LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO
 
 TABLExTALK OF 
 , SAMUEL ROGERS
 
 N
 
 REMINISCENCES AND TABLE-TALK OF 
 
 SAMUEL ROGERS 
 
 Banker, Poet, & Patron of the Arts 
 I 7 6 3~ l8 55 
 
 Collected from the Original Memoirs of 
 Dyce and Sharpe, with Intro- 
 duction and Index 
 
 BY 
 
 G. H. POWELL 
 
 LONDON 
 
 R. BRIMLEY JOHNSON 
 1903
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 INTRODUCTION . . . . . v ii 
 
 TABLE-TALK i 
 
 INDEX 258 
 
 The portrait of the author which forms the frontispiece 
 is taken from the engraving by Finden, after Sir Thomas 
 Lawrence, prefixed to the Italy, ed. 1852.
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 THE volume here offered to the public will, it is hoped, 
 be regarded as a legitimate if not inevitable piece of 
 Book-making. 
 
 Of the general human interest attaching to the 
 intimate form of biography known as " Table-Talk" 
 and in particular to that of Samuel Rogers, it is 
 scarcely necessary to s^eak. The earliest original 
 records of the Banker Poet, his friends, and their 
 conversation forming as they do an important 
 contribution to the social history of the period, 1790- 
 1850 are comprised in two different volumes, which 
 may rank with such works as Spence's Anecdotes 
 among the best " ana " of the English language. 
 These are (a) the RECOLLECTIONS OF THE TABLE- 
 TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS (together with " Por- 
 soniana"), published by Alexander Dyce in 1856; 
 and (b) the RECOLLECTIONS, by Samuel Rogers him- 
 self, given to the world by William Sharpe in 1859. 
 
 The " Table-Talk " represents a selection from
 
 viii INTRODUCTION 
 
 the memoranda kept by Dyce, which may be best 
 described in his own language : " From my first 
 introduction to Mr. Rogers I was in the habit of 
 writing down in all their minulicz the anecdotes 
 with which his conversation abounds ; and on my 
 telling him that I did so, he expressed himself pleased" 
 It is not unreasonable to presume from these words 
 that Dyce's notes had the approval of Rogers as an 
 authentic record. 
 
 The second work, the " Recollections" has attained 
 perhaps greater literary fame, as a record kept by 
 Rogers himself, in a form as the editor assures us 
 obviously intended for publication. It consists of 
 similar in some cases identical matter, preserved 
 in a more fragmentary, and sometimes perhaps a 
 more literal form. 
 
 Upon material points the two books may fairly be 
 said to confirm one another, and in the more famous 
 " dicta " they usually coincide verbatim. But, though 
 of necessity covering much the same ground, they 
 differ materially in their contents : the " Recollec- 
 tions" for example, containing the valuable notes on 
 the Duke of Wellington [some thirty-five Pages, here 
 reprinted in their entirety}, of which Dyce's work 
 records but one or two ; while the latter gives numerous 
 anecdotes of Sheridan and other persons scarcely
 
 INTRODUCTION ix 
 
 mentioned in the " Recollections" With important 
 exceptions, indeed, the principal memoranda seem 
 to be presented more readably and more effectively in 
 the pages of Dyce, Of the numerous detached anec- 
 dotes, observations, quotations, scraps of reflection, 
 noted down by Rogers himself, while some supply 
 just those vivid and familiar touches which are the 
 life of a contemporary biography, a good many are 
 almost too minute to have much significance for the 
 modern reader. 
 
 For the form of the volume, therefore, I have followed 
 the general easy and conversational arrangement of 
 the " Table-Talk," inserting under their various 
 heads all the kindred matter better given or only 
 given in the " Reminiscences"* And though a 
 certain order is preserved, the various notes are so 
 mixed that it seemed scarcely worth while to reproduce 
 the personal subject-headings given by Rogers (as 
 "Fox," "Burke," "Gretton," Home Tooke," &c.) 
 in his work. A better clue to the good things in the 
 present volume will be found, it is hoped, in the Index 
 appended, which refers to every important name and 
 topic mentioned. 
 
 * The valuable footnotes appended by Dyce and Sharpe to their 
 several works are here reprinted, with one or two small additions 
 and corrections by the present Editor.
 
 x INTRODUCTION 
 
 The anecdotes, by the way, of 
 
 The celebrated Doctor Porsoiz, 
 A learned scholar though a somewhat coarse 'un, 
 
 as Sir George Trevelyan once described him, appended 
 by Dyce to his " Table-Talk," are again included on 
 the same principle, as being reminiscences of a similar 
 class contributed by a life-long friend of Rogers, and 
 bearing on a celebrity of the age, with whom he himself 
 had a slight acquaintance. 
 
 Both the original works being only selections from 
 miscellaneous notes, there can be no question of com- 
 pleteness ; and though the greater part of both volumes 
 has here been gathered together, they were found to 
 contain, as might be expected, a good deal which, 
 though possibly welcomed by the friends and con- 
 temporaries of Rogers, would be of little interest to 
 the reader of to-day. 
 
 Somewhat dilettante criticisms, as they would now 
 appear, of poems long since forgotten ; confidences 
 and trivialities only interesting to a select circle of 
 friends no longer living, may be left to repose in the 
 original text. Even some details of literary gossip 
 have seemed too slight and conventional to be worth 
 preserving ; while a good many paragraphs, nay 
 Pages, of reflections upon well-known scenes or
 
 INTRODUCTION xi 
 
 passages from classical authors, have been omitted as 
 characteristic of no particular person, time, or place. 
 On the other hand, to illustrate our principle of selec- 
 tion, unquestioned value must always attach to such, 
 doubtless, scrappy but first-hand sketches, as these 
 which describe the Iron Duke fidgeting silently about 
 Ponsonby's room to observe on reaching the door, 
 " Cocks was killed last night," Fox looking out of 
 the window of the Louvre to exclaim " This sun will 
 burn my turnips at St. Anne's," or Marmontel ges- 
 ticulating so wildly, while reading his own works, 
 as to alarm Dr. Priestly. 
 
 In a word, the present Editor has hoped to preserve 
 everything in the two books which is of real historical 
 interest, every detail which helps to bring before our 
 eyes the persons and the age not to say the several 
 ages of old-fashioned, unreformed England, here 
 so lightly and familiarly depicted, when the Person 
 of Quality, Wealth, or Education loomed larger on 
 the social horizon than he does now, when railways 
 were undreamed of, omnibuses things of terrifying 
 novelty, and the umbrella an important family pos- 
 session, when noblemen still fought duels, statesmen 
 gambled away their salaries in an evening, and 
 University professors might be found drunk in the 
 street.
 
 xii INTRODUCTION 
 
 Samuel Rogers, Banker, Poet, and Connoisseur, 
 was born at Stoke Newington in the year 1763. 
 
 His father, Thomas Rogers, had been engaged in 
 business in partnership with a Mr. Welch, and was 
 assisted by the eldest of his sons. Samuel, the third, 
 though his original ambition had been as he tells 
 us to become a " preacher," began life by entering 
 his father's counting-house as a clerk. The family 
 were dissenters, but of good education and position. 
 Samuel Rogers, himself a youth of considerable 
 reading and culture, devoted his leisure hours during 
 this early period of his life mainly to study and 
 literary work. 
 
 On the death of his elder brother in 1788 a larger 
 share of the business accrued to him, and at his father's 
 decease he found himself master of an estate of some 
 5000 per annum. Such an income (the equivalent 
 Perhaps of twice what the figure would represent to- 
 day) was very naturally considered by Rogers to justify 
 his retirement from any active part in the manage- 
 ment of the bank, to which his younger brother Henry 
 was then admitted.* 
 
 * The history of the firm, in which the name of Rogers never 
 appears after 1855, was a brief and melancholy one. In 1856 the 
 style of the bank became Olding, Sharpe and Co., and in 1862 
 Olding, Osborne and Co. In 1866 it was merged in the English 
 Joint Stock Bank, which stopped payment the same year.
 
 INTRODUCTION xiii 
 
 He has been heard to describe, William Sharpe 
 tells us, how on some occasion soon after his father's 
 death, he detected himself making a calculation as to 
 the amount he might expect to accumulate if he con- 
 tinued to de-vote his whole time to the pursuit of wealth. 
 His cultured mind was so shocked by this material- 
 istic train of reflection that he determined to desist 
 from active business, or only to attend when the assist- 
 tance of his judgment was required. To this reso- 
 lution he subsequently adhered, giving up most of 
 his life to more congenial pursuits, and to the indulg- 
 ence of a natural taste for society, literature, and the 
 arts. 
 
 Besides the family home on Newington Green, 
 Rogers at this time occupied chambers in Paper 
 Buildings in the Temple ; but in 1803 he built or 
 rebuilt himself a house in St. James* Street, West- 
 minster, overlooking the Green Park. In this small 
 but handsome and tasteful residence, richly decorated 
 by the art of Flaxman and Stothard, he collected 
 about him the costly pictures, choice curios, and 
 books which he loved, and entertained his large com- 
 panies of friends, rich and poor, with the exquisite 
 taste and hospitality for which his name became 
 famous. 
 
 The " Breakfast Parties " of Rogers, intellectual
 
 xiv INTRODUCTION 
 
 repasts lasting from ten to one, are fully described in 
 the Diary of Crabb Robinson, who specially empha- 
 sises the interest of the discussions which occupied, 
 them* 
 
 Rogers describes himself as a Presbyterian, and in 
 politics he was a Whig ; but neither in religious nor 
 political matters did his opinions affect his choice of 
 friends. His means, position, and education enabled 
 him to associate on equal terms with the most dis- 
 tinguished men of his time Sheridan, Lord Hol- 
 land, Charles James Fox, Gratton, Grenville, Erskine, 
 Home Tooke, and Richard (known as " Conversa- 
 tion ") Sharpe, a distinguished literary critic. The 
 personality of Samuel Rogers [" Pleasures of Memory " 
 Rogers, as Charles Lamb calls him~\, his wealth, taste, 
 and benevolence " pervade the literary atmosphere of 
 the first half of the nineteenth century, and are to 
 be read of in all the Journals and Memoirs of the 
 time.^ If it be true that his literary talents were 
 only elevated from obvious mediocrity by favourable 
 
 * It was but a few years ago that the present Editor remembers 
 hearing from the late Mr. E. U. Eddis, the artist, certain reminiscences 
 on the subject. Mr. Eddis, who spoke of these banquets as things 
 of yesterday, recalled the somewhat "conscious" fashion in which, 
 when conversation turned on some disputed quotation, Rogers 
 " would send a footman for the book." 
 
 t "Diet. Nat. Biog."
 
 INTRODUCTION xv 
 
 circumstances, he was at least a man of wide reading, 
 interests, and sociable tastes, a generous patron, a kindly 
 critic, the friend of every struggling litterateur; in 
 fine, a just and upright man, of whose benevolence 
 in days when genuine ability was often unable to 
 shift for itself the half will probably never be known. 
 His one ostensible weakness seems to have been a 
 certain epigrammatic bitterness of tongue, the inability, 
 perhaps we should say, to keep back a good and 
 sharp saying, a quality only rivalled by his genuine 
 kindness of heart. When some one complained to 
 Campbell of this trait, the poet only replied, " borrow 
 500 of him, and he will never say a word against you 
 till you want to repay him." 
 
 Of the poetry which Samuel Rogers occupied so 
 many years in writing, it is probable that the modern 
 reader will recall very little but " The Boy of Egre- 
 mond " or " Ginevra," a poem much in the style of 
 Mr. Alfred Austin, describing the pathetic fate of the 
 young bride who shut herself up in a chest with a spring 
 
 lock which 
 
 " Fastened her down for ever." 
 
 But if Rogers, the minor poet, appears to our eyes 
 of infinitesimal interest beside the memoir-writer 
 and anecdote-monger, it must be remembered that he 
 regarded the pretty or passable verse published in
 
 xvi INTRODUCTION 
 
 such quantities at his own expense only as the cultured 
 recreation of a man of means and leisure. If there 
 is something of dilettantism in his limitation of his 
 poetic output to " four lines a day" there is no reader 
 who will not regret that this example has not been 
 more widely followed by minor poets of later date. 
 If Rogers had some of the vanities of the plutocrat, 
 poet and patron combined, at least he had sufficient 
 sense of humour to decline the official bays even when 
 offered him in a flattering letter from the Prince 
 Consort. 
 
 His " Ode to Superstition " and other poems 
 appeared in 1786, at a period when, as is well 
 observed by Mr. Dyce, " The coldly classic Mason 
 [already a veteran] and the feeble Hayley* were per- 
 haps the most popular of living poets." Cowper's 
 Task had scarcely attained fame. Crabbe had put 
 
 * William Hayley (1745-1820), author of "Triumphs" of 
 "Music, Temper," and the like. 
 
 " Triumphant first see Temper's Triumph shine, 
 At least I'm sure they triumphed over mine. 
 Of ' Music's Triumphs ' all who read may swear 
 That luckless Music never triumphed there." 
 
 Byron: "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers," where he 
 finally recommends Mr. H. (repeating Pope's advice to Wycherley) 
 to convert his poetry into prose " as could easily be done by taking 
 away the final syllables of each couplet."
 
 INTRODUCTION xvii 
 
 forth only his earlier -pieces, and Erasmus Darwin 
 and his didactic poetry the predestined prey of 
 the satirists of the Anti- Jacobin were yet to come. 
 The " Pleasures of Memory " [1792] raised Rogers 
 at once to a high reputation, which was maintained 
 by the " Epistle to a Friend and other Poems" 
 published in 1798. " Columbus, 1 " his next book 
 [1812], was followed by "Jacqueline" [1814], and 
 " Human Life " in 1819. 
 
 The more famous " Italy" of which the first part 
 appeared anonymously in 1822, was a complete 
 failure ; but when finished and reprinted in 1830, 
 in the form so familiar to book collectors, with elabo- 
 rate illustrations after Turner and Stothard, attained 
 at once the popularity which it seems to have enjoyed 
 ever since. 
 
 After the death of Wordsworth in 1850, the Lau- 
 reateship, as has been said, was offered him, and, on 
 his declining it with an effort, bestowed on Alfred 
 Tennyson. 
 
 During the leisure of later life Rogers would seem 
 to have been regularly employed in the preparation 
 of new editions of his works, which were constantly 
 called for ; and, in particular, of notes to his " Italy," 
 which to many readers form probably the most in- 
 teresting part of the work. He continued, however,
 
 xviii INTRODUCTION 
 
 to produce from time to time a few copies of 
 verses. 
 
 Sociable, liberal, and hospitable to the end, he was 
 constantly engaged in the kindly assistance of the 
 unfortunate. "He soothed the last illness of Fox, 
 was a good angel to the dying Sheridan, reconciled 
 Moore with Jeffrey, and Byron with Moore, helped 
 Wordsworth to his post in the stamp office, and tried 
 to regulate the affairs of the embarrassed Ugo Foscolo."* 
 
 The gradual decay of his faculties permitted him 
 the enjoyment of a happy and painless old age. In 
 1851, Crabb Robinson tells us, he gave up his " nu- 
 merous breakfast parties," but still entertained select 
 friends on certain days of the week. The old man 
 of ninety, a prisoner to his chair, could still keenly 
 enjoy gazing at the beauties of the evening sky, repeat- 
 ing passages from his favourite poets, and looking at 
 the pictures which adorned his walls, till in 1855 
 he passed peacefully away, at the age of ninety-two, 
 sincerely regretted by a large circle of friends in very 
 various circumstances. 
 
 It has been said of the Rev. Joseph Spence, to whose 
 " Anecdotes " is due our knowledge of so much of the 
 literary history of the eighteenth century, that " without 
 being a genius, he is an example of what a plain man 
 
 * "Diet. Nat. Biog."
 
 INTRODUCTION xix 
 
 can do by writing down what he hears" A very 
 similar tribute is due to Samuel Rogers, not only for 
 recording, and encouraging others to record, so much 
 of the personal history of his time, but a more dis- 
 tinctive credit for himself providing the occasion, 
 the society, and the hospitable atmosphere, calculated 
 to bring it out in so epigrammatic and entertaining a 
 
 form. 
 
 G. H. P.
 
 RECOLLECTIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 
 
 I WAS taught by my mother, from my earliest in- 
 fancy, to be tenderly kind towards the meanest 
 living thing ; and, however people may laugh, I 
 sometimes very carefully put a stray gnat or wasp 
 out at the window. My friend Lord Holland, 
 though a kind-hearted man, does not mind killing 
 flies and wasps ; he says, " I have no feeling for 
 insects" When I was on the Continent with 
 Richard Sharp, we one day observed a woman 
 amusing her child by holding what we at first 
 thought was a mouse tied to a string, with which 
 a cat was playing. Sharp was all indignation at 
 the sight ; till, on looking more closely, he found 
 that the supposed mouse was a small rat ; upon 
 which he exclaimed, " Oh, I have no pity for rats ! " 
 
 A
 
 2 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 People choose to give the term vermin to those 
 animals that happen to like what they themselves 
 like ; wasps eat peaches, and they call them vermin. 
 I can hardly persuade myself that there is no 
 compensation in a future existence for the suffer- 
 ings of animals in the present life* for instance, 
 when I see a horse in the streets unmercifully flogged 
 by its brutal driver. 
 
 I well remember one of the heads of the rebels 
 upon a pole at Temple Bar a black shapeless 
 lump. Another pole was bare, the head having 
 dropt from it.f 
 
 In my boyhood, my father one day called me 
 and my brothers into his room, and asked us each 
 what professions we wished to follow. When my 
 turn came, I said (to my father's annoyance) that 
 I should like "to be a preacher " ; for it was then 
 the height of my ambition to figure in a pulpit; 
 
 * Compare a poem " On the Future Existence of Brutes," by 
 Miss Seward, " Poet, Works," ii. 58. 
 
 f " The last heads which remained on the Bar were those of 
 Fletcher and Townley^ ' Yesterday,' says a news-writer of the 
 ist of April 1772, 'one of the rebels' heads on Temple Bar fell 
 down. There is only one head now remaining." " P. Cunning- 
 ham's " Handbook of London," sub " Temple Bar."
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 3 
 
 I thought there was nothing on earth so grand. 
 This predilection, I believe, was occasioned chiefly 
 by the admiration I felt for Dr. Price and for his 
 preaching. He was our neighbour (at Newington 
 Green), and would often drop in, to spend the 
 evening with us, in his dressing-gown ; he would 
 talk and read the Bible to us, till he sent us to bed 
 in a frame of mind as heavenly as his own. He 
 lived much in the society of Lord Lansdowne and 
 other people of rank ; and his manners were ex- 
 tremely polished. 
 
 My father belonged originally to the Church of 
 England ; but, soon after his marriage with my 
 mother (a very handsome and very amiable woman), 
 he withdrew from it at her persuasion, and became 
 one of Dr. Price's hearers. 
 
 When I was a school-boy, I wore, like other 
 school-boys, a cocked hat ; we used to run about 
 the fields, chasing butterflies, in cocked hats. After 
 growing up, I have walked through St. Paul's 
 Churchyard in a cocked hat. 
 
 I saw Garrick act only once, the part of Ranger 
 in The Suspicious Husband. I remember that there 
 was a great crowd, and that we waited long in a
 
 4 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 dark passage of the theatre, on our way to the pit. 
 I was then a little boy. My father had promised to 
 take me to see Garrick in Lear ; but a fit of the 
 mumps kept me at home. 
 
 Before his going abroad, Garrick's attraction had 
 much decreased ; Sir William Weller Pepys said 
 that the pit was often almost empty. But, on his 
 return to England, people were mad about seeing 
 him ; and Sir George Beaumont and several others 
 used frequently to get admission into the pit, before 
 the doors were opened to the public, by means of 
 bribing the attendants, who bade them " be sure, 
 as soon as the crowd rushed in, to pretend to be in 
 a great heat, and to wipe their faces, as if they had 
 just been struggling for entrance." 
 
 Jack Bannister told me, that one night he was 
 behind the scenes of the theatre when Garrick was 
 playing Lear ; and that the tones in which Garrick 
 uttered the words, " O fool, I shall go mad ! " * 
 absolutely thrilled him. 
 
 Garrick used to pay an annual visit to Lord 
 
 * " You think I'll weep ; 
 
 No, I'll not weep. 
 
 I have full cause of weeping ; but this heart 
 Shall break into a hundred thousand flaws 
 Or ere I'll weep. O fool, I shall go mad / " 
 
 King Lear, act ii. sc. 4.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 5 
 
 Spencer at Althorp ; where, after tea, he generally 
 entertained the company by reading scenes from 
 Shakespeare. Thomas Grenville,* who met him 
 there, told me that Garrick would steal anxious 
 glances at the faces of his audience, to perceive 
 what effect his reading produced ; that, one night, 
 Garrick observed a lady listening to him very atten- 
 tively, and yet never moving a muscle of her coun- 
 tenance ; and that, speaking of her next day, he 
 said, " She seems a very worthy person ; but I 
 hope that that that she won't be present at my 
 reading to-night." Another evening at Althorp, 
 when Garrick was about to exhibit some particular 
 stage-effect of which they had been talking, a young 
 gentleman got up and placed the candles upon the 
 floor, that the light might be thrown on his face 
 as from the lamps in the theatre. Garrick, dis- 
 pleased at his officiousness, immediately sat down 
 again. 
 
 My friend Maltbyf and I, when we were very 
 young men, had a strong desire to see Dr. Johnson ; 
 and we determined to call upon him and introduce 
 
 * The Right Honourable T. G. 
 
 f See notice at the commencement of the " Porsoniana " in this 
 vol.
 
 6 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 ourselves. We accordingly proceeded to his house 
 in Bolt Court ; and I had my hand on the knocker, 
 when our courage failed us, and we retreated. Many 
 years afterwards, I mentioned this circumstance to 
 Boswell, who said, " What a pity that you did not 
 go boldly in ! he would have received you \\ith all 
 kindness. 
 
 Dr. Johnson said to an acquaintance of mine, " My 
 other works are wine and water ; but my ' Rambler ' 
 is pure wine." The world now thinks differently. 
 
 Lady Spencer recollected Johnson well, as she 
 used to see him often in her girlhood. Her mother, 
 Lady Lucan, would say, " Nobody dines with us 
 to-day ; therefore, child, we'll go and get Dr. 
 Johnson." So they would drive to Bolt Court, 
 and bring the doctor home with them. 
 
 At the sale of Dr. Johnson's books I met General 
 Oglethorpe, then very, very old, the flesh of his 
 face looking like parchment. He amused us 
 youngsters by talking of the alterations that had 
 been made in London and of the great additions 
 it had received within his recollection. He said 
 that he had shot snipes in Conduit Street ! 
 
 By-the-bye, General Fitzpatrick remembered the 
 time when St. James's Street used to be crowded
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 7 
 
 with the carriages of the ladies and gentlemen who 
 were walking in the Mall, the ladies with their 
 heads in full dress, and the gentlemen carrying their 
 hats under their arms. The proprietors of Ranelagh 
 and Vauxhall used to send decoy-ducks among them, 
 that is, persons attired in the height of fashion, who 
 every now and then would exclaim in a very audible 
 tone, " What charming weather for Ranelagh " or 
 " for Vauxhall ! " 
 
 Ranelagh was a very pleasing place of amuse- 
 ment. There persons of inferior rank mingled with 
 the highest nobility of Britain. All was so orderly 
 and still that you could hear the whishing sound of 
 the ladies' trains, as the immense assembly walked 
 round and round the room. If you chose, you might 
 have tea, which was served up in the neatest equi- 
 page possible. The price of admission was half-a- 
 crown. People generally went to Ranelagh between 
 nine and ten o'clock. 
 
 I was present when Sir Joshua Reynolds delivered 
 his last lecture at the Royal Academy. On entering 
 the room, I found that a semicircle of chairs, im- 
 mediately in front of the pulpit, was reserved for 
 persons of distinction, being labelled " Mr. Burke," 
 " Mr. Boswell," &c. &c. ; and I, with other young
 
 8 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 men, was forced to station myself a good way off. 
 During the lecture, a great crash was heard ; and 
 the company, fearing that the building was about 
 to come down, rushed towards the door. Presently, 
 however, it appeared that there was no cause for 
 alarm ;* and they endeavoured to resume their 
 places ; but, in consequence of the confusion, the 
 reserved seats were now occupied by those who could 
 first get into them ; and I, pressing forwards, 
 secured one of them. Sir Joshua concluded the 
 lecture by saying, with great emotion, " And I 
 should desire that the last words which I should 
 pronounce in this Academy and from this place 
 might be the name of Michael Angelo." As he 
 descended from the rostrum, Burke went up to him, 
 took his hand, and said, 
 
 "The Angel ended, and in Adam's ear 
 So charming left his voice, that he a while 
 Thought him still speaking, still stood fix'd to hear." f 
 
 What a quantity of snuff Sir Joshua took ! I 
 
 * There was cause for alarm. " On an examination of the 
 floor afterwards, it was found that one of the beams for its support 
 had actually given way from the great weight of the assembly 
 of persons who pressed upon it, and probably from a flaw also in 
 the wood." Northcote's " Life of Eeynolds," ii. 263, ed, 1819. 
 
 f " Par. Lost," b. viii. i.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 9 
 
 once saw him at an Academy dinner, when* his waist- 
 coat was absolutely powdered with it. 
 
 Sir Joshua was always thinking of his art. He 
 was one day walking with Dr. Lawrence near 
 Beaconsfield, when they met a beautiful little 
 peasant-boy. Sir Joshua, after looking earnestly 
 at the child, exclaimed, " I must go home and 
 deepen the colouring of my Infant Hercules." The 
 boy was a good deal sunburnt. 
 
 Count d'Adhemar was the original purchaser of 
 Sir Joshua's Muscipula. Sir Joshua, who fancied 
 that he was bargaining for a different and less im- 
 portant picture, told him that the price was fifty 
 guineas ; and on discovering the mistake, allowed 
 him to have Muscipula for that sum. Fox had 
 been anxious to possess Muscipula when it was first 
 painted ; and he bought it at the Ambassador's sale 
 for (I believe) fifty guineas. It is now at St. Anne's 
 Hill. It would fetch, at the present day, a thousand 
 guineas. 
 
 The morning of the day on which Sir Joshua's 
 Puck was to be sold, Lord Farnborough and Dance 
 the painter breakfasted with me ; and we went to 
 the sale together. When Puck was put up, it 
 excited such admiration that there was a general 
 clapping of hands : yet it was knocked down to me
 
 io RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 at a comparatively trifling price.* I walked home 
 from the sale, a man carrying Puck before me ; 
 and so well was the picture known that more than 
 one person, as they passed us in the street, called 
 out, " There it is ! " 
 
 I recollect when it was still the fashion for gentle- 
 men to wear swords. I have seen Haydn play at 
 a concert in a tie-wig, with a sword at his side. 
 
 The head-dresses of the ladies, during my youth, 
 were of a truly preposterous size. I have gone to 
 Ranelagh in a coach with a lady who was obliged to 
 sit upon a stool placed in the bottom of the coach, 
 the height of her head-dress not allowing her to 
 occupy the regular seat. 
 
 * " When the Shakespeare Gallery was disposed of by lottery, 
 the building itself, and many of the capital pictures, formed the 
 principal prize, which was won by Mr. Tassie of Leicester Square, 
 who, after showing it a few months, divided the property into 
 several lots, and sold them by auction. In that sale the pictures 
 of Sir Joshua produced the following sums, which are here con- 
 trasted with the prices paid to Sir Joshua by Mr. Boydell : 
 Prices paid to Sir Joshua by Prices for which they sold by 
 
 Mr. Boydell. auction. 
 
 ***** ****** 
 
 Puck, or Robin Good Fellow, 
 
 too guineas. 215 55. o." 
 
 Edwards's " Anecdotes of Painters," &c., p. 204.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS n 
 
 Their tight lacing was equally absurd. Lady 
 Crewe told me that, on returning home from 
 Ranelagh, she has rushed up to her bedroom, and 
 desired her maid to cut her laces without a moment's 
 delay, for fear she should faint. 
 
 % 
 Doctor Fordyce sometimes drank a good deal at 
 
 dinner. He was summoned one evening to see a 
 lady patient, when he was more than half-seas-over, 
 and conscious that he was so. Feeling her pulse, 
 and finding himself unable to count its beats, he 
 muttered, " Drunk, by God ! " Next morning, 
 recollecting the circumstance, he was greatly vexed : 
 and just as he was thinking what explanation of his 
 behaviour he should offer to the lady, a letter from 
 her was put into his hand. " She too well knew," 
 said the letter, " that he had discovered the unfor- 
 tunate condition in which she was when he last 
 visited her ; and she entreated him to keep the 
 matter secret in consideration of the enclosed (a 
 hundred-pound bank-note)." 
 
 I have several times talked to a very aged boat- 
 man on the Thames, who recollected " Mr. Alex- 
 ander Pope." This boatman, when a lad, had fre- 
 quently assisted his father in rowing Pope up and
 
 12 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 down the river. On such occasions Pope generally 
 sat in a sedan-chair. 
 
 When I first began to publish, I got acquainted 
 with an elderly person named Lawless,* shopman of 
 Messrs. Cadell and Davies the booksellers. Lawless 
 told me that he was once walking through Twic- 
 kenham, accompanied by a friend, and a little boy 
 the son of that friend. On the approach of a 
 very diminutive, misshapen, and shabbily dressed 
 person, the child drew back half-afraid. " Don't be 
 alarmed," said Lawless ; " it is only a poor man."- 
 " A poor man ! " cried his friend : " why, that is 
 Mr. Alexander Pope." 
 
 Lawless also told me that he had been intimate 
 with the waiting-maid of Pope's beloved Martha 
 Blount. According to the maid's account, her 
 mistress was one of the best-natured and kindest 
 persons possible : she would take her out in the 
 carriage to see sights, &c. &c. 
 
 * This Lawless (as I was informed by Mr. Maltby, see notice 
 prefixed to the " Porsoniana," in this vol.) used daily to eat his 
 dinner in the shop, placing a large folio before him so as to conceal 
 his plate. Often, to his great annoyance, just as he was begin- 
 ning his meal, Gibbon would drop in, and ask a variety of ques- 
 tions about books. One day, Lawless, out of all patience at the 
 interruption, exclaimed from behind the folio, " Mr. Gibbon, 
 I'm at dinner, and can't answer any questions till I have finished 
 it."
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 13 
 
 Long ago, when Pope's villa was for sale, I had 
 a great wish to buy it ; but I apprehended that it 
 would fetch a much larger sum than it did ; and 
 moreover I dreaded the epigrams, &c., which would 
 certainly have been levelled at me if it had become 
 mine. The other day, when the villa was finally 
 dismantled, I was anxious that the obelisk erected 
 by Pope to his mother's memory should be placed 
 in the gardens at Hampton Court, and I offered to 
 contribute my mite for that purpose : but, no ! 
 and the obelisk is now at Gopsall, Lord Howe's seat 
 in Leicestershire. 
 
 There are at Lord Bathurst's a good many un- 
 published letters of Pope, Bolingbroke, &c., which I 
 have turned over. In one of them Bolingbroke says 
 that he has no desire to " wrestle with a chimney- 
 sweeper," that is, Warburton. Lady Bathurst pro- 
 mised to send me some of Pope's letters : instead 
 of which she sent me a packet of letters from Queen 
 Mary to King William, in which he is addressed 
 as her " dear husbaw."* 
 
 * " Lord Bathurst has lent me a very entertaining collection of 
 original letters, from Pope, Bolingbroke, Swift, Queen Mary, &c., 
 and has promised to make me a present of anything I like out 
 of them. I cannot say these communications have given me a 
 very great idea of Queen Mary's head ; but her heart, I am 
 persuaded, was a very good one. The defect must have been
 
 H RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Sir George Beaumont once met Quin at a very 
 small dinner-party. There was a delicious pudding, 
 which the master of the house, pushing the dish 
 towards Quin, begged him to taste. A gentleman 
 had just before helped himself to an immense piece 
 of it. " Pray," said Quin, looking first at the 
 gentleman's plate and then at the dish, " which 
 is the pudding ? " 
 
 Sir George Beaumont, when a young man, was 
 one day in the Mount (a famous coffee-house in 
 Mount Street, Grosvenor Square) with Harvey 
 Aston. Various persons were seated at different 
 tables. Among others present, there was an Irish- 
 man who was very celebrated as a duellist, having 
 killed at least half-a-dozen antagonists. Aston, 
 talking to some of his acquaintance, swore that he 
 would make the duellist stand barefooted before 
 them. " You had better take care what you say," 
 they replied ; " he has his eye upon you." " No 
 matter," rejoined Aston ; " I declare again that he 
 shall stand barefooted before you, if you will make 
 up among you a purse of fifty guineas." They did 
 so. Aston then said in a loud voice, " I have been 
 
 in her education ; for such spelling and such English I never 
 saw ; romantic and childish too, as to sentimenti My reverence 
 for her many virtues leads me to hope she was very young when 
 she wrote them." (Letter of Hannah More, in her " Memoirs," 
 &c., vol. i. 358, third ed.)
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 15 
 
 in Ireland, and am well acquainted with the natives." 
 The Irishman was all ear. Aston went on, " The 
 Irish, being born in bogs, are every one of them 
 web-footed ; I know it for a fact." " Sir," roared 
 the duellist, starting up from his table, " it is false ! " 
 Aston persisted in his assertion. " Sir," cried the 
 other, " / was born in Ireland ; and I will prove 
 to you that it is a falsehood." So saying, in great 
 haste he pulled off his shoes and stockings, and 
 displayed his bare feet. The joke ended in Aston' s 
 sharing the purse between the Irishman and him- 
 self, giving the former thirty guineas, and keeping 
 twenty. Sir George assured me that this was a true 
 story.* 
 
 Aston was always kicking up disturbances. I 
 remember being at Ranelagh with my father and 
 mother, when we heard a great row, and were told 
 that it was occasioned by Aston. 
 
 If I mistake not, Aston fought two duels in India 
 on two successive days, and fell in the second one.f 
 
 * A similar story is related of the Irishman from whom Mack- 
 lin took the idea of Sir Callaghan O'Brallaghan (in Love & 
 la Mode]^ Macklin professing his belief that he, like other 
 Irishmen, must have a tail, " he instantly pulled off his coat and 
 waistcoat, to convince him of his mistake, assuring him, ' that 
 no Irishman, in that respect, was better than another man.' " 
 Cooke's " Memoirs of Macklin," p. 225. 
 
 f " 1798, Dec. 23. At Madras, in consequence of a wound he
 
 16 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 In my youthful days Young's " Night Thoughts" 
 was a very favourite book, especially with ladies : 
 I knew more than one lady who had a copy of it in 
 which particular passages were marked for her by 
 some popular preacher. 
 
 Young's poem " The Last Day " contains, amidst 
 much absurdity, several very fine lines : what an 
 enormous thought is this ! 
 
 " Those overwhelming armies, whose command 
 Said to one empire, ' Fall,' another ' Stand/ 
 Whose rear lay rapt in night, while breaking dawn 
 Rons' d the broad front, and call'd the battle on." * 
 
 At Brighton, during my youth, I became ac- 
 quainted with a lawyer who had known Gray. He 
 said that Gray's pronunciation was very affected 
 e.g. " What naise (noise) is that ? " 
 
 Henley '(the translator of Beckford's "Vathek") 
 
 received in a due 1 with Major Allen, of which he languished about 
 a week, Col. Harvey Aston. He had been engaged in a similar 
 affair of honour, and on the same account, with Major Picton, 
 only the day preceding that on which he met Major A., but which 
 was fortunately terminated by each party firing in the air, and 
 a proper explanation taking place as to the offence." (Gentle- 
 man's Magazine, vol. Ixix. P. I. p. 527.) Aston had fought a 
 duel in 1790 with Lieut. Fitzgerald, and was severely wounded. 
 See Haydn's " Diet, of Dates," sub " Duelling." 
 * Book ii.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 17 
 
 was one morning paying a visit to Gray, when a dog 
 came into the room. " Is that your dog ? " said 
 Henley. " No," replied Gray ; "do you suppose 
 that I would keep an animal by which I might 
 possibly lose my life ? " 
 
 I was a mere lad when Mason's " Gray" was pub- 
 lished. I read it in my young days with delight, and 
 have done so ever since : the Letters have for me an 
 inexpressible charm ; they are as witty as Walpole's, 
 and have, what his want, true wisdom. I used to 
 take a pocket edition of Gray's " Poems " with me 
 every morning during my walks to town to my 
 father's banking-house, where I was a clerk, and 
 read them by the way. I can repeat them all. 
 
 I do envy Gray these lines in his " Ode on a distant 
 prospect of Eton College " : 
 
 " Still as they run, they look behind, 
 They hear a voice in every wind, 
 
 And snatch a fearful joy." 
 
 But what immediately follows is not good : 
 
 " Gay Hope is theirs, by Fancy fed, 
 
 Less pleasing when possess' d" ; 
 
 we cannot be said to possess hope.* How strange 
 
 * His friend Wakefield had anticipated Mr. Rogers in the 
 
 B
 
 1 8 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 it is that, with all Gray's care in composition, the 
 word " shade " should occur three times in the 
 course of the eleven first lines of that ode ! 
 
 " Her Henry's holy shade." 
 
 " Whose turf, whose shade, whose flowers among." 
 
 " Ah happy hills, ah pleasing shade I " 
 
 Both Fox and Courtenay thought Gray's frag- 
 ment, " The Alliance of Education and Government," 
 his finest poem : but that was because they pre- 
 ferred the heroic couplet to every other kind of 
 verse. A celebrated passage in it 
 
 " Oft o'er the trembling nations from afar 
 Has Scythia breath'd the living cloud of war ; 
 And, where the deluge burst with sweepy sway, 
 Their arms, their kings, their gods were roll'd away. 
 As oft have issu'd, host impelling host, 
 The blue-ey'd myriads from the Baltic coast : 
 The prostrate south to the destroyer yields 
 Her boasted titles and her golden fields ; 
 With grim delight the brood of winter view 
 A brighter day and heavens of azure hue, 
 Scent the new fragrance of the breathing rose, 
 And quaff the pendent vintage as it grows." 
 
 above remark : " Though the object of hope may truly be said 
 to be less pleasing in possession than in the fancy ; yet HOPE 
 in person cannot possibly be possessed," &c. Note ad 1.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 19 
 
 is a good deal injured by the forced and unnatural 
 expression, " pendent vintage." * 
 
 I once read Gray's " Ode to Adversity " to Words- 
 worth ; and at the line, 
 
 "And leave us leisure to be good," 
 
 Wordsworth exclaimed, " I am quite sure that is 
 not original ; Gray could not have hit upon it." f 
 
 The stanza which Gray threw out of his " Elegy " 
 is better than some of the stanzas he has retained : 
 
 " There scatter'd oft, the earliest of the year, 
 
 By hands unseen, are showers of violets found ; 
 The redbreast loves to build and warble there, 
 And little footsteps lightly print the ground." 
 
 I believe few people know, what is certainly a 
 fact, that the Macleane who was hanged for rob- 
 bery, and who is mentioned in Gray's " Long Story" 
 
 " He stood as mute as poor Macleane " 
 was brother to Maclaine, the translator of Mosheim. 
 
 * For this expression Gray was indebted to Virgil ; 
 " Non eadem arboribus pendet vindemia nostris 
 Quam Methymnaeo carpit de palmite Lesbos." 
 
 Georg. ii. 89. 
 
 f The Rev. J. Mitford, in his ed. of Gray, cites ad 1., 
 " And know, I have not yet the leisure to be good." 
 
 Oldham, " Ode," st. 5. " Works," i. 85, ed. 1722.
 
 20 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Gray somewhere says that monosyllables should 
 be avoided in poetry ; but there are many lines 
 consisting only of monosyllables which could not 
 possibly be improved. For instance, in Shake- 
 speare's Romeo and Juliet: 
 
 " Thou canst not speak of what thou dost not feel " ; * 
 and in Pope's " Eloisa to Abelard " : 
 
 " Pant on thy lip, and to thy heart be prest ; 
 Give all thou canst, and let me dream the rest." 
 
 Topham Beauclerk (Johnson's friend) was a 
 strangely absent person. One day he had a party 
 coming to dinner ; and, just before their arrival, he 
 went upstairs to change his dress. He forgot all 
 about them ; thought that it was bedtime, pulkd 
 off his clothes, and got into bed. A servant, who 
 presently entered the room to tell him that his 
 guests were waiting for him, found him fast asleep. 
 
 During my youth umbrellas were far from com- 
 mon. At that time every gentleman's family had 
 one umbrella a huge thing, made of coarse cotton 
 which used to be taken out with the carriage, and 
 
 * Act iii. so. 3.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 21 
 
 which, if there was rain, the footman held over the 
 ladies' heads, as they entered, or alighted from, the 
 carriage. 
 
 My first visit to France was in company with 
 Boddington, just before the Revolution began. 
 When we arrived at Calais, we saw both ladies and 
 gentlemen walking on the pier with small fox- 
 muffs. 
 
 When we reached Paris, Lafayette gave us a 
 general invitation to dine with him every day. At 
 his table we once dined with about a dozen persons 
 (among them the Duke de La Rochefoucauld, Con- 
 dorcet, &c.), most of whom afterwards came to an 
 untimely end. 
 
 At a dinner-party in Paris, given by a French 
 nobleman, I saw a black bottle of English porter 
 set on the table as a great rarity, and drunk out of 
 small glasses. 
 
 Boddington had a wretchedly bad memory ; 
 and, in order to improve it, he attended Feinaigle's 
 lectures on the Art of Memory. Soon after, some- 
 body asked Boddington the name of the lecturer ; 
 and, for his life, he could not recollect it. When 
 I was asked if I had attended the said lectures on
 
 22 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 the Art of Memory, I replied, " No : I wished to 
 learn the Art of Forgetting." 
 
 One morning, when I was a lad, Wilkes came 
 into our banking-house to solicit my father's vote. 
 My father happened to be out, and I, as his repre- 
 sentative, spoke to Wilkes. At parting, Wilkes 
 shook hands with me ; and I felt proud of it for a 
 week after. 
 
 He was quite as ugly, and squinted as much, as 
 his portraits make him ; but he was very gentle- 
 manly in appearance and manners. I think I see 
 him at this moment, walking through the crowded 
 streets of the City, as Chamberlain, on his way to 
 Guildhall, in a scarlet coat, military boots, and a 
 bag-wig the hackney-coachmen in vain calling 
 out to him, " A coach, your honour ? " 
 
 When a young man, I went to Edinburgh, carry- 
 ing letters of introduction (from Dr. Kippis, Dr. 
 Price, &c.) to Adam Smith, Robertson, and others. 
 When I first saw Smith, he was at breakfast, eating 
 strawberries ; and he descanted on the superior 
 flavour of those grown in Scotland.* I found him 
 
 * Every Englishman who has tasted the strawberries of Scot- 
 land will allow that Smith was right.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 23 
 
 very kind and communicative. He was (what 
 Robertson was not) a man who had seen a great 
 deal of the world. Once, in the course of conversa- 
 tion, I happened to remark of some writer, that 
 " he was rather superficial a Voltaire." " Sir," 
 cried Smith, striking the table with his hand, 
 " there has been but one Voltaire ! " 
 
 Robertson, too, was very kind to me. He, one 
 morning, spread out the map of Scotland on the 
 floor, and got upon his knees, to describe the route 
 I ought to follow in making a tour on horseback 
 through the Highlands. 
 
 At Edinburgh I became acquainted with Henry 
 Mackenzie, who asked me to correspond with him ; 
 which I (then young, romantic, and an admirer of 
 his " Julia de Roubigne") willingly agreed to. We 
 accordingly wrote to each other occasionally during 
 several years ; but his letters, to my surprise and 
 disappointment, were of the most commonplace 
 description. Yet his published writings display 
 no ordinary talent ; and, like those of Beattie, 
 they are remarkable for a pure English idiom 
 which cannot be said of Hume's writings, beautiful 
 as they are. 
 
 The most memorable day perhaps which I ever 
 passed was at Edinburgh a Sunday ; when, after
 
 24 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 breakfasting with Robertson, I heard him preach 
 in the forenoon and Blair in the afternoon, 
 then took coffee with the Piozzis, and supped 
 with Adam Smith. Robertson's sermon was ex- 
 cellent both for matter and manner of delivery. 
 Blair's was good, but less impressive ; and 
 his broad Scotch accent offended my ears 
 greatly. 
 
 My acquaintance with Mr. and Mrs. Piozzi began 
 at Edinburgh, being brought about by the landlord 
 of the hotel where they and I were staying. He 
 thought that I should be gratified by " hearing 
 Mr. Piozzi's pianoforte " : and they called upon 
 me, on learning from the landlord who I was, and 
 that Adam Smith, Robertson, and Mackenzie had 
 left cards for me. 
 
 I was afterwards very intimate with the Piozzis, 
 and visited them often at Streatham. The world 
 was most unjust in blaming Mrs. Thrale for marrying 
 Piozzi : he was a very handsome, gentlemanly, and 
 amiable person, and made her a very good husband. 
 In the evening he used to play to us most beauti- 
 fully on the piano. Her daughters never would 
 see her after that marriage ; and (poor woman) 
 when she was at a very great age, I have 
 heard her say that " she would go down upon
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 25 
 
 her knees to them, if they would only be reconciled 
 to her." 
 
 Dr. Parr had a great deal of sensibility. When 
 I read to him, in Lincoln's Inn Fields, the account 
 of O'Coigly's * death, the tears rolled down his 
 cheeks. 
 
 One day, Mackintosh having vexed him by 
 calling O'Coigly " a rascal," Parr immediately 
 rejoined, " Yes, Jamie, he was a bad man, but he 
 might have been worse ; he was an Irishman, 
 but he might have been a Scotchman ; he was a 
 priest, but he might have been a lawyer ; he was 
 a republican, but he might have been an apos- 
 tate." 
 
 After their quarrel (about Gerald), Parr often 
 spoke with much bitterness of Mackintosh : among 
 other severe things, he said that " Mackintosh 
 came up from Scotland with a metaphysical head, 
 a cold heart, and open hands." At last they were 
 
 * James O'Coigly (alias James Quigley, alias James John 
 Fivey) was tried for high treason at Maids tone, and hanged on 
 Penningdon Heath, June 7, 1798. When he had hung about 
 ten minutes, he was beheaded ; and the head and body were 
 immediately buried under the gallows (the rest of his sentence 
 that, " while he was yet alive, his bowels should be taken out 
 and burnt before his face," &c., having been remitted).
 
 26 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 reconciled, having met, for that purpose, in my 
 house ; but their old familiarity was never fully 
 re-established. 
 
 Parr was frequently very tiresome in conversa- 
 tion, talking like a schoolmaster. 
 
 He had a horror of the east wind ; and Tom 
 Sheridan once kept him prisoner in the house for 
 a fortnight by fixing the weathercock in that 
 direction. 
 
 Helen Maria Williams was a very fascinating 
 person ; but not handsome. I knew her intimately 
 in her youth, when she resided in London with her 
 mother and sisters. They used to give very agree- 
 able evening parties, at which I have met many of 
 the Scotch literati, Lord Monboddo, &c. 
 
 Late in life, Helen translated into English, and 
 very beautiful English too, Humboldt's long work, 
 " Personal Narrative of Travels," &c. ; and, I 
 believe, nearly the whole impression still lies in 
 Longman's warehouse. 
 
 When she was in Paris, during the Revolution, 
 she has seen men and women, who were waiting 
 for admission at the door of the theatre, suddenly 
 leave their station on the passing of a set of wretches 
 going to be guillotined, and then, after having
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 27 
 
 ascertained that none of their relations or friends 
 were among them, very unconcernedly return to 
 the door of the theatre. I have frequently dined 
 with her at Paris, when Kosciusko and other 
 celebrated persons were of the party. 
 
 When Lord Erskine heard that somebody had 
 died worth two hundred thousand pounds, he 
 observed, " Well, that's a very pretty sum to 
 begin the next world with." 
 
 " A friend of mine," said Erskine, " was suffering 
 from a continual wakefulness ; and various methods 
 were tried to send him to sleep, but in vain. At 
 last his physicians resorted to an experiment which 
 succeeded perfectly : they dressed him in a watch- 
 man's coat, put a lantern into his hand, placed 
 him in a sentry-box, and he was asleep in ten 
 minutes." 
 
