Andrew Lang: The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart

“Sussex Place, March 10, 1853.

“Dear Charlotte,—I address you by your new name, earnestly hoping it may be attended henceforth with more of prosperity than has been the case for a long while, and that it may be transmitted in your lineage. Every one speaks most rapturously of Mary Monica. Uncle Bob says—‘a splendid baby,’ and so on. I have seen nobody lately at all except your husband and William, who dined here yesterday, and both appeared in good health and appetite and spirits, and were, as usual, most agreeable company, in the evening both sleeping like tops from 8 to 10.30, when, with some difficulty, having read out my book and the candles being nearly done, I contrived to expel them. If your new house be like No. 36 (Mrs. Lane Fox’s), it is a very nice one; and I trust you will cultivate her society for the good of your soul.

“You see that William Alexander is dead. Boyd went over to Ballochmyle some days before, but never saw William in life, being forced to go to bed as soon as he got there. He had got home before the funeral, which Claud went down on Monday to superintend.”

“Via Gregoriana, Rome, October 21, 1853.

“My dear Charlotte,—We arrived here in
370 LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART.
safety last Saturday night, although our passage from Marseilles had not been smooth, insomuch that we had to run for shelter to Elba, and I spent some hours in walking over Porto Ferrajo and its environs. The place is small but very strong, and (being Italian) very clean—as poor as possible; the market produced nothing that looked eatable but some tomatoes. A garrison of 700 or 800 men to watch over many political prisoners and the few natives. Napoleon’s palace in town not so big as Huntly Burn, and its garden abounding only in cannon and balls; a villa across a bay seemed somewhat more considerable.

“The Admiral” (he was staying with Mr. Robert Hay in Rome) “has a neat flat of some five or six rooms, some of them looking over a large extent of Rome, including St. Peter’s and many more fine things. I have a very tolerable room to the rear, and could not have been lodged better, I am sure, in this town. No woman servant at all. A man comes in to cook twice per day, all the rest done by the lad and my courier. Hay very kind indeed. As yet few or no fine folks here. Fanny Kemble and Mrs. Sartoris are near us, and dined with us one day, and Hay has drunk tea twice with them. In a short time there will be the Duke of Northumberland, Lord Northampton, and a world of grandees. At church on Sunday, behold Baron and Lady Parker, Lady C. Denison, Mr. D., and Dr. Locock, all bound for England from Naples.
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Miss Parker to be married to Colonel Lowther’s second son, and miladi enchanted. Jim looked very much shrunk, and, I think, generally changed for the worse. I have seen Dr. Pantaleone, who has, and I believe justly, a high reputation. He, after due examination, is of the same opinion as Brodie and Co.—that I am not suffering from any distinct disease, unless irritability of the mucous membrane, but rather from a general decadence of the vital powers, and I do not think his expectations of recovery are high; but I am trying a prescription of his, and you shall hear again by-and-by. Many days I am sick and helpless utterly, but on others able to enjoy a walk or drive, and yesterday was out for hours with Hay and a capital cicerone, Peter, lately our Minister here. The appetite much as before—that is, null.

“I wish you would write to Miss Joanna or Mrs. Ellis, and tell my report about myself; also to Cousin Kate, for this is the only epistle I venture on.—With love to you all,

“J. G. Lockhart.”

“Rome, November 2, 1853.

“Dear Charlotte,—I had yesterday yours of October 21, which told me about a ball, &c. I have nothing so brilliant, I think, to communicate. Yes, on Sunday was the beatification of one Bobola, I think, a Polish Jesuit, however, murdered by the Russians one hundred years ago, and I then saw,
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for the first time, Pius IX., who looked very comfortable, blessing away right and left, between lines of French soldiers, who seemed to pay very little attention to the concern. Considerable crowd and lots of trumpets. The Pope gave a dinner a few days ago, which made some sensation. It was in a summer-house of the Vatican garden, and the guests the Grand Dukes of Tuscany, Borghesa, and another prince, Wiseman, and another cardinal. My ‘Professor’—that is, little dominie, who spends an hour in the morning to brush up my Italian, says the English Cardinal has come to get some dispensations connected with a late legal dispute about votes on monastic property. I have not made acquaintance with any Italians, except my doctor, who is a very agreeable one, and the Duke of Sermoneta, an accomplished one. They dine apparently wherever an English spread occurs, and the rest of the company has hitherto been about as unvaried. I dine out continually, mostly with Hay and Peter; but occasionally with Mrs. Sartoris, or her sister Fanny, who are good cicerones as to the picturesque points of view in the Campagna. Great excavations have been made since I was here on the line of the Appian Way, and many fine monuments revealed. For instance, one to Seneca, with a frieze, showing the chief circumstances of his life, and, very neatly, those of his death. Another, very large, but not near so old, is that of the baker, a favourite slave, that is, of some great man under
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Aurelian, and in this all the operations of the craft are cut in very bold relief. On either side, for two or three miles, you have these works still in progress; and the Pope drives out ever and anon to inspect, in company with his architect, Canina, who publishes, at enormous length, on every new discovery, a thick tome, for example, about the baker! The photographs of the antiquities are abundant, and mostly very excellent, but absurdly dear.

“I am certainly, since I wrote last, somewhat bettered as respects appetite; with eggs and fish I breakfast well, and with soup and fish dine tolerably. Meat not yet within my reach exactly, though once I did contrive to deal with part of a cold partridge. The weather is said to have been unfavourable; it is still as hot as English August, but with occasional rains, or rather floods.

“I will, for sake of Mary Monica, go to St. Monica’s tomb some day soon.

“J. G. Lockhart.”

