8 LIFE OF 



His school holidays, and afterwards his college vacations, 

 were spent either with his brother in London or with his 

 mother, who had continued to reside at Wormesley Grange for 

 some years after her husband's death ; but having sustained the 

 loss of both her daughters (one in her 16th, the other in her 

 19th year), she removed to Maryknowle, a small house near 

 Ludlow, which Mr. Payne Knight had fitted up as a temporary 

 residence for himself during the time he was building Downton 

 Castle. Some account of Mr. Andrew Knight's occupations and 

 pursuits at this period has been furnished by the pen of his 

 early friend the late Dean of Exeter, Dr. Landon. The inter- 

 course of which the commencement is here described was 

 continued till Mr. Knight's death, which was followed, after the 

 lapse of only a few months, by that of the dean. 



" My acquaintance with Mr. Thomas Andrew Knight com- 

 menced at Oxford, when he was a member of Baliol College, in 

 1778 or 1779? I cannot name the exact time. When at college 

 in our leisure hours we often met, and frequently took walks 

 together. Close application was not one among the character- 

 istics of his college life. A little reading, with his extraordinary 

 memory and great natural talents, went very far in improving 

 the powers of his mind. His classical reading in Greek and 

 Latin was not extensive, but whatever he once gave his mind 

 to made impressions which he never lost. One line in Virgil, 

 particularly of the Georgics, if quoted in our familiar conversa- 

 tion, would generally be followed by a recital of pages ; and the 

 same faculty eminently displayed itself if an accidental reference 

 were made to Milton's Paradise Lost, or Thomson's Seasons, 

 when the mention of a single passage would draw from him an 

 accurate repetition of a whole book, with scarcely a pause for 

 recollection. In vacations from the University I frequently 

 visited him when he resided with his aged mother at Mary- 

 knowle ; and his filial attention to the comfort and domestic 

 happiness of that most excellent old lady it was always delight- 

 ful to witness, and most strikingly evinced an affectionate and 

 amiable disposition of heart. When amusements were not to be 



