i>'\'*^u»,^*J*^*:alfc^^■ ^ ^Mii THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE GILBERT* HELD BOOKSELLERS, SZMOORGATE STREET LONDON.E.C. EOGEES AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES VOL. II. R O G E E S ANU HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES P^W. CLAYDEN AUTHOR OF 'SAMUF.L SHARPE, EGYPTOLOGIST ETC.' •THR EARLY LIFK OP 8AMCEL ROGEP.S' ETC. f IN TWO VOLUMES VOL. II, LONDON SMITH, ELDEE. Sc CO., 15 WATERLOO PLACE 1889 [All riyfi(s rfSfrvtd'l c ^^ ^ %> CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. CHAPTER L 1828-1830. The Second Part of ' Italy ' — Rogers makes a Bonfire of both Parts —The Illustrated ' Italy '—Cost of the Engravings— The Artists and Engravers — The Outlay and Return — The Illustrated Poems — Turner and Stothard's Remuneration — The Balance- Sheet— Letter from Wordsworth — Wordsworth, Moore, Scott, and Rogers at Hampton — Fenimore Cooper — Catherine Fan- shawe— Uvedale Price— A Political Letter of Rogers's — Death of Daniel Rogers — Lamb's Sonnet — Samuel Rogers to his Sister-in-law— The Poet Crowe— Rogers and T. Moore— Rogers and Sir P. Francis — R. B. Haydon's Appeal — Letters from Wordsworth— From W. Stewart Rose— Washington Irving- Samuel Rogers to his Sister in Paris — Lord St. Helens, Lord Ashburnham, Charles Lamb, Wordsworth, William Roscoe, Lord Dudley, Lord Holland, and Sir Walter Scott . CHAPTER n. 1831-1834. Rogers and Wellington and Talleyrand— Rogers and Macaulay — Death of Mrs. Siddons— Letters from Wordsworth, Henry Hallam, and Brougham— Campbell and ' The Metropolitan '— Rogers and Earl Grey — Mrs. Joanna Baillie — Death of Mack- intosh and of Walter Scott — Moore on Rogers's House — Death of Henry Rogers — Letters from Charles Lamb, Wordsworth, rAGK vi ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES PAGB Macaulay— Rogers's Tour— Letters to Wordsworth, Sarah Rogers, and Richard Sharp— Richard Sharp on Ministerial Changes— Rogers and the Gossip at Brooks's— The King and his Ministers—' The Queen has done it all '—Lord Brougham's Eccentricities — Letter from Campbell 60 CHAPTER III. 1834-1837. Public Ai?airs in 1834— Deaths of Coleridge and Lamb -Moore's Diary — Crabb Robinson and Wordsworth at Rogers's — Last Letter to R. Sharp — R. Sharp's Death — Wordsworth upon him — Rogers to his Sister — Wordsworth's Letters — Ticknor's Diary — Rogers's Reputation for Cynicism — Rogers and Camp- bell — Rogers and Turner— Rogers's Bitter Sayings — Jokes of his Friends against him — The Quarterly Review on his Ap- pearance — Letter of the Duchess of Sutherland — Wordsworth — Rogers at Broadstairs — Crabb Robinson's Diary — Moore's Diary — Washington Irving — Wordsworth's Letter— Sir H. Taylor — Moore's Diary again — Rogers at Broadstairs and Paris — Mrs. Butler's Recollections — Crabb Robinson's — Moore's — A Whig Conclave at Bowood — Haydon 1 1 1 CHAPTEE IV. 1838-1841. Rogers an Old Man — His active Habits — Carlyle on Rogers — Rogers's Criticism of Emerson — Mr. F. Goodall's Recollections of Rogers — Ticknor's Visits to St. James's Place — Sir H. Taylor, Miss Jervis, and the Duke — Letter from Ticknor — Rogers at Broadstairs — Appeals to Lord Melbourne and Lord Holland for Cary — Charles Sumner on Rogers — Miss Edge- worth— Lord Wellesley — Archbishop Trench — Daniel Webster — Mrs. Butler— Sydney Smith — Blanco White— Charles Dick- ens — Haydon — W. H. Prescott— Daniel Webster's Letters — Ticknor's Letters — Charles Mackay — Macready— Crabb Robin- son — Letter from Dickens — Death of Lord Holland — Moore and Rogers at Bowood — Macready's ' Reminiscences ' — Rogers in Paris— E. Quillinan on Sir T. More's House — Rogers and Macaulay at Bowood — Rogers and Mrs. Butler . . .161 gONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME vii CHAPTER V. 1S42-1S44. rAOE Mr. Everett— Letters from Charles Dickens and Mrs. Dickens, and Sydney Smith— Sumner introduces Longfellow — LadyEussell's jcu d'es])rit—B,ogevs's Conversation — Eecollections of it by Henry Sharpe— Lines by Lady Dufferin— Death of Sutton Sharpe, Q.C.— Lord Dalling on Talleyrand and Danton— Letters from Dickens and Thackeray— Southey's Death— Wordsworth as Laureate— Judge Haliburton — Miss Edgeworth and Rogers on a Line of Pope's— Letters from Prescott, Sumner, and Sir Henry Ellis — Dickens's ' Christmas Carol ' — The late Dean Burgon in 1844 — Lord Howden's Letters — The Dissenters' Chapels Bill— Rogers to his Sister— Letter from Italy by Charles Dickens— The ' Marriage Brokers ' of Genoa — Rogers at Bowood — The Bank Robbery — Offers of Friends— Letters from E. Everett, Lord Lansdowne, Sydney Smith, and Lady Grey— Rogers to his Sister — Further Recollections of an Old Man's Talk 211 CHAPTER VI. 1845, 1846, WITH GLANCES BACK TO 184O-IS42 Death of Sydney Smith, of ' Bobus ' Smith, of Lord Grey, of Lady Holland- A Letter of Lady Holland's— Rogers's View of Lady Holland— Mrs. Kemble's' Recollections' — Rogers and Mrs. Grote — Sydney Smith on Rogers— Letter from Edward Everett— An Autumn in Paris — Rogers and Mrs. Forster — The Political Crisis in 1845— Rogers and Lord Grey— Rogers and Mr. and Mrs. Dickens — Letters from Edward Everett and Charles Sumner — Rogers's Portrait at Harvard— Rogers and Mrs. Norton— Letters from Mrs. Norton — Brougham's Correspon- dence— Mr. Ruskin and Rogers— Mr. Ruskin on Venice . . 267 CHAPTER VII. 1847-1850. Dr. Mackay's ' Breakfasts with Samuel Rogers '—Moore's last Visit to London— Death of Dora Quillinan— Death of the .\rchbishop of York— The Flaxmau Gallery— Letter from Crubb Robinson Vlii ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES PACK — The Grand Duke of Weimar at Rogers's — Letters from Daniel Webster, Edward Everett, Mr. Euskin, Bernard Barton, and Wordsworth — Correspondence with Peel, Hayward, John Forster, and Tennyson — Letter from Lord Brougham — An Old Man's Talk at Broadstairs — Crabb Robinson on the Flaxman Gallery — Charles Dickens on Brighton — Lord Carlisle on Rogers — Litroduction for M. Drouyn de I'Huys — Letters from Wm. H. Prescott, Edward Everett, George Ticknor, and Lord Glenelg — Death of Lord Jeffrey — Wordsworth's Death — Letters from Charles Dickens, Lord Brougham, and George Bancroft . 310 CHAPTER VIII. 1850. The Laureateship^Letter from Prince Albert — Lord John Russell on Tennyson — Rogers's Accident — He is lamed for Life — Lord Brougham's Letters on Public Affairs — Death of Sir R. Peel — Further Letters from Lord Brougham — Letters from Lady Russell, Hallam, Empson, Mr. Ruskin, Mrs. Jameson, E. Everett, and Sir H. Holland — Rogers to the Bishop of London on his Accident — Signs of Decline — Letters from Lady Morgan, Lady Emily Pusey, Sir Charles Napier, Lord Brougham, and E. Everett 351 CHAPTER IX. The Great Exhibition— Sir B. Brodie — Rogers and Macready — Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, Lord John Russell, Crabb Robinson, Mrs. Gladstone, Lord Denman, Lord Glenelg — Lord Brougham's Letters on Public Affairs — Kenney — Barbara Godfrey — Lady Herschel — Lady Campbell (Pamela) — Rogers as a Letter-writer — LadyMorgan — Mrs. Tom Moore — Moore's Death — Letter from John Forster — Mrs. Grote — Luttrell's Death — Turner's Death — Sir C. Eastlake on Turner's Will — Lines on the Hon. George Denman 's Marriage — Letter of Lord Brougham — Rogers to Lord John Russell on a Volume of Manuscript Poems . . 387 CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME ix CHAPTER X. 1852-1855. PA OK Fables about Rogers's Wealth— Appeals for his Patronage— Mr. Hayward's Estimate of him — His Kindness to Servants — Friends of later Years — Miss Coutts on Joanna Baillie's Death — Tom Taylor on the Duke of Wellington — Lord Brougham — Death of Enipson — Lord Glenelg — Lord John Eussell's ' Memoirs of Moore ' — Lady John Kussell — Mrs. Sigoumey — Other American Friends— Lord Shaftesbury — Mrs. Carrick Moore — The Napier Family — Lord Brougham — Eogers and Lord Denman — Lord Denman's Death— Lord Brougham on France — Lady Ely — Lady Emily Pusey — Failure of Rogers's Memory— Death of William Maltby — The Bishop of Durham — Mr. Everett's, Lady Ely's, and Lord Brougham's last Letters — Death of Sarah Rogers— The Closing Scene— Hornsey Church- yard 4'^ INDEX ... . ... . . 447 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES. CHAPTER I. I 828- I 830. The Second Part of ' Italy ' — Rogers makes a Bonfire of both Parts. The Illustrated ' Italy '—Cost of the Engravings — The Artists and En- gravers — The Outlay and Return — The Illustrated Poems — Turner and Stothard's Remuneration— The Balance-sheet— Letter from Words- worth — Wordsworth, Moore, Scott, and Rogers at Hampton— Feni- more Cooper — Catherine Fanshawe — Uvedale Price — A Political Letter of Rogers's— Death of Daniel Rogers — Lamb's Sonnet — Samuel Rogers to his Sister-in-law — The Poet Crowe — Rogers and T. Moore — Rogers and Sir P. Francis— R. B. Haydon's Appeal— Letters from Wordsworth — From W. Stewart Rose — Washington Irving— Samuel Rogers to his Sister in Paris— Lord St. Helens, Lord Ashburnham, Charles Lamb, Wordsworth, William Roscoe, Lord Dudley, Lord Holland and Sir Walter Scott. The Second Part of Rogers's * Italy ' was published in 1828. He had not put his name to the First Part, which had been issued in 1822, but there had been no conceal- ment of the authorship of the poem. He had spoken of it to his friends, and in letters from them, which I have already given, it is often referred to as his. "When the Second Part was published he put his name to it, and the whole poem was at once publicly recognised as VOL. II. B '2 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Eogers's. But in the days ^Yllen Byron was the rage, it was not probable that a poem Hke * Italy ' would suc- ceed. The author had had great pleasure in writing it, for it had kept alive the recollections he most desired to cherish of his Italian journeys. It had enabled him to revive the impressions which Italian art and Italian story had made upon his mind, and to live again among the scenes which had stimulated his poetical fancy and gratified his artistic taste. He was not to have the additional satisfaction of public appreciation. Anything to which the name of the author of ' The Pleasures of Memory ' was attached was sure of audience from a cul- tivated few, and ' Italy ' had that measure of success. It was talked about in literary parties, read in country houses where the author was known, appreciated and admired by many persons whose appreciation was worth having, but it was not noticed by the chief reviews nor bought by the public. From the publisher's j)oint of view — the most important in many respects — it was a failure. Rogers took the failure in good part. Samuel Sharpe says, ' Mr. Rogers fancied that the cool manner in which the poem was at first received amounted to an un- favourable verdict. He was not disposed to question the taste of the public in the case of a work which was meant to please the public. So he made a bonfire, as he described it, of the unsold copies, and set himself to the task of making it better.' This task occupied him for the next two years. He had published illustrations in many of the editions of his earlier poems, and he determined to issue an illustrated edition of * Italy.' The whole poem was revised, en- THE ILLUSTRATED 'ITALY' 3 larged, and improved, points were carefully selected for illustration, and some of the chief artists of the time were engaged to make the drawings, and to engrave them on steel. Everything was done under Rogers's own con- stant direction and supervision. He chose the subjects, suggested the character of the pictures, superintended their execution, and made the illustrations almost as much his own as the letter-press they adorned. Of fifty five illustrations in the first edition — increased after- wards to fifty-six — twenty-five were from Turner's draw- ings, twenty from Stothard's, two from Front's, one was from Colonel Batty 's design, one from a picture of Titian's, and another from a picture of Vasari's. The others are mere ornaments and without names. Of the fifty en- graved pictures, sixteen are by Goodall, seven by Wallis, six by Daniel Allen, five by W. Findon, four by W. R. Smith, three by J. H. Robinson, two each by H. Le Keux and J. Pye, and one each by Humphrys, W. Cooke, C. Rolls, S. Davenport, and F, C. Lewis. The three vases with no engraver's name are by D. Allen. It is curious to note the inequalities in the price paid for the work of the engravers. The largest sums for single plates were forty pounds each, paid to Humphrys and J. H. Robin- .son, the former for Stothard's picture of ' The Nun ' — When on her knees she fell Entering the solemn place of consecration, — and the latter for the same painter's* Dancing Girls,' on page 196. Stothard's 'Brides of Venice' was engraved by C. Rolls, who received thirty-seven pounds for the work. Turner's ' Paestum ' and ' Tivoli ' were engi-aved B 2 4 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES by J. Pye at a cost of thirty-five pounds each ; Stothard's * Jorasse ' and ' The Fountam ' were engraved by W. Findon, who received thu-ty guineas for each. Goodall had twenty-five guineas each for ' Como,' ' Foscari,' and * The Tournament,' and twenty guineas for Turner's * Florence,' ' Naples,' ' The Campagna,' ' Napoleon cross- ing the Alps,' and ' The Lake of Geneva,' as well as for Stothard's ' Pilgrim.' Wallis had the same sum for en- graving Turner's 'William Tell's Chapel,' ' St. Maurice,' and ' St. Peter's,' and Smith for each of the two views of * The Great St. Bernard.' The total cost of producing the whole edition of ten thousand copies, including some separate proofs of the illustrations, was 7,335^. The sale was large enough to make even this immense outlay a good investment. On the 31st of December, 1830, 3,959 copies had been sold, producing 4,2 5 2L ; at the end of the next half-year i,4i6more had gone, yielding 1,521^, and thirty illustrations 60L — making 5,833^. On the 17th of May, 1832, the total sale had reached 6,800. That is the latest memorandum I find on the matter. There were then, the memorandum says, ' 648 copies to sell before expenses are paid.' The rest would be profit, and there is no reason to doubt that in the course of a few years the profit was made. The reception which was given to this magnificent book encouraged Eogers to bring out an edition of his poems corresponding with it. This volume not only reproduced the artistic success of ' Italy,' but improved upon it. There were thirty-five drawings of Stothard's, thirty-three by Turner, and one by Flaxman. To these sixty-nine, were added an engraving by Daniel Allen of a THE ILLUSTRATED 'POEMS' 5 vase, and of one of Callow's ' Beggars,' and another by Engleheart of Parmigiano's ' Boy in a Window.' Of the engravings of Turner's and Stothard's designs, thirty- two were by W. Findon, twenty-seven by Goodall, four by Miller, and two by Wallis. Findon also engraved Flaxman's * Sir Thomas More and his Daughter.' The publication of this exquisite volume was a marked event in the history of art. There can be little doubt that the illustrations to Eogers's * Italy ' and Rogers's * Poems ' first made Turner known to vast multitudes of the English people. One of the most vivid recollections of my own boyhood is the wakening up of a new sense of an ideal world of beauty as I lingered over the lovely landscapes on these delightful pages. The * Village Green, ' illustrating the opening lines of ' The Pleasures of Memory,' the boy at the stile with the village below him — The adventurous boy, that asks his little share. And hies from home with many a gossip's prayer, Turns on the neighbouring hill once more to see The dear abode of peace and privacy. — the view up Derwentwater with Lodore in the distance, and, loveliest of all, the evening vision at the end of the volume, inscribed, ' Datur hora qnicti' — still bring back much of the feeling with which one hung over them in the early days when it was hardly lawful to take the volume from the table. I venture to express this feeling of my own boyhood because there are many whose re- collections of these two volumes harmonise with mine, to whom they were an education, and who learned from them to admire Turner before they had actually seen one of his paintings. Rogers did not buy the pictures 6 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES of Turner and Stothard, he paid those artists only for the right to engrave their drawings. There are only two memorandums left of the price paid for this right. I find one entry dated Christmas Day, 1831. Paid Mr. Turner 115/. lo.s. 0(/. for twenty-two; 36L iS-s.od.ior seven, making together 152Z. 5s, od. In another memo- randum I find 1 ,522L los. od. down, ' for engraving large,' 157/. los. od. 'for engraving small.' 'Paid Turner 147/., paid Stothard 189L, paid for embellishments 2,016/.' This is probably for ' Italy.' ' The prices paid for the engravings were a little less in the second volume than in the first. Goodall had thirty guineas for the view of Grantham Church, which illustrates ' The Wake,' as well as for ' Greenwich Hos- pital,' for ' Vallombrosa,' and for ' Columbus discover- ing Land.' He had twenty-five guineas each for ' The Gipsy,' ' The Village Green,' the ' Boy at the Stile,' and ' In some manuscript notes by the Rev. Alexander Dyce to his copy of Rogers's Italy, now in the Hbrary of South Kensington Museum, he says that Rogers told him : ' I paid Turner 5Z. for each of the illustra- tions to my two volumes, with the stipulation that the drawings should be returned to him, after they had been engraved ; and the truth is, they were of little value as drawings. The engravers understand Turner perfectly, and make out his slight sketches : besides, they always submit to him the plates, which he touches and retouches, till the most beautiful effect is produced. The mere engraving of each vignette (taking one with another) cost 40I. ; the whole expense of the two volumes was 15,000?.' 'This vignette ["The Fountain," p. 175], by Stothard, was done from my description of what I actually saw— an Italian girl giving her little brother water to drink in the palms of her joined hands.' ' I never had any difficulty with Stothard and Turner about the drawings for my works. They always readily assented to whatever alterations I proposed ; and sometimes I even put a figure by Stothard into one of Turner's landscapes. The two figures in the fore- ground of vignette p. 151 are Stothard's ; the standing figure in vignett p. 248 is also Stothard's.' COST OF THE ENGRAVINGS 7 others, ^vlnlo Fiiiduii had ten guineas for the smaller engravmgs, such as * Sir Thomas More,' and the * Two Boys in a Boat ' ; fifteen guineas for ' The Judges,' and twenty-five guineas for the larger plates, such as * Lady Jane Grey,' 'The Italian Song,' and the 'Concert.' I find a memorandum of the w^hole cost, made at the end of the first year after the book was issued, which shows that the books cost 6,436/. 19s., advertisements 50/., and illustrations 898/. 5.9. iO(/. A year's interest is added, making 7,755/. 4.S. iO(/. There had been received 6,354/. 2s. 6d., leaving 1,620 copies to be sold before the sum was returned. The estimate is further carried out that the sale of the whole edition would produce 2,340/. more, leaving a profit w'hen the books were sold of 1,309/. There was something singularly appropriate to Rogers's reputation in this association of his writings with the most perfect productions of the art of the time. He was already widely known as a patron of art. For more than a quarter of a century his house had been regarded as the model dwelling of the man of taste and refinement, and his judgment on all such matters was looked up to as authoritative. The publication of these volumes confirmed and extended this reputation. For the next twenty years there were few drawing rooms in which one of these books was not on the table, and probably there were no cultivated people who had not turned to them again and again with ever increasing delight. There had been nothing like them before, there has been nothing fully equal to them since.' ' 'Apart from these adventitious charms,' says Professor Minto in his excellent article on Eogers in the Eiicyclopadia Britannica, ' Italy 8 ROGERS AND HIS CONTE]VIPORARIES The publication of the Second Part of ' Italy,' which was the immediate occasion of the issue of this adorned edition of his works, brought the productive period of Eogers's life to its close. Fifty years passed between the time at which he was writing his first essay as ' The Scribbler ' ' for * The Gentleman's Magazine,' and that at which the success of the illustrated ' Italy ' encouraged him to undertake the illustration of his poems. He was seventy before that edition was completed, and after its issue he wrote only the address to Lord Grey. There is, indeed, in his poems as now published, another poem, entitled 'Written in 1834,' but in the first illustrated edition the same poem, only seventeen lines long, is headed 'Written in 181 5.' It was, in fact, written after the battle of Waterloo, and then, in 1834, rewritten so as to bring in the greater triumph of the abolition of slavery. These pieces and the lines to Lord Grenville, headed 'Written at Dropmore, July, 183 1,' were nearly all that he produced after ' Italy ' was published. He did much in the way of revision, but no more original work. The short poem on Strathfieldsaye was probably written on his visit to the Duke of Wellington in 1827, and the lines entitled * Eeflections ' had been written for ' Italy,' but not used in that poem. Many of the notes at the has much greater general interest than any other of Eogers's poems, and is likely to be read for long, if only as a traveller's companion. The style is studiously simple ; the blank verse has quite an Elizabethan flavour, and abounds in happy lines ; the reflexions have a keen point, and the incidental stories are told with admirable brevity and effect. Passages of prose are interspersed, wrought with the same care as the verses, and the notes are models of interesting detail concisely put.' ' The Early Life of Samuel Rogers, p. 53. WORDSWORTH 9 €nd of bis poems, some of them short essays of great heauty, were written in his old age. The Second Part of * Italy ' was sent to Wordsworth in sheets, as the proofs came in, but no record remains of his criticisms or other observations, if any were made. He was in London with his daughter Dora in May, 1828, on a visit to Mr. Quillinan, who had been his neighbour ni Rydal, of whose younger daughter Wordsworth was godfather, and for whose deceased wife he had written an epitaph. On settmg out for London he wrote to Rogers a letter which further illustrates the relations between them. WiiUdin Wordsworth to Samuel Rogers. [Postmark, 19 April, 1828.] 'My dear E., — To-night I set off for Cambridge, passing by Coleorton, where I shall stay a couple of days with the Rector. My son accompanies me ; bemg about to undertake a Curacy in .a Parish adjoining that of €oleorton, near Grace Dieu, the birth-place of Beaumont the dramatist. At Cambridge I purpose to stay till the loth or I ith of May, and then for a short, very short, visit to London, where I shall be sadly disappointed if I do not meet you. My main object is to look out for some situation, mercantile if it could be found, for my younger son. If you can serve me, pray do. * I have troubled you with this note to beg you would send any further sheets of 3'our poem, up to the 8th or so of next month, to me at Trinity Lodge, Cambridge. Farewell. My wife and daughter are, I trust, already at Cambridge. M}' sister begs her kindest regards. Miss 10 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Hutchinson is here, who has also been much gratified by your poem, and begs to be remembered to you. ' Ever faithfully yours, ' Wm. Woedsworth.' This visit of Wordsworth's to London was opportune. Scott was then in town, and about the time Wordsworth, was writing this letter was dining at Eogers's, with all his own family, and Sharp, Lord John Eussell, and Jekyll. * The conversation,' says Scott in his Diary, ' flagged as usual, and jokes were fired like minute guns, producing an effect not much less melancholy.' On May 25 he puts on record a short account of one of those great conjunctions of which Eogers's life was fuller than that of any other man. Imagine a day at Hampton Court with Scott, Wordsworth, Tom Moore, and Sam Eogers ! Scott writes on May 25, 1828: 'After a morning of letter-writing, leave-taking, papers destroying, and God knows what trumpery, Sophia and I set out for Hampton Court, carrying with us the following lions and lionesses : Samuel Eogers, Tom Moore, Wordsworth, with wife and daughter. We were very kindly and properly received by Walter and his wife, and had a very pleasant day. At parting, Eogers gave me a gold-mounted pair of glasses, which I will not part with in a hurry. I really like S. E., and have always found him most friendly.* This account of Scott's differs curiously from that which Moore gives in his Diary. He tells us that Scott called for him at Eogers's, and the three went down together, finding the Wordsworths when they got to Hampton. On the way down they talked of ghosts, and Eogers told WORDSWORTH 1 1 a story he had heard from Lord Wriothesley Russell of a young couple at Berlin, over whom some guilty mystery hung. As they sat in their box at the opera somebody was seen from a distance to be sitting between them, but on going to the box nobody was found but themselves. On the first of June the Wordsworths and Luttrell were breakfasting at Rogers's and Moore met them. Wordsworth produced an album, and Rogers, Moore, and Luttrell wrote in it. On leaving London Wordsworth went with Coleridge for a Continental tour, taking his daughter with him. In August he returned. ]]'illiam WordsicortJi to Samuel Ilogers. Anvers (Antwerp, we call it) : 2nd August (1828). ' My dear Rogers, — A note will suffice to tell you that here we are after a long and pleasant ramble upon the Rhine and through Holland and the Netherlands. On Tuesday I hope to be m London ; shall drive to my old quarters in Bryanston Street, intending to stay not more than three days. Should be happy to meet you again. ' Farewell, with kind regards from my daughter, who is [in] the room where I write, * Ever yours, 'Wm. Wor.' Durmg Wordsworth's visit to London in the spring, Cooper, the American novelist, was there, and, of course, was to be seen at Rogers's. Moore records a breakfast at Rogers's on the 22nd of May at which Sydney Smith came in, and told some stories of Cooper's touchiness. Moore 12 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES met him at Eogers's three days later and found him very agreeable. Eogers, talking of Washington Irving's * Columbus,' said in his dry, significant way, as Moore calls it, ' It's rather long.' Cooper turned round on him and said sharply, ' That's a short criticism.' James Fenimore Cooper was then in the heyday of his fame. He had just written that series of novels which every man past middle age remembers as the charm and delight of his boyhood's reading. The ' Spy ' had appeared in 1822, and when he was in London in 1828, ' The Last of the Mohicans,' * The Eed Kover,' and ' The Prairie,' the three novels by which he is chiefly remembered, were fresh in the public mind. Eogers not only welcomed him to his house, but mtroduced him to society, and showed him, as he did many other distinguished Americans, much attention. Some three years later (Cooper himself, with his whole absence from his own country in view, makes it four) Eogers received from him an interesting account of his doings, in a letter which is especially valuable for the political speculations which that revolutionary period suggested to an intelligent observer from the new world. James Fenimore Cooper to Samuel Rogers. 'Paris: January rgth, 1831. ' My dear Sir, — So long a time has elapsed since we parted, that I am almost afraid to write you, though the object of my letter is a tardy but sincere expression of the grateful recollection of all your kindnesses when in London. I did write to you with the same intent from Florence early in 1829, but some circumstances have led me to infer that by an oversight the letter was never JAMES FENIMORE COOPER 13 sent — an accident of by no means rare occurrence in my correspondence. Both Mrs. Cooper and myself retain a pleasant remembrance of your good offices, and I ought to add, your good nature, while we were sojourners in the wilderness of your capital. I am willing to flatter myself with the impression that you still feel sufficient mterest in our welfare not to shut your ears against an account of what we have been about during the last four years. * From London, as you may remember, possibly, we went to Holland, and, after a short delay m Paris, to Switzerland, where we passed the summer. In the autumn we crossed the Alps. Our stay in Italy extended to near two years, and we left it by the Tyrol for German}'. After the late revolution we came back here for the purpose of giving om* girls, of whom there are four, the advantages of the masters. I regret to say that my nephew, whom you may remember, a tall stripling, and who grew into a handsome man, died of consumption in September last. Little Paul often speaks of the Pare St. Jacques, and Monsieur Rogers, and of an old woman who sold fresh milk in your neighbourhood. I do not know that you ought to be much flattered by the association, but you will at least admit that it is natural. * I continue, as George III. said to Johnson, to ** scribble, scrilible, scribble," though with something less of advantage to mankind than was the case with the great moralist. In one sense, however, I am quite his equal, for I do as well as I can. Smce I saw you I have published three tales, and am now hard at work at a fourth. The last was on a subject connected with Italy, 14 EOGEES AND HIS COiNTEMPORARIES the scene being in Venice, and I frequently stimulated the imagination by reading your own images and tales of that part of Europe. I know nothing of its reception among you, though I fancy there will be a disposition to drive me back again into my own hemisphere. There is a good deal of Falstaff's humour about me in the way of. compulsion, and so I may prove hard-headed enough to try my hand again. Some one told me that I was accused of presumption for laying the scene of a story in a town rendered immortal by Shakespeare and Byron. Luckily there is a sort of immunity that is peculiarly the right of insignificance, and I confess that the idea of in- vading the domains of your great poets never crossed my brain. I had a crotchet to be delivered of, and pro- duced it must be, though it were stillborn. I am far from certain that it ought to be imputed as a crime to any man that he is not Shakespeare or Scott, so I shall go on with the confidence of innocence. ' I heard through Mr. Wilkes that the picture which I wished you to accept as a feeble testimony of my recol- lection of your kindness was sent, and I hope it was not a bad specimen of the artist's talent, which I take to be of a very high order. I hear he is doing wonders, and that he is attracting notice in Italy. He is studying the figure, they tell me, with signal success. I picked up a little picture the other day in the open streets that is generally much esteemed. It is a female portrait of the time of Louis XIV., of the Flemish school, we think, and certainly an original from the hand of some eminent painter. I do not remember a dozen better portraits, though it is something the worse for exposure and time. JAMES FENI-AIORE COOPER 15 It cost me just a guinea ! The only account I can find of it is a sort of tradition in a family that owned it thirty years that it is a portrait, by Teniers, of his own wife. The manner of Teniers is what may be termed silvery, and that of my portrait is rather in the style of Correggio. It is exquisitely drawn and coloured, but the face strikes everybody as being decidedly German, or at least Flemish. Could you help me to a hint, to a print, or to any book that would be likely to throw light on the matter. * Wonderful changes have occurred since I had the pleasure of seeing you, but I think greater still are in store. Is not the tendency of the present spu-it obvious ? and ought not your aristocracy to throw themselves into the stream and go with the current, rather than hope to stem a torrent that in its nature is irresistible ? If your system of Government has had its advantages in its pliable character (and it certainly has avoided many great dangers by quietly assuming new shades of policy), it has also one great and menacing disadvantage, that I do not see how it can resist. The contradiction between theory and practice has left your controlling power ex- posed to the unwearied and all-powerful attacks of the press, for though treason can [not] be written against the king the aristocracy has no such protection. The idea of defending any limited body by the press against the assaults of the press seems a desperate experiment, for, right or wrong, there is but one means of keeping physical force and political power asunder, and that is the remedy of ignorance. To me at this distance it seems an inevit- able consequence of your actual social condition that both 16 ROGEES AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES your church estabHshment and your peerage must give way. America might furnish a useful example to warn the English aristocracy if they would consent to study it. Our gentry put themselves in opposition to the mass, after the revolution, simply because, being in the habit of receiving their ideas from the most aristocratic nation of our time, they fancied there were irreconcilable interests to separate the rich man from the poor man, and that they had nothing to expect from the latter class should it get into the ascendant. They consequently supported theories adverse to the amalgamation, and as a matter of course, the instinct of the multitude warned them against trusting men opposed to their rights. The error has been discovered, and although individuals among those who were prominent in supporting exclusive doctrines are necessarily proscribed by opinion, the nation shows all proper deference to education and character ; when these are united to money and discreetly used they are of necessity still more certain of notice. Jefferson was the man to whom we owe the high lesson that the natural privileges of a social aristocracy are in truth no more than their natural privileges. With us, all questions of personal rights, except in the case of the poor slaves, are effectually settled, and yet every really valuable interest is as secure as it is anywhere else. ' It is curious to note the effect of the present con- dition of England. When the prerogative was in the ascendant, Charles made six Dukes of his illegitimate sons (Monmouth included), and George IV. scarce dared own his progeny. Even the first of the Hanoverian princes presumed to make a Duchess of his mistress. FRENCH POLITICS IN 1831 17 but all that power disappeared before the increasing ascendancy of the nobles. Now the many and the few are in opposition, the King comes into the account, and we hear of lords and ladies among his offspring. A bold and able monarch would in such a crisis regain his authority, and wc should again hear the phrase "Le roi y pejisera." The experiment would be delicate, but it might succeed by acting on the fears of the middle classes, the fundholders, and the timid. With the cast of cha- racter that has actually been made by Providence, I think, however, there is little probal)ility that the drama will receive this denouement. ' Here we have just got out of the provisoire. The furoj- of moderation is likely enough, I think, to put us all back again. There is an unfortunate and material distinction between the interests of those who rule and those who are ruled to come in aid of the floundering measures of the ministry. The intentions of the ''juste milieu " are obviously to make the revolution a mere change of dynasties, while the people have believed in a change of principles. Could the different sections of the Opposition unite, the present state of things would not endure a month. Neither the National Guard nor the Army is any security against a great movement, for they are more likely to go against the Government than with it. There have been some very serious steps taken in the courts here of late which look grave. The judges have exercised a right of sentencing prisoners that a jury had acquitted. There is probably some show of law for the measure, but it is a very grave and hazardous course. On the whole, I am of opinion that King Louis Philippe's VOL. II. c 18 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Civil List may be worth some two or three years' pm'chase. I would not give him three. * But I am boring you with politics, when apology for writing at all is the most material matter, Mrs. Cooper desh-es to be remembered to Miss Eogers and yourself, and I beg also to be mentioned to your sister. I should like exceedingly, did you not think it encroaching on your good nature, to be mentioned to Dr. and Mrs. Somerville. * I can tell you nothing of Parisian society, not having dined or passed an evening out of my own house in five months. Nobody comes to see me, and I go to see nobody, or next to nobody. I have a pleasant and happy fireside of my own, and am quite content. I should be very glad to Bee you among us. There was a report some time since that you were about to visit Paris, and I had hopes of meeting you here. Perhaps yon did come, and I was ignorant of your presence, for I am so much out of the world that it might very well happen. Should you not have been, and should you in truth come, I trust you will take the trouble to send a card with your address to me, and I add my street and number not to miss the occasion of seeing you. * Believe me, dear Sir, * Very truly and faithfully yours, ' J. Fenimore Cooper. ' Euc St. Dominique St. Germain, No. 59.' Going back to 1 828, there are a couple of letters worth preserving — one from Uvedale Price, who in this year was made a baronet, and the other from Miss Fanshawe, ' a woman of rare wit and genius, in whose society Scott MISS FANSHAWE 19 greatly delighted,' as Loekhart tells us. ' I read Miss Fanshawe's pieces, which are quite beautiful,' says Joanna Baillie in one of her letters. Miss Fanshawe's pieces were published by Joanna Baillie in her collection of ' Poetical Miscellanies.' She was the writer of the cele- brated enigma often attributed to Lord Byron, begin- ning — 'Twas whispered in heaven, 'twas muttered in hell, And echo caught lightly the sound as it fell. She writes to Rogers on the eve of her departure on a Continental tour — Catherine Fanshawe to Samuel Rogers. ' Dover : i8th August (1S28). ' Dear Mr. Rogers, — This is a P.P.C. card, for we are purposing in less than three weeks to traverse a little sea and much dry land (if any land be dry in such a season) and pass the coming winter at Nice. Last winter my dear invalid used to wish herself there per wishing cap, but I call for your congratulations on her now being sufficiently recovered to intend working her way thither by steam and coach, and your very good wishes I depend on receiving for those I hereby send you, together with the hope that we may all have a happy meetmg next spring in London. 1 have a confused re- collection of your having had some thoughts of visiting Switzerland in the course of the summer. Li that case I hope that my adicux will not follow 3'ou, for they are certainly not worth is. iid., though acting as cover to the impertinence of talking over with you, in the only way left me, your " Italy," Part the Second. Really, it would c 2 20 KOGEES AND HIS CONTEMPOKARIES be ungrateful not to thank you for the great pleasure it has given me— just given — for we don't deal in poetry in Dover, but Mr. Bigge, whom perhaps you know, happily brought it with him. Will you have a list of my favorite poems ? The opening of the first, " Eome " : oh ! how it recalls my feelings when first looking round me there, save that my historical recollections were few, and classical I of course had none. "The Campagna," of which so much has been said and sung, but never half so well. The whole as a composition is so fine, the succession of pic- tures so vivid, and the details as distinct and spirited as in the shield of Achilles. " The Tomb of Caius Cestius " strikes me as original, and is very touching ; " The Nun " exquisite ; " The Fountain ," methinks, I had before seen and admired in Part the First, but it is with everything else I want in Berkeley Square ; the piece called " A Charac- ter," not for the sake of Montrioli's, but of the just and beautiful sentiments it calls forth ; lastly, "The Felucca." I believe people now make verse by steam, for one can- not otherwise account for the facility with which anyone writes it. Rhyme, metre, elegance, and even spirit are grown quite common — -such brilliant execution and so little invention, design, or expression. All this drives the real poet to the utmost confines of simplicity, and Mr. Rogers' s Muse, conscious of her genuine loveliness, dis- dained, perhaps too much, the aid of ornament, and when first she visited Italy lost some of her attractions. I am glad to see her again wearing, not for display, but as proper to her rank, some choice jewels — for example — ' When Eaphael and his school to Florence came, illing the land with splendour. MISS FANSHAWE ON 'ITALY' 21 ' I forget which poem this is in, but 'tis no sohtary in- stance. That volume, consisting chiefly of narrative pieces and in a lower key of sentiment, I much wished had been written in prose, or interspersed with some, and now my wish is gratified. You know not your own strength in prose. It is almost an exploded art ; its perfection lies in the simplicity and conciseness for which you stand un- rivalled. Without the affectation of either, there is not to be found a superfluous word or sentence. All who know how to read can understand you, and all who ex- amine style must feel the real elegance of yours. I am sure you have a virtuous horror of the slang and jargon that are now thrusting honest old English off the stage. Such overcharged epithets, such perpetual allusion to arts, sciences, and manufactures ! Then, one is so palled with quotations from Shakespeare that one wishes for sumptuary laws to restrain the use of him. Some law you will desire to restrain my sputtering, but what cross fit would not be cured by your chapter on "Foreign Travel " "? It is quite delicious, as Mrs. Weddell would say, and specially palatable to us vagabonds. " National Prejudices," exactly my own thoughts on the subject, which I thank you for clothing with your own language. How this little book is liked by the world I have no means of knowing, but to one small individual it has given un- niingled pleasure from the union of so much goodness and benevolence with so much talent. ' Dover is a charming place, especially, as Gray says of Cambridge, when there is nobody in it. Next to very good society is the comfort of no society at all, or very very little, which is happily our case. Living close to 22 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES the sea, it affords an incessant and infinite variety, and is a noble object even in its gloomiest moods. Its bright ones have not affected my eyes, which suffer a little at times during long continuance of wet, but recovered as soon as I left my beautiful enemy, the Thames. Of chalk cliffs these are, as you must know, but never perhaps stayed to make their acquaintance, the finest and boldest imaginable, and the little old town and bay I delight in. The humours of the pier do not come into our account, and we have profited only by two or three of the birds of passage who know us to be here. ' It is high time to bring this hnvardage to a conclusion, so, with kind regards to Miss Rogers, I beg you to believe me, * Your sincerely obliged, ' C. M. Fanshawe.' > The letter from Sir Uvedale Price is the last. He was in his eighty-first year, and had been a frequent visitor to Rogers, who had sometimes found him a bore. He often outstayed his welcome, and Rogers had on one occasion to get rid of him by a manoeuvre. He was a very inte- resting person, as his letters show. He had gone with Fox to see Voltaire at Ferney, and described the interview in a letter to Rogers, which Lord Holland borrowed and never returned. He published, in 1 827, an ' Essay on the Modern Pronunciation of the Greek and Latin Languages,' in which he anticipates some modern changes, as he had in his essays on the Picturesque led to the reform of landscape gardening. SIR UVED.ILE price's LAST LETTER 23 Sir Uvedale Price to Samuel Rogers. • Foxley : 21st July, 1828. * Dear Eogers, — Of all dilatory correspondents you certainly are the most so; and if you were also the dullest, the two qualities would be well suited to each other : as that is not exactly the case, you are the most tantalising. Here was I week after week in constant hope and expectation ; a month passed, and then another fortnight, and at last the letter did come within the two months. I well know how constantly your time is occupied at home with a succession of visitors of every description, with all sorts of talents, whom you have the enviable art of collecting about you ; and I allow a great deal for it : but I sometimes think you indulge yourself in delay, as it gives you an opportunity of making a number of the lightest, best turned excuses possible, and so prettily diversified, that your corre- spondent, though he may not give full credit to them all, is so amused that he cannot be angry ; other parts of your letter, where my friends and acquaintance pass in review before me, are well calculated to disarm anger ; but there is one small part which, if you perform what it seems to promise, will make ample compensation for your sin of delay, were it ten times as great ; and if you are dying to see my new walk, I am dying to have you here and to show it you with other novelties. This new walk, you must know. Lady Sarah took a fancy to ; it was made for her, and if you come, who knows whether she may not show it you herself? Come therefore, even for the chance, if you have a spark of gallantry about you ; 24 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPOEAKIES as to passing a day or two, e ini modo di imrlare. " Mais parlous im peu de ma fille," says Madame de Sevigne ; and so say I, with no less parental fondness ; I need not say who she is, as you have so kindly intro- duced her to several of your acquaintance. I have had a very obliging and satisfactory letter from the transla- tor of Dante (a title he may well be proud of), written in a remarkably simple, natural style. I shall be very glad to cultivate his acquaintance whenever I have an opportunity ; next time I come to town you must be the go-between. I have also had a very amiable and pleasant letter from Jekyll, who seems to take a more lively inte- rest in the subject than I expected. If Brougham has read the essay it is quite as much as I could hope for. There is one person to whom I particularly wished you to offer my essay that you have forgotten — Dr. Worthington, of whose talents you spoke to me in the highest terms ; I had some little conversation with him on the subject at your house, and from that little should expect very useful remarks could he be prevailed upon to put them down. Pray send for a copy to Normaville and Fell, New Bond Street, and beg his acceptance of it, and lay the blame on yourself for the delay. I wish you could also persuade Mr. Gary to criticise and communicate. * I will not say " Nil mihi rescribas," for I delight in your letters, and you are a man to take me at my word ; but I do most strongly and earnestly say " ipse veni." ' Most truly yours, 'U. Price.' THE GREAT MEASURE OF 1829 25 This quaint octogenarian died at Foxley in Septem- ber, 1829. That year had akeady brought Rogers a far greater loss in his eldest brother Daniel Rogers. There is a letter written to this brother in February, 1829, in which, after speaking of some domestic matters then of painful interest in the family, Rogers says — * The great measure ' is doing very well, though not so well as could be wished. I asked a minister the other night why they did not get a bishop to speak for them. He said, none will— and I believe the best thing expected from them is their absence (Norwich always excepted). Ireland is said to promise them a bishop or two and two archbishops. Whether the majority will be twenty or sixty is very doubtful. The commanding majority in the Commons must however tell in the other House. The Whigs are resolved to give all the support they can, though some, and Lord Holland most of all, make very wry faces at the bill they are first to swallow.- Plunket is come, and will speak, of course. How lucky it is, now that he is in the House when he is most wanted. His peerage was lamented six months ago — but we are poor, short-sighted beings. He and the Chancellor are to dine with me in a day or two, and that reminds me of Tom. [ hope he is now doing comfortably again. My new edition is only an old one newly advertised. The last was in 1826. * Poor Crowe is dead — at the same age as my aunt Anne. I had a very natural and affecting letter from his ' The Catholic Relief Bill. - The Bill for tlie Dissolution of the Catholic Association. 26 EOGEES AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES son on the subject. One of the bitterest of the bishops, is your old friend Law. So Lyttelton has opened his Hps in the House. The day he took his seat, Dudley crossed the House to speak to him and took him home to dinner ! ' A month after this letter was written Daniel Eogers died. He was two and a half years older than Sam, and had spent his life in quiet retirement as a country squire at Wassail Grove, near Hagley. I have already given his nephew Samuel Sharpe's account of him,^ of his 'delight- ful guileless simplicity,' and of the enthusiasm with which he spoke of any of the studies which occupied his mind. The most perfect confidence existed between the three brothers, Daniel, Samuel and Henry ; and Charles Lamb, who had met them together at St. James's Place and at Highbury, spoke of them as a three-fold cord. Daniel was in his sixty-ninth year, and as Samuel Eogers himself was beginning to feel the approaches of age, he naturally felt deeply his brother's loss. Two letters on the subject speak for themselves. Charles Lamb to Samuel Rogers. ' Chase, Enfield: 22nd Mar., 1829. ' My dear Sir, — I have but lately learned, by letter from Mr. Moxon, the death of your brother. For the little I had seen of him, I greatly respected him. I do not even know how recent your loss may have been, and hope that I do not unseasonably present you with a few lines suggested to me this morning by the thought of ' TJie Early Life of Samuel Rogers, pp. So, Si. CHARLES LAJVIB ON DANIEL ROGERS 27 him. I beg to be most kindly remembered to your remaining brother, and to Miss Rogers. * Your's truly, ' Charles Lamb. ' Rogers, of all the men that I have known But slightly, who have died, your brother's loss Touched me most sensibly. There came across My mind an image of the cordial tone Of your fraternal meetings, where a guest I more than once have sate ; and grieve to think, That of that threefold cord one precious link By Death's rude hand is sever 'd from the rest. Of our old gentry he appeared a stem ; A magistrate who, while the evil-doer He kept in terror, could respect the poor. And not for every trifle harass them — As some, divine and laic, too oft do. This man's a private loss and public too.' Samuel Rogers to Mrs. Daniel Ropers. 25th May, 1829. * Many thanks for your kind letter and for all your kindness ever since the happy days when we had no care and a long and a bright prospect before us ; when we went to the toy- shop together and played at hide-and- seek in the hay-loft at Newington Green.' Much have we had since to be thankful for, as much, perhaps, as most people, for all must have their afflictions. But they have come fast and thick upon us of late ; and yours have been the heaviest of all. That you may continue to support yourself as you have done is our earnest prayer, and if the attentions of affectionate children and the recollection ' They were cousins. 28 ROGEKS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES of the many years you have devoted to them and their father can give consolation under them, you must and will. We are all rejoiced to hear of Sam's success. He has excellent talents and his good sense will no doubt lead him to avail himself of the advantage thrown in his way. I wrote immediately to the Chancellor on receiving Edward's letter, and by accident saw him the next day — but I fear a day or two were lost before the application was made, for the living was promised — in such a case an hour is of importance. But to tell you the truth, I have little hope of him. He is very smooth but very shuffling, and can have no motive to serve me. Lord Lyttelton's offer is a very friendly one, and if the house was built, or certainly to be built, whether I took it or not, I should not hesitate. But considering the contingencies in this world, and our own sad experience just now shows how little we can trust to the future, it may admit of a doubt how far it is wise to consent to a scheme by which some- thing of an engagement may be incurred which we may afterwards find it expedient to shake off. For myself I will own that the conviction that I ought to remain where everything was arranged by another for my own con- venience would, such is my perverseness, make me wish to go elsewhere, as in a party I have always wished to escape when the chairs had blocked me up ; but I have no right to suppose others as wayward as myself. I need not say how anxious we are that you should settle to your mind. That you will determine wisely I have no doubt, and it is an offer not to be slighted. I am hardly a fair judge, for, though I have been acquainted with your neighbour near thirty years, and have really a great respect THE POET CROWC 29 for many parts of his character, I am not sure I should like to become his tenant on such terms. At all events, I should tell him frankly that circumstances might induce me to go, I could not say how soon, and that he must do nothing that would render it in the least ineligible for another tenant. There is, however, no judging for others ; and we are confident you will decide wisely. We are very sorry that you are not to visit the sea in our part of the world. But you must not forget us on your return. Eemember, we consider it as only a pleasure deferred. ' Ever very affectionately yours, * Samuel Kogers.' Crowe, to whose death Rogers referred in the last letter to his brother Daniel, is a true but neglected poet. He was one of the poor scholars at Winchester, whom his school sent to Oxford, where he became a Fellow of New College, and afterwards Professor of Poetry, and Public Orator, with the living of Alton Barnes, near Pewsey, in Wiltshire. His chief poem, ' Lewesdon Hill,' published in 1786, contains many passages which Eogers greatly admired and often repeated to his friends. One of these favourites was the conclusion of ' Lewesdon Hill,' where the poet, who has been contemplating the beauties of nature, is recalled to earth by seeing the villagers * assemblmg jocund m their best attire ' for the May-day feast — Now I descend To join the worldly crowd ; perchance to talk, To think, to act as they ; then all tlieso thoughts That lift the expanded heart above this spot To heavenly musing ; these shall pass away (Even as this goodly prospect from my view), 30 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Hidden by near and eartliy-rooted cares. So passeth human life — our better mind Is as a Sunday's garment, then put on, When we have naught to do ; but at our work We wear a worse for thrift. Of this enough, To-morrow for severer thought, but now To breakfast, and keep festival to-day. Crowe's blank verse is always musical and Eogers took it as a model. In preparing for his ' Italy ' he kept by him for constant study Milton and Crowe. Like other contemporary poets, Crowe not only found a wel- come at St. James's Place, but ready aid and counsel in his transactions with publishers. He had an eye to business. Writing to Eogers in February, 1827, to ask him to negotiate with Murray for the issue of a new edition of his poems, in which he wished to include a treatise on English versification, Crowe says, ' If he is willing to undertake the publishing I will immediately furnish more particulars, and also submit the copy to your inspection. If the part on versification could be out before the middle of April it would find a present sale in Oxford, for this reason : there are above four-score young poets who start every year for the English prize, and as I am one of the five judges to decide it, they would (many of them) buy a copy to know my doctrine on the subject. The compositions are delivered in about the beginning of May.' Eogers conducted the negotiation with promptitude, and in a few days Crowe wrote a letter of thanks. He died in February, 1 829. For the next two or three years Eogers's life may again be followed in Moore's Diary. There are nearly a ROGERS AND HIS PUBLISHER 31 hundred references to him in Lord John Kussell's sixth vohime ; but curiously httle about the work which was at this time filHng Eogers's thoughts. There is, indeed, a reference to ' Italy' in December, 1830. ' Went to take leave of Rogers, who sends by me to Bessy a large- paper copy of his most beautiful book "Italy," the getting up of which has cost him five thousand pounds. Told me of a squabble he has had with the publisher of it, who, in trying to justify himself for some departure from his original agreement, complained rather imprudently of the large sum of ready money he had been obliged to lay out upon it. " As to that," said Rogers, " I shall re- move that cause of complaint instantly. Bring me your account." The account was brought; something not much short of 1,500/. " There," said Rogers, writing a cheque for the whole sum, " I shall leave you nothing more to say on tliat ground. Had I been a poor author," added Rogers, after telling me these circumstances, " I should have been his slave for life." ' A couple of years later, when a publisher asked Moore to write a poem and have it illustrated in the manner of Rogers's ' Italy,' Moore writes, ' Asked him did he know what an enor- mous sum Mr. R.'s book cost him (7,000/. I thmk Rogers told me when I was last in town). Said he was per- fectly aware of this.' In this year, 1829, Moore had to be a good deal in London. In February he was at Rogers's looking over Lord Byron's letters ; in May dining with him at Lord John Russell's — * table too full; ' and on another day find- ing him ' in a most amusing state of causticity.' Moore made a remark about the Duke of Wellington's good 32 EOGEES AND HIS CONTEVIPOEARIES sense, and Eogers replied, ' Yes, I once thought Chantrej the most sensible man going ; but now that he has been spoilt b}^ vanity and presumption, the Duke is the man that takes that place in my estimation.' On another day Eogers makes one of the few political remarks Moore reports. Talking, in June, 1829, of 'the great mountain and mouse results of the great measure of [Catholic] emancipation,' E. said, " All our ancient bulwarks are re- moved, the barriers of law are broken down, the gates of the constitution are burst open, and in enter P and Lord ." ' Another day Eogers was very amusing at breakfast when Sharp and Lord Lansdowne and Hallam were present. He told of a club to which Sharp and he belonged, called ' Keep the Line,' their motto,, written up in large letters, being — Here we eat, and drink, and dine, Equinoctial — keep the line. Most of the members were dramatists, and ' the effect of a joke upon them, instead of producing laughter, was to make them immediately look grave (this being their busi- ness), and the tablets were out in an instant.' On the 5th of July Moore goes to spend the night at Eogers's, ' he having often asked me to take a bed at his house.' Eogers tells him a clever thing said by Lord Dudley — ' On some Vienna lady remarking impudently to him, " What wretchedly bad French you all speak in London." " It is true, Madame," he answered ; " we have not enjoyed the advantage of having the French twice in our capital." ' ' The Catholic Emancipation Bill had been carried in the Commons on the 30th of March, in the Lords on the loth of April, and had received the Eoyal Assent on the 13th of April. LADY HOLLAND AND SIR PHILIP FRANCIS 33 Moore gives the true version of Rogers's question to Sir Philip Francis. ' Brougham was by, when Francis made the often-quoted answer to Eogers. " There is a question, Sir PhiHp (said E.), which I should much like to ask if you will allow me." " You had better not, sir," answered Francis, " or you may have reason to be sorry for it." ' The addition to this story is that Eogers, on leaving him, muttered to himself, ' If he is Junius, it must be Junius Brutus,' Eogers himself used to tell a story of Lady Holland and Sir Philip Francis. He was talk- ing with Lady Holland when Francis was announced. ' Now Pll ask him if he is Junius,' she said to Eogers as Francis was coming in. As soon as he was seated she asked him. He replied, * Do you mean to insult me ? When I was a younger man people would not have ven- tured to charge me with being the author of those letters.' Woodfall told Eogers that he did not know who wrote the letters. Eogers always maintained that they were written by Sir Philip Francis, but said that Malone per- sisted to the last that if they were not written by Burke, they were written by George Dyer with Burke's help. Eogers used to tell the story of a visit Mackintosh and he paid to Marlborough, where, it was said, the name of Junius had been placed on an unknown person's grave. They went to a bookseller's shop to ask for directions how to find it. * I have heard of it,' said the bookseller, * but I have not seen it.' So said his daughter, so said the sexton, and so said Eogers and Mackintosh after a visit to the churchyard and a dihgeut search. Mr. Dyce was told by a friend that the tomb is at Hunger- ford and not at Marlborough, that it has on it the VOL. II. D 34 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES motto of Junius * Stat nominis umbra,' and hence is called Junius's tomb. Kogers's health this summer was precarious. He says in a letter to his sister Sarah, ' I am good for little and catch cold every moment.' But he was fully occupied with the illustrated ' Italy,' which was passing through the press. His memoranda of the deliveries of proofs and copies show that every part of the productive process was superintended by him with the minutest and most diligent care. A Continental journey undertaken with his sister Sarah and his niece Patty was cut short by bad health and bad weather, and when he got home he had rather a severe illness. But his attention was fully occupied, and even the interest of the political struggle was superseded by his great literary and artistic enterprise. Moore flitted occasionally through Eogers's circle at this period as at most others, but he records little of any interest, except that on one occasion Mrs. Norton is mentioned as * at war all dinner time, and most amusingly, with Eogers.' I find in Eogers's papers a pathetic letter which suggests a painful event then far in the future. R. B. Haydon to Samuel Rogers. ' King's Bench : 23rd May, 1830. ' Oh, Mr. Eogers, my family are absolutely in danger of wanting food. I have paid yool. since 1827, and this does not satisfy my creditors. Do I not deserve employ- ment and aid ? ' For God's sake help me, and I will paint an equiva- lent as soon aa I begin, for any aid given me now at such WORDSWORTH 35 a crisis. Indeed, my brain begina to get bewildered at this repeated torture. 'E. B. Haydon.' * Yours faithfully, &c.,' is added below the signature. There was some correspondence with Wordsworth this summer, of which three letters remain. William Wordsworth to Samuel Rogers. 