Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries
William Wordsworth to Samuel Rogers, 7 November 1831
‘Rydal Mount: 7th Nov., 1831.
‘My dear Rogers,—Several weeks since I heard, through Mr. Quillinan, who I believe had it from
Moxon, that you were unwell, and
this unpleasant communication has weighed on my mind, but I did not write,
trusting that either from Mr. Q. or Moxon I should hear
something of the particulars. These expectations have been vain, and now I
venture, not without anxiety, to make enquiries of yourself. Be so good then as
let me hear how you are, and as soon as you can. If you saw Sir Walter Scott, or have met with Mr. and Mrs.
Lockhart since their return to town, you will have learned ![]()
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from them that Dora
and I reached Abbotsford in time to have two or three days of Sir
Walter’s company before he left his home. I need not dwell
upon the subject of his health, as you cannot but have heard as authentic
particulars as I could give you, and of more recent date. From Abbotsford we
went to Roslin, Edinburgh, Stirling, Loch Kettering [Katrine], Killin,
Dalmally, Oban, the Isle of Mull—too late in the season for
Staffa—and returned by Inverary, Loch Lomond, Glasgow, and the falls of
the Clyde. The foliage was in its most beautiful state, and the weather, though
we had five or six days of heavy rain, was upon the whole very favourable; for
we had most beautiful appearances of floating vapours, rainbows and fragments
of rainbows, weather-galls, and sunbeams innumerable, so that I never saw
Scotland under a more poetic aspect. Then there was in addition the pleasure of
recollection, and the novelty of showing to my daughter places and objects
which had been so long in my remembrance. About the middle of summer a hope was
held out to us that we should see you in the North, which would indeed have
given us great pleasure, as we often, very often, talk, and still oftener
think, about you.
‘It is some months since I heard from Moxon. I learned in Scotland that the
bookselling trade was in a deplorable state, and that nothing was saleable but
newspapers on the Revolutionary side. So that I fear, unless our poor friend be
turned patriot, he cannot be prospering at present.
‘We, thank God, are all well, and should be very glad to
hear the same of yourself and brother and sister. ![]()
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My son William is gone to Carlisle as my sub-distributor, how long to
remain there, heaven knows! He is likely to come in for a broken head, as he
expects to be enrolled as a special constable, for the protection of the gaols
and cathedral at Carlisle, and for Rose Castle—the bishop’s country residence which has
been threatened. But no more of these disagreeables. My heart is full of
kindness towards you, and I wish much to hear of you. The state of my eyes has
compelled me to use Mrs. W.’s pen.
‘Most affectionately yours,
‘Notwithstanding the flourish above, I have written
to my son to stay at home and guard his stamps.’
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).
Edward Moxon (1801-1858)
Poet and bookseller; after employment at Longman and Company he set up in 1830 with
financial assistance from Samuel Rogers and became the leading publisher of literary
poetry.
Hugh Percy, bishop of Carlisle (1784-1856)
The son of Algernon Percy, first earl of Beverley, educated at Eton and St John's
College, Cambridge; he was dean of Canterbury (1826) and bishop of Carlisle (1827) Opposed
to reform, he was burned in effigy during the Chartist period.
Dora Quillinan [née Wordsworth] (1804-1847)
The daughter of William Wordsworth who in 1841 married the poet Edward Quillinan despite
her father's concerns about his debts.
Edward Quillinan (1791-1851)
A poet of Irish Catholic descent who pursued a military career while issuing several
volumes published by his father-in-law Edgerton Brydges; after the death of his first wife
Jemima he married Dora Wordsworth in 1841.
Samuel Rogers (1763-1855)
English poet, banker, and aesthete, author of the ever-popular
Pleasures of Memory (1792),
Columbus (1810),
Jaqueline (1814), and
Italy (1822-28).
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
With Coleridge, author of
Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth
survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.
William Wordsworth (1810-1883)
The second son of William Wordsworth; of St. Ann's Hill, Carlisle, he was a justice of
the peace.
