A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1824
Sydney Smith to Lord Crewe [February 1816?]
About 1824.
Dear Lord Crewe,
I cannot help writing a line to thank you for your obliging
note. I hope one day or other (wind and weather permitting) to pay my respects
to Lady Crewe and you, at Crewe Hall, of
goodly exterior, and, like a York pie, at this season filled with agreeable and
interesting contents.
To Mr. and Mrs. Cunliffe my kind remembrances, if you
please. I cannot trust myself with a message to Mrs.
Hopwood, but shall be very much obliged to your Lordship to
frame one, suitable to my profession, worthy of its object, and not forgetful
of my feelings; let it be clerical, elevated, and tender.
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MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. |
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P——’s single turnips turned out
extremely well; he is about to publish a tract “On the Effect of
Solitude on Vegetables.”
I remain, dear Lord
Crewe, very truly yours,
John Crewe, first baron Crewe (1742-1829)
Whig MP for Stafford and Cheshire; he was a stout supporter of Charles James Fox, who
rewarded him with a peerage in 1806.
Hon. Elizabeth Emma Cunliffe-Offley [née Crewe] (1780-1850)
The daughter of John Crewe, first Baron Crewe, and Lady Frances Crewe; in 1799 she
married Foster Cunliffe-Offley (1782-32). Maria Edgeworth described her as “very
agreeable and though not regularly handsome, very pleasing in countenance and
person.”
Foster Cunliffe-Offley (1782-1832)
The son of Sir Foster Cunliffe, third baronet (d. 1834); educated at Rugby and Trinity
College, Cambridge, he was a Whig MP for Chester (1831-32).
Sir George Philips, first baronet (1766-1847)
Textile magnate and Whig MP; in addition to his mills in Staffordshire and Lancashire he
was a trading partner with Richard “Conversation” Sharp. He was created baronet in
1828.