When Mr. Pitt was out of office, I acted as his secretary, and he had
then as much business as when he was in. He very seldom opposed my
opinions, and always respected my antipathies. In private life he
was cheerful and affable; he would rise in the midst of his gravest
avocations to hand me a fallen handkerchief; he was always polite to
women, and a great favourite with many of them; but he was wedded to
the state, and nothing but death could divorce him from his country.
He was fond of me; he loved originality in any shape. His great
recreation, after the fatigue of business, was stealing into the
country, entering a clean cottage, where there was a tidy woman and a
nicely-scoured table, and there he would eat bread and cheese like any
ploughman. He detested routs, and always sat down to plain dinners. He
never ate before he went to the House; but when any thing important
was to be discussed, he was in the habit of taking a glass of port
wine with a tea-spoonful of bark.
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