Memoir of Francis Hodgson
Alaric Alexander Watts to Frances Hogson, [1826?]
8, North Bank, Regent’s Park.
Sir,—The very great pleasure I have derived from your
poetical writings, and the desire I have to be ![]()
| 170 | MEMOIR OF REV. F. HODGSON. | |
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allowed to
include some little poem from your pen in the next volume of the work of which
I have herewith the honour to beg your acceptance, have led me to presume so
far upon your kindness as to prefer my request to you without waiting for the
favour of a personal introduction. The object of the ‘Literary Souvenir’ is to present, in
one volume, specimens of the style of a large proportion of the most
distinguished writers of the day; as well as to afford some idea of the state
of the Fine Arts, by engravings, by the most eminent engravers, of the
well-known productions of British Artists.1 Among those
writers who have either afforded or promised contributions for its pages are
Sir Walter Scott, Mr. T. Campbell, Mr. Montgomery, Mr.
Milman, Mrs. Hemans,
Mr. Southey, Mr. Wilson, Mr.
Lockhart, L. E. L.,
Hogg, Miss Mitford, Miss
Porter, Mrs. Opie,
Mr. Bowles, Delta, Mr.
Dale, and various other well-known authors. In the volume of the
work now preparing, I am desirous, if possible, to secure some little poem from
every distinguished living poet; and as my plan will be quite incomplete unless
I 1 Among those who contributed to the
illustrations of the Literary
Souvenir were Turner,
Leslie, and Roberts; the engravings being executed
by Heaton and other of the best engravers of the
day. |
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| THE ’LITERARY SOUVENIR’—DR. BUTLER. | 171 |
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shall succeed in obtaining something from your pen, I am inclined to hope you
will not refuse my request. Should you not be disposed to concede me the favour
I ask, I hope you will at least pardon me for the liberty I have taken.
I am, dear sir, with great esteem,
Your obedient servant,
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.
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).
Thomas Dale (1797-1870)
English poet, clergyman, and professor of English literature and history at King's
College, London (1836).
Felicia Dorothea Hemans [née Browne] (1793-1835)
English poet; author of
Tales, and Historic Scenes (1819),
Records of Woman (1828), and other volumes. She was much in demand
as a contributor to the literary annuals.
James Hogg [The Ettrick Shepherd] (1770-1835)
Scottish autodidact, poet, and novelist; author of
The Queen's
Wake (1813) and
Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified
Sinner (1824).
Letitia Elizabeth Landon [L. E. L.] (1802-1838)
English poet who came to attention through the
Literary Gazette;
she published three volumes in 1825. She was the object of unflattering gossip prior to her
marriage to George Maclean in 1838.
Charles Robert Leslie (1794-1859)
American-born genre-painter who came to England in 1811 and studied with fellow-Americans
Benjamin West and Washington Allston; he published
Memoirs of the Life of
John Constable (1843).
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).
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 Russell Mitford (1787-1855)
English poet, playwright, and essayist; author of
Our Village: Sketches
of Rural Character and Scenery (1824, etc.).
James Montgomery (1771-1854)
English poet and editor of the
Sheffield Iris (1795-1825); author
of
The Wanderer of Switzerland (1806) and
The
World before the Flood (1813).
Amelia Opie [née Alderson] (1769-1853)
Quaker poet and novelist; in 1798 she married the painter John Opie (1761-1807); author
of
Father and Daughter (1801) and other novels and moral
fables.
Anna Maria Porter (1778-1832)
English poet and novelist, younger sister of the poet and novelist Jane Porter; she
published
Ballad Romances and other Poems (1811).
David Roberts (1796-1864)
Scottish-born artist employed as a scene-painter before travelling in the Middle-East and
exhibiting at the Royal Academy from 1826.
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).
Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851)
English landscape and history painter who left his collection to the National Gallery and
Tate Gallery.
Alaric Alexander Watts (1797-1864)
English poet and journalist who as editor of the
Literary Souvenir
(1824-35) was the prime mover behind the literary annual.
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).
The Literary Souvenir. 10 vols (London: Hurst, Robinson, 1825-1834). An illustrated literary annual edited by Alaric Alexander Watts. The publisher
varies.
