Synopsis

Although neither a profound scholar, nor gifted with the very highest order of either poetical or conversational powers, Richard Owen Cambridge was nevertheless distinguished by a happy universality of agreeable qualities and parts which alike rendered him respected by the learned, and led to his being welcomed as a delightful companion in every society in which he mixed. " Mr. Cambridge," writes Madame D'Arblay, "has the best stock of good stories I almost ever heard ; and, though a little too precise in his manner, he is always well-bred, and almost always entertaining. Our sweet father [Doctor Burney] kept up the ball with him irably, whether in anecdotes, serious disquisitions, philosophy, or fun ; for all which Mr. Cambridge has both talents and inclination." Neither did this agreeable impression become impaired by closer intimacy. " I ire him more and more," subsequently writes the same lady, " and think all that is formal in him wears off upon acquaintance, and all that is pleasant grows more and more conspicuous." Richard Cambridge, the son of a Turkey merchant, was born in London on the 14th of February, 1 7 17. His father, dying while his child was still an inf...