 To all letters soliciting his " subscription " to 
 anything, Erskine had a regular form of reply, 
 viz., " Sir, I feel much honoured by your application 
 to me, and I beg to subscribe " here the reader 
 had to turn over the leaf " myself your very 
 ob* servant," &c. 
 
 I wish I could recollect all the anecdotes of his 
 early life which Erskine used to relate with such
 
 28 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 spirit and dramatic effect. He had been in the 
 navy ; and he said that he once managed to run 
 a vessel between two rocks, where it seemed almost 
 impossible that she could have been driven. He 
 had also been in the army ; and on one occasion 
 saved the life of a soldier who was condemned to 
 death, by making an earnest appeal in his behalf 
 to the general in command and his wife : Erskine 
 having got the pardon, rode off with it at full speed 
 to the place of execution, where he arrived just 
 as the soldier was kneeling, and the muskets were 
 levelled for the fatal shot. 
 
 Erskine used to say that when the hour came 
 that all secrets should be revealed, we should 
 know the reason why shoes are always made 
 too tight. 
 
 When he had a house at Hampstead, he enter- 
 tained the very best company. I have dined there 
 with the Prince of Wales the only time I ever 
 had any conversation with his royal highness. 
 On that occasion the Prince was very agreeable 
 and familiar. Among other anecdotes which he 
 told us of Lord Thurlow, I remember these two. 
 The first was : Thurlow once said to the Prince, 
 " Sir, your father will continue to be a popular 
 King as long as he continues to go to church every
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 29 
 
 Sunday, and to be faithful to that ugly woman, 
 your mother ; but you, sir, will never be popular." 
 The other was this : While his servants were carry- 
 ing Thurlow upstairs to his bedroom, just before 
 his death, they happened to let his legs strike 
 against the banisters, upon which he uttered the 
 last words he ever spoke a frightful imprecation 
 on " all their souls." 
 
 Erskine said that the Prince of Wales was quite 
 " a cosmogony man " (alluding to " The Vicar of 
 Wakefield "), for he had only two classical quota- 
 tions one from Homer and one from Virgil which 
 he never failed to sport when there was any oppor- 
 tunity of introducing them.* 
 
 Latterly Erskine was very poor ; and no wonder, 
 for he always contrived to sell out of the funds when 
 they were very low, and to buy in when they were 
 very high. " By heaven," he would say, " I am a 
 perfect kite, all paper ; the boys might fly me." 
 Yet, poor as he was, he still kept the best society : 
 I have met him at the Duke of York's, &c. &c. 
 
 * Mr. Luttrell, who was present when Mr. Rogers told this 
 anecdote, added, " Yes, and the quotation from Virgil was 
 always given with a ridiculous error, ' Non illi imperium pellago, 
 ssevumque tridentem,' " &c., JEn. i. 138.
 
 30 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 THE FIRST BRIEF. GREENWICH HOSPITAL CAUSE.* 
 
 On a Sunday in June 1778,! I was engaged to 
 dine with Agar in New Norfolk Street, who had 
 become acquainted with me at Tunbridge Wells ; 
 but I was persuaded by a young man, William Lyon, 
 an attorney, to walk as far as Enfield Chase and 
 dine with Mr. Barnes, a wine merchant in St. Mary 
 Axe, remarkable for the excellence of his claret. 
 When half way, he challenged me to leap over a 
 ditch by the roadside. I leaped over it ; but, 
 in returning, the bank gave way, and I fell and 
 sprained my ankle. The expedition was over ; 
 I could proceed no farther, and returned in a stage- 
 coach. 
 
 I had left Kentish Town and was then living in 
 Red Lion Passage, while a house which I had taken 
 in Serjeants Inn was painting and whitewashing. 
 My wife was confined at the time, and at her sugges- 
 
 * This was an application to the Court of King's Bench for 
 a Criminal Information, against Capt. Thos. Baillie, Lieutenant 
 Governor of Greenwich Hospital, for a libel contained in a 
 printed case and memorial addressed to the governors of the 
 hospital, in which he exposed serious abuses in that hospital, 
 and reflected severely on the conduct of the parties having the 
 management of it. Howell's !< State Trials," vol. xxi. 
 
 f This was shortly before he was called to the Bar, which took 
 place on July 6, 1778 : see p. 32.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 31 
 
 tion I resolved to keep my engagement at Agar's. 
 She said I was properly punished, and I felt that I 
 was. 
 
 When I arrived the dinner was begun. A tall 
 man drew his chair aside, and I went into the gap. 
 He talked much about the pictures, and so did I, 
 though I knew little of the subject, turning that 
 little to as good an account as I could. When 
 dinner was over, he drew Agar aside, and asked 
 who I was. Agar said I was a lawyer, and said 
 much in my favour. " Could he be prevailed 
 upon to take a brief from my brother ? " " Perhaps 
 he could," said Agar in his pompous manner. I 
 knew nothing of this conversation, but on my 
 return home next day, my servant, John Nicholls, 
 who had served under me in the Royals,* and who, 
 when he set my books in order, used always to 
 place the Bible atop, as that, he said, was the 
 best book, told me when he opened the door, that 
 I must be in another scrape, for a cross, ill-looking 
 man, in a large gold-laced cocked hat, had been 
 twice inquiring for me. "He insists, sir, upon 
 seeing you, and is at this moment waiting for you 
 in Bloomsbury Square Coffee-house." 
 
 * The Royals, or First Regiment of Foot, in which Lord 
 Erskine had been a lieutenant before studying for the Bar.
 
 32 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 I went there, and there I found an old seaman 
 with a furrowed face. He was sitting gloomily 
 in one of the boxes, with a small red trunk on the 
 table before him, and his sword lying on the trunk. 
 I mentioned my name. He said, " There are my 
 papers. Will you read them over ? " It ended in 
 my taking them home. 
 
 I was called to the Bar in a few days (July 6) ; 
 and at a consultation held on November i, Bearcroft, 
 Peckham, and Murphy * were for consenting to 
 a compromise ; our client to pay all costs. " My 
 advice, gentlemen," I said, " may savour more 
 of my late profession than my present, but I am 
 against consenting." " I'll be damned if I do," 
 said Baillie, and he hugged me in his arms, crying, 
 " You are the man for me." " Then the consulta- 
 tion is over," said Bearcroft. " It is," I replied. 
 " Let us walk in the gardens." 
 
 When the cause came on f the senior counsel 
 
 * These were three of the counsel retained, with Erskine, 
 for the defendant. They were probably surprised at a mere 
 novice venturing to express an opinion contrary to that of his 
 leaders. 
 
 f On Nov. 23, 1778, in the King's Bench before Lord Mans- 
 field. The three counsel, above named, spoke for the defen- 
 dant on that day, and Erskine spoke on the following morning, 
 after which the counsel for the prosecutors replied.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 33 
 
 exhausted the day, and the patience of the Court. 
 It grew dusk and my turn arrived ; when Lord 
 Mansfield adjourned. I began next morning, fresh, 
 and before a fresh audience ; and when it was 
 over,* all crowded round me. Sir Archibald 
 McDonald f had known me at school. Lee J had 
 known my father at Harrowgate. And that night 
 I went home and saluted my wife, with sixty-five 
 retaining fees in my pocket. 
 
 Had I not taken a nobleman's degree of M.A. 
 I could not have been called to the bar till two 
 years afterwards. I was then in my twenty- 
 ninth year, having been born on January 21, 1749. II 
 
 The " Geranium " was mine. Not so the " Birth 
 of the Rose," a poem ascribed to me. 
 
 Dictated by him to me as I sat with my pen 
 in my hand after dinner in St. James's 
 Place in 1816. 5. R. 
 
 * The defendant was successful, the application for leave 
 to prosecute him being refused, with costs. 
 
 f A leading barrister at the time, subsequently Solicitor- 
 General and Attorney-General. 
 
 J A leading banister, afterwards Solicitor-General. 
 
 He had taken a degree of M.A. at Cambridge in June 1778. 
 
 || In Lord Campbell's " Lives of the Chancellors," it is said 
 that Lord Erskine was born in January 1750. Lord Erskine 
 possibly gave the date of his birth according to the old style, 
 
 C
 
 34 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Often was I employed to establish a will, and 
 the history of one of them I can never forget. 
 
 Two old maids in a country town, being quizzical 
 in their dress and demeanour, were not unfrequently 
 the sport of the idle boys in the market-place, 
 and being once so beset on their way to church, a 
 young curate, who had been just appointed there, re- 
 proved the urchins as he passed by in his gown and 
 cassock, and, offering an arm to each of the ladies, 
 conducted them triumphantly into their pew near 
 the pulpit. 
 
 A great intimacy followed, and, dying not long 
 afterwards, they left him all they had. The will 
 was disputed, and, when I rose in my place to 
 establish it, I related the story, and said, " Such, 
 gentlemen, is the value of small courtesies. In 
 my first speech here I was browbeaten by the 
 judge upon the bench, and honest Jack Lee * took 
 my part. When he died he left me this bag, and 
 I need not say how much I value it. It shall serve 
 me while I live, and when I die I will be buried in 
 it." After dinner at Holland House. 
 
 Dunning (afterwards Lord Ashburton) was 
 
 and Lord Campbell according to the new style, introduced in 
 1752. This would reconcile the difference in their statements. 
 * See Lord Erskine's mention of Lee, supra, p. 33.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 35 
 
 " stating the law " to a jury at Guildhall, when 
 Lord Mansfield interrupted him by saying, " If 
 that be law, I'll go home and burn my books." 
 " My Lord," replied Dunning, " you had better 
 go home and read them." 
 
 Dunning was remarkably ugly. One night, while 
 he was playing whist, at Nando's, with Home Tooke 
 and two others, Lord Thurlow called at the door, 
 and desired the waiter to give a note to Dunning 
 (with whom, though their politics were so different, 
 he was very intimate). The waiter did not know 
 Dunning by sight. " Take the note upstairs," 
 said Thurlow, " and deliver it to the ugliest man 
 at the card-table to him who most resembles 
 the knave of spades." The note immediately 
 reached its destination. Home Tooke used often 
 to tell this anecdote. 
 
 When titled ladies become authoresses or com- 
 posers, their friends suffer for it. Lady asked 
 
 me to buy her book ; and I replied that I would do 
 so when I was rich enough. I went to a concert at 
 
 Lady 's, during which several pieces composed 
 
 by her daughter were performed ; and early next 
 morning, a music-seller arrived at my house, bring- 
 ing with him the daughter's compositions (and a 
 bill receipted), price sixteen shillings.
 
 36 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Thomas Grenville * told me that he was present 
 in the House when Lord North, suddenly rising 
 from his seat and going out, carried off on the hilt 
 of his sword the wig of Welbore Ellis, who was 
 stooping to take up some papers. I have myself 
 often seen Lord North in the House. While sitting 
 there, he would frequently hold a handkerchief to 
 his face ; and once, after a long debate, when some- 
 body said to him, " My lord, I fear you have been 
 asleep," he replied, " I wish I had." 
 
 M 
 
 Sheridan, Tickell, and the rest of their set delighted 
 in all sorts of practical jokes. For instance, while 
 they were staying with Mr.f and Mrs. Crewe (at 
 Crewe Hall), Mrs. Sheridan and Mrs. Crewe would 
 be driving out in the carriage, Sheridan and Tickell | 
 riding on before them : suddenly, the ladies would 
 see Sheridan stretched upon the ground, apparently 
 in the agonies of death, and Tickell standing over 
 him in a theatrical attitude of despair. Again, 
 Mr. Crewe expressed a great desire to meet Richard- 
 
 * The Right Honourable T. G. 
 
 f Raised to the peerage (as Lord Crewe) in 1806. 
 
 J It should be mentioned that Tickell (author of ' The 
 Wreath of Fashion," a poem, of "Anticipation," a prose pamphlet, 
 &c, &c.j was one of Sheridan's most intimate friends ; and that 
 he and Sheridan had married sisters.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 37 
 
 son (author of " The Fugitive "), of whom he had 
 heard Sheridan and Tickell talk with much admira- 
 tion. " I have invited him here," said Sheridan, 
 " and he will positively be with us to-morrow." 
 Next day, accordingly, Richardson made his appear- 
 ance, and horrified the Crewes by the vulgarity and 
 oddness of his manners and language. The fact was, 
 Sheridan had got one of Mr. Crewe's tenants to 
 personate Richardson for the occasion. I don't 
 know whether Richardson's " Fugitive " is a good 
 comedy or not * : but I know that Mrs. Jordan 
 played very sweetly in it, and that Wewitzer per- 
 formed a Frenchman most amusingly. 
 
 I was present on the second day of Hastings's 
 trial in Westminster Hall ; when Sheridan was 
 listened to with such attention that you might 
 have heard a pin drop. During one of those days 
 Sheridan, having observed Gibbon among the 
 audience, took occasion to mention " the luminous 
 author of ' The Decline and Fall.' " f After he 
 
 * It is far from a contemptible one : and it must have been 
 extremely well acted ; for, besides the two performers whom Mr. 
 Rogers mentions, Dodd, Parsons, Palmer, King, Miss Farren, 
 and Miss Pope, had parts in it. 
 
 | But, as reported in the Morning Chronicle, June 14, 1788, 
 the expression used by Sheridan was " the correct periods of 
 Tacitus or the luminous page of Gibbon." " Before my departure
 
 38 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 had finished, one of his friends reproached him 
 with flattering Gibbon. " Why, what did I say 
 of him ? " asked Sheridan." You called him 
 the luminous author," &c. " Luminous ! oh, I 
 meant voluminous." 
 
 Sheridan once said to me, " When posterity read 
 the speeches of Burke, they will hardly be able to 
 believe that, during his lifetime, he was not con- 
 sidered as a first-rate speaker, not even as a second- 
 rate one." 
 
 When the Duke of York was obliged to retreat 
 before the French,* Sheridan gave as a toast, " The 
 Duke of York and his brave followers." 
 
 I have seen Sheridan in company with the famous 
 Pamela.f She was lovely quite radiant with 
 
 from England, I was present at the august spectacle of Mr. 
 Hastings's trial in Westminster Hall. It is not my province to 
 absolve or condemn the Governor of India ; but Mr. Sheridan's 
 eloquence demanded my applause ; nor could I hear without 
 emotion the personal compliment which he paid me in the pres- 
 ence of the British nation." Gibbon's "Memoirs," &c., p. 172, 
 ed. 4to. 
 
 * On the campaigns of his Royal Highness, see " Memoir of the 
 Duke of York" in the Gentleman's Magazine for January 1827, 
 pp. 71, 72, 73. 
 
 f Madame de Genlis's adopted daughter, who was married at 
 Tournay, in 1792, to Lord Edward Fitzgerald. According to 
 Madame de Genlis, in her " Memoirs," two days before she and 
 Pamela left England, Sheridan declared himself, in her presence,
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 39 
 
 beauty ; and Sheridan either was, or pretended 
 to be, violently in love with her. On one occasion 
 I remember that he kept labouring the whole 
 evening at a copy of verses in French, which he 
 intended to present to her, every now and then 
 writing down a word or two on a slip of paper with 
 a pencil. The best of it was, that he understood 
 French very imperfectly. 
 
 Sheridan did not display his admirable powers 
 in company till he had been warmed by wine. 
 During the earlier part of dinner he was generally 
 heavy and silent ; and I have heard him, when 
 invited to drink a glass of wine, reply, " No, thank 
 you ; I'll take a little small beer." After dinner, 
 when he had had a tolerable quantity of wine, he 
 was brilliant indeed. But when he went on swallow- 
 ing too much, he became downright stupid : and 
 I once, after a dinner-party at the house of Edwards 
 the bookseller in Pall Mall, walked with him to 
 Brookes's, when he had absolutely lost the use of 
 speech. 
 
 the lover of Pamela, who accepted his hand with pleasure ; and 
 it was settled that they should be married " on our return from 
 France, which was expected to take place in a fortnight." See 
 "Memoirs of Sheridan," vol. ii. 196, ed. 1827, by Moore, who 
 suspects, not without good reason, that in this affair Sheridan 
 was only amusing himself.
 
 40 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Sheridan, Sir Walter (then Mr.) Scott, and Moore 
 were one day dining with me, and Sheridan was 
 talking in his very best style, when, to my great 
 vexation, Moore (who has that sort of restlessness 
 which never allows him to be happy where he is) 
 suddenly interrupted Sheridan by exclaiming, " Isn't 
 it time to go to Lydia White's ? " * 
 
 During his last illness, the medical attendants 
 apprehending that they would be obliged to perform 
 an operation on him, asked him "if he had ever 
 undergone one." " Never," replied Sheridan, " ex- 
 cept when sitting for my picture, or having my 
 hair cut." 
 
 Sheridan had very fine eyes, and he was not a 
 little vain of them. He said to me on his death-bed, 
 
 * Miss Lydia White (long since dead] was a lady who de- 
 lighted in giving parties to as many celebrated people as she 
 could collect. The following instance of her readiness in reply 
 was communicated to me by my friend the Rev. W. Harness. 
 " At one of Lydia White's small and most agreeable dinners in 
 Park Street, the company (most of them, except the hostess, 
 being Whigs) were discussing in rather a querulous strain the 
 desperate prospects of their party. ' Yes,' said Sydney Smith, 
 ' we are in a most deplorable condition : we must do something 
 to help ourselves ; I think we had better sacrifice a Tory virgin.' 
 This was pointedly addressed to Lydia White, who, at once 
 catching and applying the allusion to Iphigenia, answered, ' I 
 believe there is nothing the Whigs would not do to raise the 
 wind.' " (D.)
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 41 
 
 " Tell Lady Besborough that my eyes will look up 
 to the coffin-lid as brightly as ever." 
 
 Soon after his death, Lord Holland wrote a short 
 biographical sketch of him, in which it is stated that 
 he showed during the closing scene a deep sense of 
 devotion. But, on my asking the Bishop of London, 
 who had been called in to read prayers to him, what 
 were the religious feelings of Sheridan in his last 
 moments, the answer was, " I had no means of 
 knowing ; for, when I read the prayers, he was 
 totally insensible ; Mrs. Sheridan raising him up, 
 and joining his hands together." * 
 
 In his dealings with the world, Sheridan certainly 
 carried the privileges of genius as far as they were 
 ever carried by man. 
 
 It is quite true, as stated in several accounts of 
 him, that Fox, when a very young man, was a 
 
 * Let us hear, however, what Smyth says on this point in his 
 (privately printed) " Memoir of Mr. Sheridan." " But the next 
 day he [Sheridan] was not better, and I never saw him. I talked 
 about him, while I sat with Mrs. Sheridan ; as much, at least, 
 as I thought she chose. I durst not ask much. She told me 
 she had sent for her friend Dr. Howley, then Bishop of London, 
 who had instantly come up from Oxfordshire to pray by him. 
 ' And Mr. Sheridan,' I ventured to say, ' what of him ? ' 'I 
 never saw,' she replied, ' such awe as there was painted in his 
 countenance I shall never forget it.' " (D., p. 68.)
 
 42 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 prodigious dandy wearing a little odd French 
 hat, shoes with red heels, &c. He and Lord Carlisle 
 once travelled from Paris to Lyons for the express 
 purpose of buying waistcoats ; and during the whole 
 journey they talked about nothing else. 
 
 Fox (in his earlier days, I mean), Sheridan, 
 Fitzpatrick, &c., led such a life ! Lord Tanker- 
 ville assured me that he has played cards with 
 Fitzpatrick at Brookes' s from ten o'clock at night 
 till near six o'clock the next afternoon, a waiter 
 standing by to tell them " whose deal it was," 
 they being too sleepy to know. 
 
 After losing large sums at hazard, Fox would go 
 home not to destroy himself, as his friends sometimes 
 feared, but to sit down quietly, and read Greek. 
 
 He once won about eight thousand pounds ; 
 and one of his bond-creditors, who soon heard of 
 his good luck, presented himself, and asked for 
 payment. " Impossible, sir," replied Fox ; "I 
 must first discharge my debts of honour." The 
 bond-creditor remonstrated. " Well, sir, give me 
 your bond." It was delivered to Fox, who tore 
 it in pieces and threw them into the fire. " Now, 
 sir," said Fox, "my debt to you is a debt of 
 honour " ; and immediately paid him. 
 
 When I became acquainted with Fox, he had
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 43 
 
 given up that kind of life entirely, and resided in 
 the most perfect sobriety and regularity at St. 
 Anne's Hill. There he was very happy, delighting 
 in study, in rural occupations and rural prospects. 
 He would break from a criticism on Person's 
 " Euripides " to look for the little pigs. I re- 
 member his calling out to the Chertsey hills, when 
 a thick mist, which had for some time concealed 
 them, rolled away : " Good morning to you ! 
 I am glad to see you again." There was a walk 
 in his grounds which led to a lane through which 
 the farmers used to pass ; and he would stop them, 
 and talk to them, with great interest, about the 
 price of turnips, &c. I was one day with him 
 in the Louvre, when he suddenly turned from the 
 pictures, and, looking out at the window, ex- 
 claimed, " This hot sun will burn up my turnips 
 at St. Anne's Hill." 
 
 In London mixed society Fox conversed little ; 
 but at his own house in the country, with his 
 intimate friends, he would talk on for ever, with 
 all the openness and simplicity of a child : he 
 has continued talking to me for half an hour after 
 he had taken up his bed-room candle. I have 
 seen it somewhere stated that Fox liked to talk 
 about great people : nothing can be more untrue ;
 
 44 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 he hardly ever alluded to them. I remember, 
 indeed, that he once mentioned to me Queen 
 Charlotte, calling her " that bad woman." 
 
 He was very shy, and disliked being stared at. 
 Windham and I accompanied him one night to 
 Vauxhall, where he was much annoyed at being 
 followed about, as a spectacle, from place to place. 
 On such occasions he was not only shy, but gauche. 
 
 One morning at his own house, while speaking 
 to me of his travels, Fox could not recollect the 
 name of a particular town in Holland, and was 
 much vexed at the treacherousness of his memory. 
 He had a dinner-party that day ; and, just as he 
 had applied the carving-knife to the sirloin, the 
 name of the town having suddenly occurred to 
 him, he roared out exultingly, to the astonishment 
 of the company, " Gorcum, Gorcum ! " 
 
 Fox saw Voltaire at Ferney. Their interview 
 was described to me in a letter by Uvedale Price,* 
 
 * Created a baronet in 1828. A small portion of that letter 
 about Fox's visit to Voltaire, has lately been printed in " Memo- 
 rials and Correspondence of C. J. Fox," edited by Lord J. Russell, 
 vol. i. 46. An account of the same visit, from the pen of the 
 same writer, occurs in a letter to my unfortunate friend the late 
 E. H. Barker, dated March 24, 1827, from which I shall not 
 scruple to make a long extract : 
 
 " But among the characters of the second generation so ably
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 45 
 
 who went there with him : but unfortunately I no 
 longer possess that letter ; I lent it to Lord Holland, 
 and never could get it back. 
 
 drawn by Mr. Butler [in his " Reminiscences "], to me much the 
 most interesting is that of Charles Fox. Our friendship and 
 intimacy, which began at Eton, continued without interruption 
 through life. While Etonians, we acted together in the plays 
 given at Holland House, which, from the high character and 
 connections of its owner, from the premature talents of C. Fox, 
 two years younger than myself, and from the peculiarly lovely 
 countenance and sweet-toned voice of Lady Sarah Lenox, our 
 Jane Shore (whom, as Gloucester, I could hardly bring myself 
 to speak to as harshly as my character required), these plays had 
 at the time great celebrity. We were at Oxford together, were 
 almost constantly together at Florence, where we studied Italian 
 under the same master at the same time. 
 
 " From Rome we travelled together along the eastern coast to 
 Venice, and thence to Turin, where we met by appointment our 
 excellent friend and schoolfellow, Lord Fitzwilliam, who is men- 
 tioned by Mr. Butler in a few words, but most impressively, as 
 spoken of him by Fox. All this, I am aware, can have little 
 interest for you : but having the excuse of Mr. Butler's reminis- 
 cences, I have indulged myself in putting down mine, as they 
 recall a period of great and unmixed delight. I then witnessed 
 daily and hourly that characteristic good nature, that warm and 
 unalterable attachment to his friends of which Mr. B. speaks in 
 so impressive a manner : and likewise witnessed on more than 
 one occasion, what was no less characteristic, his abhorrence 
 of anything like tyranny, oppression, or cruelty. Having got 
 so far on my journey, I shall e'en proceed with it : from Turin 
 we all three set out for Geneva, but went out of our direct road 
 to that most singular and striking place, the Grande Chartreuse,
 
 46 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 It is well known that Fox visited Gibbon at 
 Lausanne ; and he was much gratified by the visit. 
 Gibbon, he said, talked a great deal, walking up 
 and down the room, and generally ending his 
 sentences with a genitive case ; every now and 
 then, too, casting a look of complacency on his 
 own portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, which hung 
 over the chimney-piece that wonderful portrait, 
 in which, while the oddness and vulgarity of the 
 features are refined away, the likeness is perfectly 
 preserved. Fox used to say that Gibbon's 
 " History " was immortal, because nobody could 
 do without it nobody, without vast expense 
 of time and labour, could get elsewhere the in- 
 
 so finely described in Gray's ' Alcaic Ode.' From Geneva Fox 
 and I went to Voltaire at Ferney, having obtained a permis- 
 sion then seldom granted. It is an event in one's life to have 
 seen and heard that extraordinary man : he was old and infirm, 
 and, in answer to Fox's note and request, said that the name of 
 Fox was sufficient, and that he could not refuse seeing us, ' mais 
 que nous venions pour 1'exterrer.' He conversed in a lively 
 manner, walking with us to and fro in a sort of alley ; and at 
 parting gave us a list of some of his works, adding, ' Ce sont des 
 livres de quoi il faut se munir,' they were such as would fortify 
 our young minds against religious prejudices. Fox quitted us 
 at Geneva, went to England, and commenced his political career. 
 I went with Fitzwilliam through the finest parts of Switzerland, 
 and then down the Rhine to Spa, and met him again at Paris : and 
 there ends my foreign journal, and high time it should." (D.)
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 47 
 
 formation which it contains. I think, and so 
 Lord Grenville thought, that the introductory 
 chapters are the finest part of that history : it 
 was certainly more difficult to write them than 
 the rest of the work. 
 
 Fox had the highest admiration of Lord North ; 
 he considered him a consummate debater. He 
 thought very highly, too, of Dr. Laurence's speeches ; 
 and said that they only failed in making a deep im- 
 pression because his manner of delivery was so bad. 
 He disliked Sheridan's famous speeches at Has- 
 tings's trial * : j^et they fascinated Burke ; and to 
 them Fox attributed the change of style which is 
 visible in Burke's later compositions. He did not 
 greatly admire Burke's celebrated " Reflections." 
 
 Never in my life did I hear anything equal to 
 Fox's speeches in reply they were wonderful. 
 Burke did not do himself justice as a speaker : 
 his manner was hurried, and he always seemed 
 to be in a passion, f Pitt's voice sounded as if 
 he had worsted in his mouth. 
 
 * In Westminster Hall. It must be remembered, however, 
 that the perhaps more famous speech in the House of Commons, 
 Feb. 7, 1787, in which Sheridan brought forward against Hastings 
 the charge relative to the Begum Princesses of Oude, was publicly 
 eulogised by Fox as a matchless piece of eloquence. 
 
 f " Burke," said Mr. Maltby (see notice prefixed to the
 
 48 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Person said that " Pitt carefully considered his 
 sentences before he uttered them ; but that Fox 
 threw himself into the middle of his, and left it to 
 God Almighty to get him out again." * 
 
 Malone was one day walking down Dover Street 
 with Burke, when the latter all at once drew himself 
 up and carried his head aloft with an air of great 
 hauteur. Malone perceived that this was occasioned 
 by the approach of Fox, who presently passed them 
 on the other side of the street. After Fox had gone 
 by, Burke asked Malone very eagerly, " Did he 
 look at me ? " 
 
 Fox once said to me that " Burke was a most 
 impracticable person, a most unmanageable col- 
 league that he never would support any measure, 
 however convinced he might be in his heart of its 
 
 " Porsoniana" in this volume), " always disappointed me as a 
 speaker. I have heard him, during his speeches in the House, 
 make use of the most vulgar expressions, such as ' three nips 
 of a straw,' ' three skips of a louse," &c. ; and, on one occasion 
 when I was present, he introduced, as an illustration, a most 
 indelicate story about a French king, who asked his physi- 
 cian why his natural children were so much finer than his 
 legitimate." 
 
 * Person was thinking of Sterne. " I begin with writing the 
 first sentence and trusting to Almighty God for the second." 
 " Tristram Shandy," vol. v. 192, ed. 1775.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 49 
 
 utility, if it had been first proposed by another " * : 
 and he once used these very words, " After all, 
 Burke was a damned wrong-headed fellow, through 
 his whole life jealous and obstinate." 
 
 Mrs. Crewe f told me that, on some occasion, 
 when it was remarked that Fox still retained his 
 early love for France and everything French, Burke 
 said, " Yes ; he is like a cat he is fond of the house, 
 though the family be gone." 
 
 I once dined at Mr. Stone's (at Hackney) with 
 Fox, Sheridan, Talleyrand, Madame de Genlis, 
 Pamela, and some other celebrated persons of the 
 time. A natural son of Fox, a dumb boy (who 
 was the very image of his father, and who died 
 a few years after, when about the age of fifteen), 
 was also there, having come, for the occasion, 
 from Braidwood's Academy. To him Fox almost 
 entirely confined his attention, conversing with him 
 by the fingers : and their eyes glistened as they 
 
 * " Cassius. But what of Cicero ? shall we sound him ? 
 I think he will stand very strong with us. 
 ***** 
 
 Brutus. O name him iiot : let us not break with him ; 
 For he will never follow anything 
 That other men begin." 
 
 Shakespeare's " Julius Caesar," act ii. sc. 1. 
 f Afterwards Lady Crewe. 
 
 D
 
 50 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 looked at each other. Talleyrand remarked to me, 
 " how strange it was, to dine in company with the 
 first orator in Europe, and only see him talk with his 
 fingers I " That day I offended Madame de Genlis 
 by praising the " Contes Moraux " of Mannontel, 
 with whom she had quarrelled violently. 
 
 At a dinner-party, where I was, Fox met Aikin. 
 " I am greatly pleased with your ' Miscellaneous 
 Pieces,' Mr. Aikin," said Fox (alluding to the volume 
 written partly by Aikin, and partly by his sister 
 Mrs. Barbauld). Aikin bowed. " I particularly 
 admire," continued Fox, " your essay ' Against 
 Inconsistency in our Expectations.' ' " That," 
 replied Aikin, " is my sister's." " I like much," 
 resumed Fox, " your essay ' On Monastic Institu- 
 tions.' ' " That," answered Aikin, " is also my 
 sister's." Fox thought it best to say no more 
 about the book. 
 
 At another of Smith's dinners, the conversation 
 turned on Wilberforce ; when somebody put the 
 query : If Wilberforce were compelled to desert 
 either the cause of the slaves, or the party of Mr. 
 Pitt, to which would he adhere ? " Oh," said Fox, 
 " he would be for Barabbas." But that was said 
 by Fox merely as a joke ; for he greatly respected 
 Pitt ; and I remember that, on another occasion
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 51 
 
 at Smith's, when Tierney, &c., endeavoured to 
 persuade Fox that Pitt was not uttering his real 
 sentiments about the abolition of the slave-trade, 
 he would not be so persuaded.* Pitt, too, had the 
 highest respect for Fox. One night, after Fox 
 had been speaking, a noble lord, coming out of 
 the House with Pitt, began to abuse Fox's speech, 
 " Don't disparage it," said Pitt ; " nobody could 
 have made it but himself." 
 
 Fox used to declare of himself that he was " a 
 most painstaking person." When he came into 
 office, finding that his handwriting was very bad, 
 he took lessons to improve it. 
 
 He one day pronounced himself to be a bad 
 carver, and, when Mrs. Fox confirmed it, he said, 
 " Yes, my dear, I thought you'd agree with me." 
 
 I saw Lunardi make the first ascent in a balloon 
 which had been witnessed in England. It was from 
 the Artillery Ground. Fox was there with his 
 brother, General F. The crowd was immense. 
 Fox, happening to put his hand down to his watch, 
 found another hand upon it, which he immediately 
 
 * " During the debates on the war with France, I heard Fox 
 characterise a speech of Pitt as ' one that would have excited 
 the admiration and envy of Demosthenes.' " Mr. MALTBY 
 (see note prefixed to the " Porsoniana " in this volume].
 
 52 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 seized. " My friend," said he to the owner of the 
 strange hand, " you have chosen an occupation 
 which will be your ruin at last." " Oh, Mr. Fox," 
 was the reply, " forgive me, and let me go ! I 
 have been driven to this course by necessity alone ; 
 my wife and children are starving at home." Fox, 
 always tender-hearted, slipped a guinea into the 
 hand, and then released it. On the conclusion 
 of the show, Fox was proceeding to look what 
 o'clock it was. " Good God," cried he, " my 
 watch is gone ! " " Yes," answered General F., 
 " I know it is ; I saw your friend take it." " Saw 
 him take it ! and you made no attempt to stop 
 him ? " " Really, you and he appeared to be on 
 such good terms with each other, that I did not 
 choose to interfere." 
 
 I was walking through the Louvre with Fox, 
 when he all but cut Mackintosh, passing him 
 with a nod and a " How d'ye do ? " and he gave 
 me to understand that he had done so because 
 he was angry at Mackintosh for having accepted 
 a place in India from the Tories. Fitzpatrick, 
 however, told me the real cause of Fox's 
 anger ; and it was this : Mrs. Mackintosh had 
 not called upon Mrs. Fox, whom Fox had 
 recently acknowledged as his wife. Such slight
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 53 
 
 things sometimes influence the conduct of great 
 men. 
 
 Most unfortunately, one morning during break- 
 fast at St. Anne's Hill, I repeated and praised 
 Goldsmith's song, "When lovely woman stoops to 
 folly," &c., quite forgetting that it must necessarily 
 hurt the feelings of Mrs. Fox. She seemed a good 
 deal discomposed by it. Fox merely remarked, 
 " Some people write damned nonsense." 
 
 When Buonaparte said to Fox, he was convinced 
 that Windham was implicated in the contrivance of 
 the infernal machine, Fox warmly repelled such 
 an aspersion on Windham's character, assuring 
 the First Consul that no Englishman would degrade 
 himself by being concerned in so vile a business. 
 I told this to Windham, who answered very coldly, 
 "Well, I should have said the same of him under 
 similar circumstances." I have heard Windham 
 speak very disrespectfully of Fox in the House, 
 after their political quarrel. 
 
 Fox said that Sir Joshua Reynolds never enjoyed 
 Richmond * that he used to say the human face 
 was his landscape. Fox did not much admire Sir 
 
 * Where Reynolds had a villa. In Mr. Rogers's collection of 
 pictures is an exquisite landscape by Sir Joshua a view from 
 Richmond Hill, with the features of the scene a little altered.
 
 54 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Joshua's pictures in the grand style ; he greatly 
 preferred those of a playful character : he did 
 not like much even the Ugolino ; but he thought 
 the boys in the Nativity were charming. 
 
 Once, at Paris, talking to Fox about Le Sueur's 
 pictures, I said that I doubted if any artist had 
 ever excelled Le Sueur in painting white garments. 
 Fox replied that he thought Andrea Sacchi superior 
 to Le Sueur in this respect. I mention this to show 
 that Fox was not only fond of painting, but had 
 given minute attention to it.* 
 
 He was an eager chess-player : I have heard 
 him say, on coming down to breakfast, that he 
 had not been able to sleep for thinking about some 
 particular move. 
 
 While young Betty was in all his glory, I went 
 with Fox and Mrs. Fox, after dining with them in 
 Arlington Street, to see him act Hamlet ; and, 
 during the play-scene, Fox, to my infinite surprise, 
 said, " This is finer than Garrick." f How wise 
 it was in Kemble and Mrs. Siddons quietly to 
 
 * For an account of the delight which Fox received from 
 visiting the Louvre, see Trotter's " Memoirs of Fox," p. 209. 
 
 f Such criticism will now seem (and undoubtedly is) prepos- 
 terous. But we must recollect that there was a marvellous charm 
 about the young Roscius. " Northcote then spoke of the boy, 
 as he always calls him (Master Betty). He asked if I had ever
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 55 
 
 withdraw from the stage during the Betty furor, 
 and then as quietly to return to it, as if nothing 
 unusual had occurred ! 
 
 Fox said that Barry's Romeo was superior to 
 Garrick's. 
 
 " If I had a son," observed Fox, " I should 
 insist on his frequently writing English verses, 
 whether he had a taste for poetry or not, because 
 that sort of composition forces one to consider 
 very carefully the exact meanings of words." 
 
 I introduced Wordsworth to Fox, having taken 
 him with me to a ball given by Mrs. Fox. " I am 
 very glad to see you, Mr. Wordsworth, though I 
 am not of your faction," was all that Fox said 
 to him meaning that he admired a school of 
 poetry different from that to which Wordsworth 
 belonged. 
 
 Fox considered Burnet's style to be perfect. 
 We were once talking of an historian's introducing 
 occasionally the words of other writers into his work 
 
 seen him act ; and I said, Yes, and was one of his admirers. 
 He answered, ' Oh ! yes, it was such a beautiful effusion of natural 
 sensibility ; and then that graceful play of the limbs in youth 
 gave such an advantage over every one about him.' Humphreys 
 (the artist) said, ' He had never seen the little Apollo off the 
 pedestal before.' " Hazlitt's " Conversations of Northcote/' 
 
 P/23J
 
 56 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 without marking them as quotations, when Fox 
 said, " that the style of some of the authors so 
 treated might need a little mending, but that 
 Burnet's required none." 
 
 One forenoon, at his own house, Fox was 
 talking to me very earnestly about Dryden, when 
 he suddenly recollected that (being in office) he 
 ought to make his appearance at the King's levee. 
 It was so late that, not having time to change 
 his dress, he set off for Buckingham House " ac- 
 coutred as he was " ; and when somebody remarked 
 to him that his coat was not quite the thing, he 
 replied, " No matter ; he (i.e., George III.) is so 
 blind that he can't distinguish what I have on." 
 
 There was a period of his life when Fox used 
 to say that he could not forgive Milton for having 
 occasioned him the trouble of reading through a 
 poem (" Paradise Lost "), three parts of which 
 were not worth reading. He afterwards, however, 
 estimated it more justly.* Milton's prose works 
 he never could endure. 
 
 * In a letter to Trotter, after noticing the predominance of 
 f the grand and terrific and gigantic " in ^Eschylus, Fox con- 
 tinues : " This never suits my taste ; and I feel the same objec- 
 tion to most parts of the ' Paradise Lost,' though in that poem 
 there are most splendid exceptions, Eve, Paradise, &c." 
 Trotter's " Memoirs of Fox," p. 520.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 57 
 
 He thought so highly of the " Isaeco " of Metas- 
 tasio, that he considered it as one of the four most 
 beautiful compositions produced during the century ; 
 the other three being Pope's " Eloisa to Abelard," 
 Voltaire's " Zaire," and Gray's " Elegy." * 
 
 " No one," said Fox, " could be an ill-tempered 
 man who wrote so much nonsense as Swift did." 
 
 " January 1803. A visit to St. Anne's a small 
 low white house on the brow of a hill, commanding 
 a semicircular sweep, rich and woody. In the 
 small drawing-room, Sir Joshua Reynolds' Girl 
 with the Mouse-trap. In the hall books and statues. 
 The library on the first floor small and unadorned 
 the books on open shelves. Engraved portraits, 
 principally after Sir Joshua Reynolds, all over the 
 house. In the garden-passage a copy in black 
 marble of the Eagle at Strawberry hill ; and a 
 bust of Hippocrates, with a Latin inscription by 
 Lord Holland, found in Italy. In the eating-room 
 a portrait of Lord Holland sitting, carefully painted 
 by Reynolds ; and of Lady Holland sitting, by 
 Ramsey. Several good old pictures. In the garden 
 a handsome architectural greenhouse, and a temple 
 after a design of Lord Newburgh (who also designed 
 
 * Yet, we have been told, Fox did not consider the "Elegy" 
 as Gray's best poem : see p. 18.
 
 5 8 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Kingsgate,* and of whose taste he thinks highly), 
 containing busts of Charles J. Fox, Lord Holland, 
 and a son of Lord Bolingbroke, all by Nollekens. 
 The garden laid out in open and shrubbery walks, 
 trees breaking the prospect everywhere. The 
 kitchen-garden a square, not walled, and skirted 
 by the walk. In the lower part is something in 
 imitation of the Nuneham flower-garden. There 
 is a terrace-walk, thickly planted, to a neat farm- 
 house ; in which there is a tea-room, the chimney- 
 piece relieved with a Fox. The drawing-room 
 prettily furnished with pink silk in panels, enclosed 
 with an ebony bead, and a frame of blue silk ; made 
 of old gowns. 
 
 " Thought ' Sidney Biddulph ' t the best novel 
 
 * At Kingsgate, Isle of Thanet, was, until lately, a house look- 
 ing on the German Ocean, built by Henry, first Lord Holland, 
 of the Fox family. The poet Gray wrote some satirical verses 
 on the house beginning thus : 
 
 " Old and abandon'd by each venal friend, 
 
 Here H d form'd the pious resolution 
 
 To smuggle a few years, and strive to mend 
 A broken character and constitution," &c. 
 Impromptu suggested by a view in 1766, of the seat and 
 ruins of a deceased Nobleman, &-c. 
 
 t " Memoirs of Sidney Biddulph," by Mrs. Sheridan, mother 
 of R. B. Sheridan. She died 1767.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 59 
 
 of our age. Sheridan denied having read it, though 
 the plot of his ' School for Scandal ' was borrowed 
 from it. The close of the second part very excellent." 
 
 Fox used to read Homer through once every 
 year. On my asking him, " Which poem had you 
 rather have written, the ' Iliad ' or the ' Odyssey' ? " 
 he answered, " I know which I had rather read " 
 (meaning the " Odyssey ").* 
 
 Euripides was his grand favourite among the 
 Greek poets. He fancied that Shakespeare must 
 have met with some translation of Euripides, f 
 for he could trace resemblances between passages 
 of their dramas: e.g., what Alcestis in her last 
 moments says about her servants is like what 
 the dying Queen Katharine (in " Henry the Eighth ") 
 says about hers, &c. 
 
 He considered the " (Edipus Coloneus " as the 
 best play of Sophocles ; and he admired greatly 
 his " Electra." 
 
 He did not much like Caesar's " Commentaries " 
 
 > 
 
 they appeared to him rather dry, and deficient in 
 
 * " I suppose," says Fox, in a letter to Trotter, " as soon as 
 you have done the ' Iliad,' you will read the ' Odyssey,' which, 
 though certainly not so fine a poem, is, to my taste, still pleasanter 
 to read." Trotter's " Memoirs of Fox," p. 494. 
 
 f A mere fancy.
 
 60 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 thought. He said that the letter to Oppius and 
 Balbus,* which is very little known, was the piece 
 that did Caesar most honour ; and that he had once 
 transcribed it with the intention of sending it to 
 Buonaparte, when the news of the Duke d'Enghien's 
 death made him change his mind. 
 
 He was a constant reader of Virgil ; and had 
 been so from a very early period. There is at 
 Holland House a copy of Virgil covered with 
 Fox's manuscript notes, written when he was a 
 boy, and expressing the most enthusiastic ad- 
 miration of that poet. 
 
 Afterwards, calling upon him in Stable Yard 
 when he happened to be ill, I found him reading 
 Hippocrates. On that occasion I said I wished 
 that the new Administration would put down 
 the east wind by an Act of Parliament. He re- 
 plied, smiling (and waking, as it were, from one 
 of his fits of torpor), that they would find it difficult 
 to do that, but that they would do as much good 
 in that as they would in anything else. 
 
 Bond Street bad, and inferior to what the Strand 
 used to be, which has suffered in its shops from 
 
 * Cicero's " Epist. ad Att.," lib. ix. 7. c. Letter written at 
 commencement of the civil war, in which Caesar speaks of his 
 generous humanity to Magius. a captured praefect of Pompeius.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 61 
 
 Bond Street. Piccadilly on a bright Sunday very 
 fine. Could never believe the streets of London 
 were so short as they are particularly Bond Street, 
 which is said to be only half a mile long. 
 
 Thought Gibbon's acacia-walk long ; * and it 
 was short. 
 
 Very shortly before he died, he complained of 
 great uneasiness in his stomach ; and Cline advised 
 him to try the effects of a cup of coffee. It was 
 accordingly ordered : but, not being brought so 
 soon as was expected, Mrs. Fox expressed some 
 impatience ; upon which Fox said, with his usual 
 sweet smile, " Remember, my dear, that good 
 coffee cannot be made in a moment." 
 
 Lady Holland announced the death of Fox in 
 her own odd manner to those relatives and intimate 
 friends of his who were sitting in a room near his 
 bed-chamber, and waiting to hear that he had 
 breathed his last; she walked through the room 
 with her apron thrown over her head. 
 
 How fondly the surviving friends of Fox cherished 
 his memory ! Many years after his death, I was at 
 a fete given by the Duke of Devonshire at Chiswick 
 
 * The acacia walk in Gibbon's garden at Lausanne, so touch- 
 ingly connected with his reflections on the completion of his 
 history of the Decline and Fall. " Miscel. Works," i. 170.
 
 62 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 House. Sir Robert Adair and I wandered about the 
 apartments, up and down stairs. " In which room 
 did Fox expire ? " asked Adair. I replied, " In 
 this very room." Immediately Adair burst into 
 tears with a vehemence of grief such as I hardly 
 ever saw exhibited by a man. 
 
 Burke said to Mrs. Crewe : * "A dull proser is 
 more endurable than a dull joker." 
 
 He also said to her : " England is a moon shone 
 upon by France. France has all things within her- 
 self ; and she possesses the power of recovering from 
 the severest blows. England is an artificial country : 
 take away her commerce, and what has she ? " 
 
 Foote was once talking away at a party, when a 
 gentleman said to him, " I beg your pardon, Mr. 
 Foote, but your handkerchief is half-out of your 
 pocket." " Thank you, sir," answered Foote ; 
 " you know the company better than I do." 
 
 Fox told me that Lord William Bentinck once 
 invited Foote to meet him and some others at dinner 
 in St. James's Street ; and that they were rather 
 angry at Lord William for having done so, expecting 
 that Foote would prove only a bore, and a check on 
 
 * Afterwards Lady Crewe.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 63 
 
 their conversation. " But," said Fox, " we soon 
 found that we were mistaken : whatever we talked 
 about whether fox-hunting, the turf, or any other 
 subject Foote instantly took the lead, and delighted 
 us all." 
 
 Murphy, who used to dwell with enthusiasm on 
 his recollections of Chatham's oratory, was once in 
 the gallery of the House with Foote, when Pitt 
 (Lord Chatham) was putting forth all his power in 
 an attack on Murray (Lord Mansfield). " Shall we 
 go home now ? " said Murray. " No," replied 
 Foote ; "let us wait till he has made the little man 
 (Murray) vanish entirely." 
 
 There was no end to Foote' s jokes about Garrick's 
 parsimony. " Garrick," said Foote, " lately invited 
 Hurd to dine with him in the Adelphi ; and after 
 dinner, the evening being very warm, they walked 
 up and down in front of the house. As they passed 
 and repassed the dining-room windows, Garrick was 
 in a perfect agony ; for he saw that there was a thief 
 in one of the candles which were burning on the 
 table ; and yet Hurd was a person of such conse- 
 quence that he could not run away from him to 
 prevent the waste of his tallow." 
 
 At the Chapter Coffee-house, Foote and his 
 friends were making a contribution for the relief of
 
 64 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 a poor fellow (a decayed player, I believe), who was 
 nicknamed the Captain of the Four Winds, because 
 his hat was worn into four spouts. Each person of 
 the company dropped his mite into the hat, as it was 
 held out to him. " If Garrick hears of this," said 
 Foote, " he will certainly send us his hat." 
 
 The then Duke of Cumberland (the foolish * 
 Duke, as he was called) came one night into Foote's 
 green-room at the Haymarket Theatre. " Well, 
 Foote," said he, " here I am, ready, as usual, to 
 swallow all your good things." " Upon my soul," 
 replied Foote, " your Royal Highness must have an 
 excellent digestion, for you never bring any up 
 again." 
 
