THE ANCESTOR 3 which not only brought them into close contact but, in several cases, into an intimate friendship with the leading men of the day. The names of such men as the Grenvilles, the Pitts, Lord North, Lord Shelburne, Eden Lord Auckland, the Elliotts — Gilbert and Hugh — David Garrick, Gibbon the historian, and last, but by no means least, that of the great Handel himself are constantly to be found among the more familiar of those mentioned in the Harris papers. There is at Heron Court a large number of family letters, despatches and diaries, carefully preserved and methodically ordered, many of which were published by the third Earl of Malmesbury, and have since then ranked high among original authorities for the history of the eighteenth century. The chief writers and recipients of these were James Harris, ' the amiable philosopher of Salisbury,' M.P. for Christchurch, Hants, a Lord of the Admiralty and afterwards of the Treasury, Secretary and Comptroller to Queen Charlotte, consort of George III., and his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Harris, and their son James, first Earl of Malmesbury. Others too there were who have contributed much that is very interesting and entertaining to this epistolary collection, but their names are far too many to enumerate here — suffice it to mention the following, who form the more immediate family circle : the Lord and Lady Shaftesbury of the day, cousins to James Harris of Salisbury ; Thomas Harris, a master! in Chancery, and the Rev. William Harris, Chaplain to the Bishop of Durham, brothers to the said James Harris, and therefore uncles of the first Lord Malmesbury ; Edward Hooper of Heron Court, M.P. and Chairman of Customs, a very near kinsman of the Harrises and the last of an old county family who made Lord Malmesbury his heir, as well as a host of * public and well known men, many of whom have already been noticed and several of whom also form the subject of anecdote later on. The Harrises came of an old Wiltshire family — at least old when placed in the strong light of the new scientific methods of genealogical research ; for them no pedigree had ever been ' faked,' for them no attempt had ever been made to ascribe a descent from demi-gods and mythical heroes ; simply they had lived, and simply they had died. The family of Harris is first heard of in the year 1561, when in the July of that date one William Harris espoused a
