Clayden: Rogers and his Contemporaries

‘Columbus’ had been printed in 1810 in the old-fashioned thin quarto in which it was still the lingering custom to print original poems. In this form it made a book of thirty-four pages. The poem was divided into six parts; there was no introduction, nothing about an original in the Castilian language, and no intimation that it was to be regarded as ‘Fragments.’ The copy before me now has no date or title, it never had a title-page, and there is written outside and inside in pencil, ‘Pray don’t show it.—S. R.’ A comparison of the opening lines of this edition with those of the published poem shows the change of plan it underwent. In the first it is the Muse who is to sing of the deeds of the hero; in the second it is one of his companions who celebrates his triumph after his death. The original opening was—

Asked by a lady one day during the period of estrangement, ‘Have you seen Ward lately?’ Rogers asked, ‘What Ward?’ ‘Why, our Ward to be sure!’ was the reply. ‘OurWard!’ sneered Rogers, ‘you may keep him all to yourself.’ Mr. Dyce tells us that, just after the review was out, Rogers called on Lord Grosvenor and found Gifford, the editor, sitting with him. They were not friends, but Rogers was more cordial than usual, and chatted with Gifford in a most friendly manner. ‘Do you think he has seen the last Quarterly?’ asked Gifford of his host when Rogers had left. Mr. Dyce thinks Rogers had not seen it; to me his extra cordiality is a proof that he had seen it, and would not show that he was hurt.

Wordsworth was at this time preparing to publish ‘The Excursion,’ and he appears to have consulted Rogers about it. It is one remarkable feature of Rogers’s life that he was constantly asked, and almost as constantly undertook, to manage business matters for his literary friends. They thought nothing of asking him to see a publisher for them, to arrange the details, and to take general charge of their interests. His business experience fitted him to do this; his ample leisure enabled

1 Byron’s memory misled him. There is no such comparison in the article, only an indirect reference to the partial failure of an attempt ‘by a writer of undisputed poetical genius to enlarge the territories of art by unfolding the poetical interest which lies latent in the common acts of the humblest men, as well as in the most familiar scenes of Nature.’—Edin. Review, vol. xxii. p. 38.

124

ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

him thus to oblige his friends, and his generous willingness to help them could always be reckoned upon. Wordsworth, as I shall have occasion to show, was greatly indebted to Rogers for help of this kind, and even Byron availed himself of similar friendly services.

‘Mrs. W., poor woman! who sits by me, says, with a kind of sorrowful smile, “This is spite, for you know that Mr. Scott’s verses are the delight of the times, and that thousands can repeat scores of pages.”’

A letter from Lord Byron, on his private affairs, shows how close the intimacy between him and Rogers had already become, though they had only known each other a year and a half.

‘I enclose you a draft for usurious interest due to Lord B.’s protégé. I also could wish you would state thus much for me to his Lordship. Though the transaction speaks plainly in itself for the borrower’s folly and the lender’s usury, it never was my intention to quash the demand, as I legally might, nor to withhold payment of principal, or perhaps even unlawful interest. You know what my situation has been, and what it is. I have parted1 with an estate (which has been in my family for nearly three hundred years, and was never disgraced by being in possession of a lawyer, a churchman, or a woman, during that period) to liquidate this and similar demands; and the payment of the purchase is still withheld, and may be, perhaps, for years. If, therefore, I am under the necessity of making those persons wait for their money (which, considering the terms, they can afford to suffer), it is my misfortune.

In the spring Byron published his fragment, ‘The Giaour,’ and Moore tells us what remarkable developments it underwent in subsequent editions. The idea of writing a poem in fragments had been suggested to him by Rogers’s ‘Columbus,’ and to Rogers Byron dedicated it ‘as a slight but most sincere token of admiration for his genius, respect for his character, and gratitude for his friendship.’ The time was a merry one for the group of which Rogers was the centre. Byron lived in London for six months, and Moore speaks of the wild flow of his spirits and the many gay hours they passed together. Byron and Moore were dining with Sheridan one night at Rogers’s, when the conversation turned on the addresses which had been sent in to the Committee of Management of Drury Lane Theatre. Sheridan seemed on that evening to renew his youth. He told stories of his early life, some of which Rogers treasured up in his retentive memory and brought out in after years. Among the rejected addresses was one of Whitbread’s, who, like most of the others, dragged in the Phoenix, but, as Sheridan said, ‘made more of the bird than any of them. He entered into particulars, described its wings, beak, and tail—in short, it was a poulterer’s description of a Phoenix.’ Shortly after this glorious evening Byron and Moore went home with Rogers from an early party,

MOCKERY OF LORD THURLOW

129

and Byron, who had gone for two days without his dinner, was hungry and asked for food, but he would have nothing but some bread and cheese. They were in a mood of the wildest merriment. ‘Seldom have I partaken,’ says Moore, ‘of so joyous a supper.’ As all three were poets, poetry was uppermost in their minds. Byron made merry over a new volume of poems just published by Lord Thurlow, and Rogers in vain took up its defence. At last they lighted on a poem in praise of Rogers himself. Moore tells us that they both heartily agreed in it; but they were in the mood for laughter, and Byron read it aloud, turning it into mockery, and laughing at every word. Rogers himself caught the contagion of their merriment, though feeling that the mockery was utterly unjust, and all three spent the remainder of the evening in inextinguishable laughter. A few days later Byron sent Moore a poem of half-a-dozen verses, of which only the first two and the last two have been published—

