Clayden: Rogers and his Contemporaries

The ‘Lines written at Paestum,’ from which the above are taken, were much praised by his friends, but few of them seem to have suspected that ‘Italy’ was by the same writer, though Wordsworth did so, and told Rogers he was detected. The poem had been several years in hand. The lines beginning ‘But the Bise blew cold,’ quoted in the letter to his sister, were written in June 1816, and the rest at various times between the first Italian journey in 1814 and the second in 1821-22.

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The poem had not the popularity of his previous efforts. It attracted but little notice, though one reviewer attributed it to Southey. It was some time before Rogers acknowledged it publicly, though the authorship was soon understood among his friends, and when he did so it added nothing to his fame.

On his return homewards in the early part of May he again visited Moore in his temporary exile in Paris. Moore, in his Diary, gives an account of the visits to various distinguished people they paid together during the four or five days Rogers remained in the French capital. At a dinner at Roberts’s, ‘at fifteen francs a head exclusive of wine’—of which Moore says, ‘Poets did not dine so in the olden time’—he records that Rogers told him a good deal about Lord Byron, whom he saw both going and coming back, and who ‘expressed to R. the same contempt for Shakespeare he has often expressed to me.’ There is not a hint that Rogers had complained of Byron’s treatment of him, but the significant statement that he ‘treats his companion Shelley very cavalierly.’

‘My dear Rogers,—It gave me great pleasure to hear from our common friend, Sharp, that you had returned from the Continent in such excellent health, which I hope you will continue to enjoy in spite of our fogs, rains, east-winds, coal fires, and other clogs upon light spirits

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and free breathing. I have long wished to write to you on a little affair of my own, or, rather, of my sister’s, and the facility of procuring a frank in this house has left my procrastinating habit without excuse. Some time ago you expressed (as perhaps you will remember) a wish that my sister would publish her recollections of her Scotch tour, and you interested yourself so far in the scheme as kindly to offer to assist in disposing of it to a publisher for her advantage. We know that your skill and experience in these matters are great, and she is now disposed to profit by them, provided you continue to think as favourably of the measure as heretofore. The fact is she was so much gratified by her tour in Switzerland, that she has a strong wish to add to her knowledge of that country, and to extend her ramble to some part of Italy. As her own little fortune is not sufficient to justify a step of this kind, she has no hope of revisiting those countries unless an adequate sum could be procured through the means of this MS. You are now fairly in possession of her motives; if you still think that the publication would do her no discredit and are of opinion that a respectable sum of money might be had for it, which she has no chance of effecting except through your exertion, she would be much obliged, as I also should be, if you would undertake to manage the bargain, and the MS. shall be sent you as soon as it is revised. She has further to beg that you would be so kind as to look it over and strike out what you think might be better omitted.

‘Lord and Lady Lonsdale are well, Lady Frederic is here, so is Lady Caroline; both well. Before I close this I will mention to Lady F. that I am writing to you. My own family were well when I left them two days ago. Please remember me kindly to your sister, and believe me, my dear Rogers,

‘P.S. Lady F. says, if Holland House were but where Brougham Hall is, we should see more of Mr. Rogers. She adds that we have really some sunshine in this country and now and then a gentle day like those of Italy. Adieu.’

In November Moore was again in London, and makes the usual record of visits to Rogers and with Rogers. He records one bon mot of Rogers’s told him by Shee. On somebody remarking that Payne Knight had got very deaf, ‘’Tis from want of practice,’ said Rogers—Payne Knight being a very bad listener. The sequel of Wordsworth’s request about his sister’s Diary is contained in two letters from her. Both are in reply to letters from Rogers.

‘My dear Sir,—As you have no doubt heard, by a message sent from my brother through Mr. Sharp, I happened to be in Scotland when your letter arrived, where (having intended to be absent from home only a fortnight) I was detained seven weeks by an illness of my fellow traveller. Having not had it in my power to thank you immediately for your great kindness to me, and your ready attention to my brother’s request, I was unwilling after my return to write for that purpose merely, many circumstances occurring to prevent me from coming to a decision upon the matter in which you are inclined to take so friendly an interest. The most important of these was a protracted and dangerous sickness of my nephew William, which began the day after my arrival at home, and engrossed the care and attention of the whole house. He is now recovered, but his looks continue to show that his frame is far from being restored to its natural strength.

It is evident from this letter that Rogers had advised the publication of the Journal, and was ready to negotiate with a publisher for its issue. The scruples and apprehensions of which Miss Wordsworth speaks in the next letter seem to have stopped it. The Journal afterwards appeared in pieces, and considerable extracts from it were given in the ‘Life of Wordsworth’ by his nephew the late Bishop of Lincoln. The whole diary was not published till 1874.

‘My brother is glad that you came upon the stone to the memory of Aloys Reding in such an interesting way. He and Mrs. W., without any previous notice, met with it at the moment of sunset, as described at the close of those stanzas. I was rambling in another part of the wood and unluckily missed it. I was delighted with your and your sister’s reception at that pleasant house in the Vale of Schwyz, which I well remember. Mr. Monkhouse and I, going on foot to Brennen from Schwyz, were struck with the appearance of the house, and inquired to whom it belonged—were told, to a family of the name of Reding, but could not make out whether it had been the residence and birth-place of Aloys Reding or not.

‘April 1st, 1823.—Walked, for the first time since I came to town, to Rogers’s. Very agreeable. In talking of the “Angels,” said the subject was an unlucky one. When I mentioned Lord Lansdowne’s opinion that it was better than “Lalla Rookh,” said he would not rank it so high as the “Veiled Prophet” for execution, nor the “Fire-worshippers” for story and interest, but would place it rather on the level of “Paradise and the Peri.” Asked me to dine with him, which I did—company: Wordsworth and his wife and sister-in-law, Cary (the translator of Dante), Hallam, and Sharp. Some discussion about Racine and Voltaire, in which I startled, or rather shocked, them by saying that, though there could be no doubt of the

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superior taste and workmanship of Racine, yet that Voltaire’s tragedies interested me the most of the two. Another electrifying assertion of mine was that I would much rather see “Othello” and “Romeo and Juliet” as Italian operas and played by Pasta, than the original of Shakespeare as acted on the London stage. Wordsworth told of some acquaintance of his, who, being told among other things to go and see the “Chapeau de Faille” at Antwerp, said, on his return, “I saw all the other things you mentioned, but as for the straw hat manufactory, I could not make it out.” Sharp mentioned a curious instance of Walter Scott’s indifference to pictures: when he met him at the Louvre, not willing to spare two or three minutes for a walk to the bottom of the gallery when it was the first and last opportunity he was likely to have of seeing the “Transfiguration,” &c., &c. In speaking of music and the difference there is between the poetical and musical ear, Wordsworth said that he was totally devoid of the latter, and for a long time could not distinguish one tune from another. Rogers thus described Lord Holland’s feeling for the Arts, “Painting gives him no pleasure, and Music absolute pain.”

‘Wordsworth’s excessive praise of “Christabel,” joined in by Cary, far beyond my comprehension. The whole day dull enough.’

