A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1823
Sydney Smith to Lady Holland, 19 October 1823
We have been visiting country squires. I got on very well,
and am reckoned popular. We came last from —— ——. Mrs. —— and I begin to be better acquainted, and she improves.
I hope I do; though, as I profess to live with open
doors and windows, I am seen (by those who think it worth while to look at me)
as well in five minutes as in five years.
I distinguished myself a good deal at M. A. Taylor’s in dressing salads; pray
tell Luttrell this. I have thought about
salads much, and will talk over the subject with you and Mr.
Luttrell when I have the pleasure to find you together.
I am rejoiced at the Duke of
Norfolk’s success, and should have liked to see Lord Holland’s joy. A few scraps of victory
are thrown to the wise and just in the long battle of life.
* * * * *
I could have told before that bark would not do for the
Duke of Bedford. What will do for him is, carelessness, amusement, fresh air, and the most
scrupulous management of sleep, food, and exercise; also, there must be
friction, and mercury, and laughing.
The Duchess wrote me a
very amusing note in ![]()
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answer to mine, for which I am much
obliged. All duchesses seem agreeable to clergymen; but she would really be a
very clever, agreeable woman, if she were married to a neighbouring vicar; and
I should often call upon her.
Dear Lady Holland, your
affectionate friend,
Sydney Smith.
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.
Bernard Edward Howard, twelfth duke of Norfolk (1765-1842)
Educated at the English College at Douai, in 1815 he succeeded his third cousin, Charles
Howard, eleventh duke (d. 1815), and took his seat in Parliament after passage of the Roman
Catholic Relief Bill of 1829.
Henry Luttrell (1768-1851)
English wit, dandy, and friend of Thomas Moore and Samuel Rogers; he was the author of
Advice to Julia, a Letter in Rhyme (1820).
Georgiana Russell, duchess of Bedford [née Gordon] (1781-1853)
The daughter of Alexander Gordon, fourth duke of Gordon; in 1803, after first being
engaged to his brother, she became the second wife of John Russell, sixth duke of Bedford
and became a prominent Whig hostess. Sydney Smith described her as “full of amusement
and sense.”
Frances Ann Taylor [née Vane] (d. 1835)
Whig hostess, the daughter of Sir Henry Vane, first baronet (1729–1794); in 1789 she
married the politician Michael Angelo Taylor.
Michael Angelo Taylor (1757 c.-1834)
Educated at Corpus Christi College, Oxford, he was MP (1784-34) for a variety of
constituencies; originally a Tory he gravitated to the Whigs over the course of his long
career.