 During my youth I used to go to the Hampstead 
 Assemblies, which were frequented by a great deal 
 of good company. There I have danced four or five 
 minuets in one evening. 
 
 Beau Nash was once dancing a minuet at Bath 
 with a Miss Lunn. She was so long of giving him 
 both her hands (the figure by which the lady, when 
 she thinks proper, brings the performance to a close), 
 that he lost all patience, and, suiting the words to 
 
 * For a vindication of his Royal Highness from this epithet, 
 see Boaden's " Life of Kemble," ii. 17.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 65 
 
 the tune (which was Marshal S axe's minuet], he 
 sung out, as she passed him ; 
 
 "Miss Lunn, Miss Lunn, 
 Will you never have done ? " 
 
 Lord St. Helens (who had been ambassador to 
 Russia) told me, as a fact, this anecdote of the 
 Empress Catherine. She frequently had little whist- 
 parties, at which she sometimes played, and some- 
 times not. One night, when she was not playing, 
 but walking about from table to table, and watching 
 the different hands, she rang the bell to summon 
 the page-in-waiting from an antechamber. No 
 page appeared. She rang the bell again ; and again 
 without effect. Upon this, she left the room, 
 looking daggers, and did not return for a very con- 
 siderable time ; the company supposing that the 
 unfortunate page was destined to the knout or 
 Siberia. On entering the antechamber, the Empress 
 found that the page, like his betters, was busy at 
 whist, and that, when she had rung the bell, he 
 happened to have so very interesting a hand that 
 he could not make up his mind to quit it. Now, 
 what did the Empress do ? she despatched the page 
 on her errand, and then quietly sat down to hold his 
 cards till he should return. 
 
 E
 
 66 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Lord St. Helens also told me that he and Segur 
 were with the Empress in her carriage, when the 
 horses took fright, and ran furiously down hill. The 
 danger was excessive. When it was over, the Em- 
 press said, " Mon e"toile vous a sauvee." 
 
 Hare's wit, once so famous, owed perhaps not a 
 little to his manner of uttering it. Here is a speci- 
 men. Fox was sitting at Brookes's, in a very moody 
 humour, having lost a considerable sum at cards, 
 and was indolently moving a pen backwards and 
 forwards over a sheet of paper. " What is he draw- 
 ing ? " said some one to Hare. " Anything but a 
 draft," was the reply. 
 
 General Fitzpatrick was at one tune nearly as 
 famous for his wit as Hare. During the latter part 
 of his long life he had withdrawn a good deal from 
 society. I took farewell of him the day but one 
 before he died. On the day immediately preceding 
 his death, I walked to his house in Arlington Street 
 to inquire for him ; and, just as I reached the door, 
 Mrs. Fox was coming from it, sobbing violently. 
 
 Jekyll, too, was celebrated for his wit ; but it was 
 of that kind which amuses only for the moment. 
 I remember that when Lady Cork gave a party at 
 which she wore a most enormous plume, Jekyll said,
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 67 
 
 " She was exactly a shuttle-cock all cork and 
 feathers." 
 
 While Rousseau was lodging in Chiswick Terrace, 
 Fitzpatrick called upon him one day, and had not 
 been long in the room when David Hume entered. 
 Rousseau had lost a favourite dog ; and Hume, 
 having exerted himself to recover it, now brought 
 it back to its master, who thanked him with expres- 
 sions of the most fervent gratitude, and shed tears 
 of joy over the animal. 
 
 Fitzpatrick, who had been much in the company 
 of David Hume, used always to speak of him as " a 
 delicious creature." 
 
 Hume told Cadell the bookseller that he had a 
 great desire to be introduced to as many of the per- 
 sons who had written against him as could be col- 
 lected ; and requested Cadell to bring him and them 
 together. Accordingly, Dr. Douglas, Dr. Adams, 
 &c. &c., were invited by Cadell to dine at his house 
 in order to meet Hume. They came ; and Dr. Price, 
 who was one of the party, assured me that they were 
 all delighted with David. 
 
 I knew Murphy long and intimately : I was intro- 
 duced to him by the Piozzis at Streatham.
 
 68 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Y On the first night of any of his plays, if the 
 slightest symptoms of disapprobation were shown by 
 the audience, Murphy always left the house and took 
 a walk in Covent Garden Market : then, after having 
 composed himself, he would return to the theatre. 
 
 Garrick once, in conversation with Murphy, having 
 insisted that it was much more difficult to write a 
 play whose strength lay in the plot than one which 
 depended on the dialogue for its effect, Murphy 
 went to his favourite haunt, the Talbot at Richmond, 
 and wrote, nearly at a single sitting, a comedy of the 
 former description (I forget its name), which, very 
 soon after, he presented to Garrick. 
 
 The days had been when Murphy lived in the 
 best society, and used to walk about arm-in-arm 
 with Lord Loughborough : but I have seen them 
 meet in the street, and salute each other very 
 formally. 
 
 Towards the close of his life, till he received a 
 pension of 200 per annum from the king,* Murphy 
 was in great pecuniary difficulties. He had eaten 
 himself out of every tavern from the other side of 
 Temple Bar to the West end of the town. I have still 
 in my possessfon several bills of his for money to a 
 considerable amount which he never repaid me. 
 
 * The pension was granted to him in 1803 : he died in 1805.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 69 
 
 He had borrowed from me two hundred pounds ; 
 and a long time having elapsed without his taking 
 any notice of the debt, I became rather uneasy (for 
 two hundred pounds was then no trifling sum to 
 me). At last, meeting him in Fleet Street, I asked 
 him when he should be able to settle with me. 
 " Are you going home ? " said he. " Yes," I 
 replied ; and we walked to my chambers in the 
 Temple. There, instead of making any arrangements 
 for repaying me, he exerted all his eloquence, but 
 in vain, to induce me to lend him more money ; and 
 I thanked Heaven when I got rid of him. He 
 assigned over to me the whole of his works, including 
 his Tacitus ; and I soon found that he had already 
 disposed of them to a bookseller ! For this trans- 
 action Murphy came, in extreme agitation, to offer 
 me a sort of apology, almost throwing himself on 
 his knees. When he made his appearance, Person 
 and Maltby * happened to be in the room ; f but, 
 Person having said aside to Maltby, " We had better 
 withdraw," they left me to my disagreeable con- 
 ference with Murphy. 
 
 One thing ought to be remembered to Murphy's 
 
 * See notice prefixed to the " Porsoniana " in this volume, 
 f Mr. Rogers was then lodging in Prince's Street, Hanover 
 Square ; from which he removed to St. James's Place.
 
 70 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 honour : an actress,* with whom he had lived, 
 bequeathed to him all her property, but he gave up 
 every farthing of it to her relations. 
 
 Murphy used to say that there were Four Estates 
 in England, the King, the Lords, the Commons, and 
 the Theatres. He certainly would not say so, if he 
 were alive now, when the national theatre is almost 
 extinct. 
 
 Henderson was a truly great actor ; his Hamlet 
 and his Falstaff were equally good. He was a very 
 fine reader too ; in his comic readings superior, of 
 course, to Mrs. Siddons ; his John Gilpin was mar- 
 vellous. 
 
 He would frequently produce very unexpected 
 " effects " in his readings : for instance, in the 
 passage of Collins's " Ode to Fear" ; 
 
 Or throws him on the ridgy steep 
 
 Of some loose-hanging rock to sleep 
 
 he would suddenly pause after the words " loose- 
 hanging rock," and then, starting back as if in 
 amazement, and lifting his arms above his head, he 
 would slowly add " to sleep ! " f 
 
 * Miss Elliot* 
 
 f Dyce^_here observes that he could not agree with
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 71 
 
 During his boyhood, Pitt was very weakly ; and 
 his physician, Addington (Lord Sidmouth's father) , 
 ordered him to take port wine in large quantities : 
 the consequence was that, when he grew up, he 
 could not do without it. Lord Grenville has seen 
 him swallow a bottle of port in tumblerfuls, before 
 going to the House. This, together with his habit of 
 eating late suppers (indigestible cold veal pies, &c.), 
 helped undoubtedly to shorten his life. Huskisson, 
 speaking to me of Pitt, said that his hands shook so 
 much that, when he helped himself to salt, he was 
 obliged to support the right hand with the left. 
 
 Stothard the painter happened to be one evening 
 at an inn on the Kent Road, when Pitt and Dundas 
 put up there on their way from Walmer. Next 
 morning, as they were stepping into their carriage, 
 the waiter said to Stothard, " Sir, do you observe 
 these two gentlemen ? " " Yes," he replied ; " and 
 I know them to be Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas." 
 " Well, sir, how much wine do you suppose they 
 drank last night ? " Stothard could not guess. 
 " Seven bottles, sir ! " 
 
 Lord Grenville once said to Pitt, " I am really 
 astonished at your fluency in public speaking : how 
 
 Mr. Rogers in admiring the effect in question. It was certainly 
 not intended by the poet.
 
 72 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 was it acquired ? " He replied, " I believe it may be 
 attributed to this circumstance : when I was a lad, 
 my father used every evening to make me translate 
 freely, before him and the rest of the family, those 
 portions of Livy, Virgil, &c., which I had read in 
 the morning with my tutor, Mr. Wilson." Lord 
 Grenville engaged a reporter to take down Pitt's 
 speeches ; but the reporter completely failed. 
 
 Pitt had been accustomed when a boy to go a- 
 bird-nesting at Holwood, and thence (according to 
 Lord Grenville) his wish to possess that place ; which 
 he eventually did. 
 
 I was assured by Lord Grenville * that Pitt came 
 into office with a fixed determination to improve 
 the finances of the kingdom ; instead of which he 
 greatly injured them. 
 
 Mr. Fox's speeches were full of repetition. He 
 used to say that it was necessary to hammer it into 
 them ; but I rather think he could not do otherwise. 
 His speech on the Westminster Scrutiny f was the 
 best I ever heard him make. It was a wonderful 
 display of eloquence. I did not hear him latterly. 
 
 Once in my holidays, when I passed ten days at 
 
 * His remarks extend to p. 77. 
 
 f In House of Commons, Jyne 8, 1784. " Parl. Hist.," xxiv. 
 p. 883, &c.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 73 
 
 Hayes, Lord Chatham was confined to his bed with 
 the gout. When I was going away he sent for me 
 to his bedside, and among other questions asked 
 me what book I was reading. When I answered, 
 " Virgil," he said, " A good book ! you cannot read 
 a better. In what" part are you ? Do you remem- 
 ber these lines ? 
 
 ' Tuque prior, tu parce, genus qui ducis Olympo ; 
 Projice tela manu, sanguis meus.' " * 
 
 I quoted them in a speech on the American War. 
 " A great poet, and no greater poet than states- 
 man, has told you how you should act on this 
 occasion." (Lord Grenville, Dropmore, 1823.) 
 
 I think that the three greatest men that England 
 has produced were Bacon, Newton, and Milton. 
 
 Sheridan's speech on the Begums in the House of 
 Commons f admirable in Westminster Hall J con- 
 temptible. I heard both. 
 
 Burke's draft of a petition for the Peers, in one of 
 his latter volumes, perhaps his greatest effort of 
 eloquence. 
 
 * " JEneid," vi. 834. 
 
 f On February 7, 1787, on the charge against Warren Hastings. 
 " Parl. Hist.," xxvi. p. 274, et seq. 
 | On June 3, 1788, and later days.
 
 74 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Earl St. Vincent a great man. He enforced dis- 
 cipline at the expense of his popularity. Not 
 rewarded as he deserved ; but the late King had 
 many prejudices : his was perhaps the narrowest 
 mind I ever knew. 
 
 The more we know of King William the Third, 
 the more we must admire him. How superior to 
 his ministers, as we learn more particularly from 
 the Shrewsbury Papers. The House of Orange 
 produced three very great men William, the first 
 Prince,* Prince Maurice,f and William the Third. 
 Compared with these, how insignificant the Idol of 
 the French, Henry the Fourth ! 
 
 July 1825. 
 
 He sits, summer and winter, on the same sofa, his 
 favourite books on the shelves just over his head. 
 
 Lord Bathurst left us while we were walking. 
 " Lord Bathurst," I said, " is gone to his business." 
 " I would rather he was there than I. If I was to 
 live my life over again," he continued with a sigh, 
 " I should do very differently." J 
 
 * Prince of Orange ; Stadtholder of Holland from about 
 1577 till his assassination in June 1584. 
 
 f Maurice of Nassau ; Prince of Orange, and Stadtholder of 
 Holland from 1584 to 1625. 
 
 J Lord Grenville was then out of office, and Lord Bathurst 
 was Secretary of State.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 75 
 We sate down to rest in the Pinery seat, inscribed 
 Pulcherrima pinus in hortis,* 
 
 and the clock of the stables struck twelve. Few 
 things, he said, affect me more than a clock its 
 duration its perseverance the same voice, morning, 
 noon, and night. There is somewhere a good account 
 of a castle clock in the " Mysteries of Udolpho." 
 " That old fellow crowed through the siege, and is 
 crowing still." f Yes, says he (the clock was then 
 striking), that voice will be heard long after I am in 
 my grave and forgotten. [Not forgotten, S. R.] 
 
 I have seldom been so vexed, as when I introduced 
 the present King of France, Charles the Tenth, $ 
 to the old King. He had desired to be presented, 
 and it was not to be refused, and the audience was 
 necessarily a private one. When I announced him 
 in the closet, the King began a conversation running 
 from topic to topic. He was often at a loss ; but 
 was unwilling to come to a conclusion, till I reminded 
 him that Monsieur was at the door. The King spoke 
 French very ill, and was always embarrassed on 
 receiving a foreigner. As for the Bourbons, he 
 
 * VIRGIL. " Eclog.," vii. 65. 
 
 t " Mysteries of Udolpho," chap. 34. 
 
 I Then Monsieur, the brother of Lewis XVIII. 
 
 George III.
 
 76 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 hated them all, and indeed had no reason to love 
 them. 
 
 The two speeches, and the only ones (I believe 
 I may say it confidently from my intimacy with 
 him) which he [Mr. Pitt] himself corrected, were 
 those on the Sinking Fund * and on the answer to 
 Buonaparte's Letter, f The first was a very indifferent 
 speech. 
 
 In his earlier life he was gay and delightful in 
 conversation. At last his temper clouded. Dr. 
 Addington J ruined his health. Port wine was 
 Addington's great remedy ; and at Hayes I used 
 to wonder at the bumpers they were drinking, con- 
 fined as I was to water. Afterwards it became 
 necessary to him ; and though never more affected 
 by it than others in general, he certainly drank freely. 
 
 He was fond of Holwood, and showed taste in 
 the planting ; II but he mismanaged the water sadly, 
 
 * The sinking fund was proposed by Pitt to Parliament on 
 March 29, 1786. " Parl. Hist.," xxv. 1294 et seq. 
 
 f On Buonaparte's letter to George III. making overtures 
 for a general peace: January 22, 1800. "Parl. Hist.," xxxiv. 
 p. 1301 et seq. 
 
 J A physician : the father of Viscount Sidmouth. 
 
 Holwood, near Bromley, in Kent ; Mr. Pitt's residence. 
 
 || When a boy, he [William Pitt] used to go a-bird-nesting 
 in the woods of Holwood, and It was always, he told me, his wish 
 to call it his own. Lord Bathurst to S. R,
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 77 
 
 and laughed when I remonstrated against his levelling, 
 as he did, part of the fortification in the Roman 
 camp there. All the Roman remains among us, 
 and whatever related to Gothic or ancient times, 
 he held in no great respect. 
 
 No man could wish more to preserve peace with 
 France. His heart was set upon peace, and upon 
 financial improvements. The war was forced upon 
 him. 
 
 There was a run on the bank, and Pitt was un- 
 certain what measures to take in consequence of it. 
 
 He passed the whole night (as Mrs. told me) 
 
 in walking up and down his drawing-room. Next 
 morning he sent for certain bankers, and informed 
 them that he had resolved on issuing five-pound 
 notes. I recollect a farmer coming to my father's 
 bank, and receiving his money in five-pound notes. 
 " What can I do with these ? " he exclaimed ; " how 
 can I pay my men with them ? " 
 
 Wilber force requested Pitt to read Butler's 
 " Analogy." * Pitt did so, and was by no means 
 
 [Holwood was only two or three miles from Hayes, where 
 Mr. Pitt had lived when a boy, with his father.] 
 
 * " One evening, at a party, when Butler's ' Analogy ' was 
 mentioned, Parr said in his usual pompous manner, ' I shall not 
 declare, before the present company, my opinion of that book.' 
 Bowles, who was just then leaving the room, muttered, ' Nobody
 
 78 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 satisfied with the reasoning in it. " My dear Wilber- 
 force," he said, " you may prove anything by ana- 
 logy." 
 
 Combe, author of " The Diaboliad," of " Lord 
 Lyttelton's Letters," and, more recently, of " Doctor 
 Syntax's Three Tours," * was a most extraordinary 
 person. During a very long life he had seen much of 
 the world its ups and downs. He was certainly 
 well connected. Fitzpatrick recollected him at 
 Douay College, f He moved once in the highest 
 society, and was very intimate with the Duke of 
 Bedford. Twenty thousand pounds were unexpect- 
 edly bequeathed to him by an old gentleman, who 
 said " he ought to have been Combe's father" (that 
 is, he had been on the point of marrying Combe's 
 
 cares what you think of it.' Parr, overhearing him, roared out, 
 1 What's that you say, Bowles ? ' and added, as the door shut 
 on the offender, ' It's lucky that Bowles is gone ! for I should 
 have put him to death.' " Mr. MALTBY (see notice prefixed 
 to the " Porsoniana " in this volume). 
 
 * And of an astonishing number of other works all pub- 
 lished anonymously. 
 
 f According to The Gentleman's Magazine for August 1823, 
 p. 185 (where his name is wrongly spelled Coombe), "he was 
 educated at Eton and Oxford " : which is not inconsistent with 
 his having been at Douay also. But there seems to be great 
 uncertainty about the particulars of his life.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 79 
 
 mother), and who therefore left him that large sum. 
 Combe contrived to get rid of the money in an 
 incredibly short time. 
 
 Combe was staying at the house of Uvedale 
 Price ; * and the Honourable Mr. St. John (author 
 of " Mary Queen of Scots " f) was there also. The 
 latter, one morning, missed some bank-notes. Price 
 strongly suspected who had taken them, mentioned 
 the circumstance to Combe, and added, " Perhaps it 
 would be as well if you cut short your visit here." 
 " Oh, certainly," replied Combe with the greatest 
 coolness ; " and allow me just to ask, whether hence- 
 forth we are to be friends or acquaintances ? " 
 " Acquaintances, if you please," said Price.$ Long 
 
 * Afterwards a baronet. 
 
 t A very dull tragedy, in which Mrs. Siddons continued to 
 act the heroine occasionally up to the time of her retirement 
 from the stage. 
 
 I From the tone of some letters written by Combe in his old 
 age, one would certainly not suppose that he had on his conscience 
 anything of the kind above alluded to. " The only solid happi- 
 ness in this life," he says, " is the performance of duty ; the rest, 
 when compared with it, is not worth a regret or a remembrance. 
 ... A thousand hours of pleasurable gratification will weigh 
 but as dust in the balance against one hour of solid virtue. . . . 
 Few men have enjoyed more of the pleasures and brilliance of 
 life than myself ; and you, I well know, will believe me, when 
 I assure you that, in looking back upon it, the brightest intervals 
 of it are those wherein I resisted inclination, checked impetuosity,
 
 8o RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 after this had happened, I was passing through 
 Leicester Square with Price, when we met Combe : 
 we both spoke to him ; but from that hour he always 
 avoided me. 
 
 Combe assured me that it was with him, not with 
 Sterne, that " Eliza " * was in love ; that he used 
 to meet her often beside a windmill near Brighton ! 
 that he was once surprised in her bed-chamber, and 
 fled through the window, leaving one of his shoes 
 behind him ; that, some days after, he encountered 
 her as she was walking with a party on what is 
 now the Steyne (at Brighton), and that, as she 
 passed him, she displayed from her muff the toe of 
 his shoe ! 
 
 Combe died in the King's Bench,f where it was 
 said that he had taken refuge in order to cheat his 
 creditors erroneously, for he did not leave enough 
 to pay the expenses of his funeral. 
 
 overcame temptation, frowned folly out of countenance, or shed 
 a tear over the unfortunate." " Letters to Marianne," p. 7. 
 
 * A list of Combe's writings, drawn up by himself, and printed 
 in The Gentleman's Magazine for May 1852, p. 467, includes 
 " Letters supposed to have passed between Sterne and Eliza, 
 2 vols." 
 
 \ He died June 19, 1823, at his apartments in Lambeth Road, 
 in his 82nd year. See The Gentleman's Magazine for August 
 1823, p. 185.
 
 TABLETALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 81 
 
 Gibbon took very little exercise. He had been 
 staying some time with Lord Sheffield in the country ; 
 and when he was about to go away, the servants 
 could not find his hat. " Bless me," said Gibbon, 
 " I certainly left it in the hall on my arrival here." 
 He had not stirred out of doors during the whole of 
 the visit. 
 
 I never saw Paley ; but my brother knew him 
 well, and liked him much. Paley used to say, in his 
 broad dialect, " I am an advocate for corrooption " 
 (that is, parliamentary influence).* 
 
 Witticisms are often attributed to the wrong 
 
 * Among several anecdotes of Paley, communicated to me 
 long ago by a gentleman who resided in the neighbourhood, were 
 these : When Paley rose in the church, he set up a carriage, 
 and, by his wife's directions, his arms were painted on the panels. 
 They were copied from the engraving on a silver cup, which Mrs. 
 P. supposed to be the bearings of his family. Paley thought it 
 a pity to undeceive his wife ; but the truth was, he had pur- 
 chased the cup at a sale. 
 
 He permitted nay, wished his daughters to go to evening 
 parties ; but insisted that one of them should always remain at 
 home, to give her assistance, if needed, by rubbing him, &c., in 
 case of an attack of the rheumatic pains to which he was subject. 
 " This," he said, " taught them natural affection." 
 
 Of the card-playing curate of G. and his wife, he used to say 
 that " they made much more by whist than by the curacy." 
 
 F
 
 82 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 people. It was Lord Chesterfield, not Sheridan, who 
 said, on occasion of a certain marriage, that " No- 
 body's son had married Everybody's daughter." 
 
 Lord Chesterfield remarked of two persons dancing 
 a minuet, that " they looked as if they were hired to 
 do it, and were doubtful of being paid." 
 
 I once observed to a Scotch lady, " how desirable 
 it was in any danger to have presence of mind." " I 
 had rather," she rejoined, " have absence of body" 
 
 The mcchant Lord Lyttelton used to play all sorts 
 of tricks in his boyhood. For instance, when he 
 knew that the larder at Hagley happened to be ill 
 supplied, he would invite, in his father's name, a 
 large party to dinner ; and, as the carriages drove up 
 the avenue, the old lord (concealing his vexation as 
 much as possible) would stand bowing in the hall, to 
 welcome his unwelcome guests. 
 
 There is at Hagley a written account of the 
 mechant Lord Lyttelton's death, which was read to 
 me while on a visit there. The statement, as far as 
 I recollect, runs thus : One night, when he was 
 in bed, a white bird, with a voice like a woman's 
 or else a female figure with a bird on her hand 
 appeared to him, and told him that he must die at 
 a particular hour on a particular night. He related
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 83 
 
 the circumstance to some of his friends, who encour- 
 aged him in treating it as a delusion. The fatal 
 night arrived. He was then at a house (Pitt Place) 
 near Epsom ; and had appointed to meet a party 
 on the downs next morning. His friends, without 
 his knowledge, had put back the clock. " I shall 
 cheat the ghost yet," he said. On getting into bed, 
 he sent his servant downstairs for a spoon, having to 
 take some medicine. When the servant returned, 
 Lord Lyttelton was a corpse.* 
 
 * In the " Corrections and Additions," p. 36, to Hash's 
 ' History of Worcestershire," is an account of Lord Lyttelton's 
 vision and death, more detailed than the above, but not mate- 
 rially different. 
 
 Of Lord Lyttelton's ghost appearing to Miles Peter Andrews 
 (an anecdote quite as notorious as that above) the following 
 account was given by Andrews himself to his most intimate 
 friend, Mr. Morton the dramatist, by whom it was told to me : 
 
 " I was at Richmond : and I had not been long in bed, when I 
 saw Lord Lyttelton standing at the foot of it. I felt no surprise, 
 because he was in the habit of coming to me at all hours without 
 previous announcement. I spoke to him ; but he did not answer. 
 Supposing that he intended, as usual, to play me some trick, 
 I stooped out of bed, and taking up one of my slippers, I threw 
 it at him. He vanished. Next morning, I inquired of the 
 people of the house when Lord Lyttelton had arrived, and where 
 he was ? They declared that he had not arrived. He died at 
 the very moment I saw him." A version of this ghost-story, 
 too, is given by Nash (ubi supra], who states that Andrews 
 addressed the ghost, and that " the ghost, shaking hi* head,
 
 84 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 As I was walking home one day from my father's 
 bank, I observed a great crowd of people streaming 
 into a chapel in the City Road. I followed them ; 
 and saw laid out, upon a table, the dead body of a 
 clergyman in full canonicals. It was the corpse of 
 John Wesley ; and the crowd moved slowly and 
 silently round and round the table, to take a last 
 look at that most venerable man.* 
 
 Dr. Priestley went to Paris in company with Lord 
 Shelburne ; f and he assured me that all the eminent 
 
 said, ' It is all over with me.' " But Mr. Morton assured me 
 that he related the story exactly as he had had it from Andrews, 
 whose conviction that he had seen a real spectre was proof against 
 all arguments. 
 
 * "At the desire of many of his friends, his body was carried 
 into the chapel the day preceding the interment, and there lay 
 in a kind of state becoming the person, dressed in his clerical 
 habit, with gown, cassock, and band ; the old clerical cap on 
 his head, a Bible in one hand, and a white handkerchief in the 
 other. The face was placid, and the expression which death 
 had fixed upon his venerable features was that of a serene and 
 heavenly smile. The crowds who flocked to see him were so 
 great, that it was thought prudent, for fear of accidents, to 
 accelerate the funeral, and perform it between five and six in 
 the morning," &c. Southey's "Life of Wesley," ii. 562, ed. 
 1820. Wesley died March 2, 1791. 
 
 f Afterwards Marquis of Lansdowne to whom, nominally, 
 Priestley acted as librarian, but really as his literary companion. 
 It was in 1774 that they made a tour to the continent.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 85 
 
 Frenchmen whom he met there, were entirely des- 
 titute of any religious belief sheer atheists. At 
 a large dinner-party he asked his next neighbour, 
 " Who is that gentleman ? " The answer was, " It 
 
 is ; and he believes no more than you and I do" 
 
 Marmontel used to read some of his unpublished 
 works to parties of his friends, on certain days, at his 
 own house. Priestley, who attended a few of those 
 readings, declared that Marmontel occasionally 
 gesticulated with such violence that it was necessary 
 to keep out of the reach of his arms for fear of being 
 knocked down. 
 
 I was intimately acquainted with Dr. Priestley ; 
 and a more amiable man never lived ; he was all 
 gentleness, kindness, and humility. He was once 
 dining with me, when some one asked him (rather 
 rudely) " how many books he had published ? " He 
 replied, " Many more, sir, than I should like to 
 read." Before going to America, he paid me a visit, 
 passing a night at my house. He left England 
 chiefly in compliance with the wishes of his 
 wife. 
 
 When Home Tooke was at school, the boys asked 
 him "what his father was ? " Tooke answered, "A 
 Turkey merchant." (He was a poulterer.)
 
 86 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 He once said to his brother,* a pompous man, 
 " You and I have reversed the natural course of 
 things : you have risen by your gravity ; I have 
 sunk by my levity." 
 
 To Judge Ashhurst's remark that the law was 
 open to all, both to the rich and to the poor, Tooke 
 replied, " So is the London Tavern." 
 
 He said that Hume wrote his History as witches 
 say their prayers backwards. 
 
 Tooke told me that in his early days a friend gave 
 him a letter of introduction to D'Alembert at Paris. 
 Dressed a la mode, he presented the letter, and was 
 very courteously received by D'Alembert, who talked 
 to him about operas, comedies, and suppers, &c. 
 Tooke had expected conversation on very different 
 topics, and was greatly disappointed. When he 
 took leave, he was followed by a gentleman in a 
 plain suit, who had been in the room during his 
 
 * In repeating this anecdote, Mr. Rogers sometimes substi- 
 tuted "cousin" for "brother." Tooke had two brothers, i. 
 Benjamin Tooke, who settled at Brentford as a market-gardener, 
 in which line he became eminent, and acquired considerable 
 wealth. 2. Thomas Tooke, who was originally a fishmonger, 
 and afterwards a poulterer a man, it is said, of strong intellect, 
 but certainly careless and extravagant ; and who ended his 
 career in one of the almshouses belonging to the Fishmongers' 
 Company.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 87 
 
 interview with D'Alembert, and who had perceived 
 his chagrin. " D'Alembert," said the gentleman, 
 " supposed from your gay apparel that you were 
 merely a petit maitre." The gentleman was David 
 Hume. On his next visit to D'Alembert, Tooke's 
 dress was altogether different ; and so was the con- 
 versation.* 
 
 Tooke went to Italy as tutor to a young man of 
 fortune,! wno was subject to fits of insanity, and 
 who consequently would sometimes occasion much 
 alarm at inns during the middle of the night. While 
 residing at Genoa, they formed an acquaintance with 
 an Italian family of distinction, by whom they were 
 introduced to the best society of the place. Tooke 
 attached himself to a lady of great beauty, becoming 
 her cavalier servente, and attending her everywhere. 
 After some weeks, at a large evening-party, he was 
 astonished to find that the lady would not speak to 
 
 * Tooke spent considerably more than a year at Paris, while 
 acting as travelling-tutor to young Elwes (son of the miser) ; 
 and he afterwards paid two short visits to that capital in com- 
 pany with young Taylor (see next note). It was, I apprehend, 
 on the first of these occasions that his introduction to D'Alembert 
 took place. He was in full orders before he ever went to the 
 Continent ; but he always laid aside the clerical dress at Dover. 
 
 f The son of a Mr. Taylor, who resided within a few miles of 
 Brentford.
 
 88 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 him, and that the rest of the company avoided con- 
 versation with him. " Now," said Tooke, " what do 
 you imagine was the cause of this ? Why, they had 
 dicovered that I was a Protestant clergyman ! But 
 I was resolved not to be brow-beaten ; and I made 
 myself so agreeable, that, before the party broke up, 
 we were all again on the very best terms ; some of 
 them even waited on me home, with music, in a sort 
 of triumph ! " * 
 
 Soon after Tooke had left Genoa he heard that 
 another traveller, who was following the same route, 
 had been assassinated. This unfortunate traveller 
 was mistaken for Tooke, on whom, hi consequence 
 of his intrigue with the lady at Genoa, the blow had 
 been intended to fall. 
 
 I have been present when one of Tooke's daughters 
 was reading Greek f to him with great facility. 
 He had made her learn that language without using 
 a grammar only a dictionary. 
 
 I paid five guineas (in conjunction with Bodding- 
 ton) for a loge at Tooke's trial. It was the custom 
 
 * One of those letters, in which Wilkes publicly addressed 
 Home Tooke, has the following passage : " Will you call an 
 Italian gentleman now in town, your confidant during your 
 whole residence at Genoa, to testify the morality of your conduct 
 in Italy ? " 
 
 f Latin, I suspect.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 89 
 
 in those days (and perhaps is so still) to place bunches 
 of strong-smelling plants of different sorts at the bar 
 where the criminal was to sit (I suppose to purify 
 the air from the contagion of his presence!). This 
 was done at Tooke's trial ; but, as soon as he was 
 brought in, he indignantly swept them away with his 
 handkerchief. The trial lasted six days. Erskine 
 (than whom nobody had ever more power over a 
 jury he would frequently address them as " his little 
 twelvers ") defended Tooke most admirably : nay, 
 he showed himself not only a great orator, but a 
 great actor ; for, on the fifth day, when the Attorney- 
 General, Eldon, was addressing the jury, and was 
 using a line of argument which Erskine had not 
 expected and could not reply to (the pleading for 
 the prisoner being closed), I well remember how 
 Erskine the whole time kept turning towards the 
 jury, and by a series of significant looks, shrugs, 
 and shakings of his head, did all he could to destroy 
 the effect of what the Attorney-General was saying. 
 After a very long speech, Eldon, with the prespira- 
 tion streaming down his face, came into the room 
 where the Lord Mayor was sitting, and exclaimed, 
 " Mr. Tooke says that he should like to send Mr. 
 Pitt to Botany Bay ; but it would be more merciful 
 to make him Attorney-General." When Eldon was
 
 90 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 told that the mob had taken away the horses from 
 Erskine's carriage, and drawn him home in triumph 
 to Sergeants' Inn, he asked, " If they had ever 
 returned them ? " 
 
 | ; At the conclusion of the trial, a daughter of one of 
 the jurymen was anxious to be introduced to Tooke ; 
 who, shaking her by the hand, said very prettily, 
 " I must call you sister, for you are the daughter 
 of one of those to whom I owe my life." If Tooke 
 had been convicted, there is no doubt that he would 
 have been hanged. We lived then under a reign of 
 terror. 
 
 One night, after dining with him at Cline's (the 
 surgeon), I accompanied Tooke to Brandenburgh 
 House (the Margravine of Anspach's) to see a private 
 play. During the performance, a person behind 
 us said, " There's that rascal, Home Tooke." The 
 words were uttered quite distinctly ; and Tooke 
 was so offended that he immediately withdrew. I 
 went home with him to his house on the Common, 
 and slept there, after sitting up very late to listen to 
 his delightful talk. 
 
 I - often dined with Tooke at Wimbledon ; and 
 always found him most pleasant and most witty. 
 There his friends would drop in upon him without 
 any invitation : Colonel Bosville would come fre-
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 91 
 
 quently, bringing with him a dinner from London 
 fish, &c. Tooke latterly used to expect two or 
 three of his most intimate friends to dine with him 
 every Sunday ; and I once offended him a good deal 
 by not joining his Sunday dinner-parties for several 
 weeks. 
 
 Burdett was, of course, a great deal with Tooke. 
 In little things, Burdett was a very inconsiderate 
 person. One forenoon, when Tooke was extremely 
 unwell, and a friend had sent him some fine hot- 
 house grapes, Burdett, happening to call in, ate up 
 every one of them. 
 
 Tooke was such a passionate admirer of Milton's 
 prose works that, as he assured me, he had tran- 
 scribed them all in his youth. 
 
 For my own part, I like Harris's writings much. 
 But Tooke thought meanly of them : he would say, 
 " Lord Malmesbury is as great a fool as his father" 
 
 He used to observe that " though the books 
 which you have lately read may make no strong 
 impression on you, they nevertheless improve 
 your mind ; just as food, though we forget what 
 it was after we have eaten it, gives strength to the 
 body." 
 
 I converse better than I write ; I write with 
 labour.
 
 92 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Nor wealth, nor power, can compensate for the 
 loss of that luxury which he has, who can speak his 
 mind, at all times and in all places. 
 
 A great frequenter of the theatres and coffee- 
 houses, long after he received pleasure from any of 
 them. He would sit an act at a theatre, and then 
 adjourn to a coffee-house, and then to the theatre, 
 listless and cheerless ; and yet a slave to the habit 
 of attending them ; and on his return home, when 
 he sat up to read with delight, he would reproach 
 himself for his folly in having thrown away his 
 evening. At last he met with insults in the coffee- 
 houses, and relinquished them entirely. He then 
 retired to Wimbledon.* 
 
 Reads all books through ; and bad books 
 most carefully, lest he should lose one good 
 thought, being determined never to look into 
 them again. A man may read a great deal too 
 much. 
 
 We are fond of a miracle ; and if we cannot find 
 one we make one. What is clear and natural we are 
 apt to despise. 
 
 We talk of the mind and body as of two persons 
 but what do we mean ? All knowledge passes into 
 
 * He spent the latter part of his life at Wimbledon in Surrey, 
 and died there in 1812.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 93 
 
 us through the senses. We know of none that is 
 not derivable through those channels, and may 
 therefore fairly conclude there is none. The senses 
 of some men are quicker and more discriminating 
 than others ; and there lies the difference, but it is 
 very small. One man, a little better off in this 
 respect, and with great industry, will soon leave 
 another out of sight. His superiority increases in 
 Arithmetical Progression ; as a small number, used 
 frequently as a multiplier, will soon produce a greater 
 sum-total than a larger number used less often. 
 Some are said to collect facts without the power to 
 use them. It is because their senses cannot convey 
 to them the nature of those facts. They cannot 
 arrange and apply them. They are like an ignorant 
 man collecting curiosities. A man may have too 
 many of these. Your room may be so full of 
 furniture that you cannot lay your hand on what 
 you want. 
 
 We improve by exercise of all kinds a man may 
 be getting on while sitting still in a coffee-house or 
 standing in the street. 
 
 Hume's essays he read at first with delight, 
 one by one, as they came out and still reads 
 them with it, they are so sweetly written. One 
 of the first writers of any country ! His pupil
 
 94 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Smith * far, very far below him his theory of Moral 
 Sentiments nonsense his " Wealth of Nations " 
 full of important facts, but written with a wicked 
 view. 
 
 Hume's history bad in its tendency. He first 
 wrote the History of the Stuarts falsely ; and 
 then wrote the others to justify and accord with it. 
 
 Spoke with contempt of Gibbon's history, though 
 he called him a superior man. Instead of writing 
 because he had something to say, he began life with 
 a determination to write a book of some kind or 
 other. Admired his letter on the Government of 
 Berne, i. 388^ 
 
 How clearly has Gibbon revealed his character ! 
 A man of bad principles, either private or public, 
 had better let his bitterest enemy write his life than 
 venture to do it himself. 
 
 When Dr. Beadon met me in St. Paul's Church- 
 yard, and said he was to be Bishop of Gloucester, 
 " Then," said I, " I suppose I must never call you 
 Dick again." " Why," repiled Beadon, pausing 
 at every word, " I don't exactly see the necessity 
 of that." } 
 
 * Adam Smith. 
 
 | Letter from Gibbon to * * * on the Government of Berne. 
 Appendix to " Memoirs of his Life," vol. i. 388. 
 
 J Dr. Richard Beadon, afterwards Bishop of Gloucester, is
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 95 
 
 A man with a little mind will educate his son below 
 himself, and keep him there ; that he may say, 
 "What a wise man my father is! my father is a rich 
 grocer." 
 
 The more wretched a people are, the severer 
 necessarily are the punishments ; a soldier and 
 sailor are punished for mutiny and desertion with 
 stripes and death ; because the situation they would 
 escape from is so very terrible. And you may 
 always judge of the comfort or misery of a people by 
 the severity of their penal laws. 
 
 An^affected man cannot be a moral man. The 
 whole study of his life is to cheat you. 
 
 one of the parties between whom the imaginary dialogue in 
 Tooke's " Diversions of Purley " is held. The extreme intimacy 
 between Home Took and Dr. Beadon, and the very high opinion 
 the bishop entertained of his friend, are shown in the evidence 
 given by the bishop on Home Tooke's trial for high treason, 
 November 20, 1794 evidence highly creditable to both 
 parties : 
 
 " Tooke. I beg your Lordship to say how long we have been 
 acquainted ? 
 
 Answer. I think it is just forty years now. 
 
 Tooke. Was that acquaintance slight, or affectionate and 
 confidential ? 
 
 Answer. For many years certainly not a slight acquaintance, 
 but very confidential and very intimate," &c. &c. 
 
 Gurney's " Trial of J. H. Tooke," ii. 160 et seq.
 
 96 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 I would rather at any time lose a cause than be 
 condemned to hear Adair gain it for me.* 
 
 There are men who pretend they come into the 
 world booted and spurred to ride you. 
 
 I have made a point of reading all the dramatic 
 writings in every language I know. 
 
 I read constantly the " Arabian Nights " over once 
 in two years, and often once a year, in French. 
 
 When in the Tower, I read " Tom Jones " and 
 " Gil Bias " again, and some other novels, which a 
 wardour's wife lent me. 
 
 [In the Tower he was without the privilege of 
 reading or writing for a fortnight, f They then 
 sent him three volumes one of Locke one of 
 Chaucer J and Wilkins's Essay. These were 
 
 * Sergeant Adair was one of the counsel for the Crown, on the 
 trial of Home Tooke for high treason, in 1794. 
 
 f This period of a fortnight appears, by Home Tooke's MS. 
 note copied below, to be an error, at least as to the volume of 
 Chaucer. 
 
 | In the volume of Chaucer thus taken to him an old black- 
 letter copy which he afterwards gave to Mr. Rogers he made, 
 while in the Tower, many notes in pencil, with reference to the 
 subject of his work, " The Diversions of Purley." Among these 
 is the following note in the margin of the first book of " Boecius, 
 de Consolatione Philosophiae." " Tuesday, May 20, 1794. I 
 began to mark this translation of Boethius, in the Tower, with 
 my pencil, being denied the use of pen and ink. I was appre- 
 hended at Wimbledon, Friday, May 16, conducted to the Tower,
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 97 
 
 found on his table (at Wimbledon) and he was 
 supposed to be reading them.] 
 
 It is best to let children read what they like best, 
 till they have formed a taste for reading ; and not 
 to direct what books they shall read. When young, 
 and long afterwards, I read without method. 
 
 The taxes at Genoa were sold to individuals ; so 
 that the prosperity of the State, making them more 
 productive, only enriched the purchasers. A noble- 
 man, Griffoni, with immense possessions, retired 
 early and lived most penuriously, to the great indig- 
 nation and contempt of his fellow citizens. At 
 last, in his old age, he came out, sacrificed his 
 fortune and its accumulations to the redemption 
 
 Monday, May 19, 1794, without any charge ; nor can I conjec- 
 ture their pretence of charge. Mr. Dundas, Secretary of State, 
 told me in the Privy Council that ' It was conceived that I was 
 guilty of treasonable practices.' He refused to tell me by whom it 
 was conceived. I offered to be examined to any extent, if the Chan- 
 cellor or Dundas would declare that there was any information 
 upon oath against me for any treason. The Chancellor said 
 that I seemed to object to the legality of the warrant ; but that 
 I might object to that hereafter, in another place." Home 
 Tooke remarks that he afterwards learnt that at that very 
 moment a bill was brought into the House of Commons to lega- 
 lise this warrant, and to indemnify the Ministers for issuing itv 
 
 " Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical 
 Language," by Dr. John Wilkes, Bishop of Chester : published 
 1668. 
 
 G
 
 98 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 of the taxes, and relieved the people from the intoler- 
 able burden. What was the consequence ? The 
 Government went to war again, and laid on more. 
 Such would be the consequence here. The redemp- 
 tion of our debt would be a great calamity. The 
 difficulty of extorting money checks the abuse of 
 power. War begets poverty, poverty peace. 
 
 " Do as you would be done by," is a scoundrel 
 and paltry precept. A generous man goes beyond 
 it. 
 
 No man should be allowed to bequeath his pro- 
 perty to any descendant unborn. What affection 
 can he feel for such an heir ? What relationship 
 is there between a man and his grandson ? Do you 
 set any value on a cucumber, because it sprung 
 from your own excrement ? A man has little or no 
 friendship for any human being ; and he deter- 
 mines to lock up his property ; he therefore leaves 
 it to the offspring of his brother's youngest child. 
 Would you allow such a thing in a state ? No, 
 surely. 
 
 Wilkes desired that his tomb should be inscribed, 
 " J. W. a friend to Liberty." I am glad he was 
 not ashamed to show a little gratitude to her in his 
 old age ; for she was a great friend to him.* 
 
 * John Wilkes, famous as the editor of the North Briton,
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 99 
 
 When I was travelling through Italy the postboy 
 cursed all the saints in Paradise, and five miles 
 round. " Why five miles round ? " Because some 
 of them may be at their country houses." When 
 Buonaparte comes to England, his curse, therefore, 
 will not reach me at Wimbledon. 
 
 Power, said Lord to Tooke, should follow 
 
 property. Very well, he replied, then we will take 
 the property from you, and the power shall follow 
 it. 
 
 No man can bring himself to believe that he shall 
 die. My brother, who left me 100 a year, and 
 pronounced himself at the point of death, desired 
 that such and such things might be returned to him 
 if he recovered. 
 
 His son had just returned from India, dis- 
 missed from some military situation for misconduct. 
 He called in the evening at his father's gate. Tooke 
 was fortunately from home, and has since refused 
 to see him. He has now enlisted as a private into 
 the dragoons. Tooke spoke of it as a great calamity. 
 Three years ago he felt uncommonly well, and 
 
 and as the opposer of general warrants, which, through his per- 
 severance, were judicially declared to be illegal. He obtained, 
 late in life, the lucrative office of City Chamberlain, through his 
 notoriety as a liberal politician.
 
 ioo RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 promised himself a happy summer,; but something, 
 he thought, must happen to prevent it ; he was so 
 perfectly free from trouble. His daughters in vain 
 endeavoured to dissuade him from it. In May he 
 was apprehended, and confined. The same presen- 
 timent for the same reasons had now returned, and 
 had just been fulfilled. 
 
 The great use of Education is to give us confidence, 
 and to make us think ourselves on a level with other 
 men. An uneducated man thinks there is a magic 
 in it, and stands in awe of those who have had the 
 benefit of it. It does little for us. No man, as 
 Selden says, is the wiser for his learning. 
 
 When children read to you what they do not 
 understand, their minds are exercised in affixing 
 ideas to the words. At least it was so with me. 
 
 " So I understand, Mr. T., you have all the black- 
 guards in London with you," said O'Brien to him 
 on the hustings at Westminster.* " I am happy 
 to have it, sir, on such good authority." 
 
 " Now, young man, as you are settled in town," 
 said my uncle, " I would advise you to take a 
 wife." " With all my heart, sir ; whose wife shall I 
 take ? " 
 
 * Mr. Tooke was twice candidate for Westminster in 1790 
 and 1796 but was unsuccessful on each occasion.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 101 
 
 [As to the prisoners under sentence, it is but an 
 unhappiness for a few days not one of them but 
 wishes that he had died last week. 
 
 Think nothing of style as style. Truth is all I 
 wish for.] 
 
 Man is a little kingdom, and if he makes one 
 passion a favourite at the expense of the rest he must 
 be miserable. The rest will demand satisfaction. 
 
 I have always least to say in the company of 
 pretty women, for it is then that I am most anxious 
 to recommend myself. 
 
 In England the people believe once a week on a 
 Sunday. 
 
 The hand of the Law is on the Poor, and its 
 shadow on the Rich. 
 
 " If I was compelled (I said somewhere publicly) 
 to make a choice, I should not hesitate to prefer 
 despotism to anarchy." " Then you would do,' 
 replied Tooke, " as your ancestors did at the Re- 
 formation. They rejected Purgatory, and kept 
 Hell." [" Lord Grey," 1837.] 
 
 O, the fallibility of medical people ! Both Pear- 
 son and Cline, on one occasion, informed Tooke that 
 he could not possibly survive beyond a single day : 
 and he lived years ! * Let me mention here what 
 
 * In a note on BoswelTs " Life of Johnson " (p. 562, ed. i 848)
 
 102 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 was told to me by a lady at Clifton. " In my girl- 
 relative to Lord Mayor Beckford's famous speech (or rather re- 
 joinder) to the king in 1770, Mr. Croker observes: "Mr. Bos- 
 ville's manuscript note on this passage says, ' that the monument 
 records, not the words of Beckford, but what was prepared for 
 him by John Home Tooke, as agreed on at a dinner at Mr. George 
 Bellas's in Doctors' Commons.' This, I think, is also stated 
 in a manuscript note in the Museum copy ; but Mr. Gififord 
 says, ' he never uttered one syllable of the speech.' " Ben 
 Jonson," i. 481). Perhaps he said something which was after- 
 wards put into its present shape by Home Tooke." In Stephens's 
 '* Memoirs of Home Tooke " (vol. i. 155-7) we have the following 
 account : " This answer [of the king] had been, of course, antici- 
 pated, and Mr. Home, who was determined to give celebrity to 
 the mayoralty of his friend, Mr. Beckford, at the same time that 
 he supported the common cause, had suggested the idea of a 
 reply to the sovereign : a measure hitherto unexampled in our 
 history." Stephens then proceeds to say that the Lord Mayor 
 " expressed himself nearly as follows," &c. ; and presently adds, 
 '' This, as Mr. Home lately acknowledged to me, was his compo- 
 sition." I now quote the words of Mr. Maltby (see notice pre- 
 fixed to the " Porsoniana " in this volume). " I was dining 
 at Guildhall in 1790, and sitting next to Dr. C. Burney, when 
 he assured me that Beckford did not utter one syllable of the 
 speech that it was wholly the invention of Home Tooke. 
 Being very intimate with Tooke, I lost no time in questioning 
 him on the subject. ' What Burney states,' he said, ' is true. 
 I saw Beckford just after he came from St. James's. I asked 
 him what he had said to the king ; and he replied, that he had 
 been so confused, he scarcely knew what he had said. ' But/ 
 cried I, ' your speech must be sent to the papers ; I'll write 
 it for you.' I did so immediately, and it was printed forth- 
 with.' "
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 103 
 
 hood," she said, " I had a very severe illness, during 
 which I heard Dr. Turton declare to my mother, in 
 the next room, that I could not live. I immediately 
 called out, ' But I will live, Dr. Turton ! ' and here 
 I am, now sixty years old." 
 