Another result of the evening’s merriment was that Moore borrowed the volumes of Lord Thurlow’s poems from Rogers, and wrote what Rogers regarded as a very ill-natured article upon them in The Edinburgh Review. Rogers was greatly annoyed, for he had a high opinion of some of Lord Thurlow’s poems, and Moore knew it. When Lord Thurlow published one of his volumes, Rogers wrote to him expressing the feeling he really entertained about it. Lord Thurlow was greatly pleased, and in reply returned Rogers’s compliments with compound interest. ‘It is most flattering to me,’ said Lord Thurlow, ‘that you should approve them, to whose poetry, at once the most beautiful and most polished, I have always paid the tribute of my admiration, since in my judgment, if I may be permitted to say so, the “Epistle to a Friend” is a poem, which, in its peculiar kind, has no equal in all antiquity; I cannot but be most sensibly flattered that its author should think my early efforts in verse worthy of his approval.’ Rogers especially admired Lord Thurlow’s verses on Sir Philip Sidney, and charged Moore with attacking him only because it was the fashion to do so.

In June, 1813, Leigh Hunt was in prison, and Moore and Byron visited him. On the day before the visit to Horsemonger Lane gaol, where the courageous editor of the Examiner lay, Byron wrote Moore a poetical epistle which contains these lines—

Among Rogers’s papers there is a very curious letter about Lady Heathcote. With the exception of the words ‘it is really so’ above the other signatures it is in Rogers’s writing, and it had been folded up as a small note, sealed with black wax, and addressed outside, ‘The Duchess of St. Albans.’

‘Lady Heathcote is here alone, and in great danger. If you have any regard for your Sister, pray come instantly, as she is now sitting on a sofa with the most innocent man in England. ‘S. R.’

‘So Alexander Baring has taken the business of Hope at Amsterdam? The family have made it over to him at a great loss to themselves. What a change is this in his favour if it hold good as it seems to promise!’

The references to Rogers in Byron’s diary at this period are of the greatest interest. On the 22nd of November, Byron writes—

‘Rogers is silent, and, it is said, severe. When he does talk, he talks well; and on all subjects of taste his delicacy of expression is as pure as his poetry. If you enter his house, his drawing-room, his library, you of yourself say, “This is not the dwelling of a common mind.” There is not a gem, a coin, a book thrown aside on his chimney-piece, his sofa, his table, that does not bespeak an almost fastidious elegance in the possessor. But this very delicacy must be the misery of his existence. Oh the jarrings his disposition must have encountered through life!’

He then draws a triangle which is divided into four parts. Above the apex is Scott; in the apex is Rogers; in the division below, Moore and Campbell; under them, Southey, Wordsworth, Coleridge; and at the base the many. This estimate belonged to the time. It is now just three-quarters of a century old, and it is interesting to note how completely posterity has reversed it. Distance has revealed the greatness which nearness hid, and Rogers has suffered in consequence. He was the last of a school, and posterity has not agreed with Byron in regarding it as the best school. The account of Rogers as a man of taste and of society, and of his house and surroundings, is confirmed by the testimony of all who knew him for forty years after Byron wrote it.

There are frequent references to Sheridan in Byron’s diary and letters during this stay in London. It was the closing period of poor Sheridan’s career. I find it stated, in all the accounts of Sheridan that I have seen, that he had never had any considerable source of income but Drury Lane theatre.1 But I have before me a

1 In Professor Minto’s admirable article on Sheridan in the new edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, he tells us that ‘his biographers always speak of his means of living as a mystery;’ and he proceeds to say that ‘it is possible that the mystery is that he applied much move of his powers to plain matters of business than he affected or got credit

140

ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

document endorsed outside, ‘Sheridan’s Trust. Copy. Driver’s Valuation between Mr. Sheridan and Mr. Hudson.’ The valuation is of ‘Land belonging to R. B. Sheridan, Esq., for Sale. Copyhold, Brown’s Barn Farm, Leatherhead Parish.’ The acreage of seven different pieces of land is then stated, the total being 32 acres and 19 poles, and the valuer adds: ‘The above being subject to a heriot and quit rent I estimate to be worth 750l., exclusive of the timber &c.’ There is added in Sher1dan’s handwriting, ‘This I must keep.’ The next table is headed ‘Freehold, Mickleham Parish,’ and gives the acreage of six pieces of land with a total of 72 acres and 28 poles. The valuer adds: ‘The above I estimate to be worth 1,705l. exclusive of the timber &c.’ The valuation is signed ‘A. P. Driver, Kent Road, May 30th, 1812.’ On the other side of the sheet of paper is a table headed ‘Totals brought forward, R. B. Sheridan, Esq., T. Hudson, Esq.’ This includes another freehold estate of 44 acres, besides those already mentioned, and 15 acres of copyhold, part of Yew Tree Farm. The freehold is valued at 2,280l., and the total is 4,735l. The value of the additional copyhold is put at 425l. There is also a memorandum in Sheridan’s handwriting—

‘Metcalfe dines with me to-day to forward matters. I have only to get down to —— [the word is illegible].