'Rydal Mount, Kendal: 5th June [1830]. ' My dear Rogers, — I have this morning heard from Moxon, who, in communicating his new project, speaks in grateful terms of your kindness. Having written to him, I cannot forbear inquiring of you how you are and what is become of your " Italy." My daughter (who, alas, is very poorly, recovering from a bilious fever which seized her a fortnight ago) tells me that she is longing to see the work — and that it would do more for her recovery than half the medicines she is obliged to take. It is long smce we exchanged letters. I am in your debt, for I had a short note from you enclosing Lamb's pleasing poem upon your lamented brother just before you set off for the Continent. If I am not mistaken, I heard, and I think from Lady Frederick Bentinck, that some untoward circumstance interrupted that tour. Was it so '? ' My dear sister, you will be glad to hear, is at present quite well, but in prudence we do not permit her to take the long walks she used to do, nor to depart from the invalid regimen. The remainder of us are well. My daughter's illness was the consequenceof over-fatigue while 36 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES she was on a visit to her brother at Moresby, near "White- haven. I passed with her there a fortnight, which would have flown most agreeably but for that attack. An odd thought struck me there which I did not act upon, but will mention — it was to bespeak your friendly offices among your great and powerful acquaintances in behalf of my son, who enjoys the dignity of a Eector with an income of lool. per annum. This benefice he owes to the kind patronage of Lord Lonsdale, who must be his main-stay, and who, we venture to hope, will not forget him upon some future occasion. But you know how much the patronage of that family has been pressed upon, and it would on this account please me much could some- thing be done for him in another quarter. I hope it is not visionary to mention my wishes to you, not altogether without a hope that an opportunity may occur for your serving him. Testimonials from a father are naturally liable to suspicion, but I have no reason for doubting the sincerity of his late Eector, Mr. Merewether of Coleorton, who wrote in the highest terms of the manner in which he had discharged his duty as a curate. I will only add that he has from nature an excellent voice, and manages it with feeling and judgment. * How is Sharp in health ? When he wrote to me last he was suffering from a winter cough. He told me, what did not at all surprise me to hear, that the sale of your " Pleasures of Memory," which had commanded public attention for thirty-six years, had greatly fallen off within the last two years. " The Edinburgh Review " tells another story, that you and Campbell (I am sorry to couple the names) are the only bards of our day whose laurels are WORDSWORTK 37 unwithered. Fools ! I believe that yours have suffered in the common blight (if the flourishing of a poet's baj's can fairly be measured by the sale of his books or the buzz that attends his name at any given time), and that the ornamented annuals, those greedy receptacles of trash, those bladders upon which the boys of poetry try to swim, are the cause. Farewell ! I know you hate writing letters, but let me know from inquiries made at your leisure whether you think an edition of my poems, in three volumes, to be sold for about eighteen shillings, would repay. The last of 1 827 is, I believe, nearly sold. The French piracy (for in a moral sense a piracy it is) I have reason to think is against me a good deal ; but unless I could sell four copies of a cheaper edition than my own where I now sell one it would scarcely [pay]. Again adieu. ' Faithfully yours, ' "\V. Wordsworth. ' What is likely to become of the Michael Angelo marble of Sir George — is it to be sold? Alas! alas! That picture of the picture gallery, is that to go also ? I hope you will rescue some of these things from vulgar hands, both for their own sakes and the memory of our departed friend.' ' Wednesday, i6th June [1830J. * Being sure, my dear Rogers, that you take a cordial interest in anything important to me or my family, I cannot forbear letting you know that my eldest son is soon to quit that state of single blessedness to which you have so faithfully adhered. This event has come upon 38 KOGEHS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES US all by surprise ; when I wrote a short time ago I had not the least suspicion of an engagement, or even an attachment in any quarter. I expressed to you some years since my regret at my son's being disappointed of a fellowship, to which he had very good pretensions till we discovered that his place of birth excluded him from being a candidate, and you then said, I remember, " It is lucky for him, he will have less temptation to build upon the life of a bachelor, and will be far happier." May your prophecy be fulfilled ! I trust it will, for I have seen the young lady, am highly pleased with her appearance and deportment, and in a pecuniary point of view the alliance is unexceptionable. Their income, through the liberality of the father, who highly approves of the match, is, for the present, quite sufficient, for I trust iheir good sense will prevent them from giving an in- stance of the French phrase, Ccst vn vrai gonffre que le menage. ' In somewhat of a casual way I recommended in my last my son to your thoughts, if any opportunity should occur in the wide sphere of your acquaintance of speaking a good word in his behalf. Had I known this delicate affair was pending, I should at that time have probably been silent upon the subject of his professional interests. It cannot, however, be amiss for anyone to have as many friends as possible, and I need not conceal from you that my satisfaction would, upon this occasion, have been more unmingled had my son had more to offer on his part. I shall merely add that if, through his future life, you could serve him upon any occasion I should be thankful. I regret that I am not at liberty at present WORDSWORTH 39 to mention the name of the lady to more than one indi- vidual out of my own family. * Do you know Mrs. Hemans ? She is to be here to-day if winds and waves, though steamboats care little for them, did not yesterday retard her passage from Liverpool. I wish you were here (perhaps you may not) to assist us in entertaining her, for my daughter's in- disposition and other matters occupy our thoughts, and literary ladies are apt to require a good deal of atten- tion. Pray give our kind regards to your brother and sister. We hope that you all continue to have good health. Do let me hear from you, however briefly, and believe me, * My dear Eogers, faithfully yours, * Wm. Wordsworth.' The above letter was evidently written before Eogers's answer to the one before it. Eogers then replied, pro- bably saying that he had relatives of his own in the Church ; and Wordsworth then wrote the letter which follows. William Wordsicurtk to Samuel Rogers. ' Rydal Mount : Friday [30th July, 1830]. * I cannot sufficiently thank you, my dear Eogers, for your kind and long letter, knowing as I do how much you dislike writing. Yet I should not have written now but to say I was not aware that you had any such near con- nections in the Church ; I had presumed that your rela- tives by both sides were Dissenters, or I should have been silent on the subject, being well assured that I and mine 40 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES would always have your good word as long as we con- tinued to deserve it. 'Lord Lonsdale, to whom I mentioned my son's intended marriage, naming (as I was at liberty to do in that case) the lady, has written to me m answer with that feeling and delicacy which mark the movements of his mind and the actions of his life. He is one of the best and most amiable of men, and I should detest myself if I could fail in gratitude for his goodness to me upon all occasions.' * I wish Lady Frederick's mind were at ease on the subject of the epitaph. Upon her own ideas, and using mainly her own language, I worked at it, but the produc- tion I sent was too long and somewhat too historical, yet assuredly it wanted neither discrimination nor feeling. Would Lady F. be content to lay it aside till she comes into the North this summer, as I hope she will do. We might then lay our judgments together in conversation, and with the benefit of your suggestions and those of other friends with which she is no doubt furnished, we might be satisfied at last. Pray name this to her if you have an opportunity. * Your "Italy" can nowhere out of your own family be more eagerly expected than in this house. The poetry is excellent we know, and the embellishments, as they are under the guidance of your own taste, must do honor to the Arts. My daughter, alas, does not recover her strength. She has been thrown back several times by ' On the nth of October, 1830, Mr. Wordsworth's eldest son, the Eev. John Wordsworth, then Rector of Moresby, was married to Isabella Christian Curwen, daughter of Henry Curwen, Esq., of Workington Hall, Cumberland, and of Curwen's Isle, Windermere {Life, vol. ii., p. 232). WORDSWORTH 41 the exercise, whether of walking in the garden or of riding, which she has, with our approbation, been tempted to take from a hope of assisting nature. ' We Hke Mrs. Hemans much ; her conversation is what might be expected from her poetry, full of sensi- bility, and she enjoys the country greatly. ' The " Somnambulist " is one of several pieces, written at a heat, which I should have much pleasure in submit- ting to your judgment were the Fates so favourable as that we might meet ere long. How shall I dare to tell you that the Muses and I have parted company, at least I fear so, for I have not written a verse these twelve- months past, except a few stanzas upon my return from Ireland last autumn. ' Dear Sir Walter, I love that man, though I can scarcely be said to have lived with him at all ; but I have known him for nearly thirty years. Your account of his seizure grieved us all much. Coleridge had a dangerous attack a few weeks ago ; Davy is gone. Surely these are men of power, not to be replaced should they disappear, as one has done. ' Pray repeat our cordial remembrances to your brother and sister, and be assured, my dear Rogers, that you are thought of in this house, both by the well and the sick, with affectionate interest. ' Ever faithfully yours, ' W"m. Wordsworth,' From the correspondence of this summer, much of it in response to gifts of his ' Italy,' I select a few letters, all from distinguished persons, and each letter interesting 42 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES for itself as much as for the writer. I have put them in chronological order, mcluding one from Eogers to his sister. William Stewart Rose to Samuel Rogers. ' Thursday : No. i, St. Peter's Place, Brighton. [25th June, 1830.] ' My dear Eogers, — I am most thankful to you for your promise ; for I would fain go off the stage as grace- fully as I can. You are right in supposing that I con- template the conclusion of my labours ' with mixt sensa- tions : hut mine are not worthy of being compared with those of the men with whom you have confronted me. To use an ignoble, but very exact, similitude, I resemble a solitary ennuye, who regrets (for want of something «lse to do) seeing the remains of his dinner taken away, though he has not appetite enough to renew the charge. I heard a melancholy account of your last expedition on the Continent, last autumn, from Lord and Lady Holland; but it was, by your account, yet more deplorable than I had imagined it to have been. May this summer, if you meditate a flight, be more propitious to you, though we have hitherto had more dripping, I believe, than during any given month of the last summer. I received a few days ago from Fazakerley certain queries, sent to England by a Florentine lady, respecting Foscolo ; and yesterday a letter from herself ; from which it appears that she is collecting materials for a life of him. A life of him, moreover, has been already written by Pecchio, which is printing in Italy ; but in which he reserves an appendix ' He was then occupied with his sijirited translation of the Orlando Furioso, which was published in the following year. WILLIAM STEWART ROSE 43 for any interesting letters of his, should any such fall into his possession. He is, however, severe in his notions on such subjects: inveighs against "our gossiping and voluminous biography"; and will make no sacrifice to the English fashion of the day. This brings me to Moore, whose book, though it would not suit Pecchio, has enter- tained me greatly ; and I rejoice that he will so soon launch his second volume. I have just had a most useful and amusing letter from Christie, upon the taste of the Eng- lish public in pictures, in answer to certain queries ; which answer was to determine whether two pictures should be sent to England from Italy for sale. I think I shall have it lithographed (that is, if I can obtain his per- mission) and address it, as a circular, to all my Italian friends. Pray put him on this subject, if you get a good opportunity. I did not know that he was animated by such S2)lendida hilis as has flowed from his pen. His gall, however, has not spoiled his "milk of human kind- ness," as is proved by his very good-natured and disinte- rested advice, which will save a friend of mine from being .a sufferer through exaggerated notions of English taste and English riches. * I rejoice to hear of your labours. You are one of those who know how to use the file ; and I should think that the limce labor et mora would be entertaining to you. Pray tell Miss Rogers that I am much gratified by her kind recollection of me, and remember me to Hallam or any common friends who care for me. * Believe me, my dear Eogers, your faithful and much obhged, 'W. S. EosE.' 44 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES Washington Irving to Samuel Rorjers. 'Argyll Street: 6th July, 1830. * My dear Sir, — Notwithstanding the knot you tied in your handkerchief last evening, I won't trust you. I know you to be so beset by the choice things of this hfe that a tit-bit must be put to your mouth and you must be coaxed to taste it. I send you, therefore, the first volume of the " Tales of an Indian Camp." Eead anyone of the tales I have marked, or, in fact, read any tale in the volume, and if you do not feel induced to read more send back the book and I will say no more about it. * I am piqued to have you look into this work because I have the vanity to think I know something of your taste, and to hope that in this instance it will coincide with my own. * I am, my dear Sir, ' Yours ever, * Washington Ieving.' The letter from Eogers to his sister was addressed ta her at Paris, where she was following the traces of the three days of July. Samuel Rogers to Sarah Rogers. ' 7th Sept., 1830. ' My dear Sarah, — I wish I had more to do than to thank you for your letter, and to say that I am just where you left me. A few minutes after you went from my door, Cuvier and Mdlle.' called to inquire for you. ' Mdlle. Duvaucel, Cuvier's stepdaughter. Eogers had known her in Paris, where he used to say she fascinated everybody ; and a wager was CHARLES THE TENTH IN EXILE 45 I found their cards when I returned, which I did after sleeping two nights in Bedfordshire. I am glad Paris is itself once more. ]\Ir. Honey, who breakfasted with me the other day, and who was so sorry to miss you here and there, was in the thick of it, and very entertaining on the subject. He saved himself on one occasion by jumping into the Cafe de Paris through an open window. I fear the chairs in the garden are the worse for their campaigning, as they were piled with the omnibuses in the Rue de Rivoli. The Berrys and Lady Charlotte are come, and very eloquent, but I have not seen them. Charles X. and his party were very cheerful off Cowes. When the ships moved farther, the Duchess de Berry desired her ladies to ask where they were going : " A St. Helenes, Madame." " Mon Dieu ! " she cried, as well she might, having little geography in her head and having never heard of our St. Helens. Charles X. sent the other day to Manton's for two guns, and is using them, I dare say, at this moment against the partridges. When Marmont came, dinners and assemblies were given to exhibit him, and the Duke of Wellington called upon him in Leicester Fields and had a long conversation with him. Beaudrain called twice on Lord Holland and gave a very plain and sensible account of the whole. The King, William, was very gracious to him, and our ministers are all couleur de rose on the subject. ' ^Vhat do you say to Mrs. Ottley's, or, rather. Miss O.'s evidence on the inquest ? ' You of course see " The laid that she would fascinate even the giraffe. It really so liappencd. Tlie great animal, twenty-two feet high, followed her hke a lamb. (See Campbell's Life, vol. iii., p. 6S.) ' See note, p. 46, on St. John Long. 46 EOQERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Times." The Callcotts are come back from Scotland ; she "Was ill on the journey, and is so still. I have seen him, not her. He asked me no questions about any- body, and seemed very formal. I suppose you have met with ^Yashington Irving in your rambles. I have called twice on Millingen without success, and perhaps you have [seen] him. It must have been very amusing to land with Miss Slater in a foreign land, and will be very pleasant to both parties to meet again at Boulogne. I am glad you are so near the ground, and conclude yoa have fine weather, as we have it here. I have been twice to the Adelphi to hear Phihips in " Don Giovanni " and " Cosi fan tutte." Two days I have spent at the Priory and three at Piichmond, with the Hollands, and these visits, with two or three to Holland House, make all I have to tell of myself. I have sometimes thought of the North, but despair comes over me, and I begin to think I shall never venture far again. How to get through the day just now is rather difficult. I call on Madame d'Arblay, and Lord St. Helens, and Moxon, and Stothard, who groans more than ever and looks ill. Maltby is gone to the sea, and, I hear, means to cross it. So, perhaps, you may see him sipping his coffee, through a window of the Cafe de Foy. I hope you have bought some ohjets pre- cieux, or, at least, ordered some. Yours is the hotel in which Charles Fox was robbed and from which he ran and overtook the thief on the Boulevards. So Mr. Lister and Miss Villiers have announced their marriage. Ottley, I see, is one of the bail for St. John Long.' I ' St. John Long was a portrait-painter, who had discovered an infallible ointment for all complaints. The inciuest of which Rogers speaks was ' JE NE SUIS PAS EOI ; JE SUIS CAPUCIN ' 47 saw Millingen yesterday (Sunday) and he sets off to-day or to-morrow. I have now seen the Berrys, who are very animated. They were at St. Germain's during the war in Paris, and went to Paris for a few days after- wards. Pray give my love to your fchow travellers, and believe me to be, * Ever yours, *S. R. * Etty is said to have been in the Louvre when an armed mob rushed through it. Have you seen him? Perhaps you will look at Brussels on your way home. I know nothing of Highbury, but conclude all is gomg on well there. Lady H. talks of giving you some commis- sions, but I shall not remind her on the subject, as I dare say you do not wish for any particularly. There is an excellent likeness of Charles — " Je ne suis pas Eoi; je suis Capucin" — and there is a good caricature of the gens d'armes at war with the mob, and barricades be- tween them. Pray buy them for me, if you meet with them on the Boulevard des Italiens.' Lord St. Helens to Samuel Rogers. ' "With many thanks, my dear Sir, for the accompany- ing volume. * The " Chanson des Deux Cousins " is certainly ex- cellent ; besides the merit of being so wonderfully pro- on one of his victims, and it led to his trial and conviction for man- slaughter. At a later trial it came out that he was making i2,oooZ. a year by his illegal practice, but his victims were the rich, and in this second trial so many fashionable people gave evidence for him that he ■was acquitted. On his death, in 1S34, the secret of his nostrum was. sold for several thousand pounds. 48 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES phetical. And I should say that the next best are those dated from Ste. Pelagie ; a proof that, whatever may be M. de Berauger's passion for Hberty, his Muse, on the contrary, is Hke ' the imprisoned bird Which makes the cage its quire and sings most sweetly When most in bondage. ' Yours ever very faithfully, ' St. Helens. ' Grafton Street : Wed., 8th Sept., 1830.' Lord Ashhurnham to Samuel Rogers. ' Ashburnham Place : 20th Sept., 1830. ' My dear Eogers, — Very many thanks for the welcome testimony of your kind remembrance are all that I can offer you in return, unless it be a remark or two on the subjects noticed by you ; for since I came here, nearly three months ago, I have seen none but my own family ; never once been at the distance of a mile from my hall- door, nor exchanged letters, but once with Lady Spencer and the same with Lord Camden, since I last wrote to vou. Though I know not how in conscience I could have asked you to make us a visit, I should not have been re- strained by that consideration alone. But in truth we have been, are still, and shall be for some time to come, in a state of so much confusion and uncertainty as to put all forming of plans out of our power. Lady Ashburn- ham will be again obliged to go to town next week on account of her wrist ; the use of which she is still far from having recovered, though it is now almost six months since the injury was sustained. And when there, she LORD ASIIBURNHAM 49 will be detained in consequence of our house in Dover Street being restored at Michaelmas, and to examine into the state of it, and as to its furniture, so minutely as she will think necessary, and to make suitable arrange- ments for so numerous a family will require some time. If you should chance to pass through London, she would be delighted if you would call on her at her much cleaner and pleasanter residence in South Audley Street. ' You bid me to prepare for a review of my book. I had rather look forward to a view of yours ; and this I will have by hook or by crook, long before the next num- ber of " The Edinburgh Review "can make its appearance.^ I think that I might hazard a guess as to who is the anonymous acquaintance of ours, to whom 3'ou allude. If I am right, I know him to be in the habit of speakmg favorably of me : and therefore trust that he will treat my work with indulgence. Hitherto it has escaped even the hebdomadal critique, or rather notice, of the " Literary Gazette." When I left London, my publishers, Messrs. Payne and Foss, informed me that I was not much in request. So that, till I received yesterday your notice to brace my nerves to the encounter of a review, I was fortifying myself to endure a similar mortification to that of the late Poet Pybus, who got rid of none but his presentation copies. This was evident from the glut of waste-paper which the market experienced soon after his ' The review appeared as the second article in the October number of the Edinburgh. Lord Ashburnham's book consisted of a vindica- tion of his ancestor, John Ashburnham, groom of the bedchamber to Charles the First, from the misrepresentations and aspersions of Lord Clarendon, and of John Ashburnham's own narrative of his attendance on the King. VOL. II. E 50 ROGEES AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES death. Alas, poor Pybiis ! Yet neither you nor your poem — ' si quid mea carmina possunt, Nulla dies unquam memori vos eximet ffivo. ' As Qui through all its various cases The young Grammarian slowly traces, Declining down to Qnibus ; By a like scale our poets try, And if the first be Laureate Pye, The last of course is Pybus. * I beg you to pardon me, or, rather, to make in my favour the law's humane distinction between murder and manslaughter. It is not of malice prejiense that, like "the sage Montaigne,"' I have deviated from my pur- pose. It is not in imitation, or from affectation, but be- cause it is as natural to me, as ever it was to him, to write very differently from what I had previously in- tended. Even more than this — I seldom read with so much perseverance as when I have seated myself at my writing desk : and am most disposed to talk when I have taken up a book. ' Contrary, therefore, to my declared intention to com- ment on the topics of your letter, I shall let you off with observing only that, of all the changes and chances which you enumerate as having been crowded together within the narrow compass of a few weeks, the only fact that I contemplate with pleasure is simply the expulsion of that incorrigible Charles the Tenth, of whom I verily think that there is less to say in excuse than of the execrated Charles the Ninth ; justification being in either case equally out of the question. But I have no intention at LORD ASHBUKNIIAM 51 present, however unengaged, to favour you and the world with a vindication of the character and conduct of Charles of Valois. ' I hope that we shall meet ere long. Whenever I can hold out any temptation to you, besides my pictures, which, though as deaf as I am, will not trouble you to repeat the compliments addressed to them, I shall try to tempt you hither. My Lady would not forgive me were I to propose it to you m her absence. ' Adieu. I can hardly see what I am now writing, but I know what I feel, that ' I am truly and sincerely yours, 'ASHBURNHAM.' Lord AsJihurnham to Samuel Rogers. 'Ashbuniham Place: 30th Sept., 1830. ' My dear Eogers, — I know not whether the one of all your friends who has the most often read over and over again your poem on our beloved Italy, be the best entitled to a presentation-copy of it. But, I am sm-e, on that and on other accounts, the copy for which I have to thank you has not been ill-bestowed. ]\Iost especially as to what relates to Florence and its environs, with which, ' Of all the fairest cities of the earth, I am historically and topographically most acquainted. I have followed yom- traces in all directions as diligently and exactly as you did those of that celebrated giro, be- ginning and ending with the Santa Maria Novella. And I can say of many such walks (thanks to you) what you have said of that one — " dehghtful in itself, and in its E 2 52 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES associations." Your new edition may, like Galileo's villa, be justly called — II Giojello. Yet I should be better pleased Mith some of the illustrations if I were less well acquainted with the subjects which they repre- sent, the former being much less picturesque as well as poetical, especially with regard to figures and costume. ' I hope that Lady Ashburnham will have prevailed so far at least as to obtain from you the promise of a visit. Nothing would please me more ; particularly if I could contrive that you might meet some whom you would like to meet ; for a family-party is less inviting than a tete- a-tete. For myself, I am growing gradually, if not rapidly, more and more a poor, infirm creature ; and never ex- pect to be the inmate of any but my own house, in town or country. Nor between these will my oscillations be of a pendulum-like frequency.' * I hope that your health is, for the sake of your numerous friends, as well as your own, such as when we last parted at Spencer House. I wish that there were as much of selfishness in this hope as there is of sincerity in my profession of being ' Ever faithfully yours, ' Ashburnham.' Charles Lamb to Samuel Bogeo^s. ' Dear Sir, — I know not what hath bewitch'd me that I have delayed acknowledging your beautiful present. But I have been very unwell and nervous of late. The poem was not new to mc, tho' I have renewed ac- ' Lord Ashburnham died within a month after writing these words. CIIARLE-S LAME: WORDSWORTH 53 quaintance with it. Its metre is none of the least of its excellencies. 'Tis so far from the stiffness of blank verse — it gallops like a traveller, as it should do — no crude Miltonisms in [itj. Dare I pick out what most pleases me ? It is the middle paragraph in page thirt}'- four. It is most tasty. Though I look on every im- pression as a proof of your kindness, I am jealous of the ornaments, and should have prized the verses naked on whity-brown paper. ' I am. Sir, yours truly, ' Oct. 5th ' [1830]. ' C. Lamb. William Wordsworth to Samuel Rogers. ' Castle, Whitehaven: 19th October [1830]. • ]\ry dear Rogers, — Not according to a cunning plan of acknowledging the receipt of books before they have been read, but to let you know that your highly valued present of three copies has arrived at Eydal, I write from this place, under favor of a frank. My sister tells me that the books are charmingly got up, as the phrase is, and she speaks with her usual feeling of your land attention ; so does my daughter, now at Workington Hall, where she has been officiating as bridesmaid to the wife of her happy brother. The embellishments, my sister says, are delicious, and reflect light upon the poetry with which she was well acquainted before. ' Lady Frederick is here with her father and mother. She is among your true friends. Lord and Lady L. are quite well. In a couple of days I hope to return with Mrs. Wordsworth and Dora to Eydal. We then go to Ooleorton, and so on to Trmity Lodge, Cambridge, where 54 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES Dora will pass the winter. I shall take a peep at London ; mind yon be there, or I will never forgive you. Mrs. Wordsworth sends her kind wishes to yourself and sister, in which I cordially unite, not forgetting your good brother. When you see the Sharps, and that most amiable person Miss Kinnaird, thank them for giving us so much of their company ; and believe [me], my dear friend, eager to have your books in my hand, much of the contents being in my heart and head, ' Ever faithfully yours, * Wm. Wordsworth. ' Lady Frederick begs me to say she is sorry they have not seen you in the North this year. We also had looked for you anxiously at Rydal.' William Roscoe to Samuel Rogers. ' My dear Sir, — I had the pleasure of receiving, a few days ago, a large paper copy of your beautiful poem on Italy, which you have had the goodness to present for me to my son Thomas, who has availed himself of his brother Robert's recent visit to Lancashire, to convey it safely to my hands. I do not consider this, your obliging remembrance of me, merely as an interesting and trul}" original poem, decorated with exquisite engravings, but as a production in which the sister arts of poetry and painting are united to produce a simultaneous effect, as brilliant jewels are only seen to full advantage when set off by a beautiful face. The art of engraving has hitherto aimed only to please the eye; but it may now be said to have arrived at its highest excellence ; and ROSCOE AND PANIZZI 55 touched the deepest feeHngs of the mind. We must now acknowledge that the finest effects of the pencil may be produced by the simple medium of light and shadow. ' In the state of partial seclusion from the world in which I have lived for some time past, it is a merciful dispensation that I am still able to enjoy my books : amongst these I may enumerate, as lately acquu'ed, the works of Lorenzo de' Medici, in four vols, folio, com- mented upon and published by the present Grand Duke of Tuscany, to whom I am indebted for a present — a copy of them. I also highl}- value a large paper copy of the " Landscape Annual," and am at present employed in illustrating a similar copy of the translation of Lanzi's " History of Painting in Italy," which will be a splendid work ; but none of these seem to me so truly to deserve the name of a literar}' gem as your delightful publication ; for which I must now beg leave to offer you my most grateful thanks. This is intended to be delivered to you by my highly valued friend Sig. Antonio Panizzi, Pro- fessor of the Italian language in the London University who lived some years in Liverpool, and from whence he is just returned from visiting the numerous friends whom he has made during his residence here. He is probably already known to you by his literary works, particularly his edition of Bojardo and Ariosto now publishing ; in addition to which I beg leave to add my testimony, not only to his abilities as an elegant scholar, but to his ex- perienced worth as a sincere fi'iend and his character as a man. It is, therefore, with gi-eat satisfaction I intro- duced him to your better acquaintance ; being convinced 56 ROGEKS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES it cannot fail of being productive of both pleasure and advantage to both parties. ' I am, my dear Sir, always most faithfully yours, * W. RoscoB. ' Lodge Lane : 30th Oct., 1830.' Lord Dudley to Samuel Rogers. ' Park Lane: 3rd Dec, 1830. * My dear Rogers, — I have been worried to death these two or three last weeks by some troublesome business in Staffordshire, which, until it was settled, almost hindered me from thinking of anything else, or I should not have left so long unacknowledged the very gratifying present I had received. The finished excel- lence of the works that compose this beautiful volume, and the specimens of art, in the purest taste, by which it is adorned, render it a most desirable possession even to those that acquire it in the ordinary way ; but the value of it is increased tenfold when given, as I flatter myself it is, as a mark of recollection after an acquaintance of near thirty years, from a man of whose friendship one should be proud, for the qualities of his heart and under- standing, even if he had never written a single line. Accept my thanks, and believe me, * Yours sincerely and faithfully, ' Dudley.' This is the last letter from Lord Dudley — the J. W. Ward of earlier years — and it pleasantly shows how completely the early friendship had been restored after the alienation of 181 3. Lord Dudley died on the 6th of March, 1833. LORD HOLLAND: SIR WALTER SCOTT 57 Lord Holland to Samuel Rogers. ' loth Dec, 1830. * My dear Rogers, — I am quite sorry to hear of your Ijeing ill, and the more so as my business, my leg, and my €old prevent my having a chance of seeing you. The House of Lords knocked me up last night in spite of two admirable speeches in their different ways, of Grey and Eadnor. The latter was acute and lively as usual, but patriotic and eloquent beyond anything I have ever yet heard [from] him ; a speech that must do him credit and, I must selfishly add, will do the Ministers great good with the public. Young Stothard the engraver writes to me about an office he holds and the manner in which it has been awarded, and, moreover, about the late King's order to execute a Duchy of Lancaster seal. I do not quite understand his application exactly — but pray tell me what you know of him, and give, if you have any, some information about his office. ' Yours, ' Vassall Holland.' Sir Walter Scott to Samuel Rogers. * My dear Sir, — I should do my sentiments towards you, and all your kindness, great injustice did I not hasten to send you my best thanks for your beautiful verses on Italy which [are] embellished by such beautiful specimens of architecture as form a rare specimen of the manner in which the art of poetry can awake the Muse of Painting. It is in every respect a bijou, and yet more valued as the mark of your regard than either 58 KOGEKS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES for its literary attractions or those ■svliich it draws from art, thongli justly distinguished for both. * My life has undergone an important change since I saw [you] for the well-remembered last time in Piccadilly, when you gave me the spj'^-glass, which still hangs round my neck, with which I might hope to read, not only more clearly, but with more judgment and better taste. Since that time I have felt a gradual but decisive pressure of years visiting me all at once, and, without anything like formal disease, depriving me of my power to take exercise either on foot or horseback, of which I was once so proud. It is this that makes me look at your volume vfith particular interest. Having resigned my official con- nection with the Court of Session, I had promised myself the pleasure of seeing some part of the Continent, and thought of visiting the well- sung scenes of Italy. I am now so helpless in the way of movmg about that I think I must be satisfied with the admirable substitute you have so kindly sent me, which must be my consolation for not seeing with my own eyes what I can read so picturesquely described. * I sometimes hope I shall prick up heart of grace and come to my daughter Lockhart's in spring weather. Sometimes I think I had best keep my madness in the background, like the suivante [confidant] of Tilburina in " The Critic." At all events, I wish I could draw you over the Border in summer or autumn, when we could at least visit some places in that land where, though not very romantic in landscape, every valley has its battle and every stream its song. * Pray think of this, and God bless you. I beg my SIR WALTER SCOTT 59 respects to your sister, to Sharp, whom I wish you could in- duce to visit me with you, and to Lord and Lady Holland, if they remember such a person. The worst of this world is the separation of friends as the scene closes ; but it is the law we live under. * Believe me, very affectionately, * Yours truly obliged, ' Walter Scott. ' Abbotsford, Melrose : 15th January [183 1].' 60 ROGEES AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES CHAPTEE II. 1831-34. Rogers and Wellington and Talleyrand - Rogers and Macaulay — Death of Mrs. Siddons— Letters from Wordsworth, Henry Hallam, and Brougham — Campbell and ' The Metropolitan ' — Rogers and Earl Grey- Mrs. Joanna Baillie— Death of Mackintosh and of Walter Scott — Moore on Rogers's House — Death of Henry Rogers — Letters from Charles Lamb, Wordsworth, Macaulay — Rogers's Tour — Letters to Wordsworth, Sarah Rogers, and Richard Sharp — Richard Sharp on Ministerial Changes — Rogers and the Gossip at Brooks's — The King and his Ministers — ' The Queen has done it all ' — Lord Brougham's Eccentricities — Letter from Campbell. The period in which Eogers was occupied in preparing the illustrated edition of his poems is very barren of correspondence. He had arrived at the time of life at which men learn with a shock that they are being spoken of as old men by younger people. He was beginning to feel the approach of age, though he always urged his friends not to realise that they are old, and himself acted on the injunction. He had a good deal of ill-health, and so many friends were gone that he began to say that a walk through the streets of London was like a walk in a cemetery. In March, 1831, he had one of the conver- sations with the Duke of Wellington, which is reported in the ' Eecollections,' and one with Talleyrand, also recorded in the same volume. It was in October of the same year that, meeting Sir Walter Scott on the day ROGERS AND MACAULAY 61 but one before he set sail for Naples, Scott told him the story of the clever boy at school whom he could not pass, who, he noticed, always fumbled with a button on his waistcoat when under examination, l)iit who was utterly dumbfounded and passed at once when Scott had cut off the button, and the boy, during examination, found out his loss. It is just at this period that the life of Samuel Eogers seems to touch our own times. The names we begin to meet with are those of men, some of whom middle-aged men have personally known. It is not olear when Eogers first met Macaulay; but Macaulay, in writing to his sister Hannah on the 28th of Ma}', 1 83 1, says that on the day before, he had lounged into the ante-rooms of * old Marshall's house ' in Hill Street, where he found Samuel Eogers. * Eogers and I,' he says, ' sate together on a bench in one of the passages, and had a good deal of very pleasant conversation. He was — as, indeed, he has always been to me — extremely kind, and told me that if it were in his power he would contrive to be at Holland House with me, to give me an insight into its ways. He is the great oracle of that circle. He has seen the King's letter to Lord Grey about the Garter.' On the 3rd of June, he says Eogers told him to write no more reviews but to publish separate works, ' adding what, for him, is a very rare thing, a com- pliment : "You may do anything, Mr. Macaulay." ' On the 7th he writes to his sisters Hannah and Margaret — * Yesterday I dined at Marshall's, and was almost consoled for not meeting Eammohun Eoy by a very 02 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES pleasant party. The great sight was the two wits, Rogers and Sydney Smith. Singly I have often seen them : but to see them both together was a novelty, and a novelty not the less curious because their mutual hostility is well known, and the hard hits which they have given to each other are in everybody's mouth. They were civil, however. But I was struck by the truth of what Matthew Bramble, a person of whom you probably never heard, says in Smollett's "Humphry Clinker": that one wit in a company, like a knuckle of ham in soup, gives a flavour : but two are too many. Eogers and Sydney Smith would not come into conflict. If one had possession of the company the other was silent ; and, as you may conceive, the one who had possession of the company was always Sydney Smith, and the one who was silent was always Eogers. Sometimes, however, the company divided, and each of them had a small congre- gation. I had a good deal of talk with both of them ; for in whatever they may disagree, they agree in treat- ing me with very marked kindness. ' I had a good deal of pleasant conversation with Rogers. He was telling me of the curiosity which at- tached to the persons of Sir Walter Scott and Lord Byron. When Sir Walter Scott dined at a gentleman's in London some time ago all the servant-maids in the house asked leave to stand in the passage and see him pass. He was, as you may conceive, greatly flattered. About Lord Byron, whom he knew well, he told me some curious anecdotes. When Lord Byron passed through Florence, Rogers was there. They had a good deal of conversation, and Rogers accompanied him to his car- EOGERS AND MACAULAY 63 riage. The inn had fifty windows in front. All the windows were crowded with women, mostly English women, to catch a glance at their favourite poet. Among them were some at whose houses he had often been in England, and with whom he had lived on friendly terms. He would not notice them, or return their salutations. Kogers was the only person he spoke to.' Three days later he tells his sister he had met Rogers at the Athenaeum, and he had asked him to breakfast and promised to make an interesting party, and, he adds, * If you knew how Eogers is thought of you would think it as great a compliment as could be paid to a duke.' His account of the breakfast is valuable as giving a contemporary description of Rogers's house. He writes on the 25 th of June — ' I breakfasted with Rogers yesterday. There was nobody there but Moore. We were all on the most friendly and familiar terms possible ; and Moore, who is, Eogers tells me, excessively pleased with my review of his book, showed me very marked attention. I was forced to go away early on account of bankrupt business, but Rogers said that we must have the talk out ; so we are to meet at his house again to breakfast. What a delightful house it is ! It looks out on the Green Park just at the most pleasant point. The furniture has been selected with a delicacy of taste quite unique. Its value does not depend on fashion, but must be the same while the fine arts are held in any esteem. In the drawing- room, for example, the chimney-pieces are carved by 64 KOGERS AJUB HIS CONTEMPORARIES Flaxman into the most beautiful Grecian forms. The book-ease is painted by Stothard, in his very best manner, with groups from Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Boccaccio. The pictures are not numerous, but every one is excel- lent. In the dining-room there are also some beautiful paintings. But the three most remarkable objects in that room are, I think, a cast of Pope taken after death by Koubilliac ; a noble model in terra-cotta by Michael Angelo, from which he afterwards made one of his finest statues, that of Lorenzo de' Medici ; and, lastly, a mahogany table, on which stands an antique vase.' There are the usual accounts of breakfasts and dinners with Eogers in Moore's Diary this summer. At one of these Eogers violently opposed Moore, who had said ' after all it is in high life one meets the best society.' Rogers always maintained the contrary. His father had advised him never to go near titled people, but that was based on his own youthful experience of them in his Worcestershire home in the middle of the eighteenth century. Eogers confessed to his nephew, Samuel Sharpe, that he had not followed his father's advice, but that there was truth and wisdom in it. On the 26th was the breakfast party Eogers had made for Macaulay, and Tom Moore gives his account of it, ' ]\Iacaulay,' he says, * gave us an account of the present state of the Monothelite controversy.' Macaulay himself tells a story, which Moore also tells, of this same occasion. Writing to his sister, he says — * I have breakfasted again with Eogers. The party was a remarkable one, Lord John Eussell, Tom Moore^ MACAULAY : MOORE : CAMPBELL 65 Tom Campbell, and Luttrell. We were all very lively. An odd incident took place after breakfast. While we were standing at the window and looking into the Green Park, somebody was talking about diners-out. " Ay," said Campbell, " Ye diners out from whom we guard our spoons." Tom Moore asked where the line was. " Don't you know ? " said Campbell. " Not I," said Moore. '' Surely," said Campbell, " it is your own." " I never saw it in my life," said Moore. " It is in one of your best things in ' The Times,' " said Campbell. Moore denied it. Here- upon I put in my claim, and told them that it was mine. Do you remember it ? It is in some lines caUed *' The Political Georgics," which I sent to "The Times " about three years ago. They made me repeat the Imes, and were vociferous in praise of them. Tom Moore then said, oddly enough, " There is another poem in ' The Times ' that I should like to know the author of : ' A Parson's Account of his Journey to the Cambridge Election.' " I laid claim to that also. " That is curious," said Moore. " I begged Barnes to tell me who wrote it. He said that he had received it from Cambridge, and touched it up himself, and pretended that all the best strokes were his. I believed that he was lying, because I never knew him to make a good joke in his life. And now the murder is out." They asked me whether I had put anything else in " The Times." " Nothing," I said, " except the ' Sortes Virgilianse,' " which Lord John remembered well. I never mentioned the " Cambridge Journey " or the " Georgics " to any but my own family ; and I was, therefore, as you VOL. II. F QQ ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES may conceive, not a little flattered to hear, in one day, Moore praising one of them and Campbell the other.' In this month of June Eogers had lost one of his oldest friends in Mrs, Siddons. She had not been quite happy since her retirement from the stage. When Eogers was visiting her she often said. * This is the time I used to be thinking of going to the theatre ; there was the pleasure of dressing, then of acting, but all is over now.' Eogers was always fond of telling stories about her. He regarded her as a far greater performer than John Kemble, and sympathised with her disap- pointment at the little attention that had been paid to her at the time of her retirement, and from that time to her death. There is a letter of about this date which may be given in illustration of an aspect of Eogers's character which did not come out frequently, but which his closer friends knew to exist. It was to a relation who had disgraced himself, and had an opportunity of recovering his position, and did recover it. I suppress the name as it is of no interest or importance. Samuel Rogers to . 'Dear , — Many thanks for a letter which, mourn- ful as it was, gave me sincere pleasure, and over which your poor father and mother, could they read it where they now are, would shed tears of delight ; for what signifies wealth or poverty, good report or evil report, but inasmuch as they affect our own minds. "WORDSWORTH'S PORTRAIT 67 ' I need not say, I am sure, how sorry I am for the sad change which has taken place in your circumstances, but much more unhappy I was before it took place ; for then how gloomy was the prospect ; and how fortunate you must think yourself, how much more so than many, in being roused to reflection before it was too late. Providence has given you an asylum among kind and considerate friends, you have good talents, great attain- ments, and have still many years before you, and if you resolve to exert yourself, and to assist those who have a natural claim to your exertions, what we now regard as an affliction will perhaps be the happiest event in your life. "VMien I look back on mine, I feel that I am too faulty myself to blame another, and have only on my knees to ask forgiveness. * Pray remember me to , and believe me, ' Yours as ever, *S. R.' Wordsworth, as usual, writes to Eogers for advice. IViUiam Wordsworth to Samuel Ttogcrs. 'Rydal Mount : 14th June '1831]. 'Let me, my dear friend, have the benefit of your advice upon a small matter of taste. You know that while I was in London I gave more time than a wise man would have done to portrait-painters and sculptors. I am now called to the same duty again. The Master and a numerous body of the Fellows of my own college, St. John's, Cambridge, have begged me to sit to some eminent artist for my portrait, to be placed among " the 68 ROGEES AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES worthies of that house " of learning, which has so many- claims upon my grateful remembrance. I consider the application no small honour, and as they have courte- ously left the choice of the artist to myself, I entreat you would let me have the advantage of your judgment. Had Jackson been living, without troubling you, I should have inquired of himself whether he would undertake the task ; but he is just gone, and I am quite at a loss whom to select. Pray give me your opinion. I saw Pickersgill's pictures at his own house, but between our- selves I did not much like them. Phillips has made coxcombs of all the poets, save Crabbe, that have come under his hand, and I am rather afraid he might play that trick with me, grey-headed as I am. Owen was a manly painter, but there is the same fault with him as the famous Horn one has heard of — he is departed. In fact, the art is low in England, as you know much better than I ; don't, however, accuse me of impertinence, but do as I have desired. 'We stayed three or four days at Cambridge, and then departed for the North ; but I was obliged to leave dear Mrs. Wordsworth at Nottingham, suffering under a most violent attack of sciatica. Her daughter was left with her. We fell among good Samaritans, and in less than a fortnight she was able to renew her journey. * Her stay here, however, was short. My sister was summoned to Cheltenham by our old friend Dr. Bell, and as we did not dare to trust her so far from home on account of her delicate state of health, Mrs. W. was so kind and noble-minded as to take the long journey in her stead. The poor doctor thought himself dying, but WORDSWORTH'S PORTRAIT 69 he ha3 rallied, and I expect Mrs. W. back with Soutliey, who left us this morning for the same place. Southey is gone upon business connected with the doctor's affairs. Excuse this long story, but I know you are kind enough to be interested about me and my friends in everything. Dora is writing by me, both she and my sister and Wm. join me in kindest regards to yourself and your sister. * Most faithfully yours, ' Wm. Wordswoktu.' In spite of the objection to Pickersgill's portraits, he was eventually selected, and went down to Eydal and painted the picture now in St. John's College. Words- worth's sonnet, * Go, Faithful Portrait,' testifies to his satisfaction with it. In the autumn he is anxious about Rogers's health, and writes for information. William WordsivortU to Samuel liogers. 'Rydal Mount : 7th Nov., 1831. * My dear Rogers, — Several weeks since I heard, through Mr. Quillinan, who I believe had it from Moxon, that you were unwell, and this unpleasant communica- tion has weighed on my mind, but I did not write, trusting that either from Mr. Q. or Moxon I should hear something of the particulars. These expectations have been vain, and now I venture, not without anxiety, to make enquiries of yourself. Be so good then as let me hear how you are, and as soon as you can. If you saw Sir Walter Scott, or have met with Mr. and Mrs. Lock- hart since their return to town, you will have learned 70 ROGERS AND IIIS CONTEMPORARIES from them that Dora and I reached Abbotsford in time to have two or three daj^s of Sir Walter's company before he left his home. I need not dwell upon the subject of his health, as you cannot but have heard as authentic particulars as I could give you, and of more recent date. From Abbotsford we went to Eoslin, Edinburgh, Stirling, Loch Kettering [Katrine], Killin, Dalmally, Oban, the Isle of Mull— too late in the season for Staffa — and returned by Inverary, Loch Lomond, Glasgow, and the falls of the Clyde. The foliage was in its most beautiful state, and the weather, though we had five or six days of heavy rain, was upon the whole very favourable ; for we had most beautiful appearances of floating vapours, rain- bows and fragments of rainbows, weather-galls, and sunbeams innumerable, so that I never saw Scotland under a more poetic aspect. Then there was in addition the pleasure of recollection, and the novelty of showing to my daughter places and objects which had been so long in my remembrance. About the middle of summer a hope was held out to us that we should see you in the North, which would indeed have given us great pleasure, as we often, very often, talk, and still oftener think, about you. * It is some months since I heard from Moxon. I learned in Scotland that the bookselling trade was in a deplorable state, and that nothing was saleable but newspapers on the Revolutionary side. So that I fear, unless our poor friend be turned patriot, he cannot be prospering at present. * We, thank God, are all well, and should be very glad to hear the same of yourself and brother and sister. WORDSWORTH : HALLAM 71 My son William is gone to Carlisle as my sub-distributor, how long to remain there, heaven knows ! He is likely to come in for a broken head, as he exj)ects to be enrolled as a special constable, for the protection of the gaols and cathedral at Carlisle, and for Eose Castle — the bishop's country residence which has been threatened. But no more of these disagreeables. My heart is full of kindness towards you, and I wish much to hear of you. The state of my eyes has compelled me to use Mrs. W.'s pen. * Most affectionately yours, *Wm. Wordsworth.' ' Notwithstanding the flourish above, I have written to my son to stay at home and guard his stamps.' Eogers had before this fully recovered from his illness. Moore calling to surprise him at breakfast on the 16th of October, found him just returned from the country, entirely restored, and full of good humour and playful- ness. There is a double interest in a letter received in the course of the autumn from another of his eminent friends. Henry Hallam to Sainnel Rogers. ' Friday night. ' My dear Eogers, — I have been unfortunate in miss- ing you twice, yet with the consolation that it proved you were recovered in health, which I had heard was not as good as we all wish. For myself I am a mere rustic, but not as yet oblitiis incorimi, and therefore, I hope, not ohliviscendus illis. But in a fortnight more I shall be once more in the whirl of the world, though I 72 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES have always coveted the eddy, and shall probably do so more and more, accedente senectd. It is no compliment to say that I prefer two hours of your tea to four hours of most men's claret. * I send you another little production of Arthur's ; it is much superior to the other. You have candour to make allowance for the cloudy state of new wine, which will not disguise from a connoisseur's taste a racy flavour and strong body. You must always keep in mind that he is not quite twenty-one, and with this allowance I am not perhaps quite misled as a father in thinking his performances a little out of the common. ' Tunbridge, whatever you may fancy, is excellent wintering. We have a very small society of people we like, and play sixpenny whist when it might be dull else, not otherwise. . . . * Yours very truly, ' H. Hall AM. ' Wimpole Street and Rose HiU, Tunbridge Wells.' A brief note, not dated, but belonging to the same autumn, is the first I find among Eogers's papers from another eminent person. Lord Brougham to Samuel Rogers. 'Wednesday [1831]. * My dear K., — I have this instant been commanded by Talleyrand to meet Don Pedro on Friday, and I must obey, as your absolute sovereigns when they go incog., like Peter L, are offended if you take them at their word and don't treat them as sovereigns. CAMPBELL AND ' THE METROPOLITAN ' 7S ' Therefore I hope you will be able to put off Lord P. and your party to any other day, except Monday. * Ever yours, 'H. B.' There are two examples m this autumn of the kind of service Eogers was always performing for his literary friends. Campbell was in London in October negotiating for a share in the magazine he was conducting — ' The Metropolitan.' * I am ten inches taller than when you saw me,' he tells Mrs. Arkwright. ' Let the name of my brother poet Rogers be ever sacred,' he writes ; ' he has bought me a share in the partnership, and with noble generosity has refused even the mortgage of my Scotch property, as security for the debt.' He offered to insure his life, but Eogers would not hear of it. Five hundred pounds was advanced, and a third share m the magazine purchased. There was eventually some hitch in the arrangements, and the partnership was given up. After weeks of agitation and many a sleepless night, poor Campbell got back his money and restored it to Rogers, who, however, offered to let him have it for another purpose. He writes — Tlionias Campbell to Samuel Eogers. ' St. Leonards: 6th December, 1S31. ' My dear Rogers, — I beg leave to introduce to you Mr. Madden, whose travels and othe- writings are most probably known to you. He is an extremely sensible and amiable man, and constitutes, I may say, all my conversible society at this place. 74 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORAKIES * I am very happy to tell you that the five hundred pounds which you so generously lent me is at my ban- kers' in James's Street, and awaits your calling for it. Blessed he God that I have saved both it and myself from being involved as partner in " The Metropolitan." Eespecting the history of this transaction, though I have made it known to my friends confidentially, yet I should not wish that there should be any public talk, for though I blame the publisher Cochrane for swaggering and putting on the airs of a wealthy capitalist all the time he was but a needy, seedy .... still, poor devil, he may keep above water if his credit does not sink ; and he has a wife and several children, of whom it pains my heart to think. I therefore abide by him and " The Metropolitan " out of sheer compassion. But I have got out of the scrape of being a sharer in the periodical. ' The pain I suffered before I made this rescue was not slight. Amidst the horror of bad news, public and private, I felt at times misanthropic enough to pronounce my species all rascals. But still I recalled your loan. Ah, there, I thought to myself, there is a fact to show that benevolence has not left the earth. Aye, and days and sleepless nights went over my head in which I knew not whether even that loan was not to be thrown into a gulf of bankruptcy. All, however, is now safe. And my feeling of obligation to you is as tho- roughly grateful as if all my chimerical dreams had been realised. I shall now go on with Mrs. Siddons's life. Have you seen Haynes Bayly's song on the " Itahan Boy," the music by " Bishop " ? Query, what Bishop ? There has been more than one composer of that name. KOGERS AND CAMPBELL 75 'Adieu, my dcur friciul. Believe me most affection- ately yours, * T. Campbell.' Moore, in recording this loan of Rogers's, says Rogers ■does more of such things than the world has any notion of, and Lord John Russell adds, ' Not only more than the world has any notion of, but more than any one else could have done. Being himself an author, he was able to guess the difficulties of men of letters, and to assist them not only with his ready purse, but with his powerful influence and his judicious advice.' There is an example in Moore's own case — for on the very day he records Campbell's loan, he says that Rogers had undertaken to negotiate for him with Murray as to what sum to get for his name and co-operation in the new edition of Byron. Rogers thought Moore ought to have a thousand pounds. The negotiation failed, and as Moore had a bill for 500/. falling due, Rogers wrote and offered him the money ; but an arrangement with Long- mans rendered the advance needless. The accession to power of his political friends neces- sarily exerted considerable influence on Rogers's life. It did not bring him back into politics, for he was never wholly out of them nor deeply immersed in them. Lord Lansdowne's surprise at receiving through him Lord Orenville's opinion that he should join the Government in 1827 exactly illustrates Rogers's political position, when it is viewed in connection with the fact that Lord Grenville entrusted him with the message. Rogers was in fact one of the literary "Whigs. The time was gloomy. 76 KOGEJRS AND HIS CONTEMPOK ARIES Perhaps there has never been a period in our history when so much excitement and apprehension was in the air as at the beginning of 1832. 'My sense of the evil of the times and to what prospects I am bringing up my children,' wrote Dr. Arnold, ' is overwhelmingly bitter,' There was political unrest at home, there was the dread of the cholera, there was negro insurrection in Jamaica, and there were complications abroad. Rogers communicated some alarming news to Lord Grey, and received in reply the following letter, which I reproduce, though unable to explain it, as it illustrates the terms on which he lived with the most eminent political persons of his time. Earl Grey to Samuel Rogers. 'East Sheen: 12th Janry., 1832. * My dear Rogers, — I unfortunately allowed the mes- senger to go back to-day without an answer to your very kind note ; but I hope you will not think me the less obliged to you for it. ' I have no doubt that there are plenty of people at work to do all possible mischief; and as far as I am myself concerned, I care little about it. But in a situa- tion of so much embarrassment and danger, it requires a degree of malignity, not common, to risk all the con- fusion which, in their desire to overthrow the govern- ment, they are exerting themselves to produce. You are quite right. If the question of Reform was settled, all our foreign politics would go right ; and the King of Holland, whose obstinacy is encouraged by the beUef EARL GREY: JOANNA BAILLIE 77 that there will be a new administration here which will be favourable to him, would not long hesitate in acced- ing to an arrangement which is very much for his ad- vantage. * If our house had not been full we should have asked you to come to meet the Hollands. They leave us on Saturday, and we go ourselves to town, for good, on Monday ; when I hope we shall frequently have the pleasure of seeing you. Holland is suffering from a threatening of gout. Lady Grey desires to be most kindly remembered to you. ' Ever most sincerely yours, ' Grey.' Rogers lived so completely between the two worlds of politics and literature — as he did also between two literary and political eras — that a letter from Joanna Baillie, one of the vast number he received from her, may properly follow one of Lord Grey's. Mrs. Joanna Baillie to Samuel Rogers. ' Hampstead : Friday, 2nd Febry. [1832]. * My dear Mr. Eogers, — You once called me, and not very long ago, an ungrateful hussey, and I remember it the better because I really thought I deserved it. But whether I did or not, when I tell you now that I have read Sir John Herschell's book twice, or rather three times over, have been the better for it both in understanding and heart, and mean to read parts of it again ere long, you will not repent having bestowed it upon me. And 78 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES now I mean to thank you for another obligation that you are not so well aware of. Do you remember when I told you, a good while since, of my intention of looking over all my works to correct them for an edition to be published after my decease, should it be called for, and you giving me a hint never to let a ivhicli stand where a that might serve the purpose, to prefer the words while to whilst, among to amongst, &c. ? I acquiesced in all this most readily, throwing as much scorn upon the re- jected expressions as anybody would do, and with all the ease of one who from natural taste had always avoided them. If you do, you will guess what has been my surprise and mortification to find through whole pages of even my last dramas, " whiches," " whilsts," and "amongsts," &c., where they need not have been, in abundance. Well ; I have profited by your hint, though I was not aware that I needed it at the time when it was given, and now I thank you for it very sincerely. I cannot imagine how I came to make this mistake, if it has not been that, in writing songs, I have often rejected the words in question because they do not sound well in singing. I have very lately finished my corrections, and now all my literary tasks are finished. It is time they should, and more serious thoughts fill up their room, or ought to do. ' I hear of your sister from time to time by our neighbours here, and of yourself now and then. I hope you continue to brave this variable winter with impunity. We hear also that your nephew continues to recover, though more slowly than his friends could wish. Being so young a man gives one confidence in the progress he ISAAC DISRAELI 79 makes. My sister and I are both confined to the house, but with no very great ailments to complain of. We both unite in all kind wishes and regards to you and Miss Eogers. * Very truly and gratefully yours, * J. Baillie.' Another eminent contemporary, who was not much in London, and was little seen in society, makes his appearance in Rogers's correspondence in the same month. The first volume of ' The Curiosities of Litera- ture ' appeared just before * The Pleasures of Memory,' and had a similar success. But Isaac D'Israeli pre- ferred studious retirement to social pleasures, and hence his name is rarely met with in the memoirs of the time. His letter is interesting from the reference it makes to his own previous writings, but especially in the indica- tion it gives of a literary purpose which was never carried out. The ' fugitive thing ' he sends to his * old acquaintance ' was a pamphlet entitled * Eliot, Hamp- den, and Pym,' which was published at the beginning of 1832. Isaac D'Israeli to Samuel Rogers. ' Athena3um : Monday [February, 1832]. 