Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries
Lord Brougham to Samuel Rogers, [1845 c.?]
‘Grafton Street: Thursday.
‘My dear R.,—I sent to ask you to join a very
small party to dinner, but you are out of town.
‘I also want to do an act of mere and strict justice in
thanking you for the gratification you afforded me a few weeks ago while at
Cannes. In the solitude of one of my evenings (for the sun even there only
shines in the day) I read once more your charming poems; and I never was more
certain than that I discovered many new and great
300 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES | |
beauties, and that your future fame will eclipse your past. Pray, who is the
friend to whom your exquisite “epistle” is addressed? I always
supposed it to be Sharp. I had some
doubts on reading it lately.
‘When do you come? I am now without my green shade, but
am still rather lame from the folly of travelling three nights consecutively
last October.
‘Yours ever sincerely,
‘Lady Malet is
with us, and desires her kindest regards.’
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).
Richard Sharp [Conversation Sharp] (1759-1835)
English merchant, Whig MP, and member of the Holland House set; he published
Letters and Essays in Poetry and Prose (1834).