By the Bev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 199 



company with Cumming, the Quaker, a character at that time well 

 known as the projector of the Conquest of Senegal. They arrived 

 about dinner-time, and were received with such respect and good 

 breeding that the Doctor joined in the conversation with much 

 pleasantry, and good humour. He told several stories of his 

 acquaintance with literary characters, and in particular repeated the 

 last part of his celebrated letter to Lord Chesterfield, desiring to be 

 dismissed from all further patronage. Whilst " the feast of reason 

 and the flow of soul " was thus enjoying, a gentleman of Lord 

 Shelburne's acquaintance from London happened to arrive : but 

 being too late for dinner his Lordship was making his apologies, 

 and added, " But you have lost a better thing than dinner, in not 

 being here time enough to hear Dr. Johnson repeat his charming 

 letter to Lord Chesterfield, though I dare say the Doctor will be 

 kind enough to give it us again." " Indeed, my Lord/'' says the 

 Doctor (who began to growl the moment the subject was mentioned), 

 "I will not : I told the story just now for my own amusement, but 

 I will not be dragged in as story-teller to a company." 



Another visitor at Bowood — who, however, became really a settled 

 member of the household as librarian and superintendent of education 

 in the school-room — was the celebrated Dr. Priestley, of Birmingham. 

 At first he came to Calne as pastor of some congregation : and Mrs. 

 Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, who was much in this part of the 

 country, gives us the following account of the Doctor and his arrival 

 here. Priestley, we all know, was a great philosopher, well skilled 

 in chemistry and kindred pursuits. She says : — " Dr. Priestley was 

 a man of much child-like simplicity. His wife used to relate that 

 when he removed to Calne she had packed everything for the removal 

 with her own hands. The Doctor proposed to help her by superin- 

 tending the fastening and cording of the boxes. "What was her 

 dismay, on arriving at Calne, and opening them, to find that, under 

 the cover of each box were lodged specimens o£ minerals of all sorts, 

 and a number of chemical mixtures ! The Doctor begged her not 

 to distress herself if the clothes were a little injured, for the minerals 

 had come perfectly well." 



The Earl of Shelburne was created in 1784 Marquis o£ Lansdowne. 