 I knew Joseph Warton well. When Matthias 
 attacked him in "The Pursuits of Literature" for 
 reprinting some loose things * in his edition of Pope, 
 Joseph wrote a letter to me, in which he called 
 Matthias "his pious critic" rather an odd expres- 
 sion to come from a clergyman. He certainly ought 
 not to have given that letter of Lord Cobham.f 
 
 I never saw Thomas Warton. I once called at 
 the house of Robinson the bookseller for Dr. Kippis, 
 
 These various statements enable us to arrive at the exact 
 truth, viz., that Tooke suggested to Beckford (if he did not write 
 them down] the heads of a rejoinder to the king's reply that 
 Beckford, losing his presence of mind, made little or no use of 
 them and that the famous speech (or rejoinder] which is en- 
 graved on the pedestal of Beckford's statue in Guildhall, was 
 the elaborate composition of Home Tooke* 
 
 * The " Imitation of the Second Satire of the First Book of 
 Horace," and the chapter of "The Double Mistress," in the 
 "Memoirs of Scriblerus " : Matthias also objected to "a few 
 trumpery, vulgar copies of verses which disgrace the pages." 
 
 f See J. Warton's " Life of Pope," p. li. The letter had 
 been previously printed in the dullest of all biographies, 
 Ruffhead's " Life of Pope," p. 276.
 
 104 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 who used to introduce me to many literary parties, 
 and who that evening was to take me to the Society 
 of Antiquaries. He said, "Tom Warton is up- 
 stairs." How I now wish that I had gone up and 
 seen him! His little poem, "The Suicide," is a 
 favourite of mine. Nor did I ever see Gibbon, or 
 Cowper, or Horace Walpole: and it is truly pro- 
 voking to reflect that I might have seen them ! 
 
 F There is no doubt that Matthias wrote " The 
 Pursuits of Literature " ; and a dull poem it is, 
 though the notes are rather piquant. 
 
 Gilbert Wakefield used to say he was certain 
 that Rennell and Glynn assisted Matthias in it ; 
 and Wakefield was well acquainted with all the 
 three. 
 
 i Steevens once said to Matthias, " Well, sir, since 
 you deny the authorship of ' The Pursuits of Litera- 
 ture,' I need have no hesitation in declaring to you 
 that the person who wrote it is a liar and a black- 
 guard." 
 
 In one of the notes was a statement that Beloe 
 had received help from Porson in translating 
 Alciphron. Porson accordingly went to Beloe, 
 and said, " As you know that I did not help 
 you, pray write to Matthias and desire him to alter
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 105 
 
 that note." In a subsequent edition the note was 
 altered. 
 
 One day I asked Matthias if he wrote " The Pur- 
 suits of Literature " ; and he answered, " My dear 
 friend, can you suppose that I am the author of that 
 poem, when there is no mention made in it of your- 
 self ? " Some time after I happened to call on Lord 
 Besborough, who told me that, as he was illustrating 
 " The Pursuits of Literature " with portraits, he 
 wanted to get one of me. " Why," exclaimed I, 
 " there is no mention in it of me ! " He then turned 
 to the note where I am spoken of as the banker who 
 " dreams of Parnassus." * 
 
 What popularity Cowper's " Task " enjoyed ! 
 Johnson, the publisher, told me that in conse- 
 quence of the great number of copies which had 
 been sold, he made a handsome present to the 
 author. 
 
 * " Let me present a short passage from a letter to Mr. Pitt 
 on the occasion of the Triple Assessment. ' Things, sir, are now 
 changed. Time was when bankers were as stupid as their 
 guineas could make them ; they were neither orators, nor 
 painters, nor poets. But now Mr. Dent has a speech and a 
 bitch at your service ; Sir Robert has his pencil and canvas ; 
 and Mr. Rogers dreams on Parnassus ; and, if I am rightly in- 
 formed, there is a great demand among his brethren for " The 
 Pleasures of Memory.' " P. 360, ed. 1808.
 
 io6 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 In order to attain general popularity, a poem must 
 have (what it is creditable to our countrymen that 
 they look for) a strong religious tendency, and must 
 treat of subjects which require no previous know- 
 ledge in the readers. Cowper's poems are of that 
 description. 
 
 Here are two fine lines in Cowper's " Task : " * 
 
 Knowledge is proud that he has learn'd so much ; 
 Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. 
 
 Sometimes in his rhymed poetry the verses run with 
 all the ease of prose ; for instance : 
 
 The path of sorrow, and that path alone, 
 Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.! 
 
 Cumberland was a most agreeable companion, and 
 a very entertaining converser. His theatrical anec- 
 dotes were related with infinite spirit and humour : 
 his description of Mrs. Siddons coming off the stage 
 in the full flush of triumph, and walking up to the 
 mirror in the green-room to survey herself, was ad- 
 mirable. He said that the three finest pieces of 
 acting which he had ever witnessed were Garrick's 
 Lear, Henderson's Falstaff, and Cooke's lago. 
 
 * Book vi. 
 
 f "An Epistle to an afflicted Protestant in France."
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 107 
 
 When Cumberland was composing any work, he 
 never shut himself up in his study : he always wrote 
 in the room where his family sat, and did not feel the 
 least disturbed by the noise of his children at play 
 beside him.* 
 
 Lord Holland and Lord Lansdowne having ex- 
 pressed a wish to be introduced to Cumberland, I 
 invited all the three to dine with me. It happened, 
 however, that the two lords paid little or no atten- 
 tion to Cumberland (though he said several very 
 good things) scarcely speaking to him the whole 
 time : something had occurred in the House which 
 occupied all their thoughts ; and they retired to a^ 
 window, and discussed it. 
 
 Mitford, the historian of Greece, possessed, be- 
 sides his learning, a wonderful variety of accomplish- 
 ments. I always felt the highest respect for him. 
 When, not long before his death, I used to meet him 
 in the street, bent almost double, and carrying a long 
 staff in his hand, he reminded me of a venerable 
 pilgrim just come from Jerusalem. His account of 
 the Homeric age of the Sicilian cities and 
 several other parts of his History, are very 
 pleasing. 
 
 * Compare Cumberland's " Memoirs," i. 264, ii. 204.
 
 io8 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Lane made a large fortune by the immense quantity 
 of trashy novels which he sent forth from his Minerva 
 Press. I perfectly well remember the splendid 
 carriage in which he used to ride, and his footmen 
 with their cockades and gold-headed canes. 
 
 Now-a-days, as soon as a novel has had its run, 
 and is beginning to be forgotten, out comes an 
 edition of it as a " standard novel ! " 
 
 In company with my sister, I paid a visit to 
 Gilbert Wakefield when he was in Dorchester Gaol. 
 His confinement was made as pleasant to him as 
 possible ; for he had nearly an acre of ground to 
 walk about in. But, still, the sentence passed upon 
 him was infamous : what rulers we had in those 
 days ! 
 
 Wakefield gave Beloe some assistance in trans- 
 lating Aulus Gellius. 
 
 At a splendid party given by Lord Hampden to 
 the Prince of Wales, &c., I saw Lady Hamilton go 
 
 * Gilbert Wakefield, born 1736, and entered Holy Orders. In 
 1790 joined a Dissenting College at Hackney, but soon left it. 
 Subsequently published pamphlets against Public Worship and 
 Government, and finally a famous letter to Watson, the Bishop of 
 Llandaff, for which he was prosecuted and imprisoned. He 
 died shortly after his release in 1801. ED.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 109 
 
 through all those " attitudes " which have been 
 engraved ; and her performance was very beau- 
 tiful indeed. Her husband, Sir William, was 
 present. 
 
 Lord Nelson was a remarkably kind-hearted man. 
 I have seen him spin a teetotum with his one hand, 
 a whole evening, for the amusement of some children. 
 I heard him once during dinner utter many bitter 
 complaints (which Lady Hamilton vainly attempted 
 to check) of the way he had been treated at Court 
 that forenoon : the Queen had not condescended to 
 take the slightest notice of him. In truth, Nelson 
 was hated at Court ; they were jealous of his fame. 
 
 There was something very charming in Lady 
 Hamilton's openness of manner. She showed me 
 the neckcloth which Nelson had on when he died : 
 of course, I could not help looking at it with extreme 
 interest ; and she threw her arms round my neck and 
 kissed me. She was latterly in great want ; and 
 Lord Stowell never rested till he procured for her a 
 small pension from Government. 
 
 Parson Este was well acquainted with Mrs. 
 Robinson (the once celebrated "Perdita"), and said 
 that Fox had the greatest difficulty in persuading the 
 Prince of Wales to lend her some assistance when,
 
 i io RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 towards the close of life, she was in very straitened 
 circumstances. Este saw her funeral, which was 
 attended by a single mourning- coach.* 
 
 One morning I was about to mount my horse to 
 ride into London to the banking-house, when, to 
 my astonishment, I read in the newspapers that 
 a summons had been issued to bring me before 
 the Privy Council. I immediately proceeded to 
 Downing Street, and asked to see Mr. Dundas. I 
 was admitted ; and I told him that I had come to 
 inquire the cause of the summons which I had seen 
 announced in the newspapers. He said, " Have you 
 a carriage here ? " I replied, " A hackney-coach." 
 Into it we got ; and there was I sitting familiarly 
 with Dundas, whom I had never before set eyes on. 
 We drove to the Home Office ; and I learned that 
 I had been summoned to give evidence in the case 
 of William Stone, accused of high treason. Long 
 before this, I had met Stone in the Strand, when he 
 
 * Poor "Perdita" had some poetic talent : and it was acknow- 
 ledged by Coleridge, whose lines to her, " As late on Skiddaw's 
 mount I lay supine," &c., are not to be found in the early collec- 
 tions of his poems. See, at p. xlviii. of the Tributary Poems 
 prefixed to Mrs. Robinson's " Poetical Works," 3 vols., " ' A 
 Stranger Minstrel.' By S. T. Coleridge, Esq., written a few 
 weeks before her death," and dated, " Nov. 1800."
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS in 
 
 told me, among other things, that a person had 
 arrived here from France to gather the sentiments of 
 the people of England concerning a French invasion ; 
 and that he (Stone) would call upon me and read to 
 me a paper on that subject. I said, " You will infect 
 me with the plague " ; and we parted. In the course 
 of a few days he did call with the paper. After the 
 Government had laid hold of Stone, he mentioned 
 his intercourse with me ; and hence my summons. 
 When his trial took place, I was examined by the 
 Attorney-General, and cross-examined by Erskine. 
 For some time before the trial I could scarcely get a 
 wink of sleep : the thoughts of my appearance at it 
 made me miserable. 
 
 " Samuel Rogers, Esq. (sworn). 
 Examined by Mr. Attorney-General. 
 
 Q. You know Mr. William Stone ? 
 
 A. Yes. . 
 
 Q. Do you know Mr. Hurford Stone ? 
 
 A. I have known him many years. 
 
 Q. Do you recollect having any conversation 
 and if you do, be so good as state to my Lord and 
 the jury what conversation you had with Mr. 
 William Stone relative to an invasion of this country ? 
 
 A. He met me, I think it was in the month of
 
 ii2 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 March 1794, in the street ; he stopped me to men- 
 tion the receipt of a letter from his brother at Paris, 
 on the arrival of a gentlemen, who wished particu- 
 larly to collect the sentiments of the people of this 
 country with respect to a French invasion. Our 
 conversation went very little further, for it was in 
 the street. 
 
 Q. Do you recollect what you said to him, if you 
 said anything ? 
 
 A. I recollect that I rather declined the conver- 
 sation. 
 
 Q. I ask you, not what you declined or did not 
 decline, but what you said to him, if you said any- 
 thing ? 
 
 A. I was in a hurry, and I believe all I said was 
 to decline the conversation. 
 
 Q. State in what language you did decline that 
 conversation. 
 
 A . I said that I had no wish to take any part what- 
 ever in any political transactions at that time ; it 
 was a time of general alarm, and I wished to shun 
 even the shadow of an imputation, as I knew that 
 when the minds of men were agitated, as I thought 
 they then were, the most innocent intentions were 
 liable to misconstruction. 
 
 Q. Did he inform you who the person was ?
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 113 
 
 A. No, he did not; I only learned that it was 
 a gentleman arrived from Paris ; I speak from 
 recollection. 
 
 Q. Did he inform you what gentleman he was ? 
 
 A . I do not recollect that he did. 
 
 Q. Did he ever call upon you after you had de- 
 clined this conversation ? 
 
 A . He did call upon me a few days after ; and 
 he read to me a paper, which I understood to be 
 written by somebody else, but I cannot say who ; 
 and which went to show, as far as I can recollect, 
 that the English nation, however they might differ 
 among themselves, would unite to repel an invasion. 
 
 If you wish to have your works coldly reviewed, 
 get your intimate friends to write an article on them. 
 I know this by experience. Ward (Lord Dudley) 
 " cut up " my " Columbus " in The Quarterly : but 
 he afterwards repented of it, and apologised to me.* 
 
 * The number of The Quarterly (see vol. ix. 207) which contained 
 the critique in question had just appeared, when Mr. Rogers, 
 who had not yet seen it, called on Lord Grosvenor, and found 
 Gifford sitting with him. Between Mr. Rogers and Gifford 
 there was little cordiality ; but on that occasion they chatted 
 together in a very friendly manner. After Mr. Rogers had left 
 the room, Gifford said to Lord Grosvenor with a smile, " Do you 
 think he has seen the last Quarterly ? " 
 
 Mr. Rogers took his revenge for that critique by frequently 
 
 H
 
 114 
 
 I have seen Howard the philanthropist more than 
 once : he was a remarkably mild-looking man. His 
 book on prisons is excellently written. People are 
 not aware that Dr. Price wrote a portion of it. 
 
 Sir Henry Englefield had a fancy (which some 
 greater men have had) that there was about his 
 person a natural odour of roses and violets. Lady 
 
 repeating the following epigram, which has been erroneously 
 attributed to Byron, but which, as Mr. Rogers told me, he himself 
 wrote, with some little assistance from Richard Sharp : 
 
 Ward has no heart, they say ; but I deny it 
 He has a heart, and gets his speeches by it. 
 
 One day while Mr. Rogers was on bad terms with Ward, 
 
 Lady said to him, " Have you seen Ward lately ? " " What 
 
 Ward ? " " Why, our Ward, of course." " Our Ward ! you 
 may keep him all to yourself." 
 
 " Columbus " was first printed in a thin quarto, for private circu- 
 lation, 1 80 1. When Ward reviewed it in 1813, as forming 
 a portion of Mr. Rogers's collected poems, it had been greatly 
 enlarged. 
 
 Another article in The Quarterly gave considerable annoyance 
 to Mr. Rogers the critique by George Ellis on Byron's " Corsair " 
 and "Lara" (vol. xi. 428), in which Mr. Rogers's " Jacqueline" 
 (originally appended to " Lara ") is only mentioned as " the highly- 
 refined, but somewhat insipid, pastoral tale of Jacqueline." When 
 Mr. Rogers was at Brighton in 1851, Lady Byron told him that 
 her husband, on reading Ellis's critique, had said, " The man's 
 a fool. ' Jacqueline ' is as superior to ' Lara ' as Rogers is to me." 
 Who will believe that Byron said this sincerely ? Yet " Jacque- 
 line " is undoubtedly a beautiful little poem.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 115 
 
 Grenville, hearing of this, and loving a joke, ex- 
 claimed, one day when Sir Henry was present, 
 "Bless me, what a smell of violets !"" Yes," 
 said he with great simplicity ; "it comes from me." 
 
 In former days Cuyp's pictures were compara- 
 tively little valued : he was the first artist who 
 painted light, and therefore he was not understood. 
 Sir William Beechy was at a picture-sale with Wilson 
 when one of Cuyp's pieces was knocked down for 
 a trifling sum. "Well," said Wilson, "the day 
 will come when both Cuyp's works and my own will 
 bring the prices which they ought to bring." 
 
 Sir Thomas Lawrence used to say, that among 
 painters there were three pre-eminent for invention 
 Giorgione, Rembrandt, and Rubens ; and perhaps 
 he was right. 
 
 Sir Thomas Lawrence has painted several very 
 pleasing pictures of children ; but generally his men 
 are effeminate, and his women meretricious. Of his 
 early portraits Sir Joshua Reynolds said, " This 
 young man has a great deal of talent ; but there is 
 an affectation in his style which he will never entirely 
 shake off."
 
 n6 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 We have now in England a greater number of 
 tolerably good painters than ever existed here to- 
 gether at any former period ; but, alas, we have no 
 Hogarth, and no Reynolds ! 
 
 I must not, however, forget that we have Turner, 
 a man of first-rate genius in his line. There is in 
 some of his pictures a grandeur which neither Claude 
 nor Poussin could give to theirs. 
 
 Turner thinks that Rubens's landscapes are 
 deficient in nature. I differ from him. Indeed, 
 there * is a proof that he is mistaken ; look at that 
 forest-scene by Rubens ; the foreground of it is 
 truth itself. 
 
 The Art Union is a perfect curse : it buys and 
 engraves very inferior pictures, and consequently 
 encourages mediocrity of talent ; it makes young 
 men, who have no genius, abandon the desk and 
 counter, and set up for painters. 
 
 The public gave little encouragement to Flaxman 
 and Banks, but showered its patronage on two much 
 inferior sculptors, Bacon and Chantrey. 
 
 As to Flaxman, the greatest sculptor of his day, 
 the neglect which he experienced is something in- 
 conceivable. Canova, who was well acquainted 
 
 * i.e., on the wall of Mr. Rogers's dining-room.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 117 
 
 with his exquisite illustrations of Dante, &c., could 
 hardly believe that a man of such genius was not an 
 object of admiration among his countrymen ; and, 
 in allusion to their insensibility to Flaxman's 
 merits and to their patronage of inferior artists, 
 he said to some of the English at Rome, " You see 
 with your ears ! " 
 
 Chantrey began his career by being a carver in 
 wood. The ornaments on that mahogany side- 
 board, and on that stand [in Mr. Rogers's dining- 
 room] were carved by him. [Subsequently, when 
 a gentleman informed Mr. Rogers that the truth 
 of this last statement had been questioned, he 
 entered into the following particulars: Chantrey 
 said to me one day, " Do you recollect that, about 
 twenty-five years ago, a journeyman came to your 
 house, from the woodcarver employed by you and 
 Mr. Hope, to talk about these ornaments, and that 
 you gave him a drawing to execute them by ? " 
 I replied that I recollected it perfectly. " Well," 
 continued Chantrey, " / was that journeyman."] 
 When he was at Rome in the height of his celebrity, 
 he injured himself not a little by talking with con- 
 tempt * of the finest statues of antiquity. Jackson 
 
 * Mr. Rogers, I apprehend, was mistaken on this point. From 
 Jones's " Life of Chantrey," p. 26, it appears that Chantrey did
 
 ii8 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 (the painter) told me that he and Chantrey went 
 into the studio of Dannecker the sculptor, who hap- 
 pened to be from home. There was an unfinished 
 bust in the room ; and Chantrey, taking up a chisel, 
 proceeded to work upon it. One of the assistants 
 immediately rushed forwards, in great alarm, to 
 stop him ; but no sooner had Chantrey given a blow 
 on the chisel than the man exclaimed, with a know- 
 ing look, " Ha ! ha ! " as much as to say, " I see 
 that you perfectly understand what you are about." 
 Chantrey practised portrait-painting both at Shef- 
 field and after he came to London. It was in 
 allusion to him that Lawrence said, " A broken- 
 down painter will make a very good sculptor." 
 
 Ottley's knowledge of painting was astonishing. 
 Showing him a picture which I had just received 
 from Italy, I said, " Whose work do you suppose 
 it to be ? " After looking at it attentively, he 
 replied, "It is the work of Lorenzo di Credi " (by 
 whom I already knew that it was painted). " How," 
 I asked, " could you discover it to be from Lorenzo's 
 pencil ? Have you ever before now seen any of his 
 
 not admire those statues so much as they are generally admired, 
 and therefore was unwilling to give his opinion on them ; but 
 that he never spoke of them M with contempt."
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 119 
 
 pieces ? " " Never," he answered ; " but I am 
 familiar with the description of his style as given 
 by Vasari and others." 
 
 I regret that so little of Curran's brilliant talk 
 has been preserved. How much of it Tom Moore 
 could record, if he would only take the trouble ! 
 
 I once dined with Curran in the public room of 
 the chief inn at Greenwich, when he talked a great 
 deal, and, as usual, with considerable exaggeration. 
 Speaking of something which he would not do on any 
 inducement, he exclaimed vehemently, " I had 
 rather be hanged upon twenty gibbets." " Don't 
 you think, sir, that one would be enough for you ? " 
 said a girl, a stranger, who was sitting at the table 
 next to us. I wish you could have seen Curran's 
 face. He was absolutely confounded struck 
 dumb. 
 
 Very few persons know that the poem called 
 " Ulm and Trafalgar " * was written by Canning. 
 He composed it (as George Ellis told me) in about, 
 two days, while he walked up and down the room. 
 Indeed, very few persons know that such a poem 
 exists. 
 
 * A short poem printed for Ridgeway, 1806, 4to.
 
 120 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 After Legge was appointed Bishop of Oxford, he 
 had the folly to ask two wits, Canning and Frere, to 
 be present at his first sermon. " Well," said he to 
 Canning, " how did you like it ? " " Why I thought 
 it rather short." " Oh yes, I am aware that it 
 was short ; but I was afraid of being tedious." 
 " You were tedious." 
 
 A lady having put to Canning the silly question, 
 " Why have they made the spaces in the iron gate 
 at Spring Gardens * so narrow ? " he replied, " Oh, 
 ma'am, because such very fat people used to go 
 through " (a reply concerning which Tom Moore 
 said, that " the person who does not relish it can 
 have no perception of real wit "). 
 
 Canning said that a man who could talk of liking 
 dry champagne would not scruple to say anything. 
 
 The Duke of York told me that Dr. Cyril Jackson 
 most conscientiously did his duty as tutor to him 
 and his brother, the Prince of Wales. "Jackson," 
 said the Duke, " used to have a silver pencil-case in 
 his hand while we were at our lessons ; and he has 
 frequently given us such knocks with it upon our 
 foreheads, that the blood followed them." 
 
 * At the end of Spring Garden Passage, which opens into St. 
 James's Park.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 121 
 
 I have often heard the Duke relate how he and 
 his brother George, when young men, were robbed 
 by footpads on Hay Hill.* They had dined that 
 day at Devonshire House, had then gone home to lay 
 aside their Court dresses, and afterwards proceeded 
 to a house of a certain description in the neighbour- 
 hood of Berkeley Square. They were returning from 
 it in a hackney-coach, late at night, when some foot- 
 pads stopped them on Hay Hill, and carried off their 
 purses, watches, &c. 
 
 In his earlier days the Duke of York was most 
 exact in paying all his debts of honour. One night 
 at Brookes's, while he was playing cards, he said to 
 Lord Thanet, who was about to go home to bed, 
 " Lord Thanet, is our betting still to continue ? " 
 " Yes, sir, certainly," was the reply : and next 
 morning Lord Thanet found 1500 left for him at 
 Brookes's by the Duke. But gradually he became 
 less particular in such matters ; and at last he 
 would quietly pocket the winnings of the night from 
 Lord Robert Spencer, though he owed Lord Robert 
 about five thousand pounds. 
 
 I have several times stayed at Oatlands with the 
 Duke and Duchess of York both of them most 
 amiable and agreeable persons. We were generally 
 
 * Hay Hill, Berkeley Street, leading to Dover Street.
 
 122 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 a company of about fifteen ; and our being invited 
 to remain there " another day " sometimes depended 
 on the ability of our royal host and hostess to raise 
 sufficient money for our entertainment. We used 
 to have all sorts of ridiculous " fun " as we roamed 
 about the grounds. The Duchess kept (besides a 
 number of dogs, for which there was a regular burial- 
 place) a collection of monkeys, each of which had 
 its own pole with a house at top. One of the 
 visitors (whose name I forget) would single out a 
 particular monkey, and play to it on the fiddle with 
 such fury and perseverance, that the poor animal, 
 half-distracted, would at last take refuge in the 
 arms of Lord Alvanley. Monk Lewis was a great 
 favourite at Oatlands. One day after dinner, as 
 the Duchess was leaving the room, she whispered 
 something into Lewis's ear. He was much affected, 
 his eyes filling with tears. We asked what was the 
 matter. " Oh," replied Lewis, " the Duchess spoke 
 so very kindly to me ! " " My dear fellow," said 
 Colonel Armstrong,* " pray don't cry ; I daresay 
 she didn't mean it." 
 
 In Monk Lewis's writings there is a deal of bad 
 
 * Query about this name ? Sometimes, while telling the 
 story, Mr. Rogers would say, '* I think it was Colonel Arms- 
 strong."
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 123 
 
 taste ; but still he was a man of genius. I'll tell 
 you two stories which he was very fond of repeating 
 (and which Windham used to like). The first is : 
 
 The Skeleton in the Church Porch. 
 
 Some travellers were supping at an inn in Germany 
 and sent for the landlord to give him a glass of wine. 
 In the course of conversation the landlord remarked 
 that a certain person, whom they happened to speak 
 of, was as obstinate as the Skeleton in the Church 
 Porch. " What is that ? " they inquired. The 
 landlord said that he alluded to a skeleton which 
 it was impossible to keep under ground ; that he 
 had twice or thrice assisted in laying it in the charnel, 
 but that always, the day after it had been buried, it 
 was found lying in the church porch. The travellers 
 were greatly struck by this account ; and they 
 expressed an eager desire to see the refractory 
 skeleton. At last, a young serving-woman coming 
 into the room, they asked her if she, for a reward, 
 would go to the church porch and bring the skeleton 
 to them. She at first refused to do so ; but eventu- 
 ally the travellers offered a sum of money which 
 she could not resist. Be it particularly observed 
 that the young woman was then big with child. 
 Well, off she set to the church ; and having found
 
 124 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 the skeleton in its usual place, she brought it to the 
 inn on her back, and laid it upon the table before 
 the travellers. They had no sooner looked at it 
 than they wished it gone ; and they prevailed on the 
 young woman, for another sum of money, to carry it 
 again to the church porch. When she arrived there, 
 she set it down ; and turning away, she was pro- 
 ceeding quickly along the path which led from the 
 church, and which was seen stretching out before 
 her in the clear moonlight, when suddenly she felt 
 the skeleton leap upon her back. She tried to shake 
 it off ; but in vain. She then fell on her knees, and 
 said her prayers. The skeleton relaxed its hold ; 
 and she again rushed down the path, when, as 
 before, the skeleton leapt upon her back. " I will 
 never quit you," it said, " till you descend into the 
 charnel, and obtain forgiveness for the skeleton that 
 lies in the church porch." She paused a moment ; 
 then summoning up her courage, she replied that she 
 would do so. The skeleton dropped off. Down she 
 went into the charnel ; and, after groping about for 
 some time, she perceived the pale figure of a lady, 
 sitting by a lamp and reading. She advanced to- 
 wards the figure, and, kneeling, said, " I ask forgive- 
 ness for the skeleton that lies in the church porch." 
 The lady read on without looking at her. Again
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 125 
 
 she repeated her supplication, but still the lady 
 read on, regardless of it. The young woman then 
 ascended from the charnel, and was running down 
 the path when the skeleton once more arrested her 
 progress. "I will never quit you," it said, "till 
 you obtain forgiveness for the skeleton that lies in 
 the church porch : go again into the charnel, and 
 ask it." Again the young woman descended, and, 
 advancing to the lady, sunk upon her knees, and 
 cried, " I come a second time to ask forgiveness for 
 the skeleton that lies in the church porch. Oh, 
 grant that forgiveness ! the skeleton implores it ! 
 I implore it ! the babe that I bear in my womb im- 
 plores it also ! " The lady turned her head towards 
 the speaker, gave a faint smile, and disappeared. 
 On coming up from the charnel, the young woman 
 found the skeleton standing erect in the porch. " I 
 am now here," it said, " not to trouble you, but to 
 thank you : you have at length procured me rest 
 in the grave. I was betrothed to the lady whom 
 you saw in the charnel ; and I basely deserted her 
 for another. I stood at the altar, about to be 
 married to my second love, when suddenly the lady 
 rushed into the church, and having stabbed herself 
 with a dagger, said to me, as she was expiring, 
 '* You shall never have rest in the grave no,
 
 126 
 
 never, till the babe unborn shall ask forgiveness for 
 you" The skeleton rewarded the good offices of 
 the young woman by discovering to her the place 
 where a heap of treasure was concealed. 
 The second story is : 
 
 Lord HowtWs Rat. 
 
 Tom Sheridan was shooting on the moors in Ire- 
 land, and lost his dog. A day or two after it made 
 its appearance, following an Irish labourer. It was 
 restored to Sheridan, who remarked to the labourer 
 that " the dog seemed very familiar with him." The 
 answer was, " Yes, it follows me, as the rat did Lord 
 Howth." An inquiry about this rat drew forth what 
 is now to be told : Lord Howth, having dissipated 
 his property, retired in very low spirits to a lonely 
 chateau on the sea-coast. One stormy night a 
 vessel was seen to go down ; and next morning a 
 raft was beheld floating towards the shore. As it 
 approached, the bystanders were surprised. to find 
 that it was guided by a lady, who presently stepped 
 upon the beach. She was exquisitely beautiful ; 
 but they were unable to discover who or what she 
 was, for she spoke in an unknown tongue. Lord 
 Howth was struck with great pity for this fair 
 stranger, and conducted her to his chateau. There
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 127 
 
 she remained a considerable time, when he became 
 violently enamoured of her, and at last asked her 
 to become his wife. She (having now learned the 
 English language) thanked him for the honour he 
 had intended her ; but declared in the most posi- 
 tive terms that she could never be his. She then 
 earnestly advised him to marry a certain lady of 
 a neighbouring county. He followed her advice ; 
 paid his addresses to the lady, and was accepted. 
 Before the marriage, the beautiful stranger took a 
 ribbon from her hair, and binding it round the wrist 
 of Lord Howth, said, " Your happiness depends 
 on your never parting with this ribbon." He 
 assured her that it should remain constantly on 
 his wrist. She then disappeared, and was never 
 seen again. The marriage took place. The ribbon 
 was a matter of much wonder and curiosity to the 
 bride ; and one night, while Lord Howth was 
 asleep, she removed it from his wrist, and carried 
 it to .the fire, that she might read the characters 
 inscribed upon it. Accidentally she let the flame 
 reach it, and it was consumed. Some time after, 
 Lord Howth was giving a grand banquet in his hall, 
 when the company were suddenly disturbed by the 
 barking of dogs. This, the servants said, was 
 occasioned by a rat which the dogs were pursuing.
 
 128 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Presently the rat, followed by the dogs, entered the 
 hall. It mounted on the table, and running up to 
 Lord Howth, stared at him earnestly with its bright 
 black eyes. He saved its life ; and from that 
 moment it never quitted him : wherever he was, 
 alone or with his friends, there was the rat. At last 
 the society of the rat became very disagreeable 
 to Lord Howth ; and his brother urged him to 
 leave Ireland for a time, that he might get rid of it. 
 He did so, and proceeded to Marseilles, accom- 
 panied by his brother. They had just arrived at 
 that place, and were sitting in the room of an hotel, 
 when the door opened, and in came the rat. It was 
 dripping wet, and went straight to the fire to dry 
 itself. Lord Howth's brother, greatly enraged at 
 the intrusion, seized the poker, and dashed out its 
 brains. " You have murdered me," cried Lord 
 Howth, and instantly expired. 
 
 At one of Lady Cr ewe's dinner-parties, Grattan, 
 after talking very delightfully for some time, all at 
 once seemed disconcerted, and sunk into silence. I 
 asked his daughter, who was sitting next to me, the 
 reason of this. " Oh," she replied, " he has just 
 found out that he has come here in his powdering- 
 coat."
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 129 
 
 Grattan said that Malone went about, looking, 
 through strongly magnifying spectacles, for pieces 
 of straw and bits of broken glass. 
 
 He used to talk with admiration of the French 
 translation of Demosthenes by Auger : he thought it 
 the best of all translations. 
 
 He declared that the two greatest men of modern 
 times were William the Third and Washington. 
 
 " Three persons," said Grattan, " are considered 
 as having the best claim to the authorship of 
 " Junius's Letters " Gibbon, Hamilton, and 
 Burke. Gibbon is out of the question. I do not 
 believe that they were Hamilton's ; because a man 
 who was willing to be known as the author of a bad 
 piece would hardly have failed to acknowledge that 
 he had written an excellent book. I incline to think 
 that Burke was Junius." 
 
 " Burke," observed Grattan, " became at last 
 such an enthusiastic admirer of kingly power, that 
 he could not have slept comfortably on his pillow 
 if he had not thought that the king had a right to 
 carry it off from under his head." 
 
 " Do you ever say your prayers ? " asked Plunkett 
 of Grattan. " No, never." " What, never ! 
 neither night nor morning ? " " Never : but I 
 have aspirations all day and all night long." 
 
 i
 
 130 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 " What you have just mentioned," said one of 
 Grattan's friends to him, " is a profound secret : 
 where could you have heard it ? " Grattan replied, 
 " Where secrets are kept in the street." 
 
 You remember the passage in my "Human 
 Life " ? 
 
 A walk in spring Grattan, like those with thee 
 By the heath-side( who had not envied me ?), 
 When the sweet limes, so full of bees in June, 
 Led us to meet beneath their boughs at noon ; 
 And thou didst say which of the great and wise, 
 Could they but hear and at thy bidding rise, 
 Thou wouldst call up and question. 
 
 I allude to some lime-trees near Tunbridge Wells. 
 Grattan would say to me, " Come, Rogers, let's take 
 a walk among the lime-trees, and hear those great 
 senators, the bees " ; and, while we were listening 
 to their buzzing and humming, he would exclaim, 
 " Now, they are holding a committee," &c. &c. 
 
 He would say, too, " Were I a necromancer, I 
 should like to call up Scipio Africanus : he was not 
 so skilful a captain as Hannibal ; but he was a 
 greater and more virtuous man. And I should like 
 to talk to Julius Caesar on several points of his 
 history on one particularly (though I would not 
 press the subject, if disagreeable to him) I should
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 131 
 
 wish to know what part he took during Catiline's 
 conspiracy." " Should you like to call up Cleo- 
 patra ? " I asked. " No," replied Grattan, " not 
 Cleopatra : she would tell me nothing but lies ; and 
 her beauty would make me sad." * Grattan was so 
 fond of walking with me, that Mrs. Grattan once 
 said to him rather angrily, " You'll be taken for Mr. 
 Rogers's shadow." 
 
 " How I should like," said Grattan one day to 
 me, " to spend my whole life in a small neat cottage ! 
 I could be content with very little ; I should need 
 only cold meat, and bread, and beer and plenty of 
 claret" 
 
 I once said to Grattan, " If you were now only 
 twenty years old, and Cooke were about to set sail 
 round the world, should you like to accompany 
 him ? " He answered, " I have no wish to see such 
 countries as he saw : I should like to see Rome, 
 Athens, and some parts of Asia ; but little 
 besides." 
 
 * The very reverse of the effect which the beauty of the little 
 cottage-girl produced on Wordsworth " Her beauty made me 
 glad." (" We are Seven.") Speaking to me of the poem just cited, 
 Wordsworth said, " It is founded on fact. I met a little girl near 
 Goderich Castle, who, though some of her brothers and sisters 
 were dead, would talk of them in the present tense. I wrote 
 that poem backward that is, I began with the last stanza."
 
 132 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 He declared that he had rather be shot than go up 
 in a balloon. 
 
 f Grattan'suncle, Dean Marlay, gave the nicest 
 little dinners and kept the best company in 
 Dublin ; his parties were delightful. At that 
 time he had about four hundred a year. After- 
 wards, when he succeeded to an estate and was 
 made a Bishop, he gave great dinners chiefly 
 to people of rank and fashion (foolish men and 
 foolish _ women) ; and his parties lost all their 
 charm. 
 
 He had a good deal of the humour of Swift. Once, 
 when the footman was out of the way, he ordered 
 the coachman to fetch some water from the well. 
 To this the coachman objected, that his business was 
 to drive, not to run on errands. " Well, then," 
 said Marlay, " bring out the coach and four, set the 
 pitcher inside, and drive to the well " a service 
 which was several times repeated, to the great 
 amusement of the village. 
 
 Grattan entering a cottage with his hat in his 
 hand. "Sir, your most obedient Now, sir, how 
 much may you earn in a week ? You eat little or 
 no meat, I suppose." Anxious to confute Forster, 
 who had said that the cottagers about Tunbridge 
 lived worse than those of Ireland.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 133 
 
 Like Louis XIV., he returns the bow of a 
 child. 
 
 One of the reasons why the affairs of Nations are 
 not better conducted, is that the consequences of 
 our misconduct is more remote, and less certain, 
 than any false step we may make in private life. 
 A nation may be ruined, but not in our time ; nor 
 will the causes that led to it be so obvious as to 
 attach certainly to such or such a person. We may 
 not live to see the tragedy, nor indeed may it ever 
 take place. Our self-interest, in that respect, is 
 therefore less awake, and so also are our consciences ; 
 nor is our imagination so excited by the prospect 
 of evil to many as to one. Our self-interest, as 
 individuals, which is generally shortsighted, coun- 
 teracts the other too powerfully. 
 
 Were I rich, and could live as I please, I should 
 have no wish for a fine house or fine furniture (I 
 would rather not have them, I should be afraid 
 of hurting them), or pictures they give me no 
 pleasure. I would have no fine gardens or con- 
 servatories I love the fruit ; but I would have 
 no fine gardener to criticise me, and tell me I was 
 doing wrong, or walking awkwardly I should 
 love a wide expanse I would have bands of music 
 I love music I would have a carriage for use,
 
 134 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 and fine horses, but not for riding I love to go 
 fast I would cut the air. 
 
 Wealth makes a man sad he lives for others 
 who don't care for him he becomes a steward. 
 
 I cannot bear large and mixed companies ; they 
 make me miserable. [Mrs. G. complains that he 
 ought to bear his share in them ; but he won't ; 
 he has no voice for them. S. R.]. 
 
 Lord Bolingbroke a very fine speaker, and there- 
 fore banished the house.* His Dedication to his 
 Dissertations on parties, a very fine imitation of 
 that to " Killing no Murder." 
 
 A fine prospect to the visitor or traveller is ever 
 delightful but possession destroys the pleasure. 
 If I delighted much in a view or a spot, I would 
 wish some other person to live there. 
 
 Pitt's faults might arise in some degree from his 
 situation. For twenty years he was an apologist 
 for failure, and an imposer of taxes : in other words 
 a humbug. 
 
 Burke's speeches far better to read than to hear. 
 
 * When Lord Bolingbroke, who had been attainted by act 
 of Parliament for high treason, was pardoned in 1723, he was 
 unable to procure a reversal of the attainder, and a restoration 
 of his seat in the House of Lords. Mr. Grattan, no doubt, 
 alludes to this when he says he was banished the^house.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 135 
 
 They are better suited to a patient reader, than to 
 an impatient hearer.* 
 
 Mrs. Anne Pitt, Lord Chatham's sister, a very 
 superior woman. She hated him, and they lived 
 like dog and cat. She said he had never read but 
 one book " The Fairy Queen." He could only 
 get rid of her by leaving his house, and setting a 
 bill upon it, " This house to let." 
 
 Every sentence [of Fox] came rolling like a wave 
 of the Atlantic, three thousand miles long. 
 
 Stella f used often to visit my aunt, and sleep 
 with her in the same bed, and weep all night. She 
 was not very handsome. Miss V 1 was hand- 
 some. 
 
 Who was the best speaker you ever heard ? Fox, 
 during the American War Fox in his best days ; 
 about the year 1779. 
 
 Using the word Disloyalty in the sense it has been 
 used in, makes the King the Law. 
 
 Lord Chatham. " I don't inquire from what 
 quarter the wind cometh, but whither it goeth ; 
 and if any measure that comes from the Right 
 
 * See Sheridan's remark on Burke's speeches. Supra, p. 38. 
 f Mrs. Johnson, whom Swift has celebrated under the name 
 of Stella ; and to whom he was privately married. 
 I Miss Vanhomrigh, whom Swift called Vanessa.
 
 136 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Honourable Gentleman tends to the Public Good, 
 my bark is ready." * " I stand alone I stand like 
 our first ancestor naked, but not ashamed."t 
 
 Lord Chatham, I think, delivered finer things 
 than Desmosthenes ; but he had a greater theatre, 
 and men are made by circumstances. " America 
 has resisted. I rejoice, my Lords." t This passage, 
 I think, excels any in Demosthenes. 
 
 I was at Paris in 1771 for three months and 
 delighted though I made no acquaintance but 
 with an Abb, and a Swindler. I went with two 
 other Templars to study in France, by Havre, 
 taking Coke upon Littleton but settled nowhere. 
 
 * " On another occasion he [Lord Chatham] said, ' It is not 
 for us to inquire whence the wind bloweth, but where it tendeth. 
 If its gales are for the public advantage, although they come 
 from the quarter of the noble lord, my bark is ready." " Grat- 
 tan's Life and Times." By his Son. Ed. 1849, i. 237. 
 
 f " In his [Lord Chatham's] speech on the Stamp Act [for 
 America], being abandoned by his friends, he said, ' My Lords, 
 I rise like our piimeval ancestor naked but not ashamed.' " 
 Ibid., i. 234. 
 
 J The speech was not in the Lords, but in the Commons, on 
 January 14, 1766, in the debate on the Address to the Throne ; 
 the sentence, part of which Mr. Grattan quoted, is thus reported ; 
 " The gentleman tells us America is obstinate America is 
 almost in open rebellion. I rejoice that America has resisted. 
 Three millions of people so dead to all feelings of liberty as volun-
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 137 
 
 Solitude is bad. I have tried Tinnehinch* for 
 twenty years. It leads to melancholy to a sort 
 of madness. You think of your vexations, your 
 age. Society should always be in your power. 
 
 An old man cannot enjoy solitude. He has learnt 
 the secret he has found out the rogueries of 
 Fortune. Nor will reading supply the want. I 
 would live in a house full of society, to which I 
 might escape from myself. 
 
 I was called the spirit of the Dargle.f I found out 
 (he said laughing) that a man's worst companion 
 is himself. 
 
 The King (Charles the First) had made war on 
 the people but the death of Strafford was less 
 to be justified. Though a thief, a robber, he was 
 no traitor. He had committed every crime but 
 that for which he was condemned to die. 
 
 Of what use is it ? ('' Lycidas"), says Johnson. | 
 
 tarily to submit to be slaves would have been fit instruments 
 to make slaves of the rest." " Parl. Hist.," xvi. 104. 
 
 * Mr. Grattan's residence in the county of Wicklow. 
 
 f A glen, near Tinnehinch. 
 
 | See Johnson's criticism of "Lycidas," in his "Life of Milton/' 1 
 where he speaks of it as without nature, and without truth ; 
 its diction as harsh, its numbers as unpleasing, its images long 
 ago exhausted, and its form as that of a pastoral, easy, vulgar, 
 and therefore disgusting.
 
 138 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 These things they take the mind out of the dirt, 
 as it were. 
 
 The French poets I read with little pleasure ; 
 and am glad when I have done. Boileau perhaps 
 but such is their homage to the great, we are the 
 worse for them. 
 
 A wife should be of a modest character. She 
 should sing. 
 
 Burke's best things : On the payment of the 
 Nabob of Arcot's debts Descent of Hyder Ally 
 on the Carnatic.* He was heard without much 
 attention. 
 
 We should always have the appearance of narra- 
 tive, not of description. 
 
 Dislikes the clergy and all humbugs. 
 
 [His forte in conversation is sketching a character, 
 with a gentle voice and many pauses ; but with a 
 delicate irony, a great archness of look and manner ; 
 beginning, as you would think, with something like 
 praise, and ending with a roll of the person, and 
 a turn of the head, in a coup de patte. It is very 
 delightful to see him with Miss Fox. The enjoyment 
 she feels encourages him. S. R.]. 
 
 * See his speech in the House of Commons, in support of Mr. 
 Fox's motion for papers on the subject of the Nabob of Arcot's 
 debts, February 28, 1785.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 139 
 
 Pitt would be right nineteen times for once that 
 Fox would be right : but that once would be worth 
 all the rest. The heart is wiser than the schools. 
 
 In conversation, said Plunket, he gave results* 
 rather than processes of reasoning. Every sentence 
 was a treasure. 
 
 When Dr. Lucas, a very unpopular man, ventured 
 on a speech in the Irish Parliament, and failed 
 altogether, Grattan said, " He rose without a friend, 
 and sate down without an enemy." 
 
 Of he said : "He was a coward in the field, 
 
 and a bully in the street." 
 
 Archibald Hamilton, afterwards Duke of Hamil- 
 ton, t (as his daughter, Lady Dunmore, told me) 
 advertised for "a Hermit " as an ornament to his 
 pleasure-grounds ; and it was stipulated that the 
 said Hermit should have his beard shaved but once 
 a year, and that only partially. 
 
 A friend, calling on him one forenoon, asked if 
 it was true that he kept a young tame tiger. He 
 immediately slapped his thighs, and uttered a sort 
 
 * As I can say of all the eminent men I have known, and from 
 them, generally speaking, I have learnt more than from books, 
 what they said making a deeper impression. S. R. 
 
 t Ninth Duke of Hamilton*
 
 140 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 of whistle ; and forth crept the long-backed animal 
 from under the sofa. The visitor soon retreated. 
 
 Lord Shelburne could say the most provoking 
 things, and yet appear quite unconscious of their 
 being so. In one of his speeches, alluding to Lord 
 Carlisle, he said, " The noble lord has written a 
 comedy." " No, a tragedy." * " Oh, I beg pardon ; 
 / thought it was a comedy" 
 
 I know few lines finer than the concluding stanza 
 of "Life"f by Mrs. Barbauld, who composed it 
 when she was very old : 
 
 Life ! we have been long together, 
 Through pleasant and through cloudy weather : 
 'Tis hard to part when friends are dear ; 
 Perhaps 'twill cost a sigh, a tear ; 
 Then steal away, give little warning, 
 
 Choose thine own time, 
 
 Say not Good Night, but in some brighter clime 
 Bid me Good Morning. 
 
 Sitting with Madame D'Arblay some weeks be- 
 fore she died, I said to her, " Do you remember those 
 lines of Mrs. Barbauld's " Life " which I once 
 
 * The Father's Revenge. 
 
 f Wordsworth also thought very highly of these lines : see 
 his " Memoirs," ii. 222.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 141 
 
 repeated to you ? " " Remember them ! " she 
 replied ; "I repeat them to myself every night 
 before I go to sleep." 
 
 Strangely enough,* in spite of her correct taste, 
 Mrs. Barbauld was quite fascinated by Darwin's 
 " Botanic Garden " when it first appeared, and 
 talked of it with rapture ; for which I scolded her 
 heartily. 
 
 One day, as she was going to Hampstead in the 
 stage-coach, she had a Frenchman for her companion ; 
 and entering into conversation with him, she found 
 that he was making an excursion to Hampstead for 
 the express purpose of seeing the house in the Flask 
 Walk where Clarissa Harlowe lodged. f What a 
 compliment to the genius of Richardson ! 
 
