A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1822
Sydney Smith to Georgiana Meynell Ingram, November 1822
November, 1822.
My dear Mrs. Meynell,
I think Adam
Blair beautifully done—quite beautifully. It is not every lady who
confesses she reads it; but if you had been silent upon the subject, or even
| MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | 229 |
if you had denied it, you would have done yourself
very little good with me.
Our house is full of company: Miss Fox and Miss
Vernon; Mr. and Mrs. Spottiswode, with their children; and
Captain Gordon, an old and esteemed
friend of mine.
I hear from all your neighbours that you are much liked,
but that they should not have supposed you had written so many articles in the
Edinburgh Review as you are
known to have done.
God bless you, my dear friend! Keep for me always a little
corner of regard.
Hon. Caroline Fox (1767-1845)
The daughter of Stephen Fox, second Baron Holland of Foxley and niece of Charles James
Fox. Jeremy Bentham was among her admirers.
Alexander Gordon (1783-1873)
Of Auchlunies, the natural son of George, third earl of Aberdeen; he was tutored by
Sydney Smith before pursuing a military career and inheriting Ellon Castle, Aberdeenshire
in 1840. He was the father of the illustrator Eleanor Vere Boyle.
Helen Spottiswoode (d. 1870)
The daughter of Andrew Wauchope; in 1809 she married John Spottiswoode of Spottiswoode in
Berwick.
John Spottiswoode (1780 c.-1866)
Of Spottiswoode; the son of John Spottiswoode (d. 1805) and a grandson of William
Strahan, he was a county magistrate in Berwickshire.
Elizabeth Vernon (1762-1830)
The daughter of Richard Vernon MP (1726-1800) and Evelyn Leveson (d. 1800—the daughter of
Earl Gower). She was a friend of Caroline Fox and sister-in-law of Bobus Smith.