He brought his mother a tragedy, in which, though he killed sixteen people before the second act, it made her laugh so, that he thrust the masterpiece into the fire in a pet.

He projected an epic poem in blank verse, 'Cortez, or the Conqueror of Mexico, and the Inca's Daughter.' He wrote part of 'Seneca, or the Fatal Bath,' and 'Ariadne in Naxos;' classical pieces, with choruses and strophes and antistrophes, which sadly puzzled poor Mrs.Pendennis; and began a 'History of the Jesuits,' in which he lashed that Order with tremendous severity, and warned his Protestant fellow-countrymen of their machinations.

His loyalty did his mother's heart good to witness.

He was a staunch, unflinching Church-and-King man in those days; and at the election, when Sir Giles Beanfield stood on the Blue interest, against Lord Trehawk, Lord Eyrie's son, a Whig and a friend of Popery, Arthur Pendennis, with an immense bow for himself, which his mother made, and with a blue ribbon for Rebecca, rode alongside of the Reverend Doctor Portman, on his grey mare Dowdy, and at the head of the Clavering voters, whom the Doctor brought up to plump for the Protestant Champion.
On that day Pen made his first speech at the Blue Hotel: and also, it appears, for the first time in his life--took a little more wine than was good for him.

Mercy! what a scene it was at Fairoaks, when he rode back at ever so much o'clock at night.