Memoir of Francis Hodgson
Bishop Samuel Butler to Francis Hodgson, [July? 1826]
My dear friend,—I am all the better for my residence
here, where I shall stay a week longer. You may think how much better I am than
when we parted, when I tell you that I climbed a mountain 1,500 feet high
yesterday, and, with the assistance of my friend Mr.
Mathew, built an ancient fort on the top of it, and came down to
dinner without feeling fatigued. I attribute this renovation to great amusement
in the fishing department, and the peculiarly nourishing and well-flavoured
properties of the Westmoreland mutton. Your historical annotations amused me
much, but do not alter my opinion. As to the independence of Westmoreland, it
is all a farce. The 1,300 voters for Brougham are as much the slaves of Lord Thanet and his friends, as the 1,760 for the Lowthers are
the slaves of Lord Lonsdale. There are a
few independent voters on both sides, and the rest sell their sweet voices or
give them as they are bid; and what does it matter to you, or me, or them,
whether the man’s name whom they vote for begins with a B or an L?
I think Archdeacon
Wrangham is very appro-![]()
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priately fixed at Humanby, and therefore I cannot consent to let him exchange
livings with you. We carry on the war here against the tyrants of the lake very
successfully, and meditate a battle royal tomorrow and the next day on a
celebrated lake—Wyborne Water—at the foot of Helvellyn, in the Vale
of St. John, where are the fairy rocks and castle sung of in the ‘Bridal of Triermain.’ The
scenery here is indeed magnificent, particularly about Wyborne Water, and the
rock called the Raven’s Crag, almost twice the height of Matlock High
Tor, perpendicularly over the head of the lake. Coniston, too, with its
gigantic old ruin, and its bare and rugged rocks, full of copper-mines, is very
grand; while Windermere, with its wide valley and undulating hills and
promontories, is full of milder beauties. But the most sublime of all is
Ulleswater, in its two last reaches of Lyulph’s town and Paterdale, in
rowing through which I had the satisfaction (and it was a satisfaction of the
highest order) to be drenched with a thunderstorm. But the spirits of the
clouds and the Fells spoke in angry and fearful tones.
My best regards to Mrs. H.
Farewell.
S. B.
Henry Peter Brougham, first baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868)
Educated at Edinburgh University, he was a founder of the
Edinburgh
Review in which he chastised Byron's
Hours of Idleness; he
defended Queen Caroline in her trial for adultery (1820), established the London University
(1828), and was appointed lord chancellor (1830).
Francis Wrangham (1769-1842)
Classical scholar, translator, and book collector; author of
A Few
Sonnets Attempted from Petrarch in Early Life (1817), dedicated to Byron.
