A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith
Letters 1844
Sydney Smith to Lady Grey, 7 November 1844
56 Green Street, Nov. 7th, 1844.
My Dear Lady Grey,
I have been seriously ill, and I do not think I am yet
quite “clear of the wood,” but am certainly a good deal better. My
complaints have been giddiness, breathlessness, and weakness of the digestive
organs. I believe I acted wisely in setting off for London on the first attack;
it has secured for me the proximity and best attentions of Dr. Holland, and the use of a comfortable
house, where a suite of rooms are perfectly fitted up for illness and death.
I have a great notion you can send me better accounts of
Lord Grey; pray do, and give him my
earnest and sincere regard.
Charles Grey, second earl Grey (1764-1845)
Whig statesman and lover of the Duchess of Devonshire; the second son of the first earl
(d. 1807), he was prime minister (1831-34).
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.