Ixxii 



illustrate his own character almost as much as that of the subject of his 

 panegyric. He rarely formed an opinion without looking at all sides of 

 the question before him, or without having recourse to all accessible 

 sources of information, which few men knew so well where to seek as he 

 himself did. He was deluded by no prejudices, and jumped to no con- 

 clusions without testing them by the application of sound common sense. 

 When he had thus formed an opinion, he adhered to it steadily, but not 

 obstinately. He was ever open to argument, and he never refused to listen 

 to it because it conflicted with his own view of the case. He had none os 

 those crotchets or fancies lurking in his mind which so often taint the 

 reasoning." 



The classical accomplishments of Sir Edmund's early years he retained 

 through life, though multiplicity of business on the one hand, and the pre- 

 valence in his mind of other tastes, especially for art, on the other, pre- 

 vented him from "keeping up" his classics as sedulously as some other 

 politicians of his generation have done. But the readiness with which he 

 could apply his early knowledge was often displayed — never more neatly 

 than in the prefatory quotation which he furnished to Professor Tyndall 

 for his paper on Calorescence (Phil. Trans., Read Nov. 23, 1865). 



Forsitan et rosea sol alte lampade lucens 

 Possideat multum caecis fervoribus ignem, 

 Circum se, nullo qui sit fulgore notatus, 

 ^stiferum ut tantum radiorum exaugeat ictum. 



Lucret. v. 160. 



"I am indebted to my excellent friend Sir Edmund Head," says the 

 eminent Professor, "for this extract, which reads like divination." 



Not long after his election to Merton in the year 1830-31, Sir Edmund 

 travelled over most part of Spain in company with David Roberts the 

 artist, then engaged in making drawings for his work on that country. 

 Three of the plates in that work, namely the view of Ronda, of the viaduct 

 at Segovia, and the bridge at Toledo, are from his sketches. It was on 

 this occasion that he made acquaintance with Richard Ford (then resi- 

 ding at Seville), the accomplished and genial author of the 'Handbook for 

 Spain,' which ripened into a durable intimacy. 



Sir Edmund brought back from his tour in Spain, and also in Italy, an 

 increased devotion to the pursuits of what was formerly termed a " vir- 

 tuoso," fondness for art, and familiarity with its history and specialties, 

 especially the art of painting. The second part of Kugler's 'Hand- 

 book of Painting,' published in English by Murray, that which relates to 

 the German, French, arid Dutch schools, was edited by him. The third 

 part (Spanish and French schools, published as a separate work in 1848) 

 is his composition. 



It was his intention, on leaving Oxford, to follow the civil law as a pro- 