In the same envelope with this I find an order on T. Hudson, Jun., Esq., of New Bridge St., to pay Rogers, ‘from the money coming to me from Kent Lane,’ 150l. This order was never presented for payment, nor was a cheque for 100l. on Messrs. Biddulph, Cocks’s, and Ridge, which Sheridan gave to Rogers for value received in July, 1815. A letter from Mr. Murray to Rogers without date, except the word Sunday, says that he has been in vain in search of his solicitor, that he doubts whether any instrument drawn up on that day could be rendered legal, but adds, ‘If you will pledge your word to the creditors for 300l., I will pledge mine to you for 300l., as soon to-morrow as Mr. Sheridan signs a regular instrument of assignment to me of the “Speeches in Westminster Hall,” or upon any other convertible security that you can suggest, without which even your long friendship for Mr. Sheridan would not, I think, advise me to proceed.’ These documents are proofs of the interest Rogers took in Sheridan’s affairs, and of the trouble he gave himself in efforts to help his friend in these dark days of his decline. There is among them one relic of a happier time. It is in a clearer and steadier hand than Sheridan’s other writing, and is merely a postscript to a letter: ‘When will you come and choose a spot in our Arcadia? I have a commission from T. Moore to find him a cottage.’

Byron writes on the 12th of December, 1813, ‘Sheridan was in good talk at Rogers’s the other night.’ In the early months of the next year he records several visits to Rogers, at most of which Sheridan and Sharp were present. He mentions Rogers, too, among those who

142

ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

had been urging him to ‘make it up with Carlisle,’ though he had ‘as lief “drink up Eisel—eat a crocodile.”’ On this subject several letters passed between Rogers and Byron. Moore prints Byron’s letters with certain needless omissions, and gives no indication whatever that anything has been omitted. In the first of the two following letters I have supplied, from Lord Byron’s manuscript, several sentences which Moore has omitted without a sign—

‘My dear Rogers,—I wrote to Lord Holland briefly, but I hope distinctly, on the subject which has lately occupied much of my conversation with him and you. As things now stand, upon that topic my determination must be unalterable.

Rogers’s intimacy with Byron led to some increase in his own social popularity. He had amusing stories to tell of the efforts of some ladies of title to get Byron to their parties by inviting Rogers, and adding in a postscript to the invitation, ‘Pray could you contrive to bring Lord Byron with you?’ He told Mr. Dyce that, at a party at Lady Jersey’s, Mrs. Sheridan ran up to him and said, ‘Do as a favour try if you can place Lord Byron beside me at supper.’ Lady Jersey and Rogers had been allies from the old Brighton days in which he had written some lines to her daughter Harriet. The flirtation with the Regent was now over, and Byron wrote some verses on the return of her picture. It must have been about this time that the circumstance happened which Rogers used to tell about her. He was at a party at Henry Hope’s in Cavendish Square. Lady Jersey took Rogers aside into the gallery to tell him something of importance. They met the Prince of Wales, who stopped, looked at Lady Jersey, drew himself up and passed on. Lady Jersey returned the stare, and turned to Rogers with a smile and a boast, ‘Didn’t I do it well?’ The particular communication seems, then, not to have needed to be made.

Moore prints several letters from Byron to Rogers, dated in the spring and summer of 1814. Only one of them, which he considerably shortens, need be reproduced here—

‘P.S. The Staël out-talked Whitbread, overwhelmed his spouse, was ironed by Sheridan, confounded Sir Humphrey, and utterly perplexed your slave. The rest (great names in the Red-book, nevertheless) were mere segments of the circle. Ma’mselle danced a Russ saraband with great vigour, grace, and expression, though not very pretty. . . .’

‘You could not have made me a more acceptable present than “Jacqueline.” She is all grace, and softness, and poetry; there is so much of the last that we do not feel the want of story, which is simple, yet enough. I wonder that you do not oftener unbend to more of the same kind. I have some sympathy with the softer affections, though very little in my way, and no one can depict them so truly and successfully as yourself.’

In April an event occurred which drew from Rogers a political epigram. Louis the Eighteenth was on his way from his retreat at Hartwell to re-occupy the throne of his ancestors. He was invited by the Prince Regent, in the words of a contemporary chronicler, ‘first to display the royal dignity in the capital of England.’ On the 20th of April, therefore, he made a triumphal entry into London, a troop of gentlemen on horseback, in white jackets and with white hats, leading the way. The postilions of the Prince Regent were dressed in the same way and bore the white cockades. The soldiers also wore the Bourbon emblem. This element in the public rejoicing at what was then thought to be the final close of the war, excited hostile comment among the circle at Holland House, where great admiration for Napoleon and sympathy with him was felt by the host and hostess and communicated to their intimate friends. Rogers expressed their feeling and his own in lines which have ever since remained in the privacy of his Commonplace Book—

Wear it awhile. Against him led

With your own blood you’ll dye it red.

—But had your brave forefathers worn it,

Great Nassau from their brows had torn it.

It need not be inferred from these lines that there was any feeling in Rogers’s mind but unmingled satisfaction at the new hopes of lasting peace. In the summer
WORDSWORTH ON 'COLUMBUS' 149
the allied sovereigns came to London, and a reference in a letter of Wordsworth’s to Rogers seems to show that he, too, was not altogether satisfied with the ‘convocation of emperors and other personages.’ Rogers naturally stayed in London till the festivities were over, planning, however, a long visit to the reopened Continent. The following are among the letters he received during the summer—

William Wordsworth to Samuel Rogers.

‘Rydal Mount: May 5, 1814.

‘My dear Sir,—Some little since, in consequence of a distressful representation made to me of the condition of some person connected nearly by marriage with Mrs. Wordsworth, I applied to our common friend, Mr. Sharp, to know if he had any means of procuring an admittance into Christ’s Hospital for a child of one of the parties. His reply was such as I feared it would be. . . . He referred me to you. . . . I have to thank you for a present of your volume of poems, received some time since through the hands of Southey. I have read it with great pleasure. The Columbus is what you intended. It has many bright and striking passages, and poems upon this plan please better on a second perusal than the first. The gaps at first disappoint and vex you.

