Clayden: Rogers and his Contemporaries

‘I saw Southey the other day; he was well, and busy as usual, and as his late letter shows, not quite so charitably disposed to Don Juan deceased as you evidently are, if I may judge by a tribute to his memory bearing your name, which I accidently met with in a newspaper; but you were the Don’s particular friend, an equal indulgence, therefore, could not be expected from the Laureate, who, I will not say was his particular enemy, but who had certainly no friendship for him. Medwin makes a despicable figure as the salesman of so much trash. I do not believe there is a man living, from a shoeblack at the corner of your street up to the Archbishop of Canterbury or the Lord Chancellor, of whose conversation so much worthless matter could be reported, with so little deserving to be remembered, as the result of an equal number of miscellaneous opportunities. Is this the fault of Lord B. or his Boswell? The truth is, I fear, that it may be pretty equally divided between them.

‘My amanuensis, Mrs. W., says that it is not handsome in me to speak thus of your friend—no more it is, if he were your friend mortuus in every sense of the word, but his spirit walks abroad, to do some good I hope, but a plaguy deal of mischief.

‘Where and how is Sharp, and what does he report

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of Italy? Last autumn I saw Uvedale Price, our common friend (so I presume to call him, though really only having a slight acquaintance with him), striding up the steep sides of his wood-crowned hills, with his hacker, i.e. his silvan hanger, slung from his shoulder, like Robin Hood’s bow. He is seventy-seven years of age and truly a wonder both for body and mind; especially do I feel him to be so when I recollect the deranged state of his digestive organs twelve years ago. I dined with him about that time at your table and elsewhere.

‘Poor Mr. Monkhouse, you will be sorry to hear, is wintering in Devonshire, driven thither by a disease of the lungs, which leaves his friends little hope of his recovery. He is one of my most valued friends, and should he sink under this complaint, one of the strongest of my inducements, and the most important of my facilities, for visiting London and prolonging my stay there will be removed.

Among Rogers’s business qualities, that of promptly answering letters does not seem to have been included. Wordsworth writes again.

‘My dear Rogers,—I wrote at least six weeks ago, enclosing a letter I had received from Longman, &c., and being unwilling to put you to the expense of double postage upon my own business, I enclosed it to Lord Lowther for the twopenny post-office. Not having had your answer, I am afraid his servant has not attended properly to it.

‘The letter was to beg your assistance in the republication of my poems with some bookseller either more liberal, more adventurous, or more skilful in pushing off unfashionable books than Messrs. Longman. I have been accustomed to publish with them, they facing all risks and halving the profits. This is a wretched way for books of some established credit, but of slow, though regular sale. For the expense of advertising eats away (as conducted by Longman) all the profit which would otherwise accrue after the cost of printing, &c., has been discharged. L. declines publishing on other terms, but says that an edition both of the poems and the “Excursion” is called for, and if not by them, ought immediately to be published by some one. I have no [other] fault to find with Messrs. L. & Co. than is implied above; if we part, it is on good terms, as his letter expressed, and I should not wish for a change without the hope of a better bargain.

‘My friend Mr. Robinson tells us he had the pleasure of seeing your sister not long ago well. Give our best remembrances to her, and accept them yourself, and let us know how you are and have been, where and how Sharp is, and what he reports of Italy and Italian scenery.

The tenor of Rogers’s answer can only be gathered from what Wordsworth says in his next letter. Crabb Robinson, however, tells a story which probably gives in a distorted shape an idea of the kind of advice Rogers gave Wordsworth in the matter. He speaks of being one evening (on the 20th of May, 1826) at Miss Sharpe’s, who was then living in New Ormond Street, at a small and agreeable party of the Flaxmans and the Aikins. Samuel Rogers came in and spoke with great respect of Wordsworth’s poems, but with regret at his obstinate adherence to his peculiarities. Crabb Robinson says that there was at that time a ‘current anecdote that Rogers once said to Wordsworth, “If you would let me edit your poems, and give me leave to omit some half dozen and make a few trifling alterations, I would engage that you should be as popular a poet as any living.” Wordsworth’s answer is said to have been, “I am much obliged to you, Mr. Rogers; I am a poor man, but I had rather remain as I am.”’ The story is not literally true, because Wordsworth would not have so addressed Rogers. But it probably represents pretty fairly the

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advice which Rogers gave, and the reception it got from Wordsworth. In writing to Rogers himself, however, Wordsworth adopts a different tone.

‘My dear Friend,—I am obliged by your kindness in taking so much trouble about my poems, and more especially so by the tone in which you met Mr. Murray when he was disposed to put on the airs of a patron. I do not look for much advantage either to Mr. M. or to any other bookseller with whom I may treat, and for still less to myself, but I assure you that I would a thousand times rather that not a verse of mine should ever enter the press again, than allow any of them to say that I was to the amount of the strength of a hair dependent upon their countenance, consideration, patronage, or by whatever term they may dignify their ostentation or selfish vanity. You recollect Dr. Johnson’s short method of settling precedence at Dilly’s, “No, Sir, authors above booksellers.”