 * It is not so strange, when we recollect that " The Botanic 
 Garden " fascinated even Cowper : see his verses to Darwin, 
 written in conjunction with Hayley. Wordsworth once said 
 to me : " Darwin had not an atom of feeling : he was a mere 
 eye-voluptuary. He has so many similes all beginning with 
 ' So,' that I used to call ' The Botanic Garden ' ' so-so poetry.' " 
 
 f " The writer of these observations well remembers a French- 
 man who paid a visit to Hampstead for the sole purpose of find- 
 ing out the house in the flask-walk where Clarissa lodged, and 
 was surprised at the ignorance or indifference of the inhabitants 
 on that subject. The flask-walk was to him as much classic 
 ground as the rocks of Meillerie to the admirers of Rousseau ; 
 and probably, if an English traveller were to make similar in- 
 quiries in Switzerland, he would find that the rocks of Meillerie
 
 142 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Bobus Smith* (who could repeat by heart an 
 astonishing quantity of Latin prose) used to admire 
 greatly the " raptor, largitor "f of Tacitus. I am 
 inclined to prefer Sallust's expression, " alieni 
 appetens, sui profusus."J 
 
 A few days before his death, Bobus said to me, 
 " Rogers, however we may doubt on some points, 
 we have made up our minds on one that Christ 
 was sent into the world commissioned by the 
 Almighty to instruct mankind." I replied, " Yes ; 
 of that I am perfectly convinced." 
 
 When I was a lad, I recollect seeing a whole cartful 
 of young girls, in dresses of various colours, on their 
 way to be executed at Tyburn. They had all been 
 condemned, on one indictment, for having been 
 concerned in (that is, perhaps, for having been 
 spectators of) the burning of some houses during 
 
 and the chalets of the Valais suggested no ideas to the inhabitants 
 but such as were connected with their dairies and their farms. 
 A constant residence destroys all sensibility to objects of local 
 enthusiasm." Mrs. Barbauld's " Life of Richardson," p. cix. 
 
 * i.e. Robert Smith, the elder brother of Sydney, and one of 
 the best writers of Latin verse since the days of the ancients. 
 " Bobus " was the nickname given to him by his schoolfellows at 
 Eton. 
 
 f " Hist.," lib. ii. c. 86. 
 
 J " Bell. Cat.," near the beginning.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 143 
 
 Lord George Gordon's riots. It was quite horrible. 
 Greville was present at one of the trials consequent 
 on those riots, and heard several boys sentenced, 
 to their own excessive amazement, to be hanged. 
 " Never," said Greville with great naivete, " did I 
 see boys cry so." 
 
 Sir Thomas Lawrence told me, that when he, in 
 his boyhood, had received a prize * from the Society 
 of Arts, he went with it into the parlour where his 
 brothers and sisters were sitting ; but that not one 
 
 * Sometimes, in telling this anecdote, Mr. Rogers would speak 
 of young Lawrence's prize as " a medal which he put on," &c. 
 But from Williams's " Life of Lawrence " it appears that the 
 prize adjudged to him in 1784 by the Society of Arts (for a draw- 
 ing in crayons after the Transfiguration of Raphael] was the 
 silver palette entirely gilt and five guineas. " It was the law of 
 the Society, that a work of this description, to compete for the 
 main prize [the gold medal] must be performed within one year 
 prior to the date at which it is sent to the Society. Mr. Law- 
 rence's drawing was marked as performed in 1782, and it was 
 not sent to the Society till the year 1784 ; and this excluded it, 
 according to the conditions of the Society, from being taken 
 into consideration for the higher prize. It was considered, how- 
 ever, to possess such very extraordinary merit that the Society 
 was not content with putting the gilt rim to the palette, but 
 ordered it to be entirely gilt. Pecuniary rewards for works 
 of art had long been abandoned ; and this vote of five guineas 
 was a very striking testimony of the opinions of the Society in 
 favour of the work." Vol. i. 90.
 
 144 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 of them would take the slightest notice of it ; and 
 that he was so mortified by their affected indiffer- 
 ence, that he ran upstairs to his own room, and 
 burst into tears. 
 
 On coming home late one night, I found Sir 
 Thomas Lawrence in the street, hovering about my 
 door, and waiting for my return. He immediately 
 began the tale of his distress telling me that he 
 was in pressing want of a large sum of money, and 
 that he depended on my assistance, being sure that 
 I would not like to see the President of the Royal 
 Academy a bankrupt. I replied that I would try 
 what I could do for him next morning. Accordingly, 
 I went early to Lord Dudley. " As you," I said, 
 " can command thousands and thousands of pounds, 
 and have a truly feeling heart, I want you to help 
 a friend of mine not, however, by a gift, but 
 either by a loan, or by purchasing some valuable 
 articles which he has to sell." Dudley, on learning 
 the particulars, accompanied me to Sir Thomas's 
 house, where we looked at several pictures which 
 he wished to dispose of in order to meet the present 
 difficulty. Most of them were early pictures of the 
 Italian school, and, though valuable, not pleasing 
 perhaps to any except artists. Dudley bought one 
 of them (a Raphael, in his first style, as it was
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 145 
 
 called, and probably was), giving, I believe, more 
 than a thousand guineas for it ; and he lent Sir 
 Thomas, on a bond, a very considerable sum besides. 
 No doubt, if Lawrence had lived, he would have 
 repaid Lord Dudley by instalments ; but he died 
 soon after, and not a penny was ever paid back. 
 This to so very wealthy a man as Dudley was of no 
 consequence ; and I dare say he never thought 
 about it at all. Sir Thomas at the time of his death 
 was a good deal in my debt ; nor was I ever repaid. 
 He used to purchase works of art, especially draw- 
 ings of the old masters, at immense prices ; he was 
 careless in keeping accounts, and he was very 
 generous : hence his difficulties which were every 
 now and then occurring. 
 
 Mrs. Siddons told me that one night as she 
 stepped into her carriage to return home from the 
 theatre, Sheridan suddenly jumped in after her. 
 " Mr. Sheridan," she said, " I trust that you will 
 behave with all propriety : if you do not, I shall 
 immediately let down the glass, and desire the 
 servant to show you out." Sheridan did behave 
 with all propriety : " but," continued Mrs. Siddons, 
 " as soon as we had reached my house in Marl- 
 borough Street, and the footman had opened the 
 
 K
 
 146 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 carriage door only think ! the provoking wretch 
 bolted out in the greatest haste, and slunk away, 
 as if anxious to escape unseen." 
 
 After she had left the stage, Mrs. Siddons, from 
 the want of excitement, was never happy. When I 
 was sitting with her of an afternoon, she would say, 
 " Oh, dear ! this is the time I used to be thinking 
 of going to the theatre : first came the pleasure of 
 dressing for my part ; and then the pleasure of acting 
 it : but that is all over now." 
 
 When a grand public dinner was given to John 
 Kemble on his quitting the stage, Mrs. Siddons said 
 to me, " Well, perhaps in the next world women will 
 be more valued than they are in this." She alluded 
 to the comparatively little sensation which had been 
 produced by her own retirement from the boards : 
 and doubtless she was a far, far greater performer 
 than John Kemble. 
 
 Combe* recollected having seen Mrs. Siddons, 
 
 * Combe had conceived a violent dislike to Mrs. Siddons 
 why I know not. In a passage of his best work he studiously 
 avoids the mention of her name : 
 
 The Drama's children strut and play 
 In borrow'd parts, their lives away ; 
 And then they share the oblivious lot ; 
 Smith will, like Gibber, be forgot ! 
 Gibber with fascinating art
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 147 
 
 when a very young woman, standing by the side of 
 her father's stage, and knocking a pair of snuffers 
 against a candlestick, to imitate the sound of a wind- 
 mill, during the representation of some Harlequin- 
 piece. 
 
 John Kemble was often very amusing when he had 
 had a good deal of wine. He and two friends were 
 returning to town in an open carriage from the 
 Priory (Lord Abercorn's), where they had dined ; 
 and as they were waiting for change at a toll-gate, 
 Kemble, to the amazement of the toll-keeper, 
 called out in the tone of Rolla, " We seek no change ; 
 and, least of all, such change as he would bring us."* 
 
 Could wake the pulses of the heart ; 
 
 But hers is an expiring name, 
 
 And darling Smith's will be the same. 
 
 "The Tour of Doctor Syntax in Search of the Pictur- 
 esque," p. 229, third ed. 1813. 
 
 The " darling Smith " was the late Mrs. Bartley. Mrs. Siddons 
 used to say that the public had a sort of pleasure in mortifying 
 their old favourites by setting up new idols : that she herself 
 had been three times threatened with an eclipse first by means 
 of Miss Brunton (afterwards Lady Craven), next by means of 
 Miss Smith, and lastly by means of Miss O'Neil : " neverthe- 
 less," she added, " I am not yet extinguished." 
 
 * Pizarro, act ii. sc. 2 (where it is " as they would bring 
 
 us "j.
 
 148 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 When Kemble was living at Lausanne, he used 
 to feel rather jealous of Mont Blanc ; he disliked 
 to hear people always asking, " How does Mont 
 Blanc look this morning ? " 
 
 Sir George Beaumont,* when a young man, was 
 introduced at Rome to an old painter, who in his 
 youth had known an old painter, who had seen 
 Claude and Caspar Poussin riding out, in a morning, 
 on mules, and furnished with palettes, &c., to make 
 sketches in the Campagna. 
 
 Georgiana Duchess of Devonshire was not so 
 beautiful as she was fascinating : her beauty was 
 not that of features, but of expression. Every- 
 body knows her poem, " Mount St. Gothard " ; she 
 wrote also what is much less known, a novel called 
 " The Sylph. "f Gaming was the rage during her 
 day : she indulged in it, and was made miserable 
 by her debts. A faro-table was kept by Martindale, 
 at which the Duchess and other high fashionables 
 used to play. Sheridan said that the Duchess and 
 Martindale had agreed that whatever they two won 
 
 * During his latter years, I have sometimes heard Mr. Rogers 
 state that he was himself introduced to the old painter, &c. (D.) 
 a'vols.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 149 
 
 from each other should be sometimes double, some- 
 times treble, the sum which it was called ; and 
 Sheridan assurred me that he had handed the 
 Duchess into her carriage when she was literally 
 sobbing at her losses she perhaps having lost 
 1500, when it was supposed to be only 500. 
 
 General Fitzpatrick said that the Duke's love 
 for her grew quite cool a month after their marriage ; 
 that she had many sighing swains at her feet 
 among others the Prince of Wales, who chose to 
 believe that she smiled upon Lord Grey ; and hence 
 the hatred which the Prince bore to him. 
 
 The Duke, when walking home from Brookes's 
 about daybreak (for he did not relish the gaieties 
 at Devonshire House) used frequently to pass the 
 stall of a cobbler who had already commenced his 
 work. As they were the only persons stirring in 
 that quarter, they always saluted each other. 
 " Good night, friend," said the Duke. " Good 
 morning, sir," said the cobbler. 
 
 The Duchess was dreadfully hurt at the novel 
 "A Winter in London"*; it contained various 
 
 * In 3 vols. By T. S. Surr. The Duchess figures in it under 
 the name of the Duchess of Belgrave. This novel (which was 
 much read at the time) is inferior to any second-rate work of 
 fiction of the present day.
 
 150 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 anecdotes concerning her, which had been picked 
 up from her confidential attendants ; and she 
 thought, of course, that the little great world in 
 which she lived was intimately acquainted with all 
 her proceedings. " Never read that book, for it 
 has helped to kill me," were her words to a very near 
 relative. 
 
 February, 1834. 
 
 MY DEAR SIR,* Yon asked me not long ago if I 
 could recall any of his [Walter Scott's] conversation. 
 Happy should I be if I could ; but, with a single 
 exception, I can only remember generally the 
 charm which he threw around him wherever he 
 came. That exception is however at your service. 
 
 Sitting one day alone with him in your house 
 (it was the day but one before he left it to embark 
 at Portsmouth for Malta), I led him, among other 
 things, to tell me once again a story of himself 
 which he had formerly told me, and which I had 
 often wished to recover. When I returned home 
 I wrote it down, as nearly as I could, in his own 
 words ; and here they are. 
 
 * This letter and the following anecdote were communicated 
 by Mr. Rogers to Mr. Lockhart, and are printed in Lockhart's 
 '' Life of Scott."
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 151 
 
 The subject is an achievement worthy of Ulysses 
 himself, and such as many of his school-fellows 
 could, no doubt, have related of him ; but, I fear, 
 I have done it no justice, though the story is so very 
 characteristic that it should not be lost. The 
 inimitable manner in which he told it the glance of 
 the eye, the turn of the head, and the light that 
 played over his faded features as, one by one, the 
 circumstances came back to him, accompanied 
 by a thousand boyish feelings that had slept perhaps 
 for years these no language, not even his own, 
 could convey to you ; but you can supply them. 
 Would that others could do so, who had not the 
 good fortune to know him ! S. R. 
 
 To his Son in Law, John Lockhart. 
 
 " There was a boy in my class at school who 
 stood always at the top ; nor could I with all my 
 efforts supplant him. Day passed after day and 
 still he kept his place, do what I would ; till at 
 length I observed that, when a question was asked 
 him, he always fumbled with his fingers at a particu- 
 lar button in the lower part of his waistcoat- 
 To remove it, therefore, became expedient in my 
 eyes ; and in an evil moment it was removed with 
 a knife. Great was my anxiety to know the success
 
 152 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 of my measure ; and it succeeded too well. When 
 the boy was again questioned, his fingers sought 
 again for the button, but it was not to be found. 
 In his distress he looked down for it ; it was to be 
 seen no more than to be felt. He stood confounded, 
 and I took possession of his place ; nor did he ever 
 recover it ; or ever, I believe, suspect who was the 
 author of his wrong. 
 
 " Often, in after-life, has the sight of him smote 
 me as I passed by him ; and often have I resolved 
 to make him some reparation ; but it ended in good 
 resolutions. Though I never renewed my acquaint- 
 ance with him, I often saw him ; for he filled some 
 inferior office in one of the courts of law at Edin- 
 burgh. Poor fellow! He took early to drinking, 
 and I believe he is dead." 
 
 Friday, October 21, 1831, the day but one 
 before he set off for Naples. 
 
 I introduced Sir Walter Scott to Madame D' Arblay, 
 having taken him with me to her house. She had 
 not heard that he was lame ; and when he limped 
 towards a chair, she said, " Dear me, Sir Walter, 
 I hope you have not met with an acccident ? " 
 He answered, " An accident, madam, nearly as old 
 as my birth."
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 153 
 
 At the time when Scott and Byron were the two 
 lions of London, Hookham Frere observed, " Great 
 poets formerly (Homer and Milton) were blind ; 
 now they are lame." 
 
 One forenoon Scott was sitting for his bust to 
 Chantrey, who was quite in despair at the dull and 
 heavy expression of his countenance. Suddenly, 
 Fuller ("Jack Fuller," the then buffoon of the 
 House of Commons) was announced by a servant ; 
 and, as suddenly, Scott's face was lighted up to that 
 pitch of animation which the sculptor desired, and 
 which he made all haste to avail himself of. 
 
 After dining at my house, Sir Walter (then Mr.) 
 Scott accompanied me to a party given by Lady 
 Jersey. We met Sheridan there, who put the ques- 
 tion to Scott in express terms," Pray Mr. Scott, did 
 you, or did you not, write ' Waverley ' ? " Scott re- 
 plied, " On my honour I did not." Now, though Scott 
 may perhaps be justified for returning an answer 
 in the negative, I cannot think that he is to be 
 excused for strengthening it with " on my honour." 
 
 When I lived in the Temple, Mackintosh and 
 Richard Sharp used to come to my chambers, and 
 stay there for hours, talking metaphysics. One 
 day they were so intent on their " first cause,"
 
 154 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 ' spirit," and " matter," that they were unconscious 
 of my having left them, paid a visit, and returned ! 
 I was a little angry at this, and, to show my indiffer- 
 ence about them, I sat down and wrote letters, 
 without taking any notice of them. 
 
 Mackintosh told me that he had received in his 
 youth comparatively little instruction whatever 
 learning he possessed he owed to himself. He had a 
 prodigious memory, and could repeat by heart more 
 of Cicero than you would easily believe. His know- 
 ledge of Greek was slender. I never met a man 
 with a fuller mind than Mackintosh such readiness 
 on all subjects, such a talker ! 
 
 Lord Ellenborough had infinite wit. When the in- 
 come-tax was imposed, he said that Lord Kenyon (who 
 was not very nice in his habits) intended, in conse- 
 quence of it, to lay down his pocket-handkerchief. 
 
 A lawyer one day pleading before him, and using 
 several times the expression " my unfortunate 
 client," Lord Ellenborough suddenly interrupted 
 him " There, sir, the court is with you." 
 
 Lord Ellenborough was once about to go on the 
 circuit, when Lady E. said that she should like to 
 accompany him. He replied that he had no objec- 
 tions, provided she did not encumber the carriage
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 155 
 
 with bandboxes, which were his utter abhorrence. 
 They set off. During the first day's journey, Lord 
 Ellenborough, happening to stretch his legs, struck 
 his feet against something below the seat. He 
 discovered that it was a bandbox. His indignation 
 is not to be described. Up went the window, and 
 out went the bandbox. The coachman stopped ; 
 and the footmen, thinking that the bandbox had 
 tumbled out of the window by some extraordinary 
 chance, were going to pick it up, when Lord Ellen - 
 borough furiously called out, " Drive on ! " The 
 bandbox accordingly was left by a ditch-side. 
 Having reached the county-town where he was to 
 officiate as judge, Lord Ellenborough proceeded to 
 array himself for his appearance in the court-house. 
 " Now," said he, " where's my wig where is my 
 wig ? " " My lord," replied his attendant, " it 
 was thrown out of the carriage window." 
 
 The English highwaymen of former days (indeed, 
 the race is now extinct) were remarkably well-bred 
 personages. Thomas Grenville,* while travelling 
 with Lord Derby ; and Lord Tankerville, while 
 travelling with his father ; were attacked by high- 
 waymen : on both occasions, six or seven shots 
 
 * The Right Honourable T. G.
 
 156 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 were exchanged between them and the high- 
 waymen ; and when the parties assailed had ex- 
 pended all their ammunition, the highwaymen came 
 up to them, and took their purses in the politest 
 manner possible. 
 
 One morning I had a visit from Lancaster, whom 
 I had never before seen. The moment he entered 
 the room, he began to inform me of his distresses, 
 and burst into tears. He was unable, he said, to 
 carry on his school for want of money he owed 
 some hundred pounds to his landlord he had been 
 to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who would do 
 nothing for him, &c. &c. ; and he requested me to 
 go and see his school. I went ; and was so delighted 
 with what I saw (the system of monitors, &c.), that 
 I immediately lent him the sum which he stood in 
 need of ; and he put his title-deeds into my hands. I 
 never was repaid one farthing of that money ; indeed, 
 on finding that Lancaster owed much larger sums 
 both to William Allen and to Joseph Fox, I forbore 
 urging my claims, and returned the title-deeds.* 
 
 * " I was well acquainted with Lancaster. He once came to 
 me in great agitation, and complained bitterly that ' they wanted 
 to put him under the control of a committee, who were to allow 
 him ^365 a year,' &c. &c. I knew how thoughtless and improvi- 
 dent he had been, driving about the country with four horses,
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 157 
 
 George Selwyn, as everybody knows, delighted 
 in seeing executions ; he never missed being in at a 
 death at Tyburn. When Lord Holland (the father 
 of Charles Fox) was confined to bed by a dangerous 
 illness, he was informed by his servant that Mr. 
 Selwyn had recently called to inquire for him. " On 
 his next visit," said Lord Holland, " be sure you let 
 him in, whether I am alive or a corpse ; for, if I am 
 alive, I shall have great pleasure in seeing him ; and 
 if I am a corpse, he will have great pleasure in seeing 
 me" The late Lord Holland told me this. 
 
 Payne Knight was seized with an utter loathing 
 of life, and destroyed himself. He had complaints 
 which were very painful, and his nerves were 
 completely shattered. Shortly before his death, he 
 would come to me of an evening, and tell me how 
 sick he was of existence. He had recourse to the 
 strongest prussic acid ; and, I understand, he was 
 dead before it touched his lips. 
 
 and doing many other foolish things ; and I could not take that 
 view of his case which he wished me to take. This offended 
 him : he burst into tears, and left the room, declaring that he 
 would never again come near me. He went to America, and 
 died there in obscurity a man who, if he had only possessed 
 prudence, might have had statues erected to him." MR. MALTBY 
 (see notice prefixed to " Porsoniana " in this volume).
 
 158 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Coleridge was a marvellous talker. One morning, 
 when Hookham Frere also breakfasted with me, 
 Coleridge talked for three hours without intermis- 
 sion about poetry, and so admirably, that I wish 
 every word he uttered had been written down. 
 
 But sometimes his harangues were quite unintel- 
 ligible, not only to myself, but to others. Words- 
 worth and I called upon him one forenoon, when he 
 was in a lodging off Pall Mall. He talked uninter- 
 ruptedly for about two hours, during which Words- 
 worth listened to him with profound attention, every 
 now and then nodding his head as if in assent. On 
 quitting the lodging, I said to Wordsworth, " Well, 
 for my own part, I could not make head or tail of 
 Coleridge's oration : pray, did you understand it ? " 
 " Not one syllable of it," was Wordsworth's reply.* 
 
 Speaking of composition, Coleridge said most 
 beautifully, " What comes from the heart goes to 
 the heart." 
 
 Coleridge spoke and wrotef very disparagingly of 
 
 * Wordsworth once observed to me : " What is somewhere 
 stated in print that I said, ' Coleridge was the only person 
 whose intellect ever astonished me,' is quite true. His conversa- 
 tion was even finer in his youth than in his later days ; for, as 
 he advanced in life, he became a little dreamy and hyper-meta- 
 physical." 
 
 t See, in Coleridge's " Poetical Works," ii. 87 (ed. Pickering), 
 '- The Two Round Spaces on the Tombstone."
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 159 
 
 Mackintosh : but Mackintosh, who had not a particle 
 of envy or jealousy in his nature, did full justice, on 
 all occasions, to the great powers of Coleridge. 
 
 Southey used to say that " the moment anything 
 assumed the shape of a duty, Coleridge felt himself 
 incapable of discharging it." 
 
 In all his domestic relations Southey was the 
 most amiable of men ; but he had no general philan- 
 thropy ; he was what you call a cold man. He was 
 never happy except when reading a book or making 
 one. Coleridge once said to me, "I can't think of 
 Southey without seeing him either mending or using 
 a pen." I spent some time with him at Lord Lons- 
 dale's, in company with Wordsworth and others ; 
 and while the rest of the party were walking about, 
 talking, and amusing themselves, Southey preferred 
 sitting solus in the library. " How cold he is ! " 
 was the exclamation of Wordsworth himself so 
 joyous and communicative. 
 
 Southey told me that he had read Spenser through 
 about thirty times, and that he could not read Pope 
 through once. He thought meanly of Virgil ; so 
 did Coleridge ; and so, at one time, did Wordsworth. 
 When I lately mentioned to Wordsworth an un- 
 favourable opinion which he had formerly expressed
 
 160 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 to me about a passage of Virgil, " Oh," he said, 
 " we used to talk a great deal of nonsense in those 
 days." 
 
 Early in the present century, I set out on a tour 
 in Scotland, accompanied by my sister ; but an 
 accident which happened to her prevented us from 
 going as far as we had intended. During our 
 excursion we fell in with Wordsworth, Miss Words- 
 worth, and Coleridge, who were, at the same time, 
 making a tour in a vehicle that looked very like a 
 cart. Wordsworth and Coleridge were entirely 
 occupied in talking about poetry ; and the whole 
 care of looking out for cottages where they might 
 get refreshment and pass the night, as well as of 
 seeing their poor horse fed and littered, devolved 
 upon Miss Wordsworth. She was a most delightful 
 person so full of talent, so simple-minded, and so 
 modest ! If I am not mistaken, Coleridge proved 
 so impracticable a travelling-companion, that 
 Wordsworth and his sister were at last obliged to 
 separate from him.* During that tour they met 
 
 * " Coleridge," writes Wordsworth, " was at that time in bad 
 spirits, and somewhat too much in love with his own dejection ; 
 and he departed from us, as is recorded in my sister's journal, 
 soon after we left Loch Lomond." " Memoirs of Wordsworth," 
 it 207. This tour took place in 1803.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 161 
 
 with Scott, who repeated to them a portion of hia 
 then unpublished " Lay " ; which Wordsworth, 
 as might be expected, did not greatly admire.* 
 
 I do indeed regret that Wordsworth has printed 
 only fragments of his sister's " Journal " : f it is most 
 excellent, and ought to have been published entire. 
 
 I was walking with Lord Lonsdale on the terrace 
 at Lowther Castle, when he said, " I wish I could 
 do something for poor Campbell." My rejoinder 
 was, " I wish you would do something for poor 
 Wordsworth, who is in such straitened circumstances 
 that he and his family deny themselves animal food 
 several times a week." Lord Lonsdale was the 
 more inclined to assist Wordsworth, because the 
 Wordsworth family had been hardly used by the 
 
 * In my memoranda of Wordsworth's conversation I find this : 
 "From Sir Walter Scott's earliest poems, 'The Eve of St. John/ 
 &c. I did not suppose that he possessed the power which he 
 afterwards displayed, especially in his novels. Coleridge's 
 ' Christabel ' no doubt gave him the idea of writing long 
 ballad -poems : Dr. Stoddart had a very wicked memory, and 
 repeated various passages of it (then unpublished) to Scott. 
 Part of the ' Lay of the Last Minstrel ' was recited to me by 
 Scott while it was yet in manuscript ; and I did not expect 
 that it would make much sensation : but I was mistaken ; 
 for it went up like a balloon." (D.) 
 
 f A large portion of it has since been printed in the 
 " Memoirs" of her brother. 
 
 L
 
 162 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 preceding Lord Lonsdale ; and he eventually proved 
 one of his kindest friends. 
 
 What a noble-minded person Lord Lonsdale was ! 
 I have received from him, in this room, hundreds of 
 pounds for the relief of literary men. 
 
 Hoppner was a painter of decided genius. Some 
 of his portraits are equal to any modern portraits ; 
 and his "Venus" is certainly fine. 
 
 He had an awful temper, the most spiteful 
 person I ever knew ! He and I were members of a 
 club called the Council of Trent (so named from its 
 consisting of thirty) ; and because, on one occasion, 
 I was interesting myself about the admission of an 
 artist whom Hoppner disliked, Hoppner wrote me a 
 letter full of the bitterest reproach. Yet he had 
 his good qualities. He had been a singing-boy at 
 Windsor,* and consequently was allowed " the run 
 of the royal kitchen " ; but some time after his 
 marriage (and, it was supposed, through the ill 
 offices of West) that favour was withdrawn ; and 
 in order to conceal the matter from his wife, who, 
 
 * In consequence of the sweetness of his voice, he was made a 
 chorister in the Royal Chapel. His mother was one of the German 
 attendants at the Palace, See A. Cunningham's "Lives of 
 British Painters," v. 242.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 163 
 
 he knew, would be greatly vexed at it, Hoppner 
 occasionally, after secretly pocketing a roll to dine 
 upon, would go out for the day, and on his return 
 pretend that he had been dining at Windsor. 
 
 He and Gifford were the dearest friends in the 
 world ; and yet they were continually falling out 
 and abusing each other. One morning, Hoppner, 
 having had some little domestic quarrel with Mrs. 
 Hoppner, exclaimed very vehemently, " Is not a 
 man to be pitied who has such a wife and such a 
 friend " ? (meaning Gifford). 
 
 His wife and daughter were always grumbling, 
 
 because, when he was asked to the Duchess of 's 
 
 or to Lord 's they were not invited also ; and 
 
 he once said to them, " I might as well attempt to 
 take the York waggon with me as you." Indeed, 
 society is so constituted in England, that it is useless 
 for celebrated artists to think of bringing their 
 families into the highest circles, where themselves 
 are admitted only on account of their genius. Their 
 wives and daughters must be content to remain at 
 home. 
 
 Gifford was extremely indignant at an article on 
 his translation of Juvenal which appeared in The 
 Critical Review ; and he put forth a very angry
 
 164 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 answer to it, a large quarto pamphlet. I lent my 
 copy to Byron, and he never returned it. One 
 passage in that pamphlet is curious, because it 
 describes, what Gifford was himself eventually to 
 become, a reviewer ; who is compared to a huge 
 toad sitting under a stone : and besides, the passage 
 is very picturesque. [" During my apprentice- 
 ship, I enjoyed perhaps as many places as Scrub, 
 though I suspect they were not altogether so digni- 
 fied : the chief of them was that of a planter of 
 cabbages in a bit of ground which my master held 
 near the town. It was the decided opinion of 
 Panurge that the life of a cabbage-planter was the 
 safest and pleasantest in the world. I found it safe 
 enough, I confess, but not altogether pleasant ; and 
 therefore took every opportunity of attending to 
 what I liked better, which happened to be, watch- 
 ing the actions of insects and reptiles, and, among 
 the rest, -of a huge toad. I never loved toads, but 
 I never molested them ; for my mother had early 
 bid me remember, that every living thing had the 
 ame Maker as myself ; and the words always rang 
 in my ears. This toad, then, who had taken up his 
 residence under a hollow stone in a hedge of blind 
 nettles, I used to watch for hours together. It was 
 a lazy, lumpish animal, that squatted on its belly,
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 165 
 
 and perked up its hideous head with two glazed eyes, 
 precisely like a Critical Reviewer. In this posture, 
 perfectly satisfied with itself, it would remain as 
 if it were a part of the stone which sheltered it, till 
 the cheerful buzzing of some winged insect provoked 
 it to give signs of life. The dead glare of its eyes 
 then brightened into a vivid lustre, and it awk- 
 wardly shuffled to the entrance of its cell, and opened 
 its detestable mouth to snap the passing fly or honey- 
 bee. Since I have marked the manners of the 
 Critical Reviewers, these passages of my youth have 
 often occurred tome." An Examination of the Stric- 
 tures of the Critical Reviewers on the Translation of 
 Juvenal by W. Gifford, Esq., p. 101, third ed. 1804.] 
 When the Quarterly Review was first projected, 
 Gifford sent Hoppner to my house with a message 
 requesting me to become a contributor to it ; which 
 I declined. 
 
 That odd being, Dr. Monsey (Physician to the 
 Royal Hospital, Chelsea), used to hide his bank- 
 notes in various holes and corners of his house. One 
 evening, before going out, he carefully deposited a 
 bundle of them among the coals in the parlour-grate, 
 where the fire was ready for lighting. Presently, 
 his housekeeper came into the parlour, with some
 
 166 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 of her female friends, to have a comfortable cup of 
 tea ; and she was in the act of lighting the fire when 
 the doctor luckily returned, and rescued his notes. 
 A friend of mine, who had been intimate with 
 Monsey, assured me that this was fact. 
 
 Bishop Horsley one day met Monsey in the Park. 
 " These are dreadful times ! " said Horsley : " not 
 only do deists abound, but, would you think it, 
 doctor ? some people deny that there is a God ! " 
 " I can tell you," replied Monsey, " what is 
 equally strange, some people believe that there 
 are three."* Horsley immediately walked away. 
 
 An Englishman and a Frenchman having quar- 
 relled, they were to fight a duel. Being both great 
 cowards, they agreed (for their mutual safety, of 
 course) that the duel should take place in a room 
 perfectly dark. The Englishman had to fire first. 
 He groped his way to the hearth, fired up the chim- 
 ney, and brought down the Frenchman, who had 
 taken refuge there! 
 
 Humphrey Howarth, the surgeon, was called out, 
 and made his appearance hi the field stark naked, 
 
 * To say nothing else of this speech, it was a very rude one, 
 as addressed to a bishop. But Monsey was a coarse humorist, 
 who would hardly be tolerated in the present day. (D.)
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 167 
 
 to the astonishment of the challenger, who asked 
 him what he meant. " I know," said H., " that 
 if any part of the clothing is carried into the body 
 by a gunshot wound, festering ensues ; and there- 
 fore I have met you thus." His antagonist declared, 
 that fighting with a man in puris naturalibus would 
 be quite ridiculous ; and accordingly they parted 
 without further discussion. 
 
 Lord Alvanley on returning home, after his duel 
 with young O'Connel, gave a guinea to the hackney- 
 coachman who had driven him out and brought him 
 back. The man, surprised at the largeness of the 
 
 sum, said, " My lord, I only took you to ." 
 
 Alvanley interrupted him, " My friend, the guinea 
 is for bringing me back, not for taking me out." 
 
 I was on a visit to Lord Bath at Longleat, when 
 I received a letter from Beckford inviting me to 
 Fonthill. I went there, and stayed three days. 
 On arriving at the gate, I was informed that neither 
 my servant nor my horses could be admitted, but 
 that Mr. Beckford's attendants and horses should 
 be at my service. The other visitors at that time 
 were Smith, who published "Views in Italy,"* and 
 
 * " Select Views in Italy, with Descriptions, French and 
 English," by John Smith, 1792-96, 2 vols. 4to.
 
 i68 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 a French ecclesiastic, a very elegant and accom- 
 plished man. During the day we used to drive 
 about the beautiful grounds in pony-chaises. In 
 the evening Beckford would amuse us by reading 
 one of his unpublished works ; or he would extem- 
 porise on the pianoforte, producing the most novel 
 and charming melodies (which, by-the-bye, his 
 daughter, the Duchess of Hamilton, can do also). 
 
 I was struck rather by the refinement than by 
 the magnificence of the hospitality at Fonthill. I 
 slept in a bedroom which opened into a gallery 
 where lights were kept burning the whole night. 
 In that gallery was a picture of St. Antonio, to which 
 it was said that Beckford would sometimes steal ?nd 
 pay his devotions. 
 
 Beckford read to me the two unprinted episodes 
 to " Vathek " ; and they are extremely fine, but very 
 objectionable on account of their subjects. Indeed, 
 they show that the mind of the author was to a 
 certain degree diseased. The one is the story of a 
 prince and princess, a brother and sister. The other 
 is the tale of a prince who is violently enamoured 
 of a lady ; and who, after pursuing her through 
 various countries, at last overtakes her only to find 
 her a corpse. ... In one of these tales there is an 
 exquisite description of a voyage down the Nile.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 169 
 
 Beckford is the author of two burlesque novels, 
 "Azemia"* and "The Elegant Enthusiast." 
 I have a copy of the former, which he presented to 
 me. 
 
 * " Azemia : a Descriptive and Sentimental Novel, inter- 
 spersed with pieces of Poetry." By Jacquetta Agneta Mariana 
 Jenks, of Bellegrove Priory in Wales. Dedicated to the Right 
 Honourable Lady Harriet Marlow. To which are added, Criti- 
 cisms anticipated, 1797, 2 vols. "Modern Novel Writing, or 
 the Elegant Enthusiast ; and Interesting Emotions of Arabella 
 Bloomville." A Rhapsodical Romance ; interspersed with 
 Poetry. By the Right Hon. Lady Harriet Marlow, 1796, 2 
 vols. " Talked of Beckford's two mock novels, ' Agemia ' 
 I' Azemia '] and ' The Elegant Enthusiast,' which he wrote to ridi- 
 cule the novels written by his sister, Mrs. Harvey (I think], 
 who read these parodies on herself quite innocently, and only 
 now and then suspecting that they were meant to laugh at her, 
 saying, 'Why, I vow and protest, here is my grotto,' &c. &c. 
 In ' The Elegant Enthusiast ' the heroine writes a song which she 
 sings at a masquerade, and which produces such an effect, that 
 my Lord Mahogany, in the character of a Milestone, bursts into 
 tears. It is in ' Agemia ' [' Azemia '] that all the heroes and 
 heroines are killed at the conclusion by a supper of stewed lam- 
 preys." Moore's "Memoirs," &c., ii. 197. As to the catastrophe 
 oi " Azemia," Moore was misinformed ; that tale has nothing 
 about a fatal supper of stewed lampreys : there is, however, 
 in the second volume of " The Elegant Enthusiast " a similar 
 incident, " owing to a copper stew-pan in which some celery 
 had been cooked." Both these novels are much in the style 
 of Beckford's " Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters," but greatly 
 inferior to that strange production, which itself is unworthy 
 of the author of " Vathek." (D.)
 
 1 70 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 He read to me another tale which he had written 
 a satirical one. It was in French, and about a 
 man who was ridiculously fond of dogs, &c. &c. 
 I have been told that a part of his own life was 
 shadowed out in it. This tale he never printed. 
 In fact, he had no wish to obtain literary reputation : 
 he despised it. 
 
 I have seen Beckford shed tears while talking 
 of his deceased wife. His eldest daughter (Mrs. 
 Orde*), who has been long dead, was both in appear- 
 ance and disposition a perfect angel. Her delight 
 was, not to be admired herself, but to witness the 
 admiration which her sister (the Duchess of Hamil- 
 ton) never failed to excite. 
 
 Beckford was eventually reduced to such straits, 
 that he was obliged to part with his pictures, one by 
 one. The last picture which he sold to the National 
 Gallery was Bellini's portrait of the Doge of Venice. 
 It was hung up the very day on which Beckford 
 died ; the Duke of Hamilton wrote a letter to me, 
 requesting that it might be returned to the family ; 
 but his application came too late. 
 
 When Person dined with me, I used to keep him 
 within bounds ; but I frequently met him at various 
 * Wife of Colonel, afterwards General Orde.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 171 
 
 houses where he got completely drunk. He would 
 not scruple to return to the dining-room, after the 
 company had left it, pour into a tumbler the drops 
 remaining in the wine-glasses, and drink off the 
 omnium gatherum.* 
 
 I once took him to an evening-party at William 
 Spencer's, where he was introduced to several 
 women of fashion, Lady Crewe, &c., who were very 
 anxious to see the great Grecian. How do you 
 suppose he entertained them ? Chiefly by reciting 
 an immense quantity of old forgotten Vauxhall 
 songs ! He was far from sober, and at last talked 
 so oddly, that they all retired from him, except 
 Lady Crewe, who boldly kept her ground. I recol- 
 lect her saying to him, " Mr. Person, that joke you 
 have borrowed from Joe Miller," and his rather 
 angry reply, " Madam, it is not in Joe Miller ; you 
 will not find it either in the preface or in the body 
 of that work, no, nor in the index." I brought him 
 home as far as Piccadilly, where, I am sorry to add, 
 I left him sick in tne middle of the street. 
 
 When any one told Person that he intended to 
 publish a book, Person would say, " Remember that 
 
 * Mr. Maltby, who was present when Mr. Rogers told the 
 above anecdote, said, " I have seen Person do so." (D.)
 
 172 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 two parties must agree on that point, you and the 
 reader." 
 
 I asked him what time it would take him to 
 translate " The Iliad " literally and correctly into 
 English prose. He answered, " At least ten years." 
 
 He used to say that something may be pleaded as 
 a sort of excuse for the wickedness of the worst 
 characters in Shakespeare. For instance, lago is 
 tortured by suspicions that Othello has been too 
 intimate with his wife ; Richard the Third, the 
 murderer of children, has been bitterly taunted by 
 one of the young princes, &c. 
 
 " If I had a carriage," said Person, " and if I saw 
 a well-dressed person on the road, I would always 
 invite him in, and learn of him what I could." Such 
 was his love of knowledge ! 
 
 He was fond of repeating these lines, and wrote 
 them out for me : 
 
 " What * fools are mankind, 
 And how strangely inclin'd, 
 To come from all places 
 With horses and chaises, 
 By day and by dark, 
 To the falls of Lanark ! 
 For, good people, after all, 
 
 From Garnett's " Tour In Scotland," vol. ii. 327. They 
 were found in an album kept at the inn at Lanark.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 173 
 
 What is a water-fall ? 
 It comes roaring and grumbling, 
 And leaping and tumbling, 
 And hopping and skipping, 
 And foaming and dripping ; 
 And struggling and toiling, 
 And bubbling and boiling ; 
 And beating and jumping, 
 And bellowing and thumping. 
 I have much more to say upon 
 Both Linn and Bonniton ; 
 But the trunks are tied on, 
 And I must be gone." 
 
 These lines evidently suggested to Southey his 
 playful verses on "The Cataract of Lodore." 
 
 When Prometheus made man, he had used up 
 all the water in making other animals ; so he mingled 
 his clay with tears. 
 
 Person would almost cry when he spoke of 
 Euripides. " Why should I write from myself, 
 while anything remains to be done to such a writer 
 as Euripides ? " 
 
 When repeating a generous action from antiquity, 
 or describing a death like Phocion's, his eyes would 
 fill and his voice falter. 
 
 Of Mackintosh : He means to get Interest for 
 his Principal.
 
 174 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Of Sheridan : He is a promising fellow. 
 
 All wit true reasoning. 
 
 I love an octavo ; the pages are soon read 
 the milestones occur frequently. 
 
 If I had 3000 per ann. : I would have a person 
 constantly dressed, night and day, with fire and 
 candle to attend upon me. (He is an uncertain 
 sleeper.) 
 
 I must confess to have a very strong prejudice 
 against all German original Literature. 
 
 In drawing a villain we should always furnish 
 him with something that may seem to justify him- 
 self to himself. 
 
 Authority should serve to excite attention, and 
 no farther. 
 
 Lord Seaforth, who was born deaf and dumb, 
 was to dine one day with Lord Melville. Just 
 before the time of the company's arrival, Lady 
 Melville sent into the drawing-room a lady of her 
 acquaintance, who could talk with her fingers to 
 dumb people, that she might receive Lord Seaforth. 
 Presently Lord Guilford entered the room ; and 
 the lady, taking him for Lord Seaforth, began to ply 
 her fingers very nimbly ; Lord Guilford did the 
 same ; and they had been carrying on a conversation
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 175 
 
 in this manner for about ten minutes, when Lady 
 Melville joined them. Her female friend imme- 
 diately said, " Well, I have been talking away to 
 this dumb man." " Dumb ! " cried Lord Guil- 
 ford ; " bless me, I thought you were dumb." I 
 told this story (which is perfectly true) to Matthews ; 
 and he said that he could make excellent use of it 
 at one of his evening-entertainments : but I know 
 not if he ever did. 
 
 A friend of mine in Portland Place has a wife 
 who inflicts upon him every season two or three 
 immense evening parties. At one of those parties 
 he was standing in a very forlorn condition, leaning 
 against the chimney-piece, when a gentleman, 
 coming up to him, said, " Sir, as neither of us is 
 acquainted with any of the people here, I think we 
 had best go home." 
 
 One of the books which I never tire reading is 
 " Memoires sur la Vie de Jean Racine,"* by his son. 
 
 When I was living in the Temple, the chimneys 
 of one of my neighbours were to be swept. Up went 
 two boys ; and at the end of an hour they had not 
 
 * Smt 8vo, 1749.
 
 ij6 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 come down again. Two other boys were then sent 
 up ; and up they remained also. The master of 
 the boys was now summoned, who, on his arrival, 
 exclaimed, " Oh, the idle little rascals ! they are 
 playing at all-fours on the top of the chimney." 
 And, to be sure, there they were, trumping it away 
 at their ease. I suppose spades were their favourite 
 cards. 
 
 Neither Moore nor myself had ever seen Byron 
 when it was settled that he should dine at my house 
 to meet Moore ; nor was he known by sight to 
 Campbell, who, happening to call upon me that 
 morning, consented to join the party. I thought it 
 best that I alone should be in the drawing-room 
 when Byron entered it ; and Moore and Campbell 
 accordingly withdrew. Soon after his arrival, they 
 returned ; and I introduced them to him severally, 
 naming them as Adam named the beasts. When we 
 sat down to dinner, I asked Byron if he would take 
 soup ? " No ; he never took soup." Would he 
 take some fish ? " No ; he never took fish." 
 Presently I asked if he would eat some mutton ? 
 " No ; he never ate mutton." I then asked if he 
 would take a glass of wine ? " No ; he never tasted 
 wine." It was now necessary to inquire what he
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 177 
 
 did eat and drink ; and the answer was, " Nothing 
 but hard biscuits and soda-water." Unfortunately, 
 neither hard biscuits nor soda-water were at hand ; 
 and he dined upon potatoes bruised down on his 
 plate and drenched with vinegar. My guests 
 stayed till very late, discussing the merits of Walter 
 Scott and Joanna Baillie. Some days after, meet- 
 ing Hobhouse, I said to him, " How long will Lord 
 Byron persevere in his present diet ? " He replied, 
 " Just as long as you continue to notice it." I did 
 not then know, what I now know to be a fact, 
 that Byron, after leaving my house, had gone to a 
 Club in St. James's Street and eaten a hearty meat- 
 supper. 
 
 Byron sent me " Childe Harold " in the printed 
 sheets before it was published ; and I read it to 
 my sister. " This," I said, " in spite of all its 
 beauty, will never please the public : they will 
 dislike the querulous repining tone that pervades it, 
 and the dissolute character of the hero." But I 
 quickly found that I was mistaken. The genius 
 which the poem exhibited, the youth, the rank of 
 the author, his romantic wanderings in Greece, 
 these combined to make the world stark mad about 
 " Childe Harold " and Byron. I knew two old 
 maids in Buckinghamshire who used to cry over 
 
 M
 
 178 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 the passage about Harold's "laughing dames" that 
 "long had fed his youthful appetite," * &c. 
 
 After Byron had become the rage, I was fre- 
 quently amused at the manoeuvres of certain noble 
 ladies to get acquainted with him by means of me : 
 
 for instance, I would receive a note from Lady 
 
 requesting the pleasure of my company on a parti- 
 cular evening, with a postscript, " Pray, could you 
 not contrive to bring Lord Byron with you ? " 
 Once, at a great party given by Lady Jersey, Mrs. 
 Sheridan ran up to me and said, " Do, as a favour, 
 try if you can place Lord Byron beside me at 
 supper." 
 
 Bryon had prodigious facility of composition. 
 He was fond of suppers ; and used often to sup at 
 my house and eat heartily (for he had then given up 
 the hard biscuit and soda-water diet) : after going 
 home, he would throw off sixty or eighty verses, 
 which he would send to press next morning. 
 
 He one evening took me to the green-room of 
 Drury Lane Theatre, where I was much entertained. 
 When the play began, I went round to the front of 
 the house, and desired the box-keeper to show me 
 into Lord Byron's box. I had been there about a 
 minute, thinking myself quite alone, when suddenly 
 * Canto i. St. 1 1 .
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 179 
 
 Byron and Miss Boyce (the actress) emerged from a 
 dark corner. 
 
 In those days at least, Byron had no readiness of 
 reply in conversation. If you happened to let fall 
 any observation which offended him, he would say 
 nothing at the time ; but the offence would lie rank- 
 ling in his mind ; and perhaps a fortnight after he 
 would suddenly come out with some very cutting 
 remarks upon you, giving them as his deliberate 
 opinions, the results of his experience of your 
 character. 
 
 Several women were in love with Byron, but none 
 so violently as Lady Caroline Lamb. She absolutely 
 besieged him. He showed me the first letter he re- 
 ceived from her ; in which she assured him that, if 
 he was in any want of money, " all her jewels were 
 at his service." They frequently had quarrels ; 
 and more than once, on coming home, I have found 
 Lady C. walking in the garden,* and waiting for me, 
 to beg that I would reconcile them. When she met 
 Byron at a party, she would always, if possible, 
 return home from it in his carriage, and accom- 
 panied by him : I recollect particularly their return- 
 ing to town together from Holland House. But 
 such was the insanity of her passion for Byron, that 
 * Behind Mr. Rogers's house, in St. James's Place.
 
 i8o RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 sometimes, when not invited to a party where he 
 was to be, she would wait for him in the street till 
 it was over ! One night, after a great party at 
 Devonshire House, to which Lady Caroline had not 
 been invited, I saw her, yes, saw her, talking to 
 Byron, with half of her body thrust into the carriage 
 which he had just entered. In spite of all this 
 absurdity, my firm belief is that there was nothing 
 criminal between them. 
 
 Byron at last was sick of her. When their inti- 
 macy was at an end, and while she was living in the 
 country, she burned, very solemnly, on a sort of 
 funeral pile, transcripts of all the letters which she 
 had received from Byron, and a copy of a miniature 
 (his portrait) which he had presented to her ; several 
 girls from the neighbourhood, whom she had dressed 
 in white garments, dancing round the pile, and sing- 
 ing a song which she had written for the occasion, 
 " Burn, fire, burn," &c. She was mad ; and her 
 family allowed her to do whatever she chose. 
 
