Life of Count Rumford. 333 



Before she left her father she describes him as suffer- 

 ing much from ill health. He put himself under* the 

 care of the celebrated Dr. Ash, and had recourse to the 

 waters of various mineral springs. He altered and 

 fitted up his house at Brompton in such an ingenious 

 way, and with such contrivances and arrangements, as 

 to make it an attraction for many curious persons to 

 visit. The daughter's return to America at this time 

 was not caused, as the last extract would seem to imply, 

 by her father's second marriage, which did not take 

 place till some years subsequently. He was offered a 

 very honorable position and employment in England, 

 but felt bound, after this residence there of a year, to 

 return to Germany. 



The appointment of Envoy Extraordinary and Min- 

 ister Plenipotentiary from Bavaria to the Court of Lon- 

 don, which Count Rumford had received from the 

 Elector, was an honor conferred upon him for several 

 reasons. The zeal and activity with which the Count 

 had devoted himself to so many forms of public service 

 had again seriously overtasked him, and had greatly 

 impaired his health. He had also encountered much 

 and very disagreeable opposition from jealous or inter- 

 ested parties, the effects of which began to tell painfully 

 on his temper and cheerfulness of spirits. It is notice- 

 able, however, as a marked and praiseworthy quality in 

 his character, that he made but infrequent, and then 

 always guarded and dignified, reference to the public or 

 private enmities excited against him by the splendid 

 success of his career and the efficient wording of his 

 schemes. When thwarted in one of them, he makes 

 this general reference to such opposition, in speaking 

 of " the malicious insinuations of persons who, from 



