A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1843
Sydney Smith to Edward Venables-Vernon Harcourt, 20 July 1843
Combe Florey, July 20th,
1843.
Monseigneur,
I have taken the liberty to send your Grace the half of a
Cheddar cheese. It is directed to you, at Nuneham Steventon. You will be glad
to hear my knee is better a good deal. I have written two letters to the
Reverend Leibnitz Newton Lavoisier W——
H——, to know when he means to come here, and can get no answer.
There must be something wrong at the Poles or the Equator, or in the Milky Way.
Pray jog him.
I am learning to sing some of Moore’s songs, which I think I shall do to great
perfection. I found here everything very comfortable and very beautiful; as I
left everything, though in a very superior degree, at Nuneham.
I beg my kind regards to dear Georgiana, and remain, my dear Lord, with affection and
respect, always yours,
William Venables Vernon Harcourt (1789-1871)
The son of Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt, archbishop of York; after serving in the Navy
he attended Christ Church, Oxford and was chaplain to his father and canon of York. He was
a geologist and founder of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.
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.
Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
Irish poet and biographer, author of the
Irish Melodies (1807-34),
The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and
Lalla
Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.