'My dear Sir, — Accept a fugitive thing on a perma- nent topic in my " Eeply " to Lord Nugent. Should j^ou have patience and forbearance, you will pick up, I thinks some amusement in the fifty pages. ' But what you will find on the back of the last fly- leaf interests me more while I am addressing you. I 80 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES imagine that you know how I formerly fully avenged the cause of Pope in the "Quarterly" against our amiable editor, Bowles. " Modes," that is myself, triumphed, and stroked his ears with much self-complacency, for he did hear his own words resound in the House of Lords, and more than one edition of Pope followed ; and Pope was righted. He has of late agam been wronged in the recent "Edinburgh Pieview." * I recollect that you have many of the first editions of Pope. I have some, particularly the "Essay on Man," in four parts, as they were pubhshed. I never could find, as the anecdote runs, the false claim which Pope expressly made to keep the world in doubt whether he were the writer. ' Should anj'thing occur to you on the subject of Pope, your communication will delight an old acquaint- ance of yours, w^ho never imagined he should have written so much poetry and such little verse. My in- tention is to enter at large into the literary period of Pope, to mark out its influence on him, and trace the consequences in his writings. His friends and his enemies are well known to me, and it is an active era in our literature. * My visits to the metropolis are rare and short, and should you have occasion to address me it must be at Bradenham House, High Wycombe, where, should [}'0u] ever stray, the sun will shine on us that day. It is four miles from High Wycombe. ' Believe me, with great regard, dear Sir, ' Faithfully yours, * I. D'ISRAELI.' LITERATURE IS UPPERMOST 81 In Moore's diary this year he frequently speaks of talking politics with Eogers ; but the political talk is not reported. On the 3rd of April, Moore, Macaulay, Luttrell, Lord Kerry, and Whishaw were at breakfast at Eogers's, and there were ' some strong politics talked, condemning Lord Grey's hesitation to make peers.' Sydney Smith writing to Lady Grey enumerates Mackintosh, Whishaw, Robert Smith, Eogers, Luttrell, Jeffrey, Sharp, Ord, Macaulay, Fazakerley and Lord Ebrington, and says there would not be a dissentient voice among them on any pomt connected with the honour, character and fame of Lord Grey. It is literature, however, and not politics that is uppermost in Eogers's circle even in the most exciting times. The death of Sir James Mackintosh on the 22nd of May, and of Sir Walter Scott on the 2 1 st of September, occupied a larger place in their thoughts than even the passing of the Eeform Bill. Mackintosh was two years younger than Eogers, Sir Walter Scott was eight years his junior. Meanwhile Sydney Smith, who was of the same age as Walter Scott, had been appointed by Lord Grey a Canon Eesidentiary of St. Paul's, and as his new duties called him frequently to London, had thus become a permanent member mstead of an occasional visitor of Eogers's circle of familiar friends. In September, 1S32, Eogers was at Bowood, and Moore reports a conversation in which he enumerated a long list of distinguished men who had been poured into England by Ireland, and ex- pressed the opinion that Irishmen were beyond most other men in genius, but behind them in sense. In March, 1833, Moore was at Eogers's house and there was again political talk. ' Even he,' says Moore (whose views VOL. II. G 82 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES of politics are in general so manly and consistent) , ' has got bitten a little with this new Whig frenzy, and tries to defend their apostasy ; for it is apostasy.' The Bill which had excited Moore's wrath was what he calls * this new Algerine Act of my friends, the Whigs, against Ireland, the Coercion Act.' In the same month Eogers was occupied with some business of Moore's, who describes him as ' most hearty and anxious on the subject, and (as he never fails to be on matters of business) clear- sighted and judicious.' In the summer Moore took some friends to see Rogers's house, and he says, ' was astonished myself at the variety and rarity of his treasures.' The house was at this period one of the sights of London. We meet Eogers now and then in Macaulay's letters. Writing at Christmas, 1832, he tells of a party at which he says Rogers was to have been present, * but his brother chose that very day to die upon, so that poor Sam had to absent himself.' So heartlessly do we sometimes speak and write of those who are not personally known to us. This brother was Henry Rogers, the youngest brother of ' poor Sam ' ; who, but for him, might perhaps have almost deserved Macaulay's pitying phrase. Henry Rogers was a man of taste and culture, but he had chosen a quieter and more domestic sphere than his older brother. The family of their nephews and nieces, as I have said elsewhere, justly regarded him as a second father. It is sufficient here, however, that 1 should reproduce what I have said of him in my Life of his nephew, Samuel Sharpe : ' Henry Rogers is still remem- bered by friends and neighbours at Highbury as the li^ht and charm of the circle he moved in. He was LADY HOLLAND'S TEMPER 83 the kind of man Emerson may have had m view when, in his essay " On Character," he wrote, " I revere the man who is riches, so that I cannot think of him as alone, or poor, or exiled, or unhappy, or a client, but as a perpetual patron, benefactor, and beatified man." ' Such was the brother about whom Macaulay writes with such unfeeling levity. He writes of Eogers again some months later to his sister Hannah — * I have been racketing lately [November 1833], having dined twice with Rogers, and once with Grant. Lady Holland is in a most extraordinary state. She came to Eogers's, with Allen, in so bad a humour that we were all forced to rally, and make common cause against her. There was not a person at table to whom she was not rude : and none of us were inclined to sub- mit. Rogers sneered ; Sydney made merciless sport of her ; Tom Moore looked excessively impertinent ; Bobus put her down with simple straightforward rudeness ; and I treated her with what I meant to be the coldest civil- ity. Allen flew into a rage with us all, and especially with Sydney, whose guffaws, as the Scotch sa}'', were indeed tremendous. When she and all the rest were gone, Rogers made Tom Moore and me sit down with him for half an hour, and we coshered over the events of the evening. Rogers said that he thought Allen's firing up in defence of his patroness the best thing that he had seen in him. No sooner had Tom and I got into the street than he broke forth : " That such an old stager as Rogers should talk such nonsense, and give Allen credit for attachment to anything but his dinner ! Allen o 2 84 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES was bursting with envy to see us so free, while he was conscious of his own slavery." ' Moore says of a dinner at Eogers's, in company with Sydney Smith, Macaulay, Byng, and Greville, ' Talking of words that had become degraded, Macaulay mentioned " elegant " as a word he would not use in writmg, and all agreed with him except Sydney and myself. "You'll stand by elegant, won't you ? " says he to me, and on my answering — "Here's Moore," he exclaimed, "as firm as a rock for elegant." All agreed that "genteel" was no longer fit for use, though the word gentille, from which it sprang, was still so graceful and expressive. In the course of the evening Smith said to me, "You'll be pleased to hear that there has been a very respectable captain of infantry converted by your book." ' A letter from Charles Lamb must be reproduced here, though it has already been printed.' It was written in acknowledgment of an early copy of the illustrated 'Poems,' and Canon Ainger dates it in December, 1833. Charles Lamb to Samuel Rogers. ' Saturday. ' My dear Sir, — Your book, by the unremitting punctuality of your puljlisher, has reached me thus early. I have not opened it, nor will till to-morrow, when I promise myself a thorough reading of it. " The Pleasures of Memory " was the first school present I made to Mrs. Moxon, it had those nice wood-cuts ; and ' Talfourd's Final Memorials of Charles Lamb, vol. ii., p. 107 ; and Canon Ainger's Letters of Charles Lamb, vol. ii., p. 291. LAMB ON EDITIONS OF SHAKESPEARE 85 I believe she keeps it still. Believe me, that all the kindness you have shown to the husband of that excel- lent person seems done unto myself. I have tried my hand at a sonnet in ** The Times." But the turn I gave it, though I hoped it would not displease you, I thought might not be equally agreeable to your artist. I met that dear old man at poor Henry's — with you — and again at Gary's — and it was sublime to see him sit deaf and enjoy all that was gomg on in mirth with the company. He reposed upon the many graceful, many fantastic images ho had created ; with them he dined and took wine. * I have ventured at an antagonist copy of verses in " The Athenaeum " to liim, in which he is as every thmg and you as nothing. He is no lawyer who cannot take two sides. But I am jealous of the combination of the sister arts. Let them sparkle apart. What injury (short of the theatres) did not Boydell's " Shakespeare Gallery " do me with Shakespeare ? — to have Opie's Shakespeare, Northcote's Shakespeare, light-headed Fuseli's Shake- speare, heavy-headed Komney's Shakespeare, wooden- headed "West's Shakespeare (though he did the best in " Lear "), deaf-headed Eeynolds's Shakespeare, instead of my, and everybody's Shakespeare. To be tied down to an authentic face of Juliet ! To have Imogen's portrait ! To confine the illimitable ! I like you and Stothard (you best), but " out upon tliis half-faced fellowship," Sir, ■when I have read the book I may trouble you, through Moxon, with some faint criticisms. It is not the flatter- ingest compliment in a letter to an author to say you have not read his book yet. But the devil of a reader 86 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES he must be who prances through it in five minutes, and no longer have I received the parcel. It was a little tantalizing to me to receive a letter from Landor, Gebir Landor, from Florence, to say he was just sitting down to read my " Elia," just received, but the letter was to go out before the reading. There are calamities in author- ship which only authors know. I am going to call on Moxon on Monday, if the throng of carriages in Dover Street on the morn of publication do not barricade me out. ' With many thanks, and most respectful remem- brances to your sister, ' Yours, ' C. Lamb. * Have you seen Coleridge's happy exemplification in English of the vidian elegiac metre ? — ' In the Hexameter rises the fountain's silvery current, In the Pentameter aye falling in melody down. * My sister is papering up the book — careful soul ! ' Wordsworth and Macaulay write on the same topic. William Words7vorth to Samuel Rogers. ' 14th Jan. [1834]. * My dear Friend, — Yesterday I received your most valuable present of three copies of your beautiful book, which I assure you will be nowhere more prized than in this house. My sister was affected even to the shedding of tears by this token of your remembrance. When a person has been shut up for upwards of twelve months WORDSWORTH: MACAULAY 87 in a bick room it is a touching thing to receive proofs from time to time of not being forgotten. Dora is at Keswick to attend as bridesmaid upon Miss Southey, who loses her family name to-morrow. Your book has been forwarded, and we hope it will be received at Greta Hall to-day. ' Of the execution of the plates, as compared with the former vol., and the merit of the designs, we have not yet had time to judge. But I cannot forbear adding that, as several of the poems are among my oldest and dearest acquaintance m the literature of our day, such an elegant edition of them, with their illustrations, must to me be peculiarly acceptable. As Mr. Moxon does not mention your health, I hope it is good, and your sister's also, who, we are happy to hear, has drawn nearer to you. Pray remember us all most kmdly to her, and accept yourself our united thanks and best wishes. ' I remain, my dear E., faithfully yours, ' Wm. Wordswokth. ' We were grieved to notice the death of the veteran Sotheby.^ Not less than fourteen of our relatives, friends, or valued acquaintance, have been removed by death within the last three or four months.' T. B. Macaiday to Saimiel Rogers. ' Gray's Inn : 14th Jany., 1S34. 'My dear Sir,— Many thanks for your beautiful present. Beautiful as it is, the scrap of your writmg in ' William Sotheby — translator of Wieland's Oberon, of the Georgics, the Tliad, and the Odyssey, dramatist and poet, of whom Byron said that he imitated everybody and occasionally surpassed his models — had died on the 30th December, 1833, aged 76. 88 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES the first page is more valuable to me than the finest en- graving in the volume. ' The poems, as far as I have yet examined them, are all such as I have long known and admired. I do not j)erceive anything new. But such a series of illustrations I never saw or expected to see. I used to say that if your " Italy" were dug up in some Pompeii or Herculaneum two thousand years hence, it would give to posterity a higher idea of the state of the arts amongst us than any- thing else which lay in an equally small compass. But Italy is nothing to the new volume. Everybody says the same. I am charged with several copies for ladies in India. How the publishers of the annuals must hate you. You have certainly spoiled their market for one year at least. * Ever, my dear Sir, yours most truly, ' T. B. Macaulay.' Moore writes on the 3rd of February — ' Dined early with Eogers. Nobody but himself, his sister, and young Mason, for whom he had got a situation (a writership, I believe) in India, and who is to sail in the same ship as Macaulay. . . . Piogers to-day quoted as a fine specimen of Addison's humour, the parson threatening the squire that if he did not reform his ways, he should be obliged " to pray for him the following Sunday, in the face of the congregation." ' Mr. C. Grey writes from Downing Street on the 25th of April that his father, being very busy, desires him to say that he has spoken to the King about Mr. Millmgen, MOORE'S BREAKFASTS AT ROGERS'S 89 * and that be has great pleasure in announcing His Majesty's consent to give him a pension of lool. a year.' On the 29th of July Moore writes — * To breakfast at Eogers's, where we had Lord Lans- downe, Whishaw, and afterwards the Duke of Suther- land, whom Rogers had asked and forgot, till Lord Lans- downe informed him that be was coming. "Asking Dukes and forgettmg them," as I told Eogers, "is now- a-daya the poet's privilege." Conversation agreeable. The great Correggio just purchased by the Government is pronounced, it seems, by some critics not to be a Correggio ; such is the uncertainty of all lykture knowledge. Eogers, too, showed me after breakfast a small picture of Ludo- vico Caracci's, for which he himself gave twenty-five louis at Milan ; while Lord Lansdowne, for apparently the same picture, gave, some years since, more than 500L in London. Wishing to compare the two, Eogers one morn- ing, having some artists with him to breakfast, wraj)ped up his Caracci in a napkin, and all went off together to Lansdowne House (the Lansdownes being out of town) for the purpose of comparing the two pictures, when, as he told me, the only difference the artists could see between them was a somewhat greater degree of finish in some parts of his. ' August 377/. — Took the boys to breakfast at Eogers's, where he had Hughes the American. Some discussion about the existence of slavery in America, and the sort of incubus it is on the breast of that countrv. DitKcultv of shaking it off; " the highest gentlemen,'" Hughes said. 90 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES are to be found iii the Slave States, and seemed to argue as if they were the more high and free-minded from having slaves to trample upon. Kogers opposed to this the instance of England ; but certainly almost all free nations have had some such victims to whet their noble spirits upon, and keep them in good humour with them- selves. The Athenians had their oIkstuc, the Spartans their Helots, the Komans their Servi, and the English, till of late, their Catholic Irish. ' August 6th. — Out early for the purpose of seeing Eogers off on his tour. Met him in his carriage in St. James's Place, quarter-past nine, and got in with him. Had wished me to go as far as the lakes with him, and I should have liked it much could I have spared the time. Left him in the New Eoad, and went to Moore's (the sculptor) to breakfast.' The story of this autumn is told in a series of letters. Samuel Rogers to Wordsivorth. ' St. James's Place : 5th August, 1834. * My dear Wordsworth, — I intend to set out for the North to-morrow, and if my course is prosperous, to be at your door on Monday or Tuesday evening, and if you are at home and disengaged, to drink tea with you. Perhaps, too, if you are inclined, you will accompany me onward to Lowther, where I have led Lady Frederick to expect us. ' But all this will depend upon circumstances beyond my control. Let me, however, hope for the best, and perhaps you will send me a line to the Post Office at Kendal. Pray, pray say " yes." ON THE NORTH ROAD 91 ' Eemember me very kindly to one and all, and believe me to be * Yours ever, * Saml. Rogers.' Samuel Rogers to Sarah Rogers. 'Bolton Abbey : Friday morning [8th August, 1834]. ' My dear Sarah, — You see I begin at the top of the page like a traveller who has much to tell. I set out at a quarter-past nine, and had just driven from the door when I met Anacreon. Him I conveyed to Portland Place, and set him so far on his way to breakfast with the celebrated H. B., who lives in the region of Fitzroy Square. Leaving Barnet, I met, of course, the Hadley chaise. The Colonel and Isabella were m it, but as they did not observe me, we passed without a parley. The flies soon began to sting, and gave me no quiet for the rest of the day ; the sensation was new to me, but I bore it pretty well. The North Eoad, as it calls itself every- where m the notices, is a noble road, running with a breadth and a directness such as I was not prepared for, and I was carried along with such a rapidity that before nightfall I had left a hundred miles behind me. At every stage I walked on till I was overtaken, though 1 seldom was allowed above fifty yards. Still, it was a great refreshment to me, and I arrived in good spirits and with no fatigue at Witham Common, where I slept in a very nice lone house, after a dish of tea. So far well — but I waked many times in the night, though I thought nothing of it, and was in the carriage again before six o'clock. 92 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES ' I shall now take a new paragraph, as I must in more senses than one turn over a new leaf ; for when I tried to walk at the next change, I could not stir a foot. At first I thought nothing of it, and endeavoured to walk it off. But alas, to no purpose. All would not do, so I gave up the iDoint. The evil, when I examined further, was in what Lady Cork would call the third finger of the right foot. I pronounced it to be a corn, and procured some corn plaster. Then a sore, and bought some lint — in the carriage it gave me no pain, only when I walked — but now it burns a little. So I shall treat it as the gout, and have just taken some physic. ' I am here, alas, at the gates of Paradise and a cripple. What to do I am utterly at a loss, but I have this great consolation that I am no incumbrance to others ; the in- convenience is all my own. I shall write to the Dun- mores to prepare them for a change of measures in case I cannot surmount the obstacle. Small, indeed, it is in appearance, but, as the Italians say, there is no little enemy. * Yours ever, ' Samuel Eogers. * The Hollyhocks are splendid everywhere in the cot- tage gardens. On the first day the showers were very frequent and heavy, but it was pleasant in the intervals. Yesterday no rain ; this morning rain, but clearing off a little. Pray give my love to Patty. I shall write again soon, but take it for granted that no news is good news. I arrived here last night at dusk, and as I am comfortably lodged shall stay till to-morrow at all events. Of the CAMPBELL IN PAEIS 93 future I can say nothing. I have just taken a drive in an open carriage through the woods, and have seen the Strid and had dehcious gHmpses of the abbey, the river, and Barden tower, which were enough to repay me if I returned to-morrow. Barden tower, if Turner meant it at all in ihejirst view, he must have drawn, as well as most others, from his imagination, not his memory. The whole is a glen, but infinitely on a greater scale, like Eoslin, with a religious house at one end and an old mansion at the other. I am now reading the " White Doe," which, strange to say, is not forthcoming here, but which I brought among other things.' A letter from Campbell received during this journey is so characteristic that a portion of it is worth giving. I have omitted a long paragraph which explains and supports a request for a loan, which he afterwards found he did not want. Thomas Campbell to Samuel Rogers. 'Paris: 15th August, 1834. ' My dear Friend, — This is the anniversary of the Ascension, and all the church bells in Paris (God damn them !) are pealing away as if it were for a wager — at the expense of my heretical ears. In the midst of all the confusion of ideas which this jangling has produced, I have recollection enough left me to consider that, as my letter is to contain a request, I had better get over that disagreeable part of it first in order to have more pleasure in writing the rest. [Having explained about the loan, and said that he was going to Algiers, and 94 ROGEKS AI^D HIS CONTEMPORARIES meant to write a book about the colony, he proceeds.] When I explain my sole reason for wishing to visit Algiers, provided the means reach me, not to be known yet for a little time, I am sure your kind heart will enter into my feelings, though I have not had the means of joining my fate with a certain inestimable person whom you have seen, and whom I perhaps need not name, yet our friendship is unabated, and her anxiety about my health and welfare is as watchful as ever. In good time I shall communicate to her my intention, but if I did so suddenly and at present her imagination would con- jure up all manner of deaths and dangers as awaiting me— fevers, Arabs of the desert, &c. Now though I know there is a sort of fever at present in the colony, yet I have not the least apprehension of the climate in November, and I am one of the fearless creatures who never catch contagion. Altogether I would rather wish that my African scheme were not mentioned at present. I am sorry to find that neither you nor I are half so popular in Paris as either Gait or Bulwer. They call us the two Purists- " sed mallem mehercule cum Platone errare quam cum aliis recte sentire." We have both, however, gone through more than one edition. I have said Gait. No, I am wrong. It is Allan Cunning- ham who is the fashion at present, and the arrivals that have been most frequently announced are those of the celebrated Dr. Bowring and Dr. Lardner !!!.... At the distribution of prizes, however, among the elcves of the Institution for the Sourds-Muets, a French lady sent m my name to the President, and we were transferred from a bad station near the door to the dais, and were seated CAMPBELL IN PARLS 95 fast by the President's chair. One of the ex-eleves, a remarkably sprightly young man, came up to me making signs of great cordiality, and wrote a very complimentary note on the crown of his hat, saying that he knew Eng- lish well, and proved to me that he had read my jioems, by a quotation. He sat near me and we conversed on paper. He mentioned also your works with evident acquaintance and admiration. I was going to say he spoke, for there was almost speech in his gesticulations. The exhibition of the poor young creatures was touch- ingly interesting— but the effect was a little spoilt by a pedantic schoolmaster, who was their showman. I saw at one exchange of looks that my friend, the ex-eleve, had the same opinion of him with myself, and I wrote to him, " My faith, your orator makes me begin to doubt if speech be such a blessing, for I have been this half- hour wishing myself deaf and him dumb." My dumb friend rubbed his hands with a look of delight, and immediately turned round to another ex-eleve, telling him my joke on his fingers. He again told it to hi& neighbour, and in a few minutes it was telegraphed through the whole benches of the ex-elvvcs, and was everywhere received with nods and smiles. * The heat has been intolerable here ; I hope your weather is behaving better. Somehow or other I have not seen bo much of Paris as I ought, though I have been at the opening of the Chambers, and was hugely delighted. But I am sanguine in the hojDe that I shall glean a good deal of instruction in my tour to come, and be able to send you some more interesting accounts of it. Have the kindness to address to me : Che2; 96 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Madame Fleury, No. 43 Eue Neuve St. Augustin, Paris. ' I beg to be kindly remembered to Miss Eogers. ' Thos. Campbell.' Eogers meanwhile had been continuing his northern tour, meeting with some of the most interesting people of his time. Samuel Rogers to Sarah Rogers. 'Dunmore Park: Tuesday [9th September, 1834]. ' My dear Sarah, — Your kind letter I found on Sat- urday last on my way from the Marshalls at Ulleswater. I slept there two nights, coming back so far with Words- worth from Lowther. At Carlisle Jno. W., who stamps there for his father, sat with me while I breakfasted, and a very amiable and pleasing young man he is. I came on to Selkirk, having travelled only eighty miles that day — a short journey for me, and next Sunday saw Abbotsford, Melrose, and Eoslin, and slept at Edinburgh, where I stopt till noon on Monday to get my bandage re-adjusted, and then came on to Dunmore, where I need not say how I was received. They are all alone, and I must stay here at least a fortnight. Indeed, they will not hear of my going then — but I hope by that time I may be off, for, as the Greys are now at Howick, I must look in upon them as I go by, if they are then there. But my malady, my dear Sarah, has so damped all the little pleasure I looked for, that sometimes I think I had better give all up at once and come back to my own home directly. ]\Iy foot is no better, and at every step ABBOTSFORD AS SCOTT LEFT IT 97 I have to drag it after me, but when I sit I forget it. However, when I leave this door, I have done all I came out for, and may come back as fast as I like. At Abbotsford all is as he left it, a small closet excepted, which is hung with his hat, his boots, his gaiters, his pruning-knife and gardening, or rather farming, coat — a melancholy sight, but which will become every year more and more sacred in the eyes of his countrymen. He died in the drawing-room, in a bed fitted up for him there. The house is really very prettily furnished in the old style ; the walls wainscot and the rooms larger than I expected to find them. Over the chimney in his study are Stothard's " Canterbury Pilgrims." I made that round- about, as I was afraid of arriving before my letter at Dunmore. Pray write, and let me know your plans, and how you are. I wrote to you from Lowther, and write to-day to Patty. ' Ever yours, 'S. E. * P.S. I have said nothing of Dunmore. It is a very nice house in the Gothic style, and the views across the Forth are very pleasing. Sails and steamers are pass- ing continually at a quarter of a mile's distance, inter- cepted here and there by the trees in the Park. * As for him, he struck me at first as much altered, and his first question was whether I thought so. To-day he looks as he used to do, and I forget that so many years have gone by since last I was here — twenty- two years, as the old gardener tells me. The inns in Scotland have changed greatly for the better. The hotels in Edinburgh VOL. II. H 98 BOGEES AND HIS CONTEMPOEAKIES are palaces, and affect a refinement and luxury that must alarm many a poor traveller. Have you heard from Mary yet ? I am glad you went to Cashiobury on every account. As for the Wordsworths, they have an afflic- tion I was not aware of at first. Their daughter Dora looks cheerful before other people, but is in a sad melan- choly way, and eats nothing, says nothing, and goes no- where. They are very wretched about her. The elder Dora delights, as I told you, in adorning a little rock, four or five yards in circumference, with rock flowers. It is as rich as a little bit of enchantment, and when she goes, as her nephew John said very prettily, will be her monument as long as it lasts.' Samuel Rogers to Sarah Rogers. 'Howick House, Alnwick : 7th Oct. [1834]. ' My dear Sarah, — I am delighted to think you all liked Beaumaris so much. As far as I remember it, it is beautiful, and you cannot be sorry that you had not to see what E. Sharp saw — the hats upon the water. He has published a third edition with many additions, and after a short tour has set down at Torquay for the winter, but this you know already. I left Dunmore on the 27th, spent two days with the Jeffreys at their house two miles from Edinburgh, spent a night with the Lord Advocate in Edinburgh, and on Wednesday came on to Chillingham — Lord Tankerville's — which I left for Howick on Saturday the 5th. The weather has been very plea- sant, everybody but myself complaining of the heat. Here AUTUMN VISITS IN 1834 99 I think of Btaj'ing a fortnight, and shall then proceed southward, probably l)y Castle Howard and Bishopthorpe and Sandon and Trentham. (I fear I shall be too late for Liverpool.) But I have settled nothing. A letter to Howick will, however, always find me, as before, a letter to Dunmore. I am sorry you think me negligent, but perhaps I am not so much to blame, for how could I tell where you were ? When I was told to direct to Malvern you were within a day of leaving it. So I sent my frank to Hanover Terrace, from which it might have been for- warded to you wherever you were, the frank not losing its virtue. It must be lying there now, as you don't seem to know its contents. So, also, if I had written to Beaumaris, you would have gone before it came, staying only BO long as you first intended. Perhaps you are not aware how cross the cross-posts are. I was at Dalmeny when your last came to Dunmore. I am sorry to hear your account of Patty. As for my foot, it is certainly better, and Rees and I can bind it pretty well ourselves ; but I never expect it to be quite sound again. How- ever, I have no great right to complain — others are worse off, and as everybody here is kind to me I am on tolerably good terms with myself. I jog on at my age as well as most. Poor Pringle sets off for the Cape in ten days (being ordered to a milder climate) without money, or plan, or the prospect of any. I have just sent him 200Z. at his request, and think my money well spent if I never see it again. Poor Miss Leach, when her uncle died, did not know a soul in Edinburgh. He caught cold at Staffa, when he would leave the steam- boat in a pouring rain when nobody else did. It H 2 100 EOGERS AND HIS COXTEMPORAEIES brought on an erysipelas. Pray give my kind love to all, not forgetting my aunt, and believe me to be, ' Yours ever, Samuel Boger's to Sarah Rogers. ' Howick House : Tuesday [21st Oct. 1834]. * My dear Sarah, — Your kind letter came just after Patty had sent me her namesake's. I write to thank you, but I have nothing to say — for we go on in one mono- tonous way here. Before breakfast I lounge a little, all alone, in a verj^ pretty flower garden ; then come many newspapers, but not much talk, as the family is rather silent, and there are no visitors but Lord John Piussell and Lady Piussell, who came here on Thursday last for a fortnight. On Saturday next I think of going for two nights to Lady Mary Monck ; on Monday and on Thurs- day to the Archbishop of Y^ork ; and on the Saturday after- wards to Castle Howard. I have not yet proposed my- self to them, but I must, having left them so abruptly before, when, in the North with Sir George Beaumont, I broke a tooth and hurried to town, as Patty has done, for repair. Here I am left much to myself — my foot is cer- tainly much better, though I cannot stir without bind- ing, which Pieece and I manage together pretty well. For the last three or four days I have had a sore throat and a li^ttle bile, but am getting better with abstinence. There is a very pretty walk from the house through a deep, woody glen by a brook-side, that brings you out on the sea beach, and the garden and the shrubberies are most luxuriant. It is an inland place by the seaside. AUTUMN VISITS IN 1834 101 At Chillingliam it is wilder and more mountainous, and the wild cattle, as white as snow, in herds at a distance, add to the wildness. I paid them a visit on a pony, but they would not let us approach them. What will become of me, when I leave York, I cannot say. I have certamly a great desire to see Liverpool and the railroad, as you have done, and I have little chance of coming this way again, but I am very anxious to get homeward, as I feel queerish, and should not like to be ill from home. No- thing would delight me more than to join you at Stour- bridge, if you remained there, but I fear, mdeed I know, I cannot well contrive it. Farewell, my dear Sarah — I have talked too much about myself, and you must be well tired of me. My love to all. I have never thanked young Tom for his landscape, or, rather, his seascape. Pray thank him for me, I think it wonderful, and if I had done it I should have been as vain as possible. ' Ever yours, ' S. E. ' Pray direct to me under cover to the Earl of Carhsle, Castle Howard, York.' The tour lasted another month, and it was the twentieth of November when Rogers got back. He had meanwhile sent to Lord Grey the lines beginning — Grey, thou hast served, and well, the sacred cause That Hampden, Sydney, died for. Thou hast stood Scorning all thought of Self, from first to last Among the foremost in that glorious field. 102 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES They are headed, 'Written m July, 1834.' Their significance is in the date. Lord Grey had beheved it to be his duty to propose a Coercion Bill for Ireland, which Mr. Littleton, the Irish Secretary, regarded as inexpedient and needless. Lord Althorp resigned, and the Whig Government fell to pieces. On the eighth of July Lord Grey resigned, on the ninth he communicated his re- signation to the House of Lords. It was a scene almost without its parallel. The old Minister, then in his seventy-first year, full of the conviction that his great political career was closing, was overpowered by his feelings. He rose, began a few words, and sat down. He rose again and sank back. The House cheered, the Duke of Wellington presented some petitions, which gave him a few moments to recover himself, and then he rose a third time, and made a speech which everybody felt to be worthy of his great and honourable career. It was not till October that Eogers sent his lines to Howick, whither he soon followed them, and spent a fortnight in the delightful retirement in which the great Reform Minister was enjoying his well-earned repose. He got back to London during the curious interval which pre- ceded the formation of Sir Robert Peel's Ministry, and his letters give us important glimpses of the political talk in the Whig circles of the time. Samuel Rogers to Richard Sharp. ' My dear Friend, — I returned last night and felt a pain and a pleasure, for I discovered two letters, which had never been sent me, and would have been the most AUTUMN VISITS IN 1834 103 welcome of them all. I rejoice to think that your anxieties are over for the young lady. Give my love to her, and tell her she must not do so again. As for you, I hope you mean to have no return of your complaint. Last week the frost came and now it is gone again. ' I sent my election-paper to Mrs. Philips, and it will command as many votes as there are vacancies — ten or twelve, I believe. Your criticisms are all right, I should say so, for I had done in every respect as you suggest, in the copy I sent to Howick. The last line but one I felt to be weak, and tried to lift it a little. I sent the lines in October, and it stood thus — ' That generous fervour and pure eloquence, Thine from thy birth and Nature's noblest gifts, To guard what they have gained. Good or bad, they were taken in good part ; indeed, far beyond my expectations. ' I spent a month at Dunmore, three days at Jeffrey's, slept one night in Edinburgh at John Murray's, three days at Dalmeny, Lord Rosebery's, three at Lord Tankerville's, fourteen at Howick, ten at Castle Howard, one at Galley Knight's, three at the Archbishop of York's, one at Sir C. Monck's, three at Lord Durham's, three at Trentham, five at Lord Harrowby's, and here I am. I made a day's excursion from Castle Howard to see Buncombe Park, or, rather, the Eiveaux Abbey there, and was richly rewarded. When at G. Knight's I renewed my acquaintance with Eoche Abbey ; but altogether Bolton Abbey and its surroundings are worth them all. 104 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES * Wliat a strange hubbub there is just now ! The ex-Ministers come in shoals to Brooks's, and are hand and glove with everybody, all but Brougham, who has gone nowhere, not even to Holland House. " The Times " and " Courier " have run into him cruelly, as you must have seen, and, by dwelling on the sore places, have damaged him sadly. It seems the general opinion that his antics offended the K. highly, and among other things, his taking the seals into Scotland without asking leave. To the dinner and the savans at Edinburgh I did not go. The Hollands learnt first of the change from that article in " The Times," and thought it a quiz. Spring Eice was told he was out by somebody in the street. Brougham, I hear, goes to Paris on Monday. His last gift was of a Canonry at Norwich to Sedgwick. He filled up twelve livings the last day. Nothing to Malthus. A very pretty living near Hertford fell to Lord Holland in October, and he offered it to M., but he must have given up the college and he declined it. ' The British Museum have declined to buy Mackin- tosh's papers. M,, junr., was with me yesterday, and talks of publishing in the spring. He wants Lawrence's portrait engraved, but I think I like yours by Opie better. A patent place of 6001. per annum fell to Spring Eice in October, and he wished to give it to him, but nobody knew where he was, so it was given to somebody else. 'Farewell, my dear friend. I fear I am writing illegibly, Imt I write against time. Le Marchant is going to marry Miss Smith, a grand-daughter of Drummond Smith, of Tring Park, with 18,000Z. A BUDGET OF POLITICAL NEWS 10 5 ' The household have behaved nobly — Lord Errol, Lord Falkland, Lord Elphmstone, Lord Torrington, &c. ' Ever yours, * SAilL. PiOGEES. ' St. James's Place : 21st Nov., 1834.' Richard Sharjy to Samuel Rogers. •Torquay: 26th Nov., 1834. * My dear Friend, — Not hearing from you I began to be afraid that you had been detained at some friend's house in the North by indisposition. Your letter, there- fore, was particularly welcome to me on many accounts. What a remarkable tour you have had ! At all times it must be very delightful to spend some time with such excellent and distinguished f)ersons, but just now it must be exciting in the highest degree, and your Conser- vative visits must have varied your course of conversa- tion instructively. ' I thank you for your unexpected aid to Mrs. Philips, whom I had prepared to expect that you would be engaged.* ' Only one word more as to the verses. Pure elo- quence will always be somewhat weak. His was rather lofty and noble both in thought and manner. * Your last pages were a budget of news indeed, from town, and contained several striking facts, which I had not learnt from Lord Denman, Gurney, or Scarlett. From the latter I have three long confidential letters, ' Sharp had written to ask for his votes for a child at the election for the Orphan Working School. 106 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES which, of course, I cannot quote, but I shall be glad if, in the struggle, he obtains what at his age is very important — security and station for the latter end of life. ' I suppose it never happened before that one Cabinet Minister first hears of his dismissal from a newspaper and another from a man in the street. To me it seems to be quite clear that it has long been settled at Court to get rid of our friends as soon as Lord Spencer died. What a treacherous fellow lie must be if this be true ! ' The Tories have the King, the House of Lords, the Clergy, nearly all the officers of Navy and Army, the majority of the landowners, and of the opulent com- mercial classes. This I firmly believe, but I believe also that these will be far from enough to suj^port them in their struggle against the middle ranks and the Dissenters demanding reform in Church and State. Only think of Ireland too, which will send nearly a hundred Eadicals or exasperated Whigs. That shameful Church must go. ' How lucky our friend Macaulay has been ! I am vexed that Eobert Mackintosh had not prudence enough to leave his address in town. He lost a commission last year in the same way. * I could not help smiling at your account of the re- appearances at Brooks's, where, to say the truth. Minis- ters could not come without being exposed to indiscre- tion and some impertinence, but then they had other means of showing that they did not forget their old friends, ' Next to being purse-proud is being office-proud. The Comet Brougham is gone to Paris. Why ? But THE MINISTERIAL CEISIS IN 1834 107 how can the orbit of such an eccentric planet be calcu- lated ? I hope the moon has had nothing to do with it. * My sister and Maria insist upon being mentioned as wishing you all good things, as does ' Yours ever truly, ' EicHARD Sharp. Samuel Rogers to Richard Sharp. ' Holland House : 4th Dec, 1834. ' My dear Friend, — The long and the short I believe to be this : The K. is by all parties thought to be very honest but very nervous. Now, there are only two men in whom he has much confidence. To them he looks up — in them only does he think there is safety ; and having lost one, he resolved on the first occasion to call in the other, though well satisfied with Melbourne. If Lord G[rey] had remained in office, he would never, they say, have had recourse to the Duke. * So the Whig ministers may thank themselves for having taken Lord G. too readily at his word. The wish of his heart was to continue another year and to carry the two Church reforms, which he was confident he could have done. ' The first half of my story I believe, the last half I know to be true. * If our friends Lord H[olland] and Lord L[ans- downe] had gone out with Lord G., which they ought to have done, H. would have brought Lord G. back, and we should now have been in office, or it would have brought in the Tories at once — a sad event, for they would then 108 KOGEES AND HIS CONTEMPORAKIES have had more time for entrenchmg themselves before another session, and for working mischief abroad. ' Would you like a little more of the graphic ? Six Ministers were assembled at dinner at H[olland] H[ouse], on the Friday night (the night of Lord M.'s return from Brighton), and dispersed, thinking themselves still in office. On that night, at half-past seven o'clock. Lord Palmerston called at the Treasury, and was shown in to Lord M., who had just alighted, and was sitting in his travelling cap, by two candles, in a large room, his room of business. "What news?" said P. " What will surprise you," said M., and, saying no more, he put into his hand a paper, containing the result of what had passed. ' What had passed was nothing like what it is said to be. It was very simple. The K. did not tell the Q. till the next day, when she said, " All England will rejoice in it ; " to which he answered, " That is as it may be, Madam." (A favourite phrase with him.) Lord G. at Howick is astounded — he thinks the measure not only unconstitutional, but illegal — for the D., being dictator, might run away with all the money. Lord M. writes from Melbourne very naturally. " I was never so happy, but I suppose I shall soon be d — d tired for want of something to do, as all are who leave office." ' And now a word or two about Brougham. His vagaries in Scotland, for I followed in his wake, would fill a volume. His letter to Lord Lyndhurst and the answer I have seen. If you had any suspicions with regard to the moon before, what do you think now ? Scarlett has also another competitor in Wetherall, for W. could not be Irish Chancellor and Scarlett could. I LORD BROUGHAM AND THE KING 109 earnestly wish that S. may have what he wants, and I am told he is sm's of it — Denman tells me so. In that case "Wll. must have the Duchy of L[ancaster], for he neither could nor would go to Ireland. * To return to the K. He has long taken a great dis- like to B., and his conduct lately has settled it. His antics and his taking the great seal across the Border without leave, brought on the crisis. He has worn him out, too, with correspondence, having assailed him with reams of paper, writing through Sir H. Taylor. He thinks he has great admissions in the K.'s answers through the same channel, but forgets that the K., also, has his. His, I am told by those who have seen them, are beyond anything. But why, you will say, did the K. write (or rather dictate) ? He thought he must answer his Chancellor. All now is over, however, and I believe all are heartily sick of him. He wrote a second letter to Lord L. from Calais, still more urgent, and he has written a third retracting all. He has taken, I hear, his seat in the Institute. * I am delighted to think that you are so well off as to society. The weather here is delightful. What then must it be with you ! Remember me most kindl}^ to the ladies. * Ever yours, *S. R. * B. has taken his new secretary with him to Paris — a dull young man, able only to transcribe ; his fellow- traveller in Scotland, Edmonds. ' Pray write to me, without any thought or scruple 110 KOGEKS AND HIS CONTEMPOKAKIES as to postage. The utmost cannot amount to the price of one opera. But having bored you with this long epistle, I shall spare you in future. My lady removes to Bur- lington Street to-morrow. 'And now to conclude with what I ought to have begun with — your new volume — which I first saw in Jeffrey's hand — notice-copy. I cannot say how much I like the nine new articles, though I wish you had given a little more of a Continental tour, particularly in Switzerland ; but your additions are invaluable. ' Hallam is in town, and Sydney [Smith], andWliishaw. When you like you shall meet them at breakfast. H. is but a step, you know. ' Lord M. communicated the news only to three persons over night — the Foreign Secretary, the Home Secretary and the Chancellor. Next morning it was in the "Times," and " Chronicle." Who sent it ? The two first say, we did not. The mischievous article was sent by him, I suppose, as a poisonous present to " The Times," " the Queen has done it all." These things must destroy all confidence. Allen fights for him against all the world.' Ill CHAPTER III. 1834-1837. Public Affairs in 1834 — Deaths of Coleridge and Lamb — Moore's Diary — Crabb Robinson and Wordsworth at Eogers's — Last Letter to R. Shai'p — R. Sharp's Death — Wordsworth upon him — Rogers to his Sister — Wordsworth's Letters — Ticknor's Diary — Rogers's Reputation for Cynicism — Rogers and Campbell — Rogers and Turner — Rogers's Bitter Sayings — Jokes of his Friends against him — The Quarterly Review on his Appearance — Letter of the Duchess of Sutherland — Wordsworth — Rogers at Broadstairs — Crabb Robinson's Diary — Moore's Diary — Washington Irving — Wordsworth's Letter — Sir H. Taylor — Moore's Diary again — Rogers at Broadstairs and Paris — Mrs. Butler's Recollections — Crabb Robinson's — Moore's— A Whig Conclave at Bowood— Haydon. I HAVE not thought it necessaiy to re-tell the familiar story of the political events to which the letters of Eichard Sharp and of Eogers in the previous chapter refer. The brief episode of Lord Grey's retirement fi'om of&ce in July 1834; of the hasty summoning of Sir Eobert Peel from Eome ; of the Duke of Wellington filling five Cabinet offices for a time, so that a contemporary satirist said * the Cabinet Council sits in the Duke's Head and the Ministers are all of one mind ' ; the general election ; the debates which turned, as Miss Martineau says, chiefly on the anecdotage of the crisis ; the defeats of the Ministry ; the refusal of Lord Grey to return to ofiice and the reconstruction of a "Whig Administration under Lord 112 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Melbourne, covered a period of nine agitating months. In the hterary world, too, some stirring events had hap- pened. Coleridge died at Highgate in July, 1834; and Charles Lamb followed at the close of the year. Eichard Sharp, whose long, valuable and most interesting life was drawing rapidly to its close, was spending the winter at Torquay, and Eogers and his other friends in London were in great anxiety about him. Meanwhile Moore's Diary is full as ever of the small social events it was his pleasure to put on record, and we constantly meet with Eogers in the amusing society in which Moore spent his time during his visits to London. 'February 20th, 1835. — Wrote my letters at Brooks's, and from thence to Eogers's : a good speculation, as it turned out. His servant, on opening the door, asked eagerly, " Are you come to dine here, Sir? Mr. Words- worth is coming." Found that Eogers, though engaged out himself, had asked Wordsworth and his wife, who are just arrived in town, to dinner. Mrs. Wordsworth was not well enough to come, but Eogers, W., and myself sat down to dinner at half-past five, and our host, having done the honours of the table to us till near seven o'clock, went off to his other engagement and left us tete-a-tete. ' Fehruary 24th. — Dinner at Eogers's : company, Sydney Smith, Eastlake the painter, and another artist whose name I cannot now recall. Eastlake told of a dinner given to Thorwaldsen the sculptor, at Eome, Wilkie presiding in the chair, and making a very elo- quent speech on the occasion, which it seems he is very THORWALDSEN : EASTLAKE : HENRY TAYLOR 1 1 3 capable of, though so tiresomely slow of words in society. In speaking of Thorwaldsen, he described him as " coming from the North to warm the marbles of the South with his genius"; and this poetical flight being very much applauded, Thorwaldsen, who sat next to Eastlake, begged he would interpret it to him. " He speaks of you," said Eastlake, " as a great artist ' chi e venuto dal setten- trione per riscaldar i marmi.' " " Eiscaldar i marmi ! ' exclaimed Thorwaldsen, puzzled at the metaphor, " che vuol dire?" "Col suo genio," continued Eastlake, which at once solved the difficulty and very much to the great sculptor's satisfaction. " Ah, si," he replied. Canova said of the numerous portraits pamted of himself that they were all different; and the reason was that each artist mixed up, unconsciously^ something of his own features with the resemblance. On Eastlake' s mentioning this to Thorwaldsen, the latter said this was particularly the case with the heads done by Canova, as they were all like his own — " fin' ai cavalli." ' Another day Moore is at Holland House, and stories are told of Kogers's good and kind qualities ; on the 28th of February he breakfasts at Eogers's ' to meet the new poet, Mr. Taylor, the author of " Van Artevelde." ' On that occasion the visitors at Eogers's table, besides the new poet and Moore, were Sydney Smith and Southey, 'Van Artevelde, a tall handsome young fellow,' and the conversation may be described as authors' shop. It was chiefly about the profits publishers make out of authors. On the next day he writes — 'March 1.5^,1835. — Wretchedly wet day. . . . Dined VOL. II. I 114 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES at Rogers's to meet Barnes ; an entirely clandestine dinner. None of our Whig friends in the secret ; and E. had been a good deal puzzled as to who he should ask to meet him. Tried Lord Lyndhurst, with whom Barnes is intimate, and he would have come had he not been engaged. Could then think of none but Turner the painter ; and he, Barnes, and myself formed the whole of the guests. . . . Had some talk with Turner in the even- ing. Mentioned to him my having sometimes thought of calling in the aid of the pencil in commemorating by some work or other the neighbourhood in which I have now so long resided . . . [but] he interrupted me by exclaiming, "But Ireland, Mr. Moore, Ireland! There's the region connected with your name. Why not illus- trate the whole life ? I have often longed to go to that country ; but am, I confess, afraid to venture myself there. Under the wing of Thomas Moore, however, I should be safe." ' Crabb Piobinson writes in his Diarj^ — * MarcJt yd, 1835. — Mr. Piogers also called; he in- vited me to dine with the Wordsworths at his house to-day. I then walked with the Wordsworths to Pickers- gill, who is painting a small likeness of the poet for Dora. We sat there for a couple of hours, enlivening by chat the dulness of sitting for a portrait. At six o'clock I returned to the West, and dined at Eogers's with Mr. and Mrs. Wordsworth. The very rooms would have made the visit interesting without the sight of any per- son. The pictures and marbles are delightful. Every- where the most perfect taste imaginable.' LAST LETTER TO RICHARD SHARP llo Moore writes of an earlier dinner at which Words- worth was present — * March 30///. — The day I met Wordsworth at dinner at Eogers's the last time I was in town, he asked us all in the evening to write something in a little album of his daughter's, and Wilkie drew a slight sketch in it. One of the things Luttrell wrote was the following epitaph on a man who was run over by an omnibus — ' Killed by an omnibus — why not ? So quick a death a boon is. Let not bis friends lament bis lot, Mors omnibus communis.' Eogers's last letter tq Eichard Sharp is full of the talk of the time. Samuel Rogers to Eichard Sharj). * My dear Friend, — I need not say how much your letter has afflicted me. Have you written to Clark ? Surely you should tell him how you are. I look with impatience to your coming in April. Wordsworth and Southey are still here ; S. having paid his daughter a visit, and W. projecting one to Cambridge. * Have you read Van Artevelde ? If not, pray do. I lilvo Taylor much. The W.'s are staying in his house. ' Did you read a sketch of the Duke in " The Morn- ing Chronicle," January 22nd? It will remmd you of Macaulay. ' I passed a week with Lord Grey at Woljurn l)efore he came to town. Last night I sat an hour with him and then went across B[erkeley] Square to Lady I 2 116 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Brougham's, where I found B[rougham] encircled with ex-Ministers — the Duke of Eichmond, Lansdowne, Melbourne, &c. Peel evidently wants an excuse to go out, and taunts them to give it him — but they wisely deter- mine to let him bring on his measures. Londonderry's appointment has already damaged him. ' The Duke of Somerset called upon me to-day and I want much to see him and talk to him about you. I have seen Lord Sinclair and Courtney. Do you know the Newarks ? Lord Grey says B. told him last year he was worth 25,000/. My monthly numbers I know little about. It is a scheme of Moxon's.^ Your volume circulates fast, as it ought. Babbage's parties are be- coming blue with Lady Morgan, Miss Jane Porter, &c. Lady Fanny Harley is about to marry a son of the Archbishop of York. ' Pray remember me to your ladies : I hardly know how to be sorry for anybody who has such a singing- bird in his cage. ' Yours ever, ' S. Rogers. ' St. James's Place : 19th March, 1835.' A few days after the receipt of this letter Eichard Sharp set out on his journey homeward, but never reached London. He became rapidly worse, and died at Dorchester on the 30th of March. He was only four years older than Eogers, and the friendship between them had been close and unbroken for more than forty years. ' This edition was published by Moxon in 1835. It was advertised as ' illustrated by 128 vignettes from designs by Stothard and Turner.' There were ten monthly parts at four shillings each. ' CONVERSATION ' SHARP 1 1 7 It is unfortunate that so few memorials remain of this remarkahle person. The fact that he was spoken of hy his contemporaries as ' Conversation ' Sharp, marks the chief source of the impression he made upon them. But he was a great deal more than the best talker of his time. He was a man of large and varied reading, of deep philosophic insight, and of great practical knowledge of public affairs. Statesmen took counsel with him, authors and others eagerlj^ sought his advice, and the most distinguished persons were proud to regard him as a friend. He had written but little, and everybodj' regretted that he had not written much. His little volume of 'Letters and Essays,' published in 1834, be- came widely popular among cultivated people, and caused much regi'et that he had not exercised his great powers on some themes of permanent interest. There was a pathos in the concluding words of his preface to this, his only book. Speaking of the letters, he said, ' Being, of course, m the possession of his friends, they might (how- ever insignificant) appear hereafter, when he could no longer correct them ; and the dates of some will show that he had no time to lose. Vesper . . . admonuit.* The words had not been written a year when the even- ing warning was fulfilled. William Wordsworth to Samuel Rogers. * My dear Rogers, — The papers record the death of your, and let me add /«//, long-known and long- valued friend Eiehard Sharp. Sincerely do I condole with you, and with his nearest connections upon this loss. How a thought of the presence of livmg friends brightens 118 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES particular spots, and what a shade falls over them when those friends have passed away ! This I have felt strongly in the course of the last twelve months, in respect to London, vast as the place is. And even in regard to the Lakes, it makes me melancholy to think that Sharp will visit them no more. If you be in com- munication with ]Mrs. Sharp and Miss Kinnaird, pray assure them that Mrs. W. and I sympathize sincerely with them in their bereavement. ' The papers also tell us that you have suffered a serious loss of property by a robbery committed in your house — the offender one of your own servants. Was it the footman ? I remember being a good deal startled by your telling me that that servant took the liberty of being absent as much as four hours at a time. I made some observation upon what you said, but not in such strong terms as would have been used had I not been in the habit of placing reliance upon your discretion. You expressed dissatisfaction and talked of dismissing him. After all, this may not be the man. Have any valuable pieces of virth been taken ? If not I shall be glad, and also to hear both that the value of the property, viz., 2,000/., has been exaggerated, and part of it, at least, recovered.^ ' In the TimcH of the 2nd of April, 1835, is the following account of this robbery: — 'On Tuesday last [31st March] several friends of Mr. Rogers were invited to partake of a breakfast, and a quantity of plate, ■which had not recently been used was desired to be got ready on the occasion. Just before the arrival of the company, the footman, Thomas Sims, left the house. Not being in attendance, and the plate not being ready, his absence excited suspicion, which was further corroborated by the keys of the plate-chests being removed from their usual place. After the lapse of a few hours Mr. Rogers sent for Plank, the officer, WOIIDSWORTH'S ' UNCHANGEABLE ATTACHMENT '119 ' Pray write to us at your early convenience. The great public unsettling with which we are threatened unsettles my little plans also, causing me to doubt whether I shall return to London or not. Whatever may be shaken or altered, be you assured of my unchangeable attachment, and that I am, and ever shall be, ' Firmly yours, • Trinity Lodge : 5th April [1835]. ' Wm. WoRDSWORTH. * Kindest regards from Mrs. W. and myself to your sister.' Eogers gives an account of himself this spring in a letter to his sister, written before the robbery or the fatal turn of his friend Sharp's illness. Sinn lid Rogers to Sarah Rogers. ' iSth March, 1835. ' My dear Sarah, — . . . I went to Woburn on Sun- day and left it on Friday. I found Lord Grey, Lord when it was advised that the plate-chests should be broken open, which was done with great dilliculty. The result fully confirmed the suspicions of ]\Ir. Rogers of the dishonesty of his servant, wlio, it appears, has robbed him of a large quantity of plate. Amongst the articles stolen are four double dishes, chased, which cost, it is said, upwards of i ,oooZ., upwards of a hundred pieces of plate belonging to the dinner and tea- service, a massy silver tea-kettle ; two splendid silver-gilt vases and spoons which were presented to the author of Italy by a member of the Royal Family, now no more ; besides a number of other valuable articles. The offender, who is about twenty-five years of age, and a native of Minstead, in the New Forest, Hampshire, had been in the service of Mr. Rogers for the last seven years ; and so high was the opinion enter- tained of him by his master, that he was entrusted with the whole of the valuable property contained in the house, and to prevent the possi- bility of temptation, large wages were given liim. There can be no doubt that a considerable portion of the property has been gone for some time.' 120 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Melbourne, Duchess of Sutherland, and a very large family party, among others a relation of ours, who contrived to come to me when I was alone and to say, "You have forgot me ; " Sam Johnes's only child, now married to a son of Sir John Shelley, a very lively and pleasing girl, for she cannot be much above twenty, and I took much to her. She and her husband sing delightfully togethe]'. How glad we are that the weather continues so mild for you. Poor Sharp ! I have a sad letter from him, and the ladies at Torquay are much alarmed for him. Mr. Towgood goes out every day as usual, and Patty is pretty well, though she has her bad days. You say you wish to know something of politics. I went for three minutes to Lady Brougham's party last night, and found B. encircled with ex-Ministers, and in high spirits, having just spoken well on the Poor Law Bill, as you will see — not that I exchanged a word or a look with him. Peel evidently wishes himself out, and taunts the Opposition to turn him out by some lead- ing motion, but it is wisely determined to give him no excuse and to let him bring his measures on. Lord Londonderry's appointment has already damaged the Government very much in the country. Adieu, my dear Sarah. My kind love to Patty. Perhaps, if the mild weather continues, you will stay a little longer. Mrs. Lockhart says she watches your windows. Babbage had a very blue party last Saturday. Lady Morgan, Miss Jane Porter, &c., &c. ' Ever yours, ' S. E. ' So Lady Fanny Harley is going to Ije married to a DOMESTIC TROUBLES 121 son of the Archbishop of York's — in the army I beHeve. Bickersteth, I hear, has dined at the Archbishop's — Query, as her papa ? "What will become of poor Jane ? IMillingen, I hear, has left Marseilles for Aix, on account of the cholera, I suppose. Mr. Boddington is very unwell, according to Webster. . . . Whether W. speaks through his fears or his wishes I don't know, Init W. thinks him in danger. I am sorry to say that I must part with Thomas. He is always out, sometimes for three or four hours, and sometimes comes home in liquor. Eeece and Kay both think he will never mend while he is here. I suppose his great leisure while I was away has been his ruin. I have not yet spoken to him on the sub- ject ; and I put it off from day to day. It is a great trouble to me, as 1 had looked to him as a successor to Pi., if any change had required it. I find he is married and has a child. His wife lives in Chelsea, and is a very decent person.' Early in May the Wordsworths were again at home, and two letters to Eogers tell of the troubles that met them there. WiUi(i)n ]J\n-dt well, wet and cold as the weather has been. From Cashiobury I went with a little interval to Holland House where I caught a cruel cold, which is not gone and bas- so dismayed me that I have given up everything beyond Paris. William thinks of coming here for a few days before I go, but has not yet decided between Paris and Liverpool. I think he will go to Liverpool. Ladj Cork THE TRANSLATOR OF DANTE 171 dined at Holland House on the 27th, and on September 5 with me, and on Friday I had a family party of Sharpes, Towgoods and Miss Slater. ... So Mrs. Charles Kemble is dead and Mrs. Sturch. My present scheme is to set off for Paris in about a fortnight, and a letter afterwards to the P. 0. will find me there. The Websters have been staying in Lady Mary's apartments in Windsor Castle. The Hollands set off on the 5th as you say ; Sir Stephen and Allen with them in the first carriage. Travelling post, they slept at Rochester and Canterbury, and a Government packet, price twenty- 6 ve guineas, met them at Dover. Pray give my love to Margaret and tell her I have not forgot my promises. ' Yours ever, 'S.E.' Eogers was at this time attempting to get a pension for Gary, the translator of Dante. He had called the attention of Wordsworth to the translation. Wordsworth admired it greatly, as Eogers did, and considered it a great national work. Wordsworth showed it to Coleridge, and Coleridge at once spoke of it in high terms in one of his lectures. But it was little known till attention was called to it by an article in ' The Edinburgh Eeview,' which was written by Foscolo with some assistance from Eogers and Mackintosh. Cary had been for some years assistant librarian at the British Museum, when, in 1837, the chief librarian, Mr. Baber, resigned. Eogers at once wrote to the Archbishop of Canterbury urging that Cary should be appointed. The Archbishop in reply told Eogers that Cary had suffered from temporary alienation of mind, a fact whicli Eogers knew but had forgotten. 172 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES He at once agreed that Gary was not fit for the post, and hinted so to Gary himself, who was so deeply offended that he never forgave it. The appointment was given to Panizzi, who had been introduced to Eogers by a letter from William Eoscoe. Gary at once resigned, and his conduct caused some annoyance to Lord Holland and others. The Trustees of the Museum recommended him for a pension, and Eogers backed up the application by a letter to Lord Melbourne. Samuel Rogers to Lord Melbourne. ' Dear Lord Melbourne, — Pray forgive me for breaking in upon you when you must have so much to do. You have received a representation from the Trustees of the British Museum (Lord Aberdeen has just written to inform me of it) in favour of Mr. Gary, and I am sure you mean to do something. But at his age every month is a loss, and the time will come, for, I know enough of you to know it — when you will be sorry to have overlooked him. With his translation of Dante you cannot be unacquainted, and perhaps you have looked into his translation of Pindar. ' Of his genius and his learning there can be no doubt. I can speak from long knowledge of his other merits — for long have I experienced his friendship, though for some time in poverty and in spleen he has withdrawn himself from me. ' But perhaps you have done it already ; and if so, I -envy you. ' Yours truly, ' 15th August, 1838,' * S. E. APPEAL FOR GARY'S PENSION iTS For the present the appeal was ineffectual, and Lord Holland, having told Eogers of the feeling against Cary^ Eogers replied — ' My dear Lord Holland, — The more I reflect on it,, the more I am convinced it could not be ; for a gentler, meeker spirit does not exist than Gary's. He may write with warmth under a wrong impression — he may turn, when he thinks himself trodden upon — but, if ever I knew a man, and I have known Gary in all weathers, he cannot be what you say he was thought to be — insolent. His case is a very cruel one. He laboured long in a subordinate place; and, when a vacancy occurred, an under servant was put over his head. The measure was perhaps a just one — I cannot say it was not — but the reason could not be explained to him, though it was a reason to create an interest in every generous mind, and he gave in his resignation. ' Well, there he was — a man of great merit, great learning and genius— such the cruelty of his case that the Trustees of the Museum went out of their way, op- posite as most of them were to him in political sentiments, and recommended him as a proper object of bounty to the government — yet nothing has been done ! ' Was the Pension List Gommittee averse to such pensions ? Quite otherwise, as I am assured b}' Lord John Eussell. ' But he has written a sonnet. What had not Mont- gomery done, when Sir Eobert Peel gave him what he did ? K Dryden and Johnson were still alive and pour- ing forth toryism or bigotry, would not I serve them, if 1 174 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES could ? Gary has now withdrawn his friendship from me. He thinks I was his enemy in this matter, but that shall not make me less anxious to render him any service in my power. But power I have none. * Yours ever, ' S. K. ' Christmas Day, 1838. * He is now slaving for the booksellers.' Nothing was done for a couple of years, and Rogers continued to plead. At length Lord Melbourne sent word there was a hundred a year to dispose of, and Gary should have it. That was after the defeat of Lord Mel- bourne's government at the elections in 1841. Eogers sent word back that he would not mention such a sum to Gary but would wait and ask Sir Robert Peel for a larger amount. Lord Melbourne then said Gary should have 200I., and Gary told Rogers he was better pleased with it than with double the sum from Peel. What Eogers was at this period of the very ripeness of his fame and of his social influence is shown in the Diary and Letters of Gharles Sumner, who spent this winter in London. He writes in his Diary — 'January i6th, 1839. — This London is socially a be- witching place. Last evening I first dined with Booth, a Ghancery barrister ; then went to Rogers's, where was a small party : Mrs. Marcet, Mrs. Austin, Miss Martineau, Mr. and Mrs. Lyell, Mr. and Mrs. Wedgewood, Harness, and Milman. We talked and drank tea, and looked at the beautiful pictures, the original editions of Milton and CHARLES SUMNER ON ROGERS ITo Spenser, and listened to the old man eloquent (I say eloquent indeed), and so the time passed.' ' He writes to his correspondent G. S. Hilliard on the 23rd of January — ' I believe I have often written you about Rogers. Of course, I have seen him frequently in society, never did I like him till I enjoyed his kindness at breakfast. As a converser Eogers is unique. The world, or report, has not given him credit enough for his great and peculiar powers in this line. He is terse, epigrammatic, dry, infinitely to the point, full of wisdom, of sarcasm, and cold humour. He says the most ill-natured things, and does the best. He came up to me at Miss Martineau's, where there was a little party of very clever people, and said, " Mr. Sumner, it is a great piece of benevolence in you to come here." Determined not to be drawn into a slur upon my host, I replied: "Yes, Mr. Rogers, of benevolence to myself." As we were coming away, Eogers, Harness, Babbage, and myself were walking to- gether down the narrow street in which Miss M. lives, when the poet said, " Who but the Martineau could have drawn us into such a hole?" And yet I doubt not he has a sincere liking for Miss M., for I have met her at his house, and he afterwards spoke of her with the great- est kindness. His various sayings that are reported about town, and his conversation as I caught it at even- ing parties, had impressed me with a great admhation of his powers, but with a positive dislike. I love frank- ness and truth. But his society at breakfast has almost ' Life of Sumner, vol. ii., p. 41. 