Moore gives an account of a dinner at Mr. Monkhouse’s, on Wordsworth’s invitation, at which Coleridge, Charles Lamb, and Rogers were present. He speaks of Lamb as ‘a clever fellow certainly, but full of villainous and abortive puns,’ and records that ‘Coleridge told

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some tolerable things.’ Crabb Robinson, who was present, says that besides the five bards were no one but Mrs. Wordsworth, Miss Hutchinson, Mary Lamb, and Mrs. Gilman and himself at the bottom of the table. ‘Coleridge alone,’ says Crabb Robinson, ‘displayed any of his peculiar talent. I have not for years seen him in such excellent health and with so fine a flow of spirits. His discourse was addressed chiefly to Wordsworth, on points of metaphysical criticism. Rogers occasionally interposing a remark. The only one of the poets who seemed not to enjoy himself was Moore.’ 1 Lamb gives an account of the day in a letter to Bernard Barton, in which he says, ‘I dined in Parnassus with Wordsworth, Coleridge, Rogers, and Tom Moore—half the poetry of England constellated in Gloucester Place. It was a delightful evening. Coleridge was in his finest vein of talk—had all the talk.’

A day or two later Moore records a breakfast at Rogers’s to meet Lamb, and on the 10th of April a distinguished party at Rogers’s—Sydney Smith, Luttrell, Payne Knight, Lord Aberdeen, Abercrombie, Lord Clifden, &c. Moore says he had hitherto held out against Smith, ‘but this day he fairly conquered me.’ ‘What Rogers says of Smith very true,’ adds Moore, ‘that, whenever the conversation is getting dull, he throws in some touch which makes it rebound and rise again as light as ever.’ Another day Moore meets Barry Cornwall (Mr. Procter) at Rogers’s house, ‘a gentle, amiable-mannered person in very ill health, which has delayed his marriage with a person he

1 Diary, &c., of H. Crabb Robinson, vol. ii., p. 246.

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has long been in love with; she too, an invalid; and somebody the other day described the two lovers supping together at nine o’clock on water gruel.’ It is curious to read this remark now that Mrs. Procter has lately died, sixty-five years after it was put on record. Moore’s Diary goes on through May and June. There is a hitch in the publication of his ‘Fables,’ and Rogers is consulted. He gives five pounds towards the Greek subscription, in which Rogers was interesting himself. He meets Constable of Edinburgh at breakfast at Rogers’s, and notes that in talking of Walter Scott and ‘the Author of Waverley’ the great publisher ‘continually forgot himself, and made them the same person.’ Another day Rogers shows him Gray’s poems in his actual handwriting, and the original manuscript of a sermon of Sterne’s. Three times in ten days he meets Kenny at Rogers’s at breakfast. Rogers tells stories of Foote, one of which Moore records. A canting sort of lady asked him, ‘Pray, Mr. Foote, do you go to Church?’ ‘No, madam,’ replied Foote. ‘Not that I see any harm in it.’

‘A thousand thanks, my dear Mr. Rogers, for your kind and friendly note. The sympathy of the good and wise (after those heavenly consolations which are mercifully accorded to our prayers) is the most efficacious, as it is the sweetest medicine of our sorrows. I know not why, but I did fancy I was almost forgotten by you, and it grieved me; for, alas! death and change have left me also almost a bankrupt.

On the day before this letter was dated, Rogers had a remarkable conversation with the Duke of Wellington at Lady Shelley’s in Berkeley Square. It is to be found in the ‘Recollections’ (p. 218), and I am surprised that it has not attracted more general notice. Speaking of Napoleon, the Duke said that he was sure Moscow was burnt down by the irregularity of Napoleon’s own soldiers, and that the pamphlet to this effect, published by the Governor of Moscow, states what he (the Duke of Wellington) was persuaded was the truth.

Crabb Robinson records an evening he spent in the middle of June at the house of Miss Catharine Sharpe, the step-daughter of Rogers’s sister Maria, a sketch of whose noble life I have already given. Rogers and the Flaxmans were there, and Daniel Rogers from Wassall. Crabb Robinson describes the latter as having ‘the appearance of being a superior man, which S. Sharpe reports him to be. Rogers,’ he adds, ‘who knows all the gossip of literature, says that on the best authority he can affirm that Walter Scott has received 100,000l. honorarium for his poems and other works, including the Scotch novels. Walter Scott is Rogers’s friend, but Rogers did not oppose Flaxman’s remark that his works have in no respect tended to improve the moral condition of mankind.’

In the autumn Rogers was at Bowood, and Moore records that he produced some English verses of Lord Grenville’s, to the surprise of all the party (which included Lord Aberdeen, Lord John Russell and Abercromby), ‘who seemed to agree that he was one of the least poetical men they could point out. The verses were a paraphrastic translation of the lines at the beginning of the “Inferno,” “O degli altri poeti onore e lume,” and very spiritedly done.’ I find the lines in Rogers’s Commonplace Book.

Moore continues that he walked out with Lord John Russell and Rogers, and a few days later saw Rogers and Lord Aberdeen off to Longleat. The autumns were usually spent either abroad or in a long round of these visits to country houses.

‘My dear Rogers,—As many thanks to you for encouraging me to flatter myself that the memento which I lately ventured to obtrude upon you was not unacceptable.

‘Rubens arrived safe. I know not whereto put him. You must assist at a consultation in the spring.

Moore’s Diary for 1824 is fuller of Rogers than ever. The fourth volume, which reaches from September 1822 to October 1825, appropriately contains an admirable engraving of Sir Thomas Lawrence’s portrait of Rogers. Whenever Moore went to London he spent much time at his house, and met him continually at the houses of other people. On the 29th of February he finds Luttrell, Lord John Russell, Mrs. Graham, Miss Rogers, and Lady Davy, at Rogers’s dinner table. A day or two later he and Rogers call on Lord Essex and Lady Jersey; the latter asks them to her house to a party to celebrate her birthday, and says that, ‘Brougham has bargained for a broiled bone for supper.’ Rogers, however, prefers the ‘Antient Music’ concert to Lady Jersey’s party, and so Moore goes home to dine with him and to work in the evening. Next day Rogers pleases Moore by reporting Luttrell’s opinion that if anybody can make such a subject as ‘Captain Rock’ lively, Moore will. Rogers was just as fond of reporting pleasant things to his friends as he was of saying sharp things. There is more of him in Moore’s Diary than in any other book, and he is constantly presented there as

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saying what gave Moore pleasure and doing acts of generous kindness to him and others. But Moore’s Diary is too long to read, and Rogers is buried in it rather than enshrined. Wordsworth was in London this spring, and Moore finds him in Rogers’s company at Miss White’s. He meets him. also at dinner at Hallam’s. Hallam was then principally known as one of the Edinburgh Reviewers. His ‘View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages’ had been published several years, and he was now writing his ‘Constitutional History.’ At this period the Athenæum Club was founded: Davy, Faraday, Chantrey, Scott, Lawrence, Heber, and Moore being among its founders, and Rogers one of its earliest members.

