Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 1).djvu/39

Rh the age of sixteen I had nobody to teach me, and everything to learn, of which I was fully aware, but I had, what I was not at all aware of, everything to unlearn: no such easy matter.

"At sixteen I went to Christ Church, where I had again the misfortune to fall under a narrow-minded tutor. He had, however, better parts, and knew more of the world, and I was more independent of him. It has by one or other accident been my fate through life always to fall in with clever but unpopular connections. I begun to see my own situation, and to feel the necessity I was under of repairing lost time. Christ Church is composed, nineteen out of twenty, of those who have been bred at Westminster. The other students are called commoners, being nominated by the canons. My tutor, Mr. Hollwell, was a commoner, and was fool enough to set himself up in a pointed opposition to the Westminsters.

"I should mention that my father, before I left London, used to carry me when he made visits, and introduced me to several old people, telling me that they might be dead when I left Oxford, and I might hereafter be glad to have it to say that I had seen them. I saw by this means and, and was wonderfully struck with the difference of their manner. I saw them the same morning, and happening to go to Lord Chesterfield first, and being much struck with his wit and brilliancy and good breeding, I expected all the same in Lord Granville, but finding him quite plain and simple in his manner, and something both commanding and captivating, more in his countenance and general manner than in anything he said, I was much at a loss to account for the difference of impression. I never saw either of them afterwards. He likewise carried me to the House of Commons, and I shall never forget the scolding he gave me for not staying to hear  speak a second time, having heard him once, and disliking his manner. My father inferred from it to me that I never could be anybody. Lord North was then rising