176 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES obliterated my first impressions. We were alone, and be showed all tbose wonderful paintings, and we talked till far into tbe afternoon. I have seldom enjoyed my self- more ; it was a luxmy, in such rooms, to listen to such a man, before whom the society of the last quarter of a century had all passed — he alone unchanged ; to talk,, with such a poet, of poetry and poets, of Wordsworth,, and Southey, and Scott ; and to hear his opinions, which were given with a childlike simplicity and frankness. I must confess his great kindness to me. He asked my acceptance of the new edition of his poems, and said,, " I shall be happy to see any friend of yours, morning, noon, or night ; " and all his kindness was purely volunteer, for my acquaintance with him grew from simply meeting him in society. He inquired after Mrs. Newton with most friendly interest, and showed me a little present he had received from her, which he seemed to prize much. I shall write to her to let her know the good friends she has left behind. Eogers is a friend of Wordsworth, but thinks he has written too much, and without sufficient limte labor. He says it takes him ten times as long to write a sentence of prose as it does Wordsworth one of poetry ; and in illustration,, he showed me a thought in Wordsworth's last work — dedicated to Eogers — on the saying of the monk who- had sat before the beautiful pictures so long, and seen so many changes, that he felt tempted to say, "We are the shadows, and they the substance." ' This same story you will find in a note to the"Italy.'^ Eogers wrote his note ten times over before he was ' Yarrow Revisited, and oilier Poems, 1835. THE DUCHESS OF SUTHERLAND 177 satisjfied with it ; Wordsworth's verse was published almost as it first left his ])en. Look at the two.' A few letters and notices which may be strung together in chronological order keep Rogers in sight through another year. The first is a pathetic note from an old friend who died eight days after it was written — TJie Dowager Duchess of Sutlieiiand to Samuel Ror/ers. ' Monday, 21st 'Jan.], 1839. ' My dear Mr. Rogers,— I must at last submit to the mortification of sending m}^ excuse to you for to-day, which I have too long delayed, and to which I looked forward with the pleasure anticipated by a long confine- ment ; but since I saw j^ou, I have been quite confined by an unaccountable sickness and fits of nausea, that come on incessantly, and plague both Sir H. H. and myself, as he will tell you. I do not know what my dis- order is — I know I may as well die of that as of anything else, but I still hope to have the pleasure of seeing you first. 'Ever most truly yours, ' E. Sutherland.' Here is a glimpse of an interesting person who was in London in the winter. It is in reference to a question which had arisen in conversation. Samuel Roc/ers to Miss Edfjcworth. ' My dear Miss Edgeworth, — Not relying on myself, I have put the question, as far as I could, to the London VOL. II. N 178 EOGEKS AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES world ; and the votes are one and all, as you knew they would be, for ' Did the bell ring ? * Are you to learn of us, you who have taught us all how to speak and how to write ? And are we never to see you here again ? If you don't come soon I shall not be to be found ; but wherever I am, in this world or another, I hope I shall never^forget your kmdness. * Your affectionate Friend, '2nd March, 1S39.' ' S. PiOGERS. Sir Henry Taylor writes on the 9th of April — ' Dined with Rogers ; the company were Colonel and Lady Mary Fox, Mr, and Madame Van de Weyer, Mr. and Mrs. Brinsley Sheridan, Lady Seymour, Mrs. Norton, Mons. Eio, Charles Sheridan the elder, and Edmund Phipps. The dinner was very agreeable to me, and I thought that Mrs. Brinsley Sheridan was very pretty.' An interesting letter from Lord Wellesley may be fitly introduced by a remark made by Rogers about him, which is reported by Lord Stanhope in his ' Notes of Conversations with the Duke of Wellington.' ' Fridaij, March i^th, 1839. — Macaulay, Hallam, Gurwood and Rogers came to breakfast with me. Lidia being mentioned, " I think," said Rogers, " that the most remarkable contrast that histor}' affords, is between the Duke of Wellington and Lord Wellesley, the one scorn- ing all display, the other living for nothing else." " Yes," LOED WELLESLEY 179 said Macaulay ; "no two brothers, to be eminent men, were ever so unlike." ' Lord Wdlcsley to Saniael Ilogers. ' Kingston House : 20th April, 1839 — Saturday. ' My dear Mr. Eogers, — Your very handsome present has delif^'hted me, and demands my warmest gratitude. The book is magnificent, and quite suitable to the value of its contents. * I sought immediately my old and highly prized friend, " The Pleasures of Memory," which I have read over more than three times, with increased admiration. I should like to hear what your opinion is of the famous passage in Dante — — ' Nessun maggior dolore Che ricordarsi del tempo fehee Nella miseria. — ' Milton has the same idea — ' For now the thought Both of lost happiness and lasting pain Torments him. * This would seem inconsistent with the notion of pleasure in the recollection of past happiness ; Goldsmith too — * To our past joys recurring ever, And cheating us with present pain. ' Not so T. Moore — ' The memory of the past shall stay, And all our joys renev/. N 2 180 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES ' Dante hints that there is some such sentiment in Virgil— ' e cio sa il tuo Dottore. * But I do not remember any passage in Virgil of that description, although several where the recollection of past pain is described as a pleasure — ' Hffic olim meminisse juvabit. ' I shall read the other poems in the book with great attention, and I have no doubt with the same admi- ration as that with which I am more particularly- acquainted. ' Believe me always, my dear Sir, with sincere regards and esteem, your faithful and obliged servant, ' Wellesley.' Archbishop Trench writes — * The poet Wordsworth is in town. I met him at breakfast this morning at Eogers's, who was very kind and cordial, sj)caking with real feeling and admiration of my mother. " Philip van Artevelde " was present, and I liked him better than when I met him on a former occasion.' Daniel Webster was in London in the spring, and, with his wife, was a frequent visitor at Eogers's house. Crabb Robinson, who met them at Kenyon's in June, says that he had an air of imperial strength, such as Csesar might have had, and that his wife also had a dignified appearance. Mr. and Mrs. Ticknor alone resembled them in this particular. Moore records his MRS. BUTLER 181 meeting with Webster at Miss Eogers's. Another American, Miss Katharine Sedgwick, came too, with an introduction from Fanny Kemble (Mrs. Butler), who had known Eogers from her childhood, as the intimate friend of her father and her aunt. Her letter has an interest of its own. Mrs. Butler to Samuel Rogers, 'New York: Tuesday, 30th April [1839]. ' My dear Sir, — I have a great favour to request of you, and hope that you will not pronounce me a very impertinent person for so doing. A very interesting and excellent woman, an especial friend of mine. Miss Katharine Sedgwick, is about visitmg England with her brother, who is travelling to recover entirely from the effects of a paralytic stroke, from which he is already partially restored. Her name may possibly be known to you, as her books have been both republished and reviewed in England ; at any rate, she is a very dear friend of mine, and upon that ground I venture to recommend her to your kindness. The celebrity of American writers has but a faint echo generally on your side of the water, but her writings, which are chiefly addressed to the young and the poor of her own country, are very excellent in their spirit and execution, and she is altogether a person whom even 3'ou might be well pleased to know, rare for her goodness, and with talents of no common order. Pray, my dear Sir, if it is not asking too much of 3'ou, extend some courtesy to my friend. I have indeed but little claim upon you to justify such a petition, but the request, I think, recom- 182 ROGEKS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES mends itself, for it is a good work to bescow kindness on those who need it ; and who do need it so much as forlorn sojourners in foreign lands? Although you say most cruel things (as I remember), you do, I know, many most kind ones, and I feel, therefore, the more courage in addressing this prayer to you. I do not know that you take sufficient interest in me to care much for any particular information about my proceedings, and having done my errand, I will cease troubling you, with merely the observation that I understand you express an opinion that I am in love with the idea of my husband, to which I can only say that you are perfectly right, for five years of the intimate intercourse of reality have yet left me in love with the idea of my husband, and in that respect, I believe, I have the advantage over not a few married women. * I am, my dear Sir, yours very truly, ' Fanny Butler.' Those who care to compare two reports of a conver- sation with the Duke of Wellington will find on pages 199 and 201 of Rogers's ' Eecollections ' an account of Wellington seeing Soult, and Soult afterwards seeing the Duke. Lord Stanhope says (Conversations, &c., page 143), Piogers was told this at a dinner at his house in Grosvenor Place on the 2nd of June, 1839, when the party to meet the Duke * consisted of Lady Frederick Bentinck, Mdllc. D'Este, my sister, Lord Clare, Lord Alford, and Mr. Eogers.' Sydney Smith had pul)lished in the spring his * Con- triljutions to ' The Edinburgh Picview,' and the death of ROGERS AND SYDNEY SMITH 183 Courtenay, in the summer of 1839, made liim a com- paratively rich man, and enabled him to take the house in Green Street, Grosvenor Square, in which he lived till his death in February 1845. He was eight years younger than Rogers, and died more than ten years before him. The relations between them were most affectionate. He joked Rogers as nobody else dared. ' My dear Rogers,' he said one day, * if we were both in America, we should be tarred and feathered, and lovely as we are by nature, I should be an ostrich and you an emu.' He went with Moore and Rogers one day to see Dryden's house. It was very wet, but Rogers, always enthusiastic about Dryden, got out of the carriage, but Moore and Smith refused. ' Oh, you see why Rogers don't mmd getting out,' exclaimed Sydney to Moore, * he has got goloshes on ; lend us each a golosh, Rogers, and we will each stand on one leg and admire as long as you please.' Responding to an invitation to break- fast, Sydney Smith writes, * To breakfast with you in return for your breakfasting with me, is to give you a shilling for a guinea, but if you are generous enough to accept such payment, I shall be most happy to make it.' There can perhaps be no greater transition than from the merry and light-hearted Sydney Smith to the unfortunate, and in some respects unhappy, Blanco "White. Readers of Mr. Thom's biography of him will, however, recognise him as one of the most remarkable men of his time. He made some stir in London Society, and came frequently into contact with Rogers, who heartily sym- 2mthised with him, and showed him some kindness. The 184 KOGERS AND HIS COJ^TEItlPOEAEIES only letter from Blanco White I find among Eogers's. papers is \\-ortli preserving. The Rev. J. Blanco White to Samuel Rogers. ' My clear Friend, — I owe a debt of gratitude to you ; and I know that you will not grudge me the pleasure of acknowledging it, though it must be by troubling you with a letter. * If you knew how great is my love to that son of my misfortunes, to whom you have shown so much kindness and friendship, you would also know how to value the sincerity of my gratitude to you. Never was, I believe^ a more surprising combination of adversity and success than appears in our mutual relations. Heaven has re- warded me for whatever I may have done or suffered in performing my duties. That Ferdinand White has been found not unworthy of your attention is indeed a very delightful part of that reward. 'I must tell you that during the most afflicting period of the miserable disease which makes me linger so long on the brink of the grave, I have found a con- stant source of relief to my mind and feelings in your inimitable "Italy." I have read it twice over, when my tortured mind rejected every other reading except Shakspeare. Happy the man who, by transfusing his soul into that work, has imparted to it a spirit of refined, benevolent humanity, which must secure it admirers aa long as Nature and true taste shall exist among those who speak the English language. ' Take this, my friend, as the language of the heart. THOMAS MILLER 185 I am not iii a state to flatter. Believe mc, ever your obliged and affectionate friend, 'J. Blanco White. ' 22 Upper Stanhope Street, Livei-pool : 13th June, 1839.' Crabb Eobinson gives an example which came under his own notice of Eogers's patronage of poor and deserv- ing authors. 'August 8th, 1839. — Breakfasted at Samuel Rogers's Nvith W. Maltby. There came ui a plain-looking man from the North, named Miller, of free opinions and deportment. He had risen by his talents ; and Eogers told us his history. "He called on me lately," said Eogers, " and reminded mc that he had formerly sold me some baskets — his own work — and that on his show- ing me some of his poems I gave him three guineas. That money enabled him to get work from the Ijook- sellers, and he had since written historical romances, "Fair Eosamond," "Lady Jane Grey," etc' In the summer Eogers gives an account of himself to his sister. Sa)iiiui Eogers to SaraJi Rogers. ' Holland House : 23rd August, 1839. * My dear Sarah, — . . . Last week I passed a night at the Castle at Eiehmond with the Hollands, and next day saw the Dunlops, and also Mrs. Fox, who was there on her way to a dentist in town. j\Iiss "Willoughby and Miss Marsden were with her, and she looked as well as she could do with a bad cold. I passed two ni<:^its 186 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES too at Walton with the Tankervilles, and took a peep at Hampton Court. I have twice drawn upon Edmund and Mrs. Allen, once to dine Lady Holland and once the Carlisles, who have returned from Italy. Last night the Queen dined at Stafford House, and I went in the evening. Who should call one day between eleven and twelve, but Lady Essex and Miss J. ! They are frightened at the distance of Bareges, which Dr. Chambers recommended, but mean to go somewhere next week, and have set their hearts upon meeting you at Paris. They have bought a very small britzka, too small they fear to carry anything, and with a maid and a courier mean to make their way. They have parted with every face in the house, and felt never so free and happy as when the last went out of it. Maltby went to-day to Broadstairs, having no alternative, his maid wishing to go to Scotland. I shall follow him in a week or so, when I have remained a little while here. Mil- lingen and Wilkinson are still here, and I see them often. The other day I asked the Sharpes, and M., and W., and Eastlake, and Stanfield, and Maltby, and Dr. Lepsius to dinner at a venture, and they all came. Mary, and Patty, and Sarah, and Dan are gone to the sea near Liverpool, and wish the newspapers sent there. Farewell, my dear Sarah ; give best remembrances to your fellow-traveller, and believe me to be ever yours affectionately, ' S. PiOGERS.' The first letter from Dickens ' is in the following autumn. • I have to thank Miss Georgina Hogarth, Dickens's sister-in-law, for her kind permission to publish the letters from Dickens which CHARLES DICKENS 187 Cliddcs Diclrns to Samnd Roriers. •Doughty Street: Thursday, 14th November [1839], * My dear Sir, — I was concerned to hear, at Holland House yesterday, that you had left there in consequence of not feeling very well. I hope it was hut a temporary ailing, and that this will find you as well as I wish you — in which case you will not have felt hetter in all your life, helieve me. * I intended to have asked you yesterday to let me send you a copy of " Nicklehy." Being prevented, I send it you now without permission, hegging you to receive with it, my dear Sir, the warm assurance of my esteem and admiration. 'Did you ever "move"? We have taken a house near the Regent's Park, intending to occupy it hetween this and Christmas, and the consequent trials have already hegun. There is an old proverh that three re- moves are as bad as a fire. I don't know how that may be, but I know that one is worse. ' Always believe me, my dear Sir, faithfully yours, ' Charles Dickens.' R. B. Haydon, who was painting a picture of the Duke of "Wellington, says, towards the end of November — ' Rogers called and was pleased with the Duke. He said it was the man. He said he wished I would paint Napoleon musing at St. Helena, not so fat as he really was ; that that was the only thing Talleyrand and the appear in this volume. Miss Hogarth correctly describes them as ' chaiiiiing and characteristic' 188 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Duchess De Dino objected to in my picture at Sir Eobert Peel's. I asked him what they thought of the picture. He said, most highly, but that the fatness always pained them, as they never saw him so. He said he saw him with Mr. Fox in 1802, and nothing could be handsomer than his smile. Eogers is a Whig; he lingers about Napoleon, and did not seem to think the Duke half so interesting. He told me I was a great poet, etc., and went away.' Four letters from three eminent Americans, one of which introduces to Eogers a fourth, almost equally eminent, may here be grouped without regard to chrono- logy. They all belong to the same year. William H. Prescott to Samuel Rogers. ' Boston : 27th Jan., 1840. * My dear Sir, — I yesterday received the copy of your poems, which you did me the honor to send me, for which I heartily thank you. They have been my study and dehght, some of them, I may truly say, from boy- hood, and to possess a copy of them from the author, in any form, would have been highly gratifying to me. How much more so is it in this magnificent edition, in which the text seems to derive additional beauty from that of the illustrations. It is a further pleasure for me to regard it — I hope not jDresumptuously — as an expres- sion of your approbation of my own humble efforts in the field of letters. 'Believe me, my dear Sir, with sentiments of the highest respect, your much obliged and obedient servant, *Wm. H. Prescott.' LETTERR FRO^I DANIEL WEBSTER 189 Daniel Webster to Samuel Rogers. ' Washington : loth Feb., 1840. ' My dear Sir, — If what Dr. Johnson says be true, I am somewhat " advanced in the dignity of a thinking being," as the past and the distant at this moment predominate in my mind strongly over the present. From amidst the labors of law and the strife of polities, I transport myself to London. No sooner am 1 in London, than I go off to find yoii, to gi-asp your hand, to assure myself of your health, and then to sit down and hear you talk. I enjoy all this, my dear Sir, most highly, and mean to enjoy it, so long as you and myself remain on this little bit of a globe. The pleasure of your acquaintance is not, with me, the felicity of a few months only. I fund it, and intend to get a very nice annuity out of it, as long as I live. I shall be receiving a dividend w'henever I think of you ; and if I can persuade myself mto the belief that you sometimes remember me and mine, the treasure will be so much the more valuable. ' To that end, my dear Sir, as well as for other pur- poses for which one writes a friendly letter, I transmit you this. You will learn from it that we are all alive and safely landed on our side of the ocean. Our passage was of thirty-five days, with the alternations of head winds and calms ; and an approach to the shore, a little dangerous, perhaps, from the season of the year and the state of the weather. But no accident happened to us. One of the greatest annoyances in such a voyage, at such a time of the year, is the shocking length of the 190 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES nights. They remmded me of the six months' obscura- tion of the unhappy souls about the north pole. When you come over, look out for short nights and long days. * My wife is at New York, passing a few weeks with her father, an aged gentleman who has been a good deal out of health. Mrs. Paige is in Boston, entertaining the circles around her with the wonders of London and Paris. Julia is also in Boston, and if she knew I was writing, would be eager to put on to my sheet her warm recollections. You have many older admirers, but none more ardent or enthusiastic. If it were proposed to her to visit Europe again, the pleasure of seeing you, I am sure, would be a very powerful inducement. ' Having visited Boston, I came hither a fortnight ago. Congress is in session, and will remain so, not probably quite so late as Parliament will sit, but until June or July. Our affairs are bad enough. The currency is terribly deranged, and the important and delicate questions which always belong to such a subject are sadly handled when they become topics for heated and violent parties. I see, too, that the money crisis is not over in England. Our concerns are, indeed, much con- nected, and the same causes affect them all. ' I am coming to the opinion fast, that some new modes of regulation must be adopted in both countries ; or else these frequent contractions and expansions of the paper circulation will compel us to give it up and go back to gold, or iron, or the Lord knows what. But I will not bore you with politics. Let me, rather, say that I have answered a hundred questions about you, made many persons happy by speaking of you, and that LETTERS FROM DANIEL WEBSTER 191 I make it a point to boast, perpetually, of your kindness to us. I wish I had something to send you worthy of your perusal. If I should be so fortunate as to see any- thing shortly which I may think possesses that cha- racter, it will furnish me an apology for writing to you again. I pray you to present our kind and grateful remembrance to Miss Eogers, whose attentions we shall never forget, and when at Holland House will you do me the honor to tender my best respects to Lord and Lady Holland ? ' I am, my dear Sir, with the most sincere attach- ment and regard, ' Yours, ' Daniel Webster Daniel Webster to Samuel Rogers. 'Washington: 25th May, 1840. ' My dear Sir, — Some time in August I hope this letter will be put into your hand by my personal and particular friend, Mr. Everett. Twenty years ago Mr. Everett was in England, and made the acquaintance of Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott, Lord Stowell, and others who have since joined the great congregation of the dead. He missed you, and he has therefore a great pleasure to come. ' Mr. Everett is a scholar, if we may be thought to have reared one in America. For some years past he has been engaged in political life as a member of Con- gress and Governor of Massachusetts. He now goes abroad with the intention of passing some years in France and Italy. His family is with him, but he has 192 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES informed me that lie thinks of leaving them in Paris, and of making a short visit to London, before he goes into winter quarters on the Continent. As he is my fast friend, I commend him to you, my dear Mr. Rogers, as a sort of alter ego ; but he is a much more learned, a more wise, and a better ego than he who writes this. Have the kindness to make him known at Holland House and also to Miss Eogers. ' A thousand blessings attend you, my dear Sir. And many happy years yet be yours. ' Daniel Webster.' George Ticknor to Samuel Rogers. ' Boston, U. States of America: 30th Dec, 1840. ' My dear Sir, — I received last summer your very kind letter and the beautiful little copy of your poems that accompanied it ; but I have since been chiefly in the country, and not in a position to answer it as I desired. The year, however, must not go out without carrying to you my very sincere acknowledgments. The copy of the " Italy " especially is very beautiful. I do not know that the art of engraving on wood can go further than it does in those woodcuts which, I suppose, were made for it expressly ; most of the others being the same with those in the edition of your Poems of 1820, which I remember we thought quite a gem in its time. But I was very glad to get the two little vols, of 1839, which I had never heard of before, for another reason. I now have nearly all the editions of your works, including even the " Ode to Superstition, with some other Poems," 1786, which I exceedingly value as a proof of what you could do in GEORGE TICKNOR 193 your boyhood, I wonder whether you have so complete a series yourself? In particular, I wonder whether you have the American editions of them. If you have not, pray let me know it, and it will give me particular pleasure to send them to you. ' After I wrote to you about the extraordinary story of what happened at Harrogate,' I saw the magnificent quarto copy of your poems which my friend Prescott received, and immediately recognized the tale in its Italian mask. It has a particular value and meaning for me, and I was delighted at the grace with which it is told. But if such a story may be told gracefully, what may not '? The little edition of '39 also contains it, and so, I trust, will all that may follow. * I need not tell you, I suppose, that your works have a great circulation and success in this country. The octavo edition m particular, with its exquisite vignettes, is found m proportion, I think, oftener in Boston than it is in London— in proportion, I mean, to the population. Of the 1 2mo, I know no copy but the one you were kind enough to send me, and of the 4to none but Prescott's. So they are much admired and stared at. They were not known to exist till these copies arrived, and even last week two intelligent booksellers denied the existence of the smaller one. Everybody, indeed, wants the octavo, and everybody who can afford it has it. But all this you must know substantially from your bookseller, who must be aware how many copies came to Boston. ' Mrs. Ticknor and my young lady- -now really ' See the letter from Uvedale Price in the tenth chapter, vol. i., pp. 35S, 359, ' An English Ginevra.' VOL. II. O 194 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES become such — desire to be most respectfully and affec- tionately remembered to you. We all recollect, with lively gratitude, your kindness to us in London. ' Yours always very faithfully, * George Ticknor. ' ^Vlien you happen to see Mr. Milman, will you do me the favour to thank him for a copy of his poems, which I received with yours, and to say that I shall write to him soon ? * One thing more. You will be pleased to hear that our excellent friend Professor Smyth's first series of lectures — those on Modern History — are, at my sugges- tion, reprinting here, so as to be used as a text-book in our neighbouring University — Cambridge. This comes as near teaching posterity as a man can, and yet keep in this world. Do you remember the beautiful phrase of Tacitus about Germanicus— //miwr famci. Well, if you or Professor Smyth will come to Boston, you can furnish a beautiful illustration of it. But I suppose you will rather trust the matter to the commentators than take the trouble in person. 'G. T.' In the spring and summer of 1840 there are the usual records of meetings with Piogers in Moore's Diary, but only two are worth quoting. ' February, igth, 1840. — My first visit was to Eogers, whom I found remarkably well and full of kindness. Agreed with me that three men now looked up to by the people of England were the Duke, Lord John, and DK. CHARLES MACKAY 195 Peel. Mentioned, a propos of this, what he had told me of the Duke saying to him last year, in speaking of the ministry, "Lord John is a host in himself." ' ' 26th. — Dined at Holland House. A good deal of talk about Erskine, and the particulars of his first brief, much of which, as now told by Eogers, was quite different from the account given me of it by Jekyll ; but Eogers, it seems, took it all down from Erskine's own lips. Came away with Eogers and went to Lady Minto's — a large assembly.' A veteran poet, who is still living, wrote thus forty- nine years ago, and the letter is as honourable to the writer as to the recipient of it. Charles Mackay to Samnel Rogers. ' 14 Bazing Place, Lambeth : 15th Feb., 1S40. 'Sir, — Perhaps I have committed an error in dedi- catmg the accompanying volume to you without your permission, but if error it be, the doubt only suggested itself to my mind when it was too late to be remedied. After all it requires no permission to be grateful, and in the simple feeling of admiration and gratitude, I have inscribed your name upon this attemj^t at poetry. You may not, perhaps, remember that five or six years ago, a nameless, friendless, hard-struggling stranger, alone in the wide world of London, upon whom the gaunt fiend of Distress was scowling at no very great distance, as a last resource before despairing altogether, enclosed a small volume of rhymes and sent it to you with a state- ment of his case. You gave him relief — that was some- o 2 196 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES thing ; you gave him sympathy, which was something more; and you gave him encouragement, which was dearest of all. You told him there was genius in him — you told him of some errors he should for the future avoid — you recommended Spenser to his constant perusal, and predicted that on some day or other his own most intimate yearning would be satisfied, and that he would produce something which the world would not willingly let die. . . . He has not the vanity to say that he has succeeded yet, but he has tried for it, and if he has failed, has energy enough to try again and again, cheered even under failure, to find, like Coleridge, " that the love of poetry is its own exceeding great reward." ' The gratitude expressed in this dedication and repeated in my letter is not of that sort which the Frenchman alluded to, "A keen sense of favours to come." Fortune, which did not aid my exertions when I addressed you first, has changed her mind since then^ and has not withheld the rewards which are due to honest labour — so that you are to take this dedication purely as it is intended and as it is expressed, of admira- tion which I feel in common with all readers — and of gratitude for the one act of kindness which shed a light upon a very dreary period of my life. ' Believe me to remain, ever with respect and esteem, yours very faithfully, ' Charles Mackay.' In Macready's Eeminiscences, under the date of May 24th, 1 840, he writes : * Talfourd and Dickens called for me, and we went together to Rogers's, where we dined. Lord and Lady Seymour, Mrs. Norton, Lady Dufferin, CHARLES DICKENS 197 Lord Denman, Luttrell, and Poole, with Miss Rogers, were of our party. I was pleased with the day, liking Mrs. Norton very much, and being much amused with some anecdotes of Rogers. His collection of pictures is admirable, and the spirit of good taste seems to pervade every nook of his house.' It is needless to say what was Eogers's response to the following letter. Charles Dickens to Samuel Rogers. ' Devonshire Terrace: Thursday, 13th August, 1840. ' My dear Sir, — I have decided to publish " Master Humphrey's Clock " in half-yearly volumes, each volume containmg, of course, the collected numbers for that period. As the first of these will be out at the end of September, and I want to settle a point I have in my mind, let me ask a favour of you at once. ' Have you any objection to my dedicating the book to you, and so having one page in it which will afford me earnest and lasting gratification ? I will not tell you how many strong and cordial feelings move me to this inquiry, for I am unwilling to parade, even before you, the sincere and affectionate regard which I seek to gratify. ' If I wrote a quire of notes, I could say no more than this. I must leave a great deal understood, and only say, with a most hearty adaptation of what has passed into a very heartless form, that I am always, ' My dear Sir, faithfully j^ours, ' Charles Dickens.' The great event in "\Miig circles in the autumn of 198 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES 1840 "^as the death of Lord Holland, at Holland House, on the 22nd of October. He was ten years younger than Eogers, but he formed the chief of the few remam- ing Hnks with the great men of their earlier days. As a Whig leader in the House of Lords, first in the days of "Whig depression, and afterwards in the era of their triumphs, he had won a great position in popular esteem and was regarded as the fit inheritor of the traditions as of the name of Fox. This social influence, and that of the brilliant circle he and his wife gathered at Holland House, probably did more service to his party than even his action m the House of Lords. To the Whigs gene- rally his death was a heavy blow at an untimely moment ; but to Rogers it threatened the desolation of the circle in which he was himself an oracle. He and Moore were staying at Bo wood when they heard of Lord Holland's death, and Moore tells us how they received the news. ' October 2T,rd. — While I was dressing this morning the maitre cF hotel came to my room with the distressing and startling intelligence that Lord Holland was dead ! He had been sent by Lady Lansdowne to tell me, with a request that I would inform Mr. Eogers of the sad news. Went immediately to Eogers's room, who was equally shocked with myself at the sad intelligence. Met all at breakfast. Lord Lansdowne showed me a letter from Dr. Holland, giving an account of all the particulars of his death, which took place after a short illness. My own opinion was that our party ought to separate, but I found to my surprise that both Lord and Lady Lans- downe's wish was that we should stay. Having expressed SOME LITERARY CRITICISM 199 my opinion to Rogers, he thought right to mention it to Lady Lansdowne, but her earnest wish was that we should stay, and Rogers returned to me from her crying like a child. It is right to say, however, that both he and all felt (as who would not feel ?) that a great light had gone out, and that not only the friends of such a man, but the whole community in general, had suffered an irreparable loss.' Moore, another day, gives us a scrap of Rogers's lite- rary criticism. '2,1st October. — Rogers mentioned among other agree able things a curious parallel found in the " Odyssey " to the well-known storj' of the Indian chief at Niagara, who was lying asleep in his boat, just above the current of the Falls, when some wicked person cut the rope by which his boat was fastened to the shore, and he was carried down the cataract. The poor Indian, on waking up, had made every effort, by means of his paddle, to stop the career of the canoe, but, finding it to be all hopeless, and that he was hurrying to the edge, he took a draught out of his brandy flask, wrapped his mantle about him, and, seating himself composedly, thus went down the Falls. The parallel to this in Homer is when the companions of Ulysses, in spite of all his precautions, let loose the Bag of the "Winds, and when, with the same dignified composure, Ulysses submits to his fate. The natural action of wrapping round the mantle is the same in both ! Cowper thus translates the passage — ' I then, awaking, in my noble mind, Stood doubtful, whether from my vessel's side 200 ROGERS AND IIIS CONTEMPORARIES Immersed to perish in the flood, or calm To endure my sorrows, and consent to live. I calm endured them ; but around my head Winding my mantle, laid me down below.' In November Rogers was visiting the Duke of Wellington at Strathfieldsaye, and Lord Stanhope, who joined the party on the 26th, found him there and Lord and Lady W^ilton. Lord and Lady Lyndhurst and Miss Copley arrived on the next day, when Rogers left. They had been together to the churchyard in the morn- ing to see an inscription, and Rogers repeated one, taken from another humble country churchyard, and dated, he thought, about 1678. ' To woo us unto Heaven her life was lent ; To wean us from this earth her death was sent.' Rogers remarked, Lord Stanhope tells us, that sometimes there were great flashes of humour in Sir Robert Peel's conversation. At a meeting of the Trustees of the British Museum somebody said, about some expensive purchases by young Tomline, ' W'^hat would his grandfather (the Bishop) say if he could now look up ? ' Peel said slyly, ' I observe you don't say, look down ! ' ' Rogers told us with some irritation,' says Lord Stanhope, ' that yesterday, at dinner, Lady W^ilton asked him whether he had ever known Lord Byron.' The Rev. Gerald Wellesley, afterwards Dean of Windsor, who was present at the dinner, told Lord Stanhope that the question was asked by Lady Wilton in good faith, and ' that the poet, apparently much annoyed, replied, * Known him — yes, I did know him — too well." ' MACREADY'S REMINISCENCES 201 There are pleasant glimpses of Rogers in Macready's Eeminiscences. One day, in November, he calls at St. James's Place with the plan of the monument to Mrs. Siddons, into which Rogers enters warmly, and tells Macready that on the occasion of her brother's monu- ment (though it was really on the occasion of the great dinner to John Kemble on his retirement) she said, * I hope, Mr. Rogers, that one day justice will be done to women.' On the last day of January, 1841, Dickens calls for Macready, and they go together to Rogers's to dine. Eastlake is there, and Colonel Fox, Ivenney, Maltby, Babbage, and two others, and Macready says of it : ' A pleasant day. Showed Rogers my Committee list, with which he was pleased.' On the 22nd of March Rogers drops in to a meeting of the Siddons Committee, and then dines at Macready's, with Mrs. Jameson, Mrs. Pierce Butler, Kenney, Dickens, Travers, and Harness. Lord Stanhope records meeting him at grand dinners at Apsley House in May and August. In a letter to Napier, in which Macaulay suggests that if Southey dies Leigh Hunt might very well have the laurel, he asks him to move Rogers to write a short account of Lord Holland's character for ' The Edinburgh Review,' and adds, ' Nobody knew his house so well, and Rogers is no mean artist in prose.' It is a calamity that Rogers did not do even more than this, for who could have given such an account of Holland House as he? But he was approaching the end of his seventy-eighth year when Macaulay expressed the wish. Socially, how- ever, he was the same as ever ; indeed, the universal testimony is that he improved with age. These letters. 202 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES written in the autumn of 1841, show wonderful vigour for a man in his seventy-ninth year. Samuel Bor/ers to Sarah Rogers. 'Dover: loth Oct., 1841. * My dear Sarah, — What will you say when you hear that I have heen overpersuaded by Maltby to cross the water. Indeed, the report was so strong that we were going, that we could not help ourselves. Last Thursday I left Broadstairs for Canterbury, M. having gone to receive permission from Mr. Travers, and returned from London yesterday. I breakfasted and drank tea with Q[uillinan] and Dora twice. She seems as happy as she can be. To-day we came here, and to-morrow embark. To-night we enjoy a coal fire for the last time. To-night the sea is smooth as glass, but to-morrow it may be mountain high. Lady Essex, &c., &c., were detained here some days. I hope you mean, if you can, to see our dear friends at Stourbridge. ' Yours ever, * b. Iv. Samuel Rorjers to Sarah Rogers. ' My dear Sarah, — I am so glad your journey has answered in any degree ; and your last visit cannot fail, for there you will be discharging a duty, and with those who will rejoice to see you. As for our adventure, per- haps a brief journal and a comment or two will give you the best idea of it. ' October 7. — Canterbury. I drank tea with the Quil- linans. AN AUTUMN JOUENEY 203 ' 8^//. — Breakfasted with them. ' gth. — Slept at Dover; walked on the parade. ' loth. — Embarked at 6, landed at Boulogne at 9.30; a pleasant voyage. After breakfast went and slept at Montrcuil, after a walk on the ramparts. ' 11th. — Abbeville ; Madame, at the Hotel de I'Em-opc, asked tenderly after the ladies, you and Miss M. Saw by the book that Dr. Henderson was at Paris. * 1 2th. — Amiens. ' 13///. — Chantilly ; a sunset. ' 14^/i. — A fair at St. Denis ; saw the Abbey and the tombs. Paris : old apartment at I'Hotel de I'Europe. Dined and went to the Italian Opera ; Maltby reposed at home. So far well. M. is delighted with everything, and desires me to tell you so. He was so afraid of climbing that I thought of an entresol, and now he is enchanted and thinks so little of the staircase, that he has once or twice gone a flight higher by mistake. We dine in the restaurants below and breakfast above. The Martineaus (Miss Batty) breakfasted once with us and are gone ; Dr. Henderson more than once and twice. We have been to Versailles. The weather has been rainy, but always fair when we wanted it most. I have been much at the Louvre with Mr. Locke, and Maltby much with the booksellers. When I dine out, which has hap- pened once or twice with the Lockes, M. dines at Very's and talks with the French. Once we breakfasted with Mrs. Forster, and met the Tricqucttis and Mrs. Jame- son, who I suspect lodges and boards with Mrs. F., and Miss Courtenay, who was with her on a visit and is gone. Mrs. J. is for ever in the gallery, and evidently 204 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES for the Press. Who should I meet there twice but Miss Denman ! She was with another lady, and is now gone. Sarah's affair is, indeed, a great event, and must occupy poor Mary very much. I hope it will turn out well. M. and F. are indeed very unlucky. To be prisoners at Innspruck of all places in the world ! Your visit to Quarry Bank must have affected you not a little. What a change there in a few years ! Fanny Johnstone, I fear, does not lie in your way home. I calculate that you will be returned by the middle of November ; our month here will expire on November 1 1 , and perhaps w-e shall stay till then, for M., who came with the resolution to go in a w^eek, seems now very willing to stay till he removes to the Pere la Chaise. As for me, I have had nearly enough. Lady Essex and Miss J. doze away their time. They have o^ 2)remier at number 36 near us, and every other day one or the other is confined to her bed, having never been to the Italian Opera but once, when I took stalls for them, or to the Grand Opera but once and with us. Miss Gregg, one of the Antient Music subscribers, was of the party. When they go out it is in a citadine, unless they walk in the garden, which they profess to do much, but I never meet them there. When they put on their bonnets Mile. Poppet is enrage. They have not yet got a loge at the Italian Opera, which is very difficult to be had. (They have now one for once a week.) There is a curious opera performing here by boys — " Byron at Harrow " — Sir Pt. Peel is the principal con- spirator, and cries " Marchons ! " We must see it. Near my own door I met to-day Sir William and Lady Chat- terley. They set off for Nice and Naples, when she fell AT PARIS IN 1841 205 ill by the way, and they are come to stay here. I walked them upstairs and showed them an apartment au previier. Whether they will take it I don't know. They enquired much after you, as Mme. de Chabannes has done. She called yesterday, and to-day I have seen her. She is in her usual spirits. I have looked about a little, and have seen nothing in the shops to tempt me hither- to, and I think I should return to-morrow but for my companion, who is in higher spirits than I ever saw him, and is trying, by Dr. H.'s encouragement and example, to like French cookery — rather a late attempt. He will now, 1 tell him, no longer shake his head so repulsively when your entremets are offered to him. He is just gone out to dine with Dr. H. at a tabic cVhotc. For the three last days there has been a sale at the Ambassade. Everything sold off, from parlour bijouterie down to pots and kettles. The Granvilles are gone to Nice and the Cowleys not yet come. ' Farewell, my dear Sarah, and believe me to be yours affectionately, *S. K. ' 30th Oct. [1 841] : Hotel de I'Europe, Eue de Eivoli. * Sutton called upon us twice before he went and seemed very happy and much engaged. Pray give my best love to everybody at Stourbridge. I hope Patty received my letter. You must now be familiar with rail- roads. I have heard nothing from Lady Holland, who must now have returned from Brighton. When in England I had a letter twice a week, but I suppose she- is displeased at my going. I was for calling upon the Mallets, but when Maltby said, in his usual phrase, " L 206 EOGEES AND HIS COJ^TEMPOKARIES have no objection," I let it alone. On our return I shall hope to find Catherine there. The weather ver^^ toler- able, and often with M. a subject for congratulation.' A letter from Wordsworth's son-in-law arose out of the visit to Canterbury mentioned in the above letter. Edward Quillinan to Samuel Rogers. [With drawing (pen and ink), by M. H., 14th October, 1 84 1, of Residence of Sir Thomas More in Canterbury.] 'Hendon: 3rd Nov., 1841. * Dear Mr. Eogers,— Here is a sketch of Sir Thomas More's House at Canterbury — I have been promised one, which I expect to be still better, and which I hope to have the pleasure of sending you soon. ' The following account of the building 1 copy from a topographical history of Canterbury, which has just fallen in my way. It seems to be pretty correct — * " In Orange Street are the remains of the house of Sir Thomas More. It was a spacious and noble building, in the form of a quadrangle, having the entrance through a large gateway now standing on the south side of the street ; in front of the house and between the two wings was a large courtyard, which is now called Dancing School Yard. The building is principally of wood, with gable front and a long range of windows extending all along the front of the building, very much ornamented with stained glass, of which little remains. The rooms are spacious and ornamented with carved mouldings or cornices. The walls were painted in fresco, as appears SIR THOMAS MOKE'S HOUSE 207 from the wall of the upper apartment, in which may he seen some very good designs. The huilding is now con- verted into a wool- warehouse." ' "While you were on your way to Dover I got into the house and had some talk with the owner, who told me that when he, some few years ago, took possession, there was a good deal of stained glass in the windows, and that no doubt the whole of that glazed range of gallery had been formerly glazed with painted glass. I saw a small portion of it. * I think I mentioned to you that the head of Sir Thomas More is in a vault in St. Dunstan's Church at Canterbury, the first Church you come to in the suburbs on the right hand side of the road as you come from London. His body was buried, I believe, at Chelsea. As to the head, the story is that it was exposed on London Bridge for a fortnight, and that Margaret Eoper *' begged it " and carried it to Canterbury and placed it in the church opposite to the dwelling-house of the Ropers — now a brewery — (a brick archway remains and some of the walls of this old building). She is said to have desu-ed that her father's head should be placed in her arms in her own coffin, but this request appears to have been neglected. * We arrived here a fortnight ago, and are more comfortably lodged than we were at Canterbury. ' We heard by accident, two or three days since, of your return to town, from Signor Prandi, who is the Italian teacher at Mrs. Gee's school near us. * Dora is quite well, and has the impudence to send you her love. On my taxing her with boldness, she says 208 KOGEES AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIFS put " respectful love." — You will say that makes it worse^ and so say I. ' Believe me, my dear Sir, yours faithfully, 'Edwaed Quillinan,' In December there was a gathering at Bowood, of which at least three contemporary accounts have been published. C. Greville arrived there a few days before Christmas, and strongly contrasts the company he found there with that which he had left at Woburn. * There, nothing but idle, ignorant, ordinary people, among whom there was not an attempt at anything like society or talk ; here, though not many, almost all distinguished more or less — Moore, Piogers, Macaulay, E. Westmacott,. Butler and Mrs. Butler, Dr. Fowler and his wife, Lady H. Baring, Miss Fox.' Mrs. Butler adds Babbage, and speaks of the ladies as ' charming, agreeable, unaffected women.' The conjunction of Macaulay and Eogers, the one forty, the other approaching eighty — the waxing and the waning social celebrities — gave the party much arausement. Macaulay was talking perpetually. Hi& sonorous voice, his superabundant physical energy, his generally declamatory style of conversation, carried everything before it. ' The drollest thing,' says Greville,. * is to see the effect upon Rogers, who is nearly extin- guished, and can neither make himself heard nor find an interval to get in a word. He is exceedingly provoked, though he cannot help admiring.' Mrs. Butler is more explicit. She makes a general remark about Macaulay 's ' speech power,' and says that Sydney Smith's humorous and good-humoured rage at his prolific talk was very HOLIDAYS AT BOWOOD 209 funny. * Rogers's, of course,' she adds, ' was not good- humoured ; and on this very occasion, one day at break- fast, having two or three times uplifted his thread of voice and fine incisive speech against the torrent of Macaulay's holding forth. Lord Lansdowne, the most courteous of hosts, endeavoured to make way for him with a "You were saying, Mr. Rogers," when Rogers hissed out, "Oh, what I was saying will keep." ' Grcville writes, ' He will revive to-morrow, when Macaulay goes,' and it was not Rogers only who revived, for Mrs. Butler declares that the company was so incessantly clever, witty, and brilliant, that it gave her a brain-ache. Moore gives a somewhat different account of Rogers. He says Rogers stayed more than a week, and speaks of him as ' still fresh in all his best faculties, and im- proved wonderfully in the only point where he was ever at all deficient — temper. He now gives the natural sweetness of his disposition fair play. He walked over to see Bessy one or two days, through all the wretched mud of the Bowood Lane and our own, making, to us and back again, at least six miles.' Rogers directed Moore's attention to the passage in Macaulay's article on Warren Hastings, which had just appeared and of which everybody was talkmg, and they agreed it was in some parts over-gorgeous. One day Rogers took Lord John Russell over to see Bessy. He was in high spirits for the approaching conflict — the coming event did not cast its shadow before it on this great holiday gathering of Wliigs. Mrs. Butler tells of Rogers's gift of his auto- graph : ' After mending a pen for me, and tenderly caress- ing the nib of it with a knife as sharp as his own tongue, VOL. II. p 210 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES he wrote, in his beautiful, clehcate, fine hand by way of trying it— ' The path of sorrow, and that path alone, Leads to the land where sorrow is unknown.' Mrs. Butler did not know that the lines are from Cowper's ' Epistle to an afflicted Protestant Lady in France,' and half thought they might be ' an impromptu, a seer's vision and friend's warning.' The lines were great favourites with Eogers — often on his tongue. There were two lines from ' The Task ' which equally possessed his imagination^ Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much ; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more. 21 CHAPTER V. 1842-44. Everett — Letters from Charles Dickens and Mrs. Dickens, and Sydney Smith —Sumner introduces Longfellow — Lady Russell'syeM d' esprit — Eogers's Conversation — Recollections'of it by Henry Sharpe — Linesby Lady Dufferin— Death of Sutton Sharpe, Q.C. — Lord Dalling on Talleyrand and Danton — Letters from Dickens and Thackeray — Southey's Death — Wordsworth as Laureate— Judge Haliburton — Miss Edgeworth and Rogers on a Line of Pope's — Letters from Prescott, Sumner, and Sir Henry Ellis — Dickens's ' Christmas Carol ' — The late Dean Burgon in 1844 —Lord Howden's Letters— The Dissenters' Chapels Bill — Rogers to his Sister —Letter from Italy by Charles Dickens — The ' Marriage Brokers ' of Genoa— Rogers at Bowood — The Bank Robbery — Offers of Friends— Letters from E.Everett, Lord Lansdowne, Sydney Smith, and Lady Grey— Rogers to his Sister- Further Recollections of an Old Man's Talk. Such deliglitful gatherings as that which took place at Bowood at Christmas 1841 are comparatively few and far between, even in such a life as that of Samuel Rogers. Charles GrevUle tells us that Rogers and he left Bowood on the Monday after Christmas, and went to Badminton, where they found a party as dramatically opposite as possible to that which they left behind. We have already seen how he had previously contrasted the Bowood company with that which he had left at Woburn to join it. Mr. Everett, the new American Minister, lost little time in presenting the introduction which p 2 212 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Daniel Webster had given him, and early in March, Moore speaks of meeting him at breakfast at Eogers's, with Lord Mahon, R. Monckton Milnes, Luttrell, and others. The crowded dinners at Holland House were talked of, and Lady Holland's bidding people to make room, with Luttrell's well-known reply, that it needed to be made, for it did not exist. Eogers expressed an opinion that the close packing of Lady Holland's dinners was ' one of the secrets of their conversableness and agreeableness.' This may have been true, as Moore thinks, but Rogers did not act on it. At St. James's Place, at any rate, you were delivered from the crowd. Dickens was then in the United States, from whence he wrote the following letter. Charles Dickens and Mrs. Dickens to Samuel Rogers. ' Baltimore, United States : Twenty-second March, 1842. ' My dear Mr. Rogers, — I know you will be glad to hear, under my own hand, that we are both well, though very anxious to get back to dear old home, our friends, and darling children. I am obliged to make, as perhaps you have heard, a kind of Public Progress through this country; and have been so oppressed with Festivals given in my honor, that I have found it necessary to notify my disinclination to accept any more, or I should rather say, my determination not to lead such a trying life. I have made one departure from this rule, and that is in the case of a body of readers in the Far "West, at a town called St. Louis, on the confines of the Indian Territory. I am going there to dinner (it is LETTER FROM CHARLES DICKENS 213 only two thousand miles off), and start the day after to-morrow. ' If you ever have leisure to write a line saying that you have received this, and are well, I shall be truly delighted to hear from you. Any letter addressed to me to the care of David Golden, Esquire, 28 Laight Street, Hudson Square, New York, will be forwarded to me without delay. * They give me everything here but Time. If they had added that to the long catalogue of their hospitalities, I should certainly have inflicted a long letter upon you, which would have wandered into, it's impossible to say how long a description of our travels and adventures. So you may consider yourself very fortunate. ' I hope you are as well as ever, and as great a walker as ever, and as good a talker as ever ; in short, as perfect and complete a Samuel Rogers as ever, which I don't doubt in the least. I have made great exertions here, in behalf of an International copyright law, and almost begin to hope, from the assurance the leaders of the different parties at Washington have given me, that it may be brought about. 'We have arranged to sail from New York for England, on the 7th of June, in the " George Washington " packet ship. We had so bad a voyage out that I have eschewed ocean steamers for ever. ' The peace and quiet of Broadstairs never seemed so great as now. I could hug Miss Collins the Bather, as though she were a very Yenus. Believe me, here and everywhere, ' Faithfully your friend, * Chakles Dickens.' 214 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Mrs. Dickens writes on the flyleaf — ' My dear Mr. Eogers, — I must add one line, to remind you of your kind promise to me, the last time we saw you before we left home, that when you wrote to Charles, you would also send me a few words of re- meml)rance. I need not say what pride and pleasure it would give me. *We are both anxiously looking forward to the 7th of June, when we sail on our return to dear England. You may easily imagine how often our thoughts turn in that direction, and how often we long to see those dear little ones who I almost fear will have forgotten their truant parents before we get back to them. My impa- tient husband is hurrying me, as he wishes to put up the parcel, therefore I can only add that I am, dear Mr. Eogers, * Your affectionate friend, ' C. Dickens.' There are, of course, glimpses of Rogers and his friends in Moore's Diary. One day Moore is at Rogers's with Wilkie, who is looking over H. B.'s early caricatures. Wilkie had never seen them before, and he pointed to a bit in one of them which he said reminded him of Titian. * Politician,' exclaimed Bobus Smith, who was sitting near. Another day Jeffrey and Lord John are there — * Two of the men,' says Moore, * I like best among all my numerous friends.' Mrs. Butler, too, meets Sydney Smith, Hallam, with his daughter and niece, Edward Everett, Empson, and Sir R. H. Inglis, a sufficiently SYDNEY SMITH 215 striking and varied group as those around Rogers's table so often were. Sydney Smith published the second edition of his works in 1 840. Two years later, he sent Eogers a copy with this letter — Sydney Smith to Samuel Eogers. ' 56 Green St., Grosvenor Square : I2lh April, 1842. * My dear Eogers, — I have always intended to send you these volumes, but have been always unwillmg to place such ordinary matter upon a library table around which the great and the wise are so often gathered. I remember, however, that you are not only an author of the highest distinction, but a politician of unblemished honesty, and that if you thought little of my powers you would still value my principles — nor was my vanity forgotten, for I trusted your guests would say, " If Sydney Smith was not a Liberal and an upright man we should not find his books on the table of Samuel Rogers." ' Ever yom' sincere friend, * Sydney Smith.' Eogers replied — Samuel llof/ers to Sydney SmitJi. ' My dear Sydney, — A thousand and a thousand thanks for the three volumes. I need not say how wel- come they are to me, for whenever I open them I shall, I am very sure, be the better for them, and I shall hear, too, the voice of a very old and dear friend. Every leaf when I turn it will recall what I felt on a first perusal, 216 ROGEES AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES and many of them will bring back to my mind the pleasant hours we have spent together with those who are gone. * Samuel Eogees. ' 13th April, 1842.' Wordsworth was again in London in the spring, and Moore tells us of a breakfast at Hallam's on the 21st of May at which there was a grand display of literati, the poets being particularly in force — Campbell, Wordsworth, Eogers, and Moore being of the party ; but Moore, at least, was not in the mood to enjoy it, for he says, ' Blue to look in upon, but the whole thing ordinary enough.' When Dickens got back from America in July, Lord Lansdowne gave a Dickens dinner, and Moore and Eogers and Luttrell were there to join in his welcome. Crabb Eobinson writes in his Diary — *A2ml 2gth, 1842. — Breakfasted with Sam Eogers, with whom I stayed till twelve. He was as amiable as ever, and spoke with great warmth of Wordsworth's new volume, "It is all gold. The least precious is still gold." He said this, accompanying a remark on one little epitaph, that it would have been better in prose. He quoted some one who said of Burns, " He is great in verse, greater in prose, and greatest in conversation."" So it is with all great men. Wordsworth is greatest in conversation. This is not the first time of Eogers pre- ferring prose to verse.' 