Clayden: Rogers and his Contemporaries

‘My dear Mr. Rogers,—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 objectionable) of exacting laudatory Odes from the holder of that office, the Queen attaches importance to its maintenance from its historical antiquity and the means 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.

There was probably not much hesitation in the mind of monarch or of minister who should wear the laurel Rogers 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 Rogers 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 Rogers’s advice to Sir R. 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.

When this letter was received, Rogers was partially recovering from the serious accident which brought his active career to a close. He had kept up 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 in upon him, and the statements in the press. The picture I have been endeavour-

1 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.

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ing to draw of Rogers in his relation to his contemporaries 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.

‘My dear Rogers,—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.

‘Lyndhurst goes on well. Mind, I continue my interdict against your writing. Send only verbally how you go on.’

Rogers appears to have written a few lines, and Brougham sent him a reply the same evening—

‘My dear R.,—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 in excellent health and spirits on recovering his sight. The attack of the lunatic on the Queen 1 will give us the plague of addresses and trials. It is rather a pity the mob 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.

‘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 Lansdowne (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 Romish 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. Macfarlane, 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.

The accident to Sir Robert Peel took place on Saturday the 29th of June. On the day before he had spoken

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in the debate on Mr. Roebuck’s motion, and had, of course, taken the side of the opponents of Lord Palmerston’s policy. He was out on Saturday afternoon for his usual exercise, when, on Constitution Hill, his horse reared and threw him, and he was so much hurt 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 morning, 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 Government 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 seventy-two against fifty. Lord Lansdowne, speaking last, gave up the 8l. which had been adopted in the Commons. On the Bill going back to the Commons, 12l. was inserted instead of the 15l. which the Lords had fixed, and the Lords assenting, the Bill passed. Lord Brougham’s letters continue.

‘My dear Rogers,—Little has occurred 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 require to be handled by artists, and you never can keep off clumsy hands which expose you to the risk of ridicule.

‘Mrs. Meynell (née 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 bleeding. He suffered the greatest pain almost all the time he lingered.

‘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.’

‘My dear R.,—You see we have got a Chancellor. The ministers 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 public) pushed on the Government, and Wilde, Lord Eltham,1 is chosen. I have seen him, and he is a great friend of mine, and always was one of my favourite protégés and chums. He was sixth counsel for Queen Caroline with me, in 1820 and 1821. He was long a City solicitor, like his father before him, and knows somewhat 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 impeachable if not indictable for his sordid proceedings. Wilde is of a very far higher nature. I only fear he can never get through the arrears in Chancery which Cottenham, retaining the Great Seal so long after he was unable to work, has accumulated, for it is Wilde’s failing to be long, and very long, about his business—a failing he had at the Bar and on the Bench, bringing it with him from his attorney’s days; for an attorney holds every one point in every one case to be the very pivot on which the cause turns—a dreadful fault for either advocate or judge.

‘My dear R.,—I have little to report these two days. The cry against our new Chancellor continues. Rolfe was certainly the fittest man, but Dean Swift says that quality is quite fatal to any candidate. Then he had no place to give up which any one wished to have. Wilde, Lord Truro of Bowes, in Middlesex (for the heralds are queer geographers) took his seat yesterday, and I ushered him in with Redesdale. Lyndhurst would have been my second, but he came late. The peers present observed that my friend has not the “air distingué.” But I predict that his kind and honourable nature and entire freedom from all affectation and conceit will make him a favourite. I only dread his working himself to death to get rid of the arrears, and he cannot do it, work how he may. I had ten times his bodily strength, and more than ten times his power of shortening business. His fault is in that direction.

‘My dear R.,—Palmerston’s dinner of Saturday was the greatest failure ever known. Not a single colleague nor any person in office, except Attorney and Solicitor-General. All the M.P.’s known Radicals. The rest utterly unknown. It is said there was a riot and fight, and the police called in. No news have occurred since I had the pleasure of seeing you.

This was a dinner given to Lord Palmerston by the members of the Reform Club. It was limited to the first two hundred members who had signed the invitation, that being the number the dining-room of the club could accommodate. The chair was taken by Mr. Bernal Osborne.

‘My dear R.,—We all long to hear of you and how you get on. Mrs. Meynell is here, and desires, with Lady Malet, to be most kindly remembered to you. She did not like to call as she passed through town, for fear it might have troubled you; but I told her you would have been most happy to see her. Lady M. did call, but was not let in. We are all curious to know if it is really true that Luttrell is married. Pray satisfy our curiosity.

‘Lady W. Russell and her sons are here, and very agreeable they are. I have seen nothing of the Hollands, and learn that they are gone to Paris.