‘I have seen Southey lately. He tells me that Murray can sell more copies of any book that will sell at all than Longman—but it does not follow from that that in the end an author will profit more, because Murray sells books considerably lower to the trade, and advertises even more expensively than Longman, though that seems scarcely possible. Southey’s “Book of the Church” cost 100l. advertising first edition. This is not equal to my little tract of the Lakes, the first edition, for which I got 9l. 8s. 2d., was charged 27l. 2s. 3d. advertising. The second edition is already charged to me 30l. 7s. 2d., the immense profits are yet to come. Thus my throat is cut, and if we bargain with M. we must have some protection from this deadly weapon. I have little to say; the books are before the public, only there will be to be added to the Miscellaneous vols. about 60 pages of new matter, and 200, viz., the “Memorials” and “Ecclesiastical Sketches,” not yet incorporated with them, and the “Ex.” [“Excursion”] to be printed uniform with them in one volume. I mean to divide the poems into five vols., in this way.

‘5th Vol. “White Doe,” “Poems of Sentiment and Reflection,” “Elegies and Epitaphs,” “Final Ode,” &c.

‘I shall not be in town this year, nor can I foresee,

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since the loss of Mr. Monkhouse, when I shall revisit London; the place does not suit me on account of the irritability of my eyes. I must look for you and other friends here. Pray come down this summer. I could let you have a quiet room, this house having lately been added to in a small way. Mr. M. is not only a loss to his friends and kindred but to society at large, as in all his dealings and transactions he was a man of perfect integrity and the most refined honour; he was not bright or entertaining, but so gentle and gracious, and so much interested in most of what ought to interest a pure mind, that his company was highly prized by all who knew him intimately. You say nothing of your sister, nothing of Sharp, but you Londoners have so many notes and letters to write that this must be excused. I often read your “Italy,” which I like much, though there are quaintnesses and abruptnesses which I think might be softened down, and in the versification I would suggest that with so many trochaic terminations to the lines, the final pauses in the middle of the verse should be more frequently on firm syllables on that account. With best remembrances from all,

‘My dear Rogers,—Pray forward the enclosed to Murray when you have looked it over. Copying from your letter, as you will observe, I have confined myself to the words “responsible for the loss,” without using the word expense: ultimate loss I believe there will be none, but there will be a heavy expense, which the sale of the books, if M. does not push, and the leading reviews and periodicals should not take a fit of praising, may be some years in discharging. When am I to become answerable for this? This question I did not like to put directly to M., for it was suggesting a demand sooner than he might otherwise have been disposed to make it; and the new bargain will not eventually be advantageous to me, if I am to advance money and to be long out of it.

‘My dear Rogers,—Month after month elapses and I receive no answer from the grand Murray. I will not pay him the compliment to say I am offended at this; but really it is so unpromising for my comfort in carrying six vols. through the press, and also for the question of ultimate profit, that I have determined not to proceed in the arrangement; and now write to thank you for your kind exertions which have proved so fruitless. I have sent off a letter to Murray telling him that I have given up the arrangement with him; and shall look out elsewhere. I am persuaded that he is too great a personage for any one but a court, an aristocratic, or most fashionable author to deal with. You will recollect the time that elapsed before you could bring him to terms—for the pains you then took I again thank you. And believe [me], my dear Rogers,

He was driven back to Longmans, who, in 1827, published an edition of his poetical works in five volumes, which contained ‘the whole of the Author’s published poems, for the first time collected in a uniform edition.’

There is less than usual about Rogers in Moore’s Diary this year. Moore was very busy and was not much in London. He records several breakfasts at Rogers’s in June, at one of which Sydney Smith and his family were present with Luttrell, Lord John Russell, and Richard Sharp. ‘Highly amusing,’ is Moore’s remark. One of the stories told was that of a man named Forth, who, during the French war, informed Mr. Pitt that two persons from the north of Europe were on their way to England to assassinate him. They were tracked, seized at Brussels, and put in prison. There they lay for years, and at last it was found that they were creditors of Forth, who were coming to arrest him for debt, and that he had invented the plot to assassinate Pitt in order to get rid of them. On another day he went to Rogers’s; looked over the notes he has had from Sheridan’; but either missed, was not shown, or passed over the one which, as I have pointed out, throws light on Sheridan’s pecuniary resources. Rogers was at Lord Grenville’s in July, but Moore records several merry meetings with him in London in August and September.

Wordsworth’s description of the quaint figure Uvedale Price presented in his seventy-seventh year adds to the interest of his letters.

‘This second Correggio from Spain I shall hope to see next spring, and—which always so much enhances the pleasure—with you, and under your guidance. What you say of the exquisite tenderness of the tints and the expression gives me a very favourable idea of it, as being according to my notions more truly characteristic of Correggio than splendour. The sum given for it is a large one; but not more than a mezzo bajocco compared with what the Duke of Wellington’s prize cost the nation: “Ce n’est qu’une nuit de Paris,” said the grand Condé when sacrificing a few regiments. “Ce n’est qu’une heure de guerre,” say I; and for my own part wish we had less glory, more fine pictures, and more money to buy them.