'May 2Sth, 1842. — Dinner party at Kenyon's^ Wordsworth was quite spent, and hardly spoke during: i SUMNER INTRODUCES LONGFELLOW 217 the whole time. Rogers made one capital remark ; it was of the party itself, the ladies being gone. He said, " There have been five separate parties, everyone speaking above the pitch of his natural voice, and therefore there could be no kindness expressed ; for kindness consists, not in what is said, but how it is said." ' It is a little startling to be reminded that at this date Longfellow was so little known in England that he needed such a letter of introduction as Sumner writes. Charles Sinnner to Samuel Rogers. ' Boston : ist June, 1842. * My dear Mr. Eogers, — I took the liberty of forward- ing to you by the last packet two volumes of poems recently published by my friend Mr. Longfellow. He was desirous that you should do him the favour to receive them as a token of his respect. * Mr. Longfellow is now at a German watering-place, where he has gone for his health, and expects to be in London for a day or two during the autumn on his way home. If you should be in town at this time, whieh^is hardly possible (for who is a faithful friend to London at the end of September ?) , I hope he may have the plea- sure of seeing you — Mr. Everett or Mr. Dickens will have the gratification of presenting him to you. He is a gentleman whom we prize much, not simply as a poet (though many place him at the top of our Parnassus) but also for his various gifts and accomplishments and high moral worth. I could write of him warmlv as a friend for 218 ROGEKS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES whom I have the strongest affection ; and I hope you will pardon to this feeling the liberty I take in thus addressing you. I owe you many thanks for your kind note of last summer. I have been happy to hear, through Mr. Everett, of your continued health. What can we send you from this side of the ocean ? ' Prescott still works on the " History of the Conquest of Mexico," of which he has written upwards of two volumes. It will be three volumes in all. * Believe me, with warm recollections of your kindness to me, ever very sincerely yours, ' Chaeles Sumner.' Here is a pretty jew cV esprit by the Countess Eussell — then Lady John Eussell — who had been married in the same month in the year before. There is but little cor- respondence in these volumes between Lord John Eussell and Eogers, though the friendship between the great Whig statesman and ' the oracle ' of Holland House had begun early and lasted to the close of the poet's life. I am permitted to print these lines as illustrating the friendly, and even intimate, relations between Eogers and the great Eeform Minister and his family. He had ac- cepted an invitation to breakfast, did not appear, and sent afterwards a letter of apology. Lady John Paissell to Samuel Rogers. * When a Poet a lady offends, Is it prose her forgiveness obtains ? And from Eogers can less make amends Than the humblest and sweetest of strains ? A POETICAL EEMONSTEAJsCE 219 ' In glad expectation our board With roses and lilies we graced ; But, alas ! the Bard kept not his ^Yord — He came not for ■whom they were placed. ' Sad and silent our toast we bespread ; At the empty chair looked we and sighed ; All insipid tea, butter and bread, For the salt of his wit was denied. ' Now in wrath we acknowledge how well He, " The Pleasures of Memory " who drew For mankind, from his magical shell Gives The Pains of Forgetfulness too. ' F. P. 52 Cheshani Place: 6th July, 1842.' On the 30th of July Pogers entered his eightieth year. He thought and spoke of himself as an old man, but he preserved his bodily activity, his good spirits, and his vivacitj" in a remarkable way. The characteristic feature of his conversation at this period and during his remaining years was its fulness of pleasant reminiscences of the men and the events among which he had lived. Of the tone and tendency of his talk in these years there is ample testimony, and all to the same effect. His nephew Samuel Sharpe says, ' My uncle's conversation could hardly be called brilliant. He seldom aimed at wit, though he enjoyed it in others. He often told anec- dotes of his early recollections and of the distinguished persons with whom he had been acquainted. These he 220 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES told with great neatness and fitness in the choice of words, as may be understood by an examination of the prose notes to his poems. But the valuable part of his conversation was his good sense joined with knowledge of literature and art, and yet more particularly his constant aim at improvement, and the care that he took to lead his friends to what was worth talking about. I never left his company without feeling my zeal for knowledge strengthened, my wish to read quickened, and a fresh determination to take pains and do my best in every- thing that I was about.' On this last sentence Mr. Dyce, in his copy of Samuel Sharpe's little book, has made the following note: 'Yes; such was undoubtedly the effect of intercourse with Mr. Eogers, it was indeed im- proving.' This seems a not inappropriate place to introduce some examples of the old man's breakfast-table talk. As a rule the sharp sayings of Eogers have been pre- served, his stories have been told and told again till everybody knows them, but very few sketches of hia more serious conversation have been given to the world. Scores of illustrious or eminent visitors have told us how dehghtfully he conversed, but the sort of talk which seemed so delightful has rarely been reported. Perhaps a part of the charm was in the surroundings. Mr. Quillinan said to Crabb Eobinson, * The living presence of Mr. Eogers at his breakfast table hardly more charms me than the Eoubiliac bust which is one of his precious Lares Urbani.' His nephew Henry Sharpe put on record, at various times, recollections of his uncle's remarks at the breakfast table, and some of these AN OLD MAN'S TALK 221 memoranda relate to the time when Rogers was just completmg his fourscore years. ' He said it was a great fault in young men not to listen to old ones who w'ere talking together. A few days ago, at a dinner party, he was talking with the Archbishop of Canterbury, an old man like himself, and two young men sitting next them kept talking together all the time ; if they had held then' tongues and listened to the old ones they might have heard a great deal that was interesting. From his youth up, he had always listened to the conversation of older persons ; there was more to be learned from conversation than from books ; when a man talks, he gives you his best thoughts and observations ; if you read his book, you may, perhaps, find the same, but there is so much about and about it, that it may not be worth looldng for. He had begun early in life to keep a book in which he noted down all the strikhig things he heard m conversation ; he fetched us down a very early volume, in which each page was headed, "Burke," "Fox," "Home Tooke," and so on, with an index at the beginning. In a new volume he had Talleyrand and others. ' Speakmg about German enthusiasm, he praised good sense as the most valuable quality of the mind ; the state in which all the powers were in harmony, the head not too strong for the heart, and the heart not too strong for the head, neither the judgment nor the fancy overpowering the other. Any one qualit}- carried to excess was likely to do more harm than good. He once said that my father was a man of talent but not of 222 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES sense ; my mother (his sister) had a great fund of good sense. ' He set Schiller above Goethe, as poetry, however clever, is worth nothing unless it raises the feelings of the reader. Of Goethe he had read translations of " Faust," and " Wilhelm Meister," and thought they both contained something Satanic. In the " Sorrows of Werther," he admired Charlotte for cutting bread and butter for her little brothers and sisters. He praised the Duke of Wellington as the greatest man in England ; he met him once at a lady's house just after the Whigs came in, in 1831, and the Duke said to him, with reference to resigning his situation at the Horse Guards or Ordnance, " They want me to become the head of faction, but that I will never be." He said that the Duke always supported a proposition he thought good, just as willingly, though brought forward by a political enemy. * The difference between a modest man and a con- ceited one is that the modest looks up to something better and higher, the conceited man can imagine nothing above himself. H. E. conceives God Almighty only a few inches above his own head. * One of the ancients, when he felt he was dying, dashed down the lamp by his bedside, that the servant might not see him expire. In the same way, when his brother Henry, my uncle, was on his deathbed, he asked the maid who was watching by him, whether she had ever seen a person die ; on her saying no, he sent her out of the room on some errand, and when she returned he was dead. AN OLD MAN'S TALK 223 * George the Second was very particular about the arrangement of his wardrobe and such trifles, and had the different articles of dress numbered to match. If they were brought to him out of order, he would cry out, " Shirt No. 4, stock No. 3 ! Am I king, or am I no king ? If I am king, bring me shirt No. 4 and stock No. 3." ' Talking of our wars in Afghanistan and China, he said that from his childhood he had never wished success to His Majesty's armies. When he was a boy, his father came home one day, and told them to throw up their caps, for the Americans had beaten the English at Bunker's Hill, and from that time on he had rarely, if ever, seen our troops on the right side. He lost his mother when he was young, but he remembered her calling all his brothers and sisters around her, and saying, " Children, it does not signify whether 3'ou are rich and great, but try to be good." ' Coleridge, who was very German, said that no man knew what happiness was unless he woke in the night and wept.' ' Upon Moore, the poet, saying that Milton was not to be mentioned with Shakespeare, my uncle, while ad- mitting all Shakespeare's merits, said that there were passages in Milton which Shakespeare could not have written. He quoted the following passage (among others) ' This is evidently borrowed from Goethe's lines in WilJielm Mcister: ' Wer nie sein Brod mit Thriinen ass, Wcr nicht die kuunncrvoUen Niichte Auf seinem Bette weinend sass, Der kennt euoli nicht, ihr hiinmlischen Mtiohte.' 224 EOGEES AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES as particiilarl}' beautiful, and showing the highest and purest feehng — ' Subverting worldly strong and worldly wise By simply meek. ' Talkmg of himself, he quoted from his father — ' Old men must die, young men may. ' Louis XIV. at Versailles made everything large but himself ; to walk in his avenues he should have had seven-league boots ; he remained a Lilliputian in Brob- dingnag. * Ladies of rank are very fond of the admission of men of letters and wits into high society. One said, *' We are always so glad at a dinner party to hear the iron step of a hackney coach, as we know it is somebody to entertain us." He said one day to Sydney Smith, " If we were to strike, we should have all the ladies petitioning us to come back again." ' Talleyrand was a great admirer of Mme. Eecamier and Mme. de Stael, the first for her beauty, the other for her wit. Mme. de Stael asked him one day, if he found himself with both of them in the sea on a plank, and could only save one, which it would be ; to which he replied, " Vous savez nager, je crois." 'West the painter told an anecdote of himself when a child, which showed how the pursuit of his life was decided. He had been left by his mother to watch the baby sleeping in the cradle, being particularly enjoined not to let the flies settle on it. The baby's smile pleased him very much, and he took a little piece of paper and AN OLD MAN'S TALK 225 drew it. His mother returned and found the baby covered with flies, the young painter thinking of nothing but his picture. He expected a scolding, but she looked at the drawing and gave him a kiss, " and that kiss did it." Stothard did not remember when he first began to draw. His earhest recollection on the subject was that, when quite a boy, he was fighting a schoolfellow, and his second called out, " Well done, painter ! " ' When Wilkes was dining with the Prince of Wales the King's health was given, and the Prince asked him, " How long have you drunk my father's health." " Ever since I have had the honour of knowing your Pioyal Highness." ' He would always recommend a man's collection of pictures and other things being sold at his death ; they then come into the hands of people who appreciate them, whereas his heir very probably has not the same tastes. People always value more what they buy themselves than what is given to them. ' He had received from Prescott, the American, a copy of his " History of Mexico,' and intended in his letter of thanks to refer to Hume's letter to Gibbon on receipt of the first volume of his history, in which he expresses his astonishment at an Englishman writing so learned a book in an age when every one had given himself up to faction. My uncle did not mean to apply it to the Americans particularly, but just as much to ourselves. Except science nothing was now written with care. Calling on Dickens he found him engaged upon a new story, which was to go to the printer's in a week, and which he had only begun three weeks before. VOL. II. . Q 226 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES * Talking of Hume's and Gibbon's sceptical works, he very much blamed their publishing them, and read a letter from Gray to his friend Mason, advising him not to visit Voltaire on his journey through Switzerland, as the men were not to be honoured who robbed mankind of their best consolation in life. "If an archangel were to whisper in my ear," said Mr. Eogers, " that there waa no future life, I would not reveal it." * Dryden lived at 43 Gerrard Street, and I never pass the house without taking off my hat. He used to write in the parlour on the right hand of the hall.' Major Price was an equerry of George HI., who always spoke his mind. Walking one day in Windsor Park, the King pointed out a certain tree, and said he was going to have it cut down. ' If you do, sir,' said Price, 'you will cut the finest tree iii your park.' 'You always contradict me,' said the King ; ' everybody con- tradicts me; I won't be contradicted.' ' Don't, sir,' said Price, ' and then you will never hear the truth.' Mr. Eogers spoke with great reprobation and dislike of Dumas, Sue, and all the modern French novelists. Somebody praising Morton the dramatist, lately dead, Mr. Eogers said, ' I don't like him ; and I had never offended him, but he never met me without saying, "Well, what Duchess have j^ou been dining with?" or some ill-natured thing. I do not ask for kindness from a man, but I have a right to expect good manners.' Here are further illustrations of the affectionate relations in which the old man lived with the members of the family of Sheridan. Mr. Eichard Brinsley THE COUNTESS Ob' DUFFERIN 227 Sheridan and his wife both wrote in the summer of 1 842 to ask his permission to call their new son after him, and on New Year's Day, 1843, Lady Dufferin writes — The Countess of Dufferin to Samuel Rogers. ' From my bed, — This 1st of January, 1843. * This thought woke with my waking hours, — As on a feverish couch I lav, " How barren is Life's path of flowers ! How sadly dawns my New Year's Day ! " ' When, as I breathed the impatient thought, Lo ! there thy fragrant gift appeared ! Then at the augury it caught — The sad and sullen heart was cheered ! ' And douhhj shall thy gift be dear — (Of New-Year joys the seal and sum), An omen for the present year ! — A Memory for all years to come ! ' And so, dear Mr. Eogers, I have put your violets into water,/or this day, but shall keep them as a precious gift and remembrance for the rest of my life. ' Ever yours sincerely and affectionately, ' Helen S. Dufferin.' This letter may be set over against that which is published in Mr. Hayward's Correspondence,' m which Lady Dufferin gives her reminiscences of Eogers, and says, among other things, that she could never lash ' TJie Hayward Letters, vol. i., pp. 288, 289. Q 2 228 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES herself into a feeling of affection or admiration for him ; and that there was a certain unreality in him which repelled her. Early in this year death brought one of the few bitter disappointments of this most successful life. I have already given some account of the orphan family of his sister Maria Sharpe, of the heroic devotion to them of their elder half-sister Catharine Sharpe, and of the remarkable success in life which every one of them achieved. The eldest of the group was Sutton Sharpe. I have given so full an account of his distinguished career in my life of Samuel Sharpe, that I need not here re-tell his story. It is enough to say that having been called to the bar in 1822, he had speedily taken a leading rank among Counsel behind the Bar. In 1841 he became a Queen's Counsel, and at once took the lead in Vice- Chancellor Wigram's Court, and all his friends antici- pated for him the highest honours to which the pro- fession opens che way. But at the close of the Michael- mas term, in 1842, he was attacked with paralysis, the result of overwork in his profession, and died on the 22ncf of February, 1843. He was buried in the cloisters of Lincoln's Inn, of which he was one of the benchers. In the various notices of him which appeared in the newspapers after his death the highest appreciation was universally expressed. ' His career,' said the * Examiner,' then the leading weekly journal, ' was one of uninter- rupted success, and the most brilliant professional prospects were before him, but prosperity never in the slightest degree spoiled him, and he never forgot an old friend, nor failed to return a hundredfold an old kind- DEATH OF SUTTON SHARPE, Q.C. 229 ness.' As a nej)hcw of Eogers he had many social advantages, and at the time of his death he was ah-eady contemplating that entrance on political life to which his friends had long urged him. Rogers and his sister had indulged in the very highest expectations respecting him. They had followed his career with affectionate interest, and their esteem for him, and pride in him, were very great. I have elsewhere said of him that * his life is an unfinislied story which breaks suddenly off just at the point at which it becomes most interestmg to ordinary readers. It had but little incident. It had been spent in the diligent exercise of an arduous profes- sion, it was little known except to the members of that profession, and a large group of attached personal friends ; and it had not yet touched that larger and noisier world of politics in which most lawyers complete their success and extend and consolidate their fame.' He died in his forty-sixth year. There are two letters from Sir Henry Bulwer, after- W'ards Lord Dalling, in this spring, of very remarkable interest. He writes from Paris on the 22nd of March, 1843, to ask about a story told by Talleyrand of his escape from Paris after the loth of August, and of the manner in which he procured a passport from Danton. The story had been told by Rogers, and Sir Henry Bulwer asks him to repeat it. The susj)icion — justified by Chenier's speech when he demanded that Talleyrand's name should be removed from the Hst of emigres — was that Talleyrand was in reality sent back to England as a secret agent of Danton' s. Rogers replied, sending the statement of a friend who was at Bowood when Talley- 230 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES rand arrived. As to the date, he could hardly venture to say whether it was between the loth of August and the 2nd of September, or after that horrible day, that M. de Talleyrand made his escape ; but he added, ' I well remember it was fine summer weather when he arrived at Bowood. By what means he effected his escape I don't know, or how he obtained a passport from Danton. Danton was notoriously venal, which Kobespierre was not, and Talleyrand used to tell with a great deal of jDoint that one of his adherents in the Assembly, while he (Danton) was pleading the cause of one of the proscribed by whom he had been bribed, exclaimed, ' Danton, Danton, tu crois trop aisement a la vertu.' Sir Henry Bulwer, in reply, says there can be no doubt Talleyrand was a secret agent or correspondent of the Eepublican Government from the time of his return in September (after the loth of August) up to the end of November. * But,' he adds, ' I can find no positive proof of his being so after the 5th of December, when the accusation of having been in the confidence of Louis XVI. was brought against him. From what I can make out he inherited the intrigue of Mirabeau, who saw him upon it when dying, but he executed the part more cautiously and secretly than that violent man himself would have done.' Here are two characteristic letters from great con- temporary novelists. One of Eogers's earlier friends had answered him in the same spirit. Jekyll wrote about a mistake in the day of one of his visits, that if when he came he was not let in, ' I will " build me a willow cabin at your gate." ' Two wits of a later generation write as follows — DICKENS AND THACKERAY 231 Charles Dickens to Samuel Rogers. 'Devonshire Terrace: Twentieth March, 1843. * My dear Mr. Rogers, — If I am not at your house at seven next "Wednesday, write me down an ass. * Faithfully yours always, ' Charles Dickens.' The brevity of this answer was far excelled by one of Lady Dufferin's. Eogers wrote to her, ' Will you breakfast with me to-morrow ? — S. R.' Her answer was, ^Won'tl?— H. 1).' Wm. M. Thackeray to Samuel Eogers. ' 73 Young Street, Kensington : 29th June. . ' My dear Sir, — The moment I had finished my work yesterday and had returned to this real world, I thought to myself, " Does Mr. Rogers remember that he invited me (that is, that I asked him to ask me and he asked me) to breakfast with him on the 30th ? " The transaction took place at Mr, Sartoris's : in the presence of witnesses — and to-morrow is the day. I shall not trouble Mr. Rogers to write to me (I reasoned with myself), but at 10 o'clock I will be at his door. I will say, " A gentleman who was invited a fortnight and a day ago comes to claim his breakfast. The host may have forgotten, but the guest has not." * And I give you warning, my dear sir, that this visit is hanging over you, and that unless you fly from London you can't help hearing my knock at your door at 10 to-morrow morning. * Always faithfully yours, * W. M. Thackeray.' 232 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEIMPORARIES Southey died, after a long decline of his physical and intellectual powers, on the 21st of March, 1843. He had been Laureate for thirty years, during which period other poets, greater than he, had arisen, and of those associated with him some had increased while he had decreased. There could be no question who should be Laureate while Wordsworth lived, and to Wordsworth it was offered at once. He accepted it with some little flutter of feeling at the idea that he must appear at Court. As usual, Eogers was resorted to, and when the time for presenta- tion came, Wordsworth came to London and went to Court from St. James's Place. He was to have Eogers's Court suit, and, as Talfourd told Haydon, Davy's sword. When the eventful moment came, Moxon was there to assist in dressing him. It was a question of getting a big man into a small man s clothes, and great was the tugging and squeezing to get him in. But it was done, and the high-priest of mountain and of flood, as Haydon calls him, went through the ordeal with dignity and success. Crabb Robinson writes in his Diary — ^ June 4th, 1843. — Breakfasted by appointment with Rogers ; Thomas Moore was there. The elder poet was the greater talker, but Moore made himself very agree- able. Rogers showed him some MS. verses, rather sentimental, but good of the kind, by Mrs. Butler. Moore began, but could not get on. He laid down the MS. and said he had a great dislike to the reading of poetry. " You mean new," Rogers said. " No, I mean JUDGE IIALIBURTON 233 old. I have read very little poetry of any kind." Eogors spoke very depreciatingly of the present writers. Moore did not agree. He assented to warm praise of Tom Hood by me, and declared him to be a punster equal to Swift. " But the article (poetry) is become of less value, because of its being so common. There is too much of it." ' An eminent transatlantic writer, who was in London in 1843, and, like all the rest, had kindnesses to acknow- ledge from Eogers, sends him his portrait, with a com- plimentary letter — Thomas C. Halihurton to Samuel Rogers. '6 Spring Gardens: lotli July, 1S43. * My dear Mr. Eogers, — I send you a small print of myself, which I hope you will do me the favor to accept — I feel assured you will consider it a pardonable vanity that I should desire to be occasionally recalled to the recollections of one whose conversation and kindness has left an impression on my memory too strong to require any aid from the engraver. * In a new and poor country- like my native land, we have no present and no past. "We indulge in the visions of the future, but these pass away with j-outh — and are seldom realised. * London always sends me home loaded with " The Pleasures of Memory." During this, as well as my last visit to England, the most prominent recollections will be 234 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES yourself, your conversation, your agreeable parties, and your kindness, ' I am, dear Sir, yours always, * Thomas C. Haliburton.' Here are a couple of letters expository of a line in Pope. Maria Edgeworth to Samuel Rogers. ' Edgeworth's Town : ist Oct., 1843. * Proud to catch cold at a Venetian door. ' Dear Mr. Piogers, — Tell me, for I am sure you can, what kind of door a Venetian door is — or what did Pope mean by a Venetian door. The ignorant people here declare they never heard of such a thing. Now I declare that in my youth, in my childhood, I often heard my father talk of Venetian doors, and I thought I under- stood that what was meant was a concealed door, in- tended to be invisible or unnoticed, same colour as the hangings, paper, or wainscoting of a room. ' But I am told that the door I endeavour to describe should be called a jib door. Nowji7> I cannot find in Johnson's Dictionary ; perchance it may be in the Slang Dictionary, with which I am not acquainted, nor perhaps are you. * Pray delay not, my dear Sir, to settle this important question by your decisive authority. I have profited by that authority before. ' Your obliged, ' Maria Edgeworth. MISS EDGEWORTH 235 ' If I live, and am well as I am now, I hope I shall have the pleasure and honour of seeing you once more this winter or spring in town. I shall be with my sister at No. 1, North Audley Street, and trust I shall be better able to enjoy my friends' society than I was last time I was with her. She has now quite recovered her health. I gratefully remember your kindness to us both.' Samuel Rogers to Miss Edge worth. * My dear Miss Edgeworth, — What he could mean by it I cannot conceive. I have caught cold through many a Venetian ))lind, and so probably had he. I am delighted to think that we shall meet so soon in London. I am just now embarking, not for Alexandria, not for Constantinople, nor for Jerusalem, but for Paris, and I am all alone. Now, if you had your wishing cap, we might go together, and how delightful it would be. ' Yours ever, * S. EOGERS. ' Dover : 5th Oct., 1S43. ' Dr. Holland is gone to Jerusalem, and Sydney Smith is full of his jokes on the subject. I dare say that your guess is the right one. But why catch cold at it ? In town I should consult Morant, the prince of cabinet- makers, but being here he is out of my reach. ' P.S. I am assured by a knowing person that it meant a glass door that opened, like a French window, from top to bottom, in two halves. In short, a French window from the floor to the ceiling.' 236 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES There is literary interest in two letters from the United States, received this autumn. W. H. Prescott to Samuel Rogers. 'Boston : 15th Oct., 1843. ' My dear Sir, — I have at length achieved the " Con- quest of Mexico," after a good deal more time than it took Cortes to do the work. I have directed my bookseller, Mr. Rich, to deliver you a copy on its publication in London, which will be early in November. Should it not be sent to you, you will greatly oblige me by letting me know it, as these things, I have found, sometimes miscarry. * I hope this second bantling of mine may find the favour in your eyes with which you have been kind enough to regard its elder brother ; and, at all events, that you will receive it as a testimony of the great esteem I feel for one with whom I may, perhaps, never have the pleasure of being personally acquainted. * Believe me, my dear Sir, * Yours with sincere respect and regard, * W. H. Prescott.' Charles Simmer to Samuel Rogers. 'Boston : ist Nov., 1843. * Dear Mr. Rogers, — At Dr. Hare's request I enclose a piece of Laura Bridgman's writing. I cannot thank you enough for all the kindness which you lavished upon him ; though I cannot but be aware that his own merits must have preceded any introduction of mine. CHARLES SUJrNER 237 * My friend Mr. Hillard, of Boston, took the liberty, at my suggestion, to send to you a copy of an address recently delivered by him on a literary occasion. I trust you will not deem it unworthy of acceptance. * Mr. Greene, of Lancashire, a most amiable and gentlemanly person, who has passed several days in Boston, has promised to take a little book to you. It is a translation of ten cantos of the " Inferno" by a young man, Mr. Parsons, of Boston. He sends them forward as an experiment ; if they should find favour he will pro- ceed with the whole " Commedia." I have thought the versification not inharmonious ; and several passages preserve much of the Dantesque expression ; though it seems to me diflfieult to preserve this without the peculiar melody and rhythm of Dante. ' There is so large a circle in Boston under obligations to you for kindnesses enjoyed, that, if you should ever be wilHng to tempt the seas and come among us, you would find yourself among friends, while all would be earnest to offer you the tribute of admiration and re- spect. Lord Morpeth will smooth the difficulties of the voyage. I wish, dear Mr. Eogers, that you were here now, that I might have the pleasure of showing you the various autumn tints of the leaves. The country is rich in many colours. ' Believe me ever, with sentiments of attachment, very sincerely yours, ' Charles Sumner.' Another piece of literary criticism is in the following letter, part of which has been published elsewhere. 238 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEIMPORARIES Sir Henry Ellis to Samuel Bogei's. ' 79 Great Eussell Street : 14th Dec, 1843. * My dear Sir, — In looking at Dr. Farmer's prepared copy for publication of the little ''Hudibras," the other morning, we glanced at the note respecting Ealph, the squire of Butler's hero. Sir Roger I'E strange says that in reality he was Isaac Robinson, a zealous butcher. Gray adds that in a key to a burlesque poem by Butler the squire is said to have been one Pemble a tailor, and one of the Committee of Sequestrators. * In a letter of Sir Samuel Luke, however, preserved in his copy-book of letters in the Museum, I find an allusion to a Ralph quite as likely to have been in Butler's view as the butcher or the tailor, or the grocer's apprentice in Beaumont and Fletcher's ''Knight of the Burning Pestle." * The following is the letter — ( (( Honest Sam, — I have received several Lettres from you, but cannot be content till I heare you are setled according to your heart's desire, that you may as well have a place as a face that pleases you. I pray think of my fur'd coate, and doe the utmost you can for procureing it ; and get Ralph Norton to see if he cannot regaine my Armes and other things which were lost after Newbury fight at Aldermaston. If I may bee usefull to you heare in any office of Love, none shall bee more ready to doe it than ' " Yo'' assured loveing friend, '"S. L. "13th March, 1644." DICKENS'S 'CHRISTMAS CAROL' 239 ' No superscription of this letter is put down, nor is there any clue for ascertaining who this honest Sam was to whom the letter was addressed, but I cannot help sus- pecting that it might be Butler himself. At all events this letter supplies us with a real Ealph apparently attached to Sir Samuel Luke's service. * Believe me, my dear Sir, most truly yours, * Henry Ellis. * Butler, you no doubt remember, had been in early life in Sir Samuel Luke's household.' In December Dickens published his ' Christmas Carol,* which took the world by storm. He sent a copy of it to Kogers, with this letter — Charles Dickois to Samuel Rogers. ' Devonshiie Terrace : Seventeenth December, 1843. * My dear Mr. Eogcrs, — If you should ever have in- clination and patience to read the accompanying little book, I hope you will like the slight fancy it embodies. But whether you do or no, I am ever, ' Your friend and admirer, * Charles Dickens.' He did read it, and his nephew Henry Sharpe records what he said of it in a conversation at Broadstairs soon afterwards — 'Dickens's "Christmas Carol" being mentioned, he said he had been looking at it the night before ; the first half hour was so duU it sent him to sleep, and the next 240 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES liour was so painful that he should be obliged to finish it to get rid of the impression. He blamed Dickens's style very much, and said there was no wit in putting bad grammar into the mouths of all his characters, and show- ing their vulgar pronunciation by spelling " are " " air," a horse without an h : none of our best writers do that.' The late Dean of Chichester was in his younger days a personal friend of Eogers's relations at Highbury. I have heard the late Samuel Sharpe speak of him with much affectionate esteem, and widely as their religious views and political associations differed as the years went on, the friendly feeling between them was never lost. His father was a Smyrna merchant, and the future Dean was his clerk. The business failed, and the clerk, having to choose another career, turned to the Church. The elder Mr. Burgon was (as I learn from Mr, Reginald Stuart Poole) a very able numismatist, and Eogers was asked to assist in getting him an appointment in the department of Antiquities at the British Museum. The application was not immediately successful, as the following letter shows ; but in May, Mr. Burgon was made a supernumerary assistant in the department. Lord Lyndhurst to Samuel Eogers. 'George Street: i6th January, 1844. * My dear Mr. Rogers, — I have applied to the Arch- bishop on the subject of Mr. Burgon's qualification to fill the vacancy in the Medal department, and find that he is inclined to place in that office Mr. Birch, who has been known as a scholar and antiquary all over Europe, LORD HOWDEN 241 and as an Egj'ptian scholar is profoundly versed in hieroglyphics. * I have, however, again written to him on the subject of Mr. Burgon. * Believe me, my dear Mr. Rogers, very truly yours, ' Lyndhurst.' Two admirable letters of Lord Howden follow : — Lord Hoivden to Samuel Rogers. ' St. Leonard's-on-Sea, 35 Marina: 21st Feb., 1844. * My dearest Mr. Eogers, — I am always troubling you, but do not hate me. 'Your curious edition of " Theophrastus," which you showed me, has brought to my recollection a remark attributed to him (I th'inli) in which he says of Aristides somethmg very like this, " that he was just and upright in all private matters, but not always m publick affairs where the interest of the State required injustice." * Now this is a startling position in ethics, and especially so when coupled with the name of Aristides, about whom we are probably as much humbugged as about all other personages we read of; but I want the above remark for a particular purpose, and if possible in the Greek. Could you supply me with it, for, as you may suppose, " Theophrastus " is not in the circulating library here or even at Hastings ! But how will you ever forgive me for this trouble ? and, above all (I tremble to thmk of it), what will you say to me if I have confounded matters and the above bit of international morality be not in " Theophrastus " at all ! VOL. II. R 242 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES ' I am paying my mother a visit. How I wish you? were here ! I cannot express my feehng of yom- society otherwise than that it is to me the triumph of civihsation. ' I know myself what I mean, and that must suffice. So beHcve me, with great truth, sincerely yours, ' HOWDEN.' '62 (bis) Faubourg St. Honore, Paris : 29th March, 1844. ' My clear Mr. Eogers, — A thousand thanks. I am really pained at having entailed so much trouble on you. I did so from having looked for the passage last year myself without success, and I had never before seen what appeared to be so good an edition of " Theophrastus " as that in your possession ; I therefore thought that it might be found there. Entertaining, and indeed blood- stirring, as are Plutarch's Lives, I believe him to have been extremely loose in his materials and mode of com- pilation. When we all meet together in the next world, if we are allowed to do aught save sing Hallelujahs, there will be few thmgs more entertaining than to hear history and biography read aloud of an evening before the persons of whom they treat. ' There is no news abroad here, and there seems no doubt but that Guizot is safe until a new Chamber. There are many diverse speculations on what will take place then, for there is one fact undeniable that, be the cause what it may, the pressure of general unpopularity upon Guizot is greater than what I recollect to have been that of Polignac. I have heard it said that nobody was. really in love who knew the colour of his mistress's eyes, but I believe that hatred is still stronger as a passion when LORD HOWDEN 243 it springs from no definite reason. There seems to be a feeling that has infiltrated itself into all classes of society here, which, no matter how unfounded, must some day or another produce its effect, and that is a determination to beheve that France is in a state of degradation, and that she is the slave of the stranger. The dislike against the Enghsh here has, if possible, increased since the business of Tahiti. Don't believe what Mrs. Dawson Damer and fine ladies say to the contrary. It is inex- tinguishable for one reason that must always exist — not our burning of the " Pucelle," not Waterloo, not the incar- ceration of Bonaparte — these things may be forgotten — but because we prevent France being the first nation in the world. This fact is continually before their eyes, from the quotations of our funds bemg always three per cent, higher than theirs, down to the snug, light, noiseless English-built carriage that they see rolling in their streets. I have, however, often thought that it was a very legitimate cause of irritation for the indigenes of a capital to see all tlieu- best lodgings occupied by Englishmen, all their best boxes at the theatres ditto, all the best wines drunk ditto, — all this done from the better lining of their pockets, and accompanied by the very evident f<'eling (in which I entirely jom) that Paris, agreeable as it is, would be much more so if there were fewer Frenchmen. It is, however, very amusing to see the way in which every now and then the people here catch at something going on in England, as if it was the beginning of a breaking-up in our Body Pohtic. 'Twas Ireland three months ago, 'tis now a Jacquerie in conse- quence of Lord Ashley's motion. I believe the Govern- 244 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES ment would have done wiser to have admitted it ; at the same time I camiot but think that all legislation on such matters is dangerous. "The Times" has a singular article on the subject written quite in an " agrarian '' spirit, and as for the forced and legislative attempt to rectify all evil, we first must understand how the existence of it comes to play so chief a part in the whole scheme of the world, before we assume the possibility of con- trolling it with any effect. ' Always truly yours, ' HOWDEN.' All Piogers's T\'liig friends, most of the Conservatives, and many of his relations were interested in a measure which in the course of this year excited immense discus- sion in the country. It was called the Dissenters' Chapels Bill, and was intended to prevent the alienation from the Unitarians, of the chapels and revenues they had inherited from orthodox ancestors, or from ancestors who erected the buildings and left the endowments at a period when the law did not tolerate heterodox worship. It originated in the Lords, where all theLaw Lords were in its favour, and only nine votes were given against it in the solitary division which was taken. In the Commons it was supjDorted by Sir Eobert Peel, Mr. Gladstone, Lord John Eussell, Mr. Shiel, Mr. Macaulay, and the late Lord Harrowby, then Lord Sandon. A petition was presented on behalf of the descendants of Philip Henry, the ejected clergyman. When it was handed to Macaulay for presentation, he at once thought of Piogers and asked if he had signed it. Eogers had signed it, and another from the Trustees of ROGERS'S NONCONFORMIST EDUCATION 245 the old Meeting House at Newington Green, where he had gone with his father and mother and hstened to Dr. Price. He had been made a trustee of the old chapel in his boyhood, and continued one till his ^eath. His Non- conformist education was often the occasion of humorous remark by himself or his friends. Samuel Sharpe tells us that Wordsworth and Rogers were one day walking together in York Minster. Rogers praised its religious solemnity, with some echo probably in his words of Milton's ' II Penseroso.' Wordsworth maintained that Rogers could not admire it properly nor feel its effect as he did, because of his Presbyterian training. Walking with Luttrell along George Street, Hanover Square, he complained of being thrust off the pavement by the projecting steps of St. George's Church. ' That,' said Luttrell, ' is one of your Dissenting prejudices.' Dinuig one day with the Archbishop of Canterbury, and sitting next the son of an old schoolfellow who had become a churchman and a county member, Rogers nudged him and said, ' You and I are probably the only Dissenters here.' Two more domestic letters keep up the story of the year. Siuiiuel Rogers to SaraJi Rogers. 'Di'opmorc, Beaconsfield : Sunday, 25th Aug. [1S44]. * My dear Sarah, — I left Mincham last Wednesday, and hope to be at home on Tuesday. Y'ou must have seen Lady Essex, for she is at a loss what to do next, and wishes much to consult you. I wrote to you before I left home, and I wrote to you a long letter last Friday, 246 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES but it was intrusted to a private hand and lost on the road. You may have returned home and left it for aught I know. Gary's death ^ and Madge's marriage ^ are the only events. I have heard to-day from Henry at Broadstairs and I should like to find myself there. ' Yours ever, ' S. Pt.' Samuel llogers to Sarah Eogers. ' The Grange: i8th Oct. [1844]. * My dear Sarah, — I am delighted to think you en- joyed yourselves at Torquay, and hope the fine weather we have had extended to you. Tom Eogers, when I de- sired him to call, wrote word that he had been confined for three weeks, and Edmund, whom I sent to him in my absence, said he looked very ill. Here follows my journal: September 28th, Eochester. 29th, Canterbury. 30th, Broadstairs, where I found Maltby sitting by the fireside in a nice apartment prepared for me by the hotel people. I then wrote to William, who, it seems, was touring in Ireland ; also to Moxon, who came on Tuesday, October 6th, and enjoyed himself so exceedingly that when he came to town on the 9th nothing would satisfy his wife and sister but they must go too, and there they now are. October 9th, Maltby returned to town with me. ' He died in London on the 14th of August. '^ The Kev. Thomas Madge, the eminent minister of the Unitarian chapel in Essex Street, married Ellen Eischoff, third daughter of James Bischoff, of 20 Highbury Terrace. Mr. Madge died in a venerable and revered old age on the 29th of August, 1870. My esteemed friend Mrs. Madge is still living. She has been an octogenarian for several years, and is still surrounded by a large circle of attached friends. I am indebted to her excellent memory for some interesting facts in this narrative. I AT LORD ASHBURTON'S 247 loth, went to Abingcr, where I found the CampbeUs and Currys. Bobus came on the 1 2th ; Fanny Smith walked over to see me with Hester, who is to be married in November. 14th, returned home, calling upon the Campbells at Ashtead on my way. All were very kind and pleasant, and you were much regretted. 15th, Maltby dined with me, and on the i6th I came by railroad to the Grange, where I now am, and where the only visitor is Lady Morley. My intention was to return home on Monday, when I had asked Caroline and Lucy (now at Newington) to dine with me, and then proceed next day to Bowood, but, on comparing notes with Lady Morley, who is going there too, and who has also ■changed her measures, I find that I shall just save 1 02 miles by going directly by post across the country. So I have written to put off my dinner, though very un- wdllmgly, and on Monday shall go to Bowood in hack chaises, 48 miles instead of 1 50. There I think of stajing perhaps a fortnight, and then returning home. I hojpe Patty is pretty well, as you don't say to the contrary. You must not fatigue yourself, but I find that by walk- ing and resting and walking a little again one can do enough in a day. Lord Ashburton has just offered me a quiet horse, and I long to ride, but a broken leg would be no joke at my age, and I declined it. You have a great advantage over me, for an open carriage would chill me to death, and I can scarcely keep myself alive in two shirts and a great coat. I think of next whiter with dread. My love to Patty, and to Elizabeth and Becky. * Yours ever, * S. PiOGERS.' 248 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES The next letter needs neither mtroduction nor com- ment. Charles Dickens to Samuel Rogers. 'Albaro, near Genoa: Sunday, First September, 1844. * My dear Mr. Eogers, — We have been greatly con- cerned to bear through Mr. Forster of your havmg been unwell, and seriously so. But hearing from the same source that you had recovered, we were, like the town ladies in the " Yicar of Wakefield " (with a small difference in respect of sincerity), extremely glad again, and to the end that we may not be made sorry once more by any flying rumours that may sha^^e their course this way, we entreat you to let us know, under your own hand, that you are in as good health, heart, and spirits as we would have you. Believe me, dear friend, you need not desire to be in better conditian than that. * We are living very quietly out here, close to the sea- shore. I have taken a very commodious and spacious apartment in the Palazzo Peschiere for the next six months. Do you know that Palace ? It is splendidly situated in the midst of beautiful gardens, and on the side of a steep hill. The grounds being open to the public for their recreation, I may say of it, altering three words of yours, ' 'Tis in the heart of Genoa (he who comes Should come on foot), and in a place of stir ; Men on their daily pleasure, early and late, Thronging its very threshold. ' I wish you would come and pluck an orange from the tree at Christmas time. You should walk on the terrace CHARLES DICKENS IN ITALY 249 as early in the morning as you pleased, and there are brave breezy places in the neighbourhood to which you could transfer those stalwart Broadstairs walks of yours, and hear the sea, too, roaring in your ears. I could show you an old chest in a disused room upstairs where Ginevra's sister may have hidden — alas, she was an only child ! But where she might have hidden, had she ever lived and died, and left her memory to you. Come and see it. * A little, patient, revolutionary officer, exiled in England during many years, comes to and fro three times a week, to read and speak Italian with me. A poor little lame butterfly of a man, fluttering a little bit at one time, and hopping a little bit at another, and getting through life at some disadvantage or other always. If I question him closely on some idiom which he is not in a condition to explain, he usually shakes his head dolefully and begins to cry. But this is not what I meant to say just now, when I began to allude to him. He has initiated me in the " Promessi Sposi " — the book which Yioletta read that night. And what a clever book it is ! I have not proceeded far into the stor}^ but am quite charmed with it. The interviews between the bridegroom and the priest, on the morning of the disap- pointment — and between the bridegroom and the bride and her mother, and the description of poor 'renzo's walk to the house of the learned doctor, with the fowls and the scene between them, and the whole idea of the character and story of Padre Cristoforo, are touched, I think, by a most delicate and charming hand. I have just left the good father in Don Piodrigo's boisterous 250 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES eating ball, and am in no little anxiety, I assure you. ' You recollect tlie Church of the Cappuccini — I'An- nunciata ? It is being entirely repainted and regilded ; and a marble portico is building over the great entrance. That part of the interior — some two-thirds — the redeco- ration of which is finished, is the most gorgeous work imaginable. Standing on a bright day before the Great Altar, and looking up into the three Domes, one is made giddy by the flash and glory of the place. The contrast between this temple and its ministers is the most singular and complete that the whole world could furnish, surely. But it is a land of contradictions in everything, this Italy. ' Do you know of the Marriage Brokers among the Genoese ? Sometimes they are old women — queer old women who are always presenting themselves mysteriously at unexpected times, like their sisterhood in the " Arabian Nights." But there are men brokers : shrewd, hard, thorough-paced men of business. They keep formal registers of marriageable young gentlemen and marriage- able young ladies ; and when they find a very good match on their books — or rather, when one of these gentry does — he goes to the young lady's father, and says, " Signore, you have a daughter to dispose of ? " "I have," says the father. " And you will give her," says the broker, " fifty thousand francs ? " "On fair terms," replies the father. *' Signore," says the broker, " I know a young gentleman with fifty thousand francs embarked in business, who will take fifty thousand francs, and the clothes." " Clothes to ■what value ? " asks the father. " Clothes to the value of CHARLES DICKENS IN ITALY 251 five hundred francs," says the broker, " and a gold watch. She must have a gold watch." " His terms are too high," says the father. " My daughter hasn't got a gold watch." ** But, Signore, she has a cast in her eye," says the broker ; " and a cast in the eye is cheap at a gold watch." " Say clothes worth two hundred and fifty francs," re- torts the father, "and a silver bracelet. I admit the cast in the eye, and will throw in the bracelet ; though it is too much." " We couldn't do it, Signore," says the broker, "under a gold watch. The young gentleman might have done better in his last negotiation ; but he stood out for a watch. Besides, Signore, as a fair- dealing man, you must make some allowance for the ankles ; which," says the broker, referring to his books, " are thick. If I did rigid justice to my employer, Signore, and hadn't a personal regard for you, I should require a hundred and fifty francs at least for each leg." On such terms the bargain is discussed and the balance struck ; and the young people don't see each other until it is all settled. * In short, it's very like the system of our own dear dowagers at home ; except that the broker boldly calls him- self a Marriage-Broker, and has his regular percentage on the fortune, which some of our own revered merchants in such wares wouldn't object to, I dare say. I should like to start somebod}" I know at Fulham in business on those terms. ' My dear Mr. Eogers, if you ever get to the end of this letter without leaping over the middle, forgive me. If you get to the end by a short cut, remember me not the less kindly ; and however you get to the end, believe 252 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES me that, although it is all true, the truest part of the whole is the assurance that I am always, with great regard, your affectionate friend, * Charles Dicicens. * P.S. Kate and her sister rebel at not being men- tioned by name ; I'm pretending to write long messages which would take another sheet at least.' Samuel Rogers to Sarah Rogers. ' Bowood : 1st Nov., 1844. * My dear Sarah, — I came down very snugly and com fortably in my own carriage and at an expense rather less than the old postage. I found the Shelburnes, Lady Kerry, Luttrell, and the Edens, not to forget Lady H. and a couple not yet announced as such, if they are to be such — Lady Louisa, much the most agreeable, and the best looking of the Howards, James H. He has since invited me in the name of his father. Lord Suffolk, and I think I shall go and pay them a visit for a day or two. I was unwilling to write till I saw Moore, who came yesterday and is just gone. He says Mrs. M. is much better, and was very sorry not to see you. He says he did not understand you, when I assured him that you offered to come in. But he is very strange — for when I offered to return with him to-day and to see her, he said, " Don't come to-day — and don't walk Avith me. I compose as I walk." This place is really very splendid from the autumnal tints. The house is very much as you saw it. Next week the Bunburys come and I shall certainly stay till they come on Wednesday, and perhaps not return till THE BANK ROBBERY 253 the week afterwards if I go to Lord Suffolk's. As for my Lady H[olland], Luttrell thinks her very cross, but I think her much as usual. Dr. Babbington attends her and her usual suite — her pony chaise, groom, etc. She engaged the double carriage, in one sat Lady H., Mr. Babbington, Luttrell, and Mrs. S — ; in the other sat the four servants, Harold now and then reading the newspaper to her through the window. ' Yours ever, b. ii. On the last Monday in November Eogers was startled by news which, in the course of the day, made an unusual stir in the City, and in the evening was the talk of all the social circles in London. Eogers's bank had been robbed. I have fully told the story of the robbery in the Life of Samuel Sharpe, who was at that time the chief managing partner in the bank of which his uncle was the nominal head. On that morning, when the great iron safe in which all the valuables of the bank were kept was opened, it was found to be empt}-. On Saturday night 40,710?. in bank notes; more than 1,000?. in gold, and 5,000/. in bills of exchange had been locked up in it ; and in the course of Sunday the safe had been opened with one of its own keys, the whole of the money and bills taken out, the door duly locked again and the key replaced. The sequel may be told in the words have before used — ' The thieves were prevented from profiting by their immense booty by the admirable promptitude with which the matter was followed up. It was' a race 254 ROGEES AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES between the owners of the notes and the robbers, which should be first in reaching foreign banks. The thieves had the start, but so promiDtly were the numbers and dates of the stolen notes communicated to home and continental bankers, that the thieves were unable to make use of them. Their promptitude was shown in the fact that a single note which, in the haste, had been omitted from the list, was instantly cashed at the Bank of Eng- land before the firm had discovered the omission. Two months after the robbery the Bank of England repaid to Messrs. Eogers & Co. the value of the stolen paper, 40,710?., upon the usual guarantee of indemnity in case the notes should ever be presented for payment. In the end the actual loss was small, but until the notes had been recovered and cancelled at the Bank of England, a constant source of anxiety remained. A reward of 3,oooL was first offered. This failing, it was reduced to 2,5ooL; and, at the end of about two years, just after notice had been given that on a day named it would be further reduced to 2,oooZ., the notes were got back and the 2,5ooL was paid.' ' The time that passed before the recovery of the money was one of great anxiety to the partners in the Bank. Piogers did not put down his carriage, but changed it some months later for a brougham ; and he knew too well the solid foundations of his fortune and the integrity and business qualities of his partners, to fear that any very large or serious change would have to be made in his habits. ' I should be ashamed of my- self,' he said to some of his friends, ' if I were unable ' Samuel Sharpc, Egyptologist. tCc, \}. 165. THE BANK ROBBERY 255 to bear a shock like this at my age. It would be an amusement to me to sec how httle I could live on if it were necessary. But I shall not be j)ut to the experi- ment. Let the worst come to the worst, we shall not be ruined.' The event, moreover, had its bright side. It showed the universal esteem in which he was held, for offers of help, expressions of regret, and assurances of confidence poured in on every side. Mr. Everett, who was staying at Lord Ashburton's, wrote at once. Edward Everett to Samuel Ropers. 'The Grange, Hants: 29th Nov., 1844. * My dear Mr. Rogers, — If anything would reconcile one to such a vexatious affair as that which has just be- fallen you, it must be the deep and unaffected interest which all your friends — that is all who are so happy as to enjoy some degree of your intimacy — take in it. * Everyone here speaks of it as he would if it had occurred within his own family circle. * It would be contrary to almost universal experience in such cases if the greater part of the money is not recovered. Lord Ashburton is confident (unless it is a thing which has long been going on in secret) that it will be recovered. If, unfortunately, it should turn out otherwise, it ought to be some consolation to you that it is the only part of your fortune which has gone for any other objects than those of benevolence, hospi- tality, and taste. ' There is one treasure which thieves cannot break through and steal from you — the affectionate veneration 256 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES of your frieiicTs, among the sincerest of whom allow me to subscribe myself most faithfully yours, ' Edward Everett. * We have all sadly missed you here. I return to town to-morrow p.m.' Lord Ashburton wrote, at the end of a week, that his first impulse had been to go to town, but that he was prevented by considering how little probable it was that his presence could be of service. After discussing the chances of recovering the notes, he said that if any momentary difficulty was caused in the working of the ordinary machinery of a bank, ' I am wholly at your service, and I could assist without any inconvenience to myself.' Lord Lansdowne wrote — - ' It generally happens about this season of the year, and I find it is so at this moment, that I have a larger balance than usual at my banker's, amounting, I believe, to some thousands — will you allow me, if it can at all contribute towards meeting temporary demands, whilst making arrangements for the future, to transfer the greater portion of this to an account with your house, which I assure you I could do without inconvenience or anxiety, as I am sure I could without the least risk of ultimate loss. You would really do me a favour if I could make myself useful on such an occasion by letting me be so.' Among large numbers of other letters are these — SYMPATHY OF FRIENDS 257 Sydney Smith to Samuel PuHjers. [No date.] ' My dear Rogers, — I have not called upon you because I cannot, but I request you to believe that none of your friends more sincerely regrets the misfortune which has befallen you than I do. You were one of the first persons of note who noticed me when I came to London, and the kindness you began has been steadily continued ; but if I had known nothing of you I should have been quite unhappy to see such a fair specimen of human happiness so cruelly and so suddenly marred. My great hope is that it will end (as all these things have always done in my time) by compromise. * Mrs. Sydney and I send you the most sincere good wishes, and the kindest regards. ' Sydney Smith.' The Countess Grey to Samuel Rofiers. ' 2ist Dec. [1S44]. ' My dear Mr. Rogers, — Lord Grey insists upon my writing to you at the risk of your being ])ored by it, to say how very sorry he was to hear of your having had so disagreeable an adventure, and to assure you that he must alwavs take the most affectionate interest in all that relates to you. I need not assure you, dear Mr. Rogers, that my feelings towards you are precisely the same. ' I have no doubt of your hearing constantly of Lord Grey, and that it has given you pleasure to be told that he is supposed to be going on well, and that we are VOL. II. 8 258 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES encouraged to hope that he may in time be restored to health. I try to beHeve their assurances, but his recovery is so slow I am often disheartened. *We are very anxious indeed about Sydney Smith. My last account of him was a better one, but it seems to be an alarming case, I have, too, been much affected by the death of my oldest and dearest friend, Lady Anne Smith ; dear Mr. Eogers, it is melancholy to think how the circle of our friends is narrowed. Believe me always and affectionately yours, 'M. E. Grey. * P.S. All my children that are here desire to be most kindly remembered to you.' Eogers, as a letter from Mr. Everett shows, sometimes lent some of the memoranda which formed the volume of ' Recollections.' He acted on the advice Mr. Everett gave in this letter. Edivard Everett to Samuel Rogers. ' 46 Grosvenor Place : 22ncl Dec, 1844. * My dear Mr. Eogers, — I write this to tell you, in case I should not find you at home, how much I am obliged to you for the privilege of reading the memoranda contained in your golden little manuscript, herewith re- turned. I was half tempted to page and index it for you ; but such mechanical ajipliances, in a collection of this kind, would be like the railway among the lakes, against which poor Wordsworth is fighting. * You must not forget that one of these days you are EDWARD EVERETT 259 to show me your memoranda of the Duke of Wellington. I rejoice in the hope that you have bestowed some of that care on yourself which you have so well given to record- ing the wit and wisdom of others. I see your " Journal " mentioned in the manuscript ; and since it is necessary to look forward to the time (sa-a-sTac rjjxap, may it be far distant) when your living intercourse will cease to be the delight of all around you, I trust you will feel it a kind of duty to leave behind you that which will, in some degree, supply the loss, and perpetuate your intel- lectual existence. * You must not, however, infer from this remark that I think your poems are not of themselves a sufficient acquittal of the debt which every man gifted like you owes to the world. I can easily prove to you that I feel all then* worth, as I do most truly enjoy their calm, deep beauty, which suits my own subdued spirit better than the startling wonders (speciosa miracula) of the younger and more ambitious school. My secretary, Mr. Rives, left me the past week to pass the winter in Italy. I put into his hand at parting a beautiful copy of your "Italy," with this inscription — ' Francisco Roberto Rives, Optime de se merenti Italiam visuro, Alteram hanc vix minus Pulchram Italiam, Opus poetcB eoruvi qui viincnt Inter Anglos suvimi, Amicitife pignus, Commendat Eduardus Everett. 8 2 260 KOGEKS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES So that, yon see, in begging you to preserve your journals and letters, I am not insensible to what you have already done — neither am I selfish, for, though some years your junior, the archers have planted more than one arrow in my side, and my life is worth little. ' I hardly know what has given my pen this unwonted direction — the thought, I believe, that in a few months — but I must stop. — Adieu. ' Believe me affectionately yours, *E. E.' The year had a gloomy close. Eogers himself was ill, Sydney Smith was dying in his house in Green Street, Grosvenor Square, and his brother Bobus, infirm and blind, was only waiting for the summons. Lord Grey was lying ill at Howick, and Rogers felt, as old men must, that his friends were falling round him. Early in the new year, however, he writes to his sister in excel- lent spirits, commenting like a young man on the news of the day. Samuel Rogers to Sarah Rogers. ' Jan., 1845. ' My dear Sarah, — Then, in deference to your opinion, I have resolved to continue the carriage till the 5 th of April, and then to start a brougham, which I may do without much loss of dignity, as his lordship and the Duke of Devonshire exhibit themselves in theirs. I am very sorry that you are no better for the change. As for me, I dare not yet walk about, being not yet myself, though better ; and as you think of returning so soon, perhaps I had better remain quiet. HARRIET MARTINEAU 261 ' Miss Martineau is now on a visit within three miles of Eydal. She and W[ordsworth], according to Robinson, have met at dinner, but neither of them spoke of mes- merism, nor has either of them mentioned the other since. All of the Eydal party are incredulous and sar- castic. She comes to town, and in her wa}^ means to show herself only in the larger towns. If she was Tom Thumb or the Lion Tamer she could not use grander language. I am sorry Mr. Young is ill — I suppose you mean the actor. He is greatly in error about me ; for I thought myself cut by him. I am very very sorry indeed for your account of poor Fanny. Sydney Smith continues as before, confined to his bed, nor do I ever expect to see him again. I fear you have had a hurricane. Here the moons and the sunsets have been beautiful, and I was rejoicing at them on your account. Pray thank Patty for her very very kind letter, and, with my best love to all, believe me to be yours very affectionately, ' S. E.' Here are some fui'ther recollections, from the note- book of his nephew, Henry Sharpe, of the old man's talk in his eighty-first and eighty-second years^ * Talking of asking a favour by letter of a minister or great man, he said the great thing was to squeeze your matter into as small a compass as possible, not to turn over the page. He would spend three days m composing and abbreviating such a letter. ' He always loved Cicero for his love of literature, and thought him in many respects similar to Petrarch, who 262 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES clasped Homer to his bosom though he could not read Greek. ' He praised " Tom Jones " and " Joseph Andrews " very much, and wished there were an edition with the objectionable parts left out, as they are now hardly books which a father could give to his children. * He said it was a great mistake of authors to represent characters as perfectly good or utterly bad. Miss Edge- worth had made Attorney Case in " Simple Susan " de- void of any good quality, which was unnatural. There was no man so bad as to have no good qualities. Shake- speare never drew anyone thoroughly bad. If it were not that it would frighten people, he would undertake to show that even Judas had redeeming qualities; he felt repent- ance and went and flung his thirty pieces of silver at his bribers, and then, being unable to live with the feeling of his iniquity, he destroyed himself. This showed he was not utterly lost. ' He thought it a wicked doctrine to say that God Almighty would condemn any being to everlasting punish- ment. As every one had some seeds of good in him, he might require a long period for improvement, but he must be saved at last. We should not step at once from this life to the full enjoyment of Heaven ; there must be different stages of probationary existence. Even the devil, if there were such a personage, could not be damned for ever. * Every man is good as he retains more or less of his mother in him. * Tacitus shows by his Life of Agricola that he was a man of tender feeling and affection. AN OLD MAN'S TALK 2G3 * " If there is one point in wliieli a man should commit an excess of expenditure it is in the rent of his house. You should be very cautious in the choice of a situation, I took my house forty-four years ago : it cost me, perhaps, rather more than I could justify, hut during all this time I have never once thought of leaving it, and three removals are as bad as a fire." ' A young lady said to me yesterday, we had nothing nice in the house to read. " Good God ! " I exclaimed, " have all the thousands of books in the library downstairs been burnt?" * June2nd, 1844. — Heshowedusacopyofthc'Ofonthly Eeview" for 1786, containing a favourable notice of his first poem, the " Ode to Superstition," then just pub- lished. "I was then twenty-three years old," he said; *'my sister took it up to my father, who used to sit alone reading in the evening from six till nine, when he came down to read prayers to the family. He said very little to me about it, but I thought he treated my opmions with more deference afterwards. In the course of the next six years I only sold sixty or seventy copies. In 1 792 I published * The Pleasures of Memory,' being then twenty- nine." Mr. Mitford, the publisher of Gray's " Letters," asked if he had been occupied with the work during the whole of the six years ; he said, "Yes; it was always before me." " Italy I wrote a good deal upon the spot ; I made one journey to Eome and Naples and back alone. Before I prmted I showed my work to Wordsworth, Crowe, and Gary, who assisted me with criticisms as to the versification. I had creat difficulty in getting out of the couplet into blank verse. I consider Crowe very 264 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES perfect in blank verse ; at first be objected to a great deal, but when completed and ready to print be said he had no fault to find." ' I asked him what it was upon which Dry den's fame as a poet stood. He said upon his great command of language and the beauty of his versification. As he wrote a great deal, there were many faulty j)arts, but there were passages not to be equalled in any other author. " Men are but children of a larger growth," from one of his tragedies, was very happy. He quoted a stanza from Dryden's translation of the twenty-ninth ode of the first book of Horace, beginning " Happy the man and happy he alone," as excellent.