“Rome, December 2, 1853.

“My dear Charlotte,—Since I had your last comfortable letter I indited a reply to one of Kate’s, and thought she would probably send it on, but it now seems long since I heard from or about you, and I must not be lazy any longer. Give me good news of yourself, your man, and Mary Monica. I am able
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to report very well, on the whole, as to myself. The weather is still, with rare exceptions, beautiful—cold unless in the sun—but the sun usually powerful most of the day, the sky as bright as ever June saw in England, and the whole aspect of field and tree as fine as possible. It is a principal charm of Italy, and especially Rome, that every garden and park, large or small, abounds in the most luxuriant and picturesque of evergreens—ilexes in avenues—stone-pines in groves—myrtle hedges by the mile—lemon ditto (the divinest fragrance!). What with riding under Hay’s orders, and driving with Mrs. Sartoris, I am becoming an adept in the Campagna beauties for seven or ten miles round, and she proves an inexhaustible fund of entertainment in her talk meantime, about anything but poetry and picturesques, her course of life having been one not imagined by me, and by her portrayed with a marvellous, though not at all harsh or uncharitable frankness. In fact, she is a delightful person—worth five hundred Fanny Kembles, even in talent, which is not her forte. You will have inferred considerable improvement in strength: it is certainly so, and the surest sign is the appetite, which has now recovered itself, I may say, to one’s utmost wish. I eat good breakfast and fair dinner, and though the hands and feet are still cold as before, I may hope that symptom also will yield by-and-by.

“Our life is gay—we dine out four or five times a week—once always with Duke of Northumberland—
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and may, if we please, go to dinner every night—some lady or other having assumed a particular one weekly. The Palazzo Doria is the only great Roman house opened yet, and we were at the assembly t’other night, when I saw some splendid beauties, and more red stockings than I perhaps ever shall again. The rooms most magnificent, and the Shrewsbury princess very courteous. Every day comes a new batch of London beau monde. As I write I have your short but agreeable epistle of Nov. 21. Why do you not continue your report about poor Lord Robertson? I had a line from him the day after the attack, but only a line, and am certainly not a little anxious, though I think if there had been any considerable alarm you could hardly have written without alluding to the subject. Last Sunday I heard Cardinal Wiseman preach in English at S. Andrea de’ Frati, and capably he performed—a good contrast to the donkeys of our Anglican Chapel. I think I saw Manning’s skull spot in the dark church, and also a gleam of spectacles very like Mr. Allies’s, but no symptom as yet of the Carstairs noblesse. Pius IX. is lodged again at the Vatican, which he should never have left, as it is excellently fortified. At the —— —— (?) there might be six or eight French officers, but they seemed all generals—certainly not one youngish man. The French ambassador is the only diplomat that opens his house at all—whence sad complaints of our ladies.

J. G. Lockhart.”

“Rome, January 16, 1854.

“Dear Charlotte,—I was well pleased with all the news of your last, and quite approve especially the kitchen plan, for my recollection of many summer evenings poisoned by smells is lively enough. I have had rather a bad week, and am not yet able to leave my own room; but I daresay, in a day or two, I shall be as well as I have ever managed to feel of late. For a new variety I have been, indeed am, suffering under earache—whence a constant misery, steaming, &c., &c. Never experienced this before. About my last outing was to hear Manning preach an Epiphany sermon in the S. Andrea della Valle, and, as I had not heard him before, I was, of course, greatly struck and pleased with his voice and action—the latter I think the most graceful I ever saw in a pulpit performer. He called since, and made himself very agreeable, and is to show me his college, &c., one afternoon.

“The Admiral is very happy, as the Dorias, Borgheses, and some other princely ones, have been inviting him to dine. Borghese, he reports, feels confident that the Czar will be in London within three years. Well, if so, I calculate Murchison will not cut his old friend, but, on the contrary, patronise us all, to comfort us what he can under our woe about the downfall of the Royal
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Albert—I mean his Siberian doom.1 Certainly I have now had enough, not of Rome, but of that Piazza di Spagna Rome, to which fate at present binds me, and which I should suppose might be very well matched by any three or four crescents of Leamington or Torquay—that is, were such a place so lucky as to have booked half-a-dozen real grandees for the nonce. Philpotts would do well for a Pont. Max., and there would be no difficulty to fill the place of Monsignor Talbot. I was vexed at not seeing the noble Domenichinos of that church when Manning held forth, but most were covered by the delightful red and yellow petticoats, in which it is proper that naves and aisles should be wrapped during high festivals, and the grandest of all, the altarpiece, by a colossal præsepe or group of gigantic wooden dolls, to represent the whole company at Bethlehem—not forgetting, in course, the angels in the vault, or the three black kings and their camels’ heads. Manning calmly said the præsepe was ‘for the people,’ and he hoped I would see the picture by-and-by. To be sure—all quite right.

“Yesterday, a letter from Holt at Paris; mentions some serious money losses, and that he had been over to Versailles, to see a grave which some one unknown had surrounded with violets. If Hope gets to town, I do trust he will show all kindness to that little man, and consult with him
1 The Crimean trouble is referred to.

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somewhat as to my own matters; for, arrive when I may, I shall find overwhelming botheration, and the necessity, nevertheless, of coming to some speedy arrangement as to future locality, and so on. I suppose the end will be a tiny cot within two or three miles of town, or a sequestered flat near the Clubs, if such a thing be comeatable. It signifies little which; but if I could find that my Duchy need not at all fetter me, as possibly is the fact, then I might take a wider circle of my compasses, and aspire to a garden and a quarter-deck walk of decent amplitude in Herts or Surrey. Other things occur in dreams and visions of the night occasionally—we shall see. I beg my best compliments to Miss Hope Scott, and all other young ladies of Tweedside. You will smile, but I continue to read a good deal, though the most, I own, in bed. Dr. Pantaleone has a good library, and is most liberal with its stores, and I have got through a great many sound books connected with this town and its history.

