Increasingly friends and acquaintances die, most recently George Byng, MP for Middlesex (OW) - well-meaning but not very judicious. Lane (Newton Charles), a remarkably stout lad in Grant's, knocked him down with an Ainsworth's dictionary whilst holding forth in the Sixth Form on the superiority of Mr Fox's politics. Westminster education is improving - one usher has been appointed solely to teach maths, and a Frenchman who is a Hebrew scholar has also been employed. Wonders how much exactly Lady Bath bequeathed to Pulteney (see 20).
Sans titreAdding his name to JB's in the petition to the Dean of Westminster (Buckland) not to cancel the Latin Play, appreciated as much by town boys as by the scholars (who did the actual acting). (Both HMC and JB appear in the petition A0019/D3FK7.) Quote from Terence Eunuchus. In relation to this asks for address of Thomas Trebeck. Desirable for schools to employ only old boys, in order that frivolous but harmless traditions can be maintained - e.g. Liddell, educated at Charterhouse, has been trying to stop or at least control the Greaze. Pulteney (see 24) visits often, but this will stop for a while as he is visiting a son who has a rich living in Lincolnshire and hunts and shoots - quote from The Chase by William Somerville. Has been reading a Life of Watson, Bishop of LLandaff, father of a KS of 1777 (not so, according to the Record), and also the reminiscences of their fencing coach, Henry Angelo (in a room in Dean's Yard rented from William Pierce, teacher of book-keeping and arithmetic).
Sans titreSaussure was almost single-handedly responsible for drawing attention to the Alps and particularly Mont Blanc. He visited Chamonix in 1760 and established a prize for the first ascent of Mont Blanc, which was achieved in 1786. Saussure reached the summit himself the following year and published 'Relation abregée d'un Voyage a la Cime du Mont-Blanc', the first published account of the ascent of the mountain. The present work was his magnum opus and two further volumes appeared in 1796.
Sans titre