I think it was rather bad taste on my part to speak
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I do not know whether you are acquainted with the Philips with whom I am now staying; he is very rich, the discoverer of cotton, and an old friend of mine. I am going to preach a charity sermon next Sunday. I desire to make three or four hundred weavers cry, which it is impossible to do since the late rise in cottons.
And now, dear Lady Mary, do you want anything in the flowered cotton, or Manchester velvet, or chintz line? Remember, this is not a town where there are only a few shops, but it is the great magazine from which flow all the mercers’ shops in the known world. Here tabbies and tabinets are first concocted! Here muslin—elementary, rudimental, early, primeval muslin—is meditated; broad and narrow sarsnet first see the light, and narrow and broad edging! Avail yourself, dear lady, of my being here, to prepare your conquering armour for your next campaign.
I shall be in town by the end of March, and shall have real pleasure in seeing you. I think you begin to feel at ease in my company: certainly, you were much improved in that particular the last time we met. God bless you! I admire you very much, and praise you often.
Nobody, I assure you, is more desirous of living
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I entirely agree to, and sympathize with, your opposition to the suspension: nothing can be more childish and more mischievous. Christianity in danger of being written down by doggrel rhymes! England about to be divided into little parcels, like a chessboard! The flower and chivalry of the realm flying before one armed apothecary!
How can old Mother G—— and Mother F—— swallow such trash as this?
I say nothing of the great and miserable loss we have all sustained. He will always live in our recollection; and it will be useful to us all, in the great occasions of life, to reflect how Horner would act and think in them, if God had prolonged his life.
Ever, my dear Lord Holland, most truly and affectionately yours,
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It will give us the most sincere pleasure to see you here, if it is in your power to reach us. Let us detain you (if you do come) as long as your other avocations will permit.
I am not without hopes of being in town, but do not like leaving the country without collecting the little rents that are due to me; indeed, if I omitted that ceremony before leaving my friends, I most probably should never see them again. Lord Holland has told you the danger I was exposed to, of becoming rector of Covent Garden, of hortescortical notoriety. I think this is placing a clergyman in the van of the battle.
I had a letter yesterday from Philips; he begins to tremble for Manchester. In this part of the country, there is not the slightest degree of distress among the poor. Everybody is employed, and at fair wages; but we are purely agricultural. I was surprised to find Bobus among the anti-alarmists; he does not always keep such good company.
We saw Jeffrey on his way down. I should be glad to know whether he made a good figure in the House of Lords, and produced any effect. I had not seen him for some time, and found him improved in manner; in essentials he cannot improve.
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Your letter gave Mrs. Sydney and me great pleasure. Once out of London you will rapidly recover;—and here, my dear Philips, let me warn you against the melancholy effects of temperance. You will do me the justice to remember how often I have entered my protest against it: depend upon it, the wretchedness of human life is only to be encountered upon the basis of meat and wine.
Poor Ponsonby is numbered with the just. I had a letter last week from Lord Grey, lamenting his loss in very feeling terms.
Brougham is here, that is, at York. Scarlett is detained in town, and does not come for the first week. I hope you are pleased with the spirit of the magistrates. Lord —— has lived long among them, and they knew him to be a fool; this is a great advantage. At this distance from London no magistrate believes that a Secretary of State can be a fool. I am much pleased with the St. Helena manuscript,—it seems smartly written, and full of good sense; it is a very good imitation of what Buonaparte might have said.
It will give us great pleasure to come to you this year. I hope nothing will happen to prevent it; though it commonly happens, when a person is just going to set out for any place where he wishes to go, that he falls down and breaks his leg in two places; or, having arrived, is seized with a scarlet fever; or is forced to return, hearing that his son’s eye is knocked out by a cricket-ball.
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I sincerely hope, my dear Philips, that you are recovering your strength rapidly, and that, in the enjoyment of your pretty place, you will forget your past severe sufferings. Ever your sincere friend,
I write to you from Scarborough, with a clear view of the Hague and Amsterdam.
It is very curious to consider in what manner Horner gained, in so extraordinary a degree, the affections of such a number of persons of both sexes,—all ages, parties, and ranks in society; for he was not remarkably good-tempered, nor particularly lively and agreeable; and an inflexible politician on the unpopular side. The causes are, his high character for probity, honour, and talents; his fine countenance; the benevolent interest he took in the concerns of all his friends; his simple and gentlemanlike manners; his untimely death.
I received your note at Scarborough, where I am with my
brother, his family, and my
father. From
| 142 | MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. |
Under these circumstances, it will be quite impossible to enjoy the pleasure of your company. Some other time I hope I shall be more fortunate. I am truly obliged to you for your friendly intention and recollection of my invitation.
Our friend Philips is getting much better, and is making very laudable resolutions of intemper nee, having been very much blamed by Baillie for his abstemious habits.
I remain, dear Davenport, sincerely yours,
Nothing can be more unjust and natural than the conduct of parents in placing their children. They have recourse to ten thousand advisers, and appeal to each as if their whole confidence were placed in him.
Somebody has now advised Mr. B—— that Mr. —— is the best tutor in Edinburgh; and to Mr. ——, I presume, his son will go. I am extremely sorry for all the trouble I have given you, but as my residence in Scotland is so well known, appeals to me are made from intimate friends; and what can I do? The same thing may happen to you about English schools, and then you may take your revenge upon me.
If ever you find yourself in an idle mood, I wish you would
send me an accurate account of what is done in the High School at Edinburgh.
Jeffrey descanted
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Jeffrey has thrashed —— happily and deservedly;—but is it not time now to lay up his cudgel? Heads that are plastered and trepanned all over are no longer fit for breaking.
