When in attendance at Windsor as a cabinet minister he was informed that a horse was at his disposal.

"If her Majesty wishes to see me ride," he said, "she must order out an elephant." The only exercise in which he can be said to have excelled was that of threading crowded streets with his eyes fixed upon a book.
He might be seen in such thoroughfares as Oxford Street, and Cheapside, walking as fast as other people walked, and reading a great deal faster than anybody else could read.

As a pedestrian he was, indeed, above the average.

Till he had passed fifty he thought nothing of going on foot from the Albany to Clapham, and from Clapham on to Greenwich; and, while still in the prime of life, he was for ever on his feet indoors as well as out.

"In those days," says his cousin Mrs.Conybeare, "he walked rapidly up and down a room as he talked.