little for him. He can make short sentences neatly enough; he gives the heads of the history, in the shape of the succession of kings and consuls; and, in imitation of his author, he supplies erudite and critical notes.[1]
It was about the age when he wrote this history that he was invited to an interview with Lady Spencer (wife of Lord Spencer, then at the head of the Admiralty), her curiosity being roused by the accounts of him. His conversation on the occasion turned chiefly on the personages of Roman history, whose characters he fluently hit off".
My next document is a letter, in his own hand, dated September 13, 1814. He was now eight years and four months. He was in the second stage of his studies, when he had begun Latin, and had extended his reading in Greek to the poets, commencing with the Iliad. He was also teaching his sister, two years younger than himself. The event that gave rise to the letter was the migration of the whole family to Bentham's newly acquired residence. Ford Abbey, in Somersetshire. I will give a part and abridge the rest. His correspondent was some intimate friend of the family unknown.
It is time to give you a description of the abbey. There is a little hall and a long cloister, which are reckoned very fine architecture, from the door, and likewise two beautiful rooms, a dining-parlor and a breakfast-parlor adorned with fine drawings within one door; on another side is a large hall, adorned with a gilt ceiling; and beyond it two other rooms, a dining and drawing room, of which the former contains various kinds of musical instruments, and the other is hung with beautiful tapestry.
To this house there are many staircases. The first of them has little remarkable up it, but that three rooms are hung with tapestry, of which one contains a velvet bed, and is therefore called the velvet room. The looking-glass belonging to this room is decorated with nun's lace.
Up another staircase is a large saloon, hung with admirable tapestry, as also a small library. From this saloon issues a long range of rooms, of which one is fitted up in the Chinese style, and another is hung with silk. There is a little further on a room, which, it is said, was once a nursery; though the old farmer Glyde, who lives hard by, called out his sons to hear the novelty of a- ↑ The beginning runs thus (heading "First Alban Government: Roman Conquest in Italy): "We know not any part," says Dionysius of Halicarnassus, "of the history of Rome till the Sicilian invasions. Before that time the country had not been entered by any foreign invader. After the expulsion of Sicilians, Iberian (?) kings reigned for several years; but in the time of Latinus, Æneas, son of Venus and Anchises, came to Italy, and established a kingdom there called Albania. He then succeeded Latinus in the government, and engaged in the wars of Italy. The Rutuli, a people living near the sea, and extending along the Numieius up to Lavinium, opposed him. However, Turnus their king was defeated and killed by Æneas. Æneas was killed soon after this. The war continued to be carried on chiefly against the Rutuli, to the time of Romulus, the first king of Rome. By him it was that Rome was built."