‘There is a pretty piece1 in which you have done me the honour of imitating me, towards the conclusion particularly, where you must have remembered the Highland Girl. I like the poem much, but the first paragraph is hurt by two apostrophes to objects of different
1 This piece is the lines ‘Written in the Highlands.’

150 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
character, one to Luss and one to your sister, and the apostrophe is not a figure that, like Janus, carries two faces with a good grace.

‘I am about to print (do not start) eight thousand lines, which is but a small portion of what I shall oppress the world with if strength and life do not fail me. I shall be content if the publication pays the expenses, for Mr. Scott and your friend Lord Byron flourishing at the rate they do, how can an honest poet hope to thrive?

‘I expect to hear of your taking flight to Paris, unless the convocation of emperors and other personages by which London is to be honoured detain you to assist at the festivities.

‘For me, I would like dearly to see old Blucher, but, as the fates will not allow, I mean to recompense myself by an excursion with Mrs. Wordsworth to Scotland, where I hope to fall in occasionally with a ptarmigan, a roe, or an eagle, and the living bird I certainly should prefer to its image on the panel of a dishonoured emperor’s coach.

‘Farewell. I shall be happy to see you here at all times, for your company is a treat.

‘Most truly yours,

‘W. Wordsworth.’

Sir George Beaumont to Samuel Rogers.

‘Ashburnham: July 12th, 1814.

‘My dear Rogers,—I wish I could make you a better return for your friendly patience and attention on Sunday, but as you expressed a wish for the epitaph, I
EPITAPH ON DR. JOHNSON 151
send it to you; if it be not a likeness, it has nothing else to recommend it. You justly observed, every one should correct his own verses, for this reason, among others, that no one else could be so much interested in them; and although I could not perceive through your kindness any confirmation of this observation, yet, as I am sensible it is almost impossible for another to touch upon a picture or poem without making a spot of something better or worse, I have endeavoured to profit by your advice, and to alter the words objected to. What think you of “each virtue fostered,” and “primeval” instead of “eternal” night?

‘I had a delightful journey to this fine place with Lord Ashburnham. I wish you knew him more. When intimacy has subdued his shyness I assure you he possesses a rich vein of humour, which makes him a delightful companion. He is making great alterations here. Our friend Dance is his architect, and you know his ability. His domain is varied and extensive, and the views are highly interesting.

‘The post is going out, and as we shall, I hope, meet soon, I will finish, with my best wishes, ever truly yours,

‘G. H. Beaumont.’

Epitaph.

Here Johnson reclines in this grave, den, or pit,

The bugbear of folly, the tyrant of wit.

As an ox, overdriven, attacks in the streets,

And gores without mercy each creature he meets,

So this bellowing critic assailed every day

All his friends who had something or nothing to say.

Then he pitched and he rolled with a turbulent motion,

Like a First-rate just after a storm in the ocean

152

ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

And if modestly silent, his censure to balk,

He exclaimed in a fury—Sir, why don’t you talk?

If you said black was black, still his answer was, No, Sir,

And thundering arguments followed the blow, Sir.

For though lies he disdained from the days of his youth,

Still, the Doctor loved victory better than truth.

But, peace to his shade, if his powerful mind

Would sometimes break loose in expressions unkind,

He himself felt the blow when reflection came in,

For the Doctor had naught of the bear but his skin.

And in streams deep, majestic, o’erwhelming, and strong,

Full tides of morality flowed from his tongue.

Religion in him found a zealous defender,

And he never pretended to garble or mend her.

In his presence profaneness presumed not to dwell,

And sedition and treason shrank back to their hell.

Joseph Jekyll to Samuel Rogers.

‘Tuesday, July 19th, 1814.

‘My dear Rogers,—Kindness to children is a leading feature in you, kindness to me I never forget, and never shall I forget an unhappy night when you meditated so long with me on a subject which soon terminated so fatally.

‘To-day I leave town, and have just sent excuses to the Lord Chamberlain’s about Thursday night at Carlton House.

‘My good old friend Mrs. Bird, who bred their mother up, is a sort of grandmother to my boys. She is in such an antiquated fidget about the fireworks, as to their safety in getting only to your house on the night they are to be played off, that I must ask your leave to let them come at any early hour in the evening. She is
ROGERS'S LOVE OF CHILDREN 153
alarmed about ——. You will put them where you please in the house, and my servants will attend them home.

‘Yours, my dear Rogers, most obliged and most affectionately,

‘Joseph Jekyll.’

This letter tells its own story. Jekyll’s children were to go to Rogers’s house, with a host of other boys and girls, to see the fireworks which celebrated the Peace. It exhibits a side of Rogers’s character which has not hitherto appeared—his fondness for children and his kindness to them. Of the many recollections of him which are still cherished by friends and relations, I find this feature always the most vivid. There are many hundreds of persons now living who speak of him with the warmest affection from their cherished recollections of his kindness to them in their childhood.

Uvedale Price was in London at the Peace rejoicings and gives an amusing account of his unsuccessful efforts to reach Rogers’s house—

Uvedale Price to Samuel Rogers.

‘Sunning Hill: Wednesday (August 1814).