^ If there had been no Dryden, there had been no Pope ; Pope is full of lines copied from him. Fox was a great admirer of Dryden, and considered no expression could be correctly used in English composition which was not found in Dryden ; you always found him with Dryden in his hand. ' Fox took a writing-master after he got into office, that he might learn to write plainly ; he was a pains- taking man, as all men are who produce anything good. All men should write well, at least legibly ; all can if they will. ' Lord Byron was very fond of Lord Clare all his life ' Happy the man, and happy he alone, He who can call to-day his own, He who, secure within, can say, ' To-morrow, do thy worst, for I have lived to-day ; Be fair, or foul, or rain, or shine. The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine ; Not Heaven itself upon the past has power, But what has been, has been, and I have had niv hour.' AN OLD man's talk 265 because when at school together he had defended Clare from bigger boys — conferring a favour ahvays makes j^ou love the object of your kindness, though it is not always reciprocal. When Byron was leaving England never to return, he wrote to Lord Clare to come and take leave of him. Lord Clare wrote word back that he could not, as he was going a-shopping with his mother. But they afterwards met on the road in Italy, and shed tears together. " Byron was of a very generous nature, always ready to assist a friend in trouble. Ward had written a very malicious article against me in the Quarterly, in consequence of some supposed offence. Byron was just publishing * The Giaour,' and thereupon prefixed to it a dedication to me, full of the warmest praise and expressions of friendship." ' A traveller from Spain complaining of the great quantity of uncultivated land you meet with there, Frere answered, "I like sometimes to see land that God Almighty keeps in his own hands." * Cowper's translation of Homer. Prefers it very much to Pope's. Has read it half-a-dozen times. How beau- tiful the language when the old nurse recognises Ulysses and drops his foot into the vase, spilling the water. " Thou art himself, Ulysses ! " A lady who cannot read the original should get one of the Oxford literal trans- lations, and then, when anything in Cowper strikes her as particularly beautiful, should turn to the place and see what were the very words of Homer. Of the two poems, the " Iliad " has the finest passages, but the " Odyssey " is the more pleasing subject. There is nothing in the "Odyssey" equal to the parting of Hector 2Q6 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES and Andromache at the Scsean gate, or to the mournmg of Andromache at Hector's death — ' nor gav'st me precious word To be remembered day and night with tears. Helen's too — ' Yet never heard I once hard speech from thee ; and the meeting of Priam and Achilles. Yet the " Odyssey " pleases more, because the story is so beau- tiful. Fox was a great admirer of Homer ; when asked which he had rather have written, the " Iliad " or the " Odyssey," he said, " I know which I had rather read, the ' Odyssey.' " ' A gentleman remarked that he did not like the new fashion of building churches with open seats instead of pews ; you might find yourself sitting next your coach- man. " So you might in heaven," replied Mr. Eogers.' 267 CHAPTEE VI. 1845, 1S46, ^YITU GLANCES BACK TO 1S4O-42. Death of Sydney Smith, of ' Bobus ' Smith, of Lord Grey, of Lady Holland— ALetter of Lady Holland's— Eogers's View of Lady Holland — Mrs. Kemble's ' Recollections ' — Eogers and Mrs. Grote — Sydney Smith on Rogers — Letter from Edward Everett — An Autumn in Paris — Rogers and Mrs. Forster — The Political Crisis in 1S45 — Rogers and Lord Grey — Rogers and Mr. and Mrs. Dickens — Letters from Edward Everett and Charles Sumner — Rogers's Poi'trait at Harvard — Rogers and Mrs. Norton— Letters from Mrs. Norton— Bi-ougham's Correspondence — Mr. Raskin and Rogers — Mr. Ruskin on Venice. Sydney Smith died on the 22nd of February, 1845, in the seventy-fourth year of his age.^ His death was the going out of a great source of warmth and Hght from the circle in which Eogers hved. All the world missed and mourned the gentlest and most genial of wits, but to those who were constantly enlivened by his merriment, and improved and cheered by his pure and freshening influence, the world was permanently duller and colder for his loss. Yet probably, to the private circle, the death of his elder brother, Eobert Percy Smith, a fortnight afterwards was even a more serious deprivation. His nickname of ' Bobus ' was given him at Eton, and clung to him through life. He was the best writer of Latin verse in his time ; he could repeat long passages of the Latin ' His latest biographer, Mr. Stuart J. Reid, says he was in his seventy- fifth year. He was born on the 3rd of June, 1771, and would therefore have completed his seventy-fourth year on the 3rd of June, 1845. 268 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES prose writers, and he was always spoken of by Eogers as one of the most acute men he had ever met. He made a fortune in India early in life, sat some years in Parliament, made his house in Savile Eow one of the most popular in London, and introduced his brother Sydney to London society. He was one of the few men with whom Eogers, who had the highest esteem for him, talked over questions of theology. Eogers told Mr. Dyce that the three acutest men with whom he was ever ac- quainted. Sir James Mackintosh, Malthus, and Bobus Smith, were all agreed on the problem of evil. They came to the conclusion that the attributes of the Deity must be in some respects limited, else there would be no sin and misery. Eogers visited him as he lay dying. Bobus Smith said, ' Eogers, 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.' Eogers answered, ' Yes ; of that I am perfectly convinced.' It is interesting to know that more than fifty years after Dr. Price's death, his most distinguished disciple still held the fundamental principle of his teaching. Bobus Smith is reported to have said to his brother-in-law, Dr. (afterwards Sir H.) Holland, who remarked to him, ' Your profession (the law) does not make angels of men.' ' No— but yours does.' Dr. Holland writes — Dr. Holland to Samuel Bogers. 'Brook Street : Monday, lotli March [1845]. * My dear Sir, — Knowing your affection for the dear and excellent friend whom we have lost in Savile Eow, DEATH OF SYDNEY AND ' BOBUS ' SMITH 269 I cannot forbear writing a few lines to you, tliat we may in some sort mix om- grief in this loss together. To himself the event was less painful than to us. You know that he never coveted life ; and of late his blindness (which had become complete) and several other infir- mities coming on, still further abated any wish to live. ' The disorder of which he died was identical with that which carried off his brother, after a more protracted illness — diseased heart, with dropsy of the chest as an effect of it. Smgular that two such men, so related, should be carried off almost at the same moment of time ! * In all my own intercourse with the world, I have scarcely met one who might compare in power and fullness of intellect with him about whom I am now writing to you. I think you will join with mo in this impression. 'Believe me, my dear Mr. Eogers, ever yours most faithfully, *H. Holland. * My poor wife feels deeply this double bereavement, scarcely to be repaired to her.' As the year went on other deaths still further deso- lated the circle in which Eogers lived. On the 17th of July Lord Grey died at Howick, and his death was at once announced to Eogers in the following letter. The Honourable Frederick Grey to Samuel Eogers. ' Howick : 17th July, 1S45 ; Thursday night. ' My dear Mr. Eogers, — Your long friendship with my father and your kindness to myself make it my painful 270 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES duty to announce to you his death. He was, after being better on Monday than for some time previous, suddenly attacked by inflammation in the left arm on Tuesday morning. It soon proved to be erysipelas, and his strength rapidly gave way under the attack, and a little after eight this evening he breathed his last. He did not appear to suffer at all. Howick and myself arrived at two o'clock, but he was already so exhausted as to be scarcely, if at all, conscious of our presence. My mother was with him to the last and bore up wonderfully, and I trust she may have strength sufficient to support her. * Believe me, my dear Mr. Eogers, * Yours most sincerely, ' Fred. Wm. Grey.' Earl Grey was a few months younger than Eogers, having been born on the 13th of March, 1764. He had, therefore, completed four months of his eighty-second year when he died, while Rogers was within a fortnight of his eighty-second birthday. He felt these successive losses most deeply. Lord Grey had his most sincere admira- tion, and, as we have already seen, he had heartily sympathised with the great Eeform minister in the cir- cumstances which led to his retirement from office eleven years before. The remarkable statement in Eogers's letter to Eichard Sharp, ^ that the wish of Lord Grey's heart was to continue in office another year and to carry the two Church Reforms — a statement which Eogers says he knew to be true — shows the confidential relations in which they stood to each other. Lord Grey had been • See ante, p. 107. LORD GREY 271 livinf; in retirement for these eleven years, and new men and new questions were already coming to the front, when the ' long summer day ' of his useful and honoured life and his ' still happier ' age, to use Eogers's words, came to its close. Eogers's lines, ' written in July 1834,' fitly expressed the adniir ition and affection he felt for Lord Grey — Grey, tliou hast served, and well, the sacred cause That Hampden, Sidney, died for. Thou hast stood, Scorning all thought of Self from first to last, Among the foremost in that glorious field : From first to last ; and ardent as thou art. Held on with equal step as best became A lofty mind, loftiest when most assailed : Never, though galled by many a barbed shaft, By many a bitter taunt from friend and foe, Swerving, nor shrinldng. Happy in thy Youth, Thy youth the dawu of a long summer day ; But in thy Age still happier : thine to earn The gratitude of millions yet unborn ; Thine to conduct, through ways how diflBcult, A mighty people in their march sublime From Good to Better. Great thy recompense. When in their eyes thou readest what thou hast done ; And may'st thou long enjoy it ; may'st thou long Preserve for them what still they claim as theirs, That generous fervour and pure eloquence. Thine from thy birth, and Nature's noblest gifts To guard what they have gained ! In November Lady Holland and Lord Melbourne died. Lady Holland had moved to South Street on Lord Holland's death, but she kept together there much of the society which had made Holland House famous 272 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES in earlier clays. Sir Henry Holland tells us that he was present at the very last dinner party she ever gave, when Thiers and Palmer ston met for the first time. She was the despot of Holland House society, and Eogers, though one of her chief favourites and most intimate friends, was sometimes rebellious under her sway. A letter from her, which is without date of year, I reproduce to illustrate the relation in which she stood to Rogers. It was pro- bably written in 1832. Ladij Holland to Samuel Bogei's. ' "What are you doing, my dear friend, that I know nothing of you ? You promised, if not a visit at least a note. Can you come to us to-day, to meet the Carlisles, or to-morrow% or, in short, on any day before the 12th, on which day we purpose being at Woburn, to make the Duke a visit before he joins the Duchess in Scotland ? We proceed on to the Ladies of the Forest, and shall be at Ampthill at the end of the month, where, I trust, hope, rely, and believe you and your sister will bestow upon us the month of September. Remember how you are pledged always about Ampthill. * I have read with great pleasure your beautiful description of the constellation of the Cross,' and also referred to Humboldt. When I began your volume, I could not lay it down. Surely the verses in Westminster Abbey are very fine ; indeed, it is difficult within so small a compass to find so many beauties collected. * Yours affectionately, *E. V. Holland. ' Wednesday, ist August. ' In the sixth canto of Columbus. LADY HOLLAND 273 * Lord Holland has a little attack of gout, from the weakness in one of his hands. I was glad to find when I sent to enquire about Lord Ashburnham, that he wa8 better.' Rogers was in constant communication with her to the last, and a very short time after her death he gave Mrs. Kemble an account of her last days, which is to be found in a letter ^ written by her from Welwyn. ' Just before I came down here, Rogers paid me a long visit, and talked a great deal about Lady Holland ; and I felt interested in what he said about the woman who had been the centre of so remarkable a society, and his intimate friend for so many years. Having all her life appeared to suffer the most unusual terror, not of death only, but of any accident that could possibly, or impossibly, befall her, he said that she had died with perfect composure, and though consciously within the very shadow of death for three whole days before she crossed the dark threshold, she expressed neither fear nor anxiety, and exhibited a tranquillity of mind by no means general at that time, and which surprised many of the persons of her acquaintance. . . . Rogers said that she spoke of her life with considerable satisfaction, asserting that she had done as much good and as little harm as she could during her existence. The only person about whom she expressed any tenderness was her daughter. Lady Holland desired much to see her, and she crossed the Channel, having travelled in great ' Records of Later Life. By Frances Anne Kemble, iii. 91-93. VOL. II. T 274 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES haste, and arrived just in time to fulfil her mother's wish and receive her blessing. * Her will creates great astonishment— created, I should say! for she is twice buried already, under the Corn Laws question. She left her son only 2,oooL, and to Lord John Eusseh i,5ooL a year, which at his death reverts to Lady Lilford's children. To Rogers, strange to- say, nothmg ; but he professed to think it an honour to be left out. To my brother, strange to say, something (Lord Holland's copy of the British Essayists in thirty odd volumes) ; and to Lady Palmerston, her collection of fans, which, though it was a very valuable and curious one, seems to me a little like making fun of that super- fine fine lady.' Mrs. Kemble tells us of the effect of these losses on the old poet. She describes him as ' very much broken and altered, very deaf, very sad.' This was written two days after Lady HoUand's death, when, as Mrs. Kemble says, ' he literally stands as though his turn were next.' She speaks of him, however, in most affectionate terms. She persuaded him to go down to Burnham Beeches with her, and this is her account of the visit — 'I went down to Burnham with the old poet, and was sorry to find that, though he had consented to pay Mrs. Grote this visit, he was not in particularly harmo- nious tunc for her society, which was always rather a trial to his fastidious nerves and refined taste. The drive of between three and four miles in a fly (very different from his own luxurious carriage) through intri- MRS. GROTE 275 cate lanes and rural winding avenues, did not tend to soften his acerbities, and I perceived at once, on alight- ing from the carriage, that the aspect of the place did not find favour in his eyes. 'Mrs. Grote had just put up an addition to her house, a sort of single wing, which added a good-sized drawing-room to the modest mansion I had before visited. "Wliatever accession of comfort the house received within, from this addition to its size, its beauty externally was not improved by it, and Mr. Rogers stood before the offending edifice, surveying it with a sardonic sneer that I should think even brick and mortar must have found hard to bear. He had hardly uttered his three first dis- paraging bitter sentences of utter scorn and abhorrence of the architectural abortion (which, indeed, it was), when Mrs. Grote herself made her appearance in her usual country costume — box-coat, hat on her head, and stick in hor hand. Mr. Rogers turned to her with a verjuice smile, and said, " I was just remarking that in whatever part of the world I had seen this building, I should have guessed to whose taste I might attribute its erection." To which, without an instant's hesitation, she replied, " Ah ! 'tis a beastly thing, to be sure. The confounded workmen played the devil with the place while I was away." Then, without any more words, she led the way to the interior of her habitation. . . . ' During this visit, much interesting conversation passed with reference to the letters of Sj'dney Smith, who was just dead ; and the propriety of publishing all his correspondence, which, of course, contained strictures and remarks upon people with whom he had been living T 2 276 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES in habits of friendly social intimacy. I remember one morning a particularly lively discussion on the subject between Mrs. Grote and Mr. Eogers. The former had a great many letters from Sydney Smith, and urged the impossibility of publishing them, with all their comments on members of the London world. Eogers, on the con- trary, apparently delighted at the idea of the mischief such revelations would make, urged Mrs. Grote to give them ungarbled to the press. "Oh, but now," said the latter, " here, for instance, Mr. Rogers, such a letter as this about ; do see how he cuts up the poor fellow. It really never would do to publish it." Eogers took the letter from her, and read it with a stony grin of diaboli- cal delight on his countenance, and occasional chuckling exclamations of " Publish it ! publish it ! Put an E, dash, or an E and four stars for the name. He'll never know it, though everybody else will." While Mr. Eogers was thus delectating himself in anticipation with E — 's execu- tion, Mrs. Grote, by whose side I was sitting on a low stool, quietly unfolded another letter of Sydney Smith's, and silently held it before my eyes, and the very first words in it were a most ludicrous allusion to Eogers's cadaverous appearance.' As I raised my eyes from this most absurd description of him, and saw him still ab- sorbed in his evil delight, the whole struck me as so like a scene in a farce that I could not refrain from bursting out laughing. * In talking of Sydney Smith, Mr. Eogers gave us ' The expression is given in another letter of Mrs. Kemble's. It was, ' I never think of death in London but when I see Rogers.' In her whole account of this interview Mrs. Kemble evidently mistook for serious what was meant in fun. MES. KEMBLE'S RECOLLECTIONS 277 many amusing details of various visits he paid him at his place in Somersetshire, Comhe Florey. . . . Rogers told us, too, with great satisfaction, an anecdote of Sydney Smith's son, known in London by the nickname of the Assassin. . . . This gentleman, being rather addicted to horse-racing and the undesirable society of riders, trainers, jockeys, and semi-turf blacklegs, meeting a friend of his father's on his arrival at Combe Florey, the visitor said, " So you have got Eogers here, I find." " yes," replied Sydney Smith's dissimilar son, with a rue- ful countenance, "but it isn't the Eogers you know;" the Rogers according to him being a famous horse-trainer and rider of that name.' The letter shown by Mrs. Grote to Mrs. Kemble in Rogers's presence may be compared with an extract from one addressed to Lady Holland, which Mrs. Sydney Smith sent to him soon after her husband's death. Mrs. Sydnt'u Smith to Samtwl Rogers, * I cannot resist sending it to you, dear Mr. Rogers — ' " I think you very fortunate, my dear Lady Holland, in havmg Rogers at Rome. Shew me a more kind and friendly man ; secondly, one from good manners, know- ledge, fun, taste, and observation more agreeable ; thirdly, a man of more strict political integrity, and of better character in private life. If I were to choose any Englishman in foreign parts whom I should wish to blunder upon, it should be Rogers." — Sydney SmitJi. ' Praise is sweet, but when it comes from one not too 278 ROGERS AND HIS CONTExMPORARIES prodigal of it, though alwaj'^s just to give it where clue, it is worth reading. * Most affectionately yours, 'C. A. S.' There are many letters from Mrs. Sydney Smith to Eogers in the next few years, all in the same affectionate terms, telling him of her husband's affection for him and asking his advice on various matters. In one of these, which is chiefly about her husband, she says, * I have a most sincere affection for you as one of his earliest and most attached friends, and of whose friend- ship he was always proud.' Mr. Everett gives strong expression to his sense of the friendly welcome which had been given him by Eogers, among others in the old home. Edivard Everett to Samuel Rogers. 'Boston: 30th Sept. 1845. 'My dear Mr. Eogers, — I will not allow the vessel which brought ns to America to return to England without a line to let you know that we have arrived in safety, and that, even in the midst of the excitement and tumult of reaching home, we all retain the most affectionate remembrance of the second home, which, through the kindness of friends, we had gained in the land of our fathers. It is true that with the pleasing remembrance of the happy hours passed in their society, is mingled the sadness of feeling we may never enjoy it again, and self-reproach that we did not more assidu- ously cultivate it. I am now discontented with myself WOEDSWORTH ON ROGERS IN 1845 279 that I left you any peace. I assure you it was not insensibility to the worth of the moments I passed in your society, but real diflficlence and desire not to be obtrusive. "Will you not make me some little dedom- magcment by giving me a few moments of your time ? Let me see your exquisitely neat handwriting, telling me you have not entirely forgotten us. And believe me, that if it is any satisfaction to a man to know that he is remembered with affection and gratitude in another hemisphere, there is no one entitled to a greater share ■of it than yourself. * Should 3-ou have time to write me a few lines, they will reach me safely if sent to " Mr. John Miller, 26 Henrietta Street, Covent Garden." ' With sincere attachment, faithfully yours, ' E. E\T.RETT.' The letter came ^^llile the octogenarian friend to whom it was addressed was disporting himself in Paris. Wordsworth in a letter speaks of him as * singularly fresh and strong for his years, and his mental faculties (with the exception of his memory a little) not at all impaired.' His own account of his autumn visits shows that even his physical energy must have been unusual for his time of life. Samuel Rogers to SaraJt liogcrs. 'Paris: 23rd Oct., 1845. *My dear Sarah, — I wrote from Broadstairs, but, having heard nothing in reply, conclude that you wait to hear from me at Paris, and a diary will best answer my purpose and yours. 280 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPOEAEIES ' Oct. 6th. — Maltby left me to return by steamboat,, being anxious to see Travers. ' yth, 8t](, gill. — Went to Dover, there saw only the Miss Westmacotts and Barry the architect. Eough weather. ' loth. — A good passage to Boulogne. Dined at table d'hote with Mrs. Cholmondley and Mrs. Eomilly, who asked much after you. ' 1 1 th. — Abbeville. * i2tk. — Beauvais. ' I ith. — Paris. Took my old nest at the top of the tree and drank tea very comfortably with Lady E. and Miss J. and Pop, who wished for you. ' 14^/i. — Went with them to Norma. Louvre in the morning. ' 15?/?.— Dined with the D'Henins. Maltby will tell you about Adele. ' i6th. — The eldest Shee breakfasted with me. Went with the B[ellenden] Kers and Miss C. to the French opera. ' lyth. — Dined with them at the Freres Proven9ales. * i8/A. — Mrs, and Miss Horner breakfasted with me and went with me at night to the French opera. * igth. — Went to the Italian opera. Delightful day. Went to Meudon. * 20t]i. — Drank tea with Mrs. Forster. * 2ist. — Mr. and Mrs. Martineau and son breakfasted with me. So far well, only I caught cold yesterday and have it still, and like Paris less than before, but am not in spirits, and the fault is in me. To-day it rains, and for some days it has been colder than usual, though ROGEES AT PARIS 281 there have been many sunsets very splendid. Have been invited to the Embassy, but could not go, or should have met the Abingers. "Washington Irving is here from Madrid, and I have breakfasted with him and his niece. * Lord and Lady Abinger are here on a nuptial tour. All this sounds very busy, very like what you read in ** The Morning Post." But to go to a better subject : I hope you are pretty well and still in the country. Mrs. Forster has had Lord and Lady Nugent with her. They are gone to Malta, by Marseilles, travelling by public con- veyances and without man or maid. At Dover I fell in with Lord and Lady Ashburton on their way to Italy with their daughters. We crossed together and parted at St. Denis. I say parted, having exchanged talk on the road, but having had no meal together. But who do you think came close behind me all the way? Lady Conyngham, though I could not somehow get a sight of her. Once she breakfasted in the same room with Reece, talking freely with him, and when I looked in at the door, and he asked her if she knew Mr, Pvogers, she said, " No." The Kers are on the wing for England, and so are the Horners. Henry [Sharpe] arrived last night from Eng- land, and tells me you were expected at home ; he is, as usual, in high spirits. * Yours ever, 'S. E. ' Hotel de I'Europe, Eue de Eivoli : 23id Oct. ' I may stay a fortnight longer. The Kers are very active and see everything. The Horners have been here for some time in the absence of Mr. H. You may now go to Orleans by rail-road and return at night ; as also 282 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES to Eouen. But those things are best done in the sum- mer. I suffer more from the cold than ever, and my neighbour's smoke makes my eyes smart. I have not yet been to Versailles. To-day I breakfast with Mme. de Chabannes, iice Miss Ellis. She is related to Lady Abinger, who is described as not handsome and about forty-five.' Mrs. Forster, who is mentioned several times in this letter, is the old sweetheart spoken of in the first chapter of the first volume. His brief note, addressed to her at 23 Avenue Marbceuf, on the 20th of October, contains a sentence which describes the principle on which he acted all through his career. It used to be said that an invita- tion to breakfast with Eogers was a transition stage in acquaintance with him, a kind of probation before an invitation to dinner. It was nothing of the kind ; it was the very reverse. An invitation to breakfast was a sign that he wished to have a real talk with the friend so invited.' He says to Mrs. Forster — ' Mr. Hay ward says : ' He often read from his notes Rousseau's profession of " un gout vif pour les dejeuners. C'est le tems de la journ^e ou nous sommes le plus tranquilles, ou nous causons le plus a notre aise." It was a current joke that he asked people to breakfast by way of probation for dinner ; but his breakfast parties (till the un- willingness to be alone made him less discriminating) were made for those with whom he wished to live socially, and his dinners, compara- tively speaking, were affairs of necessity or form. Even in his happiest moods he was not convivial ; his spirits never rose above temperate ; he disliked loud laughing or talking ; and unless some distinguished personage or privileged wit was there to break the ice and keep up the ball, the conversation at his dinners not unfrequently flagged. It seemed to be, and perhaps was, toned down by the subdued light, which left half the room in shadow and speedily awoke the fairer portion of the company to the disagreeable consciousness that their complexions were looking THE CORN LAW CRISIS 283 ' I will do my best to look in upon you before you break up, as I wish much to see your inmates before they go. But, if I could, I would breakfast with my friends, and dine or drink tea with my acquaintances. * S. E.' Mrs. Kemble's account of him as ' deaf and sad and much broken,' was after this visit to Paris. It was towards the close of a very melancholy year. He soon recovered both health and spirits, and there are signs of his continued and lively interest in public affairs. In December, 1845, Lord John Eussell was trying to form an administration. The crisis was one of the most exciting that has occurred in modern politics. On the 22nd of November, Lord John Eussell had written the celebrated Edinburgh Letter to the citizens of London, declaring that it was no longer of any use to contend for a fixed duty on corn, and unreservedly declaring for Free Trade. On the 4th of December, ' The Times ' declared that the Government of Sir Eobert Peel, following Lord John Eussell's lead, had determined to repeal the Corn Laws. * The Standard,' on the next dav, denounced the statement as ' an atrocious fabrication ' ; but it proved to be true. Sir E. Peel had announced his conversion and resigned. On the 8th, Lord John Eussell was sent for by the Queen. He was at Edinburgh, and only reached Osborne on the nth. He had determined not to attempt the formation of a Ministry, but, assured of Sir E. Peel's support, he undertook the task. Two men muddy and tlicir toilettes the opposite of fresh. After making every allow- ajicc for this drawback, however, his dinners were justly reckoned amongst the pleasantest in town.' — The Edinbiirgh licvicw, July 1S56, p. 106. 284 EOGEES AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES seemed to him to be needful to bis success, Lord Grey and Lord Palmerston. Lord Grey, in perfect consistency with his principles, declined to sit in a Cabinet in which Lord Palmerston was Foreign Secretary, and Lord John Eussell felt it his duty to state that owing to this refusal he had found it impossible to form a Government. The Whigs were greatly disappointed and annoyed, and went about declaring ' Lord Grey has done it all.' But there were many of the Whigs themselves who approved of Lord Grey's conduct, and Eogers was one of them. In the midst of the storm of unpopularity which Lord Grey had called down upon himself, Piogers wrote him a letter expressing full a]5proval of his action. Lord Grey replied by return of post. Earl Grey to Samuel Rogers. 'Howick: 31st Dec, 1845. * My dear Mr. Piogers, — I am exceedingly obliged to you for your very kind note, which I have received this evening. I cannot tell you how great a satisfaction it is to me to find that amidst the general censure which I have drawn down upon myself by doing what was very painful to me, but what I believed to be my duty, I am supported by the approbation of a person for whose judgment I have so much respect and on whose good opinion I set so high a value. ' Believe me, yours most truly, ' Grey.' Lord Palmerston's name occurs but rarely in these volumes. He was not liked by the Whigs, who regarded ROGERS AND DICKENS AT BROADSTAIRS 285 liis foreign policy as showy, demonstrative, and dangerous. There was no intimacy between him and the oracle of the Holland House circle. But times were changing, though Rogers was too old to change with them. There is not much to record in the next few years. An old man's life goes softly down the hill. Great as may be his interest in passing events, he has no very active share in them, and much as he may be concerned in the doings of his friends, he looks on them as a spec- tator who has done his part and only waits for the end. As an octogenarian, Eogers kept up his correspondence with remarkable energy, and went on his rounds of autumn visits and made his usual journeys to Broad- stairs, taking Canterbury by the way. At Canterbury it was his habit to step quietly into the cathedral to enjoy the music. One year he was recognised by the clergyman who was conducting the service, and a verger was sent to him to ask what anthem he would like. Year after year as he passed through the city and went to the cathedral the same attention was paid him. We have already seen from one of Dickens's letters that he was often with Rogers at Broadstairs, and his great conversational powers made him a most welcome companion. Dickens's high spirits, his genial humour, his kindness, and the chivalrous respect with which he treated a man so much older than himself, were exceed- ingly pleasant to the old poet, and there could scarcely be a greater contrast than the two men ' out on those airy walks at Broadstairs,' where Dickens most desired to live in his memory. Dickens and his wife were in Switzerland in the summer of 1846 and did not forget their aged 286 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES friend at Broadstairs. There is an amusing postscript, written by Charles Dickens, on the flysheet of a letter from Mrs. Dickens to Eogers. The rest of the letter has been lost. On the top of the leaf are the words, in Mrs. Dickens's writing, ' dear Mr. Eogers, very affectionately yours, Catherine Dickens ; ' and on the other side is the address, with a post-mark showing that it was posted at Lausanne on the 27th of August, 1846. Under his wife's signature Dickens writes — 'I cannot let this go to you, although the man is wait- ing to carry it off to the post, without adding for myself that I hope you won't forget us, and that when you are out on those airy walks at Broadstairs, I deske most to live m your memory. Let us promise and vow (God willing) to have tea there together again one windy night next autumn, when you will go home to Ballard's afterwards all aslant against the gale, and when that dimmest of lamps at the corner will be winking and winking as if the spray inflamed its eye. The wind is blowing down the lake now, driving fast shadows before it along the sides of the mountains ; but it don't blow half as pleasantly, to my thinking, as over the North Foreland, or about that good old tarry, salt little pier. There's a Berne woman in the garden with a large Btomacher and a gaudy cap ; but she's nothing to Miss Crampton of the Terrace Baths. Wlierever / am, I am always your affectionate friend, and shall always think it the best return in the world if you'll believe me so — though you do (in speaking to her) always call me ' HIM.' AMERICAN LITERARY NEWS 287 Mr. Greville tells us that he went to Panshanger in September to meet Rogers, Mihie, Morpeth, W. Cowper, Lady Sandwich, and some others, * pleasant enough.' Some letters from the United States show how ener- getically the old man kept up his correspondence. Eihvard Everett to Sdiiiiicl Bofjcrs. ' Cambridge, U.S.A. : 14th Sept., 1846. ' My dear Mr. Eogers, — I received with great grati- tude your kind and affectionate note of the 2nd of last November. Since then, I have been dehghted to hear several times of your health through Dr. Holland, who is so good as to write to me frequently. We are all as well as usual. My eldest son, whom you hardly recollect (he was at King's College School in London), has entered the college here, rather young, but he lives mider my own roof. Little "Willie, whom you honoured with your notice, continues to shew great precocity. I have not seen your friend Webster lately. He runs oflf to his farm as soon as Congress adjourns. He is quite well ; but there is no hope of his returning to office — I do not say power, for office gives little poicev in any represen- tative government, and least of all in ours. Prescott is finishing the " Conquest of Peru," o, pendant to "Mexico." Sumner delivered a very briUiant address the other day before one of our literary societies, consistmg of a eulogy on IMr. John Pickermg (our most eminent philo- logist). Judge Story, Mr. Allston, and Dr. Channing, a performance of great beauty and power, of which I will send you a copy as soon as it is printed. ' We are all delighted with the settlement of Oregon, 288 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES and praying soon for peace with Mexico, Mr. Bancroft — our historian — succeeds Mr, M'Lane at your Court. He has great talent, learning, and general cleverness, and a very charming wife, * Pray do not forget us ; for we all hold you in the most affectionate recollection. ' Your sincere and grateful friend, * Edward Eveeett. ' Pray give our kindest remembrances to Miss Eogers.' Mr. Bancroft, of course, presented himself very soon after his arrival, bringing an introduction from Charles Sumner in his hand. Charles Sumner to Samuel Rogers. 'Boston : 5th Oct., 1846. ' My dear Mr. Piogers, — Eemembering with gratitude your many kindnesses to me, and your last little note, which was full of goodness, I venture again to appear before you by my friends, Mr. and Mrs. Bancroft, The historian of the United States, and its Minister at the English Court, can require no word of introduction from me. His genius and amiability will enhance the re- commendation of his station and his works. In Mrs. Bancroft you will find a willing and graceful listener, and one of the pleasantest examples of American womanhood. * With hopes for your constant health and happiness , believe me, dear Mr. Ptogers, ever sincerely yours, ' Charles Sumner.' EDWARD EVERETT 289 Another letter from the United States brought a request for his portrait to be painted by an American artist. Edward Everett to Samuel Ror/ers. ' Cambridge : 20tli Nov., 1846. ' My dear Mr. Rogers, — I write you this letter at the request of an esteemed countryman and friend of mine, Mr. Chester Harding, who is one of our most distin- guished portrait painters. Some years ago he was in London and painted the Duke of Sussex with gi-eat success. He wishes now to paint one or two persons whose portraits at the annual exhibition of the Academy v/ould, if successful, bring him favourably before the public. He has enlisted my selfishness in his cause, by promising me the portraits after they have been exhibited. I have given him a letter for this purpose to Lord Aber- deen, and to no other person besides yourself. ' I am, of course, aware, as is Mr. Harding, of the immense inconvenience to you of sitting for your por- trait, and I assure you that neither on his own account nor my own shall I be either surprised or hurt if you promptl}^ decline. ' The onl}' inducement I can hold out to you, in addi- tion to those motives which 3'our kind-heartedness will suggest, is that of rendering me, individually, an mesti- mable favour, and then the consideration that you will put it into my power to enrich my countrymen with a portrait of one whose name and fame they are spread- ing through the continent of America. I suppose there is no painting of you in the United States. Are we not VOL. II. u 290 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES entitled to as much of your personality as can be trans- ferred to the canvas ? ' I am sorry to hear that Miss Eogers's health has not been very good of late. Pray, when you see her, remember us all most kindly to her, 'I hope there is foundation for the report in the newspapers that the plunder of your bank is to be restored. Happy the man to whom the loss and the restoration of such a sum are of so little consequence. ' Believe me ever, my dear Mr. Rogers, with sincere affection, faithfully yours, ' Edwakd Everett.' The portrait was painted, and it hung for years in Mr. Everett's dining-room. On his death it was given to Mr. Sidney Brooks, who left it to Dr. William Everett, by whom, early in 1884, it was presented to the Presi- dent and Fellows of Harvard College, by whom it has been hung in their beautiful Memorial Hall. There could be no more appropriate place for the portrait of an Englishman whose father put on mourning for the slaughter at Lexington, who himself sheltered Priestley on his last night in England, who sympathised with the United States in all their struggles for freedom, and at whose house, for fifty years, all the chief visitors from America to England found cordial welcome to the best society London could give. In a letter of Crabb Piobinson's is an account of the introduction of Mrs. Norton to a dinner party at Piogers's. It was a party of eight : Moxon the publisher, Kenney the dramatist, Spedding, Lushington, Tennyson, and MRS. NORTON 291 Crabb Robinson ; the eighth was a lady coming, Rogers said, to see Tennyson. But the mysterious visitor did not come, and the seven wise men had to begin dinner without her. When the meal was half over, Rogers was called out of the room, and returned with a lady, neither splendidly dressed nor strikingly beautiful, as it seemed to Crabb Robinson. After a while it came out who she was, and Robinson rebukes himself for not distinsuishincr her beauty and grace by his own discernment. For ten years her domestic troubles had been matter for public discussion, and there was universal sympathy with her under the persecutions she endured from a weak and jealous husband. Rogers had stood by her as an older friend and the friend of her grandfather. On the first day of the trial in the ridiculous suit her husband had brought against her and Lord Melbourne, he had ac- companied her into court. In after years she had been frequently at his house, and had on numerous occasions expressed the warmest gratitude to him for hi» kindness to herself and to her boys. None of her letters have any dates, but the period at which some of them were written is indicated in their subject matter. I have thought it best, therefore, to group them all together. One day she writes to apologise for staying away from breakfast. ' I cannot stand,' she says, ' till my headache goes off in the morning, nor can I come out to breakfast hiding my face in my hands from pain. You do not believe a word of it — but that is only because you have no headache yourself.' The signature is a pen-and-ink sketch of a lady kneeling down to an empty easy chair, with the words, ' Adieu — I make my vain submission to your foot- V 2 292 SOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES stool for the chance of pardon.' Another time she writes a brief note, which she signs ' Yours dutifully, the Author of "Fugitive Pieces," ' with the postscript, ' Ah ! little did I think you would have sacrificed me, your friend, for a hon mot. All night their paper ghosts have bowed to me, saying, " ^Ye are * Fugitive Pieces ' ; we are 'Fugitive Pieces.' " ' In March, 1845, she sends 'The Child of the Islands,' and her letter begins, ' I send you a book, the book, my book. I know you will not read it, but peep into it for the sake of the writer. I have marked two episodes — the death of a gipsy girl in prison, and the description of a ballet-dancer. . . . Don't lend it to anybody, because I depend on it for some bread and butter.' There is a postscript : ' A friend of mine, inter- rupting me, declares I have not marked the best passages, and has marked one of his own selecting ; you may play at pitch-and-toss to decide which you may read ; only remember, England expects that every man will do some portion of his duty ' — the last sentence written on a scroll flying from a mast. In another note she says, ' I have come up from Eton to dine with you, having gone down in a great hurry to my sick boy just as your note arrived, which note has been torn from me as an autograph, be- sides my having to bear the insult of being asked if I was sure it was your writing, and not a secretary's — being " so very beautiful." I shall struggle for its return, being signed Piuggiero (I presume by an Italian Secretary).' There are two letters, however, which were written at a period of great trouble, which show her character and the relation in which she stood to her grandfather's friend in a very striking way. The letters tell their own story — MRS. NORTON 293 Mrs. Norton to Saimiel Rofjers. ' Mr. Chailesworth's, Chapel Thoi-pe : Tuesday. [13th September, 1842.] * Dearest Mr. Eogers, — Thank you for your letter to my boy — he asked leave to write to some who would be " really sorry," and I gave him your name and my sister Georgiana's.^ ' I still feel stunned by this sudden blow. The acci- dent happened here, and I have been sheltered here ever since, and do not leave till Thursday, when my fair young thing will be laid in the grave. The room here, where he died (and which was the first I entered) — the room where there was so much hurry and agony, and then such dismal silence and darkness — is empty and open again, and the little decorated coffin is lying at his father's house (about two miles off) — alone ; for Mr. Norton is gone to Lord Grantley's (Grantley Hall) till to-morrow, which is fixed for the funeral.^ ' He died conscious — he prayed, and asked Norton to pray ; he asked for me twice ; he did not fear to die, and he bore the dreadful spasms of pain with a degree of courage which the doctor says he has rarely seen in so young a child. He had every attention and khulness which could be shown, and everv comfort which was needed. He was kept here, not at first from any appre- hension of danger, but because in his father's house ' Jane Georgiana, the youngest sister of Mrs. Norton, was Queen of Beauty at theEglintoun tournament in 1S39. She married, on the lotli of June, 1830, Lord Seymour, afterwards twelfth Duke of Somerset. She died on the 14th of December, 1S84. ^ INIrs. Norton's third son, William Charles Chappie, was born on the 26th of August, 1S33, and died on the 12th of September, 1842. 294 ROGERS AND illS CONTEMPORARIES there is no attendance— nothing hut an old woman who opens the gate ! It may be sinful to think bitterly at such a time; and at least, I have not uttered the thoughts of my heart; I have choked them back, to spare pain to one who never spared it to me ! But it is not in the strength of human nature not to think, " this might not have happened had I watched over them ! " — or not I ! — put me, put then mother on one side — make a cypher of me, who nursed and bore him. Half what is now lavishly expended in ceremony and decoration of the coffin which contains the senseless clay of my little lost one, would have paid some steady manservant to be in constant attendance on their hours of recreation. My poor little spirited creature was too young to rough it alone, as he was left to do— and this is the end of it ! When I first came down, Mr. Norton was in bitter distress, and he comforted me with promises for the other boys— for those that remain. But his impressions are so weak and so wavering that I only tremble. Oh ! it is a hard thing that I and my boys— that so many hearts should be in the absolute power of one who has wo heart. In a few days all will be as if it had not been, to him ! Already there is a change — already he thinks less of the anguish which made me almost kneel for the boy (Brinsley) who is with me, than of the doubt whether that does not, in some way, cancel his authokity. I have had hard words to bear, even now, but I am too miserable to shrink from them. He was better before Grantley came down. • Meanwhile he has at least allowed me to take Brin with me to London for a few days before they return to MRS. NORTON 295 school — and my eldest will also join me for a day or two. They return on Saturday the ist. * If you are in town, I will ask you to', let my boy come to you some one morning : he is very eagcr,'about it. Poor little fellow ! he thinks, having seen his father and me weeping together, all is once more peace and home. He made me write out a list of his relations, and of Brinsley and Georgie's children. He is full of eager anticipation to make friends of all that belong to me. He was dread- fully overcome at first, and had an hysteric fit when he saw his brother dead ; but at his age (eleven next November), and with his buoyant temper, sorrow must be very temporary. My other boy's forethought, tender- ness, and precocious good sense will, if God spares him, be the blessing of my life. He understands, by intuition, all I feel, and all that ought to be. He soothes his father, and watches me as if I, not he, was the helpless one ; and God knows I am helpless ! but my child is out of the storm — he is in heaven : too young to have offended, he is with those whose " angels do always behold the face of our Father " ! * I will write to you agam ; good and kind you have always been to me — God bless you. I shall have left this on Thursday morning. ' Your affectionate * Caroline Norton.' Mrs. Norton to Samuel Rogers. ' Saturday, 8th Oct, [1842]. * Dear old Friend, — My boys are gone back to school : the eldest only yesterday ; as, after the funeral, he 296 ROGEES AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES became very unwell, and so continued for some days. And now I want to leave this home for a little, and come where I hope you still are. You kindly wrote to offer to take me rooms — will you do so ? Like Gilpin's well- judging wife, I would have a reasonable eye to economy — but as it is for a short time — three weeks or less — and I am sick and sad, I would rather be at the hotel than have the trouble of even a small house. If I could have a very airy, double-bedded room, and a little sitting-room, my maid and I would require nothing more in the way of lodging. Then, if you would tell the landlady to charge board per week, and give me what she i^leases — promis- ing that I never want and never eat "pies, cates, and dainties " — but really only a morsel of meat and potatoes — it would be a very agreeable arrangement to me, as I should be spared all thought, just now, and live like a lily of the field— or a weed of the cliff. 'There is a business-like beginning, like the poetess who desired to borrow of you. * My boys are nice creatures — intelligent, free-spirited, and true ; they are so happy at being re-knit to me, that I can scarcely think of it without weeping. Little Brin ' is brimful of gratitude and love to all who ever loved or were kind to me. He made me walk down to your house, and we stood outside the little iron gate which has so often admitted me for pleasant mornings, for some time, talking of the nightingales, and Milton's receipt for " Paradise Lost," and all the treasures in your shut-up house. The elder is quieter, more thoughtful, less spirited, but seems like an angel to me — and his whole care is to keep watch ' Thomas Brinsley, her second son, born 4th of November, 1831 ; died 1st of August, 1854. MRS. NORTON 297 over his father's kindness, that it may not flicker or go out for me. Mr. Norton has a very great love for them I do behove : more than I thought or expected : and young as my eldest boy is, he is allowed the greatest influence over his father's mind^and uses it with a tender- ness and tact very unusual at his age. I think and hope that we shall now be very friendly together, even if we continue apart. Mr. Norton went to the school to desire they would consider me equal with himself and not to be further controlled as to seeing them ; to come and go on my own direction. You may believe I have no greater anxiety than to satisfy him now, and prove to him, poor fellow, that it will answer better to allow this peace to fall upon us, than the long warfare did, which is ended. He is very sorry for his little one : and very proud of these two. ' I have sent a letter of Brin's to his uncle Brinsley, which I will show you, as I think it very touching — and, indeed, it would be good reading for such men as in anger resolve to break the tie of mother and child. In it he says, " I think I would die of grief if I were parted from you again, you can't think how changed I am. I love you and my brother ten times more than I used to do — I love you, Papa, and Spencer, beyond anythmg or person I ever did before." In the earnestness of his child's heart — loving all better than ever, for being again in his natural position towards his mother — lies a lesson which, though simply given, is full of truth. I cannot tell you how his letter touched me ; I think I feel as he does, that I love everyone better since I received his dear scrawl of aftectionate writing. 298 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEJVIPORARIES * I hope you are well and that you will be a Broadstahs when you get this, and when I arrive. The Pliippses are gone to Eamsgate on account of the child who has been ailing. * If I can have one room looking on the sea, of course I should prefer it, and as it is so late in the season perhaps this may be accomplished. My boys will be with me again at Christmas, and then you will let me bring them to you. ' Yours affectionately, ' Caroline Norton . * I have not had one moment to write while they were with me.' To these letters I may add the following lines by the same writer — To Samuel Rogers. . Who can forget, who at thy social board Hath sat and seen the pictures richly stored In all their tints of glory and of gloom, Brightening the precincts of thy quiet room ? With busts and statues full of that deep grace Which modern hands have lost the skill to trace : Fragments of beauty, perfect as thy song On that sweet land to which they did belong. The exact and classic taste by thee displayed Not with a rich man's idle, fond, parade ; Not with the pomp of some vain connoisseur, Proud of his bargains, of his judgment sure, But with the feeling kind and sad of one Who through far countries wandering hath gone, And brouglit away dear keepsakes to remind His heart and home of all he has left behind. LORD BROUGHAM 299 There are various short notes from Lord Brougham, which are all without date, and no means of tracing the dates remains. One describes where Brougham is : 'It lies in "Westmorland, distant from Penrith station one mile and a quarter. The journey is nine hours and a half. We send the carriage for you, and dine whole- somely at half-past six. The Douros come to us on the 15th; the Jerseys on the 17th, all on their way to Scot- land. But Luttrell I expect later. Now, mind you come. Lady Malet is to arrive on the loth or nth of September.' Another is evidently an apologetic refusal of some favour Eogers had asked for a friend. Others are pressing invitations or brief references to books about which Eogers and Brougham had talked, or apologies for postponing visits. They are all, however, written with the same fulness of affectionate regard which appears in the remarkable series of Lord Brougham's letters in a succeeding chapter. Two other of his letters, without dates, may be added here. Lord Brougham to Saimiel Rogers. ' Grafton Street : Thursday. * My dear E., — I sent to ask you to join a very small party to dinner, but 3'ou are out of town. ' I also want to do an act of mere and strict justice in thanking you for the gratification you afforded me a few weeks ago while at Cannes. In the solitude of one of my evenings (for the sun even there only shines in the day) I read once more your charming poems ; and I never was more certain than that I discovered many new and great 300 KOGEES AND HIS CONTEMPOKARIES beauties, and that your future fame will eclipse your past. Pray, who is the friend to whom your exquisite " epistle " is addressed ? I always supposed it to be Sharp. I had some doubts on reading it lately. * When do you come ? I am now without my green shade, but am still rather lame from the folly of travel- ling three nights consecutively last October. * Yours ever sincerely, ' H. Brougham, * Lady Malet is with us, and desires her kindest regards.' Lord Brougham to Samuel Ilogers. ' Berkeley Sc^uare : Sunday. ' My dear Eogers, — Allow me to give you a very trifling present, of little or no value in any sense, unless that it is valuable to me by affording an opportunity of expressing my admiration of the truly independent habits of thinking and feeling which a long intercourse with the aristocracy (the subject in part of this speech) has never for a moment impaired. Were I to say all I think on this matter, my good friends the Whigs, who have now discovered (a thing quite unsuspected by myself) that I have all my life been a flatterer of princes, might suspect me of flattering poets — a much lighter offence however, in my eyes. * Believe me, very sincerely yours, ' II. Brougham.' It is not inappropriate to introduce here some letters from Mr. Kuskin to Eogers, which, though spreading MR. RUSKIN 301 over several years, have a kind of unity which suggests the placing them together. In the first volume of * Prseterita,' Mr. Euskin tells of the birthday gift in 1832, his thirteenth birthday, by his father's partner, Mr. Henry Telford, of Rogers's ' Italy,' which he says ' de- termmed the main tenor of my life.' He tells us too of his first visit to Eogers, and speaks of it ' as a sacred Eleusinian ' initiation and Delphic pilgrimage.' He was taken by Thomas Pringle, the poet, ' who was on terms of polite correspondence with Wordsworth and Eogers.' Mr. Euskm says, ' The old man, previously warned of my admissible claims, in Mr. Pringle's sight, to the beatitude of such introduction, was sufficiently gracious to me, though the cultivation of budding genius was never held by Mr. Eogers to be an mdustry altogether delectable to genius in its zenith.' He was unfortunate he thinks in his observations, and after they had taken leave Mr. Pringle advised him to listen more in future. On this advice Mr. Euskin appears to have acted, for he had further invitations, and his letters show in what intimate relations to Eogers he ultimately stood. Mr. linskin to Samuel llofiers. ' Denmark Hill, Camberwell : 4th May. ' My dear Mr. Eogers, — I cannoc tell you how much pleasure you gave yesterday . . . yet, to such extra- vagance men's thoughts can reach, I do not think I can be quite happy unless you permit me to express my sense of your kindness, to you here under my father's roof. Alas, we have not even the upland lawn, far less the cliff with ' Prceterita, vol. i., p. 150. 302 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES foliage hung, or wizard stream ; ' but we have the spring around us, we have a field all over daisies, and chestnuts all over spires of white, and a sky all over blue. Will you not come some afternoon, and stay and dine with us ? I do think it would give you pleasure to see how happy my father would be, and to feel, for I am sure you would feel, how truly and entirely we both honour you with the best part of our hearts, such as it is. And for the rest, I am not afraid, even after so late a visit to St. James's Place, to show you one or two of our Turners, and I have some Daguerreotypes of your dear, fair Florence, which have in them all but the cicadas among the olive leaves — yes, and some of the deep sea too, " in the broad, the narrow streets," which are as much verity as the verity of it is a dream. Will you not come ? I have no farther plea, though I feel sadly inclined to vain repetition. Do come, and I will thank you better than I can beg of you. ' Ever, my dear Mr. Eogers, believe me, yours grate- fully and respectfully, ' J. EUSKIN.' Mr. Ruskin to Samuel Rogers. ' My dear Sir, — You must not think that my not having called since the delightful morning I passed at your house, is owing to want either of gratitude or respect. Had I felt less of either, I might have attempted to trouble you oftener. ' ' Its upland-lawns, and cliffs with foliage hung, Its wizard-stream, nor nameless, nor unsung.' An JSpistle to a Friend, lines 33, 34. MR. RUSKIN 30a ' Yet I wished to see you to-day, both because I shall not have another opportunity of paying my respects to you until I return from Italy, and because I thought it possible you might devise some means of making me useful to you there. I shall, of course, take an early opportunity of waiting on j^ou when I return, but I fear it will be so late in the season that I cannot hope to see you again until next year. ' I cannot set off for Italy without thanking you agam and again for all that, before I knew you, I had learned from you, and you know not how much (of that little I know) it is, and for all that jou first taught me to feel in the places I am going to. Believe me, there- fore, ever as gratefully as respectfully yours, ' J. PiUSKIN.' Mr. Ruskin to Samuel Bof/crs. ' Venice : 23rd June. ' Dear Mr. Rogers, — "WTiat must you have thought of me, after your kind answer to my request to be permitted to write to you, when I never wrote ? . . . I was out of health and out of heart when I first got here. There came much painful news from home, and then such a determined course of bad weather, and every other kind of annoj^ance, that I never was in a temper fit to write to any one ; the worst of it was that I lost all jeelincf of Venice, and this was the reason both of my not writing to you and of my thinking of you so often. For whenever I found myself getting utterly hard and indifferent, I used to read over a little bit of the "Venice" in the " Italy," and it put me always 304 ROGERS AND KIS CONTEMPORARIES into the right tone of thought again, and for this I cannot be enough grateful to you. For though I beheve that in the summer, when Venice is indeed lovely, when pomegranate blossoms hang over every garden wall, and green sunlight shoots through every wave, custom will not destroy or even weaken the im- pression conve3'ed at first, it is far otherwise in the length and bitterness of the Venetian winters. Fighting with frosty w^inds at every turn of the canals takes away all the old feelings of peace and stillness ; the protracted cold makes the dash of the water on the walls a sound of simple discomfort, and some wild and dark day in February one starts to find oneself actually balancing in one's mind the relative advantages of land and water carriage, com- paring the canal with Piccadilly, and even hesitating whether for the rest of one's life one would rather have a gondola within call or a hansom. When I used to get into this humour I always had recourse to those lines of yours, The Sea is in the broad, the narrow streets. Ebbing and flowing,' etc. and they did me good service for many a day ; but at last came a time when the sea was 7iot in the narrow streets, and was always ebbing and not flowing; and one day, when I found just a foot and a half of muddy ' There is a glorious City in the Sea ; The Sea is in the broad, the narrow streets, Ebbing and flowing, and the salt sea-weed Clings to the marble of her i^alaces. No track of men, no footsteps to and fro. Lead to her gates. The path lies o'er the Sea, Invisible ; and from tlie land we went, As to a floating City — steering in, MR. RUSK IX 305 water left under the Bridge of Sighs, and ran aground in the Grand Canal as I was going home, I was obliged to give the canals up. I have never recovered the feeling of them. 'But St. Mark's Place and St. Mark's have held their own, and this is much to say, for both are griev- ously destroyed by inconsistent and painful associa- tions — especially the great square, filled as it is with spiritless loungers, and a degenerate race of caterers for then* amusement — the distant successors of the jugglers and tumblers of old times, now consisting chiefly of broken-down violin-players, and other refuse of the orchestra, ragged children who achieve revolutions upon their heads and hands and beg for broken biscuits among the eaters of ices — the crumbs fi-om the rich man's table — and exhibitors, not of puppet shows, for Venice is now too lazy to enjoy Punch, but of dramatic spec- tacles composed of figures pricked out in paper, and turned in a procession round a candle. Among which sources of entertainment the Venetians lounge away their evenings all the summer long, helped a little by the Austrian bands, which play for them, more or less every night, the music fitted to their taste, Verdi, and sets of ■^valtzes. If Dante had seen these people, he would And gliding up her streets as in a dream, So smoothly, silently — by many a dome, Mosque-like, and many a stately portico. The statues ranged along an azure sky, By many a pile in more than Eastern pride. Of old the residence of merchant-kings ; The fronts of some, though Time had shattered them, Still glowing with the richest hues of art, As thougli the wealth within them had run o'er. Italy: 'Venice,' lines 1-17. TOL. II. X 306 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORAETES assuredly have added another scene to the " Inferno " — a^ Venetian corner, with a central tower of St. Mark's with red-hot stairs, up which the indolent Venetians would have been continually driven at full speed, and dropped from the parapet into a lagoon of hot cafe noir. Nor is the excitement of the lower classes less painful than the indolence of the upper on the days of drawing lottery tickets — days recurring but too often — and, as it seems to me, deeply condemnatory of the financial and educa- tional policy of the Government. These lotteries are, I think, the only thing in which the Austrian Government is inexcusably wrong ; they deserve to be embarrassed in their finances when they adopt such means of taxa- tion. I do not know a more melancholy sight than the fevered and yet habitually listless groups of the poorer population gathered in the porches of St. Mark's, and clustered about its pillars, not for any religious service, but to wait for the declaration of the prize tickets from the loggia of Sansovino ! * You will, however, rather wish I had never written to you from Venice at all, than written to give these accounts of it, but there is little else to give, and I fear that now there is but one period of beauty or of honour still re- maining for her. Perhaps even this may be denied to her, and she may be gradually changed, by the destruc- tion of old buildings and erection of new, into a modern town — a bad imitation of Paris. But if not, and the present indolence and ruinous dissipation of the people con- tinue, there will come a time when the modern houses will be abandoned and destroyed, St. Mark's Place will again be, what it was in the early ages, a green field, and the MR. RUSKIN 307 front of the Ducal Palace and the marble shafts of St. Mark's will be rooted in wild violets and wreathed with vines. She will be beautiful again then, and I could almost wish the time might come quickly, were it not that so many noble pictures must be destroyed first. These are what I fear I shall miss most when I come back to London, for I shall not now be within ten minutes' drive of St. James's Place, and I shall have no pictures of the great schools near me. Here it is an infinite privilege to be able to walk out in the morning and to pay a visit to Titian, and, whenever the sun is too hot, to rest under a portico with Paul Veronese. I love Venetian pictures more and more, and wonder at them every day with greater wonder ; compared with all other paintings they are so easy, so instinctive, so natural, everything that the men of other schools did by rule and called composition, done here by instinct and only called truth. * I don't know when I have envied anybody more than I did the other day the du-ectors and clerks of the Zecca. There they sit at inky deal desks, counting out rolls of money, and curiously weighing the irregular and bat- tered coinage of which Venice boasts ; and just over their heads, occupying the place which in a London counting-house would be occupied by the commercial almanack, a glorious Bonifazio — Solomon and the Queen of Sheba ; and m a less honourable corner, three old directors of the Zecca, very mercantile-looking men indeed, counting money also, like the living ones, only a little more living, painted by Tintoret, not to speak of the scattered Palma Vecchios, and a lovely Benedetto Diana, A 2, 308 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES which no one ever looks at. I wonder when the Euro- pean mind will again awake to the great fact that a noble picture was not painted to be hung, but to be seen. I only saw these by accident, having been detained in Venice by some obliging person, who abstracted some [property] . . . and l)rought me thereby into various relations with the respectable body of people who live at the wrong end of the Bridge of Sighs — the police, whom, in spite of traditions of terror, I would very willingly have changed for some of those their prede- cessors, whom you have honoured by a note in the " Italy." The present police appear to act on exactly contrary principles : yours found the purse and banished the loser ; these don't find the jewels, and won't let me go away. I am afraid no punishment is appointed in Venetian law for people who steal time. ' However, I hope now to be able to leave Venice on Monday next, and I do not intend to pause, except for rests, on my road home. I trust, therefore, to be in England about the loth of next month, when I shall come to St. James's Place the very first day I can get into London. At first I go home to my present house — close to my father's — beyond Camber well ; I could not live any more in Park Street, with a dead brick wall opposite my windows. But I hope, with a few Turners on the walls, and a few roses in the garden, to be very happy near my father and mother, who will not, I think, after this absence of nearly a whole year, be able very soon to spare me again. So I must travel in Italy with you — who never lead me into any spot where I would not MR. RUSKIN 309 be ; and when I am overwearied with the lurid gloom of the London atmosphere, will you still let me come some- times to St. James's Place, to see the sweet colours of the south ? . . . 