“I have also taken up Hebrew with an eye to Arabic, that is, in case I should spend a season in the East, after all, before settling down at Hampstead or Watford. I find I can easily recover the Hebrew I had lost—not very much I own—but better than nothing, and I have gone so far at least as to get an Arabic grammar from the most authentic quarter here, through a Mr. Howard, late
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of the Blues, who is now rigged as reverendly as Manning, and probably lodges in the same cloister.—Ever yours affectionately,

“J. G. Lockhart.”

“Piazza di Spagna, March 15, 1854.

“My dear Charlotte,—I was much gratified with your last and in all its parts, but in return for so many bits of good news I have really nothing to say, except that I have settled to take a steamboat at Civita Vecchia on the 29th of this month, and it promises to reach Marseilles in twenty-seven hours. I need not hurry myself as to the French part of my journey, and will probably bestow a day or two on objects of interest as yet unvisited by me; but I shall soon (D.V.) get to Paris (Hôtel Windsor, Rue de Rivoli), and I hope to find H. Ellis and wife there or thereabouts; having spent a few days with whom, I may expect to cross to Old England and occupy once more, though for the last time and not for long, my customary quarters in Sussex Place.

“I have found that several acquaintances go by the boat I mention; particularly William Osborne and his wife, who will to the best of their power help me. She was Caroline Montagu of Rokeby, an old
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friend and stalwart beauty—a most agreeable woman, and married to a very agreeable man—a brother of Lord Godolphin’s.

“When tolerably well I have made various little expeditions to see celebrated places within a day’s drive, and mostly with the two Kemble ladies, and an artist or two of their suite. Next Saturday the like is to happen if the sun shines, and before I quit Civita Vecchia I shall, I believe, contrive to spend three or four days in that vicinity, where Etruscan antiquities (Cornato, Tarquinii, &c.) abound. But I am at best very uncertain in any arrangements of this nature, for I am subject to seizures that lay me quite on my back for two or three days. I am to-day better than I have usually been for some weeks: but the constant recurrence of most wearisome symptoms is enough to break one’s spirit, even if one had any left to be broken. I am entirely satisfied that travel is insanity for a sick creature; and once established again in a home, however humble, I shall not be likely to quit it on any such speculation.

“Hope and you will be sorry to hear that R. Monteith and all his family have been laid up with ‘Roman fever,’ so called, ending in what we call typhus. One little girl died on Saturday, and I greatly fear my next intelligence may be the death of another of them, with that of poor R. Monteith himself. William Lockhart (the monk), known to you, sees them hourly, and lets me know daily.
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Yesterday the last Sacraments were to be administered to R. Monteith. This William Lockhart came over with Manning, and will return with him. He is very near to the Lees, and I knew his father well in early life. He seems a most amiable young man, and is very kind to me, as, indeed, sundry of his cloth here are. I understand I am in bad odour with the good Anglicans for going to hear Papist sermons pretty often; but, first, I get Protestant ones (or can) readily at home; and, second, the specimens here are better bad.

“You both, I think, were acquainted with the Bishop of Salisbury. I am sorry for his death. My old master, Jenkyns, too, has dropt. I wonder who will be the new Bishop; but I do not look for Milman. More likely Whewell; Hallam is, I hear, mending decidedly.

“The day I touch a bit of well-dressed cod or salmon, with a slice of roast beef or mutton, and glass of sound ale or port, I fancy I shall feel greatly comforted. There is nothing wholesome or refreshing to be had in this infernal place for love or money. Wherefore, may perdition attend the population, from Pope Pio to the beggar on the stairs.

“My chief companion and next-door neighbour (in the house) is old Lord Stanhope—occupied mostly with the spirit-rapping—I fancy a prime victim of the mediums. He says there is much preaching here on the subject, the tone being that the facts are all correct, but the whole the work
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of Satan. Indeed, that is what I have picked up from my orthodox friends here.—Affectionately yours ever,

“J. G. Lockhart.”

“Rome, Casa Serny, March 21, 1854.

“My dear Milman,—I am ashamed of not having sooner acknowledged a very kind and interesting epistle from the Deanery; but as I have been quite idle, you will readily understand and excuse. My health has had many ups and downs; when tolerably well I have tried to do something (occidentally and orientally), but in general I have been too unwell for such matters. At this hour I am better by much than usual, and hope to keep so during my homeward travels. I do not, on the whole, think I have been improved by foreign drugs, and sigh for home comforts—oh, how deeply!

“I had only yesterday a complete leave of absence as to Duchy of Lancaster, but this does not alter my programme, as I must, whatever order I may take about future modes of existence, go to Sussex Place, for a little while at all events, to settle about surrender of house there at Michaelmas, &c. I have no notion where I shall plant me, or how
MANNING 383
occupy my time, but if, as I would fain still hope, I am to be capable of some work, I know myself too well not to attempt to a certain extent a resumption of the old habits. Many jobs may suggest themselves by-and-by for filling up a few hours daily in an otherwise objectless existence. I rather think the temptation of society, and especially friendship, will prevent me from fixing at any considerable distance from London: nous verrons. Even if you be (as I hope) the new bishop, you won’t be without a town-house any more than a comeatable palace in the country. I am sorry to see that good little Jenkyns is no more; also not a little so at the sudden departure of poor Talfourd. Manning is poorly in looks, but charming in converse, and I see a good deal of him very quietly; also of my namesake William Lockhart (son of L. of St. Mary’s Hall by a Miss Jacob), who has given up a fair fortune to be a monk of some new order—a fine, handsome, amiable young man; and I may say the same of a Herbert Vaughan, a priest too, though secular, eldest son of a rich Welsh squire, another handsome, elegant, good-natured, young English gentleman, gone the way of Newman! The Cardinal, Manning, and a Dr. English preach, it seems, in pretty regular succession at a church near me here, and I have attended them all frequently—Manning with real delight as well as pain—Wiseman with unmingled aversion and disgust.” (An extremely severe expression of opinion, or
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prejudice, follows, but need not be quoted.)

