My Friends and Acquaintance
R. Plumer Ward XXII
Robert Plumer Ward to Peter George Patmore, 29 August 1841
“Brighton, August 29, 1841.
“My dear Patmore,—Your
letter announces great events; and, supposing the annunciation confirmed, most
truly rejoices ![]()
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me. Do you know that the moment I heard of
poor Hook’s death, which was from
Dr. Croly, at a dinner at Horace Smith’s, my instant thought was
that you ought, and probably would, succeed him; and I had actually prepared to
write to you, to persuade your making the attempt, which, happily, it should
seem, C. himself has forestalled. I need
not say how I wish it, and my anxiety for it perhaps a little influences me in
the answer I am about to give your letter of yesterday, for the first thing
that occurred to me was that, until the thing was certain, and that you were
actually installed in your new dignity, you should wave the immediate
prosecution of your views as to your own intended publication.
“Even without a seeming leaning towards this in your
letter, my opinion on this head had forcible hold of me, and I should have
written as strongly as I could to advise it. You must, however, yourself be at
least as forcibly impressed with the absolute necessity there is of allowing
nothing extraneous to interfere, so as to hazard a possibility of losing so
great an object.
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“I wish I could tell you anything good of my feeble
girl. I hope it is not indication of the reverse, but we are totally prohibited
from thinking of Okeover again, or even of England, for the next twelve months;
so that our views (and that immediately) are directed to the Continent, but in
the first instance to town, where we think of being in the next month.
“The blow to all my comforts, in the wane of life, is
more than I can tell you, or would like to do if I could. Yours,
Henry Colburn (1785-1855)
English publisher who began business about 1806; he co-founded the
New
Monthly Magazine in 1814 and was publisher of the
Literary
Gazette from 1817.
George Croly (1780-1860)
Anglo-Irish poet, novelist, and essayist for Blackwood's; his gothic novel
Salathiel (1828) was often reprinted.
Theodore Edward Hook (1788-1841)
English novelist, wit, and friend of the Prince of Wales; he edited the
John Bull (1820) and appears as the Lucian Gay of Disraeli's
Conigsby and as Mr. Wagg in
Vanity Fair.
Peter George Patmore [Tims] (1786-1855)
English writer and friend of Charles Lamb and Leigh Hunt; an early contributor to
Blackwood's, he was John Scott's second in the fatal duel, editor of
the
Court Journal, and father of the poet Coventry Patmore.
Horace Smith (1779-1849)
English poet and novelist; with his brother James he wrote
Rejected
Addresses (1812) and
Horace in London (1813). Among his
novels was
Brambletye House (1826).
New Monthly Magazine. (1814-1884). Founded in reaction to the radically-inclined
Monthly Magazine,
the
New Monthly was managed under the proprietorship of Henry
Colburn from 1814 to 1845. It was edited by Thomas Campbell and Cyrus Redding from
1821-1830.