‘My dear Mr. Rogers,—You have often, when you were well, made me pass a pleasant evening; will you allow me—when you feel fit for it—to prevent you from passing a solitary one? Tuesdays and Fridays I am always in town, and I shall hope for a summons, though I dare not hope for it soon, as I know you must be very quiet for some time. I shall only add that, if thinking of you could have done you good, Lord John and I should have cured you long ago.

‘My dear Rogers,—Is it consistent with your surgeon’s injunctions that I should call to see you? I know that you have been visible to few only—do not, therefore, hesitate to say No if it ought not to be. If otherwise, I should greatly desire to shake your hand, as soon as you can admit me—at least, before I depart for the Continent. This will not be until the 10th of July. I am almost confident that you will be able to see me long before that time.

‘You will like to know that my wife keeps well, in spite of a sick nursery. She desires to be most kindly remembered to you, and I am always your much obliged and most affectionate

‘God bless you, dear Mr. Rogers, and grant that I may find you, if not well, at best better, on my return. I shall leave this myself, and hear of you this morning.

‘The papers tell us that the Queen has offered you the vacant Laureateship. It is what one might expect from her taste and judgment. The lost honours of that appointment have been sufficiently retrieved of late years to make it not unworthy of you. I will not ask you to write to me; for that may for some time be too great an effort, but I shall be truly rejoiced when I hear from some friend that you are quite recovered.

‘First of yourself—My last direct tidings of you were through Prescott, at whose house in Boston I dined on the 1st of this month, with Everett, Ticknor, and one or two other Boston worthies—a most agreeable close to my American excursion. Prescott spoke with much earnestness of your kindness to him, awakening much affectionate memory of the same in our friend Everett. Your portrait is in the drawing-room of the latter, opposite to that of Lord Aberdeen.

‘From Mr. Prescott’s report I infer favourably of your progress to that time. I shall rejoice in learning that it has continued the same since; and that you have gained good to your strength and to your general health by your stay at Brighton. All that relates, too, to the state of the limb, I shall gladly learn-—gladly, at least, if the account be good.

Rogers was by this time sufficiently recovered to write notes in answer to inquiries. One of these notes is worth reproducing. It was in answer to a letter from the Bishop of London, who wrote on the 31st of July, saying that for three weeks he had been confined to the house and unable to call to inquire after him in person, and asking him to send him a report. Rogers replied.

There is a sign of failing powers in this letter. From this time forward many of his notes began in the same way. Lady Dufferin, in the very ill-considered letter which she wrote about him after his death, and which is published in Mr. Hayward’s ‘Correspondence,’ says that his letters ‘generally begin with “Pray, pray”—a form of exordium which alternated with “What shall I say?”’ This is absurdly false as to his life up to its eighty-ninth year, but it is true of the few closing years. Rogers’s memory has suffered from the fact that so much of what

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has been called his ‘Table Talk’ belonged to the declining period, and that so many of the accounts of him which have been published refer also to his failing days. Mrs. Norton’s letter in the same volume as that in which her sister’s is published, and the extracts from it which Mr. Hayward included in his ‘Edinburgh Review’ article may be advantageously compared—may I not say contrasted?—with her letters to Rogers himself in this volume. In mentioning this letter of Mrs. Norton’s, there is, however, one passage in it which I may quote with approval, as true of one aspect of his life. ‘He was the very embodiment of quiet, from his voice to the last harmonious little picture that hung in his lulled room; and a curious figure he seemed—an elegant, pale watchtower, showing for ever what a quiet port literature and the fine arts might offer, in an age of “progress,” when every one is tossing, struggling, wrecking, and foundering on a sea of commercial speculation or political adventure: where people fight even over pictures, and if a man does buy a picture, it is with a burning desire to prove it is a Raphael to his yelping enemies, rather than to point it out with a slow white finger to his breakfasting friends.’ 1 The picture is of Rogers in his old age, and especially after his further promotion from the bedroom chair to the familiar rooms in which he still entertained his friends.

Rogers had at this time removed to Brighton, and was so far recovered as to be able to see his friends, and to take the air in his carriage as well as to write his letters. Among the large number of ladies who wrote to him at this period was Lady Morgan, one of his admirers, who, after his death turned round and spoke contemptuously of him. Lady Morgan was visiting Lady Dungarvan at Marston, in the summer, and she wrote to Rogers after reading the poetical works of Lord Orrery, ‘in whose library,’ she says, ‘I am writing, with “the Orrery” of his famous descendant beside me, and the portrait of his philosophical ancestor, Robert Boyle, before me.’ She tells him that while all the fine ladies in London are besetting his door with anxious inquiries and personal attentions, ‘there are three, far away, who are most desirous to learn of your progress to perfect recovery, and who prove, by the interest they feel about you, that “les absents n’ont pas toujours tort.”’ These were Lady Dungarvan, Lady Morgan herself, and another, whom she represents as all belonging to the troop ‘who were called into being to flutter round you when here and think of you when absent.’ In a very different tone Jessie de

LADY EMILY PUSEY

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Sismondi writes from Tenby to ask after him and to assure him that ‘the secret benevolence of your life which Mackintosh has so often told us with affectionate admiration,’ gave them confidence that he would sympathise in their desire to express their honour, admiration, and affection. The ‘we,’ she says, ‘are Allens who have so often experienced your kind attention.’ Another friend writes.