‘My sister’s health and spirits had induced her to beg, or rather to make it a sort of condition, not to visit, and Maria is not come out, but her time was fully occupied by sights, music, and masters. The latter came daily, and I got a young Italian lady, known to Fazakerley, to go about with us in the morning and to dine with us, &c., that she might acquire facility in speaking Italian. However, much as I liked every thing, I must own, to speak out, that I greatly prefer home to travelling (except for short tours), and my own country to the Continent. What compensation is there for the absence of friends? None; not even the Alps and the Vatican. What society is there abroad to be compared, for instance, to Holland House or to the little dinners in St. James’s Place, or to be mentioned when the conversation of London is thought of? What is the Pincian to our little strollings from your window in the Green Park?

The business did not end there. In July the funeral took place, and Moore came up to it, and persuaded Rogers to go with him to the ceremony. ‘Our coachful,’ says Moore, ‘consisted of Rogers, Campbell, Colonel Stanhope, Orlando (the Greek Deputy), and myself.’ After the funeral Moore and Rogers walked in the park, and Rogers not only advised him not to make any communication to Byron’s family about materials for his Life, but said, ‘I entreat of you to take no step of this kind till I release you. I have particular reasons for it.’ Moore thought he knew that the mystery related to some plan for settling the 2,000l. on little Tom.

Moore records during this visit to London that one evening he looked, with Rogers, over his ‘Commonplace Book,’ and found some highly curious accounts of his conversations with Fox, Grattan, and the Duke of Wellington. These are the ‘Recollections,’ published after his death,

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to which I have often referred. He quotes from Rogers the statement that Sheridan had twice told him that every sentence in ‘The Stranger’ as it is acted was written by him. In August Rogers was at Bowood, where Dumont and the Hollands were staying. Moore was, of course, full of Sheridan. Rogers mentioned that Sheridan’s father had said of him, ‘Talk of the merit of Dick’s comedy, there’s nothing in it. He had but to dip the pencil in his own heart and he’d find there the characters of both Joseph and Charles.’ Rogers quoted Lord Chatham’s saying, on a motion which nobody seconded, ‘My lords, I stand alone; my lords, I stand, like our first parent, naked but not ashamed.’ Another day Rogers quoted Chatham’s saying when commenting on a speech of the King’s, written by Mr. Fox (afterwards Lord Holland) and the Duke of Newcastle, ‘Here rolls the Rhone, black, turbid and rapid, while here steals the Saone, whispering with flowers on its banks.’ Another day Rogers walked home with Moore to his cottage. ‘Looked over Bessy’s books, kissed the children, and was very amiable.’

‘After this one day at Dropmore, but, in Homer’s language, πάντων αξιον ημαρ, we went to St. Anne’s with the full intention of going from thence to Asburnham, although the two additional days at Cashiobury had thrown us very late; when I, in my turn, was disabled from travelling by the most disabling of all complaints

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. . . and thus, after all the suspense in which we had been keeping Lord and Lady Ashburnham, after their extreme kindness and indulgence, we were most reluctantly obliged to give up entirely what we had so much set our hearts upon. His answer in some degree comforted us: they could have received us on the day we proposed, and have allowed us to stay the whole of the next, but must have sent us away on the following one. The whole day would have been another αξιον ημαρ, and well worth the journey, yet after all, however amiable, we must have been very troublesome guests at the eve of such a departure. Four quiet days at St. Anne’s restored me a good deal; but as my complaint and also my daughter’s were not unlikely to return, we thought it both safest and best to give up our intended tour, and get to Foxley pian piano by easy journeys; and here we are, feeling the delights and comforts of home, and looking forward with great pleasure to the time when you and your sister will arrive. We depend on your promise, and shall be grievously disappointed if anything should prevent your coming. I am busily employed with my two squirrels, well provided with high ladders and various cutting implements, in retouching my pictures, and clearing away the random foliage, as Mason calls it, that begins to disturb my compositions, and hide some of the distances; and all àvotre intention; so you must have a black heart if you fail me. With our best regards to you and Miss Rogers, and wishing you a pleasant journey into Herefordshire, believe me,

‘I wish I could have met you and the grand chorus of Bards at Bowood; it would have been a lucky moment, for though I so much like both Lord and Lady Lansdowne, and am so curious to see the place again after a very long interval, that I should have wished for nothing more, yet such a party I must own would have enhanced the pleasure. The only time I ever saw Bowood was with Knight, just forty years ago, for it was just before he published his “Landscape” and I my “Essay.” Lord Lansdowne, I remember, used to look at us with some surprise when we were making very bold remarks on all that we saw. “He does not know,” said Knight to me, “that we are great doctors.” Not long afterwards we laid our respective claims before the public. This visit of ours was at the early part of the French Revolution; we found at Bowood the Duchesse de Levis and her mother; the next day Talleyrand arrived while we were at dinner. I was very much struck with the look he cast round the company, as he slowly walked in—it had the appearance of sullen haughtiness with a sort of suspicious examination. The day after in came the Duc de Levis, with a very different allure; a more ill-looking, mean-looking fellow I never saw, and so his handsome wife seemed to think by her manner of receiving him. So much for old times and the company I did meet at Bowood, now for

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those I unluckily did not. Bowles, as you know, I am well acquainted with, but not as a flute-player, and on that, as well as on every other account, I should have been very glad to have met him, and have heard him perform his water-music and do the honours of his water-party. A Greek poet is very severe on flute-players; he allows that the gods have given them a mind, but that out it flies with the first puff of their breath. . . .

‘Crabbe, I once saw and that’s all. I might have been acquainted with him, for Sir Joshua invited me to dinner, and told me I should meet Crabbe and Johnson. I had some engagement, probably (for I was then, as Ste. Fox used to say of himself, a young man of wit and pleasure about town) at some fine house to meet fine gentlemen and ladies: whatever it was, I was blockhead enough not to break it, and I have never forgiven myself. The dinner I went to and the company there I have never thought of from that time to this; the dinner I did not go to I never should have forgotten, and if I had gone should now be recollecting every circumstance with pleasure and satisfaction, instead of crying, Oh, fool! fool! fool! I am, as you know, a great admirer of Crabbe; so were Charles Fox and Fitzpatrick. The first poem of his I ever saw (I believe his first work) was “The Library”: Charles brought it to Foxley soon after it came out and read a good deal of it to us, Hare being one of the audience. I particularly remember his reading the part where Crabbe has described “the ancient worthies of romance,” and has given in about twenty lines the essence of knight-errantry. When Fox came to

‘And shadowy forms with staring eyes stalk round,

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Hare cried out (you remember his figure and eyes), “That’s meant for me.”

Rogers was again at Dropmore in the late autumn, and here is a hint of further plans of pleasure—

‘We had here yesterday Lord and Lady Tankerville, Lords Lansdowne and Dudley, and William Ponsonby. Lord and Lady Gower came over to-day from their father’s lately purchased villa in the neighbourhood. And so on I conclude, with a fresh infusion daily from town at the dinner hour, some sleepers and some returners, after the manner of villas. I shall remain here till Friday, and on Saturday without fail go to Panshanger.

