LORD WILLIAM BEXTIXCK 139 



Benches were occupied by Whig or Tory, Conservative 

 or Liberal ; Members of ParHament, Baronets and 

 Squires, Clergy and Gentry, Generals and Admirals, and 

 all who resided in, or visited at, the mansions with which 

 the county of Norfolk abounds. To these must be added 

 merchants and bankers, professional men, such as lawyers 

 and doctors, engineers and surveyors, ship-builders and 

 ship-masters, cimi mnltis aliis. It would be difficult to 

 describe all the remarkable characters that came under my 

 observation, and my limits will only allow me to sketch a 

 few. 



Lord William Bentinck accompanied me on the box, I 

 remember, on the elevation of his relative, Mr. Canning, 

 to the Premiership. I found him a not very loquacious 

 companion, liis conversation being principally confined to 

 agricultural statistics; for this attache to the Sicilian 

 Government — ^this active commander and talented 

 diplomatist, and, soon afterwards, the wise and pojDular 

 Governor-General of our Indian possessions — had been 

 of late years acting Cincinnatus in the marsh lands of 

 Norfolk. 



His manners were cold and distant, I thought — perhaps 

 properly so to one in my position, and to my inquiring 

 mind — thouirh far from hauo;htv or austere ; and his 

 countenance, with a shade of the benign, was sufficiently 

 expressive of his descent from the friend and minister of 

 our irreat Dutch deliverer. 



His friend and neighbour, and associate in his 

 agricultural pursuits — and who afterwards accompanied 

 him to India, where he died — was my frequent comj^anion. 

 He was as voluble as the noble lord was chary in his 