‘My dear Sir,—I think myself very unlucky during my two excursions to town, short as they were, to have seen you only once, and that in a crowd. It was not my fault. I called upon you several times, and at all hours, but you were not stirring, or just gone out earlier than usual, or not returned; in short, never to be found. On Friday, the day before I left town, I made a last attempt and the most unfortunate of them all. In spite
154 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
of the rain I set out across the Park, but when I came to the passage the door was locked. I determined to go round by the stable yard, but on coming to the end of your garden I perceived that the path was railed across and a sentinel posted there. As I saw a gentleman walking that way I stopped to see what happened; he got upon a low rail and climbed over the high one close to the sentinel; I thought I might climb too, advanced boldly and had put one foot on the low rail, when the sentinel told me I must not get over; I pleaded the precedent I had just seen, he only said he must stop somewhere, and that I should not pass. Not feeling quite equal to scaling the palisade and knocking down the sentinel, I sorrowfully turned back, cursing these warlike effects of peace.1 My next recourse was the door by the canal; that too was fast; and after having traced back my steps to Hyde Park Corner, I had not the courage to begin my journey again with the uncertainty of catching you at home. I wish this history were as interesting as it is long and melancholy, but Dogberry could not be more determined to bestow all his tediousness. I wished very much to have found you at home on various accounts. I wanted to thank you for “Jacqueline,” which, indeed, George Ellis had already shown me. I have read it more than once, and with great pleasure. There were a few very trifling remarks that occurred to me, not worth putting down, but which, if I had seen you, I should have mentioned. I also wanted to take my revenge, if it can be so called, and, after having received so much pleasure from your poetry, to torment you with some of
1 A reference to the preparations for the fireworks in the Park.

UVEDALE PRICE 155
my prose. You probably shudder at this and think of the famous lines on the Metromane—
‘tous mes sens se glacent à l’approche
Du griffonnage affreux, qu’il a toujours en poche.

‘You have not quite escaped, and, seriously, as the whole of this griffonage does not amount to more than a dozen pages, I should be very glad if you would take the trouble of looking it over. The subject, I think, is curious, and I rather believe it has not been treated; it is on the application of the terms that answer to beautiful in ancient and modern languages; that is in those with which I am at all acquainted. I have shewn it to a few learned and ingenious critics, who have liked it more than I expected, and have thought the argument drawn from it very convincing. My knowledge of Greek, as you know, is very scanty indeed, and my reading as confined. The examples I have given are chiefly from Homer, the only book in the language with which I am even tolerably acquainted; they are, however, the most material of any. Now, I could wish for some others from later poets and from the prose writers, or at least to be assured whether in them there are any applications of the word that essentially differ from those in Homer. I believe you are well acquainted with Dr. Burney, with whom my acquaintance is but slight, and it would be a great piece of service to me if you could induce him to look over and consider what I have written; supposing that after you have read it yourself you should think it at all worth his notice. I feel that I am imposing a heavy task on you, and shall not be surprized or in the
156 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES
least offended if you should beg to decline it altogether. Let me hear from you, however, and if you can make up your mind to receive it, and to read it yourself at least, I will send it you when I have copied it, for at present I have not a very fair copy. We set out for Foxley on Monday. I wish there were any chance of seeing you here or there, and all here most heartily join in the same wish.

‘Most truly yours,

‘U. Price.

‘I shall not be in any hurry to have the MS. returned, and it may be sent to Foxley in two or three covers.’

≪ PREV

NEXT ≫

George Ashburnham, third earl of Ashburnham (1760-1830) Son of the second earl; he was lord of the bedchamber to the Prince of Wales (1784-1795) before succeeding to the title in 1803.

Lady Harriet Bagot [née Villiers] (d. 1870) The second daughter of the fourth earl of Jersey; in 1806 she married the Rt. Rev. Hon. Richard Bagot.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld [née Aikin] (1743-1825) English poet and essayist, the sister of John Aikin, who married Rochemont Barbauld in 1774 and taught at Palgrave School, a dissenting academy (1774-85).

Alexander Baring, first baron Ashburton (1773-1848) London financier who made a fortune in the United States; he was MP for Taunton (1802-26), Callington (1826-31), Thetford (1831-32), and North Essex (1833-35); he was president of the Board of Trade (1834) and raised to the peerage in 1835.

Maria Janetta Beauclerk, duchess of St. Albans [née Nelthorpe] (d. 1822) The daughter of John Nelthorpe and Mary Cracroft; in 1799 she married William Beauclerk, eighth Duke of St. Albans.

Sir George Howland Beaumont, seventh baronet (1753-1827) Art collector, painter, and one of the founders of the National Gallery; he was an acquaintance of Johnson and Reynolds, Scott, Wordsworth, and Byron.

Andrew Bell (1753-1832) Scottish Episcopalian educated at St. Andrews University; he was the founder of the “Madras” system of education by mutual instruction; Robert Southey was his biographer.

Gebhard Leberecht Blücher (1742-1819) Prussian general who fought for the allies at Leipzig and Waterloo.

William Pleydell- Bouverie, third earl of Radnor (1779-1869) Son of the second earl (d. 1828); educated at Brasenose College, Oxford, he was Whig MP for Downton (1801) and Salisbury (1802-28), and an associate of Sir Francis Burdett and Samuel Whitbread.

William Lisle Bowles (1762-1850) English poet and critic; author of Fourteen Sonnets, elegiac and descriptive, written during a Tour (1789), editor of the Works of Alexander Pope, 10 vols (1806), and writer of pamphlets contributing to the subsequent Pope controversy.