‘Lady Beaumont wrote me word of the intended wedding, and of the great satisfaction it gave to her and Sir George. I once saw Mrs. Beaumont, when she, her mother, Sir George, and myself went together to the museum. All her beauty, as you say, must be her mind; of which last, however, I could not judge, as she was very modest and silent; she has a look of intelligence, and by all accounts she is an excellent person. If Mr. Beaumont fell in love, it could not have been by looking at her in the usual way, but with his mind’s eye; and a very good way of looking at one’s future.

‘My dear Rogers,—I sent you at length the large paper copy of my Discourse the day I left town, viz., Friday last, so pray give directions not to have it thrown among your rubbish, as it deserves.

‘Do you know anything of the architects of the day (I mean excepting always Bernasconi, whom I know you to be very intimate with). We shall of course advertise for plans. But the first-rate men will probably keep aloof from such a competition, and it would be as well to sound them a little, although in our situation the advertisement will be necessary.

In those days men made conversation, as Uvedale

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Price made letter-writing, a fine art. They read for it, prepared it. I have read of one eminent talker, that he kept a kind of ledger account of his stories and witticisms, and entered down the times and places at which he used them, and the names of the company present to hear them, so avoiding the repetition which is the weakness of story-tellers. Many men sketched out their dinner-table talk or their evening conversation as they might sketch out a speech, and learned it, as Ward did his speeches, by heart. Rogers, however, had another resource. He had the whole volume of his ‘Recollections’ in manuscript in his Commonplace Book, and conversation was often enlivened by his bringing it out, as Moore says he did in 1825. Some of the men whose observations he had thus recorded—like Talleyrand and the Duke of Wellington—were still alive; others had only lately left the world, and their memories were fresh. Rogers tells us that his ‘Recollections of Fox’ ‘were read by his nephew with tears in his eyes.’ These, and the other ‘Recollections,’ were heard with ever-increasing interest as the years rolled on, and Rogers himself became to a new generation a venerable and dignified relic of a reverend past. His choice of visitors was almost as large as the London Society of his day, the most distinguished men of the time were glad to meet at his table, the less known felt honoured by an invitation, and everybody knew that a morning or an evening at Rogers’s house was sure to bring them into contact with people whom it was a pleasure and a profit to meet.

The matter was eventually arranged. The Raphael was to be his at a price of more than a thousand guineas, and a further large sum was to be advanced. Meanwhile Lord Dudley left London, and the completion of the transaction was left to Rogers, who reported to Lord Dudley what he had done. Lord Dudley answered.

Crabb Robinson says that Lord Dudley was no loser by the transaction. He was not, so as far as the purchase of the picture was concerned; but the further loan was never repaid. Rogers himself frequently helped Sir Thomas Lawrence in his money difficulties. A promise to pay ‘Samuel Rogers or his order,’ 260l. on the 25th of this present month, written on an old-fashioned five-shilling bill-stamp and dated the 11th of January, 1829, is still among Rogers’s papers. He never asked for the money, and it was never paid. A year later Sir Thomas Lawrence was lying dead.

‘Dear Rogers,—It happens in small as in mighty matters that an endeavour to do too much prevents one

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often from doing anything. I had not been here five days before I conceived the project of writing you, not a letter, but a dissertation—a book; the consequence has been that I have appeared ungrateful for your kind letter to Lady H., and unmindful of your wish to hear of her health—but I have nearly completed my long undertaking, and shall have my letter from Brighton ready to deliver to you with my own hands at Holland House next week. You will, I think, find Lady H. improved in looks, health, and spirits, though she is far from well to-day. Brighton affords no topics for correspondence. Poor Lord Banbury or General Knollys seems broken-hearted at the unjust decision of the House of Lords, and embarrasses his acquaintance as much as a heathen god to know by what name to address him. I am so tired of writing long reasonings on the Test Act and condolences on the loss of the Catholic question, that I must waive all parliamentary topics.1 Could I see my way through Continental events, I should not dislike that subject, but I am at a loss to understand the history, motive, and probable effect of this Congress at Prague. I long for peace so much that I hardly dare believe my own judgment when it represents it to me as probable or possible—and yet—but I will not speculate on so large a subject. We have heard of, not from, Charles, nor does it appear that he had heard from us on the 16th of April last.

