Memoir of Francis Hodgson
Henry Drury to Francis Hodgson, [1832]
You seem to have exhausted all the stores of literature in
reading with your pupil. . . . Lord Darnley
and I talked you over very cheerfully the other day. I have been entertaining
the Bishop of Exeter, and Lockhart; otherwise all has been most
monotonous, except a dinner last Saturday at the sweetest villa in England, at
Highwood Hill, with Knight, M.P., the
Chancery barrister, to meet all the celebrated antiquaries. . . .
When do you return? I cannot make and break another promise,
but when do you return?—emphatically or promiscuously, as Ben Sheppard
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| 214 | MEMOIR OF REV. F. HODGSON. | |
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would say. I have not seen Eton since I dined there with
Keate at Easter. Butler, of Shrewsbury, dines with me, tête-à-tête, at six this evening, on his
way from Shrewsbury to Beaumaris. Harry,1 who is with us, wants me to
take him to Rome by the steam-boat. I should not hesitate, but I dread the
expense of posting once more to the south of France. The steamer sails every
other day from Toulon, touches at Genoa, Leghorn, Civita Vecchia, and enters,
plenis subit Ostia velis, anchoring at the Ponte
Milvio and Pons Sublicius. The whole, from Harrow, might be easily done in nine
days, without hurrying; but it must not be, at least this summer. Besides, the
absurd abbreviation of travelling now takes away from the prestige. Byron3 is in Achaia,
and, literally (I am not joking), made standard-bearer in the Peloponnesus,
where he is going through a campaign by land with 150 troops against 800
Romeliots and Souliots.
The club triumphant! and Denman Lord Chief Justice. I am happier at the event than can
be described. He is a man who has never truckled to any party, but, in
singleness of soul, kept the even tenor of his way. Recepto dulce mihi furere est ![]()
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| REFORM BILL. DUKE OF WELLINGTON. | 215 |
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amico! All the Merivales are
staying with us, and Denman is the toast from morning till
night.
Samuel Butler, bishop of Lichfield (1774-1839)
The editor of Aeschylus; educated at Rugby School and St John's College, Cambridge, he
was headmaster of Shrewsbury (1798-1836) and bishop of Lichfield and Coventry
(1836).
Thomas Denman, first baron Denman (1779-1854)
English barrister and writer for the
Monthly Review; he was MP,
solicitor-general to Queen Caroline (1820), attorney-general (1820), lord chief justice
(1832-1850). Sydney Smith commented, “Denman everybody likes.”
Admiral Byron Drury (1815-1888)
Naval officer, the son of Henry Drury, assistant-master at Harrow; he entered the navy in
1828 and was commander of the Pandora (1850-56), involved with surveying Australia.
Henry Drury (1812-1863)
The eldest son of Henry Drury, assistant-master at Harrow; he was educated at Harrow and
Caius College, Cambridge (where he was classical lecturer 1838-39) and was archdeacon of
Wiltshire (1862-63).
John Keate (1773-1852)
Headmaster at Eton College (1809-1834) and canon of Windsor; he had a reputation as a
flogger.
Henry Gally Knight (1786-1846)
Poet, traveler, and architectural historian; after study at Eton was at Trinity College
with Byron; published oriental tales; notable among his later publications is
The Ecclesiastical Architecture of Italy from Constantine to the 15th
Century, 2 vols (1842-44). He was a friend of Samuel Rogers.
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 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).
Benjamin Sheppard (1747-1824)
Educated at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, where he was fellow (1770-1824) and
vice-provost (1788-89).
Henry Stewart, duke of Albany (1546-1567)
The second consort of Mary Queen of Scots and father of James VI and I; his murderers
have never been discovered.