Sir Francis Burdett, fifth baronet (1770-1844) Whig MP for Westminster (1807-1837) who was imprisoned on political charges in 1810 and again in 1820; in the 1830s he voted with the Conservatives.

Charles Burney (1726-1814) English musicologist and father of the novelist Frances Burney; he published a History of Music (1776-89).

Charles Burney the younger (1757-1817) Son of the musicologist; after a scandalous youth he became a noted scholar, book collector, and schoolmaster at Greenwich. His collection of newspapers is now in the British Library.

Frances D'Arblay [née Burney] (1752-1840) English novelist, the daughter of the musicologist Dr. Charles Burney; author of Evelina; or, The History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World (1778), Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress (1782), and Camilla (1796).

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) The author of Childe Harold and Don Juan.

Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) Scottish poet and man of letters; author of The Pleasures of Hope (1799), Gertrude of Wyoming (1808) and lyric odes. He edited the New Monthly Magazine (1821-30).

Queen Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1768-1821) Married the Prince of Wales in 1795 and separated in 1796; her husband instituted unsuccessful divorce proceedings in 1820 when she refused to surrender her rights as queen.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and philosopher who projected Lyrical Ballads (1798) with William Wordsworth; author of Biographia Literaria (1817), On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829) and other works.

Francis Ingram-Seymour- Conway, second marquess of Hertford (1743-1822) Son of the first marquess (d. 1794); educated at Christ Church, Oxford, he was MP for Lostwithiel (1766-68) and Orford (1768-94), and lord chamberlain (1812-21).

Frances Anne Crewe [née Greville] (1748-1818) Whig hostess, the daughter of Fulke Greville (1717-1805); in 1766 she married John Crewe, first Baron Crewe.

George Dance the younger (1741-1825) English architect who built St. Luke's Hospital and rebuilt Newgate prison; he was professor of architecture at the Royal Academy (1798-1805).

John Donne (1572-1631) English poet, wit, and divine; he was dean of St. Paul's (1621-31).

William Douglas (1769 c.-1818) Son of John Douglas, bishop of Salisbury; he was educated at Christ Church, Oxford and was canon of Westminster and precentor of Salisbury and chancellor of the diocese.

Alexander Dyce (1798-1869) Editor and antiquary, educated at Edinburgh High School and Exeter College, Oxford; he published Recollections of the Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers (1856).

Sampson Eardley, first baron Eardley (1744-1824) The son of Sampson Gideon, a West India merchant; he was a Jewish stockbroker of Portuguese descent, created baronet in 1759, MP for Coventry (1784, 1790), raised to the peerage in 1789.

Richard Lovell Edgeworth (1744-1817) Irish magnate and writer on education; he published Practical Education, 2 vols (1788), and other works in collaboration with his daughter the novelist.

George Ellis (1753-1815) English antiquary and critic, editor of Specimens of Early English Poets (1790), friend of Walter Scott.

Sir Henry Charles Englefield, seventh baronet (1752 c.-1822) Of White Knights, Berkshire, the son of the sixth baronet (d. 1780); given a Catholic education, he was a scientist and antiquary, author of Picturesque Beauties of the Isle of Wight (1816).

Henry Petty- Fitzmaurice, third marquess of Lansdowne (1780-1863) The son of Lord Shelburne (1737-1805); he was a Whig peer, chancellor of the exchequer (1806), and President of the Council (1830).

Elizabeth Fox, Lady Holland [née Vassall] (1771 c.-1845) In 1797 married Henry Richard Fox, Lord Holland, following her divorce from Sir Godfrey Webster; as mistress of Holland House she became a pillar of Whig society.

Henry Richard Fox, third baron Holland (1773-1840) Whig politician and literary patron; Holland House was for many years the meeting place for reform-minded politicians and writers. He also published translations from the Spanish and Italian; Memoirs of the Whig Party was published in 1852.

King George IV of Great Britain (1762-1830) Prince Regent (1811-20) and King of Great Britain (1820-1830).

William Gifford (1756-1826) Poet, scholar, and editor who began as a shoemaker's apprentice; after Oxford he published The Baviad (1794), The Maeviad (1795), and The Satires of Juvenal translated (1802) before becoming the founding editor of the Quarterly Review (1809-24).

Mary Godfrey (1836 fl.) The half-sister of the husband of Anna May Chichester, Lady Donegal; Miss Godfrey was one of Thomas Moore's correspondents.

Lady Anne Grenville [née Pitt] (1772-1864) The daughter of Thomas Pitt, first Baron Camelford; in 1792 she married William Wyndham Grenville, first baron Grenville.

Robert Grosvenor, first marquess of Westminster (1767-1845) Of Eaton Hall, one of William Gifford's early patrons; he was a connoisseur of painting, a Whig MP, and commissioner of the Board of Control. He was created Marquess of Westminster in 1831.

Lady Catherine Sophia Heathcote [née Manners] (1773 c.-1825) A London hostess; the daughter of John Manners, she married Sir Gilbert Heathcote, fourth baronet in 1793.

John Cam Hobhouse, baron Broughton (1786-1869) Founder of the Cambridge Whig Club; traveled with Byron in the orient, radical MP for Westminster (1820); Byron's executor; after a long career in politics published Some Account of a Long Life (1865) later augmented as Recollections of a Long Life, 6 vols (1909-1911).