‘My dear Sarah,—We arrived here on Friday at four o’clock, and were very glad to look upon the old lake again. Sir George’s passion are the Langdale Pikes, and he is sketching them from morning till night. He uses white chalk upon a blue paper, and strongly recommends it to you for catching the momentary lights in the sky. I believe you have hitherto confined yourself to terrestrial objects. We set out on Tuesday and breakfasted at Derby, and saw Kedleston and slept at Matlock old Bath, as we had done so often before. At Derby I called upon Lucy,1 and was shown up instantly by the maid into a large room looking to the garden and the river. She was sitting alone, and not a little surprised at the sight of me. She is very thin, and so much altered that I am not sure I should have known her at once elsewhere, but she is the same amiable, kind creature she ever was, and discovered at least half as much pleasure as she did once at Highbury, when she made one jump of it downstairs to meet her father. Her reception quite affected me. At Matlock we took a long walk till sunset, and returned an hour after the dinner hour, much, I believe, to the disappointment of the company, who had waited

1 Lucy Rogers, daughter of Daniel and niece of Samuel, married Mr. Bingham of Derby.

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half an hour for us—a company, however, not very numerous, six in number, one of them a sister-in-law of Sir Wm. Gell. At Sir George’s desire we dined alone and saw nothing of them. Next morning we saw Haddon Hall with great delight and breakfasted at the Chatsworth Inn—when a heavy rain came on and lasted all day. Chatsworth is really little worth seeing, though full of Canova.

‘Abercromby was there and I saw him for five minutes. At Sheffield I wished to call upon Montgomery, but the rain prevented me. We slept at Barnsley (the inns in these manufacturing towns are most uncomfortable). Next day it cleared up and we had a sight of Gordale Scar, sleeping at Settle. The next day we sat down, as I said, at Lowwood Inn, and despatched a note to Wordsworth, who came next morning to breakfast and spent the day with us. Next day (Sunday) we returned the visit, and went to Rydal Church (a new and very pretty one built by Lady Fleming), and dined with them; at night came a mob to tea—young men with letters of introduction, ladies on short visits to neighbours—and the rooms were crowded. Dora, the daughter, is much improved and not now ill-looking. Miss Hutchinson much softer and more agreeable. The dinner very good and all very neat. The place still more beautiful than I remembered it to be, but they have notice to quit and have bought a field to build in, a measure that disturbs Sir George mightily, but may never take place. Sir G. is very amiable—perhaps a little too talkative—for he talks for ever and [is] more helpless than Miss Fox! Sharp was here a week,

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and a week at Ambleside. He saw but little of Wordsworth, who was electioneering. Miss Kinnaird, the waiter says, sang from morning till night to a small pianoforte that belongs to the house. Wordsworth has much to do. A wedding dinner at Grasmere yesterday; a christening, where he stands sponsor, at Ulverstone next Friday. Sir G. is gone for the day to him now, and has left me behind in another bilious fit, but it is a slight one. On Thursday we go to Keswick for four or five days, and then to Lowther for a week or so, and then I mean to fly home. This house is kept by Scotch people, and is very dirty. Their book for the season is tolerably full of names, but of hardly any I ever heard of. The quality perhaps go to Ambleside, if they come at all. . . . The Ws. lament your absence very much and make many enquiries after you. I fear they will not be soon in London again. We have written for a« private lodging if we can get one at Keswick.

‘Keswick, September 15.—We came here on Thursday and drank tea with the Southeys in a company of sixteen people; among others, William Taylor of Norwich. Southey dined with us to-day and left us at six to entertain a party at home. What a bustle these poets live in! To-morrow we drink tea with him, and on Monday dine with him and Wordsworth, who comes here. Our mornings are taken up in laking, or, rather, mountaineering. The weather so far very fine. Pray direct to me on or before the 26th under cover to the Earl of Lonsdale, Lowther Castle, Penrith.’

‘Mrs. Opie is living at Grasmere on a visit to Mr. Barber, who drives her about in an open carriage.’

‘My dear Rogers,—By the time, or perhaps before, you receive this, Lord Hastings’s library will be in the hands of Mr. Robins for sale. This was privately communicated to me, and as I thought there might be some things in it which you might wish to possess, I thought it not amiss to give you this hint in case you might choose to negotiate before the sale.

‘Do you know anything of Charles Mills, the editor of the travels of Ducas. We have been much entertained by the book, although it would have been more agreeable, I think, if he had given it more of the tone of the times. Excuse repetitions, &c. I write in haste.’

Moore had been in London again in October, and once more had recourse to Rogers for business help and counsel. He records meeting Rogers at Walter Scott’s, when Rogers told the story of a tipsy man who had been rolled in currant jelly and then in feathers, and who, catching sight of himself in a glass, exclaimed, ‘A bird, by Jove!’ Rogers went with him to Murray, Moore walking about outside till Rogers had seen him first. On another day Rogers tells him some flattering things he had heard about the ‘Life of Sheridan,’ administering with the pleasant draught a little wholesome criticism on Moore’s mode of telling some of the stories in the volumes. Later in the month Rogers was at Bowood, and Moore records his kind appreciation of the beauty of his ‘Bessy.’ Moore was busy with ‘The Epicurean,’ and the story was talked over with his friend. Early next year he was in London again, and the business with Murray occupied much of their attention. He tells in his Diary one or two of Rogers’s stories. Lord Erskine said of a man who left a quarter of a million,

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that it was a fine sum to begin the other world with—an observation Rogers often quoted. Fuseli, standing with his back to Rogers’s fire on a cold day, remarked, with his peculiar accent, ‘Hell fire kept within bounds is no bad thing.’ Moore records Rogers’s story told him by the Duke of Wellington, that when Bonaparte’s escape from Elba was told to the persons assembled in Congress they all burst out laughing. The Duke had sent a special despatch to the Emperor with the news, and the bearer of it afterwards remarked, ‘What could there possibly have been in that despatch, for the moment the Emperor read it he burst out a-laughing.’ After Cintra, the Duke of Wellington said to Rogers’s early friend, Sir John Moore, ‘There is now only you and me left, and if you are appointed chief I will serve under you.’ Of Waterloo the Duke said to Rogers, ‘It was a battle of giants.’