“My tender homages wait on your lady. I quite enter into her and your distress on the loss of Lady Milman, for whom, though meeting her but rarely, I had always a very particular liking as well as respect. Truly grieved I am for Sir William, and ever yours affectionately,

J. G. Lockhart.”

“Beds black with bugs,

Monks fat as slugs,

Beggars groaning,

Thieves atoning,

Leering models, lounging artists,

Strutting, strumming Bonapartists;

Mutton young, and stinking mullet,

Wine sharp enough for Rossi’s gullet.

Fancying these, make speed to Rome,

Curse beef and beer, law, truth, and home;

For me, I’d jump at once to ——,

Before returning.

“J. G. L.”

“Rome, March 20, 1854.

“Dear Hope,—I think it very probable that you have had some communication, since you reached town, with Mr. Strutt, and will therefore hear, without surprise, what he now communicates to me, viz., that my resignation as auditor of the Duchy of Lancaster will be acceptable with reference to certain
RETURN 385
proposed reforms, &c., &c., but that Prince Albert desires me to receive a retired allowance equal to the salary. This is exceedingly gracious, and I have of course written accordingly to Mr. Strutt.

“This will in no inconsiderable degree lighten my difficulties as to arranging for the future course of my domesticities, and I trust William and you will bestow some reflection on it with that view. I do not wish such matters to be talked of generally, but I will thank you to mention the occurrence confidentially to Holt, Fergusson, and Christie, also to Mr. Murray, when you are next passing Albemarle Street. I mean to take steamer on the 29th at Civita Vecchia, and, D.V., to reach London some ten days later.

“You will be happy to learn that Monteith is thought to have decidedly got the turn. He has not yet heard of the child’s death. Manning has just been here with this news, and is to dine with me solo at 1.30 on Wednesday, which will be a great treat to me. I asked him to invite Vaughan or W. Lockhart, both of whom I am as fond of as he is, but he preferred a two-handed talk for once.—Yours affectionately,

J. G. Lockhart.”

“Tuesday, April 11, 1854.

“Dear Charlotte,—I am writing in my old
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chair in my own old room once more. I stood my long journey well enough, having pleasant society throughout—viz., William Osborne and his wife (Caroline Montagu of Rokeby), and their niece, Miss Fazakerley, and as far as Paris, the Duke of Wellington. The Rhone being dried up, we found difficulty in getting the boat replaced, but finally hired and posted (five maîtres and five domestiques) in a solemn cast-off diligence. At Lyons we reached running water again, and on to Paris so and by rail. I dined one day with Ellis, but never saw miladi, she being really ill. My only other visit was to Versailles—of which when we meet.

“I have not yet seen Holt, but I hope to do so this evening, and anticipate, with his help and Woolford’s, escaping from this house before that month expires. I am to be myself on trial as respects climate, &c., and believe my wisest plan will be to deposit my books, &c., at the Pantechnicon (all but a few boxes full), and hire for the nonce a lodging not far from my clubs; in which case Hannah might sigh a long farewell.

“I have a medal of Pius IX. for M. M., with sundry rosaries and so on, at your commands.

“Two more very old allies of mine are just buried, I see—John Wilson and the Dean of Wells (Jenkyns of Balliol).

“I am to dine to-day with Murchison, who looks doubly august with his increase of fortune, which
“SHORN” 387
must atone for my shorn condition in purse and person.—Affectionately yours,

“J. G. Lockhart.”

“Sussex Place, April 18, 1854.

“Dearest Charlotte,—I shall be very happy to dine with you on the appointed day, when I hope to see M. M.1 in great beauty and attraction, and her papa and mamma strong and well. I have seen Lady Hope, and was delighted with her vigorous looks—also Lady F. H., who seems as jolly as ever, all woes notwithstanding. I have nothing to say of myself but that I don’t feel as if I were at all the worse for being here—if anything, the contrary, and take what share I can in the great quest of a shelter; but I daresay your arrival will find that still on foot. It seems to be extremely hard to get at anything decent on decent terms anywhere, and actually impossible in the civilised regions of the town. Christie is not yet seen by me—he is at Beaumanoir. Lady
1 M. M. is Mary Monica, his grandchild.

388 LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART.
Davy is in her white hairs and no roses, but in very fair spirits—quite herself indeed. Oh! on Easter Sunday I was good boy and went to the old ——’s” (the family best taken homeopathically), “with the usual cod and pigeon-pie, &c., &c.; he rayther doited, I fear—all the rest as of yore. Scotty very nice. So is neighbour Daisy here—very. Poor Mrs. Grant seems much shaken and aged. Frank (Grant) has now finished his me to his own satisfaction, and threatens engraving; but I have not had any other opinion. My own is that there is very little resemblance to the senior whom I should shave every morning.

“I am not surprised, but sorry, to hear whispers of a separation between —— —— and her virtuoso, whose neglects have at last exhausted her patience; but I shall have particulars whenever I meet the Eastlakes, and till then mum.”