Sir Henry Holland, first baronet (1788-1873) English physician and frequenter of Holland House, the author of Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, Thessaly, Macedonia etc. during 1812 and 1813 (1814) and Recollections of Past Life (1872). His second wife, Saba, was the daughter of Sydney Smith.

Homer (850 BC fl.) Poet of the Iliad and Odyssey.

Henry Philip Hope (1774-1839) Of Amsterdam, merchant, art collector, and younger brother of Thomas Hope, author of Anastasius (1819). He was patron to the poet and translator Robert Bland.

George Howard, sixth earl of Carlisle (1773-1848) Son of the fifth earl (d. 1825); he was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, wrote for the Anti-Jacobin, and was MP for Morpeth (1795-1806) and Cumberland (1806-28).

Thomas Hudson (d. 1835) Of Chapel Farm in Surrey, which he once rented from Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

James Henry Leigh Hunt (1784-1859) English poet, journalist, and man of letters; editor of The Examiner and The Liberal; friend of Byron, Keats, and Shelley.

Sara Hutchinson (1775-1835) The daughter of John Hutchinson of Penrith (d. 1785) and sister of Mary Hutchinson Wordsworth.

Joseph Jekyll (1754-1837) Wit, politician, and barrister; he was Whig MP for Calne (1787-1816) and wrote for the Morning Chronicle and Evening Statesman.

Robert Banks Jenkinson, second earl of Liverpool (1770-1828) The son of the first earl (d. 1808); he was Tory prime minister, 1812-1827, succeeding Spencer Percival.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English man of letters, among many other works he edited A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) and Shakespeare (1765), and wrote Lives of the Poets (1779-81).

Louis XVIII, king of France (1755-1824) Brother of the executed Louis XVI; he was placed on the French throne in 1814 following the abdication of Napoleon.

Henry Luttrell (1768-1851) English wit, dandy, and friend of Thomas Moore and Samuel Rogers; he was the author of Advice to Julia, a Letter in Rhyme (1820).

Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832) Scottish philosopher and man of letters who defended the French Revolution in Vindiciae Gallicae (1791); he was Recorder of Bombay (1803-1812) and MP for Knaresborough (1819-32).

William Mason (1725-1797) English poet, the friend and biographer of Thomas Gray; author of Odes (1756), Elfrida (1752), and The English Garden (4 books, 1772-81).

Thomas Metcalf (1780 c.-1856) Solicitor of Lincoln's Inn, in partnership with Mr. Hanrott (or Hannrott). He did work for Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

William Minto (1845-1893) Scottish journalist and professor of logic and literature at Aberdeen (1880-93) who edited Walter Scott and published Manual of English Prose Literature, Biographical and Critical (1872).

James Carrick Moore (1762-1860) Military surgeon, the son of John Moore author of Zeluco, and brother of Sir John Moore of Corunna; he published A Narrative of the Campaign of the British Army in Spain (1809) and a life of his brother (1833).

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Irish poet and biographer, author of the Irish Melodies (1807-34), The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and Lalla Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.

John Murray II (1778-1843) The second John Murray began the Quarterly Review in 1809 and published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.

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).

John Parker, first earl of Morley (1772-1840) The son of John Parker, first baron Boringdon (1735-1788); educated at Christ Church, Oxford, he was a supporter of George Canning in Parliament, created earl of Morley and Viscount Boringdon in 1815.

James Power (1766-1836) Dublin music publisher who moved to London in 1807 where he issued Moore's Irish Melodies (1808-34).

Sir Uvedale Price, first baronet (1747-1829) Of Foxley in Herefordshire; he was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and published Essay on the Picturesque (1794).

Daniel Rogers (1760 c.-1829) Son of Thomas Rogers (1735-93) and eldest brother of the poet Thomas Rogers; he married Martha Bowles and lived as a country squire near Stourbridge.

Henry Rogers (1774-1832) Son of Thomas Rogers (1735-93) and youngest brother of the poet Thomas Rogers; he was the head of the family bank, Rogers, Towgood, and Co. until 1824, and a friend of Charles Lamb.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) English poet, banker, and aesthete, author of the ever-popular Pleasures of Memory (1792), Columbus (1810), Jaqueline (1814), and Italy (1822-28).

Sarah Rogers (1772-1855) Of Regent's Park. the younger sister of the poet Samuel Rogers; she lived with her brother Henry in Highbury Terrace.

Sir Samuel Romilly (1757-1818) Reformer of the penal code and the author of Thoughts on Executive Justice (1786); he was a Whig MP and Solicitor-General who died a suicide.

John Russell, first earl Russell (1792-1878) English statesman, son of John Russell sixth duke of Bedford (1766-1839); he was author of Essay on the English Constitution (1821) and Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe (1824) and was Prime Minister (1865-66).

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

Richard Sharp [Conversation Sharp] (1759-1835) English merchant, Whig MP, and member of the Holland House set; he published Letters and Essays in Poetry and Prose (1834).

Samuel Sharpe (1799-1881) Banker and Egyptologist; he was the nephew of the poet Samuel Rogers and brother of the geologist Daniel Sharpe.

Hester Jane Sheridan [née Ogle] [Hecca] (1775 c.-1827) The daughter of Newton Ogle, dean of Winchester; she was the second wife of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, whom she married in 1795.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) Anglo-Irish playwright, author of The School for Scandal (1777), Whig MP and ally of Charles James Fox (1780-1812).

Sir Philip Sidney (1554-1586) English poet, courtier, and soldier, author of the Arcadia (1590), Astrophel and Stella (1591) and Apology for Poetry (1595).