‘My dear Rogers,—I am going to address you in character of Churchwarden of Little St. Clement’s, East Cheap: how came you by this odd distinction?

‘And now, my dear friend, let me condole with you on the loss we have sustained in the death of Sir George Beaumont. He has left a gap in private society that will not be filled up, and the public is not without important reasons to honour his memory and lament his loss. Nearly five and twenty years have I known him intimately, and neither myself nor my family ever received a cold or unkind look from him. With what tender interest do I think of the happy hours we three spent together last summer.

‘Dora is improved in health, but the severe weather confines her to her room.’

‘My dear Lord Lansdowne,—I am just now under the roof of an old retired Statesman, whose sentiments all men, however they may differ from him, must listen to with respect; and perhaps at a crisis like the present you will not be sorry to hear what has fallen from him on the subject.

‘Pray forgive me, my dear Lord Lansdowne, for troubling you with so long a letter at such a time; and yet why should I make any excuse for it? I have now known you for many a year, and I am very sure you will receive it in good part, and as a testimony of the esteem and regard with which I am always yours,

‘Mr. Grenville was present and went along with him in every syllable. A man who, like Lord Grenville, has filled so many high offices of the State, and who has himself discharged the duties of Home Secretary and Irish Secretary, must be supposed to know the degree and extent of the influence belonging to each. On that part of the subject he spoke with great confidence. He has once, I believe, if not twice, refused office under circumstances not very unlike the present, and may here be said to have given the result of his experience while in public life and of his meditation since he has left it.’

The Mr. Grenville whom Rogers mentions in the postscript was Mr. Thomas Grenville, an elder brother of Lord Grenville. He was usually spoken of as Tom Grenville. Uvedale Price, writing to Rogers on July 27th, 1827, says of him:—

‘I always liked Tom Grenville, as he was familiarly called, and like him much better now, both outwardly and inwardly; his unpowdered head, to my mind, suits the character of his countenance more than powdered curls; as to the interior, in addition to the general quickness and pleasantness of his conversation, I found, during our walk together at Dropmore, that he was an eager observer on my particular line, and to a part of it that has so much employed my thoughts—to composition; and he pointed out several trees, bushy thorns, &c., which appeared to him to interfere with it; and I, of course, approved of his notions, as they exactly coincided with mine. There are few persons that I should be so glad to see here, and I will not despair of a visit. I nearly despair of a second from Lord and Lady Grenville; the first, and I fear the last, as ill-luck would have it, was to the place only.’

Poor Pollok did not benefit much by the generosity of literary friends. He came to winter in the South, but died at Shirley Common, near Southampton, on the 17th of September.

‘My wife and daughter are flown into Hampshire, where they will remain till the first swallow returns, for the sake of a dryer climate, which my daughter’s health requires. I hope your journey to Italy will be deferred for one year, it would admit the possibility at least of my meeting you there. What a treat! How goes on your poem? The papers spoke of a new edition being intended, with numerous engravings, which, if executed under your presiding taste, cannot but be invaluable. I was at Lowther a week lately. I missed you and dear Sir George by the side of that beautiful stream. The weather was exquisite, and one solitary ramble through the Elysian fields and onwards I shall never forget. Could you believe that a flock of geese, tame geese, could on land make an interesting appearance? Yet that day so they did, reposing themselves under an umbrageous oak; thirty at least, all carefully shaded from the bright and over-warm

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sunshine, and forming groups that Rubens would have delighted in; with attitudes as various and action still more so than cattle enjoying like comfort.

‘My sister, sons, and Miss Hutchinson are here; all unite in kindest regards. I wish you would join us for a week or two.

‘My brother has desired me to copy the above from the advertisement, and, with pen in hand and the blank page before me, I cannot help saying a word of friendly and affectionate remembrance to yourself and sister. The season is so far advanced that I fear there is no chance of your being moved hither by my brother’s hint of the pleasure it would give us to see you; yet I will add, if you do come, you must bring Miss Rogers along with you, or I should not be half satisfied. My brother, I see, says nothing of his intention of visiting Mrs. W. at Coleorton, nor of a still larger scheme that he has of visiting London. I was very sorry not to see you at Coleorton, the last week of my enjoyment of dear Sir George Beaumont’s society.

