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A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1835
Sydney Smith to Henry Holland, [8] June 1835
INTRODUCTION & INDEXES
DOCUMENT INFORMATION
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Author's Preface
Contents
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Chapter VII
Chapter VIII
Chapter IX
Chapter X
Chapter XI
Chapter XII
Index
Editor’s Preface
Letters 1801
Letters 1802
Letters 1803
Letters 1804
Letters 1805
Letters 1806
Letters 1807
Letters 1808
Letters 1809
Letters 1810
Letters 1811
Letters 1812
Letters 1813
Letters 1814
Letters 1815
Letters 1816
Letters 1817
Letters 1818
Letters 1819
Letters 1820
Letters 1821
Letters 1822
Letters 1823
Letters 1824
Letters 1825
Letters 1826
Letters 1827
Letters 1828
Letters 1829
Letters 1830
Letters 1831
Letters 1832
Letters 1833
Letters 1834
Letters 1835
Letters 1836
Letters 1837
Letters 1838
Letters 1839
Letters 1840
Letters 1841
Letters 1842
Letters 1843
Letters 1844
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Combe Florey, June, 1835.
My dear Holland,

We shall have the greatest pleasure in receiving you and yours; and if you were twice as numerous, it would be so much the better.

What do you think of this last piece of legislation for boroughs? It was necessary to do a good deal: the question is one of degree. I shall be in town on Tuesday, the 23rd, and, I hope, under better auspices than last year. I have followed your directions, and therefore deserve a better fortune than fell to my lot on that occasion. —— is the Mahomet of rhubarb and magnesia,—the greatest medical impostor I know.

I am suffering from my old complaint, the hayfever (as it is called). My fear is, perishing by deliquescence; I melt away in nasal and lachrymal profluvia. My remedies are warm pediluvium, cathartics,
362MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.
topical application of a watery solution of opium to eyes, ears, and the interior of the nostrils. The membrane is so irritable, that light, dust, contradiction, an absurd remark, the sight of a dissenter,—anything, sets me sneezing; and if I begin sneezing at twelve, I don’t leave off till two o’clock, and am heard distinctly in Taunton when the wind sets that way,—a distance of six miles. Turn your mind to this little curse. If consumption is too powerful for physicians, at least they should not suffer themselves to be outwitted by such little upstart disorders as the hay-fever.

I am very glad you married my daughter, for I am sure you are both very happy; and I assure you I am proud of my son-in-law.

I did not think ——, with all his nonsense, could have got down to tar-water. I have as much belief in it as I have in holy water; it is the water has done the business, not the tar. They could not induce the sensual peer to drink water, but by mixing it with nonsense, and disguising the simplicity of the receipt. You must have a pitched battle with him about his tar-water, and teach him what he has never learnt,—the rudiments of common sense. Kindest love to dear Saba. Ever your affectionate father,

Sydney Smith.