'Ever, dear Mr. Rogers, most affectionately and respectfully yours, * J. EUSKIN.' 310 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES CHAPTEE VII. 1847-50. Dr. Mackay's ' Breakfasts with Samuel Rogers ' — Moore's last Visit to London — Death of Dora Quillinan — Death of the Archbishop of York — The Flaxman Gallery — Letter from Crabb Eobinson — The Grand Duke of Weimar at Eogers's — Letters from Daniel Webster, Edward Everett, Mr. Ruskin, Bernard Barton, and Wordsworth — Correspond- ence with Peel, Hayward, John Forster, and Tennyson — Letter from Lord Brougham— An Old Man's Talk at Broadstairs — Crabb Robin- son on the Flaxman Gallery — Charles Dickens on Brighton— Lord Carlisle on Rogers — Introduction for M. Drouyn de I'Huys — Letters from Wm. H. Prescott, Edward Everett, George Ticknor, and Lord Glenelg — Death of Lord Jeffrey — Wordsworth's Death — Letters from Charles Dickens, Lord Brougham, and George Bancroft. In Dr. Mackay's interesting memorials of a literary life, which he puhlished in 1887, mider the title of * Through the Long Day,' he devotes a hmidred and forty pages to * Breakfasts with Samuel Eogers.' Like all other writers about Eogers, he makes mistakes about the facts of his life ; for example, in the statement that he never proposed marriage to a lady till he was in his eighty- fifth year. My readers at least know of a lady to whom he proposed marriage in his youth, while the story of the later proposal is as ridiculous as Lady Morgan's statement, made after his death, that he had proj)osed for Cecilia Thrale before she was fifteen. Dr. Mackay, however, describes graphically enough what came under DR. CHARLES MACKAY 3 1 I his own notice. The letter I have pubhshed in a pre- vious chapter shows that he had been in communication with Rogers in 1834 or 1835, and in 1 840 dedicated a vohime to him. He describes him as in his seventy- eighth year when he first breakfasted with him, wdiich would bring it to the second half of 1 840. Rogers was then, as indeed he remained for another ten years, ' in the full possession of all his mental faculties, with a remarkably tenacious and well-stored memory.' The hour of breakfast was always ten, and the guests rarely rose from the table till one. Dr. Mackay tells us that he went with an image in his mind formed in accordance with the spiteful epigrams Lord Byron and others had written on Rogers, but ' was agreeably disappointed with the reality of his personal presence and the kindly suavity of his manners. He was certainly not handsome, and never could have been so ; but just as certainly he was not ugly, in the disagreeable sense of the word, while his conversation differed in the pleasantest manner from that of many among his contemporaries from not assuramg the wearisome shape of a monologue. He not only talked, but allowed others to talk.' This agrees with what I have said elsewhere of the charm of Rogers's breakfasts and dinners, that there was always general conversation, that the parties were never so large as to break up into groups, that there was no noise of confused chatter on the one hand, no weary monologue on the other, but a conversation in which all were interested, all might take part, and in which the host was treated with the deference and attention his age and position demanded. 312 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES On Dr. Mackay's first visit, Campbell the poet and' Gaspey the novelist were present, and the talk turned on Pope. Gaspey criticised Pope severely ; Eogers de- fended him, and said his main fault was that he wrote too much. He said the same of Byron, on whom the talk turned. Dr. Mackay said of Byron ' he was full of fire.' * Yes,' said Piogers, ' he had fire, no doubt, but it was hell- fire.' Of Don Juan he said that Moore declared the ac- count of the shipwreck to be taken from a small book, ' The shipwreck of the " Juno." ' ' That,' replied Dr. Mackay, ' was written by William Mackay, my grand-uncle.' He lent Eogers the book, and in returning it Eogers said he now fully agreed with Moore's opinion. At another break- fast he met Lord Glenelg, Lord Eobertson, Mr. (after- wards Dr.) Carruthers, and Mr. W. J. Fox. Lord Glenelg was newly ennobled, and Carruthers constantly addressed him as ' My Lord ' and 'your Lordship.' 'Don't keep my-Lording him,' said Eogers quietly across the table. ' He's much better than a Lord. He's a very good fellow.' At another breakfast Dr. Mackay met Sydney Smith, Daniel O'Connell, Sir Augustus D'Este, and W. Harrison Ainsworth. In the later summer of 1847, the guests were Mr. Disraeh and Sir Edward Lytton Bulwer. The conversation was chiefly political, for all saw that Louis Philippe was fast driving to the Eevolution. Imme- diately before the Eevolution broke out, Dr. Mackay was again at St. James's Place, and the breakfast party included Louis Napoleon, Archbishop Whately, and Lord W. Pitt Lennox. Dr. Mackay was just back from Paris. Eogers asked, 'Will the agitation subside?' Not unless the King yields,' replied Dr. Mackay. ' He THOMAS MOORE 313 Avon't yield, I tliink,' said Louis Napoleon, 'lie does not understand the seriousness of the case.' Of the full talk at these and other breakfasts, there is an interesting account in Dr. Mackay's book. One of Moore's latest letters to Rogers is published in Lord John Eussell's Life of Moore . Tlionias Moore to Samuel Ilor/crs. ' Sloperton : 231x1 June, 1847. * My dear Eogers, — "V^^ien, when are we again to meet ? I was in hopes that those Irish friends of mme who, as you may remember, gave me lodging under their roof these last two summers in Albemarle Street would again have been at their post this summer and again made me their guest. But the state of Ireland compels them to stand to their post ; and this is to me a sad disappointment, for I had set my heart, my dear old friend, on havmg a few more breakfasts with you (to say nothing of dinners) before " time and the hour has quite run out our day." * Yours, my dear friend, most truly, ' Thomas Moore. * I am sinking here into a mere vegetable.' Samuel Eogers to Thomas Moore. ' 24th June, 1S47. ' My dear Moore, — There is a small house in a dark and narrow corner of London (Memory Hall, as it was once called by a reckless wight who has played many a freak there and now sleeps m Harrow Churchyard) where 814 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES you will be most welcome. So pray come and make it your home and stay there as long as you can. * To-morrow I leave it for three or four days, but I shall be there again on Tuesday the 29th of June, and pray come as soon as you can. Whether I am returned or not, 3'ou will be cordially and hospitably entertained. If somebody else comes with you, I shall be delighted. Pray persuade her. ' Yours ever, ' S. EOGERS.' Moore w^as already beginning to fail. Though he had but just entered on his sixty-ninth year, and Kogers was just finishing his eighty-fourth, the elder poet was the stronger of the two. Moore had a week of great enjoy- ment and then returned to that happy cottage where the loving care of the best and most devoted of wives more than compensated for the brilliancy of his friend's bachelor home. He wrote back — it is the last letter. Thomas Moore to Samuel Rogers. ' loth July, 1847. ' My dear Eogers, — I am but just settlmg down into rural quiet after the week of gay doings with which you so kindly greeted me. Long, long, my dear friend, may you be able to keep up this spirit, not only in your own buoyant heart, but (as I found while with you) in the hearts of all those whom you draw within your chosen circle. * In this instance, too, I have brought home with me a double stock of pleasure, as your friend Bessy has heard THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK 315 the whole procccclings from me, and in my narrative enjoyed a great part of my pleasure. ' Thomas Moore.* On the ninth of July, Dora Quillinan, Wordsworth's only daughter, had died. Wordsworth and his wife had been in London in the spring, and had been hurried back by the news of her serious condition. They were with her two months watching her as she faded away, and this is the * long long trial ' of which Eogers speaks in a letter a few pages further on. On the 5th of November an- other friend was called away in the person of the Arch- bishop of York. Lord Eadstock writes from the Palace at Bishopsthorpe — * My dear friend, — We both had such regard for our dear archbishop that you should be made acquamted as soon as any of his friends with the loss we have sustained. His end, as his life, was perfect calm and peace without a sigh or struggle. . . What a bless- ing to have had the last glimpses of our dear friend ! May our end be like his. God bless you.' Eogers was at this time actively concerned in pro- moting the establishment of the Flaxman Gallery at University College. Miss Denman, Flaxman's sister-in- law, had just offered to present his sculptures to the College, and all its friends and supporters felt that the offer should be accepted. Hence this letter. Henry Crahh Eohiuson to Samuel Rogers. ' 10 Western Cottages, Brighton : 25th October, 1S47. * Mj' dear Sir, — You already know from ^liss Denman that through the excellent management of Edwin Field 316 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES the Flaxman remains have heen rescued at a very small sacrifice. They are once more at her disposition. You know also what her anxious desire is — and I now think that that desire will be gratified, for she tells me that you take an interest in the matter and have expressed a wish to see me as soon as I return to London. I believe that that will be, at the latest, this day week. I will lose no time in seeing you, and I hope that it will suit your convenience to accompany me to the University College, where these things are warehoused now, but where I trust, with your aid, or rather through your instrument- ality, they will one day constitute a Flaxman gallery. 'When Miss Denman offered these remains to the Government, a sum was offered which, if money had been her object, would have been acceptable ; but as the Go- vernment had no room to place them in (it was declared by the officers at the British Museum that they could not afford to take in anything but marble), they would certainly have been lost to the world, perhaps in a short time destroyed. Now, what the Government could not give, the University College can give, but unfortunately nothing else — house-room. The finances of the College are in such a sad state that, with all my solicitude, I could not, as a member of the council, vote for the diver- sion of any portion of our scanty means from their proper object, even for the flooring of the apartment under the dome, where they might be placed ; the funds must be supplied elsewhere both for fitting up the apartment and repairing the models and casts. * When the negotiation took place with the Govern- ment, it was stated by the Council of the Eoyal Academy, HENRY CEABB EOBINSON 317 to whom the matter was referred, that it would cost 500Z. to put the things in order, that is, repair, cleanse and paint ; Miss Denman says it may be done for 200/. ; Mr. Atkinson says the dome may he put in a condition to receive them for 1 50/. But it will be safer to estimate the requisite sum at 500/. to 600/. ' I cannot think that there will be any difficulty in raising the money. Edwin Field says the same, but we differ in our opinion as to the means of raising it. He would obtain subscriptions of "5/. or 10/. from the lawyers and artists. And he would give to each subscriber a cast from some favourite work. I would rather go to a few of the known patrons of art, such as Sir Eobert Peel, Lord Northampton, &c., and I should expect that in sums of 100/. or 50/. the money might be easily procured. Many months ago, when I called on Watson the sculptor and hinted at this thought of forming a Flaxman gallery — but said nothing about sums — he said, if anything of the kind be done, let my name be put down for 50/. You will have the goodness to turn this over in your mind — and indeed, the whole business of the proposed gallery. * I called yesterday on Miss Rogers, and was struck by a great change in her appearance and in her talk also. She was wonderfully improved. My friends the Mas- queriers desire their best remembrances to you. ' Very truly yours, * H. C. EOBINSON.' Some letters of this year are interesting for various reasons. 318 EOGEKS AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES Lord Howe to Samuel Rogers. ' My dear Mr. Rogers, — The Hereditary Grand Duke of Weimar is anxious to pay you a visit. Will you allow me to ask whether it will be perfectly convenient to you to receive His Eoyal Highness at three o'clock this afternoon ? ' Ever most truly yours, ' ROWE. • Marlboro' House : Thursday.' After his visit, the Grand Duke wrote a very flatter- ing letter to Rogers, enclosing a specimen of Goethe's handwriting. He said, ' I on my part shall always esteem it a peculiar honour if I have the good fortune to live in the remembrance of the amiable and elegant poet who is justly and emphatically styled " The Poet of Memory." ' Goethe's lines sent as an autograph by the Grand Duke are — Erlauchte Bettler hab' ich gekamit, Kiinstler und Philosopben genannt, Docli kannt' ich Niemand, ungeprahlt, Der seine Zeche besser bezahlt. Daniel Webster to Samuel Rogers. 'Marshfield, Massachusetts: 14th June, 1847. * My dear Mr. Rogers,— I have had the high pleasure of hearing from you, lately, through my friend Mr. Winthrop ; and I now tender you a thousand congratu- lations on the continuance of your health, and a thousand good wishes for its further continuance. You are, my DANIEL WEBSTER 319 dear sir, an essential element in my idea of London Society. I never think of it without finding you a prominent figure in the picture formed by memory ; and Mrs. Webster, and my daughter, and Mrs. Paige, all remember you with equal respect and equal gratitude for your kindness to us. ' I give this letter to Mrs. Schuyler, a widow lady of intelligence and agreeable manners and conversation, and of highly respectable connexions with us. She goes abroad, with her and my friends, Mr, and Mrs. Miller of New York, and will probably visit the Continent as well as England. If the party find you in London, they will be anxious to see you, and I hope they may have an opportunity of paying you their respects. I may not depreciate Mrs. Schuyler's veneration for female sove- reignty, but I may venture to say, that next to the Queen there is no one in England she would be more delighted to see than Mr. Eogers. ' Yours, with true and cordial attachment, * Daniel Webster. ' We desire our very best regards to Miss Rogers.' Edicard Everett to Sdinnel Ilo(jers. ' Cambridge : 30th June, 1847. 'My dear and kind Friend, — When you know the gentleman who offers you this note, you will excuse me for again taking the liberty of addressing to you a letter of recommendation. Mr. Hillard is one of our best scholars, best writers, and best men. A lawyer by pro- fession, there is as sweet an Ovid lost in him as in 320 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Murray. He has lately been lecturing before the Lowell Institute, to admiring audiences of 2,000, on the life and times of Milton. Does not this give him a right to see the assignment of " Paradise Lost " ? But what I most wish is that he should see yon, and communicate to you, viva voce, the assurance of our unaltered and most affectionate regard. Mr. Hillard is the professional associate of Mr. Charles Sumner, and well known to all your American friends, at least in New England. Harding has got home, but I hear nothing from him. ' Adieu, dear Mr. Eogers. Let me at least once a year see a few lines of that beautiful writing of yours, though I do not need it to keep you constantly in the most cherished recollection. ' Semper et totus tuns, ' Edward Everett. * May I ask you to make our kindest remembrances to Miss Rogers ? ' Edward Everett to Samuel Rogers. ' Cambridge : 15th Dec, 1847. * My dear Mr. Rogers, — I cannot allow the year to close, as it will before you get this, without sending you a world of kind rememljrance and love, and wishing for you the continued enjoyment of your serene and happy ^ge. I felt for you, on receiving the news of the dear and honoured Archbishop's decease, as I did also last year when Mr. Grenville was taken from you. I knew how much you would feel their loss. But you did not, I know, repine ; you had enjoyed their society so long EDWARD EVERETT 321 that you could not murmur at being called to resign it ; and after all, to one who looks forward with anything like a strong practical Faith to the clearing up of tlie Great Mystery of our being, months and years are but seconds on the dial plate, on the morning of some eventful day. ' I cannot tell you how grateful I am to you for j'our kindness in allowing Mr. Harding to paint your por- trait, which, to my vexation and surprise, I have not yet seen. Mr. Harding was allowed by me to take a copy, and having been much from home since his return last summer, and having with the dilatoriness of artists delayed liis work, he has at length gone off to Washington and taken you along with him, to be the ornament of his studio there. I cannot lament that your likeness should be seen in "Washington, as it will, by many of the most distinguished persons in this country, who pass the winter there : but it is with no small annoyance that I forego the pleasure of gazing upon your friendly countenance in the meantime. But spring will come and bring me the pleasing sight. ' "Would that it would do so in reality ; but that train I must not pursue. * Adieu, my dear Mr. Rogers, and believe me ever affectionately yours, • Edward Everett. ' My wife and daughter send their kindest remem- brance and a cordial happy new year.' Another letter is in the style which only onr Englishman writes. VOL. II. Y 322 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Mr. Rusldn to Samuel Rogers. 'Denmark Hill : 17th Dec, 1847. * My dear Mr. Rogers, — I only returned to town on Monday, and to wait on you to-morrow will be the first, as it is always the happiest, of my duties. I have been where ' The squirrel leaps from tree to tree, And shells his nuts at liberty ; not even then without regTetful thoughts of the better freedom of " St. James's Grove at blush of day." — Ever my dear Sir, believe me faithfully and respectfully yom's, ' J. EUSKIN.' A characteristic letter from the Quaker poet recalls the memory of a man who at one time enjoyed con- siderable popularity, and who is not now by any means forgotten. Bernard Barton to Samuel Rogers. ' My hand hath lost its cunning. My eyes are growing dim. So my Muse's fount stops running. With this tiny Bu'thday hymn. ' Woodbridge : 3rd Feb., 1848. 'My dear Friend, — Thy praise nearly forty years ago reconciled me to my first poetical efforts. Do I hope too much in desiring to obtain it for what may prove my last ? I expect I shall provoke a smile from thee in MRS. KEMBLE: WORDSWORTH 323 talking of old age at sixty-four ; but forty years of clerk- ship and hardship joined together have well-nigh used me up and worn me out. * Believe me ever respectfully thine, * B. Barton.' Perhaps the following extract from a letter of Mrs. Kemble's may account for the origin of the rumour that he had made an offer of marriage in his eighty-fifth year — '9th Feb., 1848. ' Dear old Eogers came yesterday, and sat mth me some time ; and talking over my various difficulties with me, said I had much better go and live with him, and take care of his house for him. It's a pretty house, but I'm afraid it would be no sinecure to be his housekeeper.' Wordsworth writes from amidst the domestic troubles to which reference has been already made. Willidni Wordsworth to Samuel Rogers. * My dear Friend, — I have just received the enclosed, which I hope you will be so kind as to peruse. It is from Mr. Carrick, a miniature painter, who took my portrait when I met him not long ago at his native place, Carlisle . If you could comply with his wish I should be gi-atilied, and should deem it an honour to be associated with you in this way. You preserve your health, I hope, in this severe March weather. You and your dear sister have both the good wishes of those that remain of this afflicted family. Y 2 324 KOGERS AND HIS CONTExMPOR ARIES ' Believe me, my friend of nearly half a century, very affectionately and faithfully yours, ' William Wordsworth. •Rydal Mount : i6th IMarch, 1848. 'P.S. On second thoughts it is not worth while trouhling you to read Mr. Carrick's letter, which was simply that I might strengthen his application that you ■would be so kind as to give him a little of your time.' Samuel Rogers to William Wordsworth. * My dear Friend, — You must be very sure that I could not hesitate for a moment to consent to such a fellowship as you propose, or to any testimonial of a friendship so long and so uninterrupted as ours. What delightful days have we passed together, walking and sitting wherever we were, and more especially among the rocks and waters of your enchanting country. Oh that they were to come over again ! * You may well conceive how much you were in my mind during your long, long trial. Pray remember me to those who remain with you, her dear dear mother and aunt, and pray believe me to be your grateful and affectionate friend, ' Samuel Rogers. ' My sister desires me to say everything for her to you and to them. She is still, alas, on her couch, but all day long in the air, and in other respects the same as ever.' ' ' She had had an attack of paralysis. SIR ROBERT PEtL 325 He had received four years before a similar letter from Sir Robert Peel. Sir Robert Peel to Samuel Rogers. 'Whitehall : 2nd July, 1844. * My dear Mr. Eogers, — I am building at Drayton Manor a galkirj'- for the reception of that collection of portraits which I have formed of the eminent men of my own time. ]\[y collection is not confined to men dis- tinguished in political life. It includes the portraits of Byron, Southcy, Wordsworth, Chantrey, Cuvier, Walter Scott, Sec. ' Will you have the great kindness to let me fill up the void which I feel there is in this series of illustrious men, by giving to some artist who may be worthy of it a commission for your portrait ? ' I will employ for this purpose (it you are enabled to accede to this request) whomever you may prefer, and shall feel greatly obliged by your compliance with this wish on my part, which is prompted by very sincere feelings of respect and personal esteem. * Believe me, my dear Mr. Eogers, most faithfully yours, ' Robert Peel.' Sir Robert Peel informs me that the portrait was painted by Lucas, and now hangs in the gallery at Drayton Manor. Some other letters from Peel, chiefly written during his administration from 1841 to 1846, are not of much interest except as showing Rogers's relation to the statesmen and the politics of his day. In 326 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES one of them, Peel says the Queen has approved a grant of 20ol. a year to Mr. Tytler, the historian. Mr. Hayward writes once or twice to send him pamphlets, of one of which he says that if the Bishop of London comes to dine with him, he must ' place it where Sydney Smith placed Archdeacon Wrangham's.' On Easter Monday, 1848, John Forster sends his book about Goldsmith, with the assurance, ' should you ever be able to look into it and chance to find a passage that you can read with pleasure, I shall be very happy and proud indeed.' Lord Lovaine sends him a letter from Mr. Tupper, who had seen Eogers and Lockhart in his pew at Albury Church, and who is thereupon moved to write a sonnet of which the first line is — Nothing of thee shall perish, rare old Man. Mrs. Jameson writes on various occasions to say that she is coming to study some objects of art in his rooms. One time it is to see the two volumes of Ghiberti's gates and Lasinio's engravings after Ghirlandajo ; another to take a sketch of * a glory of cherubim and seraphim in a little French miniature you possess, it hangs up in your back drawing-room,' and so forth. There is some correspondence in 1 848 with Croker about difficulties in Pope, part of which is published in Croker's Correspond- ence (vol. iii., pages 186 and 187). Croker writes in 1849 to ask him whereabouts in St. James's Street the St. James's Coffee House stood, where was the Cocoa Tree (afterwards a club), and where Almack's Club. Speak- ing of Moore, who was then very ill, Croker says, ' Poor fellow, he and I began our acquaintance in College fifty- three years ago ; he was in the class above me.' Lord LORD BROUGHAM 327 Aberdeen had been asked to dinner when he had for a month been five hundred miles away. ' Is it not a strange specimen of the world in which we live,' he asks, * that one of the persons whom I most highly value and regard ' should thus invite him ? Empson, editor of 'The Edinburgh Eeview,' whom he had reconciled to a friend, writes (without date), 'My dear Friend, — Blessed are the peacemakers, — and I trust you will sleep well to- night with this blessing on your pillow — better than hops.' Crabb Eobinson writes to ask for his name to the Flaxman Gallery subscription, and to say how he enjoyed a break- fast party, * You lived quite in the past age all the time.' Hallam, in an affectionate letter, gives him all the details of his daughter's engagement. So is the old man's age compassed about with troops of friends. Brougham writes — Lord BrotKjham to Saniiiel Tlogcrs. ' Brougham : Monday [1850]. ' My dear E., — Since I received yours I have no news, except that Lady Malet came down, having called, but not being let in. Lady Jersey is over in Germany on a king-hunting excursion ; she goes to Hanover, Berlin, and Weimar. Madame Bury's book, " Germania," is very clever, but she also is a king-hunter and an ultra legitimist. Her hatred of the new and ridiculous repub- lic has driven her (as is the way of women) into the opposite extreme. * " Young Italy," by Baillie Cochrane, is clever and reall}^ not ill written. He came with his nice wife (D. of Eutland's granddaughter) to see me at Cannes. So he 328 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES must needs call me LieUus ' in his book. I knew I was wise, but not exactly that m}- wisdom was so mceh as Horace describes — ' Mitis sapientia Laeli. Lady Williams passed here the other day, but had a sketching niece, who took her soon away to Keswick, where they have seen only rain to draw. Here we have had vile and cold weather. Consider well your move- ments, of which I before wrote. * Yours ever truly, * H. Brougham.' There are two letters from W. H. Prescott, full of respect and regard, and another from Edward Everett telling him ' we all take a great deal of comfort in your portrait,' and adding ' it hangs by the fireside in our family room, with Lord Aberdeen on the other side, as a pendant. Although you and he in former times were not brother Whigs, I am sure you render full justice to his conciliatory policy as Foreign Minister, and will not object to being made with him one of the joint tutelary geniuses of my domestic altar.' In the summer he was again at Broadstairs, and his nephew, Henry Sharpe, who was also there with his family, puts on record a little more of the old man's family talk. ' • Lft^lius is attached to the spot (his house at Cannes) not merely on account of its charms of Nature and cHmate, but because it is endeared to him by many associations and the memory of the loved and lost. Moreover, the whole of the more modern portion of Cannes claims his paternity.' — Yo^inrj Italy, ch. i. TALK AT BROADSTAIRS 329 ' "Williiim [Sliarpe] wrote to me from Swanage asking me to come to liim there, but why should he want me to leave this place that I have known these forty years, to go to one that I know nothing about ? He said he was proud of having been shaken by the hand by every great man in England in his time, only Pitt he had not known, " but Pitt was not a great man." Fox sent for him when he was dying. Many reconciliations had taken place in his house, Jeffrey and Moore, Moore and Byron, Parr and Mackintosh, and others. When Jeffrey's "eview of Moore's poems appeared, Moore said he must Hght him. He came to St. James's Place and said, " I have challenged Jeffrey, can you lend me pistols? " He would not, and sent him to William Spencer. Spencer mentioned it to several people, and when they met on the ground the next morning they were stopped by the Bow Street officers and arrested. *• I went early to Spencer to learn what had happened and found that he had just got a note from Moore from Bow Street, asking him to come and bail him. ' But,' said Spencer, ' I never go out till four.' It was then nine, so I went to Bow Street and bailed him, and Horner gave bail for Jeffrey. The quarrel was then referred to me and Horner, and we called in General FitzGerald as umpire. After hearing the circumstances he said : ' Mr. Jeffrey is not called upon to go out again.' If I had reported it in the same words to Moore, he would have challenged him again, but I kept my own counsel and they were re- conciled." * He said the poems which were most popular were those which contained no allusions to subjects that 330 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES required much lecarning in the reader, and particularly if in addition they had a religious tendency. This it was which made Cowper so much read. ' He repeated some lines which he had written when about eighteen, on meeting his sisters and some school- fellows (one was Miss Denison, afterwards the Mar- chioness Conyngham) in Queen Elizabeth's Walk, Stoke Newington.^ He also repeated a couplet out of a Pro- logue which he had written for a play that was acted at Eamsgate, when he chanced to be there a great many ' He was nearly twenty -two when the lines were written. They are published in the autobiography of his nephew, Samuel Sharpe, contained in his Life, pp. 21, 22. ' To a Party of Young Ladies lolio were sitting on a Bench in Queen Elizabeth's Walk at Eight o'clock last Thursday Night. ' Evening had flushed the clear blue sky, The bii'ds had sung themselves to sleep, When I presumed, I don't know why, In old Queen Bess's walk to i^eep. ' And there was she : her belles and beaux In ruffs and high-crowned hats were there ! But soon, as you may well suppose, The vision melted into air. ' When, hark ! Soft voices through the shade Announced a little fairy train, And once, methought, sweet music played ; I wished to see, but wished in vain. ' For something whispered in my ear, " Away, away ! At this still hour Queen Mab with all her court is here. And he who looks will feel her power." ' I shut )ny eyelids at the sound, And found, what every youth will lind, That he who treads on sacred ground Is sure to leave his wits behind. ' Saturday, 14th May, 1785.' TALK AT BROADSTALRS 331 years ago. He said that now that he was old and felt he was so soon to leave the world, he looked at every- thmg so very differently and saw so much more in things than ho used to do. People have not time to think when they are, as it is called, fighting the battle of life. Looking at the North Foreland lighthouse in one of our walks, he said, " All, that used formerly to remind me of going to Paris and the opera and the Louvre, but there is nobody there now. Within these few months I have lost Mr. Locke of Norbury, who was always to be seen at the Louvre, and who knew the EajDhaels and the Titiaus better than any of them. And Mr. Grenville. And Lord Ashburton." (I did not like to ask him whether he never intended to go to Paris again, he is eighty-five). He thought every man ought to have a pursuit, such as the writing a book, which gave an interest to life such as was not known without it. People thought they could not write because they were not Newtons or Bacons, but every man could be what he liked. * Having a wonderful memory himself, he said people only did not remember the beautiful parts of the things they read because they did not attend to them. He treasured up in his mind the most exquisite lines that he met with, and repeated them to himself as he lay awake at night, or as he walked on Hampstead Heath, and he was the better for them all his life. And then he repeated passages — the nurse recognising Ulysses, from Cowper's Homer; "Me, me, adsum cjui fe^i," S:c., from Yirgil; touching epitaphs that he had read in churchyards, cVC. 332 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES ' He mentioned with acrimony a review by Moore of his " JacqueHne," appeahng to us for our opinion of the passages that had been sneered at — ' Oh, rather, rather hope to bind The ocean wave, the mountain wind, Or fix thy foot upon the ground To stop the planet rolhng round — which he considered rather a fine thought, and named the person from whom he had got it. " Then what was JacqueHne to do?" which was thought trifling. * He said my aunt complained of Maltby's being dull, that he always talked of Dr. Johnson. " I like to hear about Dr. Johnson, and so do you ; I wish we had him here. Is it better to hear how Lady Trumpery is gone to town, or that Mrs. Fiddle Faddle had a party last week ? " ' The lines in his poems " To the Youngest Daughter of Lady Jersey," he said, were addressed to Lady Harriet Villiers, now the wife of Dr. Bathurst, Bishop of Bath and Wells, "and she is as proud as Lucifer of them." I said I had not known that. "No, because you did not care ; nobody cares. I have not put the name of every right honourable to whom I have addressed any lines." He very much blamed Dr. Bathurst for laying out so much of his money in restoring Wells Cathedral, so that he is now a poor man, while nobody thanks him for it. ' He praised the Duchess of York very much ; he used to be a great deal with her at Oatlands. Once at a dinner party there, as the ladies retired from table, the Duchess said something in passing to " Monk " Lewis, TALK AT 13R0ADSTAIRS 333 which ahiiost brought tears into his eyes. "When she was gone, Lewis exclaimed, " She is so kind, so good! " To which Colonel Townsend replied, " Oh, never mind, man ; she meant nothing by it." ' When Lord Byron was at Florence he gave Moore the manuscript of his memoirs, telling him to keep it and publish it after his death for the benefit of his (Moore's) son. Moore sold the manuscript to Murray — having first shown it about to all the world. When Byron died, the executors having heard of the memoirs, came to Moore to induce him to destroy them. He appointed them to meet him at Murray's, taking Mr. Luttrell with him as a friend and adviser. He was there persuaded to throw the manuscript into the fire. "He did not consult me," said Mr. Rogers, " because he knew I should not have let hun destroy them. He had no right to do it ; and he had great difficulty in raising the money to repay Murray." 'When Sir James Mackintosh died and his son under- took to write his life, he apphed to many friends of his father for any letters they might have. Among others to Sydney Smith, who replied that he had none, that from principle he destroyed all letters except business letters. Mr. Rogers blamed him very much. " He ought, then, never to read any letters that were published. 1 wrote him one once which I was sure he would not destroy, and his wife told me he did not." 'He said he kept a great many letters and some of them he often read. His own papers, that is, unim- portant poems, attempts and first sketches, he should burn before his death, as he did not wish any person to 334 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES publish those things which he had not thought worthy of it. * A certain clergyman received a summons from Blomfield, Bishop of London, to attend at London House in consequence of representations that had been made to him as to his conduct. The clergyman asked the name of his accuser ; the bishop replied he was not bound to give it, and would not. A few days after the visit, the elcrgyman wrote to the bishop : "My Lord, I called at London House on such a day, but instead of your Lordship, I was shown up to a conceited, impudent coxcomb, who abused me for half an hour without ceasing. When next I call there, I hope I may have the honour of seeing your Lordship." This I had from the bishop to whom Dr. Blomfield told it.' ' Sir Kobert Peel said to me one day, sitting by me at dinner, " My father used to say to me, ' Eobert, I will not leave you a penny if you do not make yourself minister.' " His sister has told me the same thing. ' A man should be careful to let the nurses and people about his children when young be persons who speak English with a good accent ; a nurse with a provincial dialect will give a whole family habits which they cannot get over all their lives. A man bringing up a family in the country should send for a nurse from town. You should always praise your servants or children when they do well, it makes them good, as they wish to deserve the praise ; they feel they have a character to lose. A father should have engravings after Eaphael and the other great masters hanging about in the rooms where his children are, to accustom them early to what is beautiful. HENKY CRABB ROBINSON ^V> A taste for the beautiful should be cultivated when young. * Persons who marry and have families are exposed to many pains and cares that the single have not, but on the whole the balance is very much in their favour. A man is very silly to go through life and know notlimg of the relations of a father and a husband.' Crabb Robinson was staying with Masquerier at Brighton when, in November, Rogers and his sister went thither to Harewood House. She was recovering, and though she had lost the power of conversation she could listen. The scheme for the Flaxman Gallery, in which Robinson was mterested, rather hung fire, and he wrote — Henry Crahh Robinson to Samuel Rogers. ' I o Western Cottages [November, 1848]. ' My dear Sir, — Masquerier and I are to dine with you on Tuesday, I am aware ; yet I send you the accompany- ing paper of subscriptions to the Flaxman Gallery. The amount far exceeds what I expected to raise — and this will give you pleasure — at the same time the cost of the repairs and putting up exceeds to a still greater extent my expectation, and therefore I must beg for a con- tinuance of those active exertions of the friends of fine art which have been already so successful. I was quite startled when I saw for a moment Lady Chantrey at your house, for I had intended to ask your advice, what would be the most decorous manner of requesting that lady to add her name to our body ? ' It is impossible for any one to have set so noble an example in making a present of all the works of her late 336 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES honoured husband, not to rejoice in seeing that example followed. Besides, that very act showed that she partook of the liberal spirit of Sir Francis. Had he been alive when I first undertook to assist Miss Denman in her anxious endeavours to preserve the works of her revered parent by adoption, he was one of the first persons I should have applied to ; and I am sure that he would have relieved the Academy from the reproach which must attach to it if the subscription be now closed as far as its members are concerned. Of the amount — betw^een 650/. and 660/. — only 20 guineas have been contributed by members of the Academy. I believe this has been in part from ignorance and partly because the statue of Flaxman by Watson has been confounded with a subscription to the gallery. The statue has been given to us — and a most acceptable and appropriate present it has been, but it will add to our outlay, as we of course have to add a pedestal to it. ' You are not perhaps aware that we have only about 100/. on hand, and therefore it will not be possible for us to put up all the works unless we have a much larger addition to the subscription than we have any right to expect. We shall, therefore, go on putting up the pieces which may be deemed the most valuable, in the fittest places as the means may be from time to time sup- plied. I am not without hopes that we may obtain a large subscription from the Academy in its corporate capacity — but this is mere hope and surmise on my part. * I am, dear Sir, faithfully yours, ' H. C. PiOBINSON.' CHARLES DICKENS 337 They had met with Dickens in this visit to Brighton. After they had left, with his promise to call when he was in London, he sent a copy of * Mary Barton,' and 4his letter, Charles Dichens to Samuel Rorjers. 'Brighton: Eighteenth February, 1849. ' My dear Mr. Eogers, — I was detained on Monday — I mean Wednesday, last— first by business with Brad- bury and Evans, and afterwards at the Literary Fund, until I was more than due at the railway. My servant stands charged to bring you " Mary Barton " to-morrow. If I had had a spare moment before I came away, I should have brought it myself. ' Kate and her sister send you their loves. Brighton is just as you left it. The people, in carriages, on horse- back, and afoot, jingling up and down the esplanade under the windows like gay little toys ; and the great hoarse ocean roaring unheeded beyond them, and now and then breaking with a deep boom upon the beach, as if it said sullenly, " Won't anybody listen ? " But nobody does; and away they all go, jingling up and down again, until the sun sets, and then go home to ■ dinner. * Ever faithfully yours, ' Carlo." Lord Carlisle says in his journal — 'May 2Sth. — Breakfasted with Eogers. It was a beautiful morning, and his house, view, and garden looked lovely. It was extremely pleasant. Mahon tried VOL. II. z 338 EOaERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES to defend Clarendon, but was put down by Hallam and Macaulay. Macaulay was very severe on Cranmer. Then we all quoted a good deal ; Macaulay (as I had heard him before) four very fine Imes from the " Tristia," as being so contrary to their usual whining tone, and of even a Miltonie lofciness of sentiment — ' En ego, quum patria caream vobisque domoque, Raptaque siiit, adimi quae potuere, milii, Ingenio tamen ipse meo comitorque fruorque : Csesar in hoc potuit juris habere nihil. * I think we must have rather shot beyond Rogers sometimes.' « Here is another of the letters of introduction which were constantly arriving at his door — G. cle Berardin to Samuel Rogers. ' Paris, Hotel de I'Empire, Rue Neuve St. Augustin : ' loth July, 1849. * My dear Sir, — On l)eing appointed French Ambas- sador in London, Monsr. Drouyn de Lhuys, the late Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic, I anticipate his desire to make your estimable acquaintance by taking upon me to inform you of this wish of his Excellency. Would it be too much presumption of me to beg of you to pay him an early visit at Hertford House ? I have had occasion to speak great deal of you with my friend Mr. Drouyn, who knows the author of " The Pleasures of Memory " well enough by reputation, and natm-ally, when he may have an opportunity, he longs for the pleasure of making his personal acquaintance. DROUYN DE LHUYS : PRESCOTT 339 * Monsr. Drouyn is very well versed in the English literature, and I feel satisfied you will both be dehghted with your reciprocal conversation. ' Madame Drouyn de Lhuys is a charmmg and ac- complished lady, and she does too well the honours of a diplomatic saloon not to revive all the festivities, for too long laid in abeyance, of Hertford House. ' Accept, my dear Sir, my best wishes for your welfare, as well as the assurance of the perfect consideration with which I have the honor to be, my dear Sir, yours very devotedly, ' G. DE Berardin.' Another letter of introduction from Edward Everett, one of thanks from Prescott, and one from Ticknor send- ing his ' History of Spanish Literature,' show how his American friends kept him in mind. The two former are worth giving. William 11. Prescott to Samuel Rogers. ' Nahant: 30th July, 1849. ' My dear Mr. Rogers, — I cannot let this steamer sail without thanking you for your kindness to my son when in London. He is now, I suppose, in Switzerland, where he passes the summer months. I knew, from the interest you have ever expressed for his father, that you would receive him kindly ; but I feel truly grateful that you should have allowed him to have so much of your society, and such free admission to your hospitable house. A young man like him can bring little to society but the qualities of a good listener ; and I trust he has z 2 340 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES employed them well to garner up the stores for future remmiscences. * He is too young to travel with the most advantage, but he is not so young as I was, when, in 1 816-17, I made the same tour. But, though I enjoyed it right well, I feel now that I saw only the outside of things. I ought to go again to see the inside. And I have been on the point of doing so more than once ; but, when I attempt it, I find I am like Gulliver when he tried to rise up in Lilliput, and a thousand little ties pinioned him down. I have not quite so many ties, thank Heaven ! but enough, it seems, to pinion me, and keep me from wandering; so my migrations are rarely further than those of the Vicar of Wakefield. The town in winter, a cottage on the cliffs for the sea-breeze in the dog-days — where I am now writing — and my old paternal acres in the autumn, bring round the year ; while I find myself idly busy with spmning the historic yarn, and of rather an indifferent staple, I fear, of late. But enough of myself. *We have all been occupied the last year, on this side of the Atlantic, with looking and speculating on what you are doing on the other. Such a trastorno of kingdoms and popedoms as was never seen the like ! But things seem to be coming now more into the old track. I trust, however, that important results will remain, both in the awakening of the minds of men and in the reform of ancient abuses. We have all admired the composure with which your little island rode out the storm — or rather the squall — which for a moment seemed to threaten her. Long may she brave every WILLIAM IT. PRZSCOTT 34 i storm that assails her, and lead the civilization of the Old World, as her Anglo-Saxon progeny lead that of the New ! * I suppose you know Boston is to send you another Minister next autumn. Our town seems to be selected as the nursery for the English mission. It is quite a compliment to us. The Minister now appointed, Mr. Lawrence, is quite a different sort of person from his predecessors — Bancroft and Everett. He represents the industry and material interests of the nation. He made his own way in the world, and has employed his large fortune in a \evy liberal manner. One of his last acts has been to establish a Scientific School at Cambridge, to which he. has given ten thousand pounds, with the purpose, it is understood, of doubling the sum. Besides the donation, he prepared a plan for the organization of the institution, which did his head as much credit as his heart. He has shown an enlightened spirit always ; and his knowledge of the interests of the country, especially ts financial and economical relations, is extensive. You will not find in him, however, the elegant literary culture which belongs to his predecessors. • Mr. Bancroft will retire on his history, I supjiose — as harmless an occupation as diplomacy. Everett has wearied of his academic life, and is passing his days in glorious otiiim at Cambridge. Yet he has too busy and sensitive a mind to relish the far niente. 'With my best wishes for your health and happiness, I remain, my dear Mr. Rogers, * Very sincerely 3'ours, ' Wm. H. Peescott. 342 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Edward Everett to Samuel Rogers. ' Cambridge: 3rd Sept. 1849. * My dear Mr. Eogers, — It is such an age since I have ^Yritten to you that I am really under obligations to my honored friend, the Chief Justice of Massachusetts, who has asked of me for his son-in-law, Mr. Herman Melville, the favor of one or two letters to London. This gentleman (I am sorry to say) is not known to me personally. He is known to you and the entire reading world by his *' Typee " and " Omoo," and another work of the same class, which I have not yet seen. I under- stand Mr. Melville's character to be altogether such as warrants me in commending him to your kind notice. His brother, who was Secretary of Legation under Mr. M'Lane, was, I think, known to you. Few of our writers have been as successful at home as Mr. Herman Melville, and I am happy to perceive that his productions are well known on your side of the water. *Mr. Melville is going to pass a few months in England and France, and while he is in London I want him to see a few of those choicest spirits, who even at the present day increase the pride which we feel in speaking the language of Shakespeare and Milton. In a word, my dear friend, I want you to admit him to the freedom of No. 22 St. -James's Place. ' I need not tell you how constantly we think of you, how often we speak of you, how regularly we do the honors of your portrait to all who come to us. I should be delighted to hear, under your own hand and seal, the confirmation of the good accounts I have of you from LORD GLENELG 343 others; and I pray you to believe me, my dear Mr. Eogers, with the strongest attachment, sincerely yours, *Edw-ard Everett.' Of a different kind is a letter from Lord Glenelg, one of the few I find in Eogers's correspondence in which there are references to questions of doctrinal theo- logy- Lord Glenelg to Samuel Rogers. ' Boulogne-sur-Mer : loth Oct., 1849. ' My dear Mr. Rogers, — I cannot help writhig a line to ask how your cold is, and to report progress. Thanks to you, I was most comfortably lodged and entertained at Mr. "Wright's. ... He enquired much about you, and regretted your not coming there this year. ' I heard the beautiful music and saw the nol)le Cathedral, with its very fine crypt. I saw also the Augustine College. On Monday, I crossed, at Folk- stone, a very rough but glorious sea, and an excellent passage. Here I am at the Hotel de Londres— a very good hotel. I have some friends here, the Osbornes (Mrs. 0. is sister-in-law to the Duchess of Somerset). I hope to leave this to-morrow. May I beg you for one line only, to say your cold is better, or, as I trust, quite gone, and address it to me here ; it will be forwarded to me. I remembered your advice about the blanket, a most useful measure. I also paid yesterday my devoirs to the house where the author of " Gil Bias " died. ' I was much struck with the letter you showed me last Saturday from Mr. H. Drummond. I allude to it only to express my entire assent to his declarations as to 314 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES the only resource and consolation of immortal beings, under the countless and severe sufferings of this life,., namel}^ the atonement made by our divine Saviour, and his infinite compassion. I do not pre'sume to speak of myself as Drummond has a right to do of his own case, but I speak of what I have seen in several remarkable instances. * I did not mean to be so long on this, but you will forgive me, and ascribe it to the sincere affection and gratitude I must ever cherish for you. * Believe me, my dear Mr. Eogers, yours ever, * Glenelg.' A fragment of another letter from the same writer, without date, but certainly of another year — in all probability 1850 — shows again the regard entertained for Eogers by his friends. Lord Glenelg to Saimiel Roficrs. * . . . half-past four, and crossing the saloon to see what o'clock it was, and looking out, was perfectly over- whelmed by Mont Blanc all splendid with the rising sun; no vapours had yet gathered round him, all was glorious majesty, ridges radiant, depths deeper, in short, worthy of your Muse. It was so grand and beautiful a vision that I could not help awaking my fair companions ; they were entranced. I can find no words to describe what we saw. I watched it in every advancing stage of the sun, successively opening new ridges, with varying light. On Monday we came to Vevay; one of the most beautiful of days. You know the magnificence of the DEATH OF JEFFREY 345 lake. The day before yesterday we reached this place in a very heavy rain. Yesterday we intended to com- mence a three days' tour in the Oberland, but the rain has been so heavy and incessant, and the country so completely involved in the mist, and the prospects of the weather so gloomy, that we must wait here, which is unfortunate, as we are limited in time. 'May I beg you to have a Ime written to me, poste rcstantc, Baden-Baden. Believe me, ever yours affectionately, 'G.' Death was making rapid havoc with the old man's early companions. Nearly all whom he had kno-^-n the best when he set up housekeeping in St. James's Place were gone, and now Moore was laid aside, and the new year soon brought the news that INIoore's old antagonist Jeffrey was no more. It was conveyed in a note from his son-in-law. William Empson to Samuel Eoricrs. ' Moray Place : Monday (28th Jan. 1850). * My dear Mr. Piogers, — A three days' illness, ap- parently slight in its causes and symptoms, deprived us, at six o'clock on Saturday evening, of our dear friend. ]\lillar was not alarmed, nor Christison, until four and twenty hours before his death. He suffered no pain, but from the sense of increasing weakness. Wine and brandy (he took nothing else) had no effect on his pulse or system. What there was of illness was a feverish cold, accompanied bj- a slight bronchial cough. 346 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES * Mrs. Jeffrey and Charlotte are bearing up against this sudden and terrible calamity as well as their friends can reasonably expect. * Your long and continued friendship will make you interested in these sad particulars. He often spoke of you as the last of his early London friends : and you know with what a sense of your kindness, I am ' Ever yours, •W. Ejipson.' Jeffrey and Eogers had been friends for more than forty years. After the King of Clubs was founded in the first year of the century, Jeffrey was one of the early additions to it, and one of Eogers's first efforts as a peace-maker was in effecting a lasting reconciliation between Jeffrey and Moore. He was ten years younger than Rogers. Only three months later death came nearer still. Wordsworth, his friend of nearly half a century, as he describes himself in a letter on a previous page, was called away. He had completed his eightieth year on the 7th of April, but the shadow of death was already upon him. Sixteen days later he died. Less than a year before he had spoken of Southey as having had the misfortune to outlive his faculties ; in this respect Wordsworth was happier than either Southey or Rogers. He had full possession of his faculties almost to the last. Such a death, at such a full age, was the fit ending of a poet's life. All his friends, Rogers among them, felt with Manoah, 'Nothing is here for tears.' To Rogers, it was only one more finger pointing along the inevitable road. He could not but reflect that he was nearly seven DEATH OF WORDSWORTH 347 years older than his venerable friend. The death wa« communicated to him in two letters. John Wordsworth to Samuel Rogers. ' Eydal Mount : Tuesday. * My dear Sir, — As my Father's oldest son, I write to you as his oldest, perhaps, living friend, to inform you that he expired this day at a quarter to 1 2 o'clock. * My best prayer for you is that your latter end may be like his ; it was tranquil, and without much previous suffering ; he was himself to the last. I have had run- ning in my head with regard to it and him what Lucan puts into the mouth of Brutus respecting Cato — ' Minimas rerum discordia turbat, Pacem simima tenent. * Beheve me, dear Mr. Rogers, with much regard and esteem, yours very faithfully, * J. WOKDSWORTH.' Edward QuUUiian to Samuel Rogers. ' Loughiigg Holme, Rydal : 23rd April, 1S50. * My dear Mr. Eogers, — You would be prepared from my last note for the melancholy communication I have now to make. My dear father expired at 1 2 o'clock this day. He passed away calmly, and almost imperceptibly to those around him. ' Believe me, my dear Sir, yours always faithfully, ' Edward Quillixan.' Three letters will bring this chapter to a close. 348 KOGEES AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Charles Dickens to Samuel Rogers. * Devonshire Terrace : Thursday evening, Eighteenth April, 1850. ' My dear Mr. Eogers, — I am poor in words — but not in heart — to thank you for the beautiful mark of your remembrance which you left for me to-day. Believe me, I shall prize it all my life, and set no common store by it for your sake. ' Anything I could write would read coldly to me, with such a token of your friendship and regard lying on my table. I could thank you better in a few lines of your own immortal verse, but somehow I am better satisfied to give no expression to all that I affectionately feel towards you. Your kind and generous imagination may be trusted with it safely. 'Ever faithfully yours, * Chaeles Dickens.' « Lord Brougham to Samuel Rogers. ' Paris : Monday [no date]. ' My dear E., — I write to you now in case I should be prevented to-morrow by the hurry of new arrivals. I write to impress as strongly as I can on you the impru- dence of exposing yourself to cold. I called the other day before one, and found you gone out to walk on a very cold day. Now when you have been ill of a bad cold, this was the very worst thing you could do. Old Dr. Brownrigg of Cumberland, a friend of Dr. Black and all our famous men, said to a man who told him he " had nothing but a cold." " Nothing but a cold ! Would you MR. EANCROFT 3-19 "have the plague ? " And so it is to all persons advanced in life. I have taken more pains against that than any other malady, and I do most strongly urge you to do the same thing yourself. * I have seen the Hollands and Normanbys and Arago — no one else. I dine at Holland's to-day and Luttrell is to be there. ' Things are quiet for the hour — or week — or month. But no one has the very least confidence in them. I wish you were going with me on Sunday to philosophis in Provence with a fine sun and dry ah'. Adieu. * Yours ever most sincerely, * H. Brougham.' Mr. Bancroft to Samuel Rogers. ' New York : 15th May, 1S50. * My dear Mr. Eogers, — Were I in London, I know very well you would allow me to bring a friend to you. And the distance of three thousand miles seems only to draw me nearer to you, each mile as I passed it being a witness to the regret with which I parted from cherished friends in England. Mrs. De Witt Clinton, the widow of our Governor Clinton, who deservedly ranked among our most distinguished statesmen and was the father of the internal policy which makes the State of New York so great, visits Europe, and if she finds you in good health, I hope you will do me the favour to receive her visit as you would so kindly have done if I had been in London to accompany her. No one in New York is more respected than Mrs. Clinton, and she is our near friend. 350 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORAEIES ' The fruitful hours that we passed with you dwell in our memories ; and Mrs. Bancroft deputed me to write this note commending our friend to you, for had she begun to write to you of the pleasant mornings we passed with you, I know not when she would have come to an end. * Let me wish you health, and long-continued life, and everything that can make life happy. * I am, dear Mr. Eogers, ever most truly your obliged friend, ' George Bancroft.* 351 CHAPTER YIII. 1850. The Laureateshii^ — Letter from Prince Albert— Lord John Russell on Tennyson — Rogers's Accident — He is lamed for life — Lord Brougham's Letters on Public AiTairs — Death of Sir R. Peel — Further Letters from Lord Brougham - Letters from Lady Russell, Hallam, Emppon, Mr. Ruskin, Mrs. Jameson, E. Everett, and Sir H. Holland, — Rogers to the Bishop of London on his Accident^Signs of Decline — Letters from Lady Morgan, Lady Emily Pusey, Sir Charles Napier, Lord Brougham, and E. Everett. One of the most gratifying events in a life which was unusually full of occasions for congratulation, was the offer by the Queen through Prince Albert of the Laureateship rendered vacant by the death of "Words- worth. Wordsworth had held it only seven years, and, as he was seventy-three when he was appointed, there was a precedent for offering it to an old man. Rogers, however, was seven years older than Wordsworth, and therefore fourteen years older than Wordsworth was when he was appointed in 1843. It was an unexpected honour to Rogers that at eighty- seven he should be thought of for the post, and every circumstance con- nected with it gave him satisfaction. In making the offer promptly, and in communicating it by the hand of the Prince Consort, Her Majesty gave emphasis to a choice which seemed in his old age to remind him how 352 ROGEKS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES his youthful wish to be known and recognised as ' the Poet Rogers ' had been fulfilled. I am graciously per- mitted by Her Majesty to print the letter in which Prince Albert, on her behalf, made the offer — a letter which is as honourable to the Prince as it is to the aged poet to whom it was addressed. H.RJI. Prince Albert to Samuel Rogers. ' My dear Mr. Piogers, — The death of the lamented Mr. Wordsworth has vacated the office of Poet Laureate. Although the spirit of the times has put an end to the practice (at all times ol)jectionable) of exacting lauda- tory Odes from the holder of that office, the Queen attaches importance to its maintenance from its his- torical antiquity and the m.eans it affords to the Sovereign of a more personal connection with the Poets of the country through one of their chiefs. I am authorised, accordingly, to offer to you this honorary post, and can tell you that it will give Her Majesty great pleasure if it were accepted by one whom she has known so long, and who would so much adorn it ; but that she would not have thought of offering it to you at your advanced age if any duties or trouble were attached to it. ' Believe me always, my dear Mr. Piogers, ' Yours truly, * Albert. ' Buckingham Palace : Sth May, 1850.' The Laureateship was thus offered purely as a recog- nition of his established position and fame. There were precedents for declining it. Scott had done so in 1 8 1 3 ; he had another career before him then. Gray had done THE LAUREATESHIP 353 SO on the death of Gibber in 1757. Rogers was sorely- tempted to accept it, but liis shrewd common-sense, which never failed him all through life, suggested that the honour was in the offer, and that as he was approach- ing the close of his eighty-seventh year, it was his duty not to accept it. After much hesitation, therefore, he wrote the following letter, of which I find a copy in his own handwriting — Samuel Rogers to Prince Albert. 