 Latterly, I believe, Byron never dined with Lady 
 B. ; for it was one of his fancies (or affectations) 
 that " he could not endure to see women eat." 
 I recollect that he once refused to meet Madame 
 de Stae'l at my house at dinner, but came in the even- 
 ing ; and when I have asked him to dinner without
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 181 
 
 mentioning what company I was to have, he would 
 write me a note to inquire " if I had invited any 
 women." 
 
 Wilkes's daughter may have had a right to burn 
 her father's " Memoirs " ;* but Moore, I conceive, 
 was not justified in giving his consent to the burning 
 of Byron's : when Byron told him that he might 
 " do whatever he pleased with them," Byron cer- 
 tainly never contemplated their being burned. If 
 Moore had made me his confidant in the business, 
 I should have protested warmly against the destruc- 
 tion of the " Memoirs " : but he chose Luttrell, 
 probably because he thought him the more fashion- 
 able man ; and Luttrell, who cared nothing about 
 the matter, readily voted that they should be put 
 into the fire. There were, I understand, some gross 
 things in that manuscript ; but I read only a portion 
 of it, and did not light upon them. I remember that 
 it contained this anecdote : on his marriage-night, 
 Byron suddenly started out of his first sleep : a 
 taper, which burned in the room, was casting a ruddy 
 glare through the crimson curtains of the bed ; and 
 
 * _" Wilkes said to me, ' I have written my "Memoirs," and 
 they are to be published by Peter Elmsley, after my ascension. 
 They were burnt by his daughter." Mr. MALTBY (see notice 
 prefixed to the " Porsoniana " in this volume].
 
 1 82 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 he could not help exclaiming, in a voice so loud that 
 he wakened Lady B., " Good God, I am surely in 
 hell ! " 
 
 My latest intercourse with Byron was in Italy. 
 We travelled some time together ; and, if there was 
 any scenery particularly well worth seeing, he 
 generally contrived that we should pass through 
 it in the dark. 
 
 As we were crossing the Apennines, he told me 
 that he had left an order in his will that Allegra, 
 the child who soon after died, his daughter by Miss 
 C., should never be taught the English language. 
 You know that Allegra was buried at Harrow : 
 but probably you have not heard that the body was 
 sent over to England, in two packages, that no one 
 might suspect what it was. 
 
 About the same time he said, being at last 
 assured that the celebrated critique on his early 
 poems in the Edinburgh Review was written by 
 Lord Brougham, " If ever I return to England, 
 Brougham shall hear from me." He added, " That 
 critique cost me three bottles of claret " (to raise 
 his spirits after reading it).* 
 
 * Wordsworth was spending an evening at Charles Lamb's, 
 when he first saw the said critique, which had just appeared. 
 He read it through, and remarked that " though Byron's verses
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 183 
 
 One day, during dinner, at Pisa,* when Shelley 
 and Trelawney were with us, Byron chose to run 
 down Shakespeare (for whom he, like Sheridan, 
 either had, or pretended to have, little admiration), 
 
 were probably poor enough, yet such an attack was abominable, 
 that a young nobleman, who took to poetry, deserved to be 
 encouraged, not ridiculed." Perhaps if this had been made 
 known to Byron, he would not have spoken of Wordsworth as 
 he has done. Many years ago Wordsworth gave me the following 
 account, which I noted down at the time. " Lord Byron's hatred 
 towards me originated thus. There was a woman in distressed 
 circumstances at Bristol, who wrote a volume of poems, which 
 she wished to publish and dedicate to me. She had formed an 
 idea that, if she became a poetess, her fortune would be made. 
 I endeavoured to dissuade her from indulging such vain expecta- 
 tions, and advised her to turn her attention to something else. 
 I represented to her how little chance there was that her poems, 
 though really evincing a good deal of talent, would make any 
 impression on the public ; and I observed that, in our day, two 
 persons only (whom I did not name) had succeeded in making 
 money by their poetry, adding that in the writings of the one 
 (Sir Walter Scott) there was little poetic feeling, and that in 
 those of the other (Lord Byron) it was perverted. Mr. Rogers 
 told me that when he was travelling with Lord Byron in Italy, 
 his lordship confessed that the hatred he bore me arose from the 
 remark about his poetry which I had made to that woman, and 
 which some good-natured friend had repeated to him." 
 
 * In Moore's " Life " of Byron no mention is made of Mr- 
 Rogers having been Byron's guest at Pisa. In Medwin's "Angler 
 in Wales," i. 25, is an account exaggerated perhaps, but doubt- 
 less substantially true of Byron's wicked behaviour to Mr. 
 Rogers at the Casa Lanfranchi.
 
 184 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 I said nothing. But Shelley immediately took up 
 the defence of the great poet, and conducted it in 
 his usual meek yet resolute manner, unmoved by 
 the rude things with which Byron interrupted him, 
 " Oh, that's very well for an atheist" &c. (Before 
 meeting Shelley in Italy, I had seen him only once. 
 It was at my own house in St. James's Place, where 
 he called upon me, introducing himself, to request 
 the loan of some money which he wished to present 
 to Leigh Hunt; and he offered me a bond for it. 
 Having numerous claims upon me at that time, I 
 was obliged to refuse the loan. Both in appearance 
 and in manners Shelley was the perfect gentleman.) 
 That same day, after dinner, I walked in the 
 garden with Byron. At the window of a neighbour- 
 ing house was a young woman holding a child in 
 her arms. Byron nodded to her with a smile, and 
 then, turning to me, said, " That child is mine." 
 In the evening, we (i.e. Byron, Shelley, Trelawney, 
 and I) rode out from Pisa to a farm (a podere) ; 
 and there a pistol was put into my hand for shooting 
 at a mark (a favourite amusement of Byron) ; but I 
 declined trying my skill with it. The farm-keeper's 
 daughter was very pretty, and had her arms covered 
 with bracelets, the gift of Byron, who did not fail to 
 let me know that she was one of his many loves.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 185 
 
 I went with him to see the Campo Santo at Pisa, 
 It was shown to us by a man who had two handsome 
 daughters. Byron told me that he had in vain paid 
 his addresses to the elder daughter, but that he was 
 on the most intimate terms with the other. Pro- 
 bably there was not one syllable of truth in all this ; 
 for he always had the weakness of wishing to be 
 thought much worse than he really was. 
 
 Byron, like Sir Walter Scott,* was without any 
 feeling for the fine arts. He accompanied me to 
 the Pitti Palace at Florence ; but soon growing 
 tired of looking at the pictures, he sat down in a 
 corner ; and when I called out to him, " What a 
 noble Andrea del Sarto ! " the only answer I re- 
 ceived was his muttering a passage from " The 
 Vicar of Wakefield," " Upon asking how he had 
 been taught the art of a cognoscente so very sud- 
 denly," &c.f (When he and Hobhouse were stand- 
 ing before the Parthenon, the latter said, " Well, 
 
 * " During Scott's first visit to Paris, I walked with him (and 
 Richard Sharp) through the Louvre, and pointed out for his 
 particular notice the St. Jerome of Domenichino, and some 
 other chefs-d'oeuvre. Scott merely glanced at them, and passed 
 on, saying, ' I really have not time to examine them. 1 " 
 Mr. MALTBY. 
 
 f " Upon asking how he had been taught the art of a cogno- 
 scento so very suddenly, he assured me that nothing was more
 
 1 86 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 this is surely very grand." Byron replied, " Very 
 like the Mansion-House.") 
 
 At this time we generally had a regular quarrel 
 every night ; and he would abuse me through thick 
 and thin, raking up all the stories he had heard which 
 he thought most likely to mortify me, how I had 
 behaved with great cruelty to Murphy, refusing to 
 assist him in his distress, &c. &c. But next morn- 
 ing he would shake me kindly by both hands ; and 
 we were excellent friends again. 
 
 When I parted from him in Italy (never to meet 
 him more), a good many persons were looking on, 
 anxious to catch a glimpse of " the famous lord." 
 
 The lines in the third canto of " Childe Harold " 
 about the ball given by the Duchess of Richmond 
 at Brussels, the night before the battle of Waterloo, 
 &c. are very striking. The Duchess told me that 
 she had a list of her company, and that, after the 
 battle, she added " dead " to the names of those 
 who had fallen, the number being fearful. 
 
 Mrs. Barbauld once observed to me that she 
 
 easy. The whole secret consisted in a strict adherence to two 
 rules : the one, always to observe the picture might have been 
 better if the painter had taken more pains ; and the other, to 
 praise the works of Pietro Perugino." Chap. xx. Compare 
 Byron's own account of this visit to the Pitti Palace in his " Life " 
 by Moore, vol. v. 279.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 187 
 
 thought Byron wrote best when he wrote about the 
 sea or swimming. 
 
 There is a great deal of incorrect and hasty 
 writing in Byron's works ; but it is overlooked in 
 this age of hasty readers. For instance, 
 
 " I stood in Venice, on the Bridge of Sighs, 
 A palace and a prison on each hand." * 
 
 He meant to say, that on one hand was a palace, 
 on the other a prison. And what think you of 
 
 " And dashest him again to earth : there let him lay?" t 
 
 * " Childe Harold," c. iv. st. i. 
 
 | Id. c. iv. st. 1 80. A lady resident in Aberdeen told me that 
 she used to sit in a pew of St. Paul's Chapel in that town, next to 
 Mrs. Byron's ; and that one Sunday she observed the poet (then 
 about seven or eight years old) amusing himself by disturbing 
 his mother's devotions : he every now and then gently pricked 
 with a pin the large round arms of Mrs. Byron, which were 
 covered with white kid gloves. Professor Stuart, of the Maris- 
 chal College, Aberdeen, mentioned to me the following proof 
 of Lord Byron's fondness for his mother. Georgy, and some 
 other little boys, were one day allowed, much to their delight, 
 to assist at a gathering of apples in the Professor's garden, and 
 were rewarded for their labour with some of the fruit. Georgy, 
 having received his portion of apples, immediately disappeared ; 
 and, on his return, after half an hour's absence, to the inquiry 
 where he had been, he replied that he had been " carrying some 
 apples to his poor dear mother." 
 
 At the house of the Rev. W. Harness I remember hearing 
 Moore remark, that he thought the natural bent of Byron's
 
 i 88 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Mr. 's house, the , is very splendid ; 
 
 it contains a quantity of or-molu. Now, I like to 
 have a kettle in my bedroom, to heat a little water 
 
 if necessary ; but I can't get a kettle at the , 
 
 though there is a quantity of or-molu. Lady 
 
 says, that when she is at the , she is obliged to 
 
 have her clothes unpacked three times a day ; for 
 there are no chests of drawers, though there is a 
 quantity of or-molu. 
 
 The letters I receive from people, of both sexes 
 (people whom I never heard of), asking me for 
 money, either as a gift or as a loan, are really innu- 
 merable. Here's one* from a student at Durham, 
 requesting me to lend him 90 (how modest to stop 
 short of the hundred !). I lately had a begging 
 
 genius was to satirical and burlesque poetry ; on which Mr. 
 Harness related what follows. When Byron was at Harrow, 
 he, one day, seeing a young acquaintance at a short distance 
 who was a violent admirer of Buonaparte, roared out this ex- 
 temporaneous couplet, 
 
 " Bold Robert Speer was Bony's bad precursor ; 
 Bob was a bloody dog, but Bonapart's a worser." 
 
 Moore immediately wrote the lines down, with the intention of 
 inserting them in his " Life of Byron," which he was then pre- 
 paring ; but they do not appear in that work. 
 
 * I read the letter.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 189 
 
 epistle from a lady, who assured me that she used 
 formerly to take evening walks with me in the Park : 
 of course I did not answer it ; and a day or two 
 after, I had a second letter from her, beginning 
 " Unkind one ! " 
 
 Uvedale Price* once chose to stay so long at 
 my house that I began to think he would never go 
 away ; so I one day ingeniously said to him, " You 
 must not leave me before the end of next week ; if you 
 insist on going after that, you may ; but certainly 
 not before." And at the end of the week he did go. 
 He was a most elegant letter-writer ; and his son 
 had some intention of collecting and publishing his 
 correspondence. 
 
 Not long before Mrs. Inchbald died, I met her 
 walking near Charing Cross. She told me that she 
 had been calling on several old friends, but had seen 
 none of them, some being really not at home, and 
 others denying themselves to her. " I called," she 
 said, " on Mrs. Siddons : I knew she was at home ; 
 yet I was not admitted." She was in such low 
 spirits, that she even shed tears. I begged her to 
 turn with me, and take a quiet dinner at St. James's 
 Place ; but she refused. 
 
 * Afterwards a baronet.
 
 190 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 I have heard Crabbe describe his mingled feel- 
 ings of hope and fear as he stood on London Bridge, 
 when he first came up to town to try his fortune in 
 the literary world. 
 
 The situation of domestic chaplain in a great 
 family is generally a miserable one : what slights 
 and mortifications attend it ! Crabbe had had his 
 share of such troubles in the Duke of Rutland's 
 family ; and I well remember that, at a London 
 evening party, where the old Duchess of Rutland* 
 was present, he had a violent struggle with his 
 feelings before he could prevail on himself to go up 
 and pay his respects to her. 
 
 Crabbe, after his literary reputation had been 
 established, was staying for a few days at the Old 
 Hummums ; but he was known to the people in the 
 coffee-room and to the waiters merely as " a Mr. 
 Crabbe." One forenoon, when he had gone out, a 
 gentleman called on him, and, while expressing his 
 regret at not finding him at home, happened to let 
 drop the information that " Mr. Crabbe was the 
 celebrated poet." The next time that Crabbe 
 entered the coffee-room, he was perfectly astonished 
 at the sensation which he caused ; the company were 
 
 * In her youth a very celebrated beauty. She died in 1831.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 191 
 
 all eagerness to look at him, the waiters all officious- 
 ness to serve him. 
 
 Crabbe's early poetry is by far the best, as to 
 finish. The conclusion of " The Library " is 
 charmingly written : 
 
 " Go on, then, son of Vision ! still pursue 
 Thy airy dreams the world is dreaming too. 
 Ambition's lofty views, the pomp of state, 
 The pride of wealth, the splendours of the great, 
 Stripp'd of their mask, their cares and troubles known, 
 Are visions far less happy than thy own : 
 Go on ! and, while the sons of care complain, 
 Be wisely gay and innocently vain ; 
 While serious souls are by their fears undone, 
 Blow sportive bladders in the beamy sun, 
 And call them worlds ! and bid the greatest show 
 More radiant colours in their worlds below : 
 Then, as they break, the slaves of care reprove, 
 And tell them, Such are all the toys they love." 
 
 I asked him why he did not compose his later 
 verses with equal care. He answered, " Because 
 my reputation is already made." When he after- 
 wards told me that he never produced more than 
 forty verses a day, I said that he had better do as I 
 do, stint himself to four. 
 
 There is a familiarity in some parts of his " Tales " 
 which makes one smile ; yet it is by no means 
 unpleasing ; for example,
 
 192 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 " Letters were sent when franks could be procur'd, 
 And when they could not, silence was endur'd." * 
 
 Crabbe used often to repeat with praise this 
 couplet from Prior's " Solomon, "f 
 
 " Abra was ready ere I call'd her name, 
 And though I call'd another, Abra came." 
 
 It is somewhere cited by Sir Walter Scott ; J and I 
 apprehend that Crabbe made it known to him. 
 
 Other statesmen, besides Sir Robert Peel, have 
 had very violent things said against them in the 
 House. Lord North once complained, in a speech, 
 of " the brutal language " which Colonel Barre had 
 used towards him. General Tarleton, not indeed in 
 the House, but in private among his own party, said 
 that " he was glad to see Fox's legs swelled." 
 
 Sir Robert Peel, in one of his communicative 
 moods, told me that, when he was a boy, his father 
 used to say to him, " Bob, you dog, if you are not 
 Prime Minister some day, I'll disinherit you." I 
 mentioned this to Sir Robert's sister, Mrs. Dawson, 
 
 * " The Frank Courtship." 
 t B. ii. 
 
 J Scott quotes it (not quite correctly) in " Rob Roy," vol. iii. 
 324, ed. 1818.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 193 
 
 who assured me that she had often heard her father 
 use those very words. 
 
 It is curious how fashion changes pronunciation. 
 In my youth everybody said " Lonnon," not 
 " London " : Fox said " Lonnon " to the last ; and 
 so did Crowe. The now fashionable pronunciation 
 of several words is to me at least very offensive : 
 " contemplate " is bad enough ; but " balcSny " 
 makes me sick. 
 
 When George Colman brought out his " Iron 
 Chest " he had not the civility to offer Godwin a 
 box, or even to send him an order for admission, 
 though the play was dramatised from " Caleb 
 Williams." Of this Godwin spoke with great bitter- 
 ness. Godwin was generally reckoned a disagree- 
 able man ; but I must say that / did not consider 
 him such.* 
 
 * One evening at Mr. Rogers's, when Godwin was present, the 
 conversation turned on novels and romances. The company 
 having agreed that " Don Quixote," " Tom Jones," and " Gil 
 Bias " were unrivalled in that species of composition, Mr. Rogers 
 said, " Well, after these, / go to the sofa " (meaning, " / think 
 that the next best are by Godwin," who happened to be sitting 
 on the sofa). Quite unconscious of the compliment paid to 
 him, Godwin exclaimed in great surprise, " What ! do you 
 
 N
 
 194 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Ah, the fate of my old acquaintance, Lady Salis- 
 bury ! The very morning of the day on which the 
 catastrophe occurred, I quitted Hatfield ; and I then 
 shook her by the hand, that hand which was so 
 soon to be a cinder. In the evening, after she had 
 been dressed for dinner, her maid left her to go to 
 tea. She was then writing letters ; and it is sup- 
 posed that, having stooped down her head, for she 
 was very short-sighted, the flame of the candle 
 caught her head-dress. Strange enough, but we 
 had all remarked the day before, that Lady Salis- 
 bury seemed most unusually depressed in spirits ! 
 Her eyes, as is generally the case with short-sighted 
 persons, were so good, that she could read without 
 spectacles : being very deaf, she would often read 
 when in company ; and, as she was a bad sleeper, 
 she would sometimes read nearly the whole night. 
 
 Madame de Stael one day said to me, " How 
 sorry I am for Campbell ! his poverty so unsettles 
 his mind, that he cannot write." I replied, " Why 
 does he not take the situation of a clerk ? he could 
 then compose verses during his leisure hours." 
 This answer was reckoned very cruel both by 
 
 admire ' The Sofa ' ? " (a licentious novel by the younger Crc- 
 billon).
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 195 
 
 Madame de Stael and Mackintosh : but there was 
 really kindness as well as truth in it. When litera- 
 ture is the sole business of life, it becomes a drudgery ; 
 when we are able to resort to it only at certain hours, 
 it is a charming relaxation. In my earlier years I 
 was a banker's clerk, obliged to be at the desk every 
 day from ten till five o'clock ; and I never shall 
 forget the delight with which, on returning home, 
 I used to read and write during the evening. 
 
 There are some of Campbell's lyrics which will 
 never die. His " Pleasures of Hope " is no great 
 favourite with me.* The feeling throughout his 
 
 * And it was much less so with Wordsworth, who criticised it 
 to me nearly verbatim as follows ; nor could his criticism, I 
 apprehend, be easily refuted. " Campbell's ' Pleasures of Hope,' 
 has been strangely overrated : its fine words and sounding lines 
 please the generality of readers, who never stop to ask them- 
 selves the meaning of a passage. The lines, 
 
 ' Where Andes, giant of the western wave, 
 With meteor-standard to the winds unfurl'd, 
 Looks from his throne of clouds o'er half the world,' 
 
 are sheer nonsense, nothing more than a poetical indigestion. 
 What has a giant to do with a star ? What is a meteor-stan- 
 dard ? But it is useless to inquire what such stuff means. Once, 
 at my house, Professor Wilson having spoken of those lines 
 with great admiration, a very sensible and accomplished lady 
 who happened to be present begged him to explain to her their 
 meaning. He was extremely indignant ; and, taking down 
 the ' Pleasures of Hope ' from a shelf, read the lines aloud
 
 196 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 " Gertrude " is very beautiful ; and one line, 
 describing Gertrude's eyes, is exquisite, " those 
 eyes," 
 
 " That seem'd to love whatever they look'd upon." * 
 
 But that poem has passages which are monstrously 
 incorrect ; can anything be worse in expression 
 than 
 
 " O Love ! in such a wilderness as this, 
 
 Where transport and security entwine, 
 Here is the empire of thy perfect bliss, 
 And here thou art indeed a god^ divine ? " f 
 
 I cannot forgive Goethe for certain things in his 
 "Faust" and " Wilhelm Meister": the man who 
 appeals to the worst part of my nature commits a 
 great offence. 
 
 The talking openly of their own merits is a " mag- 
 nanimity " peculiar to foreigners. You remember 
 the angry surprise which Lamartine expresses at 
 Lady Hester Stanhope's never having heard of him, 
 of him, a person so celebrated over ah 1 the world ! 
 
 and declared that they were splendid. ' Well, sir,' said the lady, 
 ' but what do they mean ? ' Dashing the book on the floor, he 
 exclaimed in his broad Scottish accent, ' I'll be daumed if I 
 can tell !' " 
 
 * Part ii. st. 4. f Part iii. st. I.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 197 
 
 Lamartine is a man of genius, but very affected. 
 Talleyrand (when in London) invited me to meet 
 him, and placed me beside him at dinner. I asked 
 him, " Are you acquainted with Beranger ? " 
 " No ; he wished to be introduced to me, but I 
 declined it." " I would go," said I, " a league to 
 see him." This was nearly all our conversation : 
 he did not choose to talk. In short, he was so dis- 
 agreeable, that, some days after, both Talleyrand 
 and the Duchess di Dino apologised to me for his 
 ill-breeding. 
 
 > - 
 
 At present new plays seem hardly to be regarded 
 as literature ; people may go to see them acted, but 
 no one thinks of reading them. During the run of 
 " Paul Pry," I happened to be at a dinner-party where 
 everybody was talking about it, that is, about 
 Listen's performance of the hero. I asked first one 
 person, then another, and then another, who was the 
 author of it ? Not a man or woman in the company 
 knew that it was written by Poole ! 
 
 ^ 
 
 When people have had misunderstandings with 
 each other, and are anxious to be again on good 
 terms, they ought never to make attempts at 
 reconciliation by means of letters ; they should see
 
 198 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 each other. Sir Walter Scott quarrelled with Lady 
 Roslin, in consequence, I believe, of some expres- 
 sions he had used about Fox. " If Scott," said 
 she, " instead of writing to me on the subject, 
 had only paid me a visit, I must have forgiven 
 him." 
 
 There had been for some time a coolness between 
 Lord Durham and myself ; and I was not a little 
 annoyed to find that I was to sit next him at one 
 of the Royal Academy dinners : I requested the 
 stewards to change my place at the table ; but it 
 was too late to make any alteration. We sat down. 
 Lord Durham took no notice of me. At last I said 
 to him, " Will your lordship do me the honour of 
 drinking a glass of wine with me ? " He answered, 
 " Certainly, on condition that you will come and 
 dine with me soon." 
 
 Lord Grenville has more than once said to me at 
 Dropmore, " What a frightful mistake it was to send 
 such a person as Lord Castlereagh to the Congress 
 of Vienna ! a man who was so ignorant, that he did 
 not know the map of Europe ; and who could be 
 won over to make any concessions by only being 
 asked to breakfast with the Emperor." 
 
 Castlereagh's education had been sadly neglected ;
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 199 
 
 but he possessed considerable talents, and was very 
 amiable. 
 
 Castlereagh ignorant to the last, with no prin- 
 ciple or feeling, right or wrong. Before he spoke, 
 he would collect what he could on the subject, 
 but never spoke above the level of a newspaper. 
 Had three things in his favour : Tact, good humour, 
 and courage. 
 
 Liverpool* indolent in the extreme. Has no 
 speaker on his side. If the Chancellor (Lord Eldon) 
 spoke, it is generally to oppose him. 
 
 Never was such a thing done, as sending a Cabinet 
 Minister f to Vienna to act as he pleased ; one who 
 was irresponsible, one who knew nothing, and who 
 had never looked into a map ! 
 
 I don't call " Robinson Crusoe " and " Gulliver's 
 Travels " novels : they stand quite unrivalled for 
 invention among all prose fictions. 
 
 When I was at Banbury, I happened to observe 
 in the churchyard several inscriptions to the memory 
 of persons named Gulliver ; and, on my return 
 home, looking into " Gulliver's Travels," I found, 
 
 * The Earl of Liverpool was then (1825) Prime Minister, 
 t Lord Castlereagh, who attended the Congress of Vienna, in 
 1815.
 
 200 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 to my surprise, that the said inscriptions are men- 
 tioned there as a confirmation of Mr. Gulliver's 
 statement that " his family came from Oxfordshire." 
 
 Bowles, like most other poets, was greatly de- 
 pressed by the harsh criticisms of the reviewers. I 
 advised him not to mind them ; and, eventually 
 following my advice, he became a much happier man. 
 I suggested to him the subject of " The Missionary," 
 and he was to dedicate it to me. He, however, 
 dedicated it to a noble lord, who never, either by 
 word or letter, acknowledged the dedication. 
 
 Bowles's nervous timidity is* the most ridicu- 
 lous thing imaginable. Being passionately fond of 
 
 * Wordsworth, Mrs. Wordsworth, their daughter, and Bowles, 
 went upon the Thames in a boat, one fine summer's day. Though 
 the water was smooth as glass, Bowles very soon became so 
 alarmed, that he insisted on being set ashore ; upon which 
 Wordsworth said to him, " Your confessing your cowardice is 
 the most striking instance of valour that I ever met with." This 
 was told to me by Wordsworth himself. What follows is from 
 my Memoranda of Wordsworth's conversation. " When Bowles's 
 Sonnets first appeared, a thin 410 pamphlet, entitled " Four- 
 teen Sonnets," I bought them in a walk through London with 
 my dear brother, who was afterwards drowned at sea. I read 
 them as we went along ; and, to the great annoyance of my 
 brother, I stopped in a niche of London Bridge to finish the 
 pamphlet. Bowles's short pieces are his best : his long poems 
 are rather flaccid."
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 201 
 
 music, he came to London expressly to attend the 
 last Commemoration of Handel. After going into 
 the Abbey, he observed that the door was closed ; 
 immediately he ran to the doorkeeper, exclaiming, 
 " What ! am I to be shut up here ? " and out he 
 went, before he had heard a single note! I once 
 bought a stall-ticket for him, that he might accom- 
 pany me to the Opera ; but, just as we were step- 
 ping into the carriage, he said, " Dear me, your 
 horses seem uncommonly frisky " ; and he stayed 
 at home. 
 
 " I never," said he, " had but one watch ; and 
 I lost it the very first day I wore it." Mrs. Bowles 
 whispered to me, " And if he got another to-day, 
 he would lose it as quickly." 
 
 Major Price* was a great favourite with George 
 the Third, and ventured to say anything to him. 
 They were walking together in the grounds at 
 Windsor Castle, when the following dialogue took 
 place. " I shall certainly," said the King, " order 
 this tree to be cut down." "If it is cut down, 
 your majesty will have destroyed the finest tree 
 about the Castle." " Really, it is surprising that 
 
 * Brother to Sir Uvedale Price, and for many years vice- 
 chamberlain to Queen Charlotte.
 
 202 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 people constantly oppose my wishes." " Permit 
 me to observe, that if your majesty will not allow 
 people to speak, you will never hear the truth." 
 " Well, Price, I believe you are right." 
 
 When the Duke of Clarence (William the Fourth) 
 was a very young man, he happened to be dining 
 at the Equerries' table. Among the company was 
 Major Price. The Duke told one of his facetious 
 stories. " Excellent ! " said Price ; "I wish I 
 could believe it." " If you say that again, Price," 
 cried the Duke, " I'll send this claret at your head." 
 Price did say it again. Accordingly the claret 
 came, and it was returned. I had this from Lord 
 St. Helens, who was one of the party. 
 
 Once, when in company with William the Fourth, 
 I quite forgot that it is against all etiquette to ask 
 a sovereign about his health ; and, on his saying 
 to me, " Mr. Rogers, I hope you are well," I re- 
 plied, " Very well, I thank your majesty : / trust 
 that your majesty is quite well also" Never was 
 a king in greater confusion ; he didn't know where 
 to look, and stammered out, " Yes, yes, only 
 a little rheumatism." 
 
 I have several times breakfasted with the Prin- 
 cesses at Buckingham House. The Queen (Char-
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 203 
 
 lotte) always breakfasted with the King : but she 
 would join us afterwards, and read the newspapers 
 to us, or converse very agreeably. 
 
 Dining one day with the Princess of Wales 
 (Queen Caroline), I heard her say that on her first 
 arrival in this country she could speak only one 
 word of English. Soon after, I mentioned that 
 circumstance to a large party ; and a discussion 
 arose what English word would be most useful for 
 a person to know, supposing that person's know- 
 ledge of the language must be limited to a single 
 word. The greater number of the company fixed 
 on " Yes." But Lady Charlotte Lindsay said that 
 she should prefer " No " ; because, though " Yes " 
 never meant " No," " No " very often meant 
 " Yes." 
 
 The Princess was very good-natured and agree- 
 able. She once sent to me at four o'clock in the 
 afternoon, to say that she was coming to sup with 
 me that night. I returned word that I should feel 
 highly honoured by her coming, but that unfortu- 
 nately it was too late to make up a party to meet 
 her. She came, however, bringing with her Sir 
 William Drummond. 
 
 One night, after dining with her at Kensington
 
 204 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Palace, I was sitting in the carriage, waiting for Sir 
 Henry Englefield to accompany me to town, when 
 a sentinel, at about twenty yards distance from 
 me, was struck dead by a flash of lightning. I never 
 beheld anything like that flash : it was a body of 
 flame, in the centre of which were quivering zigzag 
 fires, such as artists put into the hand of Jupiter ; 
 and, after being visible for a moment, it seemed to 
 explode. I immediately returned to the hall of the 
 Palace, where I found the servants standing in 
 terror, with their faces against the wall. 
 
 I was to dine on a certain day with the Princess 
 of Wales at Kensington, and, thinking that Ward 
 (Lord Dudley) was to be of the party, I wrote to 
 him, proposing that we should go together. His 
 answer was, " Dear Rogers, I am not invited. The 
 fact is, when I dined there last, I made several 
 rather free jokes ; and the Princess, taking me 
 perhaps for a clergyman, has not asked me back 
 again." i 
 
 One night, at Kensington, I had the Princess for 
 my partner in a country-dance of fourteen couple. 
 I exerted myself to the utmost ; but not quite to 
 her satisfaction, for she kept calling out to me, 
 " Vite, vite ! " 
 
 She was fond of going to public places incog.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 205 
 
 One forenoon, she sent me a note to say that she 
 wished me to accompany her that evening to the 
 theatre ; but I had an engagement which I did not 
 choose to give up, and declined accompanying her. 
 She took offence at this ; and our intercourse was 
 broken off till we met in Italy. I was at an inn 
 about a stage from Milan, when I saw Queen Caro- 
 line's carriages in the courtyard. I kept myself 
 quite close, and drew down the blinds of the sitting- 
 room : but the good-natured Queen found out that 
 I was there, and, coming to my window, knocked 
 on it with her knuckles. In a moment we were 
 the best friends possible ; and there, as afterwards 
 in other parts of Italy, I dined and spent the day 
 with her. Indeed, I once travelled during a whole 
 night in the same carriage with her and Lady 
 Charlotte Campbell ; when the shortness of her 
 majesty's legs not allowing her to rest them on the 
 seat opposite, she wheeled herself round, and very 
 coolly placed them on the lap of Lady Charlotte, 
 who was sitting next to her. 
 
 I remember Brighton before the Pavilion was 
 built ; and in those days I have seen the Prince of 
 Wales drinking tea in a public room of what was 
 then the chief inn, just as other people did.
 
 2o6 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 At a great party given by Henry Hope in Caven- 
 dish Square, Lady Jersey* said she had something 
 particular to tell me ; so, not to be interrupted, 
 we went into the gallery. As"we were walking along 
 it, we met the Prince of Wales, who, on seeing Lady 
 Jersey, stopped for a moment, and then, drawing 
 himself up, marched past her with a look of the 
 utmost disdain. Lady Jersey returned the look to 
 the full ; and, as soon as the Prince was gone, said 
 to me with a smile, " Didn't I do it well ? " I was 
 taking a drive with Lady Jersey in her carriage, 
 when I expressed (with great sincerity) my regret 
 at being unmarried, saying that " if I had a wife, 
 
 * " The Prince one day said to Colonel Willis, ' I am deter- 
 mined to break off my intimacy with Lady Jersey ; and you 
 must deliver the letter which announces to her my determination.' 
 When Willis put it into Lady Jersey's hand, she said, before 
 opening it, ' You have brought me a gilded dagger.' Willis 
 was on such familiar terms with the Prince, that he ventured 
 to give his advice about his conduct. ' If your royal highness,' 
 he said, ' would only show yourself at the theatre or in the park, 
 in company with the Princess, two or three times a year, the 
 public would be quite content, and would not trouble them- 
 selves about your domestic proceedings.' The Prince replied, 
 ' Really, Willis, with the exception of Lord Moira, nobody ever 
 presumed to speak to me as you do.' The Prince was anxious 
 to get rid of Lord Moira ; and hence his lordship's splendid 
 banishment. These anecdotes were told to me by Willis." 
 Mr. MALTBY.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 207 
 
 I should have somebody to care about me" " Pray, 
 Mr. Rogers," said Lady J., " how could you be sure 
 that your wife would not care more about somebody 
 else than about you ? " 
 
 I was staying at Lord Bathurst's, when he had to 
 communicate to the Prince Regent the death of the 
 Princess Charlotte. The circumstances were these. 
 Lord Bathurst was suddenly roused in the middle of 
 the night by the arrival of a messenger to inform 
 him that the Princess was dead. After a short 
 consultation with his family, Lord Bathurst went 
 to the Duke of York ; and his royal highness having 
 immediately dressed himself, they proceeded to- 
 gether to Carlton House. On reaching it, they asked 
 to see Sir Benjamin Bloomfield ; and telling him 
 what had occurred, they begged him to convey 
 the melancholy tidings to the Prince Regent. He 
 firmly refused to do so. They then begged Sir 
 Benjamin to inform the Prince that they requested 
 to see him on a matter of great importance. A 
 message was brought back by Sir Benjamin, that 
 the Prince already knew all they had to tell him, 
 viz. that the Princess had been delivered, and that 
 the child was dead, and that he declined seeing 
 them at present. They again, by means of Sir 
 Benjamin, urged their request ; and were at last
 
 208 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 admitted into the Prince's chamber. He was 
 sitting up in bed ; and, as soon as they entered, 
 he repeated what he had previously said by message, 
 that he already knew all they had to tell him, 
 &c. Lord Bathurst then communicated the fatal 
 result of the Princess's confinement. On hearing 
 it, the Prince Regent struck his forehead violently 
 with both his hands, and fell forward into the arms 
 of the Duke of York. Among other exclamations 
 which this intelligence drew from him, was, " Oh, 
 what will become of that poor man (Prince Leo- 
 pold) ! " Yet, only six or seven hours had elapsed, 
 when he was busily arranging all the pageantiy for 
 his daughter's funeral ! 
 
 The Duchess of Buckingham told me that, when 
 George the Fourth slept at Stowe in the state bed- 
 chamber (which has a good deal of ebony furniture), 
 it was lighted up with a vast number of wax candles, 
 which were kept burning the whole night. No- 
 body, I imagine, except a king, has any liking for 
 a state bedchamber. I was at Cassiobury with a 
 large party, when a gentleman arrived, to whom 
 Lord Essex said, " I must put you into the state 
 bedroom, as it is the only one unoccupied." The 
 gentleman, rather than sleep in it, took up his 
 quarters at the inn,
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 209 
 
 One day when George the Fourth was talking 
 about his youthful exploits, he mentioned, with 
 particular satisfaction, that he had made a body 
 of troops charge down the Devil's Dyke (near 
 Brighton). Upon which the Duke of Wellington 
 merely observed to him, " Very steep, sir." 
 
 I was told by the Duchess-Countess of Suther- 
 land what Sir Henry Halford had told her, that, 
 when George the Fourth was very near his end, he 
 said to him, " Pray, Sir Henry, keep these women 
 from me " (alluding to certain ladies). 
 
 I'll tell you an anecdote of Napoleon, which I 
 had from Talleyrand. " Napoleon," said T., " was 
 at Boulogne with the Army of England, when he 
 received intelligence that the Austrians, under 
 Mack, were at Ulm. ' If it had been mine to place 
 them,' exclaimed Napoleon, * I should have placed 
 them there.' In a moment the army was on the 
 march, and he at Paris. I attended him to Stras- 
 burg. We were there at the house of the Prefet, 
 and no one in the room but ourselves, when Napo- 
 leon was suddenly seized with a fit, foaming at the 
 mouth ; he cried, ' Fermez la porte ! ' and then lay 
 senseless on the floor. I bolted the door. Presently 
 Berthier knocked. * On ne peut pas entrer.' After- 
 
 o
 
 2io RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 wards, the Empress knocked ; to whom I addressed 
 the same words. Now, what a situation would 
 mine have been, if Napoleon had died ! But he 
 recovered in about half an hour. Next morning, 
 by daybreak, he was in his carriage ; and within 
 sixty hours the Austrian army had capitulated." 
 
 I repeated the anecdote to Lucien Buonaparte,* 
 who listened with great sangfroid. " Did you ever 
 hear this before ? " " Never : but many great 
 men have been subject to fits ; for instance, Julius 
 Caesar. My brother on another occasion had an 
 attack of the same kind ; but that " (and he smiled) 
 " was after being defeated. "f 
 
 On my asking Talleyrand if Napoleon was really 
 married to Josephine, he replied, " Pas tout-a-fait." 
 
 I asked him which was the best portrait of 
 Napoleon. He said, " That which represents him 
 at Malmaison : it is by Isabey. The marble bust 
 of Napoleon by Canova, which I gave to A. Baring, 
 is an excellent likeness." 
 
 * Mr. Rogers was very intimate with Lucien, and liked him 
 much ; yet he could not resist occasionally laughing at some 
 things in his " Charlemagne " ; for instance, at 
 
 ?' L'ange maudit admire et contemple Judas." 
 
 c. ix. 37. 
 
 | An allusion to an adventure with an actress.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 211 
 
 " Did Napoleon shave himself ? " I inquired. 
 " Yes," answered Talleyrand, " but very slowly, 
 and conversing during the operation. He used to 
 say that kings by birth were shaved by others, but 
 that he who has made himself Roi shaves himself." 
 
 To my question whether the despatch which 
 Napoleon published on his retreat from Moscow was 
 written by Napoleon himself, Talleyrand replied, 
 " By himself, certainly." 
 
 When I arrived at Paris on my return to France,* 
 Madame de Stae'l was very anxious to serve me, 
 and I was introduced by her to Barras,f who gave 
 me an invitation to his Country House near Marly. 
 I arrived there very early in the day, and was sitting 
 there alone, when two young men entered the room 
 and began a discussion, saying, " Shall we go, or shall 
 we not ? " At last they cried, " Allons ! " and away 
 they went. Not long afterwards there was great 
 distress in the House. They had gone to bathe in 
 the Seine, and one of them, a natural son of Barras 
 (Query), had been drowned. Barras was incon- 
 solable, and all my endeavours to console him, 
 
 * Talleyrand returned to France from America about 1796. 
 
 f Barras had been a Member of the Convention ; and when 
 Talleyrand was introduced to him through the influence of 
 Madame de Stael, in 1797, he was one of the five Directors.
 
 212 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 such as they were (for I returned with him in his 
 carriage to Paris), were of no avail ; but they gave 
 him such an impression in my favour, that he 
 rendered me every service he could afterwards, 
 and as long as he lived. He introduced me to 
 Napoleon, and I came into office almost imme- 
 diately.* He always spoke of my kindness on that 
 occasion with a warmth that affecteed me. 
 
 Sieyes f was the first man in the Revolution 
 " le premier homme dans la Revolution." To 
 him indeed we owe it entirely. He it was who 
 accomplished these three measures : The abolition 
 of the three estates, the enrolment of the National 
 Guard, and the division of France into depart- 
 ments. I was walking one day with him in the 
 
 * Madame de Stael says that it was through her influence 
 that Talleyrand got into office, in the Department of Foreign 
 Affairs. She adds, " M. de Talleyrand avoit besoin qu'on 1'aidat 
 pour arriver au pouvoir ; mais il se passoit ensuite tres bien 
 des autres pour s'y maintenir." Consid. sur la Rftol. Franc f . 
 
 t L'Abbe Sieyes, a member of the States-General in 1789. 
 Though a clergyman he was a deputy of the Tiers-Etat, and he 
 proposed the decree which constituted that Order the National 
 Assembly of France ; and thus, in effect, annihilated the power 
 of the two other orders in the assembly. Madame de Stael 
 remarks, " Ce decret passa, et ce decret etoit la revolution elle- 
 meme." Consid, sur la Revol. Franf.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 213 
 
 Champs Elysees, when an officer of the Mare- 
 chaussee over-set a poor woman's basket, contain- 
 ing les plaisirs des dames (wafers). " This can 
 never be," said he, " when the National Guard is 
 established." March 22, 1833, at Lord Holland's. 
 
 Comme vous voyez. 
 
 One day things had been going wrong, and 
 Talleyrand came out of the Emperor's room much 
 irritated ; when a man about the Court, who 
 squinted badly, attacked him with, " Eh bien, 
 M. le Prince, comment vont les affaires ? " Talley- 
 rand replied, " Comme vous voyez, Monsieur ! " 
 
 Unknown correspondent. 
 
 " Vous savez nager, je crois," in answer to 
 Madame de Stael, who asked him, if she and another 
 lady (noted for her beauty) were both in danger of 
 drowning, which he would help first. 
 
 Of Robert Smith : * " C'etoit done votre pere qui 
 n'etoit pas si bien." 
 
 I have committed one mistake in life. " Et 
 quand finira-t-elle ? " 
 
 I suffer the torments of Hell. " Deja ? " 
 
 Charles the Tenth requested the last Pope to 
 
 * On his praising the beauty of his Mother. Mr. Robert 
 Smith was the brother of the Reverend Sidney Smith ; he was 
 familiarly known by the name of Bobus Smith.
 
 214 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 absolve him from his coronation oath, and was 
 refused. He requested the present Pope, and 
 was absolved. Talleyrand to Bobus Smith. 
 
 Talleyrand is still alive, and will continue to live, 
 " parceque le Diable en a peur." Pozzo di Borgo. 
 
 When Lord Londonderry attacked Talleyrand 
 in Parliament, and I defended him, saying, in 
 everything as far as I had observed, he had always 
 been fair and honest, Talleyrand burst into tears, 
 saying, " II est le seul homme qui ait jamais dit du 
 bien de moi." The Duke of Wellington to S. R. 
 
 Dr. Lawrence assured me that Burke shortened 
 his life by the frequent use of emetics, " he was 
 always tickling his throat with a feather." He 
 complained of an oppression at his chest, which he 
 fancied emetics would remove. 
 
 Malone (than whom no one was more intimate 
 with Burke) persisted to the last in saying that, if 
 " Junius's Letters" were not written by Burke, 
 they were at least written by some person who had 
 received great assistance from Burke in composing 
 them ; and he was strongly inclined to fix the 
 authorship of them upon Dyer.* Burke had a 
 
 * Samuel Dyer. See an account of him in Malone's " Life 
 of Dryden," p. 181, where he is mentioned as " a man of excel- 
 lent taste and profound erudition ; whose principal literary work,
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 215 
 
 great friendship for Dyer, whom he considered to be 
 a man of transcendent abilities ; and it was reported 
 that, upon Dyer's death, Burke secured and sup- 
 pressed all the papers which he had left behind him. 
 
 I once dined at Dilly's in company with Wood- 
 fall, who then declared in the most positive terms 
 that he did not know who Junius was. 
 
 A story appeared in the newspapers that an 
 unknown individual had died at Marlborough, and 
 that, in consequence of his desire expressed just 
 before his death, the word Junius had been placed 
 over his grave. Now, Sir James Mackintosh and 
 I, happening to be at Marlborough, resolved to 
 inquire into the truth of this story. We accordingly 
 went into the shop of a bookseller, a respectable- 
 looking old man with a velvet cap, and asked him 
 what he knew about it. "I have heard" said he, 
 " that a person was buried here with that inscrip- 
 tion on his grave ; but I have not seen it." He then 
 called out to his daughter, " What do you know 
 about it, Nan ? " "I have heard," replied Nan, 
 " that there is such a grave ; but I have not seen 
 
 under a Roman signature, when the veil with which for near 
 thirty-one years it has been enveloped shall be removed, will 
 place him in a high rank among English writers, and transmit 
 a name, now little known, with distinguished lustre to posterity."
 
 216 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 it." We next applied to the sexton ; and his answer 
 was, "I have heard oi such a grave; but I have not 
 seenit" Nor did we see it, you may be sure, though 
 we took the trouble of going into the churchyard.* 
 
 My own impression is, that the " Letters of 
 Junius " were written by Sir Philip Francis. In 
 a speech, which I once heard him deliver, at the 
 Mansion House, concerning the Partition of Poland, 
 I had a striking proof that Francis possessed no 
 ordinary powers of eloquence. 
 
 I was one day conversing with Lady Holland 
 in her dressing-room, when Sir Philip Francis was 
 announced. " Now," she said, " I will ask him 
 if he is Junius." I was about to withdraw ; but 
 she insisted on my staying. Sir Philip entered, and, 
 soon after he was seated, she put the question to 
 him. His answer was, " Madam, do you mean to 
 insult me ? " and he went on to say, that when he 
 was a younger man, people would not have ventured 
 
 * A friend observed to me, " Mr. Rogers and Sir James 
 should have gone, not to Marlborough, but to Hungerford ; and 
 there they would have found a tomb with this inscription, Stat 
 nominis umbra ; which is the motto of Junius ; and hence the 
 tomb is called Junius' s tomb." I mentioned this to Mr. Rogers, 
 who said, " It may be so, but what I told you about our inquiries 
 at Marlborough is fact ; and a good story it is."
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 217 
 
 to charge him with being the author of those 
 Letters.* 
 
 When Lady Holland wanted to get rid of a fop, 
 she used to say, " I beg your pardon, but I wish 
 you would sit a little further off ; there is something 
 on your handkerchief which I don't quite like." 
 
 When any gentleman, to her great annoyance, 
 was standing with his back close to the chimney- 
 piece, she would call out, " Have the goodness, sir, 
 to stir the fire ! " 
 
 Her delight was to conquer all difficulties that 
 might oppose her will. Near Tunbridge there is 
 (at least, there was) a house which no stranger was 
 allowed to see. Lady Holland never ceased till 
 she got permission to inspect it ; and through it 
 she marched in triumph, taking a train of people 
 with her, even her maid. 
 
 When she and Lord Holland were at Naples, 
 
 * The following notice must be referred, I presume, to an 
 earlier occasion. " Brougham was by when Francis made the 
 often-quoted answer to Rogers. ' There is a question, Sir 
 Philip (said R.j, which I should much like to ask, if you will 
 allow me.' ' You had better not, sir (answered Francis] : you 
 may have reason to be sorry for it (or repent of it).' The addi- 
 tion [by the newspapers] to this story is, that Rogers, on leaving 
 him, muttered to himself, ' If he is Junius, it must be Junius 
 Brutus." Moore's " Memoirs," &c., vol. vi. 66.
 
 2i8 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Murat and his Queen used to have certain evenings 
 appointed for receiving persons of distinction. 
 Lady Holland would not go to those royal parties. 
 At last Murat, who was always anxious to con- 
 ciliate the English Government, gave a concert 
 expressly in honour of Lady Holland ; and she had 
 the gratification of sitting, at that concert, between 
 Murat and the Queen, when, no doubt, she applied 
 to them her screw, that is, she fairly asked them 
 about everything which she wished to know. By- 
 the-bye, Murat and his Queen were extremely civil 
 to me. The Queen once talked to me about "The 
 Pleasures of Memory." I often met Murat when 
 he was on horseback, and he would invariably call 
 out to me, rising in his stirrups, " He bien, Monsieur, 
 etes-vous inspire aujourd'hui ? " 
 
 Lord Holland never ventured to ask any one to 
 dinner (not even me, whom he had known so long 
 and so intimately) without previously consulting 
 Lady H. Shortly before his death, I called at 
 Holland House, and found only Lady H. within. 
 As I was coming out, I met Lord Holland, who said, 
 " Well, do you return to dinner ? " I answered, 
 " No ; I have not been invited." Perhaps this 
 deference to Lady H.* was not to be regretted ; for 
 
 * Lady Holland was not among Mr. Rogers's earliest acquaint.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 219 
 
 Lord Holland was so hospitable and good-natured, 
 that, had he been left to himself, he would have had 
 a crowd at his table daily. 
 
