32 ESSAYS BIOGRAPHICAL AND CHEMICAL 



country, and the manufactures carried on in the various 

 industrial centres, as a species of holiday. There was 

 no weekly interruptions to his labours; Sunday as well 

 as weekday was devoted to research, and so the years 

 glided past. During his father's lifetime, he is said to 

 have had an income of 500 a year ; but at his father's 

 death in 1783, and afterwards, owing to the legacy of an 

 aunt, he became possessed of enormous riches. Indeed, 

 M. Biot, in pronouncing a biographical oration on Caven- 

 dish, used the phrase : ' II etait le plus riche de tons les 

 savants, et probablement aussi, le plus savant de tous les 

 riches? 



His town house was at the corner of Montague Place 

 and Gower Street ; visitors, however, were rarely ad- 

 mitted ; and Cavendish kept his library for his own use 

 and for that of the scientific public in a separate house in 

 Dean Street, Soho. To this library he went for his own 

 books, signing a formal receipt, as one would do at a 

 public library, for each one borrowed. 



His laboratory was a villa at Clapham. The upper 

 rooms were an astronomical observatory. Here he 

 occasionally entertained friends, but in an unostentatious 

 way. His standing dish was a leg of mutton. It is 

 related that on one occasion, when the unprecedented 

 number of five guests had been invited, his housekeeper 

 ventured to point out that one leg of mutton would be 

 insufficient fare for so many ; his answer was, ' Well, then, 

 get two.' Several of his contemporaries have left a 

 record of their personal impressions of him. Professor 

 Playfair described him as of an awkward appearance, 

 without the look of a man of rank. He spoke very 

 seldom, and then with great difficulty and hesitation, but 

 exceedingly to the purpose, his remarks either displaying 

 some excellent information, or drawing some important 

 conclusion. An Austrian gentleman to whom he had 