Rogers was not back in London till the middle of December, when Moore was there consulting him about undertaking to write Byron’s Life. He in his turn showed Moore some of the prose essays which he had written to insert in ‘Italy.’ Of one of these now headed ‘National Prejudices,’ Moore reports Mackintosh’s praise, and says he feels it ‘would do one good to study such writing, if not as a model, yet as a chastener and simplifier of style, it being the very reverse of ambition or ornament.’ Mackintosh wrote.

‘My dear Rogers,—I admire your beautiful little essay so truly that I don’t know how to criticise it. I assure you sincerely that in my opinion Hume could not have improved the thoughts nor Addison amended the language. It is such a jewel that I am anxious to know where you are to place it.

‘The account you give of Lord Ashburnham is very pleasing and satisfactory. He always writes gaily and very agreeably; his frame of mind is naturally a cheerful one, and, as far as I have observed, he is not at all apt to see things en noir; but he left England with great reluctance under depressing circumstances and with the care of a large family and suite during a long journey. This must have been a weight on his spirits; it is now removed, and he can fully enjoy those interesting objects for which he has that keen relish and true feeling which is so often affected. I remember when I was at Florence (I dare say Lord Fitzwilliam would remember it, though it is not very far from sixty years since we were there) a young handsome French colonel, Français jusqu’à la moelle des os, arriving in his regimentals from Corsica. He did us English the honour of noticing us, and one day, when several of us were together in the Tribune, he advanced towards us with a true French air: “Messieurs,” said he, “je suis en extase! des bustes, des tableaux, des statues!” he never looked at any of them for two minutes together, or at anything but himself in the glass.

‘A few words in the cover about Valpy. As you do not give any direct opinion respecting the degree in which I am engaged to him, I conclude that you judge the case to be a doubtful one. Such, too, is my opinion; so I think it both safest and best to decide in his favour. This I am the more inclined to do from having lately heard some circumstances which shew that he is not likely to take any slight or disappointment with the gentlest patience, and he would, perhaps, be a not less formidable enemy than Bloomfield, and much more sure to become one. Were I completely disengaged I should, from your report, prefer Mr. Taylor. As the matter stands, I must try and manage Valpy as well as I can. Your method is to return upon your printer sheet after sheet, at his own cost, not yours, till justice is done you—all very natural if he commits mistakes; but I should understand from your account, that if he sends you a proof sheet correctly printed from your MS., and that you should have any of what you call your whims and fancies and should make alterations in it, he is obliged to make them on a fresh proof; and that if in that again

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you should make more, he is to go on da capo till you are satisfied, and write the decisive word Press; and all this without any charge for the extra labour. Is this, or whatever may be agreed upon, merely verbal, or is anything put down in writing? I have always found a proof sheet a great suggester of alterations, and the man who printed my first essay told me that Burke—whose printer he had been—used to say that he could never judge at all of his own works while they were in manuscript. Valpy, I should think, would not readily agree to the conditions your printer seems to have agreed to, nor to any out of his usual routine; and I should make a bad fight. When Mawman reprinted my “Essays,” he shared in the expenses and the profits, employing his own printer. If he should have no objection to doing the same, and to employing Valpy, he would have to deal with him in all that concerns the charges, and would have an interest in keeping him within due bounds. I am afraid, however, he would have very little regard for my whims and fancies, and would think it quite proper that those who have them should pay for them. I am not a little puzzled with all these pros and cons.

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Lady Maria Callcott [née Dundas] (1785-1842) The daughter of Admiral George Dundas, in 1809 she married Thomas Graham (d. 1822), and in 1827 the painter Augustus Wall Callcott; she was a prolific author of books on travel, art, and history, and a notable society hostess in Kensington.

Thomas Campbell (1777-1844) Scottish poet and man of letters; author of The Pleasures of Hope (1799), Gertrude of Wyoming (1808) and lyric odes. He edited the New Monthly Magazine (1821-30).

George Capel-Coningsby, fifth earl of Essex (1757-1839) The son of William Anne Capel, fourth Earl of Essex whom he succeeded in 1799; he was Lord-Lieutenant of Herefordshire (1802-1817).

John Carne (1789-1844) English poet, traveller, and missionary educated at Queens' College, Cambridge; he published “Letters from the East” in the New Monthly Magazine.

Queen Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach (1683-1737) She married the future George II of Great Britain in 1705.

Queen Caroline of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1768-1821) Married the Prince of Wales in 1795 and separated in 1796; her husband instituted unsuccessful divorce proceedings in 1820 when she refused to surrender her rights as queen.

Henry Francis Cary (1772-1844) English poet; he was assistant-keeper of printed books at the British Museum (1826) and translator of Dante (1805-19).

Elizabeth Christiana Cavendish, duchess of Devonshire [née Hervey] (1757-1824) Daughter of Frederick Augustus Hervey, earl of Bristol; after a brief marriage to Thomas Foster she became the mistress (1782) and later spouse (1809) of William Cavendish, fifth duke of Devonshire.

Georgiana Cavendish, duchess of Devonshire [née Spencer] (1757-1806) The daughter of John Spencer, first Earl Spencer; in 1774 she married William Cavendish, fifth duke of Devonshire and became London's leading society hostess.

Sir Francis Leggatt Chantrey (1781-1841) English sculptor who worked as a statuary from 1804; he employed the poet Allan Cunningham in his studio from 1814. He was knighted in 1835.

Anna May Chichester, marchioness of Donegall [née May] (d. 1849) The illegitimate daughter of Sir Edward May, second baronet; she married Sir George Augustus Chichester, second marquess of Donegall in 1795. In 1815 it was revealed that she was under-age at the time of her marriage.

George Augustus Chichester, second marquess of Donegall (1769-1844) The son of the first marquess; he was MP for Carrickfergus (1798-99) before inheriting his titles in 1799, among which was second earl of Belfast.

Marcus Tullius Cicero [Tully] (106 BC-43 BC) Roman statesman, rhetorician, and philosopher.

Claude Lorrain (1600-1682) French painter whose idealized landscapes were much admired in Britain.

Henry Pelham Fiennes Pelham- Clinton, fifth duke of Newcastle (1811-1864) Son of the fourth duke (d. 1851); he was chief secretary for Ireland (1846) and secretary for war (1854-55).

Henry Colburn (1785-1855) English publisher who began business about 1806; he co-founded the New Monthly Magazine in 1814 and was publisher of the Literary Gazette from 1817.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and philosopher who projected Lyrical Ballads (1798) with William Wordsworth; author of Biographia Literaria (1817), On the Constitution of the Church and State (1829) and other works.

Lady Margaret Compton [née Douglas-Maclean-Clephane] (1793-1830) The daughter of Major-General William Douglas-Maclean-Clephane; in 1815 she married Spencer Compton, later second marquess of Northampton. She was a poet and friend of Walter Scott.

