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A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1844
Sydney Smith to Lady Carlisle, August 1844
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, August, 1844.
My dear Lady Carlisle,

I have been leading a very musical life lately. There is an excellent musical family living in London; and finding them all ill, and singing flat, I brought them down here for three weeks, where they have grown extremely corpulent, and have returned to London, with no other wish than to be transported after this life to this paradise of Combe Florey. Their singing is certainly very remarkable, and the little boy, at the age of seven, composes hymns; I mean, sets them to music. I have always said that if I were to begin life again, I would dedicate it to music; it is the only cheap and unpunished rapture upon earth.

—— —— has not yet signified her intentions under the sign manual; but a thousand rumours reach me, and my firm belief is, she will come. I have spoken to the sheriff, and mentioned it to the magistrates. They have agreed to address her; and she is
MEMOIR OF THE REV. SYDNEY SMITH.535
to be escorted from the station by the yeomanry. The clergy are rather backward; but I think that, after a little bashfulness, they will wait upon her. Brunel, assisted by the ablest philosophers, is to accompany her upon the railroad; and they have been so good as to say that the steam shall be generated from soft water, with a slight infusion of chamomile flowers.

I am glad to see that Sir Robert Peel is softening a little towards the Catholics. That is the great point, in comparison of which Pomaré and Morocco are nothing.

I think we shall go for some days to the sea-side. I wish we could find such an invigorating air as you have at Scarborough; but our atmosphere is soft, demoralizing, and debilitating. All love of duty, all sense of propriety, are extinguished in these enervating climates. The only one of my Yorkshire virtues which I retain, is a sincere regard for Castle Howard and its inhabitants; to whom health and prosperity, and every earthly blessing! From your obliged and sincere friend,

Sydney Smith.