Said to have studied at Cambridge, although he appears not to have taken a degree. In spite of his employment as a tradesman, he preserved such an interest in letters as earned for him this nickname. 'A bel esprit and a woollen-draper,' Swift calls him elsewhere. He was a patron of men of letters, and seems to have travelled in Italy. See Aitken's Life and Works of Arbuthnot, p. 7 (note).