Spencer Joshua Alwyne Compton, second marquess of Northampton (1790-1851) Son of the first marquis; he was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and was Whig MP for Northampton (1812-20) before residing in Italy, 1820-30; he succeeded to the title in 1828 and was president of the Royal Society (1838-49).

Archibald Constable (1774-1827) Edinburgh bookseller who published the Edinburgh Review and works of Sir Walter Scott; he went bankrupt in 1826.

Athanase Laurent Charles Coquerel (1795-1868) French Protestant theologian and deputy of the Constituent Assembly after the revolution of February 1848.

Emily Mary Cowper, countess Cowper [née Lamb] (1787-1869) Whig hostess, the daughter of Sir Peniston Lamb, first Viscount Melbourne; she married (1) in 1805 Sir Peter Leopold Louis Francis Nassau Cowper, fifth Earl Cowper, and (2) in 1839, her long-time lover, Henry John Temple, third Viscount Palmerston.

Peter Leopold Louis Francis Nassau Cowper, fifth earl Cowper (1778-1837) He succeeded to the title in 1799, and in 1805 married Emily Mary Lamb, daughter of Sir Peniston Lamb, first Viscount Melbourne.

George Crabbe (1754-1832) English poet renowned for his couplet verse and gloomy depictions of country persons and places; author of the The Village (1783), The Parish Register (1807), The Borough (1810), and Tales of the Hall (1819).

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Florentine poet, the author of the Divine Comedy and other works.

Sir Humphry Davy, baronet (1778-1829) English chemist and physicist, inventor of the safety lamp; in Bristol he knew Cottle, Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Southey; he was president of the Royal Society (1820).

Lady Jane Davy [née Kerr] (1780-1855) Society hostess who in 1798 married Shuckburgh Ashby Apreece (d. 1807) and Humphry Davy in 1812.

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) English essayist and man of letters; he wrote for the London Magazine and Blackwood's, and was author of Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821).

Charles Diodati (1609 c.-1638) A schoolmate of John Milton at St. Paul's; while traveling in Italy Milton commemorated his friend's death in “Epitaphium Damonis.”

Domenichino (1581-1641) Italian painter of the Bolognese school.

Maria Drummond [née Kinnaird] (1807 c.-1891) The adopted daughter and heir of Richard Sharp; she corresponded with Dora Wordsworth and Mathew Arnold.

Étienne-Pierre-Louis Dumont (1759-1829) Jeremy Bentham's Swiss translator, associated with the Holland House circle; Thomas Moore and John Russell spent the day with him 23 September 1819, on their way to Venice.

Lady Mary Durham (1824 fl.) Not identified; she was an acquaintance of Samuel Rogers and Thomas Moore; she was at Rome in 1824.

Henry Welbore Ellis, second viscount Clifden (1761-1836) The son of James Agar, the first viscount; he was MP for Heytesbury (1793-1802). In 1792 he married Lady Caroline Spencer, daughter of the Duke of Marlborough.

Thomas Erskine, first baron Erskine (1750-1823) Scottish barrister who was a Whig MP for Portsmouth (1783-84, 1790-1806); after defending the political radicals Hardy, Tooke, and Thelwall in 1794 he was lord chancellor in the short-lived Grenville-Fox administration (1806-07).

Henry Etough (1687-1757) Of Pembroke College, Cambridge; he was rector of Therfield and Colmworth and a noted vegetarian and eccentric patronized by Robert Walpole.

Michael Faraday (1791-1867) Natural philosopher who began as an assistant to Sir Humphry Davy; he published History of the Progress of Electro-Magnetism (1821).

John Nicholas Fazakerly (1787-1852) Educated at Eton, Christ Church, Oxford, and Edinburgh, he was a member of the Speculative Society, Edinburgh (1807) and a Whig MP for Lincoln (1812-18, 1820-26), Great Grimsby (1818-20), Tavistock (1820), and Peterborough (1830-41).

Heneage Finch, fifth earl of Aylesford (1786-1859) Son of the fourth earl (d. 1812); educated at Christ Church College, Oxford, he was a Tory MP for Weobley from 1807 to 1812.

Alleyne Fitzherbert, first baron St Helens (1753-1839) English diplomat educated at Eton and St. John's college Cambridge; he was envoy-extraordinary to Russia (1783-87), chief secretary for Ireland (1787-89) and ambassador at Madrid (1790-94); he was raised to the peerage in 1791.

Henry Petty- Fitzmaurice, third marquess of Lansdowne (1780-1863) The son of Lord Shelburne (1737-1805); he was a Whig peer, chancellor of the exchequer (1806), and President of the Council (1830).

Louisa Emma Fox-Strangways Petty- Fitzmaurice, marchioness of Lansdowne [née Thomas] (1785-1851) The daughter of Henry Thomas, second earl of Ilchester; she married Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice in 1808.

Richard Fitzpatrick (1748-1813) English military officer, politician, and poet allied with Fox and Sheridan in Parliament; he was secretary of state for war (1783, 1806) and author of Dorinda, a Town Eclogue (1775).

William Wentworth Fitzwilliam, second earl Fitzwilliam (1748-1833) The nephew of the Marquis of Rockingham and lifelong friend of Charles James Fox and Lord Carlisle; he was president of the Council (1806-07) and lieutenant of the West Riding from 1798 to 1819 when he was dismissed for his censure of the Peterloo massacre.

John Flaxman (1755-1826) English sculptor and draftsman who studied at the Royal Academy and was patronized by William Hayley.

Samuel Foote (1721-1777) English actor and playwright; author of The Nabob (1772).

Charles James Fox (1749-1806) Whig statesman and the leader of the Whig opposition in Parliament after his falling-out with Edmund Burke.

Henry Richard Fox, third baron Holland (1773-1840) Whig politician and literary patron; Holland House was for many years the meeting place for reform-minded politicians and writers. He also published translations from the Spanish and Italian; Memoirs of the Whig Party was published in 1852.

Henry Edward Fox, fourth baron Holland (1802-1859) English diplomat and friend of Byron whose diary was published as The Journal of the Hon. Henry Edward Fox (1923).

Stephen Fox, second baron Holland (1745-1774) Son of the first baron and elder brother of Charles James Fox; he was MP for Salisbury (1768-74).

King George II of Great Britain (1683-1760) King of Great Britain (1727-60).

King George III of Great Britain (1738-1820) King of Great Britain (1760-1820).

Anne Gillman [née Harding] (1779 c.-1860) Of Highgate, the daughter of James Harding; in 1807 she married the surgeon James Gillman, afterwards Coleridge's friend and patron.

Giorgione (1477 c.-1510) Venetian painter, with Titian he was a student of Giovanni Bellini.

Catherine Elizabeth Gordon, countess of Aberdeen [née Hamilton] (1784-1812) The daughter of Sir John James Hamilton, first Marquess of Abercorn; in 1805 she became the first wife George Hamilton-Gordon, Lord Haddo. She died of tuberculosis, as did her children.

