His time was not wholly occupied by public business. He gave up much of it to the numerous friends who were warmly attached to him, and he did not neglect his private concerns. He had purchased several noble estates in different parts of the country, and in the choice of them was not inattentive to the object of increasing his parliamentary influence. On these properties he had several mansion houses, though Walcot continued to be his favourite residence. He purchased from the Duchess of Newcastle, the noble property of Claremont, and made several changes on that magnificent place: at Bath he acquired the lease of Lord Chatham's house. In London, he still had his house in Berkeley Square. The old family seat of Styche, now much improved, was generally occupied by some of his relations. He indulged the natural liberality of his disposition by living in a style of considerable splendour, and he laid the foundation of a choice collection of paintings, by the purchase of several master-pieces of the Italian schools.
Though only in his forty-sixth year, his friends were already fast falling around him. He had lost two sisters while he was absent in India. In May, 1771, he had to lament the death of his aged father, as he had of his sister, the Honourable Mrs Sempill, before the year was done.
The occupations which engaged him in public life, whether in Parliament or at the India House, were not of a nature to fill or satisfy a mind like his. He lived at a period when there was a rapid succession of administrations, produced more by intrigue and party arrangements than by any grand national object. There was much indecision, and a remarkable want of any commanding talent in all the various ministries that were formed. Clive, accustomed to an almost unlimited command over many provinces, often sickened almost as much at the inadequate and temporising measures of Parliament, as at the quarrels of the Directors, or the petty but exhausting intrigues of the India House; and in many parts of his correspondence vents his longings for the ease and quiet of a country life; longings perfectly sincere and natural, but the indulgence of which, to one of his ardent and restless character, so long accustomed to the agitations of public business, would probably have failed to bring the happiness which he anticipated.