thee on my back.'"

novels.

Tired of higher studies Thurlow became, in his retire- His love of ment, a great reader of novels; and, in one instance, so interested was he in the plot, that he despatched his groom from Dulwich to London, after ten o'clock at night, for the concluding volume, that he might know the fate of the heroine before trying to go to sleep.

conversa

His great ambition from early youth, and through life, was His great to shine in conversation, and in this department of genius he powers of seems to have met with brilliant success. He had a stupen- tion. dous memory, a quick sense of the ridiculous, a copious flow of words, and an emphasis in talk, which occasionally sup

* Τὸν δ ̓ αὖ Ψιχάρπαξ ημείβετο φωνησέντε
Τίπτε γένος τοὐμὸν ζητεῖς, φίλε, δῆλον ἅπασιν
Ανθρώποις τε, θεοῖς τε, καὶ οὐρανίοις πετεηνοῖς ;
Ψιχάρπαξ μὲν ἐγὼ κικλήσκομαι· εἰμὶ δὲ κοῦρος
Τρωξάρταο πατρὸς μεγαλήτορος, ἡ δέ νυ μητὴρ
Λειχομύλη θυγάτηρ Πτερνοτράκτου βασιλῆος.
Γείνατο δ ̓ ἐν καλύβῃ με, καὶ ἐξεθρέψατο βρωτοῖς,
Σύκοις καὶ καρύοις καὶ ἐδέσμασι παντοδαποῖσι.
Πῶς δὲ φίλον ποιῇ με, τὸν εἰς φύσιν οὐδὲν ὁμοῖον ;
Σοὶ μὲν γὰρ βίος ἐστὶν ἐν ὕδασιν· αὐτὰρ ἔμοιγε,
̔́Οσσα παρ' ἀνθρώποις, τρώγειν ἔθος. Οὐδέ με λήθει
Αρτος τρισκωπάνιστος ἐπ ̓ εὐκύκλου κανέοιο,
Οὐδὲ πλακοῦς τανύπεπλος ἔχων πολὺ σησαμότυρον,
Οὐ τόμος ἐκ πτέρνης, οὐχ ἥπατα λευκοχίτωνα,
Οὐ τυρὸς νεόπηκτος ἀπὸ γλυκεροῖο γάλακτος,
Οὐ χρηστὸν μελίτωμα, τὸ καὶ μάκαρες ποθέουσιν,
Οὐδ ̓ ὅσα πρὸς θοίνας μερόπων τεύχουσι μάγειροι
Κοσμοῦντες χύτρας ἀρτύμασι παντοδαποῖσιν.

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CLXI.

CHAP. plied the place of epigram. With these qualifications, if he had not made his fortune in the law, he would have risen to great eminence as a "diner out." He was rather fond of literary society, and laying aside all official privilege, he boldly descended into the arena against controversial gladiators. He received this high compliment from Doctor Johnson, while yet at the bar, "Depend upon it, sir, it is when you come close to a man, in conversation, that you discover what his real abilities are: to make a speech in a public assembly is a knack. Now I honour Thurlow, sir; Thurlow is a fine fellow; he fairly puts his mind to yours." After his Lordship had been elevated to be Chancellor, the great Lexicographer said to Boswell," I would prepare myself for no man in England but Lord Thurlow. When I am to meet him, I should wish to know a day before." Jemmy goes on to say, "How he would have prepared himself, I cannot conjecture. Would he have selected certain topics, and considered them in every view, so as to be in readiness to argue them at all points? And what may we suppose those topics to have been? I once started the curious inquiry to the great man who was the subject of this compliment: he smiled, but did not pursue it."

Lord Thurlow's "sittings."

Thurlow was not ill-natured in conversation; and Johnson was considered a more terrible opponent. Craddock, who knew both intimately, says: "I was always more afraid of Johnson than of Thurlow; for though the latter was sometimes very rough and coarse, yet the decisive stroke of the former left a mortal wound behind it."†

According to the fashion still prevailing in his time, he used to have long symposiac sittings after dinner, during which his wit was stimulated by the brisk circulation of the bottle. "In the afternoon of life, conviviality, wine, and society unbent his mind. It was with Mr. Rigby, Lord Gower, Lord Weymouth, Mr. Dundas, and a few other select friends, that he threw off his constitutional severity." Though by no means subject to the charge of habitual intemperance, yet from

Boswell's Life of Johnson, iv. 192. 350.
Wrax Mem. i. 527.

† Cr. i. 74.

CHAP.
CLXI.

The Chan

the Prime

mistaken

for high

and fired at.

waymen,

occasional indulgence he sometimes found himself in scenes, which, according to our sober notions, were not very fit for a Chancellor. "Returning, by way of frolic," relates Sir Nathaniel Wraxall, "very late at night, on horseback, to cellor and Wimbledon from Addiscombe, the seat of Mr. Jenkinson, Minister near Croydon, where the party had dined, Lord Thurlow, when tipsy. the Chancellor, Pitt, and Dundas, found the turnpike-gate, situate between Tooting and Streatham, thrown open. Being elevated above their usual prudence, and having no servant near them, they passed through the gate at a brisk pace, without stopping to pay the toll, regardless of the remonstrances and threats of the turnpike-man, who running after them, and believing them to belong to some highwaymen who had recently committed some depredation on that road, discharged the contents of his blunderbuss at their backs. Happily he did no injury."