George Hamilton- Gordon, fourth earl of Aberdeen (1784-1860) Harrow-educated Scottish philhellene who founded the Athenian Society and was elected to the Society of Dilettanti (1805); he was foreign secretary (1841-1846) and prime minister (1852-55).

Elizabeth Georgiana Leveson- Gower, duchess of Sutherland [née Howard] (1806-1868) The daughter of George Howard, sixth earl of Carlisle; in 1823 she married George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, afterwards second duke of Sutherland.

George Granville Leveson- Gower, first duke of Sutherland (1758-1833) The son of the first marquess of Stafford (d. 1803); he was one of the wealthiest men in Britain with an annual income of £200,000; his program for Scottish clearances and resettlement was widely unpopular. He was created duke in 1833.

George Granville Leveson- Gower, second duke of Sutherland (1786-1861) Son of the first duke (d. 1833); in 1823 he married Lady Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana Howard, daughter of the sixth Earl of Carlisle; upon succeeding to the title he added Sutherland to his surname.

Henry Grattan (1746-1820) Irish statesman and patriot; as MP for Dublin he supported Catholic emancipation and opposed the Union.

Thomas Gray (1716-1771) English poet, author of “Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,” “Elegy written in a Country Churchyard,” and “The Bard”; he was professor of history at Cambridge (1768).

Lady Anne Grenville [née Pitt] (1772-1864) The daughter of Thomas Pitt, first Baron Camelford; in 1792 she married William Wyndham Grenville, first baron Grenville.

William Wyndham Grenville, baron Grenville (1759-1834) Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, he was a moderate Whig MP, foreign secretary (1791-1801), and leader and first lord of the treasury in the “All the Talents” ministry (1806-1807). He was chancellor of Oxford University (1810).

George Gretton (1754-1820) Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge; he was chaplain to the king, vicar of Townstal (1799-1804) and dean of Hereford (1809-20).

Henry Hallam (1777-1859) English historian and contributor to the Edinburgh Review, author of Introduction to the Literature of Europe, 4 vols (1837-39) and other works. He was the father of Tennyson's Arthur Hallam.

James Hare (1747-1804) MP for Stockbridge (1772-74) and Knaresborough (1781-1804); he was a close friend of Charles James Fox, R. B. Sheridan, and the Duchess of Devonshire. In person he was remarkably thin and pale, arousing comments.

Edward Harley, fifth earl of Oxford (1773-1848) He succeeded his uncle, the fourth earl, in 1790 and married (unhappily) Jane Elizabeth Scott in 1794.

Jane Elizabeth Harley, countess of Oxford [née Scott] (1774-1824) The daughter of James Scott, vicar of Itchin; in 1794 she married Edward Harley, fifth Earl of Oxford. Her children by various fathers were dubbed “The Harleian Miscellany.”

Richard Heber (1774-1833) English book collector, he was the elder half-brother of the poet Reginald Heber and the friend of Walter Scott: member of the Roxburghe Club and MP for Oxford 1821-1826.

Homer (850 BC fl.) Poet of the Iliad and Odyssey.

David Hume (1711-1776) Scottish philosopher and historian; author of Essays Moral and Political (1741-42), Enquiry concerning Human Understanding (1748) and History of Great Britain (1754-62).

Sara Hutchinson (1775-1835) The daughter of John Hutchinson of Penrith (d. 1785) and sister of Mary Hutchinson Wordsworth.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English man of letters, among many other works he edited A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) and Shakespeare (1765), and wrote Lives of the Poets (1779-81).

John Philip Kemble (1757-1823) English actor renowned for his Shakespearean roles; he was manager of Drury Lane (1783-1802) and Covent Garden (1803-1808).

James Kenney (1780-1849) Irish playwright, author of The World (1808); he was a friend of Lamb, Hunt, Moore, and Rogers.

Charles Kinnaird, eighth baron Kinnaird (1780-1826) The son of George Kinnaird, seventh baron Kinnaird; he was Whig MP for Leominster (1802-05) before he succeeded to the title. He was the elder brother of Byron's friend, Douglas Kinnaird.

Richard Payne Knight (1751-1824) MP and writer on taste; in 1786 he published An Account of the Remains of the Worship of Priapus for the Society of Dilettanti; he was author of The Landscape: a Didactic Poem (1794), An Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste (1805) and other works.

Charles Lamb [Elia] (1775-1834) English essayist and boyhood friend of Coleridge at Christ's Hospital; author of Essays of Elia published in the London Magazine (collected 1823, 1833) and other works.

Mary Anne Lamb (1764-1847) Sister of Charles Lamb with whom she wrote Tales from Shakespeare (1807). She lived with her brother, having killed their mother in a temporary fit of insanity.

Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) English portrait painter who succeeded Joshua Reynolds as painter in ordinary to the king (1792); he was president of the Royal Academy (1820).

Pauline Louise Fransoise de Paule, duchesse de Lévis (d. 1819) She married Pierre-Marc-Gaston, duc de Lévis in 1785.

Pierre-Marc-Gaston, duc de Lévis (1764-1830) Author of Souvenirs-portraits (1813), L'Angleterre au commencement du dix-neuvième siècle (1814), and Considérations morales sur les finances (1816).

Thomas Norton Longman (1771-1842) A leading London publisher whose authors included Southey, Wordsworth, Scott, and Moore.

Augusta Lowther, countess of Lonsdale [née Fane] (1761-1838) The daughter of John Fane, ninth Earl of Westmorland; in 1781 she married Lt.-Col. William Lowther, first earl of Lonsdale.

William Lowther, first earl of Lonsdale (1757-1844) Tory peer and patron of William Wordsworth; he was created earl of Lonsdale in 1807.

Henry Luttrell (1768-1851) English wit, dandy, and friend of Thomas Moore and Samuel Rogers; he was the author of Advice to Julia, a Letter in Rhyme (1820).

Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832) Scottish philosopher and man of letters who defended the French Revolution in Vindiciae Gallicae (1791); he was Recorder of Bombay (1803-1812) and MP for Knaresborough (1819-32).

William Mason (1725-1797) English poet, the friend and biographer of Thomas Gray; author of Odes (1756), Elfrida (1752), and The English Garden (4 books, 1772-81).

Joseph Mawman (1760 c.-1827) Bookseller of York (1788) and London, where he purchased the business of Charles Dilly in 1800; he was an acquaintance of Samuel Parr.

John Milton (1608-1674) English poet and controversialist; author of Comus (1634), Lycidas (1638), Areopagitica (1644), Paradise Lost (1667), and other works.

Thomas Monkhouse (1783-1825) A London merchant and cousin of Mary and Sarah Hutchinson; he was a friend of William Wordsworth and Charles Lamb.

Elizabeth Moore [née Dyke] [Bessy] (1793-1865) Irish actress who married Thomas Moore in a private ceremony 25 March 1811.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Irish poet and biographer, author of the Irish Melodies (1807-34), The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and Lalla Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.

Lady Sydney Morgan [née Owenson] (1778 c.-1859) Anglo-Irish novelist and socialite, author of The Wild Irish Girl (1806).

John Murray II (1778-1843) The second John Murray began the Quarterly Review in 1809 and published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.

Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821) Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St. Helena (1815).

Horatio Nelson, viscount Nelson (1758-1805) Britain's naval hero who destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile (1798) and defeated the combined French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar (1805) in which action he was killed.

Frederick North, second earl of Guilford (1732-1792) English statesman who was prime minister 1770-82 and George III's political ally.

John Oldham (1653-1683) English poet much admired in the Restoration era for his rugged satires; Dryden wrote commemorative verses upon his early death.

Ioannes Orlandos [Γην Ορλανδω] (d. 1852) A Greek representative to the London Greek Committee (appointed by Mavrocordatos) who rode in Byron's funeral procession.

Giuditta Pasta (1797-1865) Italian soprano who made her London debut in 1817.

Samuel Peploe (1774-1845) Of Garnstone, the son of John Peploe Birch (d. 1805); he was sheriff of Herefordshire and a neighbour of Uvedale Price.

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).

Mary Phipps, marchioness of Normanby [née Liddell] (1798-1882) Whig hostess, the daughter of Thomas Henry Liddell, first baron Ravensworth; in 1818 she married Constantine Phipps, marquess of Normanby. She was the original of Berengaria, Lady Montfort, in Disraeli's novel Endymion.

William Pitt the elder, first earl of Chatham (1708-1778) English statesman whose prudent management was often politically unpopular.

Plato (427 BC-327 BC) Athenian philosopher who recorded the teachings of his master Socrates in a series of philosophical dialogues.

William Robert Ponsonby (1787 c.-1824 fl.) Son of George Ponsonby (1755-1817), lord chancellor of Ireland; he was a fellow-commoner of Trinity and a member of the Cambridge Whig Club.

Sir Uvedale Price, first baronet (1747-1829) Of Foxley in Herefordshire; he was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, and published Essay on the Picturesque (1794).

Ann Benson Procter [née Skepper] (1799-1888) The daughter of Thomas Skepper of York; in 1824 she married the poet Bryan Waller Procter, with whom she maintained a literary salon.

Bryan Waller Procter [Barry Cornwall] (1787-1874) English poet; a contemporary of Byron at Harrow, and friend of Leigh Hunt and Charles Lamb. He was the author of several volumes of poem and Mirandola, a tragedy (1821).

Jean Racine (1639-1699) French neoclassical playwright, author of Andromaque (1667), Bajazet (1672), Mithridate (1673) and Phèdre (1677).

Alois von Reding (1765-1818) Swiss patriot who resisted the Helvetic Republic imposed by Napoleon.

Rembrandt (1606-1669) Dutch painter and etcher.

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792) English portrait-painter and writer on art; he was the first president of the Royal Academy (1768).

David Ricardo (1772-1823) English political economist, the author of Principles of Political Economy and Taxation (1817); he was a Whig MP for Portarlington (1819-23).

Henry Crabb Robinson (1775-1867) Attorney, diarist, and journalist for The Times; he was a founder of the Athenaeum Club.

Daniel Rogers (1760 c.-1829) Son of Thomas Rogers (1735-93) and eldest brother of the poet Thomas Rogers; he married Martha Bowles and lived as a country squire near Stourbridge.

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.

Feodor Vasilievich Rostopchin (1763-1826) Russian statesman who was governor of Moscow during Napoleon's invasion; he was disgraced during the Congress of Vienna.

Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) Flemish baroque painter and diplomat notable for his allegorical depictions of the life of Marie de Medici.

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.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) The Bard of Avon.

Richard Sharp [Conversation Sharp] (1759-1835) English merchant, Whig MP, and member of the Holland House set; he published Letters and Essays in Poetry and Prose (1834).

Catherine Sharpe (1782-1853) The daughter of Sutton Sharpe by his first wife Catharine Purchase (d. 1791).

Maria Sharpe [née Rogers] (1771-1806) The sister of the poet Samuel Rogers and second wife of the brewer Sutton Sharpe (1756-1806).

Samuel Sharpe (1799-1881) Banker and Egyptologist; he was the nephew of the poet Samuel Rogers and brother of the geologist Daniel Sharpe.

Sir Martin Archer Shee (1769-1850) Irish portrait-painter, writer, and president of the Royal Academy.

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley [née Godwin] (1797-1851) English novelist, daughter of William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecaft, and the second wife of Percy Bysshe Shelley. She is the author of Frankenstein (1818) and The Last Man (1835) and the editor of Shelley's works (1839-40).

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) English poet, with Byron in Switzerland in 1816; author of Queen Mab (1813), The Revolt of Islam (1817), The Cenci and Prometheus Unbound (1820), and Adonais (1821).

Elizabeth Ann Sheridan [née Linley] (1754-1792) Much-admired English singer, daughter of the musician Thomas Linley; she was compelled to give up her career upon marrying Richard Brinsley Sheridan in 1773.

Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751-1816) Anglo-Irish playwright, author of The School for Scandal (1777), Whig MP and ally of Charles James Fox (1780-1812).

Thomas Sheridan the younger (1719-1788) Irish actor and writer on education and elocution; author of, among others, A Course of Lectures on Elocution: together with Two Dissertations on Language (1762). He was the father of Richard Brinsley Sheridan.

Sarah Siddons [née Kemble] (1755-1831) English tragic actress, sister of John Philip Kemble, famous roles as Desdemona, Lady Macbeth, and Ophelia. She retired from the stage in 1812.

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) Clergyman, wit, and one of the original projectors of the Edinburgh Review; afterwards lecturer in London and one of the Holland House denizens.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) Poet laureate and man of letters whose contemporary reputation depended upon his prose works, among them the Life of Nelson, 2 vols (1813), History of the Peninsular War, 3 vols (1823-32) and The Doctor, 7 vols (1834-47).

Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope (1776-1839) Oriental traveler; daughter of Charles Stanhope and niece of William Pitt the younger; she departed England for Egypt and Palmyra in 1810, settled in Lebanon, and never returned.

Leicester Fitzgerald Charles Stanhope, fifth earl of Harrington (1784-1862) The third son of the third earl; in 1823 he traveled to Greece as the Commissioner of the London Greek Committee; there he served with Byron, whom he criticizes in Greece in 1823 and 1824 (1824). He inherited the earldom from his brother in 1851.

Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) Clergyman and novelist; author of The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (1759-67) and A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy (1768).

Robert Walter Stuart, eleventh lord Blantyre (1777-1830) Son of the tenth lord whom he succeeded in 1783; he fought in Egypt and the Peninsular Wars, obtaining the rank of major-general in 1819. He was killed by a stray bullet during an insurrection in Brussels.

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754-1838) French diplomat; he was foreign minister under Napoleon.

John Taylor (1781-1864) Publisher of the London Magazine and poems of John Keats, and a prolific writer in his own right.

Titian (1487 c.-1576) Venetian painter celebrated for his portraits.

Abraham John Valpy (1787-1854) Son of the Reading schoolmaster Richard Valpy, he was a London printer who specialized in classical texts. With the poet George Dyer he published 141 volumes of Delphin classics (1819-30).

