"The first entitled to the place

Of honour, both by gown and grace,
Who never let occasion slip,

To take right hand of fellowship;

And was so proud that should he meet

The twelve apostles in the street,
He'd turn his nose up at them all,

And shove his Saviour to the wall."

Warburton was unpopular in the city, his cold, haughty bearing repelling his equals and frightening his inferiors. At length he was very much avoided in the city, and was scarcely known by the citizens at large.

CLAVERTON MANOR.

Claverton, the old historic manor of the Estcourts, the Bassetts, the Holders, and the Skrines, as already mentioned, legally became Allen's property in 1752, by Equity of Redemption, but it was not until 1757 that he paid off the mortgage of £16,000 held upon the estate by William Skrine. The house, of which only the dairy now remains, was a beautiful mansion, standing on the eastern side of the terrace and steps.1

Tradition assigns the creation of this house to John of Padua, who is also said to have designed Kingston House at Bradford. on-Avon, and also Longleat. There was a good deal of romance mixed up with the Manor House. Estcourt represented Bath from 1695 to 1698, his town-house being in Broad Street, and a very worthy dignified old citizen he was. Bassett sat as the representative of Bath from 1640 to 1645, when, for no other alleged reason than his loyalty to the Crown, he was expelled. This same Bassett, entertaining Sir E. Hungerford and others

1 The Claverton Estate is again in the possession of the Skrine family, the present owner being Henry Duncan Skrine, Esq., the owner also of the opposite estate of Warleigh Manor,

in 1643, was fired at by a small force of Parliamentarians from the opposite hill. The ball entered the guest room, passed over the party, and lodged in the chimney wall. A skirmish in the valley on the Warleigh side took place a few days afterwards; three soldiers of the Parliamentarians and one Royalist were slain, and were afterwards buried in Claverton Churchyard.1

When Allen took possession of the estate, he was much pleased with the house, and brought down with him Warburton, Hurd, and Mason, the poet; to meet whom, Graves, the Rector, was invited. Allen usually brought his visitors once a week from Prior Park to dine and wander about the lovely domain, around and about which he had made excellent roads.

Allen had a very warm regard for Graves, who, being an excellent scholar, received pupils. Until Allen took possession of the Manor House, it was occupied by Graves, the rectory being too small. Allen, however, enlarged the rectory and built a school-room for his worthy friend. When Warburton's son was eight or nine years old he was sent to Graves to be educated, and remained there until he was ready for the university. About this time, or a little earlier, Potter introduced a gentleman at Prior Park named Strahan, who was, we believe, a clerk in the House of Commons, and who became a very regular visitor at Prior Park and Claverton. This gentleman conceived a great liking for Warburton's son, and became a regular correspondent of Allen's. Strahan wrote a very pretty hand, and conveyed much of the social and political gossip of the day to his Bath friend. Later on will be found an interesting account of John Wilkes and his trial in the House of Commons from the pen of Strahan.

1 In the Proceedings of the Bath Field Club, vol. vi, p. 167, will be found a full account of this skirmish, by H. D. Skrine, Esquire, the present owner of Claverton and Warleigh.

POLITICS, PARTY, AND PITT.

We have already referred to the interest taken by Allen in politics, and the motives by which he was guided in his relations with Marshal Wade.1 That Allen was an earnest Whig in all respects his later conduct shows. In every election subsequent to Wade's death there is no doubt the choice of candidates was to some extent determined by Allen's judgment. Nor can any blame be cast upon him in respect of this. Even the caricaturists of his day have no stronger censure to cast upon him than that he was permitted by his colleagues to have his own way; but having regard to the standing, intelligence, and independence of many of those colleagues, we think the inference too broad, and that it is not too much to assume that one feeling of general confidence pervaded the whole body. There are two facts that stand out very prominently as marking the character of the Bath corporate body from the earliest part of the century to its close (firstly) the absence of all deliberate jobbery and wrong-doing; and (secondly) the men who were chosen, as will be seen by the following chapter, did honour to the citythey were men incapable of lending themselves to any of the corrupt and demoralizing practices only too common in that age of pocket boroughs, corrupt and complacent corporations. The rupture with Pitt was, perhaps, the cause of more distress to Allen than any public event that ever concerned him; and of this we shall have more to say in connection with the political squib-"The One-Headed Corporation"-and the correspondence with his illustrious friend, Pitt.

1 Some years after Wade's death Allen erected an Obelisk, of triangular form, on the south side of the Prior Park mansion. There was on each face a handsome tablet, on which was engraved the civil and military achievements of the worthy Marshal. The obelisk was removed, we believe, by Mr. Thomas,

Thicknesse, Wade, Politics, Volunteers, etc. 155

It was said by Thicknesse that Allen refused, from selfish motives, to become one of the representatives of Bath in Parliament, but that he took care to choose the members himself; that is, he exercised unbounded influence over the Council. It may be well to see how he used his power. Allen was a warm adherent of the Hanoverian dynasty.2 He was, as we have shown, attached to it by ties of interest, conviction, and by personal connection with Marshal Wade. The Marshal, as the representative of Bath from 1722 to 1748 (the year of his death), had little sympathy with any particular shade of politics which existed amongst the "Revolution party"; he cared chiefly for the dynasty. The Marshal was much more than the representative of the city in Parliament ; he was its fast friend; he lived in it and loved it, and identified himself with its local institutions. So long as the Marshal lived, Allen seems to have contented himself with giving him and his colleague a steady and loyal support. The Jacobite and the High Tory party were relatively small and insignificant; but the great Whig party was split into two separate

1 The fact that Allen was a Government contractor disqualified him. 2 During the '45 Allen raised, clothed, drilled, officered, a company of volunteers, and provided drill-ground for them at his own cost of £2,000, during the two years of agitation. Richard Jones was the Lieutenant of the corps; and to this faithful clerk of the works was entrusted the building of Newton Bridge. On the Lower Bristol Road, opposite Newton Park, whence the brook flows, there was a sudden dip which frequently became impassable after a moderate downfall of rain. There was much grumbling, and certain proposals made to erect a bridge to span the hollow, which came to nothing. To obviate the great public inconvenience, in which he only suffered in common with the public at large, Allen undertook the cost and responsibility of building a good, substantial bridge, of which Lysons, the eminent antiquary, left a beautiful watercolour drawing, now in our possession. This is quoted as another example of Allen's public spirit.

3 A term applied to the political party favourable to the Revolution of 1688, the Hanoverian dynasty, and Whig principles.