COUNT RUMFORD
41
Autograph and Seal of Rumford.
On the opposite side is the following:
Rumford, the friend of mankind, by genius,
taste and love inspired, changed
this once desert place into what thou
now beholdest.
His health being impaired, he spent more than a year in Italy, and then returned to England after an absence of eleven years. On entering London he met with a terrible loss, which he never ceased to bemoan. While passing St. Paul's churchyard in the evening, his postchaise was stopped and a trunk containing all his private papers was cut from its fastenings and stolen. He said: "By this cruel robbery, I have been deprived of the fruits of the labor of my whole life and have lost all that I hold most valuable."
Rumford's wife had died in 1792 and his daughter, who was an
Profile Portrait. (Bas-relief.)