“19th July 1854

“Dear Dean,—I have now read your book all through, and am very sorry to find myself at finis, but hope to see more vols, speedily. This is a real good history, most learned, instructive, and abundant in sense and taste. I beg pardon for praising it—excuse the presumptuous habits of an old editor.

“I think A. Stanley’s article a very able and interesting one—in fact, the best thing he has as yet
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printed—always excepting passages in his ‘Arnold,’ which neither he nor another will readily beat.—Yours,

J. G. Lockhart.”

“Milton, August 29, 1854.

“Dear Charlotte,—Kate says I should write, but I really have nothing to say except what she is
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sure to have said to you lately. She and William are both most kind, and so is Bob (when he can be spared us for a little), in their attention to my ease and comforts. The pony has hitherto served me no great deal, because my bones are so naked that the surface gets easily injured, and the poor man can’t attempt remounting for some while. Otherwise, I should expect real good from that exercise, and we shall see by-and-by how things go on. I am not better, I think, on the whole, but not worse, and for this one should be thankful.

“The weather is delicious—warm, very warm, but a gentle breeze keeping the leaves in motion all about, and the sun sheathed, as Wordsworth hath it, with a soft grey layer of cloud. To-day I am tempted to try the pony again, though, besides other griefs, I can get no companion—William just once, and yet God only knows what he does all day before sleeping hours.

“I am glad to fancy you all enjoying yourselves (I include Lady D. and sweet M. M.), in this heavenly summer season—such a rarity beneath our sky. If people knew beforehand what it is to lose health, and all that can’t survive health, they would in youth be what it is easy to preach—do you try. I fancy it costs none of you very much effort either to be good or happy.—Yours affectionately,

J. G. Lockhart.”

“Milton, September 9, 1854.

“Dear Charlotte,—I am probably doing what William ought to have done—anyhow, your grouse arrived this morning, and will be very useful. I have lived on grouse-soup ever since I came to Milton, with the addition of some curds and cream, lots of butter-milk, and now, behold, a kebbock procured from a renowned dairy hard by for my special benefit! I am, in some minor respects, rather better, and persist therefore in riding almost daily for two or three hours, but the feebleness in the limbs, I fear, progresses still. It is with considerable difficulty I get my legs over the saddle, and I never even attempt more than a walk.

“I suppose I must soon think of moving southwards, and that will include a little visit to you, unless you shall have shown yourselves here at any rate; but I don’t mean that I don’t wish and intend to be with you whether you have been here or not. If I feel tolerably up to any visiting, I will, if I can, go to Bob’s wedding,1 but I doubt if I shall be able, and suspect the absence of so ghastly a visage and form may be much more to the hilarifying of Kate (who alone will remember it) than the presence of your most obedient.

“We have the most heavenly weather. Kate and I went with William yesterday to Douglas to show her the monuments, and that he might call
1 The wedding of his brother, Mr. Robert Lockhart.

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at the castle. Lord D. was not well enough to be seen.

“Lord Peter is to be here on Thursday; going on Saturday to the Belhavens, who have just returned from the Rhine. My respects attend all the fair, not excepting M. M.

“J. G. Lockhart.”

“Milton Lockhart, 29th September 1854.

“Dear Charlotte,—I am certainly somewhat
1 Vol. ii. p. 147.

ABBOTSFORD 393
stronger on my poor limbs, but as I have not learnt to eat, the difficulty is only protracted by such changes. However, I write merely to say that your last to Kate greatly surprised and perplexed me; for I had not before had the least notion about your two visits, and fully believed that Hope would be off for his English trip before Monday next. Meantime I had settled in my own mind that, if I should feel courageous enough for a day of travel, I would quit this place by, at latest, the middle day of October—if possible a week sooner. As to that point, I have had no letter lately from Fergusson; he has left mine unanswered; so I concluded that in absence he would rather not interfere. But as you will no doubt come hither on Monday, I need not trouble you with more of this to-day. It seems a bit of destiny that M. M. and J. G. L. do not meet in a hurry. I am very sorry to hear of Lady Davy’s new attack, but she has a vitality that I may well envy. Love to you all.

“J. G. Lockhart.”

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Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie, first baronet (1783-1862) Surgeon who attended George IV and William IV; he was president of the Royal Society (1858-61).

Henry Lytton Earle Bulwer, baron Dalling and Bulwer (1801-1872) English diplomat, the elder brother of the novelist Bulwer-Lytton; he was a member of the London Greek Committee, ambassador to Florence (1843-8), the United States (1849), and Constantinople (1858-65). He was raised to the peerage in 1871.

Frances Butler [née Kemble] (1809-1893) English actress and writer, daughter of Charles Kemble and Maria Theresa Kemble; on a tour to America in 1834 she was unhappily married to Pierce Butler (1807-1867).

Robert Cadell (1788-1849) Edinburgh bookseller who partnered with Archibald Constable, whose daughter Elizabeth he married in 1817. After Constable's death and the failure of Ballantyne he joined with Scott to purchase rights to the Waverley Novels.

Luigi Canina (1795-1856) Italian archaeologist and professor of architecture at Turin; he restored interiors at Alnwick Castle, Northumberland.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and man of letters; he translated Goethe's Wilhelm Meister (1824) and published Sartor Resartus (1833-34).

Jonathan Henry Christie (1793-1876) Educated at Marischal College, Baliol College, Oxford, and Lincoln's Inn; after slaying John Scott in the famous duel at Chalk Farm he was acquitted of murder and afterwards practiced law as a conveyancer in London. He was the lifelong friend of John Gibson Lockhart and an acquaintance of John Keats.

