424 Professor Tyndall [May 3, 10, and 17, 



Dublin presented him with an address ; while the Viceroy and the 

 Lord Mayor wrote to him officially to thank him for his services. 

 Dr. Ellis has not been able to find these documents, but they were 

 seen by Pictet, who describes them as " filled with the most flattering 

 expressions of esteem and gratitude." 



In Rumford's case the life of the mind appeared to have interfered 

 with the life of the affections. When he quitted America, ho left his 

 wife and infant daughter behind him, and whether there were any 

 communications afterwards between him and them is not known. In 

 1793, in a letter to his friend Baldwin, he expressed the desire to 

 visit his native country. He also wished exceedingly to be personally 

 acquainted with his daughter, who was then nineteen. His affection 

 for his mother, which appears to have been very real, also appears in 

 his letter. With reference to this projected visit, he asks, " Should 

 I be kindly received? Are the remains of party spirit and political 

 persecutions done away ? Would it be necessary to ask leave of the 

 State ? " A year prior to the date of this letter, Rumford's wife had 

 died, at the age of fifty-two. On the 29t]i of January, 179G, his 

 daughter, who was familiarly called " Sally Thompson," sailed for 

 London to see her father. She had a tedious passage, but soon after 

 her arrival she writes to her friend Mrs. Baldwin, "All fatigue and 

 anxiety are now at an end, since my dear father is well and loves 



me." 



In a ' History of her Life,' written many years afterwards, she, 

 however, describes the disappointment she experienced on first meeting 

 her father. Her imagination had sketched a fancy picture of him. 

 She " had heard him s^wken of as an officer, and had attached to this 

 an idea of the warrior with a martial look, possibly the sword, if not 

 the gun, by his side." All this disappeared when she saw him. He 

 did not strike her as handsome, or even agreeable, — a result in part 

 due to the fact that he had been ill and was very thin and pale. She 

 speaks, however, of his laughter " quite from the heart," while the 

 expression of his mouth, with teeth described as " the most finished 

 pearls," was sweetness itself. He did not seem to manage her very 

 successfully. Slie had little knowledge of the world, and her 

 purchases in London he thought both extravagant and extraordinary. 

 After having, by due discipline, learnt how to make an English 

 courtesy, to the horror of her father, almost the first use she made of 

 her newly acquired accomplishment was to courtesy to a house- 

 keeper. 



His labours in the production of cheap and nutritive food neces- 

 sarily directed Rumford's attention to fireplaces and chimney flues. 

 When he first published his essay on this subject in London, he 

 reported that he had not less than five hundred smoky chimneys on 

 his hands. His aid and advice were always ready, and were given 

 indiscriminately to all sorts and conditions of men. Devonshire 

 House, Sir Joseph Banks', the Earl of Bessborough's, Countess 

 Spencer's, Melbourne House, Lady Templeton's, Mrs. Montagu's, 



