"After Lord Jeffrey's decease, the Rev. William Vernon Harcourt, the ablest of Cavendish's defenders... furnished me with his estimate of the position in which Cavendish's claims were placed by the publications in favour of Watt... since 1846. ...I owe to him an introduction to the Earl of Burlington, who placed at my disposal the whole of Cavendish's papers in his possession, and obtained for me much information concerning his illustrious ancestor's personal history."