'How can you forgive me, Sir, for having so long •delayed to answer a letter which I have had the honour to receive from your Eoyal Highness, but I was so affected by it as to be utterly unable to do justice to my feelings. Coming whence it came — in such words as were not soon to be forgotten — and under the sanction of one whose mind and whose countenance were from her earliest childhood no less heavenly than her voice — I felt as if it left me no alternative ; but when I came to myself and reflected that nothing remained of me but my shadow— a shadow so soon to depart — my heart gave wa}', and after long deliberation and many conflicts within me, I am come, but with great reluctance, to the resolution that I must decline the offer,' but subscribing myself, with a gratitude that will not go but with the last beat of my heart, ' Yours ever most affectionately, • Samuel Rogers.' ^ Rogers had previously declined an offer by the Prince of an honour almost equally tempting to a man of culture and refinement. The Prince had been elected Chancellor of the University of Cambridge in 1S47, VOL. II. A A 354 ROGEKS AND HIS CONTEMPOEARIES There was probably not much hesitation in the mind of monarch or of minister who should wear the laurel Eogers had thus put aside. Some years earlier Peel had granted to Mr. Tennyson a pension from the Civil List of two hundred pounds a year. In writing to inform Eogers of this event, Mr. Tennyson told him that Peel said the favourable impression his books produced upon him, 'was confirmed by the "very highest authorities," yourself and Hallam.' Mr. Tennyson then says that he has only thanks to return for this practical kindness. * But my thanks,' he adds, ' mean more than most men's.' This circumstance explains a reference in the following letter to Piogers's advice to Sir Pi. Peel. The letter is further of interest as showing first of all the care taken by a great minister in advising the Queen on so comparatively small a matter, and next the slow growth of Lord Tennyson's universal fame. Lord John Russell to Samuel Rogers. ' Minto : Oct. 3, 1850. * My dear Eogers, — As you would not wear the laurel yourself, I have mentioned to the Queen those whom I thought most worthy of the honour. H. M. is inclined to bestow it on Mr. Tennyson ; but I should wish, before the offer is made, to know something of his character, as well as of his literary merits. I know your opinion of the last by your advice to Sir Eobert Peel, but I and he instructed his secretary to write to Eogers and offer him the degree of LL.D. or M.A., to be conferred by mandamus. If he accepted the offer, his name was to be put on his Royal Highness's hst, and the degree conferred upon him in full congregation. ROGERS'S ACCIDENT 355 should be glad if you could let me know something of his character and position." * We are both much interested in the progress of your recovery. I heard you were at Broadstairs, and hope the air agreed with you. Lady John desires to be affectionately remembered. * Yours very truly, ' J. Russell.' When this letter was received, Eogers was partially recovering from the serious accident which brought his active career to a close. He had kept uj) his energetic habits into his eighty-eighth year, and was frequently to be seen, late at night, walking home from a friend's house at which he had been spending the evening. On his way home on Thursday night, the fourth of June, he was knocked down by a carriage, which proved to be that of a friend, and though not otherwise seriously hurt, he sustained a fracture of the thigh-bone in the socket, which lamed him for the rest of his life. The accident was the occasion of a remarkable expression of sympathy and esteem from all sorts and conditions of men. The high position which he occupied in the social life of London, and the interest which was felt in him among cultivated people in the United States and all over Europe, were strikingly shown in the calls at his door, the letters which poured m upon him, and the state- ments in the press. The picture I have been endeavour- ' On his appointment Mr. Tennyson went to Court in Rogers's Court dress. ' I well remember ' says Sir H. Taylor, ' a dinner in St. James's Place when the question arose whether Samuel's suit was spacious enough for Alfred.' But it did for Wordsworth, and it sufficed for his successor. 1 » ■? 356 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES ing to draw of Eogers in his relation to his contempo- raries would be entirely incomplete without some selection from this correspondence, difficult as it is to make. I have given precedence to a series of remarkable letters from Lord Brougham, which were written with the object of keeping the sequestered poet and politician fully informed of the public events in which he and his friends felt close personal interest. Lord Brougham's letters are remarkable exhibitions of energy for a man of seventy- two ; they are also illustrative of his character, and give curious and interesting glimpses behind the stage of public life. Lord Brougham to Samuel Hogers. ' Grafton Street: Tuesday [nth June, 1850]. ' My dear Eogers, — I cannot tell you how anxious I am, and all of us, to hear that you are not injured by this cursed accident. It is almost worth being ill to have so universal a feeling expressed as prevails. Make your people give me an answer. * H. Brougham.' Lord Brougham to Samuel Eogers. ' Sunday [i6th June, 1850]. * My dear E., — I went to meet the Nepaul Embassy by invitation of the East India Company. The dinner was splendid, and we had a gallery of ladies to see the jewels and dress of the Indians and to hear our speeches. ' The chief Indian spoke a long distinct speech in his own tongue, which half the company, having been in the LORD BROUGHAM'S LETTERS 357 East, understood, and said it was much better than the interpreter made it. It pleased the East India Company much, for it lavishly promised all the Nepaul resources to us, and to stand by us against China. Hobhouse spoke as if mightily contented with the Indian Prince, and said the Embassy would return home impressed with the benefits and beauties of our free constitution ! This I thought strong, considering that the Prince had just dethroned, or at least subdued, his Master, and really reigned in his stead, and that he had forcibly brought away with him the leaders of the opposition to his usurpation — which leaders he did not suffer to dme with him, but they were at another table. By the way, all of them dined m a room by themselves and joined us after dinner. I hear that one of them, being asked how he liked our rifles, said he had one which he had used to kill a servant, and that it answered very well. ' "When it came to my turn to speak (called upon to return thanks for the judges and bar), I said that justice was everything, politics nothing. But I must say one word on that, too ; and I said that, with the other lessons learnt, I hoped the Indians would carry back a most positive assurance that the Government here, and the people, and above aU our hosts the East India Company, never would dream of extending their dominions by one acre, or of lessening by one inch the short distance which, we were just told, separates our Eastern Frontier from the Western Frontier of China (that distance being Ne- paul) ; but that the world would see we had at length discovered the wisdom and the justice of never breaking the peace nor suffering others unpunished to break it. 358 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES This was really a right thing to say, and it was very well received — much better than might be expected. ' Such was our Nepaul banquet. The ladies were, I doubt not, disappointed, for the Princes had not their jewels, and the speeches were as dull as possible. ' Yours very affectionately, ' H. Bkougham. ' Lyndhurst goes on well. Mind, I continue my in- terdict against your writing. Send only verbally how you go on.' Eogers appears to have written a few lines, and Brougham sent him a reply the same evening — Lord Brougham to Samuel Rogers. ' Sunday Evening [i6th June, 1850]. ' My dear Friend, — I am truly delighted to see your handwriting and hear of your welfare. But I do most positively interdict all exertion of writing, as I have to Lyndhurst even before his operation. It was performed by Dalrymple, which we thought right, rather than John Russell, not because he was more skilful, but as having attended him. * I will give you a letter every two days to keep you up to what is going on during your confinement. I have a very bad account of poor Luttrell. * Yours ever affectionately, ' H. Bkougham. * Our ladies desire their kind regards, and yesterday Lady Jersey nearly bit off my nose because I could not answer her so satisfactorily as I shall this evening.' LORD BROUGHAM'S LETTERS 359 Lord Brougham to Samuel Rogers. ' House of Lords : Tuesday [iSth June, 1850]. * My dear R., — I am here sitting on causes at ten this morning, having only got to bed at half-past four. We had such a victory over my poor friend Pam as no man ever dreamt of. The Government said they should he beaten by 3 or 4 ; they were beaten by ^y.^ Ominous number! — being my majority in 18 16, by which I de- stroyed the Income Tax. ' I was really sorry to be obliged to vote against Palmerston in a personal case, and I refused to debate it, and only made a panegyric on him when I announced my reluctant vote. No man ever was so ill-defended : Lans- downe excellent as always, but all the Lords were away at dinner. Beaumont and Eddisbury did him harm. Stanley very good ; Canning also, but savage ; Aberdeen good, but ditto. ' Yours ever, 'H. B.' Lord Brougham to Samuel Bogers. ' House of Lords : Friday r2ist June, 1850]. ' My dear B., — I was prevented by accident from sending you my two-day letter yesterday. First of the friends ; next of the country. Lyndhurst's bandages go off to-day. He saw well on the mat four days ago. He 1 This was a debate on the Don Pacifico case. Lord Stanley's motion, regretting • that various claims against the Greek Government, doubtful in point of justice or exaggerated in amount, have been enforced by coercive measures directed against the commerce and people of ■Greece,' was carried by 169 against 132. 360 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES will to-day be permanently released from his nine- months dark cellar. . . . and will experience his new birth. ' Next of the country. This House of Lords defeat is a dreadful blow, both to the Government and [to] Pam especially. The attempt of Eoebuck to set it aside in the Commons will be very embarrassing, for, if the motion is lost, the Government go, and we have a dissolution of Parliament as well as Ministry ; if it is carried by a small majority, we have a conflict of the two houses, and the public with the Lords. ' Yours most truly, 'H. B.' Lord Brougham to Samuel Bogers. • House of Lords : Tuesday [25th June, 1850], * My dear E., — I wanted to see if I could give you any light as to the fate of the Government in the House of Commons — in the Lords their fate is fully decided. ' I believe they will have a majority even considerable ; some say as many as 50.' I should little wonder, for the men vote with a pistol at their breasts, "your vote or your life "; that is, your Parliamentary life, for dissolution is the alternative, and many will not be re- elected. But happen what may in their favour, the Lords' vote is not to be got rid of. It is a millstone about our necks in all negotiations, and in all debates of the Lords it is a millstone round Lansdowne's neck, ' The division on Mr. Roebuck's motion took place on the 28th of June. The numbers were 310 for the Government, and 264 against— a majority of 46. LORD BROUGHAM'S LETTERS 361 for the Lords will be revenged for a counter vote of tbe Commons. ' Yours truly, *H. B.' Loi'd Brougham to Samuel Rogers. ' House of Lords: Friday [28th June, 1S50]. 'My dear E., — I went to see L. Philippe at St. Leonards on Wednesday. I found him quite well and in excellent spirits, but so altered in appearance that I should certainly not have known him. However, the medical men think he is recovering, and that the disease was not organic. He is pleased with the flocking of men of all shades from Paris to visit him, and he has been of much use in forwarding the President's dotation, holding that a refusal must have brought on a dreadful crisis and probably ended in an absolute monarchy. * I sat yesterday with Lyndhurst and found him m excellent health and spirits on recovering his sight. The attack of the lunatic on the Queen ^ will give us the plague of addresses and trials. It is rather a pity the mo)) were kept from killing the man, for sudden and summary justice would do more to prevent repetition of the offence than twenty trials, and all you do by such trials is example. A madman's life is worth less than nothing to himself or the world. * Yours ever truly, 'H. B. * No one can tell what is to be the majority to-night in the Commons. I believe it will be considerable.' ' The attack on the Queen by Eobert Pate took place on the 27th of June. 362 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Lord Broiujham to Samuel liogcrs. ' House of Lords : Tuesday [2nd July, 1850]. *My dear E., — I have a good account of you, which cheers us. ' The Government had the folly yesterday to bring over Normanby from Paris, and Clanricarde on his crutches from his sofa, to be miserably defeated after a severe debate, though, to escape, our good friend Lans- downe (the best leader of a House I have ever known) began his reply at the close of the debate by giving up the Government measures, and divided only against the Opposition substitute, preferring a middle course. But the Government were defeated by seventy-two to fifty. So much for hatred of Eomish priests to which I contributed my mite. ' Peel has been in imminent danger almost all night. His son writes to me that he is a shade better, and they have hopes of his recovery ; but plainly, not strong hopes. ' Lady Jersey and myself are occupied with Lord Hardinge and others in making up a purse for Mr. Mac- farlane, author of travels and other excellent works. He has fallen into difficulties and we have got a cadetcy for his son, and are raising money for his outfit. Your known benevolence makes us think of you. Say your pleasure. * Yours ever affectionately, * H. Brougham.' The accident to Sir Piobert Peel took place on Satur- day the 29th of June. On the day before he had spoken DEATH OF SIR ROBERT PEEL 363 in the debate on Mr. Eoebiick's motion, and had, of course, taken the side of the opponents of Lord Pahner- ston's poHcy. He was out on Saturda}^ afternoon for his usual exercise, when, on Constitution Hill, his horse reared and threw him, and he was so much hm't that he only lingered three days, suffering the severest agonies that a highly-strung nervous system could endure. He had seemed somewhat better on Tuesday morning, the day Brougham's letter was written, but became suddenly worse, and died at eleven o'clock that night. When the news was spread all over the country on Wednesday morn- ing, there was a general and most striking manifestation of public feeling. The church bells tolled, and men of all parties went about speaking in undertones of the country's irreparable loss. The division of which Brougham writes took place on the Parliamentary Voters (Ireland) Bill. The Govern- ment proposed to give the Parliamentary franchise for the Irish counties to occupiers of lands rated for the poor rate at a net annual value of 8L or upwards. Lord Desart moved an amendment fixing it at 15L Lord Brougham supported this proposal on the ground of the influence of the priests over the lower class of electors, and it was carried by seventj^-two against fifty. Lord Lansdowne, speakmg last, gave up the SI. which had been adopted in the Commons. On the Bill going back to the Commons, 12/. was inserted instead of the 15Z. which the Lords had fixed, and the Lords as- senting, the Bill passed. Lord Brougham's letters continue. 364 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES Lord Brougham to Samuel Bogers. ' Sunday [7th July, 1850]. * My dear Eogers, — Little has occnrred since I last wrote. I forget if I mentioned the evil consequences of an injudicious yielding to feelings, instead of following the course pointed out by sense and reason, in regard to Peel's death. The Lords must needs have a talk upon the subject ; we had one praising the deceased because he spoke the truth, and another describing his travels with him in a "hack post-chaise." These subjects re- quire to be handled by artists, and you never can keep off clumsy hands which expose you to the risk of ridicule. ' Mrs. Meynell {nee Pigou) was anxious to hear how you get on, and, I suppose, called, but I dare say did not see you. * Sir B. Brodie tells me that Peel's accident proved fatal from splinters of the broken bone injuring the vessels near the heart, so that he died of internal bleed- ing. He suffered the greatest pain almost all the time he lingered. ' Yours ever sincerely, ' H. Brougham. * The slaver of parasites is more mischievous than the tooth of enemies. Prince Albert will be hated as much as ever Prince was for this Exposition, and the consequent invasion of the park. A man in his very peculiar position should have the sense to know that repose and inaction is his only security against ridicule. But he must needs be disliked as well as laughed at.' LORD BROUGHAM'S LETTERS 365 Lord Brougham to Samuel Uof/crs. 'Thursday [nth July, 1850]. ' My dear 1\., — You see we heave got a Chancellor. The mmisters had decided (as they do without decision) to have the Great Seal in commission till February, but the pressure from without (some half-dozen lawyers anxious to increase their fees but professing much regard for the pubHc) pushed on the Government, and Wilde, Lord Eltham,' is chosen. I have seen him, and he is a great friend of mine, and always was one of my favourite proteges and chums. He was sixth counsel for Queen Caroline with me, in 1 820 and 1 82 1 . He was long a City solicitor, like his father before him, and knows some- what of Chancery business accordingly. He is a very honest and honourable man, and will not, like , abuse and job his patronage to selfish, party, or worse, personal emolument. Indeed, the latter is almost im- peachable if not indictable for his sordid proceedhigs, Wilde is of a very far higher nature. I only fear he can never get through the arrears in Chancery which Cot- tenham, retaining the Great Seal so long after he was unable to work, has accumulated, for it is Wilde's failinr., ii. 253 Baber, Mr., ii. 171 Baillie. Joanna, i. 22, 46, 86; ii. 77, 426 ; death of, ii. 417 ; on Miss Fanshawe, ii. 19 Bain. Dr., i. 217 Bancroft, Mr. G., ii. 288, 341 — Mrs. G., ii. 288, 350 Bank, Rogers's, i. 401 ; robbery at, ii. 253 Banks, Lavinia, i. 6 — Thomas (sculptor), i. 6 Barhauld, Mrs., i. 4, 46, iiS. 133, 369; ii. 155 Baring, Alexander, i. 13S — Lady H., ii. 20S — Sir Francis, i. 5 Barings, the, i. 327 448 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES BAR Barnes, T., i.426; ii. 65, 114 Barry, Sir C, ii. 280 Barton, Bernard, i. 242, 352 Bathurrit, Bishop, ii. 332 — Lady, i. 253 — Lord, i. 252, 363 ; stories by, i. 253. 254 Batty, Colonel (drawing by), ii. 3 Bayly, Thomas Haj'nes, ii. 74, 443 Beattie, Dr., on Rogers's death, ii. 445 Beaumont, Lady, i. 196,313, 316, 321, 327, 349, 417, 440, 453 — Lord, ii. 359 — Mr., i. 313; Mr. and Mrs., i. 417 — Sir George H., 1. 5, 9, 10, 232, 247. 313. 315. 316, 320, 321, 326, 327, 329, 330, 333, 349, 355, 413, 417, 426, 430, 431, 432, 433. 434. 435. 438, 443. 450, 451; ii. 37, 100, 136; epitaph on Johnson, i. 151 Beckford, Miss Susan, i. 23, 24, 25 — William, i. 273 Bedford, Duchess of, ii. 402 — Duke of, i. 180, 263 ; ii. 402 Belfast, Lord and Lady, i. 374 Bell, Dr., i. 92, 124 ; ii. 68 — Professor, i. 419 Bentinck, Lady ¥., i. 345 ; ii. 35, 40, 53, 54, 145. 182 ' Beppo,' i. 279, 288, note Beranger, M. tie, ii. 48 Berry, Duchesse de, ii. 45 — Miss, i. 23 Berrys, the Miss, i. 374 ; ii. 45, 47. 370 Bessborough, Lady, i. 218, 324, — Lord, i. 322, 324 Bingham, Lucy, i. 430 Birch, Mr., ii. 240 Blackwood, Mr., i. 449 Blair, Dr., i. 8, 147 Blantyre, Lord, i. 374 Blomfield, Bishop (story of), ii. 334 Bloomfield, R., i. 5, 7, 8 — Sir B., i. 253 Bliicher, General, i. 150, 203 BUR Boddington, Grace, i. 53 — Samuel, i. 22, 53, 172, 175, 208; ii. 121 Bonaparte, .Joseph, i. 201 — Lucien, i. 179, 180 ■ — Napoleon, i. 225 Bonstetten, i. 227, 229 Borghese, Princess, i. 334 Boringdon, Lord, i. 5 Boswell, .J., i. 21 Bourne, Sturges, i. 44 Bowditch, N. (mathematician), ii. 169 Bowdler, R., i. 174 Bowles, Mailha, i. 146 — Rev. W. Lisle, i. 5, 134, 135, 192, 242, 272, 388 Bowring, Dr., ii. 94 Braye, Lord, ii. 402 Breakfasts at Rogers's, Macau- lay's, ii. 63, 64 Brettell, Miss, i. 25 Brodie, Sir B., ii. 364, 388, 389 Brooks's, agitation at, ii. 104, 106 Brougham, Lady, ii. 115, 120 — Lord, i. loi, 113, 166, 176, 366, 418, 419, 426; ii. 24, 33, 106, 108, 109, 1 16, 299, 356, 363, 393, 401, 434 ; and Lady Holland, i. 35 ; last doings in office, ii. 104; on the Crystal Palace, ii. 394; on Lichfield Cathedral, ii. 395 ; on Wilberforce's funeral, ii- 395 Brownrigg, Dr., ii. 348 Brydone, P. (traveller), i. 198, 331 Buggin, Lady, i. 25, note Buhver, Sir E. Lytton, ii. 167, 312 — Sir Henry, ii. 229, 230 Bunbury, Colonel, i. 269 Bunburys, the, ii. 252 Burdett, Sir F., i. 4, 45, 145 Burdett-Coutts, Baroness, ii. 417, 438 Burgon, Dean, ii. 240 — Mr., ii. 240, 241 Burke, E., i. 34; supposed to be Junius, ii. 33 Barney, Dr., i. 155, 194, 219; on Samuel Rogers, i. 3, 21, 22 INDEX 449 BUS Busby, Dr.,i. 114, 115,; satirised by Byron, i. 114, 7iote Butler, Mrs. (F. Kenible), ii. 201, 208, 209, 210, 214, 232; ou Lady Holland, ii. 273, 274 — Pierce, ii. 208 — Samuel, ii. 238, 239 B\Ti<^, F. ('Poodle'), i. 172; ii. '84, 148 'Byron at Harrow' (opera), ii. 204 Byron, Lady, ii. 149 — Lord, i. 2, 36, 133, 136, 137, 146,150.175, 192,215,226, 236, 237, 254, 255, 288, 289, 295, 319, 320, 321, 323, 333, 334, 335. 33^^ 452; ii- 62, 141, 191, 200, 264, 265, 329, 390 ; and Lady Byron, i. 209, 214; and Lord Clare, ii. 265 ; and Lord Holland, i. 142, i43;atRogers's, i. 86 ; at three-and-twenty, i. 85 ; behaviour to Rogers, i. 336, 337. 343; death of, i. 376; ' Foscari,' i. 310 ; funeral of, i. 378; 'Giaour, The,' i. 128; memoirs of, i. 377 ; on his wife, i. 255 ; on Lord Thurlow, i. 129, 130, 131 ; on Rogers, i. 86, 87, 123, 1 38, 139; on Shakespeare, i. 343 ; poetical epistle, i. 132 ; Rogers on, i. 338, 339.340, ii- 141,; social popu- larity, i. 144; story of, i. 377 ; Wordsworth on, i. 404 ; writes a prologue, i. 114, 115 CADELL, Mr., i. 192, 193, 449 Caithness, Earl of, ii. 135 Calthoqie, Lord, i. 166, 176 Camden, Lord, ii. 48 Campbell, Lady(' Pamela '), ii. 402 — Thomas, i. 2, 5, 85, 103, 139, 246,247,248, 289, 295,378,418, 419; ii. 36, 65, 73, 124, 126, 127, 133, 216, 312; funeral, ii. 395 Canning, George, i. 61, 167, 176 — Lord, ii. 359 Canova, i. 179, 180,205,310, 326, 327; ii- 113 COL Canterbury, Archbishop of, ii. 171 Carlisle, Lord, i. 142, 143 ; ii. 337. 402 Carlyle, T. (on Rogers), ii. 162 Caroline, Queen, and her oysters, i- 385 Carr, Mr., i. 5 — Miss, i. 284 Carruthers, Dr., ii. 312 Cary, H. F., i. 350, 351 ; ii. 171, 172, 173, 1 74 ; death of, ii. 246, 263 Castle Howard, i. 117 Castlereagh, Lord, i. 228 Catholic Act, the, i. 429 — Emancipation, Rogers on re- sults of, ii. 32 Cawdor, Lord, i. 179, iSo Chabannes, Madame de, ii. 205 Channing, Dr., ii. 169, 287 Chantrey (sculptor), i. 310, 367 ; ii. 32 — Lady, ii. 335 Charles the Tenth, ii. 45, 47, 50 Charlotte, Princess, death of, i. 252, 253 Chatham, Lord, i. 379 Chatterley, Lady, ii. 204 — Sir W., ii. 204 ' Childe Harold,' i. 88, 89, 147, 22S Chinnerys, the, i. 24 Cholmondeley, Mrs., ii. 2S0 Cibber, Colley, ii. 353 Clanricarde, Lord, ii. 362 Clare, Lord, i. 180,314,315,329; ii. 182, 264, 265 Clifden, Lord, i. 4, 352 Cliue (surgeon), i. 75, 92 Clinton, Governor, ii. 349 — Mrs. De Witt, ii. 349 Cochrane, Baillie, ii. 327 Cockburn, Lady, i. 22 Cogan, Mrs., i. 277 — Rev. E., i. 277 Colburn, Mr., i. 2S4, 2S5, 2S6 ' Coleorton, Memorials of,' i. 9, yiote Coleridge, S. T., i. 2, 9, 10, 11, 87.139. 190. >9'. 289, 351, 352 ; VOL. II. G (i 450 EOGEES AND HIS CONTEMPOKAKIES COL ii. 41,86, 171, 223; death of, ii. 112 'Columbus,' i. 15, 54, 55, 65, 66-71, 96, loi, 102, 119, 120, 121, 128, 149, 272 Combe, Wm., i. 5 Compton, Lord and Lady, i. 375 Constable, Mr., i. 353 Constant, Benjamin, i. 224, 228 Contat, Mdlle., i. 225 ' Conundrum Castle,' Scott's, i. 305 Conversation as a fine art, i. 422 Conyngham, Lady, ii. 281, 330 — Lord and Lady, i. 203 Cooper, J. Fenimore, ii. 11, 12; on the English aristocracy, ii. 15, 16; on France, ii. 17 Cooke, W. (engraver), ii. 3 Cope, Sir John, i. 455 Copley, Miss, ii. 200 Coquerel, Athanase, i. 368, note Cork, Lady, i. 4 ; ii. 170 Corn Law Crisis, the, ii. 283 Cornwall, Barry, i. 352 Cosway, R., i. 5 Cottenham, Lord, ii. 365, 367 ' Council of Trent ' (Club), i. 57 Courtenay, John, i. 4, 21, 29 ; ii. 116, 168, 183 — Miss, ii. 203 Covent Garden Theatre, i. 63 Cowleys, the, ii. 205 Cowper, Lord, i. 4, 223 — Lord and Lady, i. 62, 390 — WiUiam, i. 2, 3 Crabbe, Rev. George, i. 49, 196, 242, 243, 244, 282, 283, 284, 286, 287, 289, 290, 293, 295, 388 ; ii. 165 ; diary at Rogers's, i. 246, 247, 248, 249; Words- worth on, i. 49 Creevey, Mr., i. 1 13 Crewe, Miss, i. 60 — Mrs., i. 4, 275 Croker, J. W., ii. 326 ; on Moore, ii. 326 Crowe, Wm., i. 332 ; ii. 29, 30, 263 ; death of, ii. 25 ; ' Lewes- don Hill,' ii. 29, 30; on English DOD versification, ii. 30; on Milton, i. 276 Cumberland, Richard, i. 4, 23, 25>75 Cunningham, Allan, ii. 94 Curran, J. P., i. 160 Cuvier, ii. 44 DALLAWAY, STames, i. 196 Dalrymi^le, Dr., operates on Lyndhurst, ii. 358 Damer, Mrs. Dawson, i. 4 ; ii. 243 Danby, Francis, i. 426 Dance, George (architect), i. 151 D'Arblay, Madame, i. 133 ; ii. 46 Davenport, S. (engraver), i'. 3 Davy, Lady, i. 164, 366 ; ii. 147 ; and Samuel Rogers, ii. 129 — Sir Humphry, i. 145, 179, 367 De Lhuys, Drouyn, ii. 338, 339 Dennian, Hon. Justice, ii. 382, note, 409, 433 — Lord, ii. 105. 197, 369, 382, note, 392. 397, 418, 430 ; death, ii. 433 ; last illness, ii. 431, 432 — Miss, ii. 204, 315, 316, 317, 336 Denon, M., i. 205 De Quincey, Thomas, i. 362, 432 Derby, Lord, i. 331 Desart, Lord, ii. 363 D'Este, Mdlle., ii. 182 — Sir Augustus, ii. 312 Devonshire, Duchess of, i. 374 — Duke of, i. 443, 444; ii. 431, 432 Dick, Miss, i. 9 Dickens, Charles, ii. 196, 201, 216, 217, 225, 387, 404; at Broadstairs, ii. 285 — Mrs., ii. 252, 286 Dilke, Sir Wentworth, ii. 402 D'Israeli, Benjamin, i. 43 ; ii. 312 — Isaac, ii. 79 Dissenters' Chapels Bill, ii. 244 ' Diversions of Purley,' i. 76 Dodwells, the, i. 327, 329 INDEX 451 DON Donaldson, Mr., ii. 417 Donegal, Lady, i. 22, 23, 52, 53, 71, 229; ii. 401 ' Don Juan,' i. 287, 288, 2S9 Douglas, Rev. Mr., i. 135 ' Dream, A,' by Lord Holland, i. 265, 266, 267, 268, 269 Drummond, H., ii. 343 — Thomas, ii. 137 and note Du Cane, Mr., i. 181, 200, 203 Dudley, Lord, i. 374, 391 ; and Sir T. Lawrence, i. 423, 424, 425, 426 ; death of, ii. 56 ; im- promptu of, ii. 32 Duff, Mrs., i. 60, 61 Dufferin, Lady, ii. 196, 231, 377 Dumont, Mdlle., i. 134 — M., i. 169, 174 Duncannon, Lord, i. 274; ii. 155 Dungarvan, Lady, ii. 380 Dunlops, the, ii. 185 Dunmore, Lady, i. 106 — Lord, i. 105, 107, 109 ; ii. 136 Durham, Bishop of (Maltby), i. 8; ii. 439 — Lady Mary, i. 374 Durys, the, i. 25 Duvaucel, Madame, ii. 44, note Dyce, Rev. Alexander, i. 35, 122 ; ii. 33, 268. 417 ; on ' Illustrated Italy,' ii. 6, note ; on Rogers's conversation, ii. 220 Dyer, George, ii. 33 I^ARDLEY, Lord. i. 145 J Eastlake, Sir C, ii. 112, 1 13, 186, 201 Ebrington, Lord, i. 203; ii. 81 Eddisbury, Lord, ii. 359 Edgeworth, Miss, i. 279 ; ii. 426 — R., i. 137 ' Edinburgh Review, The,' i. 58, 118, 122, 123, 131 Edisons, The George, i. 54 Eldon, Lord, i. 43 Ellenborough, Lady, i. 322 Ellis, Agar, i. 313. 3' 5 — Charles, i. 174 — George, i. 5, 56. 59, 154, 305 Elphinstone, Lord, ii. 105 FLA Ely, Lord, ii. 435, 436, 43S Empson, Mrs., ii. 346 — W., ii. 157, 214, 327 ; death- bed, ii. 420 ; ' Life of Jeffrey,' ii. 419 Englefiekl, Sir Henry, i. 23, 137 ' English Bards and Scotch Re- viewers,' i. 89 English Ginevra, an, i. 359, 360 ; ii. 193 Epigram, a political, i. 148 ' Epistle to a Friend,' i. 54 ' Epistle to a Frirrd on his Marriage,' by R. Sharp, i. 69 Epitaph in GiasmereChurchyanl, i. 432 ; on Thomas Moore, ii. 411 Errol, Lord, ii. 105 Erskine, Lonl, i. 4, 34, 224, 247, 441 ; ii. 195 : death of, i. 376 Essex, Lady, ii. 186, 202, 204, 245 — Lord, i. 366, 380; ii. 14S Ettv, William, ii. 47 Everett, Edward, ii. 191,211,214, 217, 218, 328, 341, 375 — Dr. William, ii. 290, 385 ' Excursion, The,' i. 123 FALKLAND, Lord, ii. 105 Fanshawe, Catherine, i. 321, 322 ; ii. 18, 19 ; on ' Italy,' ii, 20 Faraday, M., i. 367 Faringdon, J., i. 5 Fazakerley, i. 181, 182, 331. 374, 375; ii.'42, 81 Feltham, Owen, referred to, ii. 144 Fenwick, Miss, ii. 146, 165 Field, Edwin Wilkins, i. 40 ; ii. 3i5.3«7 Fincastle, Lord, i. 42 Findon, W. (engraver), ii. 3, 4, 5, 7 Fitzgerald, (ieneral, ii. 329 — Lord, E., i. 28 Fitzpatrick, General, i. 4, 47. 4S, 222 Fitzwilliam family, the, ii. 402 — Lord, i. 396, 420 Flaxman, John, i. 5, 361 o G 452 K0GER3 AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES FLA Flaxman Gallery, the, ii. 315,316, 327. 335 Flaxmaus, the, i. 408 Fleming, Lady, i. 431 Folkestone, Lord, i. 136 Foote, a story of, i. 353 Forster, John, ii. 248, 326, 389 — Mrs.,i. 6 ; ii. 203, 280, 281, 282 — Rev. Edwarl, i. 6 Foscolo, Ug), i. 224, 246, 247, 255, 256 ; his literary plans, i. 256-262 ; ii. 42, 171 Fowler, Dr., ii. 208 Fox, Charles James, i. 4, 18, 19, 20,25, 27,28,29,30,31,32,33, 34, 157, 222, 294, 388; li. 22, 46 ; and Sheridan, i. 276 ; and Wordsworth, i. 33 ; at a levee, i. 30; Foreign Secretary, i. 30 ; History of James II., i. 48 ; illness and deith, i. 30, 31, 32, 33, 43 ; love of Dryd( n, i. 30 ; ii. 264 — Colonel, ii. 178, 201 — Lady Mary, ii. 178 — Miss, i. 426, 431 ; ii. 208 — Mrs., i. 25, 31, 33, 52, 220 ; ii. 185 — W. Johnson, ii. 312 Francis, Sir Philip, i. 4 ; ii. 33 ; asked if he was Junius, ii. ;33 French, Emperor of the, ii. 438 — Empress of the, ii. 438 Frere, J. Hookham, i. 219, 249, 265 ; ii. 265 Fuseli, H., i. 5, 442 p ASPEY (novelist), ii. 312 VJ Genlis, Madame de, i. 28 George III., death of, i. 295 ; and Major Price, ii. 226 George IV., accession of, i. 295 ' Giaour, The,' i. 128 GififonJ, William, i.4, 55, 56, 57, 122 (rilman, Mrs., i. 352 (iilpin, Mrs., i. 7 — Rev. W., i. 6, 7 Ginevra, an English, i. 359, 360 ; ii. 193 (Gladstone, Mr., ii. 244, 387, 392 — Mrs., ii. 392 GEE Glasgow in 1803, i. 11, 12 ' Glenarvon,' i. 226, 228 Glenelg, Lord, ii. 312, 392, 421 Godfrey, Miss, i. 42, 46, 52, 90 ii. 401 Godwin, W., i. 211, 212, 213, 214 Goethe, lines by, ii. 318 ' Goetz von Berlichingen,' i. 2 Goodall, Mr. F. (on Rogers), ii. 163 — W. (engraver), ii. 3, 4, 5, 6 Goselin, MdUe., i. 202 Gosforth, Lord, i. 176 Gould, Mr., ii. 417 Gouvensvert, M. van, i. 367, 368 Gower, Lord and Lady, i. 391 Graham, Mrs., i. 366 — Sir James, i. 100 Granville, Lord, i. 36 Granvilles, the, ii. 205 Grattan, Henry, i. 5, 34, 53, 118, 223, 224, 290 ; death of, i. 295 — Mrs., i. 73 Gray, Thomas (poet), i. 175, 227 ; ii. 352 Greek epigram (Luttrell's trans- lation of), i. 391 Greene, Mr., ii. 237 Greg, Mrs., i. 51 Gregg, Miss, ii. 204 Grenville, Lady, i. 382, 383, 386 — Lord, i. 30, 34, 45, 362, 363, 364, 381, 382, 386, 395, 427, 446, 447 ; ii. 75 ; inscription on inkstand, i. 428 ; lines to, ii. 8 ; translation from Dante, i. 364; — Tom, i. 88, 274, 446, 447 ; "• 135 Gretton, Dean, i. 381 Greville, Charles, ii. 84, 208, 209, 211, 287 ; diary quoted, ii. 406 — H., i. 22 Grevilles, the, i. 4 Grey, C, ii. 88 — Lady, ii. 81 — Lord, ii. 57, 61, 76, 81, 107, 108, III, 115, 116, 119, 155, 257, 260, 284 ; death of, ii. 269, 270 ; lines to, ii. 8, loi, 103, 271 ; speech on retirement, ii. 102 — Mr., i. 18 INDEX 453 GRO Grosvenor, Lord, i. 54. 122 Grote, Mrs., ii. 274, 275, 276, 277 Guizot, M., ii. 242 Gurney, Mr., ii. 105 Garwood, Colonel, ii. 178 HACKNEY College, i. 418 Hagiey, an idyll at, i. 72 Hallam, Arthur, ii. 72 — Henry, i. 350, 367 ; ii. 32. 43, no, 167, 178, 214, 216, 327; on his son's death, ii. 379 ; on ' In Memoriam,' ii. 379 — H. F., death of, ii. 378 Halleck, FitzGreene, ii. 143 Hamilton, Lady Anne, i. 23 — Lady Susan, ii. 393 — Lord Archibald, i. 112 Hampden, Lord, i. 53 Hampton Court, a day at, with Scott, &c., ii. 10 Harding, Chester, ii. 2S9, 320, 321 Hardinge, Lord, ii. 362 Hardwicke, Lady, i. 197, 198 Hare (the wit), i. 3S8, 389 Harley, Lady Fanny, ii. n6, 120 Harness, Rev. W., i. 22 ; ii. 174, 175, 201,417 Harpur, Mr. (Turner's executor), ii. 406 Harrington, Lord, ii. 417 Harrogate, a play at, i. 9 Harrowby, Lord, ii. 244 Haydon, R. B., ii. 160, 187, 232 Hayward, A., ii. 16S, 326, 378, 402, 415, 437; and Samuel Rogers, ii. 12S, 129; on Rogers's breakfasts and dinners, ii. 282, note Heathcote, Lady, i. 23, 132 Heber, Bishop, i. 167, 219, 24S, 367 Henians, Mrs., ii. 39, 41 Henderson, Dr., ii. 203, 205, 417 Henry, Rev. Philip, ii. 244 Herschel, Lady, ii. 401 — Sir John, ii. 402 Hibbert, Mr., i. 290 — Mrs., i. 22 Hillard, George, ii. 167, 175, 237, 319. 320 HUS Hinchliffe, Bishop, i. 80 Hobhouse, J. C, i. 36, 143 ; ii. 357 Hodgson, Mrs., ii. 431 Hogarth, Miss Georgina. ii. 186, note 'Hohenlinden,' i. 2 Holland, Lady, i. 35, 36, 89, 115, 167, 181, 239, 246, 2S2, 309, 429,455; ii. 33.42,47. 59. S3, 151, 152, 186, 191, 205, 212, 253. 273. 277. 391 ; death of, ii. 271 ; last dinner-party, ii. 272 — Lord, i. 27, 34, 35, 36, 37, 89, 114, 116, 164, 167, 172, 179, 180, 181, 216, 224, 239, 245, 247, 257, 263, 275, 281, 282, 287, 303, 322, 351 ; ii. 22, 25, 42, 45, 59, 104, 107, 172, 173, 191, 201, 273, 391 ; and Lord Byron, i. 89; diath of. ii. 19S ; sonnet on Milton, i. 281 — Lord and Lidy, ii. 151 — Sir Henry (formerly Dr.), i, 147, 278, 322; ii. 19S, 235, 272, 287, 373, 441 Holland House, i. 36 Hollands, the, ii. 147, 155, 171, 185, 349. 368, 396, 434 Honey, Mr., ii. 45 Hook, Theodore, ii. 131, 133, 142 Hope, Henry, i. 144 — Thomas, i. 25 Hoppner, J., i. 5, 14. 55, 57, 74, 75. 321 Horner, Francis, i. 13, 14. 43, 90, 99, 174, 195; ii. 329 — Miss, ii. 280, 281 — Mrs., ii. 280, 281 Hughes, Barbara (Miss Godfrey), ii. 401 'Human Life,' i. 37, 15S. 185, 2S7, 288 ; ii. 445, 446 ; satire on, ii. 132 Hume, Joseph, i. 418 Humphrys (engraver), ii. 3 Hunt, Leigh, i. 132, 336; ii. 201 Hunter, Sir Claudius, i. 456 Huskisson, Mr., i. 167 454 EOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPOEAElES HUT Hutchinson, Miss, i. 125, 349, 350, 352, 431, 451; ii. 122, 137 Hutt, Captain, i. 199 TNCHBALD, Mrs., i. 4, 46 JL lugiis. Sir R. H., ii. 214 Ingram, Mrs. Meynell, ii. 402 International coj^yright (Dick- ens), ii. 213 Irving, Washington, ii. 46, 142, 143,281,427 Itahan love story, an, i. 373 Italy,' i. 159, 297, 299, 316, 317, 318, 319, 332, 341; ii. I ; its ill success, ii. 2 ; rewritten, ii. 2 — (Illustrated Edition), ii. 3, 34, 40 ; artists employed, ii. 3 ; cost of engravings, ii. 4, 31 ; outlay on the edition, ii. 4 ; Rev. A. Dyce on, note, ii. 6 ; Moore upon it, ii. 31 Italy, diary in, ni 1814, i. 169- 184 ; lines frtm, by R. Sharp, i. 369 ' TACQTJELTXE,' i. 145, 146, V 154, 168, note Jameson, Mr.s., ii. 201, 203, 326 Jeffrey, Francis (Lord), i. 41, 42, 43, 71. 113' 203, 291 ; ii-8i,98, 103, no, 147, 157, 214, 329, 371, 419; death of, 345, 346 — Mrs., ii. 346 Jekyll, Joseph, i. 5, 134, 207 ; ii. 10, 195, 230 Jersey, Lady, i. 52, 366 ; ii. 327, 358, 362 ; and the Prince of Wales, i. 144 — Lord, i. 24, 274 Jervis, Miss, ii. 166 Jesse, Mr., ii. 417 Jodrell, Mr., i. 24 Johnson, Dr., epitaiih on, i. 151 Johnstone, Miss, ii. 204 — Mr., i. 237 Joinville, Prince de, ii. 396, 399, oiote Junius's tomb, ii. 33, 34 LAW KEEP the Line ' Club, ii. 32 Kemble, J. P., i. 63, note, 219, 246, note, 247, 311 ; ii. 66, 201 ; death of, i. 353, 354 — Mrs., ii. 131, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 181, 274. 283, 323 — Mrs. Charles, ii. 171 Kenney, John, i. 353, 426 ; ii. 123, 201, 290, 401 Kenyon, John, ii. 168, 180, 216 Iver, Mr. and Mrs. BeUenden, ii. 2S0, 2S1 Kerry, Lady, ii. 252 — Lord, ii. 81 Kinnaird, Lord, i. 374 — Miss, i. 432; ii. 54, 118, 137 Kippis, Dr., i. 418 Knight, Galley, ii. 103 — R. Payne, i. 4, loi, 345, 352, 365, 387 ; death of, i. 376 Knollys, General, i. 429 Knowles, Herbert, i. 235, 236 Kossuth, L., ii. 399 ' T ALLA Rookh,' i, 229, note, Li 273 Lamb, Charles,!. 351, 352; death of, ii. 112; on editions of Shakespeare, ii. 85 — Lady Caroline, i. 205, 226, 227 — Mary, i. 352 — W., i. 4 Landor, W. S., ii. 86, 154 Landseer, E., ii. 158 Ijangdales, the, ii. 147 Lansdowne, Lady, i. 387; ii. 198, 199 — Lord, i. 143, 196, 250, 251, 329. 350. 387, 391. 420, 426, 443, 444, 446; ii. 32, 75, 89, 107, 116, 198, 209, 216, 360, 362, 363, 403, 434 'Lara,' i. 146, 168 Lardner, Dr., ii. 94 Lauderdale, Lord, i. 276 Laureateship, the, ii. 351, 352, 354, 374 Lawrence, Dr. French, i. 5, 34 — Mr. (U.S. Minister), ii. 341 INDEX 455 LAW Lawrence, Sir Thomas, i. 203, 366, 2,(^7, 398, 423. 426 Leach, Miss, ii. 99 Leatherhead Fair, i. 50, 52 Le Keux (engraver), ii. 3 Lennox, Lord W. Pitt, ii. 312 Lens, Sergeant, i. 90, 99 Leopold, Prince, i. 253 Lepsius, Dr., ii. 1S6 ' Letters and Essays,' Shaip's, ii. 117 Letters from Samuel Rogers — to Prince Albert, ii. 353 ; Sir Ben- jamin Brodie, ii. 3S8 ; Lord Denman, ii. 431, 432; Miss Edgeworth, ii. 177,235; Mrs. Forster, ii. 2S3 ; Mrs. Greg, i. 277; Lord Holland, ii. 173; Lord Lansdowne, i. 444 ; the Bishop of London, ii. 377 ; Henry Mackenzie, i. 15, 16, 18 ; Sir J. Mackintosh, i. 303 ; Lord Melbourne, ii. 172 ; Tom Moore, i. 72; ii. 313; Daniel Rogers, i. 237 ; ii. 25 ; Mrs. D. Rogers, ii. 27 ; Henry Rogers, i. 93, no, 112; Sarah Rogers, i. 23,51, 91, 104, 1 16, 134, 136, 198, 202, 230, 232, 311, 315, 320, 326, 331, 430, 434, 455; ii. 44, 91, 96, 98, 100, 119, 138, 148, 170, 185, 202 (2), 245, 246, 252, 260, 279 ; Lord John Russell, ii. 412 ; Duchess of St. Albans, i. 132 ; Lord Shaftesbury, ii. 427 ; Richard Sharp, i. 50, 67, 69, 96, 98, 107, 147, 163, 169, 207, 208, 271, 272; ii. 102, 107, 115; Sydney Smith, ii. 215 ; Words- worth, ii. 90, 324 — to a young writer i. 185 ; to , ii. 66 — from Macaulay to Hannah Macaulay, ii. 63, S3 — from Sydney Smith to Lady Holland, i. 234 — to Samuel Rogers from Prince Albert, ii. 352 ; Lord Ashburn- ham, i. 365 ; ii. 48, 51 ; Lord Ashburton, ii. 256 ; Joanna Baillie, ii. 77 ; Mr. Bancroft, LET Letters (ccmtbiued) ii. 349 ; Bernard Barton, ii. 322 ; Sir George H. Beaumont, i. 150, 436, 439; Beckford, Wm., i. 251 ; G. de Bcrardin, ii. 338 ; Rev. W. Lisle Bowles, i. 195, 250; Sir Benjamin Brodie, ii. 389; Lord Brougham, i. 419, 420; ii. 72, 299, 300, 327, 348, 356 (2), 358, 359 (2), 360, 361, 362, 364, 365, 366, 367 (2), 368, 3S3, 393, 394 (2), 396, 397. 39S, 400, 410, 418, 429.434. 443 ; Sir H. Buhver, ii. 230 ; Sir F. Burdett, i. 82 ; Mrs. Butler, ii. 181 ; Lord Byron, i. 127, 142, 143, 144, 210,212,213, 214, 227, 238, 255; Thomas Campbell, i. 126, 300; ii. 73, 93 ; S. T. Coleridge, i. 191 ; J. FenimoreCooi)er, ii. 12 ; Rev. George Crabbe, i. 242, 245, 284, 293 ; Hon. George Den- man, ii. 433 ; Charles l3ickens, ii. 187, 197, 212, 231, 239, 248, 28.6, 337, 348; Mrs. C. Dickens, ii. 214; Isaac Disraeli, ii. 79; Lord Dudley, i. 423, 425 ; ii. 56 ; Bishop of Durham, ii. 439 ; Sir C. Eastlake, ii. 406; Maria Ktlgeworth, ii. 234 ; Sir H. Ellis, ii. 238; Lady Ely, ii. 435. 438 ; W. Empson, ii. 345, 370 ; Lord Erskine, i. 55 ; Edward Everett, ii. 255, 258, 278, 2S7, 289, 319, 320, 342, 373, 384,441 ; Miss Fanshawe, ii. 19 ; John Forster, ii. 404 ; Ugo Foscolo i. 256 ; Mrs. Fox, i. 31 ; Lord Glenelg, i'- 343. 344. 421 ; Tom Gren- ville, i. 89; F. W. Grey; ii. 269 ; Lady Grey, ii. 257 ; Lord Grey, ii. 76, 284 ; Mrs. Grote, ii. 405 ; Mrs. Groyn, ii. 405 ; Judge Haliburton, ii. 233 ; Henry Hallam, ii. 71, 370, 379; R. B. Haydon, ii. 34 ; Lady Holland, ii. 272; Lord Holland, i. 115, 269, 270, 2S0. 308, 428 ; ii. 57 ; Sir Heury Holland, 456 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES LET Letters {continued) 268, 375 ; J. Hoppner, i. 56 ; Lord Howden, ii. 241, 242; Mrs. Inchbald. i. 46 ; Washing- ton Irving, ii. 44, 143 ; Mrs. Jameson, ii. 372 ; Francis Jef- frey, i. 291 ; Joseph Jekyll, i. 152 ; Charles Lamb, ii. 26, 52, 84; Lord Lansdowne, ii. 256; H. Luttrell, i. 62, 390; Lord Lyndhm'st, ii. 240; Sir E. Bulwer Lytton, ii. 390 ; T. B. Macaulay, ii. 87 ; Charles Mac- kay, ii. 195 ; Henry Mackenzie, i. 17, 20, 448; Sir James Mac- intosh, i. 189, 211, 303, 392; Loi-d Monteagle, ii. 419; Bessy Moore, ii. 403 ; Tom Moore, ii. 313, 314; Sir C. J. Napier, ii. 382 ; Mrs. Norton, ii. 292, 293, 29s ; Dr. Parr, i. 302 ; Sir Robert Peel, ii. 325 ; W. H. Prescott, ii. 188, 236, 339; Uvedale Price, i. 153, 193, 355, 379' 385- 393' 395.416; ii. 23; Lady Emily Pusey, ii. 381, 436; Edward Quillinan, ii. 206, 347; Lord Radstock, ii. 315; H. Crabb Robinson, ii. 315, 335; William Roscoe, ii. 54 ; W. Stewart Rose, ii. 42 ; Lord Rowe, 11.318; Mr. Ruskin, ii. 301, 302, 303, 322, 371 ; Lady John Russell, ii. 369,424 ; Lord John Russell, ii. 354, 443 ; Wal- ter Scott, i. 58, 60, 215, 305, 306 ; ii. 57 ; Lord Shaftesbury, ii.428; Richard Sharp, i. 165, 173, 200, 369; ii. 105; Mrs. Siddons, i. 354 ; Mrs. L. H. Sigourney, ii. 425, 440; Mrs. Sydney Smith, ii. 277 ; Sydney Smith, ii. 215, 257 ; Robert Southey, i. 235, 362 ; Lord St. Helens, ii. 47 ; Charles Sum- ner, ii. 217, 235, 288 ; Duchess of Sutherland, ii. 134, 177; W. M. Thackeray, ii. 231 ; George Ticknor, ii. 168, 192 ; Lord F. Townshend, i. 219 ; Lord John Townshend, i. 220 ; Princess LOW Letters (continued) of Wales, i. 64 ; J. W. Ward, i. 44 ; Daniel Webster, ii. 189, 191, 318; Lord Wellesley, ii. 179 ; Rev. J. Blanco White, ii. 184; Helen Maria Williams, i. 367 ; Dorothy Wordsworth, i. 346, 348 ; John Wordsworth, ii. 347; William Wordsworth i. 48, 124, 149, 240, 343,402, 406, 409, 413, 414, 442, 449, 452; ii. 9, II, 35, 37, 39, 53, 67, 69, 86, 117, 121, 122, 136, I44> 323 Levis, Due de, i. 387 Lewis, F. C. (engraver), ii. 3 Lewis, ' Monk,' i. 240 ; ii. 332 Eleven, Madame, ii. 399 Lilford, Lady, ii. 274 Lincoln, Bishop of (Pretyman),i. 6, 7 Lines on a temple at Woburn, i. 263 Linley, Miss, i. 274 Lister, Dr., i. 277 • — Mr., ii. 46 ' Literary Academy,' a, by Lord Holland, i. 265-268 Literature supersedes politics, i. 295 Littleton, Mr., i. 22 ; ii. 102 Lofft, Capel, i. 7 ' Lochiel's Warning,' i. 2 Lock, W. (of Norbury), i. 5 ; ii. 203 — Mrs. W., i. 52 Lockhart, Mrs., ii. 120 Londonderry, Lord, ii. 116 Longfellow, H. W., ii. 217 Longmans, Messrs., i. 282, 402, 403, 405, 406, 410, 415 Lonsdale, Lady, i. 345, 440 ; ii. 137 — Lord, i. 92, 93, 96, 100, 103, 345. 440; ii. 36.40, 53, 136 Louis XVIII. , i. 148, 160, 309 Louise, Marie (Empress), i. 160, 161, 165, 169 L'Ouverture, Toussaint, i. 162 Lovaine, Lord, ii. 326 Lowe, Sir Hudson, i. 274 Lowther, Lord, i. 406 INDEX 457 LUT Luttrell, Henry, i. 5, 22, 36, 116, 146, 274, 281', 289, 290, 309, 310, 352, 366, 415; ii. II, 65, Si, 115, 148, 197, 212, 245, 252, 253. 299. 349. .368, 396, 397. 417 ; death of, ii. 405, 406 Lyell, Mr. and Mrs., ii. 174 Lyclls, the, ii. 427 Lyndhurst, Lady, ii. 200 — Lord, ii. loS, 1 14, 200, 358, 359. 361, 366 ' Lyrical Ballads,' i. 2 Lyttelton, Lady Sarah, i. 199, 237 — Mr., i. 116, 199, 237 MACAULAY, Hannah, ii. 61 — T.B.,ii. 61,63, 64, 81,82, 84, 88, 106, 1 78, 179, 201, 208, 209, 244,338,387; and Samuel llogers, ii. 20S ; on Samuel Kogers, i. 35, 36, n ; ii. 83 Macduff, Lord, i. 60 Macfarlane, C, ii. 362, 368 Mackay, Dr. Charles, ii. 310, 311, 312 ; on Kogers's breakfasts, ii. 311, 312 Mackenzie, Henry (' Man of Feel- ing '), i. 3,4, 8, 12, 13, 14, 17; on Crabbe, i. 290 Mackintosh, Robert, ii. 104, 106 — Sir James, i. 4, 13, 14, 19, 43, 44, 48, 134, 157, 162, 164, 169, 172, 174,210,211,212,213,214, 225, 36S, 421,435; ii. i^. 165, 268, 2,^2,, 381 ; death of, ii. 81 ; reviews Rogers, i. 122 Maclise, D., ii. 156 Macpherson, i. 180 Macready, Wm., ii. 201 ; on Rogers, ii. 389, 390 ; ' Remini- scences,' ii. 196, 201 Madden, Mr., ii. 73 Madge, Mrs., i. 207 ; ii. 246, tiotc — Rev. Thomas, ii. 246 Mahon, Lord, ii. 212 Malct, Lady, ii. 299, 327, 367, 368 Mallet, John, i. 53 — Miss, i. 314, 316 Mallets, the, ii. 205 Malone, i. 21 ; ii. 2>l Maltby, Bishop, ii. 439 MOI Maltby, William, i. 5, 53, 114, 173. 290, 3«4. 325- 329; ii-46, 139, 140, 170, 185, 186, 201, 202, 203, 205, 246, 247, 280; death of, ii. 439 Malthus, Rev. R., i. 223 ; ii. 104 268 Marcet, Mrs., ii. 174 Marchant, Le, ii. 104 Mariscotti, Marchioness of, i. 180 JIarivaux, Pierre, i. 225 Marmont, Marshal, ii. 45 Marriage Brokers, the, ii. 250 Mars, Mdlle., i. 202, 225 Marsden, Miss, ii. 185 Marshall, Mr., i. 232 ; ii. 61 Martineau, Harriet, ii. 1 1 1 , 1 74, 175, 261 ; her history quoted, i- 295 — Mr. and Mrs., ii. 280 ' Mary Barton,' ii. 337 Massena, ^ladame, i. 334 ;\Ia\\Tiian (publisher), i. 394, 400 Maynard, Lord, i. 452 Medwin, Captain, i. 335, 336, ^n, 32,^^ 404 ' Meillerie,' lines at, i. 1S7, 18S, 189 Melbourne, Lord, ii. 107,108, 112, 116, 120, 174; death of, ii. 271 Melville, Hermann, ii. 342 ' Metropolitan, The,' ii. 73, 74 Mettornich, Prince, ii. 368 Meynell, Mrs., ii. 364, 368 Mill, John, i. 418 Miller (engi-aver), ii. 5 — Thomas (novelist), ii. 185 Millingen, J., i. 178, 203; ii. 46, 47, 121. i86 Milman, H., i. 426; ii. 174, 194 Milnes, R. Monckton, i. 100; li. 212 ' Ministry of all the Talents,' i. 30 ' Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border,' i. 2 Minto, Lady, i. 331 ; ii. 195. 424 — Professor, quoted, i. 139, note ; ii. 7, note Mitford, Rev. W.. i. 4 ; ii. 417 Moira, Lord, i. 71 4o8 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES MON Monck, Lady Mary, ii. loo — Sir C, ii. 103 Moiikhouse, Thus. (Wordsworth's friend), i. 241, 349, 351, 405. 407, 412 Montague, Miss, ii. 166 Moore, Bessy (Mrs. Tom), i. 77, 229, 246, 379; ii. 159, 160,209, 252,403 — Carrick, Mrs., ii. 429 — Peter, i. 217 — Sir Graham, i. 4 — Sir John, i. 4, 442 — Byron and Campbell at Rogers's, i. 85, 86 — Tom, i. 2, 22, 23, 24, 46, 57, 71, 100, 117, 123, 128, 132, 133, 137, 139. 141. 142, 146, 186, 208, 229, 230, 234, 237, 239, 246, 247, 249, 250, 287, 289, 292, 293, 329, 334, 335. 341, 345, 366, 367, 376, 377, 378, 379, 415, 441, 444; 11- 10, II, 31, 32, 34, 43, 63, 64, 71, 75, 81, 82, 84, 91, 113, 115, 129, note, 150, 162, 181, 198, 208, 209, 212, 216, 232, 233, 252, 329, 390, 402; a joyous supper, i. 129 ; at Kegworth, i. 90, 104 ; duel with Jeffrey, i. 41, 42, 43; epitaph, ii. 411 ; his Life of Byron, i. 37, 227, 377, 392 ; last illness and death, ii. 345, 403.. 411; last visit to Samuel Rogers, ii. 314 ; on Don Juan, ii. 312; Life of Sheridan, i. 389 Moore's Diary, i. 263, 272, 273, 274, 275, 276, 281, 282, 283, 286, 287, 290, 295, 309, 310, 3", 343, 351, 352, 353, 366, 415,426,441, 443, 452; 11- 30, 81, 88, 89, 112, 113, 114, 115, 142, 147, 148, 155, 156, 158, 194, 198, 199, 214, 216 More, Sir T. (his house), ii. 206, 7 Morgan, Lady, i. 374; ii. 116, 120, 167, 310, 380, 403 — William, ii. 132, note Morley, Lady, ii. 153, 154, 247 OSB Morpeth, Lord, i. 100, loi ; ii. 237, 287 Mosbourg, Comte de, i. iSi, 1S2, 206 Mount-Edgcumbe, Lady, ii. 402 Mountmorres, Lord, i. 204 Moxon, E., ii. 46, 70, 87, 232, 246, 290, 370, 388 Murat, King, i. 180 Murray, John, i. 141, 146, 212, 213, 229, 259, 260, 261, 262, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286, 376, 377, 409, 410, 412, 413, 414, 426, 441 ; ii. 103, 320 NAPIER, Lady, ii. 429 — Miss, ii. 429 — Sir Charles J., ii. 382, 429 — W., ii. 201 Napoleon, Emperor, i. 15S, 160, 161, 199, 355; to Lady Hol- land, i. 309 — Louis, ii. 3x2, 313, 369, 394, 397, 399, note, 400 ' National Prejudices,' Rogers on, i. 392 Nelson, death of, i. 33 Nepaul banquet, the, ii. 356, 358 Newcastle, Duke of, i. 379 Norfolk, Duke of, i. 196 Normanby, Lady, i. 374 — Lord, ii. 362 Normanbys, the, ii. 349 Northwick, Lord, i. 4 Norton, Andrews, ii. 169 — Mrs., i. 299; ii. 34, 178, 196 197, 292, 378 ; at Rogers's table, ii. 290, 291 ; lines to Rogers, ii. 298 Nugent, Lord and Lady, ii. 281 O'CONNELL, Daniel, ii. 312 Oldham, quoted, ii. 144 ' On a voice that had been lost,' i. 60 O'Neil, Miss, i. 249 Opie, Mr., i. 5 — Mrs., i. 22, 435, 436, 438 Ord, Mr.,ii. 81 Orrery, Lord, ii. 380 Osborne, Ralph Bernal, ii. 367 INDEX 459 OSB Osbornes, the, ii. 343 Ossoiy, Lord, i. 247, 270, 2S7 Ottley, Mrs., ii. 45 Oxford, Lady, i. iSo, 397, 39S — Lord, i. 39S PAESTUM, the temples at, i. 182, 183, 184 Paine, Edmund, ii. 391, 417, 431, 444 Palmer, Lady M., i. 237 Palmerston, Lord, i. 43 ; ii. loS, 284, 359. 360, 3^3' Jt*?, 410 ' Pamela ' (Lady Camijbell), i. 28, 218, 426 ; ii. 402 Panizzi, Antonio, ii. 55, 172 Parr, Dr., i. 4. S ; ii. 147, 329; death of, i. 304; reconciled to Mackintosh, i. 302 Pate, K., attacks the Queen, ii. 361 Peel, Sir Robert, ii. 102, iii, 166, 200, 244, 283, 317, 325, 354, 362 ; death of, ii. 363, 364 ; story of, ii. 334 Perry (Morning Chronicle), i. 247, 248 Petrarch's house, i. 177 ; ink- stand, i. 177, 427 Pett, Dr., i. 277 Petty, Lord Henry, i. 4, 22, 43 Philippe, Louis, ii. 312, 361, 419 Philips, George, i. 241 Phipps, Edmund, ii. 178 Pickbourne, Kev. James, ii. 439 Pickering, John (philologist), ii. 287 Pickersgill, H., his portrait of Wordsworth, ii. 69, 114 Pictet, M., i. 174 Pigou, Mrs., i. 1 10 Piozzi, Mrs., i. 4, 8 Pitt, \V., i. iS; death of, i. 33 * IMagiary, Sir Fretful,' i. 75 Planta, Mr., i. 5 Playfair, John, i. 292, note — Sir Lyon, i. 292, note 'Pleasures of Hope, The,' i. 2 ' Pleasures of Memory, The,' i. 2, 36, 121, 122 QUI Plunket, Lord, ii. 25 Poems (Illustrated Edition), ii. 4, 5, 6, 7 ; artists engaged, ii. 5, 7 ' Poet's Club,' i. 248 Political crisis in 1834, ii. 104, 106, 107, 108, 109, no — intrigues in 1834, ii. 108 Pollok, Kobert, i. 447, 448, 449 Ponsonby, Lord, i. 375 Poole, Mr., ii. 197 — Mr. I{. Stuart, ii. 240 I'ope, the, i. 328, 333 Porson, K.,i.4, 34, 74, 75 ; ii. 439 Porter, Jane, ii. 116, 120 Power, Kichard, i. 290 ' Prelude, The,' i. 2^ Prescott, W. H., ii. 169, 21 8, 287, 328, 339. 374, 375. 384. 427 ; ' Conquest of Mexico,' ii. 225, 236 ; ' Conquest of Peru,' ii. 287 Pretyman, Mrs., i. 7 Priestley, Dr., i. 294, 41S Price, Dr., i. 287, 294, 418 ; ii. 245 — Lady Caroline, i. 195 — Uvedale, i. 5, 47, 153 ; ii. iS, 22 ; death of, ii. 25 ; on Tom Grenville, i. 447 ; \Vordsworth on, i. 405 Pringle, Thomas, ii. 301 Procter, Mrs., i. 353 Prout, drawings in ' Italy,' ii. 3 Punch, ii. 41S I'usey, Lady Emily, ii. 436, 437 Pybus, the poet, ii. 49, 50 I'ye, J., engravings in 'Italy,' ii. 3.4 QUARTERLY Review, The,' i. 55, 56, 120, 122, 133; on Rogers's works of art, i. 29S, note ; ' Reminiscences of Sanmel Rogers,' ii. 130. 133, 416 Queen, her Majesty the, ii. 351, 352, 353. 354. 43*S Quillinan, Dora, ii. 202, 207 ; death of, ii. 315 — I'^dward, ii. 9, 69, 202, 206, 220 Quin. Mr., ii. 168 Quiucey, Thomas de, i. 432 460 ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES EAD RADNOR, Lord, ii. 57 Eammohun Eoj", ii. 61 E^camier, Madame, ii. 224 Eedding,Cyrus, on Samuel Rogers, ii. 163 Eedesdale, Lord, ii. 366 Regent, the Prince, i. 148, 258 Reynolds, Sir Joshua, i. 21, 113, 186; at Tintern, i. 358 Eicardo, Mr., death of, i. 376 Eice, Spring, ii. 104 Eich, Mr. Milnes, i. 9; ii. 148 Eichelieu, M. de, i. 206 Eichmond, Duke of, ii. 1 16 Eobbery at Eogers's Bank, ii. 253 Eobertson, Dr., i. 8, 176, 331 — Lord, ii. 312 Eobinson, Heni-y Crabb, i. 87, 208, 352, 361, 407, 408, 426; ii. 180, 185, 220, 290, 291, 327, 391; 'Diary' quoted, ii. 114, 141, 154, 157, 216, 232 — J. H., engravings in 'Italy,' ii. 3 Eocca, M. de, i. 225, 228 Eoebuck, J., ii. 360, 363 Eogers, Daniel, i. i, 72, "jt,, 146, 361; death of, ii. 25, 26; Charles Lamb's sonnet on, ii.27 — Henry, i. 2, 39, 107, 168, 314, 315, 316, 325, 329, 401, 418; death of, ii. 82 — Martha, i. 311; ii. 139, 186, 247. 437 — Mary, ii. 148, 150, 186 — Samuel, accident to, ii. 355 ; a Commissioner for Houses of Parliament, ii. 140, 141 ; active habits, ii. 162 ; admiration for Cowper, ii. 210 ; advice to Wordsworth, i. 408 ; advice on Tennyson's pension, ii. 354 ; ample income in 1805, i. 2; an old man's talk, ii. 221- 225, 261-266, 329-334 ; appeals for his patronage, ii. 414; ap- peal to Lord Lansdowne, i. 444; as churchwarden, i. 442 ; as octogenarian, ii. 219, 285, 378; at Aberystwith, i. 72 ; at Al- thorp, i. 288 ; at Bowood, i. 134, 242, 249, 364, 441, 452 ; EOG Eogers (continued) ii. 81, 159, 198, 208, 209; at Brighton,!. 51, 52,53; ii. 335, 380, 405, 442 ; at Broadstairs, ii. 138, 170, 328; at Burns's house, i. 10; at Catharine ShaiiDe's, i. 408 ; at Chiswick, i. 33; at Crewe Hall, i. 116; at Dropmore, i. 362, 363, 390, 427, 444 ; at Florence, i. 320 ; at Fonthill Abbey, i. 252; at Glasgow in 1803, i. 11; at Gleniinnart in 181 2, i. 103- 107, III ; at Hagley,i. 72, 73; at Lausanne with Mrs. Sid- dons, i. 311 ; at Lord Ashbur- ton's, ii. 247 ; at Longleat, i. 252 ; at Lowther Castle in 1812, i. 99 ; at Naples, i. 180; at Norbury, i. 52 ; at Ormi- thwaite, i. 96, 97, 98 ; at Pisa, with Byron and Shelley, i. 336, 337; at Eome,i. 179,326, 331; at Sheridan's deathbed, i. 216, 217,218; at St. Anne's Hill, i. 29 ; at Strathfieldsaye, i. 455 ; ii. 200; at the Lakes in 1812, i. 90, 9 1 , 97 ; at Tunbridge Wells in 1805, i. 23, 24, 25, 42 ; at Sydney Smith's, i. 13, 229; at Venice, i. 169, 171, 315; at William Smith's, i. 28 ; at Woburn, ii. 208 ; at Words- worth's, i. 93, 432 ; autumn visits in 1834, ii. 96-104 ; at Woolbeding, i. 71, 136; black- balled, i. 21 ; business arrange- ments, i. 2 ; business help to men of letters, i. 123, 124 ; burial place, ii. 447 ; care for servants, ii. 416; caustic wit, ii. 125 ; close of productive period, ii. 8 ; closing scene, ii. 444; Commonplace Book, i. 54; conversation, ii. 219, 220; cyni- cal sayings, ii. 128, 129; diary on the Continent in 1814,!. 158- 165; dinnerparties, i. 299,421; divorced from politics, i. 294 ; entertains Crabbe, 246, 248, 249 ; epigram on Ward, i. 122 ; INDEX 461 ROG Ilogers (coHtlmied) epigram on the French King's entry into London, i. 14S ; on Sir William's dinners, i. 421 ; first visit to Italy, i. 169-184; fear of cabs, ii. 382, note ; friends in i8oo-i,i. 4; friends of later years, ii. 417; fond- ness for children, i. 153, 20S ; 'Foscari,' i. 311, 320, 332; gets pension for Gary, ii. 171, 172, 173, 174; head of firm, i. I ; his house, i. 298 ; ii. 82 ; his ideal home, i. 5 ; in 1 85 1, ii. 3S7, 404 ; his ' invete- rate tongue gall,' ii. 152; his vyeak voice, ii. 125; introduces Byron to Moore and Campbell, i. 85 ; jokes against him, ii. 130, 131; hist days, ii. 444; learns art from Sutton Shai-pe, i. 39 ; lines on G. Denman's marriage, ii. 409 ; lines to Grattan, i. 223 ; lines on C. J. Fox, i. 29, 30, 32, 37 ; hterary position, i. 2,3, 300 ; loss of me- mory, ii. 437 ; love of harmony, i. 299 ; not a diner out, i. 421 ; Nonconformist education, ii. 245 ; offered the Laureateship, ii. 351, 352; offers marriage, i. 6; on Addison's humour, ii. 88 ; on American visitors, ii. 167 ; on a hne in Pope, ii. 235 ; on Bishop Bathurst, ii. 332 ; on Byron, ii. 200, 312; on Byron's generosity, ii. 265 ; on Byron's Memoirs, ii. 333 ; on Campbell's funeral, ii. 395 note; on Charles J. Fox, i. 27 ; on 'Childe Harold,' i. 88; on choice of a house, ii. 263; on ' Columbus,' i. 65, 70 ; on Com- position, i. 185, 186 ; on Cowper's ' Homer,' ii. 265, 266, 331 ; on Dickens's ' Christ- mas Carol,' ii. 239 ; on Dick- ens's style, ii. 240; on Dryden, ii. 264 ; on Duchess of York, ii. 332 ; on Duke of Wellington, ii. 32, 178, 222 ; on Dumas and ROG Rogers (continued) Sue, ii. 226 ; on Earl Grey, ii. 271 ; on evil as a problem, ii. 268 ; on Fielding's works, ii. 262; on ' high life,' ii. 64 ; on his breakfasts, ii. 283 ; on his early writings, ii. 263 ; on his letters, ii. 423 ; on his sister Maria, i. 38 ; on Home Tooke, i. 82, 83 ; on Hume and Gibbon, ii. 226 ; on ' Jacqueline,' ii. 332 ; on Johnson, ii. 332 ; on Judas, ii. 262 ; on Lady Holland, ii. 273, 274 ; on Lord Wellesley, ii. 1 78 ; on Milton's laxity of metre, i. 276 ; on Milton and Shake- speare, ii. 223 ; on Miss Edge- worth, ii. 262 ; on Moore's duel with Jeffrey, ii. 329 ; on Morton (dramatist), ii. 226 ; on Napoleon's smile, ii. 188; on our wars, ii. 223 ; on Pitt, ii. 329 ; on Schiller and Goethe, ii. 222 ; on Tom Hood, ii. 233 ; on Wordsworth's conversation, ii. 216; on Wordsworth's versification, ii. 141 ; oracle of Holland House, i. 35 ; personal attacks on, ii. 131, 132 ; political interests, i. 45 ; portrait at Harvard, ii. 290; portrait at Drayton Manor, ii. 325 ; portrait in Moore's Memoirs, ii. 423 ; reconciles Moore and Byron, i. 85 ; re- conciles Moore and Jeffrey, i. 42 ; reconciles Parr and Mackintosh, i. 302-304 ; ' Re- collections,' i. 27, 28, 29, 31, 34, 60, 182, 355, 362, 422; reli- gious opinions, ii. 421 ; repu- tation confirmed by illustrated editions, ii. 7; re-writes ' Italy,' ii. 2 ; satire on his ' Human Life,' ii. 132 ; Scotch excur- sions in 1812, i. 105-113; settles down to bachelor life, i. I ; severe illness, ii. 34 ; story of George II., ii. 223 ; superintends illustrations of his books, ii. 3, 5 ; talk at his 462 KOGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES EOG Ropers {continued) house, i. 295; visits the Pope, i. 179; ^vithdra^ving from the world, ii. 428 ; works of art, i. 298 (See also under ' Letters ') — Sarah, i. 6, 23, 103, 113, 125, 168, 248, 249, 282, 366 ; ii. 43, 134, 138, 147, 165, 170, 181, 191, 192, 196, 229, 290, 317, 324, 442 ; accident to, i. 12 ; death of, ii. 444 ; edits ' Italy,' Part I., i. 335 ; with S. R. in 1814, i. 158 — Thomas, jun., i. i ; ii. 246 — Thomas, sen., i. i, 418 Rogers's seat, i. 36 ; lines on, by Luttrell, i. 264 Roget, Dr. i. 279 Rolfe, Lady, ii. 370 — Lord, ii. 366 Rolls, C. (engraver), ii. 3 Romilly, Mrs., ii. 280 — Sir Samuel, i. 45, 175, 278, 294; ii. 419 Roscoe, William, ii. 172 Rosebery, Lord, ii. 103 Rostopschin, i. 116 Ruskin, Mr., ii. 387 ; on Venice, ii. 304 Russell, Dr. James, i. 305 — Lady John, ii. 355 ; jen d'esprit, ii. 218; MS. poems, ii. 411, 412, 444 — Lady W., ii. 368 Russell, Lord John, i. 181, 182, 234, 281, 310, 364, 366, 415, 426; ii. 10, 31, 64, 75, 100, 194, 195, 209, 214, 218, 244, 274, 283, 369, 381, 383, 391, 403, 410, 411, 412, 424, 443; 'Life of Moore,' i. 22; ii. 31, 402, 410, note, 422, 423 — Lord Wriothesley, ii. 1 1 Russia, Emperor of, i. 201, 206 Rutland, Duke of, i. 1 96 ; ii. 1 36 s ANDWICH, Lady, ii. 287 Scarlett, James (Lord Abin- ger), i. 5, 14, 113; ii- loS- 108, 109 SHA Schlegel, August von, i. 301 — Friedrich von, i. 163, 228 ' School for Scandal,' i. 273 Schuyler, Mrs. ii. 319 Schwarzenberg, Prince, i. 201 Scott, Walter, i. 2, 8, 11, 19, 20, 36, 48, 86, 125, 126, 139, 150, 248, 289, 304, 351, 353, 367, 441 ; ii. 10, 41, 60, 62, 69, 70, 164, 1 76. 1 9 1, 325,352, 390 ; death of, ii. 81 ; ' Lay of the Last Min- strel,' i. II, 17, 20, 30; re- muneration of, i. 361 — Sir William (Lord Stowell), i. 4 ' Scribbler, The,' ii. 8 Sedgwick, Canon, ii. 104 — Katharine, ii. 181 Senior, Nassau, ii. 164 Seymour, Lady, ii. 178, 196 — Lord, ii. 196 — Lord and Lady, ii. 142 Shaftesbury, Lord, ii. 139 Sharp, R. ('Conversation') i. 5, 13, 14, 22, 43, 44, 45, 48, 54, 91. 93. 94. 96, 98, 102, 113, 114, 118, 125, 141, 149, 159, 186, 208, 215, 223, 232, 238, 241, 281, 282, 288, 290, 303, 307, 308, 313, 335, 346, 347, 350. 351. 376, 404, 407, 412, 415,421, 426, 431; ii. 10, 32, 36, 8 1 , 98, III, 270, 406 ; death of, ii. 116, 117; last illness, ii. 112 Sharpe, Catharine, i. 40, 41, 277, 361 ; ii. 206 — Daniel, i. 41 — Henry, i. 39, 40, 41 ; ii. 138, 220, 246, 261, 281, 388; ' Re- collections 'by, ii. 22 1-226,261- 266, 329-335 — Maria, i. 38, 39 — Mary, 39, 40 — Samuel (Egyptologist), i. 40, 41, 279, 361, 401, 402 ; ii. 64, 138, 219,240, 245, 395 note; diary of, ii. 417 — Sutton, Q.C., i. 40, 136, 329, 436 ; ii. 228, 229 — Sutton (senior) i. 5, 38, 39,45. 57, 157 INDKX 403 SHA Sharpe, William, i. 40; ii, 149, 170, 246. 329 Sharpes, The, ii. 186 Shee, Martin, i. 208 Sheil, II. Lalor, ii. 244 Shelburncs, The, ii. 252 Shelley, P. B., i. 336, 343 — Lady, i. 355 — Mrs., ii. 168 — Sir John, ii. 120 Shepherd, Sir Samuel, i. 30S Sheridan, Charles, ii. 178 — Mrs., i. 144, 217, 218, 219, 220, 221, 389 — R. B., i. 28, 128, 132, 133, 139, 140, 144, 145, 216, 217, 218, 219, 222, 223, 272, 273, 275, 276, 294, 389, 415; at Rogers's, i. 141 ; defeated at Stafford, i. 1 14 ; ' The Stranger,' i- 379 ; practical jokes, i. 275 ; 'Speeches inWcstminster Hall,' i. 141 ; unpaid cheques, i. 141 ; unsuspected source of income, i. 139, 140, 141 — Mrs. R. B. (junr.). ii. 178 — R. B. (junr.) ii. 178, 226 Siddons, Mrs. i. 4, 16, 18, 22, 311, 313, 326, 353, 354, 440; ii. 201 ; death of, ii. 66 Sigourney, Mrs., ii. 424 Simeon, Mr. i. 199 Sinclair, Lord, ii. 116 Sismondi, J. C. de, i. 163, 164, 169. 174. 33.1 — Jessie de, ii. 38 1 Skirving, Mr. (artist), i. 215, 216 Slater, Miss, ii. 46 Sloper, Colonel, i. 14 Smith, Adam, i. 8 — Drummond, ii. 104 — Lady Anne, ii. 25S — Robert Percy (' Bobus '), i. 5 ; ii. 81, 83, 214, 260, 268 ; death of, ii. 267, 269 — Sydney, i. 5, 13, 14, 17, 19, 116, 229, 234, 289, 298, 352, 415, 421 ; ii. II, Si, 83. 84, no, 112, 113, 125, 126, 147, Ko, 151, 152, 154, 159, 182, 183, 208, 224, 235, 258, 260 ST. 261, 267, 269, 312; and S. Rogers, ii. 62; jokes of, i. 427 ; jokes on S. Rogers, ii. 276; on S. Rogers, ii. 277 — Mrs. Sydney, i. 281, 282 — William, M.P., i. 5, 28, 241 — W. R. (engraver), ii. 3 Smyth, Professor, ii. 194 Sneyd, Mr., i. 314, 315 Somer.set, Duchess of, ii. 293, 343 — Duke of, ii. 116, 135, note ' Somnambulist, The,' ii. 41 Sonnet, by W. L. Bowles, i. 251 Sotheby, W., i. 4, 22, 239,255; ii. 87, note Soult, Marshal, ii. 182 Southey, Mrs., ii. 122 — Miss, ii. 87 — Robert, i. 2, 36, 139, 166, 16S, 185, 229, 232, 288, 289, 404, 410, 434; ii. 69, 113, 115, 138. 142, 154, 155. 158, 176, 201, 346 ; death of, ii. 232 ; his 'Madoc.'i. 17; Italy attributed to, i. 343 Sparrow, Lady Olivia, i. 166, 176 Spedding, Mr., ii. 417 Spencer, Lady, i. 248, 249; ii. 48 — Lord, i. 198, 199, 248, 288; ii. 106 — Lord Robert, i. 4, 24, 25 — William, i. 5, 22, 23, 74; ii. 329 ; and Moore's duel, i. 42 St. Albans, Duchess of, i. 23, t;q, Stael, Madame de, i. 132, 1^4. 135, 145, 162, 164, 209, 225, 228, 240. 452 ; ii. 224 Stanfield, Clarkson, ii. 1S6 Stanhope. Colonel, i. 378 — Lady Hester, i. 362 — Lord, ii. 178, 182, 200, 201 — Mr., i. 248 Stanley, Lady M., i. 331 — Lord, ii. 359 Starky, Mrs., ii. 403 Stewart. Dugald, i. 113 St. Helens. Lord, i. 361 ; ii. 46 St. John, Lord, i. 276 St. John Long, ii. 46, note 464 KOGERS AKD HIS CONTEMPOEARIES STO Stone, William, i. 28 ; ii. 402 Storrow, Mrs., ii. 427 Story, Judge, ii. 287 Stothard, R., i. 5, 205, 247 ; ii. 46, 57 ; drawings in ' Italy ' and poems, ii. 3, 4, 5 Stowell, Lord, ii. 191 Strangford, Lord, i. 248 Strathfieldsaye, ii. 8. Strutts, the, i. 137 Sturch, Mrs., ii. 171 Suffolk, Lord, ii. 253 Sumner, Charles, ii. 167, 174, 175. 320 Sussex, Duke of, i. 419 Sutherland, Duchess of, ii. 120 — Duke of, ii. 89, 156, 160 TALBOT, Sir Charles, i. 52 ' Tales of the Hall,' i. 244 ' Tales of my Landlord,' i. 239 Talfourd, Sergeant, ii. 157, 196 Talleyrand, M. de, i. 28, 34, 172, 187, 387, 452 ; ii. 60, 224 ; at Bowood, ii. 230 ; Danton's agent, ii. 229, 230 TaLma, M., i. 202 Tanker%-ille, Lord, ii. 98, 103 — Lord and Lady, i. 391 ; ii. 1S6 Taylor, Abbe, i. 328 — Sir Henry, ii. 109, 113, 115, 125, 142, 146, 158, iSo, 355, note ; on Rogers, ii. 146, 165 — Mr. (printer), i. 399 ■ — Tom, ii. 418 — William, i. 435 Telford, Henry, ii. 301 Tennyson, Alfred, ii. 290, 291, 387 ; goes to Court in Rogers's suit, ii. 355, 7iote ; pension, ii. 354 ' Thalaba,' i. 2 'The Brides of Venice,' i. 317, 324 ' The Excursion,' i. 50 ' The Pleasures of Hope,' i. 300 ' The Queen has done it all,' ii. no Thiers, M., ii. 399 trsH Thorn, Rev. J. H., ii. 183 Thorwaldsen, i. 179, 328; ii. 112, 113 Thrale, Cecilia, ii. 310 Thurlow, Lord, Moore's review, i. 131 ; poems, i. 131 ; verses to Rogers, i. 129, 130 Tickell, Mr., i. 275 — Mrs., i. 218, 275 Ticknor, George, ii. 180, 375; diary, ii. 123, 124, 164; on Rogers, ii. 164, 165 — Mrs., ii. 180, 193 Tierney, G., i. 5, 281, 282 'To a Girl Asleep,' i. 15, 19 Tooke, Home, i. 4, 34, 45, 294 ; adventures of, i. 76-79 ; stories of, i. 79-81 ; funeral, i. 82 Torlonias, the, i. 179, 327 Torrington, Lord, ii. 105 Towgood, Mr., i. 277 ; ii. 120 Townley, Mr., i. 20 Townshend, Lord F., i. 219 — Lord John, i. 4, 275, 281 Travers, Benjamin, ii. 147, 201, 202 Trench, Archbishop (Diary), ii. 180 Triplets in Dryden, i, 102 ; Ro- gers's poems, i. 102 Trotter, Captain, i. 31 Truro, Lord, ii. 366 Tuckerman, Henry, ii. 427 Tuflin, Mr., i. 5 Tunbridge WeUs in 1805, i. 24, 25 Tupper, Mr. M. F., ii. 326 Turner, J. M. W., ii. 114, 127, 128; and Samuel Rogers, ii. 127, 128; death of, ii. 407; drawings in ' Italy,' ii. 3, 4 ; drawings in poems, ii. 5 ; his will, ii. 407, 408 ; i^ayments to, ii. 6 ; revealed to England by ' Italy,' ii. 5 Twiss, Horace, i. 134 TTNIVERSITY of London, i. U 418, 419, 420 Usher, Captain, i. 199 INDEX 4C5 VAL VALrY (printer), i. 393, 394, 399, 400 Van (le We\er, M., ii. 178 Villicrs, Lady Harriet, ii. 332 — Miss, ii. 46 WAKEFIELD, Rev. Gilbert, 1.45.418 Wales, Prince of, i. 254; ii. 225 — Princess of, i. iSo, iSi Wallis (engraver), ii. 3, 4, 5 Walpole, Sir Eobert, i. 80 Ward, J. W. (Lord Dudley), i. 5, 22, 43. 331 ; apologises, i. 122 ; attacks 'Columbus,' i. 121 ; epigram on, i. 122 ' Waverley,' i. 239 Webster, Daniel, ii. 180, 212, 287,426,427, 441 Weddell, i. 5 Wedgewood, Mr. and Mrs., ii. 1 74 Weimar, Grand Duke of, ii. 318 Wellesley, Lord, ii. 178 — Rev. Gerard, i. 455 ; ii. 200 Wellington, Duke of, i. 34, 182, 204, 206, 355, 442,455; ii. 31, 32, 45, 60, 102, III, 155, 156, 166, 17S, 1S2, 1S7, 194,418,438 West (painter), ii. 224 Westmacott, R., ii. 135, 208 Westmacotts, the Miss, ii. 280 Westmoreland, Lady, i. 179, 321, 327. 334 — Lord, i. 100 West-Young (actor), ii. 168 Wetherall, ii. 108 Whately, Archbishop, ii. 312 Whishaw, J., i. 13, 44, 28 1, 303; ii. Si, 89, no, 147 Whitbread, i. 145; his rejected address, i. 12S White, Miss, i. 367 — Rev. J. Blanco, ii. 183, 184 Wilberforcc, W., i. 166 ; compared to Samuel liogers, ii. 134 Wilbraham, Roger, i. 28 1 Wilde, Sir Thomas, ii. 365, 366 Wilkes, John, i.222 ; ii. 155 ; and the Prince of Wales, ii. 225 Wilkie. IX. ii. 214 WOR Wilkins, Mr., i. 13 Wilkinson, Sir Gardner, ii. 186 William IV., ii. 45, 104, 106, 107, 108, 109 Williams, Lady, ii. 328 — Miss H. M., i. 206, 310 — Mrs. Purvis, i. 368 Willoughby, Miss, i. 52; ii. 1S5 Wilson, Professor, i. 362, 447 Wilton, Lady, ii. 200 — Lord, i. 331 ; ii. 200 Windham, .Joseph (anti(juan-),i.4 — William, i. 4, 18; death of, i. 75 ; diary quoted, i. 46, tiote WinthroiJ, R. C, ii. 318 Wiseman, Cardinal, ii. 383 Woodfall, Mr., ii. ^^ Wordsworth, Rev. Christopher, ii. 423 — Dora, i. 431,450; ii. 9, 10, 35, 40, 53, 54, 69, 70, 87, 98, 114, 137. 145 — Dorothy, i. 9, 10, 11, 231, 232, 233; ii. 35, 69, 98, 137, 145 ; journal of tour, i. 233, 344, 345, 346, 347, 34^ — Mrs., 1. 93, 94, 126, 150. 241, 350, 352. 452, 453; ii. 9, 10, 53.54, 68. 112, 114, 145 — Rev. John, i. 93 ; ii. 36, ^7, 38, 40, note, 96, 98 — Thomas, death of, i. 124 — William, i. 2, 9, 10, 11, 4S, 92, 93. 94, 123, 124, 139, 147, 149, 166, 168, 229, 230, 231, 232, 271, 288, 2S9, 295, 306, 342, 351. 352, 362, 3t>7. 40S, 409, 415. 421, 43'. 432, 434, 436; ii. 69, 96, 98, 112, 114, 115, 141, 146, 153, 154, 155, 157, 158, 161, 171, 176, 180, 216, 24s, 258, 261, 263, 279, 315. 323. 325- 351, 352, 355, 426 ; and C. Fo.\, i. 33 ; and Lord Lonsdale, i. 103 ; and his publishers, i. 402-415 ; Pickers- gill's portrait of, ii. 69, 114; appointed stamp distributor, i. 103 ; death of. ii. 346, 347 ; epigiiini on Scott, i. 125; made lauivatc. ii. 232 ; ou VOL. II. H n 466 EOGEKS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES WOR Fox, i. 32 ; on ' Italy,' i. 345 ; takes Kydal Mount, i. 125 ; Tbrui^p's statue of, ii. 391 ; wears Eogers's Court suit, ii. 232 Wordsworth, William, jun.,ii. 122 Worsley, Sir R., i. 4 ' Written in the Highlands ' in 1812, i. 103 YOU YATES, Mr. and Mrs., ii. 168 York, Archbishop of , ii. 100, 103,315 — Duke of, i. 253 Young, Professor, i. 9 'Young Eoscius,' the, i. 17, 18, 20, 30 Young, ' Ubiquity,' ii. 168 PllIVJ'Kn BY SPornawooDR axij co., .nku'-stiucet scjuakb LOXIKJX BY THE SAME AUTHOR- Large post 8vo. I2s. 6d. THE EARLY LIFE OF SAMUEL ROGERS. ©pinions ot tbe press. ' This first instalment of the life of Rogers is fascinating reading in itself, and promises us greater pleasure in the future,' — The Times. ' Mr. Clayden has in this volume enabled us for the first time to know what sort of a youth Samuel Rogers was.' — The Daily News. ' Mr, Clayden has claims which no one can dispute to undertake this work. All the diaries and correspondence of the poet are in Mr. Clayden's possession ; and it must be at once admitted that he seems to have made a most careful and judicious usu of them. The style of his book is excellent for the purpose — clear, lively, and without any attempt at fine writing.' — The Gu.tRUiAN. 'We are glad to welcome a book which is by no means a superriuotis addition to literary biography. . . . We must thank Mr. Clayden for the successful achievement of a task which for so long a time has been left undone.' — TuE Spectator. ' Mr. Clayden writes with sympathy, but certainly with too much admiration, for his hero.' But the fault is one to be readily pardoned, and he has done his task, on the whole, with ability and discretion." — The .Athen.eu.m. ' .A. very interesting volume. ... 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