I had been recommended to Lord Shelburne by Dr. Price, as a person qualified to be a literary companion to him. In this situation, my family being at Calne in Wiltshire, near to his Lordship’s seat at Bowood, I continued seven years, spending the summer with my family, and a great part of the winter in his Lordship’s house in London. My office was nominally that of _librarian_, but I had little employment as such, besides arranging his books, taking a catalogue of them, and of his manuscripts, which were numerous, and making an index to his collection of private papers. In fact I was with him as a friend, and the second year made with him the tour of Flanders, Holland, and Germany, as far as Strasburgh; and after spending a month at Paris, returned to England. This was in the year 1774. This little excursion made me more sensible than I should otherwise have been of the benefit of foreign travel, even without the advantage of much conversation with foreigners. The very sight of new countries, new buildings, new customs, &c. and the very hearing of an unintelligible new language, gives new ideas, and tends to enlarge the mind. To me this little time was extremely pleasing, especially as I saw every thing to the greatest advantage, and without any anxiety or trouble, and had an opportunity of seeing and conversing with every person of eminence wherever we came; the political characters by his Lordship’s connections, and the literary ones by my own. I was soon, however, tired of Paris, and chose to spend my evenings at the hotel, in company with a few literary friends. Fortunately for me, Mr. Magellan[13] being at Paris, at the same time, spent most of the evenings with me; and as I chose to return before his Lordship, he accompanied me to London, and made the journey very pleasing to me; he being used to the country, the language, and the manners of it, which I was not. He had seen much of the world, and his conversation during our journey was particularly interesting to me. Indeed, in London, both before and after this time, I always found him very friendly, especially in every thing that related to my philosophical pursuits.