#CHARLES LEWIS MERYON

[pitt-able]

William Pitt's sleeping habits

I always found the private Pitt much more interesting than the political Pitt and probably one of the first aspects to really capture my attention about Pitt’s private life were his sleeping habits. I find sleep to be utterly fascinating, both from a medical/biological point of view but also from a personal point of view. And while Pitt’s sleep habits were nothing unheard of, there still were some peculiarities.

Pitt often was happy to get out of London, even if only for a short time, and to enjoy some peace and quiet in the country. Holwood House was a dearly beloved retreat of his. This desire to be out of the bustling city of London also extended to Pitt’s sleeping arrangements. William Wilberforce later wrote:

In the spring of one of these years Mr. Pitt, who was remarkably fond of sleeping in the country, and would often go out of town for that purpose as late as eleven or twelve o'clock at night, slept at Wimbledon for two or three months together. It was, I believe, rather at a later period that he often used to sleep also at Mr. Robert Smith’s house at Hamstead.

A. M. Wilberforce, editor, Private Papers of William Wilberforce, T. Fisher Unwin, London, 1897, p. 49.

Wimbledon was Wilberforce’s villa – he was one of the few of Pitt’s friends at the time to actually own a house.

But a country house was not the only place where Pitt could fall asleep, far from it. Although being Prime Minister is an important and dignified position, Pitt would often fall asleep in the House of Commons itself. Richard Rush, son of Benjamin Rush, American physician, and signer of the Declaration of Independence, was the American Minister to the court of St. James. In his papers he retells this story of a conversation he had once during a dinner:

He [William Wilberforce] spoke of Mr Pitt. They had been at school together. He was remarkable, he said, for excelling in mathematics; there was also this peculiarity in his constitution, that he required a great deal of sleep, seldom being able to do with less than ten or eleven hours; he would often drop asleep in the House of Commons; once he had known him do so at seven in the evening and sleep until day-light.

Richard Rush, Residence at the Court of London, third Edition, Hamilton, Adams & Co, London, 1872, p. 175

We can further read in the diaries of Charles Abbot:

March 17, 1796.—Dined at Butt’s with the Solicitor-General and Lord Muncaster. Lord Muncaster was an early political friend of Mr. Pitt, and our conversation turned much upon his habits of life. Pitt transacts the business of all departments except Lord Grenville’s and Dundas’s. He requires eight or ten hours’ sleep.

Earl Stanhope, The Life of the Right Honourable William Pitt, Vol. 3, John Murray, London, 1862, p. 4.

When you, for example read through Wilberforce’s diaries and journals, you will see many instances where he mentions that he either got no sleep at all or only slept very poorly. It was different with Pitt. When he was asleep, he normally could sleep on with neither internal nor external factors disturbing him. His ability to sleep on was apparently so outstanding that many of his contemporaries, Bishop Tomline and William Wilberforce for example, found it worthwhile to mention the few times that something disturbed Pitt’s sleep:

This was the only event of a public nature which I [Bishop Tomline] ever knew disturb Mr. Pitt’s rest while he continued in good health. Lord Temple’s resignation was determined upon at a late hour in the evening of the 21st, and when I went into Mr. Pitt’s bedroom the next morning he told me that he had not had a moment’s sleep.

Earl Stanhope, The Life of the Right Honourable William Pitt, Vol. 1, John Murray, London, 1861, p. 158.

The context of this scene was the resignation of Lord Temple as Secretary of State shortly after accepting the office. Pitt had really wanted Temple to be Secretary of State and was rather dismayed that he had resigned so quickly.

There were indeed but two events in the public life of Mr. Pitt, which were able to disturb his sleep—the mutiny at the Nore, and the first open opposition of Mr. Wilberforce; and he himself shared largely in these painful feelings.

R. I. Wilberforce, S. Wilberforce, The Life of William Wilberforce, Vol. 2, John Murray, London, 1833, p. 71.

Pitt himself told Lord Fitzharris that there was only one event that had kept him awake at night:

Lord Fitzharris says in his note-book:—‘‘One day in November, 1805, I happened to dine with Pitt, and Trafalgar was naturally the engrossing subject of our conversation. I shall never forget the eloquent manner in which he described his conflicting feelings when roused A the night to read Collingwood’s despatches. He observed that he had been called up at various hours in his eventful life by the arrival of news of various hues; but whether good or bad, he could always lay his head on his pillow and sink into sound, sleep again. On this occasion, however, the great event announced brought with it so much to weep over as well as to rejoice at, that he could not calm his thoughts; but at length got up, though it was three in the morning.”

Earl Stanhope, The Life of the Right Honourable William Pitt, Vol. 4, John Murray, London, 1862, p. 334.

The more you read about Pitt, especially in the private papers of his contemporaries and intimate friends, the more you see accounts of how often somebody mentions that he either roused him from his sleep him or found him to be still asleep/in bed. When Addington told Pitt that the Kings health was steadily mending – he was asleep. When the news of Trafalgar reached him – he was asleep. There is one letter from Admiral Nelson to Emma Hamilton. In it he describes that he had wanted to meet with William Pitt but when he arrived at his accommodation, he was told that Pitt was still asleep.

