S Biographical Account of [Jaw, 



to keep so large a suoi in their hands, sent one of the partners 

 to wait upon him, in order lo leani how he wanted it disposed 

 of. This gentleman was admitted^ and, after employing the 

 necessary precautions to a man of Mr. Cavendish's peculiar 

 disposition, stated the circumstance, and begged to know 

 whether it would not be proper to lay out the money. Mr» 

 Cavendish drily answered^ You may lay it out if you please/* 

 and left the room. 



Mr. Cavendish hardly ever v/ent into any other society than 

 that of his scientific friends. He never was absent from the 

 weekly dinner of the Royal Society Club, at the Crown and 

 Anchor Tavern. At these dinners, when he happened to be 

 seated near those that he liked, he often conversed a great deal ; 

 though at other times he was very silent. He was, likewise, a 

 constant attendant at Sir Joseph Banks's Sunday evening 

 meetings. He had a house in London ; which he only visited 

 once or twice a week at stated times, and without ever speaking 

 to the servants. It contained an excellent library, to which he 

 gave all literary men the freest and most unrestrained access. But 

 he lived in a house on Clapham Common, where he scarcely ever 

 received any visitors. His relation, Lord George Cavendish, to 

 whom he left by will the greatest part of his fortune, visited him 

 only once a year^ and the visit hardly ever exceeded ten or twelve 

 minutes. 



He was shy and bashful, to a degree bordering upon disease. 

 He could not bear any person to be introduced to him, or to be 

 pointed out in any way, as a remarkable man. One Sunday 

 evening, he was standing at Sir Joseph Banks's, in a crowded 

 room, conversing with Mr. Hatchett, when Dr. Ingenhousz, who 

 had a good deal of pomposity of manner, came up, with an 

 Austrian gentleman in his hand, and introduced him formally to 

 Mr. Cavendish, He mentioned the titles and qualifications of 

 his fi-iend at great length, and said that he had been peculiarly 

 anxious to be introduced to a philosopher so profound^ and so 

 universally known and celebrated, as Mr. Cavendish. As soon 

 as Dr. Ingenhousz had finished, the Austrian gentleman began^ 

 and assured Mr. Cavendish that his principal reason for coming 

 to London was to see and converse with one of the greatest 

 ornaments of the age, and one of the most illustrious philoso- 

 phers that ever existed. To all these high-flown speeches Mr. 

 Cavendish answered not a word ; but stood with his eyes cast 

 tlown, quite abashed and confounded. At last, spying an 

 opening in the crowd, he darted through it with all the speed he 

 was master of; nor did he stop till he reached his carriage^ 

 which drove him directly home. 



Mr. Cavendish died on February the 4th, 1810, aged 7S 

 years^ four months^ and six days. His appearance did not 