James Burnet Clarkson (1865 fl.) Surgeon at Melrose, licensed in 1818; he was the son of Sir Walter Scott's friend Ebenezer Clarkson.

Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn (1779-1854) Scottish judge, reformer, and friend of Francis Jeffrey; he wrote a Life of Lord Jeffrey (1852) and Memorials of his Time (1856).

Charles Compton, third marquess of Northampton (1816-1877) The son of Spencer Joshua Alwyne Compton, second Marquess of Northampton and Sir Walter Scott's friend, Margaret Douglas-Maclean-Clephane.

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Florentine poet, the author of the Divine Comedy and other works.

Lady Jane Davy [née Kerr] (1780-1855) Society hostess who in 1798 married Shuckburgh Ashby Apreece (d. 1807) and Humphry Davy in 1812.

Lady Charlotte Denison [née Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck] (1806-1889) Daughter of the fourth duke of Portland; in 1827 she married the politician John Evelyn Denison, afterwards Viscount Ossington.

Edward Denison, bishop of Salisbury (1801-1854) Educated at Eton and Oriel College, Oxford, he was nominated bishop of Salisbury in 1836 by Lord Melbourne.

John Evelyn Denison, Viscount Ossington (1800-1873) Whig politician educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford; he was elected Speaker of the House of Commons in 1857.

Domenichino (1581-1641) Italian painter of the Bolognese school.

Lady Elizabeth Eastlake [née Rigby] (1809-1893) Art critic, translator, and reviewer for the Quarterly; she married Sir Charles Lock Eastlake in 1849. She was related to Lady Palgrave through her mother, Anne Palgrave.

Sir Henry Ellis (1788-1855) English diplomat, the illegitimate son of Robert Hobart, fourth earl of Buckinghamshire; he published A Journal of the Proceedings of the Late Embassy to China (1817).

Sir William Fergusson, first baronet (1808-1877) Scottish physician educated at Edinburgh University; in 1840 he was appointed to the professorship of surgery at King's College, London.

John Forster (1812-1876) English man of letters and friend of Charles Lamb and Leigh Hunt who was editor of The Examiner (1847-55) and the biographer of Goldsmith (1854), Landor (1869), and Dickens (1872-74).

James Anthony Froude (1818-1894) English historian and man of letters; he published History of England from the Fall of Wolsey to the Death of Elizabeth, 12 vols (1856-70).

George Robert Gleig (1796-1888) Prolific Tory writer who rose to attention with The Subaltern, serialized in Blackwood's; he was appointed chaplain-general of the forces in 1844.

Charles George Gordon (1833-1885) British military officer in China and Sudan; he was killed at Khartoum.

Mary Gordon [née Wilson] (1814-1862 fl.) The daughter and biographer of Professor John Wilson of Blackwood's Magazine.

Sir Francis Grant (1803-1878) Scottish artist known for his portraits and sporting scenes; he was president of the Royal Academy (1866-78).

Lady Isabella Elizabeth Grant [née Norman] (1805-1894) The daughter of Richard Norman, and niece of the duke of Rutland; in 1829 she became the second wife of the painter Sir Francis Grant.

Hadrian, emperor of Rome (76-138) He succeeded Trajan as emperor of Rome in 117.

Henry Hallam (1777-1859) English historian and contributor to the Edinburgh Review, author of Introduction to the Literature of Europe, 4 vols (1837-39) and other works. He was the father of Tennyson's Arthur Hallam.

Robert William Hay (1786-1861) After education at Christ Church, Oxford, he was private secretary to Viscount Melville, first lord of the Admiralty (1812) and permanent under-secretary of state for the colonies (1825).

Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846) English historical painter and diarist who recorded anecdotes of romantic writers and the physiognomy of several in his paintings.

Daniel Dunglas Home (1833-1886) Scottish spiritualist raised in the United States; he traveled to Europe in 1855 where his sitters included Bulwer Lytton, Lord Brougham, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Charlotte Harriet Jane Hope [née Lockhart] (1828-1858) The daughter of John Gibson Lockhart and Sophia Scott Lockhart; in 1847 she married James Robert Hope-Scott, son of General Hon. Sir Alexander Hope.

Lady Frances Anne Hope [née Lascelles] (d. 1855) The daughter of Henry Lascelles, second earl of Harewood; in 1835 she married John Thomas Hope, son of General Hon. Sir Alexander Hope.

Lady Georgina Alicia Hope [née Brown] (d. 1855) The youngest daughter of George Brown of Ellerton, Roxburghshire; in 1805 she married General Sir Alexander Hope (1769–1837) of Rankeillour and Luffness.

James Robert Hope-Scott (1812-1873) The son of General Hon. Sir Alexander Hope; in 1847 he married Charlotte Harriet Jane Lockhart, daughter of the editor of the Quarterly Review. He was a barrister and Queen's Counsel.

Horace (65 BC-8 BC) Roman lyric poet; author of Odes, Epistles, Satires, and the Ars Poetica.

Richard Jenkyns (1782-1854) Educated at Balliol College, Oxford, where he was elected master in 1819; he was vice-chancellor (1824-28) and dean of Wells (1845).

Adelaide Kemble (1815-1879) English soprano who studied music with John Braham; the daughter of Charles Kemble and sister of Fanny Kemble, she retired following her marriage to Edward John Sartoris in 1842.

Georgiana Henrietta Lane Fox [née Buckley] (d. 1874) The daughter of Edward Percy Buckley; in 1814 she married George Lane Fox, MP of Bramham Park, Yorkshire.