‘My dear Mr. Rogers,—I have felt very anxious about you ever since we left London. Some weeks ago I wrote to you, but I do not know whether you received my letter. Last week my brother went to London, and I begged him to call on you, that is, to make inquiries after you at your house. He brought me the pleasant intelligence that you had been able to leave London and were at Brighton. I am indeed rejoiced to hear that you had been able to move, and I trust that you have no difficulty in driving out every day.

Sir Charles J. Napier writes from Simla, as soon as the news of the accident reaches him, making affectionate inquiries. In the course of the letter he says:—

‘My dear Rogers,—I have heard nothing of you since I came to the country of the sun, but I conclude you have well-nigh finished your recovery, and I hope to find you in good force when I turn my face toward the fog and the frost.

‘My dear Mr. Rogers,—A thousand thanks for your kind letter of the 22nd November from Brighton. To know that you “are promoted from your bed to your chair,” from London to the seaside, and that you contemplate your remaining privations with serenity and cheerful acquiescence, is delightful. How I wish it were in my power to amuse occasionally one of your vacant hours! How I envy those who have the privilege of doing it! Mr. Prescott constantly speaks of the pleasure which he enjoyed in being admitted to your bedside. He has returned greatly improved in health, and in excellent spirits; and his friends are delighted to find that, in his case at least, the ill-natured adage, presentia minuit famam was not exemplified.

‘My wife joins me in affectionate regards. Your portrait, which hangs by our fireside, sheds its steady light on our little circle, and gives life to many a pleasant recollection.

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Constantine Henry Phipps, first marquess of Normanby (1797-1863) The son of Henry Phipps, first earl of Mulgrave; educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was a Whig MP, governor of Jamaica (1832-34), lord privy seal (1834), lord-lieutenant of Ireland (1835), and ambassador at Paris (1846-52).

William Hickling Prescott (1796-1859) American historian educated at Harvard; he published History of the Conquest of Mexico, 3 vols (1844).

Edward Bouverie Pusey (1800-1882) Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford; as a fellow of Oriel he became friends with Keble and Newman and was instrumental in launching the Oxford Movement. He was regius professor of Hebrew (1828).

Emily Pusey [née Herbert] (d. 1854) The daughter of Henry George Herbert, second Earl of Carnarvon; in 1822 she married Philip Pusey.

Raphael (1483-1520) Of Urbino; Italian painter patronized by Leo X.

John Arthur Roebuck (1801-1879) English MP for Bath (1832) born at Madras and educated in Canada; he was a member of the Reform Club (1836-64) who published in Westminster Review and Edinburgh Review.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) English poet, banker, and aesthete, author of the ever-popular Pleasures of Memory (1792), Columbus (1810), Jaqueline (1814), and Italy (1822-28).

Sarah Rogers (1772-1855) Of Regent's Park. the younger sister of the poet Samuel Rogers; she lived with her brother Henry in Highbury Terrace.

Lady Laura Rolfe [née Carr] (1807-1868) The daughter of Thomas Carr of Frognal, Hampstead; in 1845 she married Robert Monsey Rolfe, baron Cranworth. She was an acquaintance of Samuel Rogers.

Robert Monsey Rolfe, baron Cranworth (1790-1868) Educated at Winchester, Trinity College, Cambridge, and Lincoln's Inn; he was MP for Penryn and Falmouth (1832), solicitor-general (1834) serjant-at-low (1839), and lord chancellor (1852).

John Ruskin (1819-1900) Art critic and social reformer; he published Modern Painters, 5 vols (1843-60) and The Stones of Venice (1851-53).

Lady Elizabeth Laura Henrietta Russell [née Russell] (d. 1886) The daughter Lord William Russell; in 1829 she married the Rev. Lord Wriothesley Russell, son of the sixth duke of Beford.

Lady Frances Anna Maria Russell [née Elliot] (1815-1898) The daughter of Gilbert Elliot Murray Kynynmound, second earl of Minto; in 1841 she became the second wife of Lord John Russell.