M ——, I see, retires from his present situation, to sit in judgment upon the lives and properties of his fellow-creatures. When a man is a fool, in England we only trust him with the immortal concerns of human beings.
The drawings, dear Lady, are not yet arrived, though I dare say they are on the road. We have one drawing of yours in our drawing-room, and shall be delighted to multiply such ornaments, for their own merit, and for the recollections they excite.
My sermon is on the road, with other heavy baggage. I will
read it when it comes; and if what I have said of Mrs. Fry is worth extracting, I shall be happy to send it to
you: but I am a rough writer of sermons, thinking less care necessary for that
which is spoken, than that which is written; or rather, I should
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Poor Bobus has, as you see, lost his election; a trick played upon him by that extraordinary person who looks over Lincoln, and who, looking, saw that he had not his clerical brother with him, and so watched his opportunity to do him a mischief.
I am heartily glad to see the elections take so favourable a turn. The people are all mad; what can they possibly mean by being so wise and so reasonable?
I recommend you to read the first and second volumes of the four volumes of the Abbe Georgel’s Memoirs. You will suppose, from this advice, that there is something improper in the third and fourth: but, to spare you the trouble of beginning with them, I assure you I only exclude them from my recommendation because they are dull. You will see, in the second volume, a detailed account of the celebrated Necklace Story, which regaled your papa and mamma before you were born,—an event, by the bye, for which I always feel myself much indebted to Lord and Lady Tankerville. God bless you!
These never was better venison, or venison treated with more respect and attention. Chillingham is a place of the greatest merit.
I envy Brougham his
trip to Paris. There is no-
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I have not framed your drawing yet, because I want another to accompany it, and then they shall both go up together. I do not know whether this is exigeant or not; but I have so great an idea of your fertility in these matters, that I consider a drawing to be no more to you than an epic poem to Coleridge, or a prison and police bill to some of your relations.
I sent you hasty notice, two or three days ago, that your pretty and elegant drawings had arrived. They are hung up, and give me a ray of cheerfulness and satisfaction whenever I look upon them.
Lord Tankerville is very kind to me, and I am much flattered by his attention. I will write to Mr. Bailey on the very interesting subject of venison,—a subject which is deemed amongst the clergy a professional one.
I hardly know any man who deserves
any woman;
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There is a great difference of opinion about Scott’s new novel. At Holland House it is much run down: I dare not oppose my opinion to such an assay or proof-house; but it made me cry and laugh very often, and I was very sorry when it was over, and so I cannot in justice call it dull.
The few words I said of Mrs. Fry (whom God bless, as well as you!) were these:—
“There is a spectacle which this town now exhibits, that I will venture to call the most solemn, the most Christian, the most affecting, which any human being ever witnessed! To see that holy woman in the midst of wretched prisoners,—to see them calling earnestly upon God, soothed by her voice, animated by her look, clinging to the hem of her garment, and worshiping her as the only human being who has ever loved them, or taught them, or noticed them, or spoken to them of God!—this is the sight which breaks down the pageantry of the world,—which tells us that the short hour of life is passing away, and that we must prepare by some good deeds to meet God; that it is time to give, to pray, to comfort,—to go, like this blessed woman, and do the work of our heavenly Saviour, Jesus, among the guilty, among the broken-hearted, and the sick; and to labour in the deepest and darkest wretchedness of life!” God bless you!
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I am afraid you will laugh the flower-garden to scorn; and yet the living pattern is the prettiest thing of the kind I ever saw. I cannot see why you should disdain formal and regular shapes. In small spaces of ground contiguous to your house, and with the blooming midsummer blaze of flowers, they are surely very pretty. And in this mode were these gardens first brought over to us from Holland and France.
I journeyed on to York with very little ennui. As long as the coach is in Northumberland, I think the conversation turns upon the Duke of Northumberland and Lord Grey. A fat lady in the corner was very partial to the latter; a merchant from Newcastle did not like his principles;—“All the Greys are passionate, but it is soon over” “Sir Harry shot an eagle;” “Lord Grey can spend thirty thousand a year, clear,” etc. etc.
I found everybody very well at my home, and various schemes laid for Christmas feasts, in which, as you may suppose, I shall be aiding and abetting. I am very much obliged to you and Lord Grey for your kindness during my stay with you. Amid your lords and dukes, pray keep a bit, however small, in your recollection for me.
God bless you, dear Lady Grey! Ever, with sincere respect and regard, yours,
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I was very glad to hear you were so well as to despise the south of France, and remain at Paris.
The Duke of Devonshire told me everything would go on as usual at Castle Howard. Lord Morpeth is very much liked wherever he has presented himself, and appears to be sure of his election. The Protestants are very angry that four Papists should be elected, but they have not as yet brought forward any Martin Luther against us.
Little Du Cane has been here,—a very amiable, pleasing person. I shall ask —— for his defects; they are not apparent at a first acquaintance. Lord —— (innocent lamb!) has been distributing cake and wine to the little children of ——, and presiding at the Bible Society. If he take to benevolence, he will be the happier for it.
Have you read ‘Matilda’? If you have, will you not tell me what you think of it? You are as cautious as Whishaw. I mentioned to Lord Normanby that it was the book selected as a victim for the next number of the Edinburgh Review, and that my brethren had complimented me with the knife. Lady Normanby gave a loud shriek!
All the branches of the Howards are
at Castle Howard. The music went off very well; £20,500 was collected. I did
not go once. Music for such a length of time (unless under sentence of a jury)
I will not submit to. What pleasure is there in pleasure, if quantity is not
attended to, as well as quality?
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