In the autumn there was the usual company at Bowood, and Moore tells us almost as much about Rogers, who was there, as about himself. One or two of Rogers’s stories Moore misreports. According to Rogers’s Commonplace Book, it was of the House of Lords, and not of the House of Commons as Moore says, that Lord Maynard, returning from a visit to the Continent, asked, ‘Is that going on still?’ It was Madame de Staël who asked Talleyrand whether he would save her or another lady if both were in danger of drowning, and to whom Talleyrand replied, ‘Vous savez nager, je crois.’ Moore was then busy with Lord Byron’s life, and there was much talk with Rogers about it, but most of the stories he records I have already given on other authority. Among other stories is Rogers’s statement that Byron was nine months at Pisa without seeing the belfry or the baptistery; and that Canova had told him he was in love at five years old.

‘My dear Rogers,—Ten days ago Mrs. W. (she from the neighbourhood of Hereford, and I from the North) met at this place, which we quit Saturday, 8th of next month, going together into Herefordshire, where Mrs. W. will remain with her daughter till the warm and dry weather of spring returns. Thus is our little family broken up by the troublesome indisposition of my daughter, an affection of the throat, which returns along with a cough on rainy and damp days.

‘Lady Beaumont was not well a few days after our arrival here, but she is now in good health and as little altered in appearance as could have been expected. She employs herself much in the concerns of this place, and has great resources in reading and religious meditation. You will be aware how much Mrs. W. and I miss Sir George in this house and in the grounds about. There is a little picture on the easel in his painting room as it was left on his seizure there with a fainting fit, the commencement of his fatal illness, which lasted no more than eight days. Lady B. begs that you will be quite easy on the subject of your not answering her letter, as she did not look for a reply, being in general as averse to letter-writing as you are. It seems that it was a consolation to her under her suffering to write to Sir George’s friends. I sincerely believe that she did so without wishing for, or thinking about, any notice of her effusion. She took up the pen from impulse, and it was a relief to her.

‘My dear Sarah,—The weather was so severe as we came that Rees travelled the greater part in the carriage. But we have been out every day. On Tuesday there was a large party to see Anderden’s pictures. It seems he lives about five miles off, and I had no great fancy to go; but the Duke said they were excellent, and as he seemed to wish it, I went. On Wednesday some of us went to Sir John Cope’s and we were rewarded. The gallery, unfurnished, is 130 feet long, and the house, as Lady Holland said, is much larger than Holland House. The passages and staircases are endless, and the views from the windows very extensive. We dine punctually at seven and breakfast at ten. On Tuesday the Duke sent for the Raivier family (the Tyrolese), and for the two last evenings they have sung (yesterday while we dined). Today, I believe, the Duke is gone a-hunting. The church is in the park, and his nephew, Mr. Wellesley, is Rector. The commissioners wished the Duke to decide in favour of Sir John Cope’s, then on sale; but he was deterred by the expense of repairing it. His architect told him that the roof must be taken off and that then the walls would come down—reason enough against the purchase if well founded. On Saturday I shall go to Dropmore and return to town early on Monday. Every day at dinner there has been the addition of some neighbours, and,

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among others, Sir Claudius Hunter. Yesterday some came in the evening.

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James Abercromby, first baron Dunfermline (1776-1858) The son of Lt.-Gen Sir Ralph Abercromby; he was MP for Midhurst (1807), Calne (1812-30) and Edinburgh (1832), judge-advocate general (1827) and speaker of the House of Commons (1835-39); he was raised to the peerage in 1839.

Lucy Aikin (1781-1864) English biographer and historian, the daughter of Dr. John Aikin and niece of Anna Letitia Barbauld, whose works she edited (1825). She published in the Literary Gazette.

J. H. Anderden (1833 fl.) A London stockbroker who patronized the Scottish painter William Leighton Leitch; he donated his collection of Royal Academy catalogues to the British Museum.

Prince Augustus Frederick, duke of Sussex (1773-1843) Son of George III, created Duke of Sussex in 1801; he was president of the Royal Society (1830-38).

Samuel Barber (d. 1832) Of Gell Cottage; a man of fashion and neighbour of Wordsworth at Grasmere.

Thomas Barnes [Strada] (1785-1841) The contemporary of Leigh Hunt at Christ's Hospital; he was editor of The Times from 1817.

Sir George Howland Beaumont, seventh baronet (1753-1827) Art collector, painter, and one of the founders of the National Gallery; he was an acquaintance of Johnson and Reynolds, Scott, Wordsworth, and Byron.

Lady Margaret Beaumont [née Willes] (1756-1829) The daughter of John Willes of Astrop; in 1778 she married Sir George Howland Beaumont, seventh baronet; she is mentioned by Byron in “The Blues.”

Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842) Scottish surgeon and anatomical illustrator; his first publication was The Anatomy of the Brain, Explained in a Series of Engravings (1802). He was a close friend of Francis Jeffrey.

Francis Bernasconi (1762-1841) English ornamental carver and plasterer who worked at Oxford and Cambridge and made the altar-Piece for Westminster Abbey (1825).

William Blackwood (1776-1834) Edinburgh bookseller; he began business 1804 and for a time was John Murray's Scottish agent. He launched Blackwood's Magazine in 1817.

Charles James Blomfield, bishop of London (1786-1857) Classical scholar and Tory prelate; he was bishop of Chester (1824) and bishop of London (1828-57).

