134 The Duchess of Newcastle 



same time when My Lord had bought a singing-boy 

 for 50/. a horse for 50Z. and a dog for 2I. which humour 

 his father Sir Charles Uked so well, that he was pleased 

 to say, that if he should find his son to be so covetous, 

 that he would buy land before he was 20 years of age, 

 he would disinherit him. But above all the rest, My 

 Lord had a great inclination to the art of horseman- 

 ship and weapons, in which later, his father Sir Charles 

 being a most ingenuous and unparallelled master of 

 that age, was his onely tutor, and kept him also 

 several masters in the art of horsemanship, and sent 

 him to the mewse to Mons. Antoine, who was then 

 accounted the best master in that art. But My Lord's 

 delight in those heroick exercises was such, that he 

 soon became master therof himself, which encreased 

 much his father's hopes of his future perfections, 

 who being himself a person of a noble and heroick 

 nature, was extreamly well pleased to observe his 

 son take delight in such arts and exercises as were 

 proper and fit for a person of quality. 



9. His Natural Wit and Understanding 



Although My Lord has not so much of scholarship 

 and learning as his brother Sir Charles Cavendish had, 

 yet he hath an excellent natural wit and judgment, 

 and dives into the bottom of every thing; as it is 

 evidently apparent in the fore-mentioned art of 

 horsemanship and weapons, which by his own 

 ingenuity he has reformed and brought to such perfec- 

 tion, as never any one has done heretofore : and though 

 he is no mathematician by art, yet he hath a very 

 good mathematical brain, to demonstrate truth by 

 natural reason, and is both a good natural and moral 

 philosopher, not by reading philosophical books, but 