Alexander Lockhart (1788-1832) Son of William Lockhart; he was educated at St. Mary Hall, Oxford and was rector of Stone in Buckinghamshire (1822).

John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854) Editor of the Quarterly Review (1825-1853); son-in-law of Walter Scott and author of the Life of Scott 5 vols (1838).

Martha Lockhart [née Jacob] (1798 c.-1872) The daughter of William Jacob MP (1761/2-1851); she was the second wife of Alexander Lockhart, rector of Stone in Buckinghamshire.

Robert Lockhart (1805-1859) The son of the Rev. John Lockhart and brother of John Gibson Lockhart; he was a merchant in Glasgow. In 1854 he married Marion Kinnear, daughter of John G. Kinnear.

Walter Scott Lockhart (1826-1853) The younger son of John Gibson Lockhart and his wife Sophia; a military officer, he inherited Abbotsford in 1847.

William Lockhart (1787-1856) Of Germiston and Milton-Lockhart, the elder, half-brother of John Gibson Lockhart; he was Conservative MP for Lanarkshire (1841-56).

William Lockhart (1819-1892) The son of the Rev. Alexander Lockhart (1788-1832) and cousin of John Gibson Lockhart; educated at Exeter College, Oxford, he was the first of the Tractarians to go over to Rome.

Sir Charles Locock, first baronet (1799-1875) A pupil of Benjamin Brodie, he was physician to the Westminster Lying-in Hospital and physician accoucheur to Queen Victoria.

Hon. Charlotte Alice Lowther [née Parke] (d. 1908) The daughter of James Parke, 1st Baron Wensleydale of Walton; in 1853 she married the diplomat William Lowther, son of Colonel Henry Cecil Lowther.

Hon. Henry Cecil Lowther (1790-1867) The son of William Lowther. first earl of Lonsdale; he was MP for Westmorland and Deputy Lieutenant of Cumberland.

Cardinal Henry Edward Manning (1808-1892) Educated at Harrow and Balliol College, Oxford (where he was tutored by Herman Merviale), he converted to Catholicism under the influence of John Henry Newman (1851), becoming archbishop of Westminster in 1865.

Harriet Martineau (1802-1876) English writer and reformer; she published Illustrations of Political Economy, 9 vols (1832-34) and Society in America (1837).

Mary Monica Maxwell-Scott [née Hope-Scott] (1852-1920) Of Abbotsford, author, the daughter of James Robert Hope-Scott and granddaughter of Sir Walter Scott; in 1874 she married the Hon. Joseph Constable-Maxwell.

Lady Elizabeth Hurry Milman [née Alderson] (1792 c.-1854) The daughter of Robert Alderson, recorder of Ipswich; in 1809 she married Sir William George Milman, baronet.

Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868) Educated at Eton and Brasenose College, Oxford, he was a poet, historian and dean of St Paul's (1849) who wrote for the Quarterly Review.

Mary Ann Milman [née Cockell] (1853 fl.) Daughter of Lieutenant-General William Cockell; she married Henry Hart Milman in 1824.

Sir William George Milman, second baronet (1781-1857) Of The Grove, Pinner, eldest son of Sir Francis Milman and brother of the poet; he succeeded to the title in 1821.

Robert Monteith of Carstairs (1811-1884) The son of Henry Monteith (d. 1848); at Trinity College, Cambridge he was a member of the Apostles; he converted to Rome in 1846 and was a prominent Christian socialist.

Sir Roderick Impey Murchison, baronet (1792-1871) Scottish geologist, FRS (1826); he published The Silurian System (1838). He was made a baronet in 1866.

John Murray III (1808-1892) The son of the Anak of publishers; he successfully carried on the family publishing business.

Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821) Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St. Helena (1815).

Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890) Educated at Trinity College, Oxford, and Fellow of Oriel, he was a leader of the Oxford Movement before becoming a Roman Catholic in 1845.

Frederick North, second earl of Guilford (1732-1792) English statesman who was prime minister 1770-82 and George III's political ally.

Lady Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton [née Sheridan] (1808-1877) English poetess and novelist, daughter of Thomas Sheridan (1775-1817), who unhappily married the Hon. George Chapple Norton in 1827; she was known as ‘the female Byron.’

Robert Ornsby (1820-1889) Educated at Lincoln College, Oxford, he resigned his church living in 1847 to join the Roman Church, and was professor of classics at new Catholic University in Ireland.

Caroline Osborne [née Montagu] (d. 1867) The daughter of Matthew Montagu, fourth Baron Rokeby; in 1843 she became the second wife of William Godolphin Osborne, son of Francis Godolphin Osborne, first Baron Godolphin.

George Godolphin Osborne, eighth duke of Leeds (1802-1872) He was the son of Francis Godolphin Osborne, first Baron Godolphin (d. 1850); he succeeded to the dukedom in 1859.

Hon. William Godolphin Osborne (1804-1888) Of Tullialan Castle, Kincardineshire, the son of Francis Godolphin Osborne, first Baron Godolphin.

Lady Cecilia Arabella Frances Parke [née Barlow] (1794 c.-1879) The youngest daughter of Samuel Francis Barlow of Middlethorpe; in 1817 she married the barrister James Parke, afterwards baron Wensleydale.

James Parke, baron Wensleydale (1782-1868) English barrister and member of the King's Bench (1828); he was created a peer in 1856.

Algernon Percy, fourth duke of Northumberland (1792-1865) The son of the second Duke, he served in the Navy and traveled in the East before succeeding his brother in 1847; he was a member of many learned societies.

William Bernard Petre, twelfth Baron Petre (1817-1884) Roman Catholic peer, the son of the eleventh baron (d. 1850); he was British ambassador to the Vatican, 1844-1853, and a founder of churches in England.