James Boswell (1740-1795) Scottish man of letters, author of The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791).

William Lisle Bowles (1762-1850) English poet and critic; author of Fourteen Sonnets, elegiac and descriptive, written during a Tour (1789), editor of the Works of Alexander Pope, 10 vols (1806), and writer of pamphlets contributing to the subsequent Pope controversy.

Henry Peter Brougham, first baron Brougham and Vaux (1778-1868) Educated at Edinburgh University, he was a founder of the Edinburgh Review in which he chastised Byron's Hours of Idleness; he defended Queen Caroline in her trial for adultery (1820), established the London University (1828), and was appointed lord chancellor (1830).

George Gordon Byron, sixth Baron Byron (1788-1824) The author of Childe Harold and Don Juan.

Thomas Cadell the younger (1773-1836) London bookseller, son of his better-known father; the younger Cadell entered into partnership with William Davies in 1793. In 1802 he married Sophia Smith, sister of James and Horace Smith of the Rejected Addresses.

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 Canning (1770-1827) Tory statesman; he was foreign minister (1807-1809) and prime minister (1827); a supporter of Greek independence and Catholic emancipation.

Antonio Canova (1757-1822) Italian neoclassical sculptor who worked at Rome.

William George Spencer Cavendish, sixth duke of Devonshire (1790-1858) The only son of Georgiana, duchess of Devonshire; he was Byron's contemporary at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge. “Hart,” as he was known, succeeded to the dukedom in 1811.

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

Louis II prince de Condé, Prince de Condé (1621-1686) French general who fought in the Thirty Years War, the Fronde, and the Dutch War.

Sir John Cope, eleventh baronet (1768-1851) In 1812 he succeeded his brother, Sir Denzel Cope, baronet. A notable master of the hounds who lived at Bramshill House, a Jacobean mansion in Hampshire.

John Singleton Copley, baron Lyndhurst (1772-1863) The son of the American painter; he did legal work for John Murray before succeeding Lord Eldon as lord chancellor (1827-30, 1834-35, 1841-46); a skilled lawyer, he was also a political chameleon.

Antonio Allegri Correggio (1489-1534) Italian baroque painter who worked at Parma.

Francis Danby (1793-1861) Landscape painter, born in Ireland, who worked at Bristol and London and exhibited at the Royal Academy.

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).

Edward Dilly (1732-1779) London bookseller in partnership with his younger brother Charles (1737-1807); both were acquaintances of Samuel Johnson.

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

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 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).

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.

Anne Frederica Elizabeth Fleming [née le Fleming] (1784-1861) The daughter of Sir Michael le Fleming, fourth baronet; in 1807 she married Sir Daniel Fleming, who became the fifth baronet. She was Wordsworth's landlady at Rydal.

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

Elizabeth Fox, Lady Holland [née Vassall] (1771 c.-1845) In 1797 married Henry Richard Fox, Lord Holland, following her divorce from Sir Godfrey Webster; as mistress of Holland House she became a pillar of Whig society.

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 Fuseli (1741-1825) Anglo-Swiss painter who settled in England in 1764 and became the friend of William Blake.

Sir William Gell (1777-1836) English traveler and archaeologist; author of the Topography of Troy (1804), Geography and Antiquities of Ithaca (1807), the Itinerary of Greece, with a Commentary on Pausanias (1810), Itinerary of the Morea (1817), Narrative of a Journey in the Morea (1823), and Itinerary of Greece (1827).

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.

Sir John Peter Grant of Rothiemurchus, (1774-1848) MP for Great Grimsby (1812-18) and Tavistock (1819-26); as a politician he was patronized by the Duke of Bedford until when pressed by his creditors he emigrated to India where he pursued a legal career.

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.

Thomas Grenville (1755-1846) The third son of George Grenville; he was a Whig MP and follower of Charles James Fox who was first lord of the Admiralty (1806-07) and bequeathed a collection of 20,000 volumes to the British Library.

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).

Francis Rawdon Hastings, first marquess of Hastings (1754-1826) Educated at Harrow and University College, Oxford, he was a Whig statesman and improvident intimate of the Prince of Wales; he succeeded to the earldom in 1793.

Benjamin Robert Haydon (1786-1846) English historical painter and diarist who recorded anecdotes of romantic writers and the physiognomy of several in his paintings.

John Howard (1726 c.-1790) Philanthropist and associate of John Aikin; he published The State of the Prisons in England and Wales (1777).

Joseph Hume (1777-1855) After service in India he became a radical MP for Weymouth (1812), Aberdeen (1818-30, 1842-55), Middlesex (1830-37), and Kilkenny (1837-41); he was an associate of John Cam Hobhouse and a member of the London Greek Committee. Maria Edgeworth: “Don't like him much; attacks all things and persons, never listens, has no judgment.”

Sir Claudius Hunter, first baronet (1775-1851) He was a solicitor in Lincoln's Inn and Lord Mayor of London (1811-12) who was created a baronet in 1812.

