A scion of the family of Viscount Arbuthnot of Kincardineshire, now Physician to the Queen, was perhaps, of all Swift's friends, the most entirely congenial to him. He was endeared to him not only by that good humour which, as Swift afterwards said, would have made him burn his travels, had there been more Arbuthnots in the world; not only by his brilliant wit; but also by that superiority of temperament that made him, with abundant literary power, stand aside from the literary wrangles of that irritable band of friends of whom Pope was the chief, and, like Swift, be the spectator rather than the participant of their jealousies.