A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1839
Sydney Smith to Lord Holland, 5 October 1839
Combe Florey, Oct. 5th, 1839.
My dear Lord Holland,
This is an extract of a letter from Grant, of Rothiemurchis, to his daughter,
Mrs. ——, a friend of mine, who begs
I will apply to you in his favour; but you know him as well or better than I
do; and as he is a man of very liberal opinions, and always was so, when it was
ruinous to entertain liberal opinions, I have no doubt you will strive to
advance him, if you think he has other proper requisites.
You have been through dangers of fire and water, I hope
with impunity. Dr. Holland is here,—at
least I believe he is; for he is so locomotive, it is difficult to make similar
assertions of him.
Jane Craig [née Grant] (d. 1863)
The daughter of John Grant of Rothiemurchus (d. 1848); in 1825 she married Col. Gervase
Pennington (1761-1835), and, in 1841, James Thomson Gibson-Craig. She was a friend and
correspondent of Francis Jeffrey of the
Edinburgh Review.
Sir John Peter Grant of Rothiemurchus, (1774-1848)
MP for Great Grimsby (1812-18) and Tavistock (1819-26); as a politician he was patronized
by the Duke of Bedford until when pressed by his creditors he emigrated to India where he
pursued a legal career.
Sir Henry Holland, first baronet (1788-1873)
English physician and frequenter of Holland House, the author of
Travels in the Ionian Isles, Albania, Thessaly, Macedonia etc. during 1812 and
1813 (1814) and
Recollections of Past Life (1872). His
second wife, Saba, was the daughter of Sydney Smith.