The second Earl of Malmesbury (formerly Lord Fitzharris,
and a member of Pitt’s last Board of Treasury), met Pitt at Lord
Bathurst’s house at Cirencester, Gloucestershire in December 1802.
Malmesbury “observed that Pitt was constantly taking down and quoting
from Lucan [the Roman poet], of which author he [Pitt] appeared to be
extremely fond. Nothing could be more playful, and at the same time more
instructive, than Pitt’s conversation on a variety of subjects while
sitting in the Library at Cirencester. You never would have guessed that
the man before you was Prime Minister of the country, and one of the
greatest that ever filled that situation. His style and manner were
quite those of an accomplished idler" (Lord Fitzharris’ note book for 1805-1806, vol. 4, pp. 341-347; London Quarterly Review, 1845: 243).
Source:
The London Quarterly Review, Volume LXXVI. New York: Leonard Scott & Co., 1845, p. 243.
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