The older he got, the more sleep Pitt seemed to require and during his last illness, his ability to sleep was greatly impaired. Still, at the end of the day, his sleeping habits can be summed up by this quote from his niece Lady Hester Stanhope:

(…) for he was a good sleeper

Charles Lewis Meryon, Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope, As related by Herself in Conversations with her Physician, Volume 2, Second Edition, London, 1845, p.58.

[mrdirtybear]

Charles Lewis Meryon (1783-1877) was a distinguished physician, writer, and traveller. Top; image by the doctor himself, bottom; image by Felix Braquermon. He was personal physician to the aristocrat, Lady Hester Stanhope, the first lady to travel unaccompanied by family or a husband to the middle east..She was a doughty traveller, withstanding shipwrecks, illness, sometimes appalling housing and hostile Pasha’s who were at war with each other, sometimes directly, sometimes via knowing her. His accounts of her travels make for lively reading. 

[anamhr]

LADY HESTER STANHOPE

LA REINA DEL DESIERTO Jardín de San Carlos en A Coruña. Tumba del General John Moore (muerto en la Batalla de Elviña). Lady Hester Stanhope nació en Inglaterra en 1776. Quizás no os suene mucho su nombre pero la vamos a relacionar con una ciudad gallega, A Coruña, donde se encuentra la tumba del General John Moore, su pareja en aquel momento y muerto en la batalla de Elviña el 16 de enero de…

[pitt-able]

Pitt's dislike for "unnatural" food

While looking for something completely unrelated, I stumbled about this passage in Lady Hester’s (Pitt’s niece) memoirs:

He used to say that, whenever he could retire from public life, he would have a good English woman cook. Sometimes, after a grand dinner, he would say, ‘I want something -- I am hungry.’ And when I remarked, ‘Well, but you are just got up from dinner,’ he would add, ‘Yes; but I looked round the table, and there was nothing I could eat -- all the dishes were so made up, and so unnatural.’

Charles Lewis Meryon, Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope, As related by Herself in Conversations with her Physician, Volume 1, Second Edition, London, 1845, p.65.

I find it rather interesting, but then not altogether too strange, to hear such a “modern” sentiment uttered by someone who died in the first decade of the 19th century.

While some elements of modern cuisine probably would have suited Pitt’s lifestyle better, I assume he would not have liked it in the slightest, since our food is, generally, even less natural than his was two hundred years ago. Then again, Pitt had a great love for planting, landscaping, and gardening and I could see him growing his own vegetables if he had had the time.

[pitt-able]

A Day in the life of William Pitt the Younger

Pitt’s niece Lady Hester Stanhope described what appeared to be a typical day in the life of William Pitt while in office, using two examples. I have shortened the passage a bit since she is rather emotional here and occasionally gets off subject.

“When I think of the ingratitude of the English nation to Mr. Pitt, for all his personal sacrifices and disinterestedness, for his life wasted in the service of his country!” Here Lady Hester’s emotions got the better of her, and she burst into tears: she sobbed as she spoke. “People little knew what he had to do. Up at eight in the morning, with people enough to see for a week, obliged to talk all the time he was at breakfast, and receiving first one, then another until four o’clock; then eating a mutton-chop, hurrying off to the House, and there badgered and compelled to speak and waste his lungs until two or three in the morning! -- who could stand it? After this, heated as he was, and having eaten nothing, in a manner of speaking all day, he would sup with Dundas, Huskisson, Rose, Mr. Long, and such persons, and then go to bed to get three or four hours’ sleep, and to renew the same thing the next day, and the next, and the next. (…) Ah, doctor! in town, during the sitting of parliament, what a life was his. Roused from his sleep (for he was a good sleeper) with a despatch from Lord Melville; -- then down to Windsor; then, if he had half an hour to spare, trying to swallow something: -- Mr. Adams with a paper, Mr. Long with another; then Mr. Rose: then, with a little bottle of cordial confection in his pocket, off to the House until three or four in the morning; then home to a hot supper for two or three hours more, to talk over what was to be done next day: -- and wine, and wine! Scarcely up next morning, when tat-tat-tat-twenty or thirty people one after another, and the horses walking before the door from two till sunset, waiting for him. It was enough to kill a man -- it was murder!

Charles Lewis Meryon, Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope, As related by Herself in Conversations with her Physician, Volume 1, Second Edition, London, 1845, p.63-66.

That certainly sounds like a most miserable work-life-balance. On a sidenote, the last passage here was used almost word for word in one scene in The Young Mr. Pitt (1942)

[pitt-able]

Advices on Forgery by Lady Hester Stanhope

Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope, As related by Herself in Conversations with her Physician by Charles Lewis Meryon, Volume 3, Second Edition

Lady Hester Stanhope was the oldest child of Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Stanhope and his wife Lady Hester Pitt.

Pitt had very warm and affectionate relationships with most of his nieces and nephews and especially so with Hester. From 1803 up until Pitt’s death in 1806, Hester even lived with her uncle and functioned as his hostess and companion. After this account however, I will never look at a signature from Pitt after 1803 the same way.