From an opulent and cultivated home young Milnes passed to the most famous college in the world, and found himself under the tuition of Whewell and Thirlwall, and in the companionship of Alfred Tennyson and Julius Hare, Charles Buller and John Sterling—­a high-hearted brotherhood who made their deep mark on the spiritual and intellectual life of their own generation and of that which succeeded it.

After Cambridge came foreign travel, on a scale and plan quite outside the beaten track of the conventional “grand tour” as our fathers knew it.  From the Continent Richard Milnes brought back a gaiety of spirit, a frankness of bearing, a lightness of touch which were quite un-English, and “a taste for French novels, French cookery, and French wines” with which Miss Crawley would have sympathized.  In 1837 he entered Parliament as a “Liberal Conservative” for the Borough of Pontefract, over which his father exercised considerable influence, and he immediately became a conspicuous figure in the social life of London.  A few years later his position and character were drawn by the hand of a master in a passage which will well bear yet one more reproduction:—­

“Mr. Vavasour was a social favourite; a poet, and a real poet, and a troubadour, as well as a Member of Parliament; travelled, sweet-tempered, and good-hearted; amusing and clever.  With catholic sympathies and an eclectic turn of mind, Mr. Vavasour saw something good in everybody and everything; which is certainly amiable, and perhaps just, but disqualifies a man in some degree for the business of life, which requires for its conduct a certain degree of prejudice.  Mr. Vavasour’s breakfasts were renowned.  Whatever your creed, class, or country—­one might almost add your character—­you were a welcome guest at his matutinal meal, provided you were celebrated.  That qualification, however, was rigidly enforced.  A real philosopher, alike from his genial disposition and from the influence of his rich and various information, Vavasour moved amid the strife, sympathizing with every one; and perhaps, after all, the philanthropy which was his boast was not untinged by a dash of humour, of which rare and charming quality he possessed no inconsiderable portion.  Vavasour liked to know everybody who was known, and to see everything which ought to be seen.  His life was a gyration of energetic curiosity; an insatiable whirl of social celebrity.  There was not a congregation of sages and philosophers in any part of Europe which he did not attend as a brother.  He was present at the camp of Kalisch in his yeomanry uniform, and assisted at the festivals of Barcelona in an Andalusian jacket.  He was everywhere and at everything:  he had gone down in a diving-bell and gone up in a balloon.  As for his acquaintances, he was welcomed in every land; his universal sympathies seemed omnipotent.  Emperor and King, Jacobin and Carbonaro, alike cherished him.  He was the steward of Polish balls, and the vindicator of Russian humanity; he dined with Louis Philippe, and gave dinners to Louis Blanc.”