Henry Phillpotts, bishop of Exeter (1778-1869) High-church Tory clergyman and controversialist opposed to Catholic emancipation; he was dean of Chester (1828) and bishop of Exeter (1830).

Pope Pius IX. (1792-1878) The Pope during the Victorian era, 1846-1878.

Patrick Robertson [Peter] (1794-1855) Scottish judge, poet, wit, and friend of John Wilson; familiarly known as “Peter,” in 1848 he was elected lord rector of Marischal College.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Scottish poet, novelist, antiquary, biographer, editor, and sheriff.

Seneca (4 BC c.-65) Roman statesman, philosopher, and tragic playwright, advisor to Nero and author of Medea, Troades, and Phaedra.

Philip Henry Stanhope, fourth earl Stanhope (1781-1855) Son of the third earl (d. 1816) and brother of Lady Hester Stanhope; he was MP for Windsor (1806-07), Hull (1807-12), and Midhurst (1812-16), afterwards an ultra-Tory peer.

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-1881) The son of Edward Stanley, Bishop of Norwich; he was educated at Rugby under Thomas Arnold and at Balliol College, Oxford; he was regius professor of ecclesiastical history at Oxford (1856) and Dean of Westminster (1863).

Edward Strutt, first Baron Belper (1801-1880) The son of the cotton manufacturer William Strutt (d. 1830); educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, he was a Liberal MP for the borough of Derby (1830-47) and chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster (1852-54). He became a peer in 1856.

George Talbot (1816-1886) Educated at St Mary's Hall, Oxford, he became a Catholic priest in 1843 and was appointed a canon of St Peter's, Rome, rector of the English college, and an influential chamberlain to Pope Pius IX.; he suffered from insanity in his later years.

Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd (1795-1854) English judge, dramatist, and friend of Charles Lamb who contributed articles to the London Magazine and New Monthly Magazine.

Tom Taylor (1817-1880) Educated at Glasgow University and Trinity College, Cambridge where he was one of the apostles, he was professor of English literature at London University (1845), a popular author, and the editor of Punch (1874-80).

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) English novelist; author of Vanity Fair (1848), Pendennis (1850) and Henry Esmond (1852).

Cardinal Herbert Alfred Henry Joseph Thomas Vaughan (1832-1903) Educated at Stonyhurst, he was editor of the Tablet (1868-71), bishop of Salford (1872-92), and archbishop of Westminster (1892).

Arthur Wellesley, first duke of Wellington (1769-1852) Soldier and statesman; commander in the Peninsular Campaign (1809-1813), he defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and was prime minister (1828-1830).

William Whewell (1794-1866) Writer on science; he was professor of mineralogy at Cambridge (1828-32) and master of Trinity College (1841-66).

John Wilson [Christopher North] (1785-1854) Scottish poet and Tory essayist, the chief writer for the “Noctes Ambrosianae” in Blackwood's Magazine and professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh University (1820).

Cardinal Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman (1802-1865) Roman Catholic clergyman educated at the English College in Rome; he was archbishop of Westminster and cardinal (1850).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) With Coleridge, author of Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.

The Examiner. (1808-1881). Founded by John and Leigh Hunt, this weekly paper divided its attention between literary matters and radical politics; William Hazlitt was among its regular contributors.

The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the Quarterly was instigated by Walter Scott as a Tory rival to the Edinburgh Review. It was edited by William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.

Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855) Jane Eyre: an Autobiography. 3 vols (London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1847). The first editions were anonymous.

Henry Cockburn, Lord Cockburn (1779-1854) Life of Lord Jeffrey, with a Selection from his Correspondence. 2 vols (Edinburgh: A. and C. Black, 1852).

Lady Elizabeth Eastlake [née Rigby] (1809-1893) “Vanity Fair and Jane Eyre” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 84 (December 1848): 153-185.

James Anthony Froude (1818-1894) Thomas Carlyle; a History of the first forty years of his Life, 1795-1835. 2 vols (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1882).

George Robert Gleig (1796-1888) “Life of Lockhart” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 116 (October 1864): 439-482.

Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846) Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon, Historical Painter: from his Autobiography and Journals. 3 vols (London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, 1853). Edited and compiled by Tom Taylor.

John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854) “Lord Cockburn's Life of Jeffrey” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 91 (June 1852): 105-159. Written with Whitwell Elwin.

John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854) Theodore Hook: A Sketch. (London: John Murray, 1852). Reprinted from the Quarterly Review; fourth edition, 1853.

Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868) History of Latin Christianity: including that of the Popes to the Pontificate of Nicolas. 3 vols (London: John Murray, 1854-1855).

Robert Ornsby (1820-1889) Memoirs of James Robert Hope-Scott of Abbotsford: with Selections from his Correspondence. 2 vols (London: J. Murray, 1884).

Arthur Penrhyn Stanley (1815-1881) Life and Correspondence of Thomas Arnold. 2 vols (London: B. Fellowes, 1844).

William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863) Vanity Fair: a Novel without a Hero. 3 vols (London: Bradbury & Evans, 1847-48). Originally serialized in twenty parts.

INFORMATION FROM TEI HEADER

Source Description:

Author: Lang, Andrew, 1844-1912

Title: The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart (London: John C. Nimmo, 1897).

Electronic Edition:

Series: Lord Byron and his Times: http://lordbyron.org

Encoding Description: Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed. Obvious and unambiguous compositors’ errors have been silently corrected.

Markup and editing by: David Hill Radcliffe

Completed January 2011

Publication Statement:

Publisher: Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Tech

Availability: Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License