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20 THE ANCESTOR The Harrises entertained much both in town and at Salis- bury, and some distinguished statesman or wit was generally to be found among their guests. Such were the first Lord Malmesbury's earliest surround- ings, such were the influences which must have gone far to mould his character and to have rendered him capable of win- ning his spurs in the lists of diplomacy at the early age of twenty-four. His birth, which took place at Salisbury in the house of his fathers, is thus entered in the family Bible : ^ James, the son of James and Elizabeth Harris, was born the ninth of April, 1746, at half hour past twelve at noon.' And a brass plate afl[ixed to the wall of a room in the old rambling house still perpetuates its memory. The future Lord Malmesbury commenced his juvenile studies at a small school in his native place, whence he was sent to Winchester, and in 1763 was entered as a gentleman com- moner at Merton College, Oxford. His life at the University cannot be more fittingly described than in his own words :^ — The set of men with whom I lived were very pleasant, but very idle fellows. Our life was an imitation of High Life in London ; luckily drinking was not the fashion, but what we did drink was claret, and we had our regular round of evening card parties, to the great annoyance of our finances. It has often been a matter of surprise to me how many of us made our way so well in the world and so creditably. Charles Fox, Lord Romney, North, Bishop of Winchester, Sir J. Stepney, Lord Robert Spencer, William Eden (now Lord Auckland), and my good and ever esteemed friend the last Lord Northington were amongst the number. After leaving Oxford in 1765 James Harris the younger was sent to finish his studies at Leyden, where he remained for a year, returning home in 1766 ; but in 1767 he again left England, this time for a protracted tour on the continent, and he passed nearly the whole of the next thirty-five years of his life abroad. The experiences which he gained on this tour were of incalculable value to him in his after-career ; for not only was the knowledge of the general state of politics, which he by a lengthened residence at more than one European capi- tal acquired first-hand, of the greatest assistance later on, but he found the many friendships which he had originally made in an unofficial capacity of almost essential service to him when he became a responsible servant of the Crown. The younger Harris had a personal charm of manner which ^ Diaries and Correspondence of the first Earl of Malmesbury (Bentley),