Page:Narratives of the Mission of George Bogle to Tibet (1879).djvu/169

clx |ECCENTRIC LIFE. |[Intr He was seldom serious, and did not often argue any matter gravely, but in a tone of banter in which he humorously maintained the most monstrous paradoxes, his illustrations being often highly laughable. I found him, in 1813, on my arrival in China, established as a guest of the East India Company's establishment, where the table and library were excellent, and quite to his taste. He was a very pleasant companion during the Embassy to Peking, but did not keep a journal, or at least never published one. He did everything in his own odd and eccentric way. Being one day roused by a strange shouting, I went out and discovered it was Manning, who, wishing to cross the water, and finding nobody who would attend to him, commenced a series of howls like a dog, supplemented by execrations derived from the Chinese vernacular. This led our attendant mandarins very naturally to infer that he was mad, and they lost no time in conveying him over the river to the other side, which was all he wanted. I was sorry to part with him in 1817, at the termination of the Embassy, when he returned home, but have never seen him since, nor read anything of his concerning China. His great friend and companion, Samuel Ball, a member of the Athenaeum Club, died lately, at an age bordering on one hundred."

Thomas Manning returned to England, after an absence of nearly twelve years, apparently a disappointed man. He was in Italy from 1827 to 1829, and then went to live in strict retirement at Bexley, whence he removed to a cottage near Dartford, called Orange Grove. He led a very eccentric life. It is said that he never furnished his cottage, but only had a few chairs, one carpet, and a large library of Chinese books. He wore a milky white beard down to his waist. Mr. Manning revised the proof-sheets of the 'Reports on the Poor Laws,' published by order of the House of Commons, and did other work of the same kind, but he never published any of the results of his Chinese labours. Auber, however, says that he drew up a paper of observations on the consumption of tea in