A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1811
Sydney Smith to Lady Holland, 17 July 1811
Heslington, July 17th, 1811.
My dear Lady Holland,
We have had Dugald
Stewart and his family here for three or four days. We spoke
much of the weather and other harmless subjects. He became however once a
little elevated; and, in the gaiety of his soul, let out some opinions which
will doubtless make him writhe with remorse. He went so far as to say he
considered the King’s recovery as very
problematical.
The Archbishop says
that Lord Ellenborough said to him,
“Take care of Lord Holland,
and I will take care of Romilly. The
one wants to attack the Church, the other the Law.” I assured his
Grace it was a calumny.
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.
Edward Venables-Vernon Harcourt, archbishop of York (1757-1847)
The son of George Venables-Vernon, first Baron Vernon, educated at Westminster and
All-Souls College, Oxford; he was prebendary of Gloucester (1785-91), bishop of Carlisle
(1791-1807), and archbishop of York (1807-47).
Sir Samuel Romilly (1757-1818)
Reformer of the penal code and the author of
Thoughts on Executive
Justice (1786); he was a Whig MP and Solicitor-General who died a suicide.
Dugald Stewart (1753-1828)
Professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh University (1785-1809); he was author of
Elements of the Philosophy of the Human Mind (1792-93).