‘You are a very pretty fellow indeed to talk of breaking your heart if we do not come to town next year, when you are breaking ours, and your promise into the bargain, by not coming to us this; then, you throw out hopes of your coming another time, and talk of next year to a man of seventy-seven and upwards, and with one foot—but I won’t tell lies; neither of mine is in the grave, nor, I really believe, very near it, and I hope to have many a pleasant walk and talk with you, though not here.’
He then fills several sheets with an elaborate discussion of the Latin and Greek pronunciation, and proceeds—
‘I remember hearing that Queen Caroline, the wife of George
II., when she first came to England, being very fond of oysters
and having heard the fame of ours, desired to have some; the finest and
freshest Colchester were procured; she would hardly touch them. Pyefleet were
tried; she kicked at them, and declared that English oysters were good for
nothing. One of her attendants guessed how the case stood, and luckily found
out some refuse oysters, all but stinking, and brought them to her.
“Ay,” she cried, “these are the right sort; these have
the true flavour of ours in Germany,” and devoured the whole
dish. Such, whether in an oyster or in
| 386 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES |
‘And so, by your own frank confession, you showed my
letter to Lord and Lady Grenville, and to a breach of promise added a breach of
confidence. Ah! double traître. As, however, they
were pleased with the manner in which I spoke of them, I cannot be angry, and I
must say that I have great reliance on your tact, and am sure you would never
show anything at all likely to hurt the feelings of either party. I certainly
did leave Dropmore with a very strong and most favourable impression of
everything there, in every way, and I wrote to you under that impression, just
as it had remained in my mind. I regret not having known them earlier in life.
I have lost a great deal, and I now feel truly anxious about him. I really
believe I should have had the very great pleasure of seeing them both at Foxley
this year, if he had not thought it necessary or, at least, prudent,
| BOWOOD IN THE OLD TIMES | 387 |
‘I wish I could have met you and the grand chorus of
Bards at Bowood; it would have been a lucky moment, for though I so much like
both Lord and Lady
Lansdowne, and am so curious to see the place again after a very
long interval, that I should have wished for nothing more, yet such a party I
must own would have enhanced the pleasure. The only time I ever saw Bowood was
with Knight, just forty years ago, for
it was just before he published his “Landscape” and I my “Essay.” Lord Lansdowne, I remember, used to look at us
with some surprise when we were making very bold remarks on all that we saw.
“He does not know,” said Knight to me,
“that we are great doctors.” Not long afterwards we laid
our respective claims before the public. This visit of ours was at the early
part of the French Revolution; we found at Bowood the Duchesse de Levis and her mother; the next day
Talleyrand arrived while we were at
dinner. I was very much struck with the look he cast round the company, as he
slowly walked in—it had the appearance of sullen haughtiness with a sort
of suspicious examination. The day after in came the Duc de Levis, with a very different allure; a more ill-looking, mean-looking fellow I never
saw, and so his handsome wife seemed to think by her manner of receiving him.
So much for old times and the company I did meet at Bowood, now for
| 388 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES |
‘Crabbe, I once saw and that’s all. I might have been acquainted with him, for Sir Joshua invited me to dinner, and told me I should meet Crabbe and Johnson. I had some engagement, probably (for I was then, as Ste. Fox used to say of himself, a young man of wit and pleasure about town) at some fine house to meet fine gentlemen and ladies: whatever it was, I was blockhead enough not to break it, and I have never forgiven myself. The dinner I went to and the company there I have never thought of from that time to this; the dinner I did not go to I never should have forgotten, and if I had gone should now be recollecting every circumstance with pleasure and satisfaction, instead of crying, Oh, fool! fool! fool! I am, as you know, a great admirer of Crabbe; so were Charles Fox and Fitzpatrick. The first poem of his I ever saw (I believe his first work) was “The Library”: Charles brought it to Foxley soon after it came out and read a good deal of it to us, Hare being one of the audience. I particularly remember his reading the part where Crabbe has described “the ancient worthies of romance,” and has given in about twenty lines the essence of knight-errantry. When Fox came to
‘And shadowy forms with staring eyes stalk round, |
| SHERIDAN A BAD SHOT | 389 |
‘Moore I do not even know by sight. I could wish to be as well acquainted with him as I am with many of his works, for by what I have been told I shall not like him less than I do them; if I should be in town next year you must bring us together. His “Life of Sheridan” I shall send for the moment it is out, both on account of the writer and the subject. At one time I saw a good deal of Sheridan: he and his first wife passed some time here, and he is an instance that a taste for poetry and for scenery are not always united. Had this house been in the midst of Hounslow Heath, he could not have taken less interest in all around it. His delight was in shooting all day, and every day, and my gamekeeper said that of all the gentlemen he had ever been out with he never knew so bad a shot. This sorry performer “dans la guerre aux oiseaux” was, as all can bear witness,
‘Dans les combats d’esprit savant maître
d’escrime. |
| 390 | ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES |
‘And from the dregs of life sometimes receive What the first sprightly runnings could not give. |
‘With all our best regards and wishes rancune tenante, believe me, most truly yours,
