A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1822
Sydney Smith to Lady Mary Bennet, 22 August 1822
Foston, August, 1822.
Dear Lady Mary,
Many thanks for the venison, and say, if you please, what
ought to be said to my Lord. It was excellent. I shall make a bow to
Chillingham as I pass it on the stage-coach on my way to Scotland, where I am
going to see my friend Jeffrey.
I have had a great run of philosophers this summer;—Dr. and Mrs.
Marcet, Sir Humphry Davy
and Mr. Warburton, and divers small
mineralogists and chemists. Sir Humphry Davy was really
very agreeable,—neither witty, eloquent, nor sublime: but reasonable and
instructive.
I remember the laughing we had together at C—— House; and I
thank God, who has made me poor, that he has made me merry. I think it a better
gift than much wheat and bean land, with a doleful heart.
I am truly rejoiced at the recovery of Duke John; he is an honest, excellent person,
full of good feelings and right opinions, and moreover a hearty laugher. I am
glad to hear of the marriage of Mr. Russell with
Miss ——. The manufacture of Russells is a public and
important concern. Adieu!
Affectionately yours,
Sydney Smith.
Sir Humphry Davy, baronet (1778-1829)
English chemist and physicist, inventor of the safety lamp; in Bristol he knew Cottle,
Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey; he was president of the Royal Society (1820).
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.
Alexander John Gaspard Marcet (1770-1822)
Swiss physician who studied in Edinburgh and worked in London, where in 1799 he married
Jane Haldimand.
Jane Marcet [née Haldimand] (1769-1858)
Daughter of the Swiss banker Anthony Francis Haldimand; in 1799 she married Alexander
John Gaspard Marcet. She published scientific textbooks, works for children, and
Conversations on Political Economy (1816).
Henry Warburton [Eliot Warburton] (1784-1858)
Educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was a Radical MP for Bridport in
Dorset (1826-41) who took an interest in bodysnatching.