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.

Voltaire (1694-1778) French historian and man of letters; author of, among many other works, The Age of Louis XIV (1751) and Candide (1759).

John William Ward, earl of Dudley (1781-1833) The son of William Ward, third Viscount Dudley (d. 1823); educated at Edinburgh and Oxford, he was an English MP, sometimes a Foxite Whig and sometimes Canningite Tory, who suffered from insanity in his latter years.

Arthur Wellesley, first duke of Wellington (1769-1852) Soldier and statesman; commander in the Peninsular Campaign (1809-1813), he defeated Napoleon at Waterloo and was prime minister (1828-1830).

Lydia White (d. 1827) Born in Wales, the “Miss Diddle” of Byron's “Blues” held literary conversazione at her house in Park Street; Walter Scott and Samuel Rogers were among her admirers.

Helen Maria Williams (1761-1827) English poet, novelist, and miscellaneous writer who resided in France after 1788; she published Letters from France (1790-96).

John Wilson [Christopher North] (1785-1854) Scottish poet and Tory essayist, the chief writer for the “Noctes Ambrosianae” in Blackwood's Magazine and professor of moral philosophy at Edinburgh University (1820).

Christopher Wordsworth, bishop of Lincoln (1807-1885) Son of Christopher, master of Trinity College; he was headmaster of Harrow (1836-44) and bishop of Lincoln (1868-85).

Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855) The sister of William Wordsworth who transcribed his poems and kept his house; her journals and letters were belatedly published after her death.

Mary Wordsworth [née Hutchinson] (1770-1859) The sister of Sarah Hutchinson and wife of William Wordsworth, whom she married in 1802.

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.

William Wordsworth (1810-1883) The second son of William Wordsworth; of St. Ann's Hill, Carlisle, he was a justice of the peace.

Morning Chronicle. (1769-1862). James Perry was proprietor of this London daily newspaper from 1789-1821; among its many notable poetical contributors were Coleridge, Southey, Lamb, Rogers, and Campbell.

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) Memoir. (1824: destroyed). The autobiographical memoranda begun in 1818 and given to Thomas Moore in 1819; after Byron's death it was suppressed with the encouragement of John Cam Hobhouse and John Murray.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) “Christabel” in Christabel; Kubla Khan, a Vision; The Pains of Sleep. (J. Murray, 1816). Only the first part of "Christabel" was published in this volume.

George Crabbe (1754-1832) The Library. (London: J. Dodsley, 1781). Reprinted 1783.

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) “The Inferno” in The Divine Comedy. (1320 c.). An allegorical description of Hell, the first of the three parts of the Divine Comedy, the others being the “Purgatorio” and “Paradiso.”

Henry Hallam (1777-1859) The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II. 2 vols (London: John Murray, 1827).

Henry Hallam (1777-1859) View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages. 2 vols (London: John Murray, 1818).

Richard Payne Knight (1751-1824) Carmina Homerica: a rapsodorum interpolation. (Londini: 1808). Second edition 1820.

Richard Payne Knight (1751-1824) The Landscape, a Didactic Poem. In Three Books. Addressed to Uvedale Price, Esq. (London: G. Nicol, 1794).

August von Kotzebue (1761-1819) The Stranger: a Comedy. (London: C. Dilly, 1798). Introduced by Sheridan at Drury Lane in 1798 to great acclaim.

Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830) Address to the Students of the Royal Academy, delivered before the General Assembly at the annual distribution of Prizes, 10th December, 1823. (London: 1824).

John Milton (1608-1674) “Epitaphium Damonis” in Poems of Mr. John Milton, both English and Latin. (London: Humphrey Moseley, 1645). A pastoral elegy composed in 1639.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Memoirs of Captain Rock, the celebrated Irish Chieftain with some Account of his Ancestors written by himself. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Brown and Green, 1824). An indictment of governmental mismanagement in Ireland; “Captain Rock” was a fictitious commander of Irish rebels.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Fables for the Holy Alliance, Rhymes on the Road, &c., &c. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Browne, 1823). A political satire.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) “The Fire-Worshippers” in Lalla Rookh, an Oriental Romance. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1817). One of the four oriental tales comprising Lalla Rookh.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Lalla Rookh, an Oriental Romance. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1817). A collection of four oriental tales in verse: “The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan,” “Paradise and the Peri,” “The Fire-Worshippers,” and “The Light of the Harem.”

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Letters and Journals of Lord Byron with Notices of his Life. 2 vols (London: Murray, 1830). The first authorized collection of Byron's letters and journals.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) The Loves of the Angels, a Poem. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1823).

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Memoirs of the Life of the Right Honourable Richard Brinsley Sheridan. 2 vols (London: Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1825). Moore's first venture into biography was successful enough that he was elected to produce the authorized life of Byron.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) “The Veiled Prophet” in Lalla Rookh, an Oriental Romance. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1817). One of the four oriental tales comprising Lalla Rookh.

Sir Uvedale Price, first baronet (1747-1829) An Essay on the Picturesque, as compared with the Sublime and the Beautiful: and on the use of studying Pictures, for the Purpose of improving real Landscape. (London: J. Robson, 1794).

Henry Crabb Robinson (1775-1867) Diary, Reminiscences, and Correspondence. 3 vols (London: Macmillan, 1869). Edited by Thomas Sadler; reprinted with additions, 2 vols 1872.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) Human Life: a Poem. (London: John Murray, 1819).

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) Italy, a Poem. 2 vols (London: John Murray, 1823-1828). In 1828 the poem was revised and expanded into two parts; in 1830 it was elaborately illustrated with engravings after paintings by J. M. W. Turner and Thomas Stothard.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) “Lines written at Paestum” in Human Life: a Poem. (London: John Murray, 1819). In blank verse.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) The Pleasures of Memory, a Poem. In two Parts. (London: T. Cadell, 1792). A descriptive poem in couplets reprinted throughout the nineteenth century.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) Recollections. (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, and Roberts, 1859). Edited by William Sharpe.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Macbeth. (London: 1623). Shakespeare's comedy was first printed in the first folio.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Othello. (London: 1622). First printed in quarto.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Romeo and Juliet. (London: 1597). First printed in a 1597 quarto.

Christopher Wordsworth, bishop of Lincoln (1807-1885) Memoirs of William Wordsworth. 2 vols (London: Moxon, 1851). By the poet's nephew.

Dorothy Wordsworth (1771-1855) Recollections of a Tour made in Scotland, A.D. 1803. (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1874). Edited by John Campbell Shairp.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) Ecclesiastical Sketches. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1822).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) “Eclipse upon the Lake of Lugano” in Memorials of a Tour on the Continent, 1820. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1822).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) Memorials of a Tour on the Continent, 1820. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1822). A collection of lyrics and descriptive verse.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) “Stanzas upon Einsiedeln” in Memorials of a Tour on the Continent, 1820. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1822).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) “Three Cottage Girls” in Memorials of a Tour on the Continent, 1820. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1822).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) “To Enterprise” in Ecclesiastical Sketches. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1822).

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