 What a disgusting thing is the fagging at our 
 great schools ! When Lord Holland was a school- 
 boy, he was forced, as a fag, to toast bread with his 
 fingers for the breakfast of another boy. Lord H.'s 
 mother sent him a toasting-fork. His f agger broke 
 t over his head, and still compelled him to prepare 
 the toast in the old way. In consequence of this 
 process his fingers suffered so much that they always 
 retained a withered appearance. 
 
 Lord Holland persisted in saying that pictures 
 gave him more pain than pleasure. He also hated 
 music ; yet, in some respects, he had a very good 
 ear, for he was a capital mimic. 
 
 I was one day not a little surprised at being told 
 by Moore that, in consequence of the article on his 
 " Poems " in the Edinburgh Review,* he had called 
 out Jeffrey, who at that time was in London. He 
 
 ances in the great world. Mr. Richard Sharp once said to him, 
 " When do you mean to give up the society of Lady Jersey ? " 
 Mr. Rogers replied, " When you give up that of Lady Holland," 
 little thinking then that she was eventually to be one of his 
 own most intimate friends, 
 * Vol. viii. 456.
 
 220 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 asked me to lend him a pair of pistols : I said, and 
 truly, that I had none.* Moore then went to 
 William Spencer to borrow pistols, and to talk to 
 him about the duel ; and Spencer, who was delighted 
 with this confidence, did not fail to blab the matter 
 to Lord Fincastle,t and also, I believe, to some 
 women of rank. I was at Spencer's house in the 
 forenoon, anxious to learn the issue of the duel, 
 when a messenger arrived with the tidings that 
 Moore and Jeffrey were in custody, and with a 
 request from Moore that Spencer would bail him. 
 Spencer did not seem much inclined to do so, 
 remarking that " he could not well go out, for it 
 was already twelve o'clock, and he had to be dressed 
 by four I " So I went to Bow Street and bailed 
 Moore.J The question now was, whether Moore 
 and Jeffrey should still fight or not. I secretly 
 
 * " William Spencer being the only one of all my friends whom 
 I thought likely to furnish me with these sine-qua-nons [pistols], 
 I hastened to confide to him my wants," &c. Moore's " Me- 
 moirs," &c., vol.i. 202. But Moore's recollection of the particu- 
 lars connected with the duel was somewhat imperfect : see the 
 next note but one. 
 
 f Afterwards Lord Dunmore. 
 
 ft" Though I had sent for William Spencer, I am not quite 
 sure that it was he that acted as my bail, or whether it was not 
 Rogers that so officiated. I am, however, certain that the latter 
 joined us at the office," &c. Moore's " Memoirs," vol. i. 205.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 221 
 
 consulted General Fitzpatrick, who gave it as his 
 decided opinion that " Mr. Jeffrey was not called 
 upon to accept a second challenge," insinuating, 
 of course, that Moore was bound to send one. I 
 took care not to divulge what the General had said : 
 and the poet and critic were eventually reconciled 
 by means of Homer and myself : they shook hands 
 with each other in the garden behind my house. 
 
 So heartily has Moore repented of having pub- 
 lished " Little's Poems," that I have seen him shed 
 tears, tears of deep contrition, when we were 
 talking of them. 
 
 Young ladies read his " Lalla Rookh " without 
 being aware (I presume) of the grossness of " The 
 Veiled Prophet." These lines by Mr. Sneyd are 
 amusing enough : 
 
 " Lalla Rookh 
 . Is a naughty book 
 
 By Tommy Moore, 
 Who has written four, 
 Each warmer 
 Than the former, 
 So the most recent 
 Is the least decent." 
 
 Moore borrowed from me Lord Thurlow's 
 " Poems," and forthwith wrote that ill-natured
 
 222 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 article on them in the Edinburgh Review.* It 
 made me angry ; for Lord Thurlow, with all his 
 eccentricity, was a man of genius ; but the public 
 chose to laugh at him, and Moore, who always 
 follows the world's opinion, of course did so too. 
 I like Lord Thurlow's verses on Sidney. f 
 
 Moore once said to me, " I am much fonder of 
 reading works in prose than in verse." I replied, 
 
 * Vol. xxiii. 41 1 1 
 
 f I know not which of Lord Thurlow's pieces on Sidney (for 
 there are several) was alluded to by Mr. Rogers. One of them 
 is, On beholding the portraiture of Sir Philip Sidney in the gallery 
 at Penshnrst : 
 
 '' The man that looks, sweet Sidney, in thy face. 
 Beholding there love's truest majesty, 
 And the soft image of departed grace, 
 Shall fill his mind with magnanimity : 
 There may he read unfeign'd humility. 
 And golden pity, born of heavenly brood, 
 Unsullied thoughts of immortality, 
 And musing virtue, prodigal of blood : 
 Yes, in this map of what is fair and good, 
 This glorious index of a heavenly book, 
 Not seldom, as in youthful years he stood, 
 Divines t Spencer would admiring look ; 
 And, framing thence high wit and pure desire, 
 Imagin'd deeds that set the world on fire." 
 
 Let me add that Lord Thurlow's sonnet " To a bird that 
 haunted the waters of Laken in the winter " was a favourite 
 with Charles Lamb. Ep.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 223 
 
 " I should have known so from your writings " ; 
 and I meant the words as a compliment : his best 
 poems are quite original. 
 
 Moore is a very worthy man, but not a little 
 improvident. His excellent wife contrives to main- 
 tain the whole family on a guinea a week ; and 
 he, when in London, thinks nothing of throwing 
 away that sum weekly on hackney-coaches and 
 gloves. I said to him, " You must have made ten 
 thousand pounds by your musical publications." 
 He replied, " More than that." In short, he has 
 received for his various works nearly thirty thousand 
 pounds. When, owing to the state of his affairs, 
 he found it necessary to retire for a while, I advised 
 him to make Holyrood House his refuge : there he 
 could have lived cheaply and comfortably, with 
 permission to walk about unmolested every Sunday, 
 when he might have dined with Walter Scott or 
 Jeffrey. But he would go to Paris ; and there he 
 spent about a thousand a-year. 
 
 At the time when Moore was struggling with his 
 grief for the loss of his children, he said to me, 
 " What a wonderful man that Shakespeare is ! 
 how perfectly I now feel the truth of his words, 
 
 " And if I laugh at any mortal thing, 
 Tis that I may not weep ! "
 
 224 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 I happened to repeat to Mrs. N. what Moore had 
 said ; upon which she observed, " Why, the passage 
 is not Shakespeare's, but Byron's." And sure 
 enough we found it in " Don Juan." * Another 
 lady, who was present, having declared that she 
 did not understand it, I said, " I will give you an 
 illustration of it. A friend of mine was chiding his 
 daughter. She laughed. ' Now,' continued the 
 father, ' you make matters worse by laughing.' 
 She then burst into tears, exclaiming, ' If I do not 
 laugh, I must cry.' ' 
 
 Moore has now taken to an amusement which is 
 very well suited to the fifth act of life ; he plays 
 cribbage every night with Mrs. Moore. 
 
 In the " Memoir " of Gary by his son, Coleridge 
 is said to have first become acquainted with Gary's 
 
 * C. iv. 4. (Moore had forgotten that he had quoted the pas- 
 sage as Byron's in his "Life of Byron"). Richardson had said 
 the same thing long ago : " Indeed, it is to this deep concern 
 that my levity is owing : for I struggle and struggle, and try 
 to buffet down my cruel reflections as they rise ; and when I 
 cannot, / am forced, as I have often said, to try to make myself 
 laugh, that I may not cry ; for one or other I must do : and is it 
 not philosophy carried to the highest pitch, for a man to conquer 
 such tumults of soul as I am sometimes agitated by, and, in the 
 very height of the storm, to be able to quaver out an horse- 
 laugh j" " "Clarissa Harlowe," Letter 84, vol. vii. 319.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 225 
 
 " Dante " when he met the translator at Little 
 Hampton. But that is a mistake. Moore men- 
 tioned the work to me with great admiration ; 
 I mentioned it to Wordsworth ;* and he to Cole- 
 ridge, who had never heard of it till then, and who 
 forthwith read it. 
 
 On the resignation of Baber, chief librarian at 
 the British Museum, I wrote a letter to the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, urging Gary's claim to fill 
 the vacant place.f The Archbishop replied, that 
 his only reason for not giving Cary his vote was 
 the unfortunate circumstance of Gary's having been 
 more than once, in consequence of domestic calami- 
 ties, afflicted with temporary alienation of mind.J 
 I had quite forgotten this ; and I immediately 
 wrote again to the Archbishop, saying that I now 
 agreed with him concerning Gary's unfitness for 
 the situation. I also, as delicately as I could, 
 
 * Wordsworth once remarked to me, "It is a disgrace to the 
 age that Cary has no church-preferment ; I think his translation 
 of Dante a great national work." 
 
 f Cary, as assistant-librarian, stood next in succession. 
 
 I It appears, however, from the " Memoir of Cary " by his 
 son (vol. ii. 285), that afterwards, the Archbishop, in conse- 
 quence of a medical certificate of Gary's fitness for the office, 
 was desirous that he should be appointed, " but could not prevail 
 on his co-trustees to concur with him." 
 
 P
 
 226 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 touched on the subject to Gary himself, telling him 
 that the place was not suited for him. 
 
 After another gentleman had been appointed 
 Baber's successor, the trustees of the Museum 
 recommended Gary to the Government for a pension 
 which they seemed resolved not to grant ; and 
 I made more than one earnest application to them 
 in his behalf. At last Lord Melbourne sent Lord 
 E. to me with a message that " there was very 
 little money to dispose of, but that Gary should have 
 100 per annum." I replied that " it was so small 
 a sum, that I did not choose to mention the offer 
 to Gary ; and that, as soon as Sir Robert Peel came 
 into office, I should apply to him for a larger sum, 
 with confident hopes of better success." Lord 
 Melbourne then let me know that Gary should have 
 200 a-year ; which I accepted for him. 
 
 Gary never forgave me for my conduct in the 
 Museum business ; and never afterwards called 
 upon me. But I met him one day in the Park, when 
 he said (much to his credit, considering his decided 
 political opinions) that " he was better pleased to 
 receive 200 a-year from Lord Melbourne than 
 double the sum from Sir Robert Peel." 
 
 Visiting Lady one day, I made inquiries
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 227 
 
 about her sister. " She is now staying with me," 
 answered Lady , " but she is unwell in conse- 
 quence of a fright which she got on her way from 
 Richmond to London." At that time omnibuses 
 
 were great rarities ; and while Miss was 
 
 coming to town, the footman, observing an omni- 
 bus approach, and thinking that she might like to 
 see it, suddenly called in at the carriage-window, 
 " Ma'am, the omnibus ! " Miss , being un- 
 acquainted with the term, and not sure but an 
 omnibus might be a wild beast escaped from the 
 Zoological Gardens, was thrown into a dreadful 
 state of agitation by the announcement. 
 
 Words cannot do justice to Theodore Hook's 
 talent for improvisation : it was perfectly wonder- 
 ful. He was one day sitting at the pianoforte, 
 singing an extempore song as fluently as if he had 
 had the words and music before him, when Moore 
 happened to look into the room, and Hook instantly 
 introduced a long parenthesis, 
 
 " And here's Mr. Moore, 
 Peeping in at the door," &c. 
 
 The last time I saw Hook was in the lobby of 
 Lord Canterbury's house after a large evening
 
 228 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 party there. He was walking up and down, sing- 
 ing with great gravity, to the astonishment of the 
 footmen, " Shepherds, I have lost my hat" 
 
 When Erskine was made Lord Chancellor, Lady 
 Holland never rested till she prevailed on him to 
 give Sidney Smith a living.* Smith went to thank 
 him for the appointment. " Oh," said Erskine, 
 " don't thank me, Mr. Smith. I gave you the 
 living because Lady Holland insisted on my doing 
 so : and if she had desired me to give it to the 
 devil, he must have had it." 
 
 At one time, when I gave a dinner, I used to 
 have candles placed all round the dining-room, 
 and high up, in order to show off the pictures. I 
 asked Smith how he liked that plan. " Not at all," 
 he replied ; " above, there is a blaze of light, and 
 below, nothing but darkness and gnashing of teeth." 
 
 He said that was so fond of contradiction, 
 
 that he would throw up the window in the middle 
 of the night, and contradict the watchman who was 
 calling the hour. 
 
 When his physician advised him to " take a walk 
 upon an empty stomach," Smith asked, " Upon 
 whose ? " 
 
 * The living of Fostoa-le-Clay in Yorkshire.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 229 
 
 " Lady Cork," said Smith, " was once so moved 
 by a charity sermon, that she begged me to lend 
 her a guinea for her contribution. I did so. She 
 never repaid me, and spent it on herself." 
 
 He said that " his idea of heaven was eating foie 
 gras to the sound of trumpets." 
 
 " I had a very odd dream last night," said he ; 
 " I dreamed that there were thirty-nine Muses and 
 nine Articles : and my head is still quite confused 
 about them." 
 
 Smith said, "The Bishop of is so like Judas, 
 
 that I now firmly believe in the Apostolical Suc- 
 cession." 
 
 Witty as Smith was, I have seen him at my own 
 house absolutely overpowered by the superior 
 facetiousness of William Bankes. 
 
 Speaking to me of Buonaparte, the Duke of 
 Wellington remarked, that in one respect he was 
 superior to all the generals who had ever existed. 
 " Was it," I asked, " in the management and skilful 
 arrangement of his troops ? " " No," answered 
 the Duke ; "it was in his power of concentrating 
 such vast masses of men, a most important point 
 in the art of war." 
 
 Buonaparte, in my opinion, committed one of
 
 230 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 his greatest errors when he meddled with Spain ; 
 for the animosity of the people was unconquerable, 
 and it was almost impossible to get us out of that 
 corner. I have often said it would be his ruin ; 
 though I might not live to see it. A conqueror, 
 like a cannon-ball, must go on. If he rebounds, 
 his career is over. 
 
 [Buonaparte was certainly as clever a man as ever 
 lived, but he appears to me to have wanted sense 
 on many occasions.] 
 
 At one time I expected him there [in Spain] in 
 person, and him by himself I should have regarded 
 at least as an accession of 40,000 men. 
 
 Clausel was the best general employed against 
 me there. He gave me a great deal of trouble ; 
 for every night he took a good position, and every 
 morning I had to turn and dislodge him. 
 
 Once I thought I had him ; but it pleased a young 
 gentleman of ours to go and dine at a cabaret in 
 the valley a mile or two off. Clausel's reconnoitring 
 party fell in with him, and Clausel took the alarm 
 and was gone. He was then a young man, and 
 is now (1824) in disgrace and in America. If there 
 was a war we should hear of him again. 
 
 In Spain, and also in France, I used continually 
 to go alone and reconnoitre almost up to their
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 231 
 
 piquets. Seeing a single horseman in his cloak, 
 they disregarded me as some subaltern. No French 
 general, said Soult, would have gone without a 
 guard of at least a thousand men. 
 
 Everywhere I received intelligence from the 
 peasants and the priests. The French learnt 
 nothing. 
 
 At Vittoria they were hourly expecting Clausel 
 with reinforcements, and I was taking my measures 
 accordingly, when Alava brought me an inn- 
 keeper, who said, " Make yourself easy, sir ; he 
 is now quietly lodged for the night in my house 
 six leagues off." So saying, he returned to attend 
 upon him, and I lost no time. 
 
 Gordon (afterwards killed at Waterloo) passed 
 the night in an osteria with some French officers, 
 and no sooner were they asleep than a Spanish 
 child in the room made gestures to Gordon, draw- 
 ing the edge of his hand across his throat. " And 
 why so ? " said Gordon in the morning when they 
 were gone. " Because I knew you to be an English- 
 man by your sword and your spurs." 
 
 " Don't drink of that well," said a Spanish 
 woman to an English soldier. "Is it poisoned ? " 
 " Some Frenchmen are there," she replied, 
 " and more than you can count." Whenever
 
 232 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 a Frenchman came and looked into it, she sent him 
 in, headlong ! 
 
 The French were cruel to their guides. One, 
 whom we found dead in the road, had conducted 
 them within sight of the Castle they were in search 
 of ; and no sooner had he pointed to it on the hill 
 than he received a bullet from a pistol at the back 
 of his head. We found him an hour afterwards 
 lying on his face where he fell, and learnt in a 
 neighbouring village that he had been hired there. 
 They wished to conceal their movements from us ; 
 but why not detain him for a day or two ? 
 
 We were blockading Pampeluna when Buona- 
 parte sent Soult from Dresden to relieve it. " II 
 a la meilleure tete de tous pour la guerre," said he ; 
 and Soult came with an immense army, having 
 collected all he could. Our blockading force was 
 small, but I knew of the intention ; and, assembling 
 our troops from all quarters as fast as possible, I 
 rode on before them to show myself to the block- 
 aders, and also to the enemy. The first received 
 me with three shouts, for they knew that I should 
 not come alone ; and by the last, even if not so 
 announced, I was sure to be discovered, for I was 
 almost within gunshot.* 
 
 * This is mentioned by Napior, as on July 07, 1813, t^ 6 day
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 233 
 
 There was a Spy in the habit of going from camp 
 to camp. We called him Don Uran de la Rosa ; 
 and he dined with us and the French alternately. 
 " Who is he and what is he ? " said Alava when 
 he saw him at table. " A Spaniard, an Andalu- 
 sian," they replied. " No Spaniard," said Alava ; 
 " he may be Cagliostro, or anybody else, but no 
 Spaniard." 
 
 He was for ever talking as Frenchmen are, and 
 always at my elbow. He had just left the French, 
 and he said to me when I was reconnoitring, " Do 
 you wish to see Marshal Soult ? " " Certainly." 
 " There he is, then ! " I looked through my glass, 
 and saw him distinctly* so distinctly as to know 
 him instantly when I met him afterwards in Paris ; 
 as I did several times, though never to exchange 
 ten words with him.f He was sitting on his horse, 
 and writing a despatch on his hat ; while an aide- 
 de-camp waited by him ; to whom, when he had 
 
 before the first battle of Sauroren, in the Pyrenees. The shout 
 was first raised by one of the Portuguese battalions under General 
 Campbell, and, being caught up by the next regiments, swelled 
 as it ran along the line. Napier's " Peninsular War," vi. 130. 
 
 * Napier mentions this circumstance. "Pen. War," vi. 130. 
 
 f I met them afterwards together at a small tea-party in 
 London, and the respect of Soult for the Duke was very remark- 
 able. S. R,
 
 234 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 done, he delivered it, pointing with much earnest- 
 ness in one direction again and again. "I see 
 enough," I replied, and gave the glass to another, 
 saying to him, " Observe which way that gentle- 
 man goes." He galloped off as directed ; and I 
 knew at once, as I thought, where the attack was 
 to be made. " That is my weakest point," said I 
 to myself ; and I prepared accordingly ; of such 
 use, as I had always maintained, are glasses. 
 
 He [Soult] looked much lustier than now, and 
 just as his son now does. I beat him thoroughly 
 the next day* or the day after, and drove him 
 back into France. I should have done still more 
 but for an accident. A trooper or two of his fell in 
 with some stragglers of ours, and, snatching them up 
 behind them, galloped off to the camp, that Soult 
 might gather from them what he could. f 
 
 The name of this fellow [the Spy] was Ozille. 
 Latterly I would not let him come near me, and had 
 him always observed. So he could not shift his 
 quarters. [When I was Ambassador at Paris, he 
 
 * The first battle of Sauroren, or of the Pyrenees, on July 28. 
 1813, and subsequent battles on July 30 and following days. 
 Napier's " Peninsular War," vr. 136 et seq. 
 
 j This happened on July 31, 1813, while Wellington was 
 waiting near Elizondo to surprise Soult, who was at San Estevan 
 in his retreat from Pampeluna into France. Ibid., vi. 156.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 235 
 
 came and begged me to make interest with Soult 
 for the settlement of his accounts. " How can 
 I ? " I said, laughing, " when we made such use 
 of you as we did ? " They were settled, however, 
 if we could believe him. After his death a French- 
 man came to me in London, and, when he had 
 vapoured away for some time, declaring that Ozille 
 had won every battle and saved Europe, he said, 
 " Here are his memoirs ; shall we publish them or 
 not ! " I saw his drift, and said, " Do as you please. 
 You must know he was neither more nor less than 
 a spy." I heard no more of them, or of him.] 
 
 After the battle of Toulouse* I went to Paris, 
 and was on my return to the army when Soult 
 and I met half way. Each of us had six horses to 
 his carriage, and the postillions, as usual, stopped 
 on the road to change. I was fast asleep, and 
 knew nothing of the matter ; but Soult, learning 
 from my courier who I was, came to the front of my 
 carriage, as I was afterwards told, and during the 
 operation observed me through his glass as I lay 
 there. At Paris I knew him immediately, though 
 I had only seen him through mine.f Massena, 
 
 * Which took place on April 10, 1814, between Wellington 
 and Soult, and was followed by an armistice and peace. 
 
 f Before the battle of Sauroren in the Pyrenees. Vide supra, 
 P- 233-
 
 236 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 I remember, was at the same dinner, and said to 
 me, " Vous m'avez rendu les cheveux gris." 
 
 When Massena was opposed to me, and in the 
 field, I never slept comfortably. 
 
 Soult was much affected by appearances. Once, 
 before the battle of the Pyrenees, when I was pre- 
 paring for action, our men happened to shout, and 
 I said, " Soult will not come out to-day." Nor did 
 he ; for he thought we had received some great 
 reinforcement.* 
 
 Whether Soult, at his age [March 1831] would 
 now serve in case of a war I cannot say. He is a 
 great man in the administration of war ; but less 
 in battle, less in what are called " les stratagemes 
 de la guerre." In the battle of the Pyrenees he 
 made many desperate attacks ; but I was every- 
 where prepared for him. 
 
 Marmont throws the fault on others ; but I 
 think he was tp blame at Salamanca ;t for he 
 spread his army, thinking that we wished to make 
 off ; and with my whole force I made a sudden 
 attack on his centre, in front and in rear. It was 
 
 * Napier relates this circumstance from hearsay somewhat 
 differently, though to the same effect. " Peninsular War," vi. 
 130. 
 
 | Fought on July 2*, 181*.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 237 
 
 said, and said truly, that we defeated forty thou- 
 sand men in forty minutes. He was, however, a 
 very excellent officer. 
 
 In Spain I never marched the troops long. 
 Twenty-five miles were the utmost. They set 
 off, usually, at five or six in the morning, and took 
 their ground by one. In India they could go 
 further. Once in one day I marched them seventy- 
 two miles. Starting at three in the morning, they 
 went twenty-five miles, and halted at noon. Then 
 I made them lie down to sleep, setting sentinels 
 over them ; and at eight they started again, march- 
 ing till one at noon the next day ; when we were 
 in the enemy's camp. In Europe we cannot do 
 so much. For in England we send them by a 
 canal into the interior, and along the coast by a 
 smack, In India they must walk. 
 
 I look upon it that all men require two pounds 
 weight of food a day ; the English not more than 
 the French. Vegetable food is less convenient 
 than animal food, the last walking with you. 
 
 The elastic woven corslet would answer well 
 over the cuirass. It saved me, I think, at Orthez ; * 
 where I was hit on the hip. I was never struck 
 
 * In Spain.
 
 238 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 but on that occasion, and there I was not wounded. 
 I was on horseback again the same day.* 
 
 In Spain I shaved myself over-night, and usually 
 slept five or six hours ; sometimes, indeed, only 
 three or four, and sometimes only two. In India 
 I never undressed ; it is not the custom there ; 
 and for many years in the Peninsula I undressed 
 very seldom ; never for the first four years. 
 
 English horses are the best of all for military 
 service ; and mares are better than geldings. They 
 endure more fatigue, and recover from it sooner. 
 
 War in Spain is much less of an evil than in 
 other countries. There is no property to destroy. 
 Enter a house, the walls are bare ; there is no 
 furniture. 
 
 , when at our headquarters in Spain, wished 
 
 to see an army, and I gave directions that he 
 should be conducted through ours. When he 
 returned, he said, " I have seen nothing nothing 
 but here and there little clusters of men in con- 
 fusion ; some cooking, some washing, and some 
 sleeping." Then you have seen an army," I said. 
 
 * Sir Wm. Napier, in a letter to Lord John Russell, says that 
 the Duke was twice hit ; once at Salamanca, and a second time 
 atOrthez. "Memoirs of Moore," viu. at end, as a note to vol. v. 
 
 57-
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 239 
 
 I should like much to tell the truth ; but if I 
 did, I should be torn to pieces, here or abroad. I 
 have indeed no time to write, much as I might wish 
 to do so ; and I am still [December 1827] too much 
 in the world to do it. There is a history of the 
 Campaign in Spain of 1808 or 9, in English with 
 French notes, that is admirable as to the French 
 movements, and was written most probably by some 
 Irishman, then with Soult. 
 
 Napier has great materials, and means well ; 
 but he is too much influenced by anything that 
 makes for him, even by an assertion in a newspaper. 
 
 I do not think much of Southey. 
 
 The "Subaltern"* is excellent, particularly in 
 the American expedition to New Orleans. He 
 describes all he sees. 
 
 After the battle of Vittoria the Spaniards said, 
 " You came over the English Menden," a basque 
 word for a chain of hills " Your Black Prince 
 came over them, and there he fought for Don Pedro 
 the Cruel. f At that old Castle he had his head- 
 quarters." It agrees with the account in Froissardt. 
 
 * By G. R. Gleig : first published anonymously in Black- 
 wood's Magazine, 1825, 1827. 
 
 f The battle of Navarretta, near Vittoria, in Spain, fought on 
 April 3, 1367, by the Black Prince and Don Pedro the Cruel 
 against Henry de Transtamare, King of Castille, and Don Tello,
 
 240 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 He [the Duke] would often come into my room 
 when he rose, and converse for a few minutes. 
 But once (it was during the Siege of Burgos) he came 
 and walked about and said nothing. At last he 
 opened the door, and said as he went out, " Cocks* 
 was killed last night." F. Ponsonby.^ 
 
 WATERLOO. 
 
 When Buonaparte left Elba for France, I was at 
 Vienna and received the news from Lord Burghersh, 
 
 in which the Black Prince was victorious. " Froissardt," i. 
 c. 241. General Napier states the name of " Englishman's 
 Hill " to have been given to a neighbouring hill, not in com- 
 memoration of the Black Prince's victory, but on account of 
 the gallant defence of the spot against the Spanish by some 
 English knights and two hundred men (a part of the Black 
 Prince's army), who, after holding it long against superior 
 numbers, were there all slain. This agrees with Froissardt's 
 account, who describes the defence of the hill as happening a 
 short time before the battle of Navarretta. " Froissardt," 
 i. c. 239 \ Napier's " Peninsular War," v. 580. 
 
 * Somers Cocks, killed at the siege of Burgos on October 7, 
 1812. He had distinguished himself in the first assault (as 
 Major Cocks] on September 19, for which he was promoted to 
 the rank of Colonel ; and lost his life while gallantly repulsing 
 the French from the British trenches, within so short a time 
 after his promotion. Napier's " Peninsular War." 
 
 f The Honourable Frederick Cavendish Ponsonby, son of 
 the Earl of Besborough, and Lieut. -Colonel in i2th Dragoons {?}. 
 He was afterwards wounded at the battle of Waterloo.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 241 
 
 our Minister at Florence. The instant it came I 
 communicated it to every member of the Congress, 
 and all laughed ; the Emperor of Russia most of 
 all. " What was in your letter to his Majesty this 
 morning," said his Physician ; " for when he broke 
 the seal, he clapped his hands and burst out a 
 laughing ? " Various were the conjectures as to 
 whither he was gone ; but none would hear of 
 France. All were sure that in France he would 
 be massacred by the people, when he appeared 
 there. I remember Talleyrand's words so well : 
 " Pour la France Non ! " 
 
 Buonaparte I never saw ; though during the 
 battle [Waterloo] we were once, I understood, 
 within a quarter of a mile of each other. I regret 
 it much ; for he was a most extraordinary man. 
 To me he seems to have been at his acme at the 
 Peace of Tilsit,* and gradually to have declined 
 afterwards. 
 
 [He would have done better, I think, to have 
 stood on the defensive. Six hundred thousand men 
 would have gathered round him, and the jostling 
 of so many would have been terrible. If he had 
 waited for his moment and attacked when and where 
 
 * July 1807.
 
 242 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 he pleased from the centre, his success in one instance 
 might have been fatal to the rest.] 
 
 At Waterloo he had the finest army he ever 
 commanded ; and everything up to the onset must 
 have turned out as he wished. Indeed he could 
 not have expected to beat the Prussians, as he did 
 at Ligny,* in four hours. 
 
 But two such armies as those at Waterloo have 
 seldom met, if I may judge from what they did on 
 that day. It was a battle of giants ! a battle of 
 giants ! 
 
 Many of my troops were new ; but the new 
 fight well, though they manoeuvre ill ; better 
 perhaps than many who have fought and bled. 
 
 As to the way in which some of our ensigns and 
 lieutenants braved danger the boys just come 
 from school it exceeds all belief. They ran as 
 at cricket. 
 
 Very early in the day the Nassau Brigade were 
 shifting their ground from an orchard ; and when 
 I remonstrated with them, they said in their excuse 
 that the French were in such force near them. It 
 was to no purpose that I pointed to our Guards on 
 
 * The battle of Ligny was fought two days before the battle 
 of Waterloo. See Sir Henry Hardinge's Memoranda, p. 246, 
 infra.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 243 
 
 the right. It would not do ; and so bewildered 
 were they, that they sent a few shots after me as 
 I rode off. " And with these men," I said to the 
 Corps Diplomatique who were with me, " And 
 with these men I am to win the battle." They 
 shrugged their shoulders. 
 
 How did they behave in the action ? Well 
 enough ; and it should be remembered that, as 
 they had never served with us, we had not acquired 
 their confidence. They had come over to us at 
 Bayonne,* having formed the rear-guard of the 
 French Army in Spain ; and knowing, as they 
 now did, that Buonaparte was in the field, their 
 dread of him must have borne some proportion to 
 the courage with which he had formerly inspired 
 them. 
 
 I never saw the narrative of Lady de Lancy ; 
 [I should like much to see it.f I never saw her. 
 
 * On December 10, 1813, after the battle of Barrouilhet, 
 near Bayonne. Napier's " Peninsular War," vi. 387. 
 
 f An interesting account in MS. by Lady de Lancy, of her 
 attendance on her dying husband, Sir William de Lancy, in a 
 peasant's cottage at Waterloo, for seven or eight days after the 
 battle, where he had been severely wounded, and had at first 
 been reported as killed on the spot. Lady de Lancy was a sister 
 of Captain Basil Hall. Mr. Rogers, in a note, says that the 
 Duke saw her narrative afterwards.
 
 244 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 I heard she went through a good deal.] De Lancy 
 was with me and speaking to me when he was 
 struck. We were on a point of land that over- 
 looked the plain, and I had just been warned oft 
 by some soldiers ; (but as I saw well from it, and 
 as two divisions were engaging below, I had said 
 " Never mind,") when a ball came leaping along 
 en ricochet, as it is called, and striking him on the 
 back, sent him many yards over the head of his 
 horse. He fell on his face, and bounded upward 
 and fell again. 
 
 All the Staff dismounted, and ran to him ; and 
 when I came up he said, " Pray tell them to leave 
 me, and let me die in peace." 
 
 I had him conveyed into the rear ; and two 
 days afterwards when, on my return from Brussels, 
 I saw him in a barn, he spoke with such strength 
 that I said (for I had reported him among the 
 killed), " Why, De Lancy, you will have the advan- 
 tage of Sir Condy in Castle Rackrent; you will 
 know what your friends said of you after you were 
 dead." "I hope I shall," he replied.* Poor 
 
 * The following remarks are in the original manuscript : " He 
 said the cannon-ball was not spent, but came from quite close 
 at hand, and could not have touched. It wa3 the wind of the 
 shot that wounded him, no skin being broken ; and mentioned
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 245 
 
 fellow ! We had known each other ever since we 
 were boys. But I had no time to be sorry ; I went 
 on with the army and never saw him again. 
 
 When all was over, Blucher and I met at La 
 Maison Rouge. It was midnight when he came ; 
 and riding up, he threw his arms round me, and 
 kissed me on both cheeks as I sat in the saddle 
 I was then in pursuit ; and as his troops were fresh 
 I halted mine, and left the business to him. 
 
 [In the day I was for some time encumbered with 
 the Corps Diplomatique. They would not leave 
 me, say what I would.] We supped afterwards 
 together between night and morning, in a spacious 
 tent erected in the valley for that purpose. Pozzo 
 di Borgo was there among others ; and, at my 
 request, he sent off a messenger with the news to 
 Ghent ; where Louis XVIII. breakfasted every 
 morning in a bow-window to the street, and where, 
 every morning, the citizens assembled under it to 
 gaze on him. 
 
 another instance of a man close beside him in the trenches 
 
 at in India killed without being touched. A horae 
 
 will wince when a ball makes a noise like this [imitating the 
 sound], but when he hears it the danger is past." It does not 
 appear clear whether the Duke was here speaking of what he 
 saw, or was only reporting what Sir William de Lancy had said 
 to him.
 
 246 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 When the messenger, a Russian, entered the room 
 with the news, the King embraced him ; and all 
 embraced him, and one another, all over the house. 
 
 An Emissary of Rothschild was in the street ; 
 and no sooner did he see these demonstrations than 
 he took wing for London. Not a syllable escaped 
 from his lips at Bruges, at Ostend, or at Margate ; 
 nor, till Rothschild had taken his measures on the 
 Stock Exchange,* was the intelligence communi- 
 cated to Lord Liverpool. 
 
 On that day I rode Copenhagen from four in the 
 morning till twelve at night. [And when I dis- 
 mounted he threw up his heels at me as he went 
 off.] If he fed it was on the standing corn, and as 
 I sat in the saddle. He was a chestnut horse. [I 
 rode him hundreds of miles in Spain and at the 
 battle of Toulouse.] He died blind with age (28 
 years old) in 1835 at Strathfield Saye, where he lies 
 buried within a ring-fence. 
 
 [Sir Henry Hardinge."] 
 
 Before the battle of Ligny, in which I lost my 
 arm about noon, Blucher, thinking that the French 
 
 * This statement, about the operations on the Stock Ex change, 
 though doubtless believed at the time, has since been declared 
 mythical (vide " Dictionary of National Biography," Roths- 
 child). P.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 247 
 
 were gathering more and more against him, re- 
 quested that I would go and solicit the Duke for 
 some assistance. I set out ; but I had not pro- 
 ceeded far for the purpose, when I saw a party of 
 horse coming towards me ; and observing that they 
 had short tails, I knew at once that they were 
 English, and soon distinguished the Duke. He was 
 on his way to the Prussian head-quarters, thinking 
 that they might want some assistance ; and he 
 instantly gave directions for a supply of Cavalry. 
 " How are they forming ? " he inquired. " In 
 column, not in line," I replied. " The Prussian 
 soldier, says Blucher, will not stand in line." " Then 
 the Artillery will play upon them and they will be 
 beaten damnably." So they were. 
 
 At the last Waterloo dinner, when my health was 
 drunk as usual, and as usual I rose to return thanks, 
 I stated briefly this occurrence, and the Duke when 
 I alluded to it, cried " Hear, hear." Sir Henry 
 Hardinge, at Gladstone's, Saturday, June 24, 1843. 
 
 Two days before the battle of Waterloo the Duke 
 came in to Lady Mornington's room at Brussels, 
 saying, " Napoleon has invaded Belgium ; order 
 horses and wait at Antwerp for further instructions." 
 
 When they were there [at Antwerp] Alava
 
 248 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 entered their room, waving a bloody handkerchief, 
 and informed her that a victory was gained, and 
 that they must return forthwith to Brussels. 
 
 She and her daughter had not been there 
 (q. Brussels) half an hour when the Duke arrived, 
 and walking up and down the apartment in a state 
 of the greatest agitation, burst into tears, and 
 uttered these memorable words : " The next 
 greatest misfortune to losing a battle is to gain 
 such a victory as this." * Note by Samuel Rogers. 
 
 MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS AND ANECDOTES 
 BY THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 
 
 The French King, when he goes from Chapel, 
 speaks to everybody, and different rooms have 
 different ranks. 
 
 I have often dined with the King of the Nether- 
 lands. The Northern Kings admit subjects and 
 strangers to dine with them. The Bourbons never 
 did, I believe, at Paris, except in my instance. 
 At Ghent, perhaps, the etiquette was departed 
 
 * Mr. Rogers has preserved in his Common Place Book a 
 similar remark made by the Duke at another time. " What a 
 glorious thing must be a victory, Sir ! " said * * * to the Duke. 
 " The greatest tragedy in the world, Madam ; except a defeat."
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 249 
 
 from ; but I believe I am the only person who has 
 dined with Lewis XVIII. at Paris. I have dined 
 often with him. He sat at six ; and when dinner 
 was announced, was wheeled in from the room in 
 which he had received me. The table was large, 
 and he sat between the two ladies, the Duchesses 
 of Berri and of Angouleme. I sat between Monsieur 
 and the Duke d'Angouleme. They were waited 
 upon by Gentlemen I by a servant ; and, of 
 course, best served. The dinner was exquisite. 
 We sat down at six, and rose at seven ; and then 
 all sat and talked with the King till eight, avoiding 
 all political subjects. The King eat freely, but 
 mixed water with his wine, which was champagne. 
 The King will not now go out in the carriage but 
 on great occasions. They have contrived a machine 
 to lift him into it by ; but his indolence, or his fear 
 of the caricaturists, or both, keep him at home. 
 He is fond of mots, and full of esprit rather than 
 sensible ; and did not at first consent to read the 
 speeches prepared for him by his ministers, prefer- 
 ring to speak d'abondance. 
 
 The Emperor Alexander, when here [in 1814], 
 treated the Prince Regent with no respect, thinking 
 him not half a king, and kept him often waiting. 
 Ministers were anxious to set him right, by their
 
 250 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 behaviour ; and desired me to do so ; but Lord 
 Grenville* produced the greatest effect, showing the 
 Prince every attention at Oxford, and treating the 
 others only as his guests. 
 
 The old King [George III.] his father, was no 
 listener. When Fox came out of the closet once, 
 somebody said, " You have had a long audience." 
 " Given one, you mean," was his answer. 
 
 [The Duke of Wellington has, naturally, a great 
 gaiety of mind ; he laughs at almost everything, 
 as if it served only to divert him. Not less re- 
 markable is the simplicity of his manner. It is, 
 perhaps, rather the absence of everything like 
 affectation. In his account of himself he discovers, 
 in no instance, the least vanity or conceit, and he 
 listens always readily to others. His laugh is easily 
 excited, and it is very loud and long, like the whoop 
 of the whooping-cough often repeated. S. R.] 
 
 At Woburn Abbey and Apsley House, April 
 and June, 1821. 
 
 --) 
 
 Moscow, I am very sure, was burnt down by 
 the irregularity of his [Buonaparte's] own soldiers. 
 
 * Lord Grenville was Chancellor of the University of Oxford 
 in 1814.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 251 
 
 That pamphlet, published by the Governor of 
 Moscow, states what, I am persuaded, was the 
 truth. 
 
 If he had stopt, and had contented himself 
 with organising Poland, and established Ponia- 
 towski there, it had been well for him. After his 
 Austrian marriage, Metternich was sent to Paris 
 to see him, and to report upon his character, and 
 to discover whether he meant to be quiet. His 
 answer, as he told me, was in three words : " He 
 is unaltered." He had then resolved to invade 
 Russia. At Lady Shelley' 's, Berkeley Square, May 8, 
 1823. 
 
 I hear nothing by my left ear. The drum is 
 broken, and might have been broken twenty years 
 ago, for aught I know to the contrary. A gun 
 discharged near me might have done it. 
 
 Strange impressions come now and then after 
 a battle ; and such came to me after the battle of 
 Assaye in India.* I slept in a farm yard ; and 
 whenever I awaked, it struck me that I had lost 
 all my friends, so many had I lost in that battle. 
 Again and again, as often as I awaked, did it disturb 
 me. In the morning I inquired anxiously after 
 
 * Fought September 1803.
 
 252 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 one and another ; nor was I convinced that they 
 were living till I saw them. 
 
 I speared seven or eight wild boars in a forest 
 in Picardy an Eastern practice. The largest 
 struck the sole of my foot with his tusk, when 
 I thrust my lance into his spine, and was 
 turning my horse off at the instant, as I always 
 did. The rest of the party set up a shout, and I 
 believe it gave me more pleasure, this achievement, 
 than anything I ever did in my life. Lord Hill 
 killed one on foot, but the difficult thing was to kill 
 one on horseback. Whoever threw the first lance 
 into a boar claimed it as his. 
 
 Never saw but one royal tiger wild. Never at 
 a tiger hunt. 
 
 Elephants used always in war [in India], for 
 conveyance of stores or artillery. I had once 
 occasion to send my men through a river upon some. 
 A drunken soldier fell off, and was carried down 
 by the torrent till he scrambled up a rock in the 
 middle of the stream. I sent the elephant after 
 him, and with large strides he obeyed his driver. 
 When arrived, he could not get near the rock, and 
 he stiffened his tail to serve as a plank. The man 
 was too drunk to avail himself of it, and the elephant 
 seized him with his trunk, and, notwithstanding
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 253 
 
 the resistance he made, and the many cuffs he gave 
 that sensitive part, placed him on his back. 
 Cassiobury, October 2 and 3, 1824. 
 
 They want me to place myself at the head of 
 a faction, but I say to them, I have now served 
 my country for forty years for twenty I have 
 commanded her armies, and for ten I have sat in 
 the Cabinet and I will not now place myself at 
 the head of a faction. 
 
 When I lay down my office to-morrow, I will 
 go down into my county, and do what I can to 
 restore order and peace. And in my place in 
 Parliament, when I can, I will approve ; when I 
 cannot, I will dissent, but I will never agree to be 
 the leader of a faction. At Arbuthnofs, over the 
 fire. Sunday evening, November 21, 1830.* 
 
 [Having met Lord Grey again and again at my 
 table, and knowing our intimacy, he meant that 
 these words should be repeated to him ; and so they 
 were, word for word, on that very night. S. R.] 
 
 Scott's " Life of Napoleon " is of no value. The 
 tolerable part of it is what relates to his retreat from 
 Moscow. I have thought much on that subject, 
 
 * This was at the moment of Earl Grey's accession to office, 
 on the resignation of the Duke of Wellington.
 
 254 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 and have made many inquiries concerning it. I 
 gave him my papers. He has used some,* not all. 
 
 Wolfe Tone was a most extraordinary man, 
 and his history is the most curious history of those 
 times. f With a hundred guineas in his pocket, 
 unknown and unrecommended, he went to Paris 
 in order to overturn the British Government in 
 Ireland. He asked for a large force ; Lord Edward 
 Fitzgerald for a small one. Lord Edward was for 
 assistance only, and was afraid of their control. 
 They listened to Tone, but when their fleet arrived 
 in Bantry Bay, the Irish would not rise to join 
 them. Then it was, I believe, and for that purpose, 
 that their religious feelings were worked upon ; 
 and from that time the dissension was religious. 
 Before, it was political. At Talleyrand's, March 13, 
 1831. 
 
 * The following note by Sir Walter Scott appears in Lock- 
 hart's " Life of Scott," vi. 387. " November 16, 1826. At 
 eleven, to the Duke of Wellington, who gave me a bundle of 
 remarks on Buonaparte's Russian Campaign, written in his 
 carriage, during his late mission to St. Petersburgh. It is 
 furiously scrawled, and the Russian names hard to distinguish ; 
 but it shall do me Yeoman's service." 
 
 f Theobald Wolfe Tone, a leading man in the Irish Rebellion 
 in 1798. He was tried in Dublin, for high treason, and con- 
 demned to death in November 1798 ; but destroyed himself 
 in prison, to avoid a public execution.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 255 
 
 In Poland an army can keep the field from June 
 till February. In February the thaw begins, 
 and the rivers become impassable ; nor are they 
 navigable till June. In that interval, too, the 
 roads are axle-deep. Diebitsch* began in February 
 [1831], urged on, probably, by the Emperor; and, 
 failing in his first attempt, was obliged to throw 
 his troops into cantonments. These the Poles 
 attacked, with a terrible slaughter. Diebitsch 
 must have lost there above 30,000 men. The 
 Russians will now,f I think, settle the matter ; 
 and yet a revolutionary war is the most difficult 
 to manage of any. Military tactics are there of 
 little service. 
 
 The Poles, I think, have no chance if the Russian 
 army is true ; and it is only when in their quarters 
 that troops grow mutinous and desert ; not in the 
 field. 
 
 Buonaparte began his campaign there [in Poland] 
 in June, when he fought the battle that ended in 
 the Peace of Tilsit. J He was slow in Paris, but 
 swift enough when he took the field. July 5, 1831. 
 
 * Field-Marshal Diebitsch, the commander of the Russian 
 forces against the Poles in 1831. 
 
 | July 1831. The Polish Revolution was finally put down 
 by the Russians in September 1831. 
 
 \ The Treaty of Tilsit was concluded July i, 1807,
 
 256 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 A tax on the transfer of stock was three times 
 proposed to me from Cambridge by a Professor. 
 I sent them the clause in the Act of Parliament 
 against it, and heard no more of it. Apsley House. 
 March I, 1832. 
 
 On June 18, 1832 Monday I rode to Pistrucci, 
 in the Mint. He had made a bust of me, but wished 
 for another sitting. So I went without giving him 
 notice, on that day at 9 o'clock, and mounted my 
 horse at half-past 10 to leave him ; when I found 
 a crowd at the gate, and several groaned and hooted. 
 Some cried, " Buonaparte for ever ! " I rode on 
 at a gentle pace, but they followed me. Soon a 
 magistrate (Ballantine) came and offered his ser- 
 vices. I thanked him, but said I thought I should 
 get on very well. The noise increased, and two 
 old soldiers, Chelsea Pensioners, came up to me. 
 One of them said he had served under me for many 
 a day, and I said to him, " Then keep close to me 
 now ; " and I told them to walk on each side ; and 
 whenever we stopt, to place themselves, each with 
 his back against the flank of my horse. Not long 
 afterwards I saw a policeman making off, and I 
 knew it must be to the next station for assistance. 
 I sent one of my pensioners after him ; and presently
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 257 
 
 we got another policeman. We then did pretty 
 well, till I reached Lincoln's Inn, where I had to 
 call at an attorney's chambers [Maule's]. Sugden 
 and many others came out of the Chancery Court 
 to accompany me, and a large reinforcement of 
 police came from Bow Street.* The conduct of 
 the citizens affected me not a little. Many came 
 out of the shops to ask me in. Many ladies in their 
 carriages were in tears, and many waved their 
 handkerchiefs from the windows, and pointed 
 downwards to ask me in. 
 
 I came up Holborn by the advice of a man with 
 a red cape. At first I thought it might be a snare, 
 but found him to be a City Marshal. I was forty 
 minutes in coming from the Mint to Lincoln's Inn. 
 A young man in a buggy f did me great service, 
 
 * This adventure is told in the Annual Register, and in the 
 newspapers of the day, with the omission of several of the details. 
 The Annual Register states that the Duke took shelter in the 
 chambers of Sir Charles Wetherell, in Stone Buildings, Lincoln's 
 Inn, until a body of police arrived. Wetherell had been Attorney- 
 General under the Duke's Government in 1828, and perhaps it 
 is to him the Duke referred, as " an Attorney " ; or he may have 
 had to call on Mr. Maule, then Solicitor to the Treasury, whose 
 chambers were also in Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn. 
 
 f In a letter addressed to the Editor of the Edinburgh Review, 
 dated March 7, 1845, and printed also in Hayward's " Essays," 
 vol. i. 450, the name of this individual is fortunately preserved : 
 
 R
 
 258 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 flanking me for some time, and never looking 
 towards me for any notice. At my house, Friday. 
 June 22 (q. 1832). 
 