John Russell, first earl Russell (1792-1878) English statesman, son of John Russell sixth duke of Bedford (1766-1839); he was author of Essay on the English Constitution (1821) and Memoirs of the Affairs of Europe (1824) and was Prime Minister (1865-66).

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) Scottish poet, novelist, antiquary, biographer, editor, and sheriff.

Jessica de Sismondi [née Allen] [Jessie] (1777-1853) The daughter of John Bartlett Allen of Cresselly; in 1819 she married the French historian Léonard Simond de Sismondi; two of her sisters married Wedgewoods, a third Sir James Mackintosh. She corresponded with Emma Darwin.

Edward John Stanley, second baron Stanley (1802-1869) The son of John Thomas Stanley, first Baron Stanley, educated at Christ Church, Oxford; he was Whig MP for Hindon (1831), North Cheshire (1832-41, 1847-48), raised to the peerage as baron Eddisbury (1848), president of the Board of Trade (1855-58) and postmaster-general (1860-66).

Sir Miles Thomas Stapleton, eighth Lord Beaumont (1805-1854) Of Carlton Towers, Yorkshire, the son of Thomas Stapleton; he renewed a title long in abeyance.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) Dean of St Patrick's, Scriblerian satirist, and author of Battle of the Books with Tale of a Tub (1704), Drapier Letters (1724), Gulliver's Travels (1726), and A Modest Proposal (1729).

Sir Henry Taylor (1800-1886) Poet, writer for the Quarterly Review, and autobiographer; he was author of the tragedy Philip van Artevelde (1834).

Henry John Temple, third viscount Palmerston (1784-1865) After education at Harrow and Edinburgh University he was MP for Newport (1807-11) and Cambridge University (1811-31), foreign minister (1830-41), and prime minister (1855-58, 1859-65).

Alfred Tennyson, first baron Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet who succeeded William Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in 1850; he published Poems, chiefly Lyrical (1830) and Idylls of the King (1859, 1869, 1872).

George Ticknor (1791-1871) American author and Harvard professor of modern languages who travelled extensively in Europe 1815-19.

Queen Victoria (1819-1901) Queen of England, 1837-1901.

Sarah Sophia Child- Villiers, countess of Jersey [née Fane] (1785-1867) Heiress and Whig hostess, the daughter of John Fane, earl of Westmorland (1759-1841), she married George Child-Villiers, earl of Jersey (1773-1859) in 1804.

Virgil (70 BC-19 BC) Roman epic poet; author of Eclogues, Georgics, and the Aenead.

Thomas Wilde, first baron Truro (1782-1855) English judge who made his reputation defending Queen Caroline; he was serjeant-at-law (1824), Whig MP for Newark-on-Trent (1831-32), and lord chancellor (1850-52).

Henry Augustus Wise [Harry Gringo] (1819-1869) American naval officer who served in the Mexican War and afterwards in the Navy Bureau of Ordnance; he published Tales for the Marines (1855). He was the son-in-law of Edward Everett

Cardinal Nicholas Patrick Stephen Wiseman (1802-1865) Roman Catholic clergyman educated at the English College in Rome; he was archbishop of Westminster and cardinal (1850).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) With Coleridge, author of Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.

The Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal. (1802-1929). Founded by Francis Jeffery, Sydney Smith, and Henry Brougham, the Edinburgh Review was for decades a principal organ of Whig opinion in Britain.

Abraham Hayward (1801-1884) “Samuel Rogers” in Edinburgh Review. Vol. 104 (July 1856): 73-122. A review of Rogers's Table Talk.

Abraham Hayward (1801-1884) A Selection from the Correspondence of Abraham Hayward, Q.C., from 1834 to 1884. 2 vols (London: J. Murray, 1886).

Virgil (70 BC-19 BC) Aeneid. (1st cent. BC). Latin epic in twelve books relating the conquest of Italy by the Trojan Aeneas; it was usually read in the English translation by John Dryden (1697).

Henry Augustus Wise [Harry Gringo] (1819-1869) Los Gringos, or, an inside View of Mexico and California, with Wanderings in Peru, Chili, and Polynesia. (New York: Baker and Scribner, 1849). Reprinted 1850.

INFORMATION FROM TEI HEADER

Source Description:

Author: Clayden, Peter William, 1827-1902

Title: Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries 2 Vols (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1889).

Electronic Edition:

Series: Lord Byron and his Times: http://lordbyron.org

Encoding Description: Any dashes occurring in line breaks have been removed. Obvious and unambiguous compositors’ errors have been silently corrected.

Markup and editing by: David Hill Radcliffe

Completed September 2009

Publication Statement:

Publisher: Center for Applied Technologies in the Humanities, Virginia Tech

Availability: Published under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License