The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart
Chapter 21: 1842-50
John Gibson Lockhart to Charlotte Lockhart Hope, 25 September 1847
“Sussex Place, September 25, 1847.
“Dear Cha,—I was
pleased with your letter from Milton, and the accounts from others of the party
there. This I hope finds you at home, and all well, with Lady Hope and Lady
Ferguson, to whom offer my best respects. H. Ellis dined here yesterday with Vyvyan and Penn; he has
come over for a month’s visiting —the dame retreated from Spa to Paris. He
has brought a box for you, which I will bring down; but you will write to
himself, of course, or to Mrs. Ellis. I
don’t know what the prey contained is, but ’tis from Storr &
Mortimer’s, as was, I fancy, much of the other plunder of the trap. I am
very busy, working that I may feel easy when away; but when busy I am always
better in spirits, and accordingly I dine daily with some friends—to-day
with Ford, tomorrow
Vyvyan. On Monday or Tuesday Croker comes to stay with me for some days.
Love to Hope, Q.C.,
&c.—Ever yours,
“I have bought a fine book for the
autographs—folio, dark red velvet—but am not at leisure for
contents at this moment. Tell Hope
that Sir R. ![]()
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Vyvyan swears all the row at Rome,
and thence over Italy, is a
cross.
Metternich wanted to get rid of the
Cardinals and Monsignori in the Legations, and set
Pius IX. to work, who accordingly banishes the real liberal
Prince Monsegnano, while he of Lucca goes to
Vienna to call for white battalions, as the Tuscan Grand Duke, &c.,
&c., will all do in a week or two. Meanwhile our Queen goes to
Adverechie without a chaplain, and with a Popish Duke; and
Wellington sends Minto to the Quirinal to
co-operate with Metternich’s tool infallible.
What fun is my atheist High Anglican!
“J. G. L.”
John Wilson Croker (1780-1857)
Secretary of the Admiralty (1810) and writer for the
Quarterly
Review; he edited an elaborate edition of Boswell's
Life of
Johnson (1831).
Sir Henry Ellis (1788-1855)
English diplomat, the illegitimate son of Robert Hobart, fourth earl of Buckinghamshire;
he published
A Journal of the Proceedings of the Late Embassy to
China (1817).
Richard Ford (1796-1858)
Writer on art and Spanish affairs for the
Quarterly Review; he
published a
Handbook for Travellers in Spain (1839).
Lady Georgina Alicia Hope [née Brown] (d. 1855)
The youngest daughter of George Brown of Ellerton, Roxburghshire; in 1805 she married
General Sir Alexander Hope (1769–1837) of Rankeillour and Luffness.
James Robert Hope-Scott (1812-1873)
The son of General Hon. Sir Alexander Hope; in 1847 he married Charlotte Harriet Jane
Lockhart, daughter of the editor of the
Quarterly Review. He was a
barrister and Queen's Counsel.
John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854)
Editor of the
Quarterly Review (1825-1853); son-in-law of Walter
Scott and author of the
Life of Scott 5 vols (1838).
Clemens Fürst von Metternich (1773-1859)
Austrian statesman who proposed the doctrine of a balance of power at the Congress of
Vienna, and who fostered repression of dissent within the subsequent Holy Alliance.
Pope Pius IX. (1792-1878)
The Pope during the Victorian era, 1846-1878.
Sir Richard Rawlinson Vyvyan, eighth baronet (1800-1879)
The son of Sir Vyell Vyvyan, seventh baronet (d. 1820); educated at Christ Church,
Oxford, he was a Tory MP for Cornwall and Okehampton and published on scientific
subjects.