 The French in Algeria should have done as we 
 have done in India. They should have respected 
 everywhere private property, and the customs 
 and habits of the people. They have introduced 
 a system of spoliation and plunder that sets every 
 man against them ; a system that is now too strong 
 to be checked by the Government at home. They 
 parcel out the land, planting wheat where there 
 was rice, and changing the face of the country. 
 Their soldiers, too, I suspect, are not what they 
 were. 
 
 What is that rara avis Common Sense ? It 
 is, I believe, a good understanding, moderated 
 and modulated by a good heart. Ellis' 's Hotel, 
 March 20, 1838. 
 
 [As he said these words his voice dropped, and 
 I never knew him speak with more feeling. S. R.] 
 
 Clausel made no mistake at Constantine. The 
 failure was occasioned by the badness of his army. 
 
 viz. William Joseph Cooper, of 21 Sackville Street, Piccadilly. 
 The letter deserves to be read.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 259 
 
 He could not depend upon his officers ; they were 
 so worthless a set. July 21, 1838. 
 
 The Chinese show more sense and knowledge 
 than I thought they possessed. They reason 
 well, and they fight our ships better than I thought 
 they would. But of this I am sure, we must make 
 them sensible of our power. They are now con- 
 structing vast gongs, and preparing to frighten 
 us with terrifying noises. The Portuguese ordered 
 their soldiers to attack us with ferocious counte- 
 nances. At Lord Wilton's, June 5, 1840. 
 
 I was on my way to Fontainebleau with 
 Charles X., then Monsieur, and the Duke of Fitz- 
 james, when passing in the carriage through the street 
 in which Henri IV. had been assassinated ; and 
 Charles pointed out to me the very place where, 
 according to tradition, it had happened. Charles 
 spoke of him with great, admiration, and dwelt 
 much on his merit in changing his religion for the 
 good of his country, contrasting his conduct with 
 that of James II. Fitzjames, of course, took the 
 part of his ancestor, and long was the argument, 
 while I sat still, leaving the combatants to them- 
 selves. At last they came to the same opinion,
 
 260 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 agreeing that Henry was right in becoming a 
 Catholic, and James in continuing one. 
 
 Had Caesar's " Commentaries " with me in India, 
 and learnt much from them, fortifying my camp 
 every night as he did. I passed over the rivers 
 as he did, by means of baskets and boats of basket- 
 work ; only I think I improved upon him, con- 
 structing them into bridges, and always fortifying 
 them, and leaving them guarded, to return by them 
 if necessary. November 24, 1840. 
 
 He [the Duke] had a high idea of Moore's * talents, 
 and always said that all he wanted was practice 
 in the command of a large body of troops. At 
 the treaty of Cintra he said to Moore, " You and 
 I, Moore, are now the only men ; and if you are 
 to command, I am ready to serve under you."f 
 Told me by Arbuthnot, at Beckefs, Downing Street, 
 November 14, 1826. S. R. 
 
 Walking some years ago [about 1838 or 1839] 
 through the Park with the Duke of Wellington, I 
 
 * Lieut. -Gen. Sir John Moore, KB. 
 
 t The Convention of Cintra was concluded on August 22, 
 1808. Shortly afterwards Sir Arthur Wellesley left Portugal 
 for England, and Sir John Moore was appointed to command 
 an army to be employed in Spain, where he gloriously ended his 
 life at Corunna, on January 16, 1809.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 261 
 
 [S. R.] said to him, among other things, "What an 
 array there is in the House of Commons against 
 Lord John Russell : Peel, Stanley, Graham, &c. ! " 
 " Lord John is a host in himself." 
 
 It was in vain that the Duke of Wellington said, 
 " You must not cross the Indus ! For, sure as 
 you are to conquer, you can nowhere establish 
 yourselves." We crossed it, and go where we would, 
 disaster followed us wherever we went. Yet never 
 to the last has he suffered the least allusion to it in 
 Parliament. " Were the subject to be revived 
 it would lessen us," he says, " in the eyes of all 
 Europe." And when Sir James Graham gave 
 notice of a motion concerning it, he sent his friend 
 Arbuthnot to say to him, " You must not make it." 
 
 Of the Duke's perfect coolness on the most 
 trying occasions, Colonel Gurwood gave me this 
 instance. He was once in great danger of being 
 drowned at sea. It was bed-time, when the captain 
 of the vessel came to him and said, " It will soon 
 be all over with us." " Very well," answered the 
 Duke, " then I shall not take off my boots." 
 
 The following anecdotes of Porson* were com- 
 * Notices of Porson have already occurred in this volume : 
 see Index. ED,
 
 262 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 municated to me, in conversation, at various times, 
 by the late Mr. William Maltby, the school- 
 fellow and, throughout life, the most confidential 
 friend of Mr. Rogers. 
 
 In his youth Mr. Maltby was entered at Cam- 
 bridge, and resided there for some time ; he, how- 
 ever, left the University without taking a degree. 
 He afterwards practised as a solicitor in London. 
 On the decease of. Person, he obtained an employ- 
 ment more suited to his tastes and habits than the 
 profession of the law : in 1809 he succeeded that 
 celebrated man as Principal Librarian to the London 
 Institution ; and, during the long period of his 
 holding the office, he greatly improved the library 
 by the numerous judicious purchases which were 
 made at his suggestion. In 1834 he was super- 
 annuated from all duty : but he still continued to 
 occupy apartments in the Institution ; and there 
 he died, towards the close of his ninetieth year, 
 January 5, 1854. 
 
 I first saw Person at the sale of Toup's library in 
 1784, and was introduced to him soon after. I was 
 on the most intimate terms with him for the last 
 twenty years of his life. In spite of all his faults 
 and failings, it was impossible not to admire his 
 integrity and his love of truth.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 263 
 
 Person declared that he learned nothing while 
 a schoolboy at Eton. " Before I went there," he 
 said, " I could nearly repeat by heart all the books 
 which we used to read in the school." The only 
 thing in his Eton course which he recollected with 
 pleasure was rat-hunting ! he used to talk with 
 delight of the rat-hunts in the Long Hall. 
 
 During the earlier part of his career, he accepted 
 the situation of tutor to a young gentleman in the 
 Isle of Wight ; but he was soon forced to relinquish 
 that office, in consequence of having been found 
 drunk in a ditch or a turnip-field. 
 
 The two persons to whom Person had the greatest 
 obligations were Sir George Baker and Dr. Shipley, 
 Bishop of St. Asaph. Sir George once ventured 
 to chide him for his irregularities, a liberty which 
 Porson resented, and never forgave,* though he 
 owed Sir George so much. 
 
 Porter was his favourite beverage at breakfast. 
 One Sunday morning meeting Dr. Goodall (Provost 
 of Eton), he said, " Where are you going ? " "To 
 
 * This seems to account for the statement in Beloe's " Sexage- 
 narian " (i. 234), viz. that Porson " all at once ceased to go to 
 Sir George Baker's house, and from what motive Sir George 
 always avowed himself ignorant."
 
 264 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 church."" Where is Mrs. Goodall ? " " At break- 
 fast." " Very well ; I'll go and breakfast with 
 her." Person accordingly presented himself before 
 Mrs. Goodall ; and being asked what he chose to 
 take, he said " porter." It was sent for, pot after 
 pot ; and the sixth pot was just being carried 
 into the house when Dr. Goodall returned from 
 church. 
 
 At one period of his life he was in such straitened 
 circumstances, that he would go without dinner 
 for a couple of days. However, when a dinner 
 came in his way, he would eat very heartily (mutton 
 was his favourite dish), and lay in, as he used to 
 say, a stock of provision. He has subsisted for 
 three weeks upon a guinea. 
 
 Sometimes, at a later period, when he was able 
 enough to pay for a dinner, he chose, in a fit of 
 abstinence, to go without one. I have asked him 
 to stay and dine with me ; and he has replied, 
 " Thank you, no ; I dined yesterday." 
 
 At dinner, and after it, he preferred port to any 
 other wine. He disliked both tea and coffee. 
 
 Person would sit up drinking all night, without 
 seeming to feel any bad effects from it. Home 
 Tooke told me that he once asked Person to dine
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 265 
 
 with him in Richmond Buildings ; and, as he 
 knew that Person had not been in bed for the three 
 preceding nights, he expected to get rid of him at 
 a tolerably early hour. Porson, however, kept 
 Tooke up the whole night ; and in the morning, 
 the latter, in perfect despair, said, " Mr. Porson, 
 I am engaged to meet a friend at breakfast at a 
 coffee-house in Leicester Square." " Oh," replied 
 Porson, " I will go with you " ; and he accordingly 
 did so. Soon after they had reached the coffee- 
 house, Tooke contrived to slip out, and running 
 home, ordered his servant not to let Mr. Porson in> 
 even if he should attempt to batter down the door. 
 " A man," observed Tooke, " who could sit up four 
 nights successively might have sat up forty." * 
 
 Tooke used to say that " Porson would drink ink 
 rather than not drink at all." Indeed, he would 
 drink anything. He was sitting with a gentleman, 
 
 * In Stephens's "Memoirs of Home Tooke," vol. ii. 315, is 
 an account of Person's rudeness to Tooke while dining with him 
 one day at Wimbledon, and of Tooke's silencing and triumphing 
 over him by making him dead drunk with brandy ; on which 
 occasion " some expressions of a disagreeable nature are said 
 to have occurred at table." At that tlinner Tooke (as he told 
 Mr. Maltby] asked Porson for a toast ; and Porson replied, " I 
 will give you the man who is in all respects the very reverse 
 of John Home Tooke."
 
 266 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 after dinner, in the chambers of a mutual friend, 
 a Templar, who was then ill and confined to bed. 
 A servant came into the room, sent thither by his 
 master for a bottle of embrocation which was on 
 the chimney-piece. " I drank it an hour ago," 
 said Person. 
 
 When Hoppner the painter was residing in a 
 cottage a few miles from London, Person, one 
 afternoon, unexpectedly arrived there. Hoppner 
 said that he could not offer him dinner, as Mrs. H. 
 had gone to town, and had carried with her the key 
 of the closet which contained the wine. Person, 
 however, declared that he would be content with 
 a mutton-chop, and beer from the next alehouse ; 
 and accordingly stayed to dine. During the even- 
 ing Porson said, " I am quite certain that Mrs. 
 Hoppner keeps some nice bottle, for her private 
 drinking, in her own bedroom ; so, pray, try if you 
 can lay your hands on it." His host assured him 
 that Mrs. H. had no such secret stores ; but Porson 
 insisting that a search should be made, a bottle was 
 at last discovered in the lady's apartment, to the 
 surprise of Hoppner and the joy of Porson, who soon 
 finished its contents, pronouncing it to be the best 
 gin he had tasted for a long time. Next day> 
 Hoppner, somewhat out of temper, informed his
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 267 
 
 wife that Person had drunk every drop of her con- 
 cealed dram. " Drunk every drop of it ! " cried 
 she : " my God, it was spirits of wine for the lamp ! " 
 A brother of Bishop Maltby invited Porson and 
 myself to spend the evening at his house, and 
 secretly requested me to take Porson away, if 
 possible, before the morning hours. Accordingly, 
 at twelve o'clock I held up my watch to Porson, 
 saying, " I think it is now full time for us to go 
 home " ; and the host, of course, not pressing us 
 to remain longer, away we went. When we got 
 into the street Person's indignation burst forth : 
 " I hate," he said, " to be turned out of doors like 
 a dog." 
 
 At the house of the same gentleman I introduced 
 Cogan to Porson, saying, " This is Mr. Cogan,* who 
 is passionately fond of what you have devoted 
 yourself to, Greek." Porson replied, " If Mr. 
 Cogan is passionately fond of Greek, he must be 
 content to dine on bread and cheese for the re- 
 mainder of his life." 
 
 * Not the Bath physician and author Thomas Cogan, but 
 Eliezer Cogan, a dissenting clergyman who kept a school at 
 Walthamstow, and published " Moschi Idyllia tria " with Latin 
 notes, some " Sermons," &c.
 
 268 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 Gurney (the Baron) had chambers in Essex 
 Court, Temple, under Person's. One night (or 
 rather, morning) Gurney was awakened by a tre- 
 mendous thump in the chambers above. Person 
 had just come home dead drunk, and had fallen on 
 the floor. Having extinguished his candle in the 
 fall, he presently staggered downstairs to relight 
 it ; and Gurney heard him keep dodging and poking 
 with the candle at the staircase-lamp for about five 
 minutes, and all the while very lustily cursing the 
 nature of things. 
 
 Porson was fond of smoking, and said that when 
 smoking began to go out of fashion, learning began 
 to go out of fashion also. 
 
 He was generally ill dressed and dirty. But I 
 never saw him such a figure as he was one day at 
 Leigh and Sotheby's auction-room : he evidently 
 had been rolling in the kennel ; and, on inquiry, 
 I found that he was just come from a party (at 
 Robert Heathcote's, I believe), with whom he had 
 been sitting up drinking for two nights. 
 
 One forenoon I met Porson in Co vent Garden, 
 dressed in a pea-green coat : he had been married * 
 
 * " In 1795, R P. married Mrs. Lunan, who sunk under a 
 decline in 1797." Kidd's "Life of Porson," p ; xv. She was 
 sister to Perry, editor of the Morning Chronicle.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 269 
 
 that morning, as I afterwards learned from Raine 
 for he himself said nothing about it. He was 
 carrying a copy of " Le Moyen de Parvenir," which 
 he had just purchased off a stall ; and, holding it 
 up, he called out jokingly, "These are the sort of 
 books to buy ! " 
 
 " I was occupied two years," said Porson, " in 
 composing the " Letters to Travis " ; I received 
 thirty pounds for them from Egerton ; and I am 
 glad to find that he lost sixteen by the publication." 
 He once talked of writing an Appendix to that work. 
 In his later years he used to regret that he had 
 devoted so much time to the study of theology. 
 
 Soon after the " Letters to Travis " were pub- 
 lished, Gibbon wrote a note to Porson, requesting 
 the pleasure of his acquaintance. Porson accord- 
 ingly called upon the great historian, who received 
 him with all kindness and respect. In the course 
 of conversation Gibbon said, " Mr. Porson, I feel 
 truly indebted to you for the ' Letters to Travis,' 
 though I must think that occasionally, while praising 
 me, you have mingled a little acid with the sweet. 
 If ever you should take the trouble to read my 
 History over again, I should be much obliged and 
 honoured by any remarks on it which might suggest
 
 2/o RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 themselves to you." Porson was highly flattered 
 by Gibbon's having requested this interview, and 
 loved to talk of it. He thought the " Decline and 
 Fall " beyond all comparison the greatest literary 
 production of the eighteenth century, and was in 
 the habit of repeating long passages from it. Yet 
 I have heard him say that " there could not be a 
 better exercise for a schoolboy than to turn a page 
 of it into English" 
 
 When the " Letters to Travis " first appeared, 
 Rennell said to me, "It is just such a book as the 
 devil would write, if he could hold a pen." 
 
 As soon as Gibbon's Autobiography and Miscel- 
 laneous Works came out, they were eagerly devoured 
 both by Porson and myself. Neither of us could 
 afford to purchase the quarto edition, so we bought 
 the Dublin reprint in octavo. 
 
 Porson was sometimes very rude in society. My 
 relation, Dr. Maltby (Bishop of Durham), once 
 invited him to meet Paley at dinner. Paley ar- 
 rived first. When Porson (who had never before 
 seen him) came into the room, he seated himself 
 in an arm-chair, and looking very hard at Paley, 
 said, " I am entitled to this chair, being president 
 of a society for the discovery of truth, of which I
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 271 
 
 happen at present to be the only member." These 
 words were levelled at certain political opinions 
 broached in Paley's works. 
 
 I have often wondered that Person did not get 
 into scrapes in those days, when it was so dangerous 
 to express violent political feelings : he would think 
 nothing of toasting " Jack Cade " at a tavern, when 
 he was half-seas-over. 
 
 He used frequently to regret that he had not gone 
 to America in his youth and settled there. I said, 
 " What would you have done without books ? " 
 He answered, " I should have done without them." 
 
 At one time he had some thoughts of taking 
 orders, and studied divinity for a year or two 
 " But," said he, "I found that I should require 
 about fifty years' reading to make myself thoroughly 
 acquainted with it, to satisfy my mind on all 
 points ; and therefore I gave it up. There are 
 fellows who go into a pulpit, assuming everything, 
 and knowing nothing : but / would not do so." 
 
 He insisted that all men are born with abilities 
 nearly equal. " Any one," he would say, " might 
 become quite as good a critic as I am, if he would 
 only take the trouble to make himself so. I have 
 made myself what I am by intense labour : some-
 
 272 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 times, in order to impress a thing upon my memory, 
 I have read it a dozen times, and transcribed it 
 
 six." * 
 
 He once had occasion to travel to Norwich. 
 When the coach arrived there, he was beset by 
 several porters, one offering to carry his port- 
 manteau to his lodging for eighteenpence, another 
 for a shilling, another for ninepence : upon which, 
 Porson shouldered the portmanteau, and marching 
 off with it, said very gravely to the porters, " Gentle- 
 men, I leave you to settle this dispute among your- 
 selves." When, however, he went to stay with a 
 friend for only a couple of days or so, he did not 
 encumber himself with a portmanteau : he would 
 merely take a shirt in his pocket, saying, " Omnia 
 mea mecum porto" 
 
 The time he wasted in writing notes on the 
 margin of books, I mean, in writing them with 
 such beauty of penmanship that they rivalled 
 
 * But he was certainly gifted by nature with most extra- 
 ordinary powers of memory. Dr. Downie, of Aberdeen, told me 
 that, during a visit to London, he heard Porson declare that he 
 could repeat Smollett's " Roderick Random " from beginning 
 to end: and Mr. Richard Heber assured me that soon after the 
 appearance of the " Essay on Irish Bulls " (the joint production 
 of Edgeworth and his daughter), Porson used, when somewhat 
 tipsy, to recite whole pages of it verbatim with great delight.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 273 
 
 print, was truly lamentable.* And yet he used 
 those very books most cruelly, whether they were 
 his own, or belonging to others ; he would let them 
 lie about his room, covered with dust and all sorts 
 of dirt. He said that " he possessed more bad 
 copies of good books than any private gentleman 
 in England." 
 
 When he lived in Essex Court, Temple, he would 
 shut himself up for three or four days together, 
 admitting no visitors to his chambers. One morn- 
 ing I went to call upon him there ; and having 
 inquired at his barber's close by " if Mr. Porson 
 was at home," was answered " Yes, but he has seen 
 no one for two days." I, however, proceeded to 
 his chambers, and knocked at the door more than 
 once. He would not open it, and I came down- 
 stairs. As I was re-crossing the court, Porson, who 
 
 * Such was his rage for calligraphy, that he once offered to 
 letter the backs of some of Mr. Richard Heber's vellum-bound 
 classics. " No," said Heber, " I won't let you do that : but 
 I shall be most thankful if you will write into an Athenasus some 
 of those excellent emendations which I have heard from you in 
 conversation." Heber accordingly sent to him Brunck's inter- 
 leaved copy of that author (Casaubon's edition) ; which Porson 
 enriched with many notes. These notes were afterwards pub- 
 lished in his " Adversaria." The Athenaeus is now in my pos- 
 session. DYCBi 
 
 S
 
 274 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 had perceived that / was the visitor, opened the 
 window, and stopped me. He was then busy 
 about the Grenville Homer, for which he collated 
 the Harleian MS. of the " Odyssey." His labours 
 on that work were rewarded with 50 and a large- 
 paper copy. I thought the payment too small, 
 but Burney considered it as sufficient. 
 
 Parr was evidently afraid of Person, of his 
 intellectual powers. I might say too that Home 
 Tooke had a dread of Porson ; but it was only the 
 dread of being insulted by some rude speech from 
 Porson in his drunkenness. Porson thought highly 
 both of Tooke's natural endowments and of his 
 acquirements. " I have learned many valuable 
 things from Tooke," was what he frequently said ; 
 " yet I don't always believe Tooke's assertions," 
 was sometimes his remark. (I knew Parr inti- 
 mately. I once dined at Dilly's with Parr, Priestley, 
 Cumberland, and some other distinguished people. 
 Cumberland, who belonged to the family of the 
 Blandishes, bepraised Priestley to his face, and after 
 he had left the party, spoke of him very disparag- 
 ingly. This excited Parr's extremest wrath. When 
 I met him a few days after, he said, " Only think 
 of Mr. Cumberland ! that he should have presumed 
 to talk before me, before me, sir, in such terms
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 275 
 
 of my friend Dr. Priestley ! Pray, sir, let Mr. Dilly 
 know my opinion of Mr. Cumberland, that his 
 ignorance is equalled only by his impertinence, 
 and that both are exceeded by his malice." Parr 
 hated Dr. Horsley to such a degree that he never 
 mentioned him by any other name than the fiend. 
 Parr once said to Barker, " You have read a great 
 deal, you have thought very little, and you know 
 nothing.") 
 
 One day Person went down to Greenwich to 
 borrow a book from Burney ; and finding that 
 Burney was out, he stepped into his library, pocketed 
 the volume, and set off again for London. Soon 
 after, Burney came home ; and, offended at the 
 liberty Person had taken, pursued him in a chaise, 
 and recovered the book. Person talked to me of 
 this affair with some bitterness : " Did Burney 
 suppose," he said, " that I meant to play his old 
 tricks ? " (alluding to a well-known circumstance 
 in the earlier part of Burney 's history). 
 
 I believe, with you, that Burney was indebted 
 to Porson for many of those remarks on various 
 niceties of Greek which he has given as his own in 
 different publications. Porson once said to me, 
 " A certain gentleman " (evidently meaning Burney) 
 " has just been with me ; and he brought me a long
 
 276 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 string of questions, every one of which I answered 
 off-hand. Really, before people become school- 
 masters, they ought to get up their Greek thoroughly, 
 for they never learn anything more of it afterwards." 
 I one day asked Burney for his opinion of Porson 
 as a scholar. Burney replied, " I think my friend 
 Dick's acquaintance with the Greek dramatists 
 quite marvellous ; but he was just as well acquainted 
 with them at the age of thirty as he is now : he has 
 not improved in Greek since he added brandy-and- 
 water to his potations, and took to novel-reading." 
 Porson would sometimes read nothing but novels 
 for a fortnight together. 
 
 Porson felt much respect for Gilbert Wakefield's 
 integrity, but very little for his learning. When 
 Wakefield put forth the " Diatribe Extemporalis "* 
 on Person's edition of the " Hecuba," Porson said, 
 " If Wakefield goes on at this rate, he will tempt 
 
 * On the publication of Poison's " Hecuba," Wakefield, in 
 great agitation, asked Mr. Evans (the now retired bookseller] 
 who was its editor ? " Can you have any doubts ? " replied 
 Evans ; " Mr. Porson, of course." " But," said Wakefield, 
 '' I want proof, positive proof." M Well, then," replied Evans, 
 " I saw Mr. Porson present a large-paper copy to Mr. Cracherode, 
 and heard him acknowledge himself the editor." Wakefield 
 immediately went home and composed the " Diatribe."
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 277 
 
 me to examine his " Silva Critica." I hope that 
 we shall not m'eet, for a violent quarrel would be 
 the consequence." (Wakefield was a very agreeable 
 and entertaining companion. " My ' Lucretius,' ' 
 he once said to me, " is my most perfect publica- 
 tionit is, in fact, ' Lucretius Restitutus.' " * He 
 was a great walker ; he has walked as much as forty 
 miles in one day ; and I believe that his death was 
 partly brought on by excessive walking, after his 
 long confinement in Dorchester gaol. What offended 
 Wakefield at Person was, that Person had made 
 no mention of him in his notes. Now, Porson told 
 Burney expressly, that out of pure kindness he had 
 forborne to mention Wakefield, for he could not 
 have cited any of his emendations without the 
 severest censure.) 
 
 " I hear," said I to Porson, " that you are to 
 dine to-day at Holland House." " Who told you 
 so ? " asked he. I replied, " Mackintosh." " But 
 I certainly shall not go," continued Porson : " they 
 invite me merely out of curiosity ; and, after they 
 have satisfied it, they would like to kick me down 
 stairs." I then informed him that Fox was coming 
 
 * He sadly deceived himself : see the judgment passed on 
 it by Lachmann in his recent admirable edition of " Lucre- 
 tius.",
 
 278 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 from St. Anne's Hill to Holland House for the express 
 purpose of being introduced to him ; but he per- 
 sisted in his resolution, and dined quietly with 
 Rogers and myself at Rogers' s chambers in the 
 Temple. Many years afterwards, Lord Holland 
 mentioned to Rogers that his uncle (Fox) had been 
 greatly disappointed at not meeting Porson on that 
 occasion. 
 
 Porson disliked Mackintosh': they differed in 
 politics, and their reading had little in common. 
 
 When Porson first met Perry after the fire in the 
 house of the latter at Merton, he immediately 
 inquired " if any lives had been lost ? " Perry 
 replied, "No." "Well," said Porson, "then I 
 shall not complain, though I have lost the labours 
 of my life." His transcript* of the Cambridge 
 " Photius," which was burnt in that fire, he after- 
 wards replaced by patiently making a second 
 transcript ; but his numerous notes on Aristo- 
 phanes, which had also been consumed, were 
 irrecoverably gone. 
 
 He used to call Bishop Porteus " Bishop Pro- 
 teus " (as one who had changed his opinions from 
 liberal to illiberal). 
 
 * Two beautifully written fragments of it (scorched to a deep 
 brown] are in my possession. (D.)
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 279 
 
 For the scholarship of that amiable man Bishop 
 Burgess he felt a contempt which he was unable to 
 conceal. He was once on a visit at Oxford, in 
 company with Cleaver Banks, where, during a 
 supper-party, he gave great offence by talking of 
 Burgess with anything but respect. At the same 
 supper-party, too, he offended Professor Holmes : * 
 taking up an oyster which happened to be gaping, 
 he exclaimed, Quid dignum tanto feret hie professor 
 hiatu ? f (substituting " professor " for " promis- 
 sor "). 
 
 He said, " Pearson would have been a first-rate 
 critic in Greek, if he had not muddled his brains 
 with divinity." 
 
 Person, of course, did not value the Latin writers 
 so much as the Greek ; but still he used to read 
 many of the former with great care, particularly 
 Cicero, of whose " Tusculan Disputations " he was 
 very fond. 
 
 For all modern Greek and Latin poetry he had 
 the profoundest contempt. When Herbert pub- 
 lished the " Musse Etonenses," Person said, after 
 looking over one of the volumes, " Here is trash, 
 fit only to be put behind the fire." 
 
 * The then Professor of Poetry, 
 f Horace, " Ars Poet,," 138.
 
 280 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 He cared less about Lucian than, considering 
 the subjects of that writer, you might suppose ; 
 the fact was, he did not relish such late Greek. 
 
 A gentleman who, at the age of forty, wished to 
 commence the study of Greek, asked Person with 
 what books he ought to begin ? Porson answered, 
 " With one only, Scapula's " Lexicon " ; read it 
 through from the first page to the last." Of the 
 editions of that work Porson most valued the 
 Geneva one ; he said that he had found in it several 
 things which were not in the other editions. 
 
 He recommended Gesner's " Thesaurus " * in 
 preference to all Latin dictionaries. 
 
 At a booksale, the auctioneer having put up 
 Wilkes's edition of " Theophrastus," and praised 
 it highly, Porson exclaimed, " Pooh, pooh, it is like 
 its editor, of no character." (I was very intimate 
 with Wilkes. He felt excessively angry at the 
 account given of him in Gibbon's " Journal " 
 in the quarto edition of his " Miscell. Works," 
 i. 100, and said to me that " Gibbon must have 
 been drunk when he wrote that passage." The 
 fact is, Lord Sheffield printed in the quarto edition 
 only part of what Gibbon had written about Wilkes : 
 if the whole of it had appeared there, as it after- 
 
 * Leipsic, 4 vols. fol. 1749.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 281 
 
 wards did in the octavo edition, I have no doubt 
 that Wilkes would have called out Lord Sheffield.) 
 
 Person would often carry in his pocket a volume 
 of " A Cordial for Low Spirits." * 
 
 On returning from a visit to the Lakes, I told 
 Person that Southey had said to me, " My ' Madoc ' 
 has brought me in a mere trifle ; but that poem 
 will be a valuable possession to my family." Person 
 answered, " ' Madoc ' will be read, when Homer 
 and Virgil are forgotten " (a bon-mot which reached 
 Lord Byron, and which his lordship spoilt t)- 
 
 He disliked reading folios, " because," said he, 
 " we meet with so few mile-stones " (i.e. we have 
 such long intervals between the turning over of the 
 leaves). 
 
 When asked why he had written so little, Porson 
 replied, " I doubt if I could produce any original 
 work which would command the attention of pos- 
 
 * As the " Cordial for Low Spirits," in three volumes, is now 
 little read, I may mention that it is a very curious collection of 
 controversial pieces, &c., some of which were written by Thomas 
 Gordon (author of the Independent Whig], who edited the work. 
 Its heterodoxy did not render it the less acceptable to Porson. 
 
 j " ' Joan of Arc ' was marvellous enough, but ' Thalaba ' was 
 one of those poems ' which,' in the words of Porson, ' will be read 
 when Homer and Virgil are forgotten, but not till then.' " 
 Note on " English Bards and Scotch Reviewers."
 
 282 RECOLLECTIONS OF THE 
 
 terity. I can be known only by my notes : and 
 I am quite satisfied if, three hundred years hence, 
 it shall be said that * one Person lived towards the 
 close of the eighteenth century, who did a good deal 
 for the text of Euripides.' " 
 
 The Letters on the Orgies of Bacchus, signed 
 " Mythologus," are undoubtedly by Person. Kidd 
 says that " his mind must have been'overclouded " * 
 at the time he wrote those Letters :Jwhich is not 
 true ; his mind was then in its soundest and most 
 vigorous state. They show plainly enough what his 
 opinions were. When any one said to him, " Why 
 don't you speak out more plainly on matters of 
 religion ? " he would answer, " No, no ; I shall take 
 care not to give my enemies a hold upon me." 
 The " New Catechism for the Use of the Swinish 
 Multitude " (which Carlisle of Fleet Street reprinted) 
 was also certainly by Porson. I transcribed it from 
 a copy in his own handwriting. 
 
 I have often heard him repeat the following lines, 
 which, I presume, were his own composition : f 
 
 * Person's " Tracts," p. xxxiii. note. A work of singular 
 absurdity and profanity, originally printed in the Morning 
 Chronicle, and reprinted in the Spirit of the Public Journals for 1 797. 
 
 f They are printed by Dubois, but very incorrectly, in his 
 satire on Sir John Carr, " My Pocket-Book," &c., p. 91.
 
 TABLE-TALK OF SAMUEL ROGERS 283 
 
 " Poetis nos Icetamur tribus, 
 Pye, Petro Pindar, parvo Pybus : 
 Si ulterius ire pergis, 
 Adde his Sir James Bland Burges." 
 
 A man of such habits as Person was little fitted 
 for the office of Librarian to the London Institu- 
 tion. He was very irregular in his attendance 
 there ; he never troubled himself about the pur- 
 chase of books which ought to have been added to 
 the library ; and he would frequently come home 
 dead-drunk long after midnight. I have good 
 reason to believe that, had he lived, he would have 
 been requested to give up the office, in other 
 words, he would have been dismissed. I once read 
 a letter which he received from the Directors of the 
 Institution, and which contained, among other 
 severe things, this cutting remark, " We only 
 know that you are our Librarian by seeing your 
 name attached to the receipts for your salary." 
 His intimate friend, Dr. Raine, was one of those 
 who signed that letter ; and Raine, speaking of it 
 to me, said, " Person well deserved it." As Libra- 
 rian to the Institution, he had 200 a year, apart- 
 ments rent-free, and the use of a servant. Yet he 
 was eternally railing at the Directors, calling them 
 " mercantile and mean beyond merchandize and 
 meanness."
 
 284 RECOLLECTIONS OF SAMUEL ROGERS 
 
 During the two last years of his life I could per- 
 ceive that he was not a little shaken ; and it is 
 really wonderful, when we consider his drinking, 
 and his total disregard of hours, that he lived so 
 long as he did. He told me that he had had an 
 affection of the lungs from his boyhood.
 
 INDEX 
 
 ADAIR, Sergt., 96 n 
 Addington, Dr., 71, 76 
 Aikin, 50 
 
 Alexander, Emperor, 249 
 Algeria, French policy in, 258 
 " Allegra," burial of, 182 
 Alvanley, Lord, 167 
 Andrews, Peter, 83 n 
 Anspach, Margravine of, 90 
 Aston, Colonel Harvey, 14 
 
 BAKER, Sir George, 263 
 
 Bank of England, "run" on, 77 
 
 Bannister, Jack, 4 
 
 Barbauld, Mrs., 50, 140, 186 
 
 Barker, E. H., 44 n 
 
 Barras, 211 
 
 Barry, actor, 55 
 
 Bathurst, Lord B., 13, 74, 207 
 
 Beadon, Dr., 94 
 
 Beauclerk, T, absent-mindedness of, 
 
 20 
 
 Beaumont, Sir G., 4, 148 
 Beckford, works, 167-70, 169 
 Begging letters, 188 
 Bentinck, Lord W. , 62 
 " Betty " (young), 54 
 Blucher, 245 
 Boddington, 21 
 Bolingbroke, 13, 134 n 
 Bonaparte, 53, 60, 209-511,229, 240 
 
 Lucien, 210 
 Bos well, ]., 6 
 Bowles, 77 n, 200 
 Brighton, 205 
 Brougham, 182 
 Burdett, 91 
 Burgess, Bishop, 279 
 Burke, Edmund, 47-8 , 49, 62, 129, 
 
 214 
 Burnet, Bishop, 55 
 
 Burney, Dr., and Person, 275 
 Butler, Charles, "Reminiscences," 
 
 45 
 
 Butler's " Analogy, 77-8 
 Byron, Lord, 114 n, 153, 176-187 
 
 English Bards xvi. n 
 
 id. quoted, 281 
 
 CADELL AND DAVIES, booksellers, 
 
 12, 67 
 
 Caesar's Commentaries, 59, 260 
 Campbell, T. , 161, 194-5 
 Canning, 119-120 
 Carlisle, Lord, 42 
 Caroline, Queen, 203-5 
 Gary, librarian, 224 
 pension for, 226 
 Castlereagh, Lord, 198-9 
 Catherine, Empress, 65-6 
 Chantrey, 117-8, 153 
 Charles X., 75, 213, 259 
 Charlotte, Queen, 202 
 
 Princess, death of, 207 
 Chatham, 63, 73, 135-6 
 Chesterfield, Lord, 82 
 Chinese, the, 259 
 " Clarissa Harlowe," 141, 224 n 
 Clansel, General, 230, 258 
 Cogan, Eliczer, 267 
 Coleridge, S. T., 158-60 
 Colman 193 
 " Columbus," 113 
 Combe, W., 78-80, 146 
 Cooper, W. J., protects the "Iron 
 
 Duke," 258 n 
 " Copenhagen," 246 
 " Cordial for low spirits," the, 281 
 Courtenay, 18 
 Cowper's "Task," 105-106 
 Crabbe, 190-2 
 Credi, L.di, 118
 
 286 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Crewe, Mrs. , 36, 49 
 Crewe Hall, ib. 
 Crewe, Lady, 171 
 Cumberland, Duke of, 64 
 Cumberland, R., 106-7 
 Curran, 119 
 Cuyp, 115 
 
 D'ADHEMAR, Count, 9 
 D'Alembert, 86-7 
 Dance, 9 
 
 D'Arblay, Me., 152 
 De Lancy, death of, 243 
 D'Enghien, death of, 60 
 De Stael, Me., 194, 211 
 Devonshire, Duke of, 149 
 
 Duchess of, 148 
 Diebitch, 255 
 Douay, College at, 78 
 Drinking, n, 71, 171 
 Dudley, Lord, 113, 144-5, 2O 4 
 Dundas, Mr., 71, no 
 Dunning, 34-5 
 Durham, Lord, 198 
 Dyer, Samuel, 214 
 
 Eddis, E. U. xiv. n. 
 
 Edwards, bookseller, 39 
 
 Eldon, 89 
 
 "Eliza," 80 
 
 Ellenborough, Lord, 154-5 
 
 Elwes, 87 
 
 Englefield, Sir H., 115 
 
 Erskine, 27-34, 89 
 
 Este Parson, 109 
 
 Euripides, 59 
 
 Executions at Tyburn, 142-3, 157 
 
 "FAGGING," 219 
 Farnborough, Lord, 9 
 Fitzgerald, Lord E., 254 
 Fitzpatrick, General 66, 149 
 Fivepound Notes, 77 
 Flaxman, 116 
 Foote, 62-4 
 Fordyce, Dr., n 
 Fox, C. J., 18, 41-61, 135 
 
 natural son of, 49 
 
 on Pitt, 51, 72 
 
 death of, 61 
 Fox, General, 51 
 France, 62 
 Francis, Sir Philip, 216-7 
 
 Frere, Hookham, 153 
 
 GAMBLING, 42 
 
 Garrick, David, 3, 4, 5 
 parsimony of, 63, 68 
 
 Genlis, Me. de, 50 
 
 Genoa, taxes of, 97 
 
 George III., 250 
 
 George IV., 206 ., 208-9 
 
 Gibbon, Edward, 12 
 
 "Decline and Fall," 37, 46 
 (his acacia walk), 61, 81, 94 
 and Person, 269 
 remarks on Wilkes, 280 
 
 Gifford, 113 ., 163 
 
 Godwin's "Caleb Williams," 193 
 
 Goethe, 196 
 
 Goodall, Dr., 263 
 
 Grattan, 128 
 
 Gray, Thomas, accent of, 16 
 Poems, 17-19, 57. 
 
 Grenville, Right Hon. T. G. 5, 36, 
 
 iSS 
 
 Lord, 71-77, 198 
 
 Lady, 113 
 Grey, Lord, 253 
 Griffoni, 97 
 Guildford, Lord, 175 
 " Gulliver's Travels," 199 
 Gurney, Baron, 268 
 
 HAGLEY, 82 
 
 Hamilton, Duke of, 139 
 
 Hamilton, Lady, 108 
 
 Hampden, Lord, 108 
 
 Hardinge, Sir H., 246-7 
 
 Hare, 66 
 
 Harris, see Malmesbury 
 
 Hastings, Warren, trial of, 37, 47 n. 
 
 Hayley, xvi., n, 
 
 Head-dresses, 10 
 
 Heber, Richard, on Porson, 272-3 
 
 Henderson, Actor, 70 
 
 Henley, translator of " Vathek," 
 
 16-17 
 Henry IV., place of the assassination 
 
 of, 259 
 
 Highwaymen, 121, 155 
 Holland, Lord I. 41, 58, 218-9 
 
 Lady, 61, 216 
 Holwood, 76-7 
 Hook, Theodore, 227 
 Hoppner, 162, 266
 
 INDEX 
 
 287 
 
 Horsley Bishop, 166, 275 
 
 Howard, the Philanthropist, 114 
 
 Howarth, D. H., 166 
 
 Howley, Bishop of London, 41 n. 
 
 Howth's (Lord) Rat, 126 
 
 " Human Life, 1 ' 130 
 
 Humanity, i 
 
 Hume, David, 67, 87, 93 
 
 Hurd, 63 
 
 INCHBALD, Mrs., 189 
 
 JACKSON, Cyril, 120 
 "Jacqueline," 114, n. 
 Jeffrey, 219-20 
 Jekyll, 66 
 Jessey, Lady, 206 
 Johnson, Dr., 5, 6 
 Jordan, Mrs., 37 
 "Junius," 129, 214-6 
 
 KEMBLE, 54, 147 
 Kingsgate, 58 
 
 LACING, tight, n 
 
 La Fayette, 21 
 
 La Marline, 196-7 
 
 Lamb, Lady C. , 179 
 
 Lamb, Charles, 182* 
 
 Lancaster, schoolmaster, 136 
 
 Lane, publisher, 108 
 
 Laurence, Dr., 47, 214 
 
 Lawless, 12 
 
 Lawrence, SirT., 115, 118, 143-5 
 
 Lee, J.,33-4 
 
 Legge, Bishop, 120 
 
 Lennox, Lady Sarah, 45* 
 
 Leopold, Prince, 208 
 
 Lewis, " Monk," 122 
 
 Lightning, sentinel killed by, 204 
 
 Ligny, Battle of, 242, 246 
 
 Liston, 197 
 
 Little's Poems, 221 
 
 Liverpool, Lord, 199 
 
 Lockhart, 151 
 
 London, changes in, 6, 7 
 
 streets of, 60 
 
 pronunciation, 193 
 Lonsdale, Lord, 161 
 Lough borough, Lord, 68 
 Louis XVIII , 245, 249 
 Lucas, Dr., 139 
 
 Lunardi, aeronaut, 51 
 Lunn, Miss, 64 
 Lyttleton, Lord, 82-3 
 vision, id. 
 
 MACKENZIE, Henry, 23 
 
 Mackintosh, Sir J, 25, 52, 154 
 
 Maclean (Maclaine), 19 
 
 Malmesbury, Lord, 91 
 
 Malone, 48 
 
 Maltby, H. 5, 262 
 
 Mansfield, Lord, 35, 63 
 
 Marlay, Dean, 132 
 
 Marmont, at Salamanca, 236 
 
 Marmontel, 50, 85 
 
 Mary Q., letters of, 13 
 
 Massena, 235 
 
 Matthias, 103-5 
 
 McDonald, Sir A., 33 
 
 Melville, Lord, 175 
 
 Metastasid, "Isacco," 57 
 
 Metternich, 251 
 
 Milton, 56 
 
 Mitford, 107 
 
 Monsey, Dr., 165-6 
 
 Moore, Sir J , 260 
 
 Moore, T. (on Sheridan), 39, 40 
 Memoirs of Byron, 181 
 quarrel with Jeffrey, 219, 220-4 
 earnings of, 223 
 
 Mornington, Lady, 247 
 
 Morton, dramatist, 83 
 
 Moscow, 251 
 
 Murat, 218 
 
 Murphy, 63' 67-70 
 
 Music, sale of, 35 
 
 " Mysteries of Udolpho," 75 
 
 " Mythologus," letters of (Porson), 
 282 
 
 NASH, " Beau," 64 
 Nelson, Lord, 109 
 Nollekens, sculpture by, 58 
 North, Lord, 36, 47 
 Northcote on the ' ' Young Betty 
 mania, 547* 
 
 O'CoiGLY, death of, 25 
 
 Oglethorpe, General, 6 
 
 " Omnibus," novelty of, 327 
 
 "Or-molu," 188 
 
 Ottley, 118 
 
 Ozille, theiSpy, 233-5
 
 288 
 
 INDEX 
 
 PALEY, Dr., 81, 270 
 " Pamela," 38 
 Parr, Dr. , 25 
 
 on Mackintosh, 23, Tjn, 274 
 " Paul Pry," 197 
 Payne-Knight, 1157 
 Peel, Sir R., 192' 
 Pepys, Sir W. W., 4 
 Perry, 278 
 Piozzis, the, 24 
 Pistrucci, 256 
 Pitt, 50-51, 71-2 
 
 speeches of, 76, 77 
 Poland, 251, 255 
 Poniatowski, 251 
 Pope, Alexander, u, 12 
 
 his villa, 13 
 Person, Dr., 48, 69, 170-4 
 
 librarian of London Institution, 
 202, 283 
 
 drinking habits, 264, 268, &c. 
 
 on study of Greek, 267 
 
 letters to Travis, 269 
 
 on Gibbon, 270 
 
 on theology, 271 
 
 powers of memory, 272 
 
 MS. notes, it. 
 
 " Hecuba," 276 
 
 on Bishop Porteous, 279 
 
 on Southey's " Madoc," 281 
 
 " Mythologus," &c., 282 
 
 "Porsoniana" cited, 51, 261-84 
 Price, Dr., 3 
 
 Price, Uvedale, 44, 67, 79, 189 
 Price, Major, 201-2 
 Priestley, Dr., 84-5, 274 
 Prince of Wales, 28-9 
 
 QUIN, the actor, 14 
 
 RAINE, Dr., 283 
 Ranelagh Gardens, 7 
 Revolution, the French, 21, 26 
 Reynolds, Sir J., 7, 9, 53 
 
 lectures of, ib. , 8 
 
 pictures, 8, 9, 54, 57 
 Richardson, S., 36-7, 141 
 
 on levity, 224 
 Richmond, Duchess of, her ball at 
 
 Brussels, 186 
 Robertson, 24 
 Robinson, Crabb, xiv., xviii. 
 
 Rogers, Samuel, Life of, xii.-xix. 
 
 "Table Talk," vii. -xi. 
 
 Banking Firm, xii. 
 
 Works, xvi.-xvii. 
 
 Rothschild, and the news of Water- 
 loo, 246 
 Rousseau, 67 
 
 "ST. ANNE'S HILL," 43, 57 
 St. Helens, Lord, 65-6 
 St. John, Hon. Mr., 79 
 St. Vincent, Lord, 74 
 Salisbury, Lady, death of, 194 
 Scott, Sir W., 40, 150-3, 185 
 " Life of Napoleon, "253 
 Seaforth, Lord, 175 
 Selwyn, George, 157 
 Sharp, Richard, i, 153 
 Shelburne, Lord, 84, 140 
 Shelley, 183-4 
 Sheridan, R. B., 36-41, 59, 73, 145, 
 
 153 
 
 (death of, 41 and note) 
 
 Tom, 126 
 Shipley, Dr., 263 
 Siddons, Mrs., 54, 106, 145-6 
 "Sidney Biddulph," 58 
 Si6yes, AbW, 212 
 " Skeleton in the porch," 123-6 
 Smith, Adam, 22-3 
 
 works, 94 
 
 " Bobus," 142, 213 
 Smith, Sidney, 228-9 
 Sneyd, Lines on Moore, 221 
 Soult, Marshal, 232-6 
 Southey, Robert, 159 
 
 " Madoc," 281 
 Spencer, W. , 220 
 Steevens, 104 
 " Stella," 134 
 Sterne (quoted), 48 , 80 
 Stone, Mrs., 49 
 Stone, W., trial of, no 
 
 evidence of S. R., in 
 Stothard, the painter, 71 
 Strafford, p. 137 
 Surr's "Winter in London," 149 
 
 TALLEYRAND, 49, 50, 209-213, 
 
 241 
 
 Temple Bar, heads of rebels on, 2 
 Thanet, Lord, 121
 
 INDEX 
 
 289 
 
 Thurlow, Lord, 28-9 
 
 Poems, 232 
 Tickell, 36-7 
 Tierney, 51 
 Tooke, Home, 35, 85-6-7 
 
 (trial of), 89, 90, 102 n 
 
 " Diversions of Purley," 95 n 
 
 charges against, 97 
 Transfers, tax on, 256 
 Turner, 116 
 Tyburn, 142-3, 157 
 
 UMBRELLAS, 20 
 
 VIRGIL, Fox's copy of, 60 
 Voltaire, Fox's visit to, 44-6 n 
 
 WAKEFIELD, Gilbert, 108, 276 
 
 his "Lucretius," 277 
 Warton, Joseph, 103 
 Waterloo, battle of, 240-8 
 " Waverley," authorship of, 153 
 Wellington, Duke of, 214 
 on his campaigns, 229-48 
 
 Wellington, Duke of, Reminiscences, 
 248-56 
 
 popular demonstration against, 
 256 
 
 " Crossing the Indus," 261 
 Wesley, John, 84 
 Wetherell, Sir C. , 257 
 Wewitzer, actor, 37 
 White, Lydia, 40 
 Wilberforce, 50, 77 
 Wilkes, John, 22, 98, 181, 280 
 William 1 1 1., 74 
 
 IV., 202 
 
 Williams, Helen M., 26 
 Willis, Colonel, 206 
 Wilson, Professor, on Campbell, 
 
 195 
 
 Windham, 53 
 Wolfe, Tone, 254 
 Wordsworth (on Gray), 19, 55, 
 
 131 n, 158-61, 182 n 
 
 YORK, Duke of, 120, 121 
 Young's Poems, 16 
 
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