Some account of John Duke of Argyll and his family

( M )
shrewd, penetrating, argumentative — an able man of
business, and a wary, if not crafty politician. " I wanted
to discuss such an affair with my brother," he would say,
" but all went wrong. I saw the Tollemache * blood
beginning to rise, so I e'en quitted the field."
To resume the parallel. John took pleasure in wit,
poetry, and the belles lettres ; Archibald in philosophical
experiments, mechanics, natural history, and what had
no name and little existence in his days, but is now
called Political Economy. He planted your neighbour
Himt's garden for Sir Harry Bellenden, and made a
place for himself (Whitton) out of a piece of Hounslow
Heath, on purpose to try what shrubs and trees he could
bring the barrenest soil to bear. The Duke of Argyll
had a kind of court round him, consisting of a few sen-
sible party-men, not a few Scotch dependants, a set of
dull old officers who had served under his command, and
a whole tribe of Campbell-cousins. Amongst these was
the very handsome, very stupid, Colonel Jack Campbell,
in future himself Duke of Argyll, and grandfather of
the present family. Lord Islay's humble companions
were the ingenious men who assisted him in his scientific
pursuits, or those whose inventions he patronised. Con-
versing as he did with all manner of people, yet still
keeping his proper place in the best and highest society,
the younger brother could not well be supposed to share
the elder's prejudice against intelligent women. He
* Their mother, a lady of very high spirit, was a Tollemache,
daughter of the Duchess of Lauderdale (Countess of Dysart in her own
right) by her first husband, Sir Lionel Tollemache.