CAVENDISH HIS ODDITIES. 



cal researches were either made or 

 published. His town residence was 

 close to the British Museum, at the 

 corner of Montague Place and 

 Gower Street. Few visitors were 

 admitted, but some found their way 

 across the threshold, and have re- 

 ported that books and apparatus 

 formed its chief furniture. For 

 the former, however, Cavendish set 

 apart a separate mansion in Dean 

 Street, Soho. Here he had collected 

 a large and carefully chosen library 

 of works on science, which he threw 

 open to all engaged in research, and 

 to this house he went for his own 

 books as one would go to a circu- 

 lating library, signing a formal re- 

 ceipt for such of the volumes as he 

 took with him. 



"His favourite residence was a 

 beautiful suburban villa at Clap- 

 ham, which, as well as a street or 

 row of houses in the neighbourhood, 

 now bears his name. ' The whole 

 of the house at Clapham was occu- 

 pied as workshops and laboratory.' 

 ' It was stuck about with thermo- 

 meters, rain-gauges, &c. A regis- 

 tering thermometer of Cavendish's 

 own construction, served as a sort 

 of landmark to his house. It is 

 now in Professor Brando's posses- 

 sion.' A small portion only of the 

 villa was set apart for personal com- 

 fort. The upper rooms constituted 

 an astronomical observatory. What 

 is now the drawing-room was the 

 laboratory. In an adjoining room 

 a forge was placed. The lawn was 

 invaded by a wooden stage, from 

 which access could bo had to a 

 large tree, to the top of which 

 Cavendish, in the course of his as- 

 tronomical, meteorological, electri- 

 cal, or other researches occasionally 

 ascended. 



"The hospitalities of such a house 

 are not likely to have been over- 

 flowing. Cavendish lived comfort- 

 ably, but made no display. His 

 few guests were treated, on all oc- 

 casions, to the same fare, and it was 



not very sumptuous. A Fellow of 

 the Royal Society reports, ' that if 

 any one dined with Cavendish he 

 invariably gave them a leg of mut- 

 ton, and nothing else.' Another 

 Fellow states that Cavendish ' sel- 

 dom had company at his house, 

 but on one occasion three or four 

 scientific men were to dine with 

 him, and when his housekeeper 

 came to ask what was to be got to 

 dinner, he said, 'a leg of mutton !' 

 'Sir, that will not be enough for 

 five.' ' "Well, then, get two,' was 

 the reply.'" 



Dr. Thomas Thomson states of 

 Cavendish : " He was shy and 

 bashful to a degree bordering on 

 disease ; he could not bear to have 

 any person introduced to him, or 

 to be pointed out in any way as a 

 remarkable man. One Sunday 

 evening he was standing at Sir 

 Joseph Banks', in a crowded room, 

 conversing with Mr. Hatchett, 

 when Dr. Ingenhousz, who had a 

 good deal of pomposity of manner, 

 came up with an Austrian gentle- 

 man in his hand, and introduced 

 him formally to Mr. Cavendish . He 

 mentioned the titles and qualifica- 

 tions of his friend at great length, 

 and said that he had been pecu- 

 liarly anxious to be introduced to 

 a philosopher so profound and so 

 universally known and celebrated 

 as Mr. Cavendish. As soon as Dr. 

 Ingenhousz had finished, the Aus- 

 trian gentleman began, and assured 

 Mi\ Cavendish that his principal 

 reason for corning to London was 

 to see and converse with one oi the 

 greatest ornaments of the age, and 

 one of the most illustrious philo- 

 sophers that ever existed. To all 

 these high-flown speeches Mr. Ca- 

 vendish answered not a word, but 

 stood with his eyes cast down, quite 

 abashed and confounded. At last, 

 spying an opening in the crowd, 

 he darted through it with all the 

 speed of which he was master, nor 

 did he stop till he reached his car- 



