the weak side of Bentham's character to the epigrammatic sentences in which he describes the less eminent visitors, who were probably not expected to have views on the Fragment of Government. There was, for example, Lady Mary Bayntun, "cultivated par cause de vicinage," and notwithstanding her ancestry—she was the daughter of Lord Coventry by his marriage with the beautiful Miss Gunning—"as dowdy as a country girl, and as ugly as a horse"; and Edward Poore, a lawyer and fellowstudent of Bentham at Oxford, so pompous and affected in his language as to describe rubbish as "quisquillious matter"; and Sir J. Long, "a little stiff-rumped fellow, who knew nothing except persons." Then there was Captain Blankett, the friend of Admiral Keppel, "one of the most wrong-headed fellows," says Bentham, "I think I ever met with; putting in his oar on every occasion, talking à tort et à travers, and spoiling every discussion that is started."[1] "Mr. Tongue," he goes on, "is an insipid insignificant man, who lives at Bristol. I could perceive no other bond of connection than the circumstance of his once having rented a house about a mile from Lord Shelburne's which his Lordship has just pulled down."[2] "General Johnson is a neighbour of Lord Shelburne's: he is Equerry to the King and has been in waiting. He is an old man, is deaf at times, and has got the nickname (so I learned by accident) of 'Old Sulky'; he travels in a leather conveniency of the same name."[3]
Of the character of his host the notices are naturally frequent in Bentham's letters. "The master of Bowood," he says, "to judge from everything I have seen yet, is one of the pleasantest men to live with that ever God put breath into: his whole study seems to be to make everybody about him happy—servants not excepted; and in their countenances one may read the effects of his endeavours. In his presence they are as cheerful as they are respectful and attentive; and when they are alone you may see them merry, but at all times as quiet as so