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There are a few of Thurlow's pointed sayings handed Thurlow's down to us, but I suspect that even a Boswell could not sayings. have supported for him the reputation he enjoyed in his own time. In the Duchess of Kingston's case, two learned Doctors of the Civil Law pouring forth heavily much recondite lore, having gravely argued that the sentence of the Ecclesiastical Court, annulling her first marriage, was decisive in her favour, the Attorney General was pleased to remark, that "the congress of two civilians from Doctors' Commons always reminded him of the noted observation of Crassus, Mirari se quod Haruspex Haruspicem sine risu adspicere posset." In the debates on the Regency, a prim Peer, remarkable for his finical delicacy, and formal adherence to etiquette, having cited pompously certain resolutions, which he said had been passed by a party of noblemen and gentlemen of great distinction at the Thatched House Tavern, the Lord Chancellor, in adverting to these, said, "As to what the noble Lord in the red riband told us that he had heard at the alehouse Such strokes of coarse jocularity, tell more certainly in either House than the play of the most refined wit. -- Even

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*Wrax. Mem. i. 478.

CHAP.
CLXI.

when in administration, he affected to laugh freely at official men and practices. Thus, when on the woolsack, having mentioned some public functionary whose conduct he intimated that he disapproved, he thought fit to add, “But far be it from me to express any blame of any official person, whatever may be my opinion; for that I well know would be sure to bring down upon me a panegyric on his character and his services!"-Lamenting the great difficulty he had in disposing of a high legal situation, he described himself as long hesitating between the intemperance of A. and the corruption of B., but finally preferring the man of bad temper. Afraid lest he should have been supposed to have admitted the existence of pure moral worth, he added," Not but that there was a d-d deal of corruption in A.'s intemperance." Happening to be at the British Museum viewing the Townley Marbles, when a person came in and announced the death of Mr. Pitt, Thurlow was heard to say, "a d-d good hand at turning a period!" and no more.

*

6

The following anecdote was related by Lord Eldon :"After dinner, one day when nobody was present but Lord Kenyon and myself, Lord Thurlow said, Taffy, I decided a cause this morning, and I saw from Scott's face that he doubted whether I was right.' Thurlow then stated his view of the case, and Kenyon instantly said, 'Your decision was quite right.' What say you to that?' asked the Chancellor. I said, I did not presume to form a judgment upon a case in which they both agreed. But I think a fact has not been mentioned, which may be material.' I was about to state the fact and my reasons. Kenyon, however, broke in upon me, and with some warmth, stated that I was always so obstinate, there was no dealing with me. Nay,' interposed Thurlow, that's not fair. You, Taffy, are obstinate, and give no reasons; you, Jack Scott, are obstinate too; but then you give your reasons, and d―d bad ones they are!'"

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Thurlow having heard that Kenyon had said to a party who had threatened to appeal from his decision, by filing a

*This last saying I have from a person who was present.

40

bill in Chancery, "Go into Chancery then: abi in malam rem!". the next time he met the testy Chief Justice, he said, "Taffy, when did you first think the Court of Chancery was such a mala res? I remember when

very good thing of it."

you

made a

Pepper Arden, whom he hated and persecuted, having been made a Welsh Judge by Pitt, and still continuing to practise at the Chancery bar, was arguing a cause against his boon companion, Graham, and something turning upon the age of a lady, who swore she was only forty-five, he said he was sure she was more, and his antagonist looking dissent, he exclaimed, so as to be heard by all present, "I'll lay you a bottle of wine of it." Thurlow did not swear aloud, but by an ejaculation and a frown, called the unwary counsel to a sense of the impropriety he had committed. Pepper Arden. "I beg your Lordship's pardon: I really forgot where I was." Thurlow." I suppose, Sir, you thought you were sitting on the bench in your own Court administering justice in Wales!"

CHAP.

CLXI.

treatment

of Cowper.

Considering Thurlow's relish for literary society, we must Thurlow's wonder and regret that he did not continue to cultivate the friendship of the man with whom he had been so intimate, when they were fellow pupils in the Solicitor's office; but he does not seem by any means properly to have appreciated the fine imagination, the quiet humour, the simple manners, or the affectionate heart, which ought to have attached him to Cowper. While the poet watched with solicitude the career of the lawyer, rejoicing at every step of his advancement, the lawyer was quite indifferent to the successes or the sorrows of the poet. Cowper, though neglected and forgotten by his brother idler of Southampton Row, who now filled the most exalted office in the kingdom, hearing that he was laid up by the gout, lovingly blind to all his faults, thus writes to Mr. Hill:-"These violent attacks of a distemper so May 6. often fatal, are very alarming to those who esteem and respect the Chancellor as he deserves. A life of confinement and anxious attention to important objects, where the habit is bilious to such a terrible degree, threatens to be a short one;

1780.

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