William Sotheby (1757-1833) English man of letters; after Harrow he joined the dragoons, married well, and published Poems (1790) and became a prolific poet and translator, prominent in literary society.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose works, among them the Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813), History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).

Germaine de Staël (1766-1817) French woman of letters; author of the novel Corinne, ou L'Italie (1807) and De l'Allemagne (1811); banned from Paris by Napoleon, she spent her later years living in Germany, Britain, and Switzerland.

Robert Stewart, viscount Castlereagh (1769-1822) British statesman who was foreign secretary (1812-1822). He fought a duel with George Canning in 1809 and died a suicide in 1822.

William Strutt (1756-1830) Son of Jedediah Strutt; he was a Derbyshire cotton manufacturer and philanthropist, and a friend of Erasmus Drawn, Thomas Moore, and Samuel Rogers.

Edward Hovell- Thurlow, second baron Thurlow (1781-1829) English poet, son of the lord chancellor; his affectation of the antique aroused critical derision, though Charles Lamb was an admirer.

Horace Twiss (1787-1849) Lawyer, poet, and biographer; he was MP for Wootton Basset (1820-30) and Newport (1830-31) and author of St Stephens Chapel: a Satirical Poem (1807).

Sarah Sophia Child- Villiers, countess of Jersey [née Fane] (1785-1867) Heiress and Whig hostess, the daughter of John Fane, earl of Westmorland (1759-1841), she married George Child-Villiers, earl of Jersey (1773-1859) in 1804.

John William Ward, earl of Dudley (1781-1833) The son of William Ward, third Viscount Dudley (d. 1823); educated at Edinburgh and Oxford, he was an English MP, sometimes a Foxite Whig and sometimes Canningite Tory, who suffered from insanity in his latter years.

Samuel Whitbread (1764-1815) The son of the brewer Samuel Whitbread (1720-96); he was a Whig MP for Bedford, involved with the reorganization of Drury Lane after the fire of 1809; its financial difficulties led him to suicide.

William III, king of England (1650-1702) King of England (1689-1702); succeeded James II in the Glorious Revolution.

Catherine Wordsworth (1808-1812) The second daughter of William Wordsworth; she died in childhood.

Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855) The sister of William Wordsworth who transcribed his poems and kept his house; her journals and letters were belatedly published after her death.

Mary Wordsworth [née Hutchinson] (1770-1859) The sister of Sarah Hutchinson and wife of William Wordsworth, whom she married in 1802.

Thomas Wordsworth (1806-1812) The eldest son of William Wordsworth, who died of measles 1 December 1812.

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 Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal. (1802-1929). Founded by Francis Jeffery, Sydney Smith, and Henry Brougham, the Edinburgh Review was for decades a principal organ of Whig opinion in Britain.

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.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) Childe Harold's Pilgrimage: a Romaunt. (London: John Murray, 1812-1818). A burlesque topographical poem in Spenserian stanzas; Cantos I-II were published in 1812, III in 1816, and IV in 1818.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) The Giaour, a Fragment of a Turkish Tale. (London: John Murray, 1813). The first of Byron's oriental tales.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) “Lara, a Tale” in Lara, a Tale. Jacqueline, a Tale. (London: J. Murray, 1814). First printed with “Jacqueline” by Samuel Rogers.

Alexander Dyce (1798-1869) Recollections of the Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers; to which is added Porsoniana. (London: Moxon, 1856).

Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832) “Rogers's Poems” in Edinburgh Review. Vol. 22 (October 1813): 32-50.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) “Lord Thurlow's Poems” in Edinburgh Review. Vol. 23 (September 1814): 411-424.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) “The Butterfly” in Poems by Samuel Rogers. (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1812).

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) An Epistle to a Friend with other Poems. (London: T. Cadell, junior, and W. Davies, 1798).

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) “Jacqueline, a Tale” in Lara, a Tale. Jacqueline, a Tale. (London: Murray, 1814). First printed with “Lara” by Lord Byron.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) The Pleasures of Memory, a Poem. In two Parts. (London: T. Cadell, 1792). A descriptive poem in couplets reprinted throughout the nineteenth century.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) Poems by Samuel Rogers. (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1812). Reprinted with additions in 1814, 1816, and 1822.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) “To the Torso” in Poems by Samuel Rogers. (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1812).

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) The Voyage of Columbus, a Poem. (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1810). Reprinted with additions 1812, 1816.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) “Written in a Sick Chamber” in Poems by Samuel Rogers. (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1812).

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) “Written in the Highlands of Scotland” in Poems by Samuel Rogers. (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1812). Written 1812.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) “Written in Westminster Abbey” in Poems by Samuel Rogers. (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1812). On the death of Charles James Fox; written 1806.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Rokeby; a Poem. (Edinburgh: John Ballantyne, 1813). A tale in six cantos related to the Battle of Marston Moor.

Edward Hovell- Thurlow, second baron Thurlow (1781-1829) Hermilda in Palestine: the First Canto, and Part of the Second: with other Poems. (London: Messrs. White, Cochrane, and Co., 1812). A verse romance.

John William Ward, earl of Dudley (1781-1833) “Rogers's Poems” in Quarterly Review. Vol. 9 No. 17 (March 1813): 207-18.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) The Excursion, being a portion of The Recluse, a Poem. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1814). A poem in nine books of blank verse.

INFORMATION FROM TEI HEADER

Source Description:

Author: Clayden, Peter William, 1827-1902

Title: Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries 2 Vols (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1889).

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 September 2009

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