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A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Chapter IX
Sydney Smith to Caroline Neville Lawley-Thompson, 6 August 1829
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
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Author's Preface
Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Index
Editor’s Preface
Letters 1801
Letters 1802
Letters 1803
Letters 1804
Letters 1805
Letters 1806
Letters 1807
Letters 1808
Letters 1809
Letters 1810
Letters 1811
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Letters 1814
Letters 1815
Letters 1816
Letters 1817
Letters 1818
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Letters 1820
Letters 1821
Letters 1822
Letters 1823
Letters 1824
Letters 1825
Letters 1826
Letters 1827
Letters 1828
Letters 1829
Letters 1830
Letters 1831
Letters 1832
Letters 1833
Letters 1834
Letters 1835
Letters 1836
Letters 1837
Letters 1838
Letters 1839
Letters 1840
Letters 1841
Letters 1842
Letters 1843
Letters 1844
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“Combe Florey, August 6, 1829.
“Dear Mrs. Thomson,*

“I never heard till I came here of the intended kindness of Mr. Thomson and yourself, with a view to

* The present Dowager Lady Wenlock.

226MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
my remaining in Yorkshire. I was sensibly touched with it, and have laid it up in the archives of my mind. As to wood and lawn, cedar and fur, and pine and branching palm, I have exchanged for the better. Good, excellent, and amiable friends, such as we met with at Escrich, I did not expect to find. Fortune may grant such favours once in a life, but they must not be counted upon. Your family are always among our sincere regrets. This is a beautiful place; the house larger than Foston, with a wood of three or four acres belonging to it close to the house, and a glebe of sixty acres surrounding it, in a country everywhere most beautiful and fertile. The people are starving,—in the last stage of poverty and depression. Mrs. Sydney, from sorrow and novelty, has forgotten her throat; I think the complaint has nearly vanished. I am busy from morning till night, in building,—not from the love of architecture, but from the fear of death,—not from a preference for any particular collocation of stones, but from an apprehension that, disdaining all collocation (as they are apt to do in ancient parsonages), they should come thundering about my head. In the meantime I have, from time to time, bitter visitations of sorrow. I never suspected how children weave themselves about the heart. My son had that quality which is longest remembered by those who remain behind,—a deep and earnest affection and respect for his parents. God save you, my dear Mrs. Thomson, from similar distress! Have you read ——’s America? If you have, I hope you dislike
MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.227
it as much as I do. It is amusing, but very unjust and unfair. It will make his fortune at the Admiralty. Then he temporizes about the Slave Trade; with which no man should ever hold parley, but speak of it with abhorrence, as the greatest of all human abominations. We stay here till the beginning of the year, and then go into residence at Bristol. I hope to be in town in the spring, and hereafter to pay you a visit in Yorkshire, which will be a great pleasure to me. Accept, my dear Mrs. and Mr. Thomson, our united respect and regards,

“And believe me,
“Your sincere friend,
“Sydney Smith.”