The “Pope” of Holland House
John Whishaw to Charles Romilly, 14 July 1835
July 14, 1835.
The party at Mr. Spring
Rice’s yesterday was large and miscellaneous. The Archbishop of Dublin, Lord Kerry, Sir Geo.
Philips, Senior, Peacock, the
tutor of Trinity, Babbage, Lieut. Drummond, Macculloch,
and two or three others.
The Archbishop of Dublin (Whately) is, as you know, a singular person, with much
out-of-the-way knowledge which he produces “in season and out of
season,” one of those whom it is always pleasant to meet. Yesterday
he chose to talk about metaphysics, on which he was neither satisfactory nor
amusing. Upon mention being made of Emanuel
Swedenborg, the founder of the New Jerusalem sect, he observed that
he was a man of some merit as a Professor of
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some Swedish University, and composed some good
philosophical treatises, and that if he had died under sixty he would never have
been heard of; but that after attaining that age he became a “dreamer of
dreams,” and published works in his dotage so eminently nonsensical
as to procure him a never-dying reputation in the Christian world.
In telling you of my interview with my old friend Scarlett1 yesterday morning,
and of his pleasant and affecting allusions to our intercourse of former times, I
ought to have repeated a favourite passage from Scott’s “Lady of the
Lake,” in the vision at the end (if I recollect) of the first
canto:—
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“Again return’d the scenes of youth,
Of confident, undoubting truth,
Again his soul he interchanged
With friends whose hearts were long estranged.
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They come in dim procession led
The cold, the faithless, and the dead,
As warm each hand, each brow as gay,
As if they parted yesterday.”
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I daresay you will agree as to the merit of these lines, but
their beauty cannot be fully felt except in advanced life.
Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
Cambridge-educated mathematician and computer pioneer, in which capacity in 1843 he
published a paper in collaboration with Byron's daughter, Ada Augusta, countess of
Lovelace.
Thomas Drummond (1797-1840)
Educated at Edinburgh University, he was an inventor of scientific instruments, chairman
of the Parliamentary Boundary Commission (1831), and under-secretary of Ireland
(1835).
George Peacock (1791-1858)
Educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was tutor and professor of astronomy
(1836-58); he was appointed dean of Ely in 1839.
Sir George Philips, first baronet (1766-1847)
Textile magnate and Whig MP; in addition to his mills in Staffordshire and Lancashire he
was a trading partner with Richard “Conversation” Sharp. He was created baronet in
1828.
Thomas Spring Rice, first Baron Monteagle (1790-1866)
The son of Stephen Edward of Limerick; he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and
was MP for Limerick City (1820-32) and Cambridge borough (1832-39). He was chancellor of
the exchequer (1835-39) and contributed to the
Edinburgh
Review.
James Scarlett, first baron Abinger (1769-1844)
English barrister and politician educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and the Inner
Temple; he was a Whig MP (1819-34) who served as attorney-general in the Canning and
Wellington ministries.
Edward Stanley, first Baron Monteagle (1460 c.-1523)
The son of Thomas Stanley, first earl of Derby; fighting under Thomas Howard, earl of
Surrey, he was instrumental in the English victory at Flodden Field.
Richard Whately, archbishop of Dublin (1787-1863)
The nephew of the Shakespeare critic Thomas Whately (d. 1772); he was educated at Oriel
College, Oxford where he was professor of political economy (1829-31) and was archbishop of
Dublin (1831-63). A prolific writer, he offered a rationalist defense of
Anglicanism.
