A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1810
Sydney Smith to Lady Holland, 3 November 1810
Heslington, Nov. 3rd, 1810.
My dear Lady Holland,
I hope you are returned quite well, and much amused, from
your Portsmouth excursion; for I presume you are
returned, as I see Lord Holland has been
speaking in the House of Lords.
We had a brisk run on the road,—Horner, Murray,
Jeffrey, Mrs. ——, my brother Cecil. We liked Mrs. ——. It was wrong, at
her time of life, to be circumvented by ——’s diagrams; but there is some excuse in the novelty of
the attack, as I believe she is the first
76 | MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | |
lady that ever
fell a victim to algebra, or that was geometrically led from the paths of
discretion.
I had occasion to write to Brougham on some indifferent subject, and stated to him (as I
knew it would give him pleasure) the bullion glory of Horner; every ounce of him being now worth, at
the Mint price, £3 17s. 4½d.!
Brougham expresses himself in raptures.
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).
Lady Jane Davy [née Kerr] (1780-1855)
Society hostess who in 1798 married Shuckburgh Ashby Apreece (d. 1807) and Humphry Davy
in 1812.
Henry Richard Fox, third baron Holland (1773-1840)
Whig politician and literary patron; Holland House was for many years the meeting place
for reform-minded politicians and writers. He also published translations from the Spanish
and Italian;
Memoirs of the Whig Party was published in 1852.
Francis Horner (1778-1817)
Scottish barrister and frequent contributor to the
Edinburgh
Review; he was a Whig MP and member of the Holland House circle.
Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850)
Scottish barrister, Whig MP, and co-founder and editor of the
Edinburgh
Review (1802-29). As a reviewer he was the implacable foe of the Lake School of
poetry.
John Playfair (1748-1819)
Professor of Mathematics at Edinburgh University and Whig man of letters who contributed
to the
Edinburgh Review.
Cecil Smith (1772-1813)
The younger brother of Sydney Smith; educated at Eton College, he served in the Madras
Civil Service, 1789-1813.