A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1838
Sydney Smith to Georgiana Vernon Harcourt [Malcolm], [July] 1838
You see how desirous I am to do what you bid me. In
general, nothing is so foolish as to recommend a medicine. If I am doing a
foolish thing, you are not the first young lady who has driven an old gentleman
to this line of action.
That loose and disorderly young man, E—— H——, has mistaken my wishes for my powers,
and has told
410 | MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH. | |
you that I proposed to do, what I only said
I should be most happy to do. I have overstayed my time so much here, that I
must hasten home, and feed my starving flock. I
should have left London before, but how could I do so, in the pains and perils
of the Church, which I have been defending at all moral hazards? Young tells me
that nothing will induce the Archbishop to read my pamphlets, or to allow you
to read them.
The summer and the country, dear Georgina, have no charms for me. I look
forward anxiously to the return of bad weather, coal fires, and good society in
a crowded city. I have no relish for the country; it is a kind of healthy
grave. I am afraid you are not exempt from the delusions of flowers, green
turf, and birds; they all afford slight gratification, but not worth an hour of
rational conversation: and rational conversation in sufficient quantities is
only to be had from the congregation of a million of people in one spot. God
bless you!
Egerton Venables Vernon Harcourt (1803-1883)
Of Whitwell Hall, Yorkshire, the tenth son of Edward, archbishop of York; educated at
Christ Church, Oxford and the Inner Temple, he was a barrister and registrar of the diocese
of York.
Georgiana Malcolm [née Vernon] (d. 1886)
The daughter of Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt, bishop of York; in 1845 she married
General George Alexander Malcolm, son of General Sir John Malcolm.