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

Edward Irving (1792-1834) Popular Presbyterian preacher in London; he was a friend of Coleridge and author of The Oracles of God and the Judgement to Come (1823).

Maria Jane Fletcher [née Jewsbury] (1800-1833) Poet and essayist for the Athenaeum who died in India shortly after her marriage to William Kew Fletcher in 1832. She was a literary friend of Wordsworth and Felicia Hemans.

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).

William Johnson (1784-1864) Schoolmaster at Grasmere; he was introduced by Wordsworth to Dr. Andrew Bell, the inventor of the Madras system of education which he introduced in a model school in London (1812).

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

Andrew Kippis (1725-1795) Dissenting divine who taught and Coward Academy, Hoxton, and afterwards at the dissenting college at Hackney; he was editor of the Biographia Britannica (1778-93).

William Knollys (1763-1834) lieutenant-governor of St John's, Newfoundland, from 1818 to 1827; after a controversial and protracted case, his petition to join the House of Lords as the eighth earl of Banbury was denied in 1813.

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).

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).

Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831) Scottish man of letters, author of The Man of Feeling (1770) and editor of The Mirror (1779-80) and The Lounger (1785-87).

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).

Charles Maynard, second viscount Maynard (1752-1824) The son of William Maynard baronet whom he succeeded in 1775; the following year he married the courtesan Anne Parsons.

Thomas Medwin (1788-1869) Lieutenant of dragoons who was with Byron and Shelley at Pisa; the author of Conversations of Lord Byron (1824) and The Life of Percy Bysshe Shelley, 2 vols (1847).

James Mill (1773-1836) English political philosopher allied with the radical Joseph Hume; he was the father of John Stuart Mill.

Charles Mills (1788-1826) English historian who corresponded with Walter Scott; he published The History of Chivalry, or, Knighthood and its Times (1825).

Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868) Educated at Eton and Brasenose College, Oxford, he was a poet, historian and dean of St Paul's (1849) who wrote for the Quarterly Review.

Mary Ann Milman [née Cockell] (1853 fl.) Daughter of Lieutenant-General William Cockell; she married Henry Hart Milman in 1824.

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

James Montgomery (1771-1854) English poet and editor of the Sheffield Iris (1795-1825); author of The Wanderer of Switzerland (1806) and The World before the Flood (1813).

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

Sir John Moore (1761-1809) A hero of the Peninsular Campaign, killed at the Battle of Corunna; he was the son of Dr. John Moore, the author of Zeluco.

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.

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).

Amelia Opie [née Alderson] (1769-1853) Quaker poet and novelist; in 1798 she married the painter John Opie (1761-1807); author of Father and Daughter (1801) and other novels and moral fables.

William Orde-Powlett, second baron Bolton (1782-1850) The son of Thomas, first baron Bolton; he was educated at King's College, Cambridge, and was Tory MP for Yarmouth (1808); in 1810 he married Maria Carleton, daughter of General Guy Carleton, first Baron Dorchester.

William Young Ottley (1771-1836) Art collector and connoisseur; he was keeper of prints and drawings at the British Museum (1833).

William Peachey (1763 c.-1838) Of Gosport, educated at Trinity College, Oxford; he was lieutenant-general in the 10th Hussars and was a Tory MP for Yarmouth (1797-1802) and Taunton (1826-30). He corresponded with W. L. Bowles and Robert Southey.

Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) Lyric poet and founder of humanism in Italy.

William Pitt the younger (1759-1806) The second son of William Pitt, earl of Chatham (1708-1778); he was Tory prime minister 1783-1801.

Robert Pollok (1798-1827) Scottish poet and clergyman, author of the oft-reprinted The Course of Time (1827) issued shortly before his early death.

Nicholas Poussin (1594-1665) French landscape and historical painter whose neoclassical compositions were much admired in Britain.

Lady Mary Elizabeth Powys [née Fox] (1806-1891) The daughter of Henry Richard Vassall Fox, third baron Holland; in 1830 she married Thomas Atherton Powys, third baron Lilford.

Richard Price (1723-1791) Dissenting divine, philosopher, and political radical who was the target of Burke's remarks in Reflections on the Revolution in France; he published Review of the Principal Questions and Difficulties in Morals (1758).

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).

Joseph Priestley (1733-1804) Dissenting theologian, schoolmaster, and scientist; he was author of The History and Present State of Electricity, with Original Experiments (1767).

Dora Quillinan [née Wordsworth] (1804-1847) The daughter of William Wordsworth who in 1841 married the poet Edward Quillinan despite her father's concerns about his debts.

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

Owen Rees (1770-1837) London bookseller; he was the partner of Thomas Norton Longman and friend of the poet Thomas Moore.

Rembrandt (1606-1669) Dutch painter and etcher.

Guido Reni (1575-1642) Of Bologna; Italian baroque painter.

George Henry Robins (1777-1847) Flamboyant auctioneer who aroused controversy in selling the contents of Walpole's Strawberry Hill in 1842. He served with Byron on the Drury-Lane steering committee.

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.

Henry Rogers (1774-1832) Son of Thomas Rogers (1735-93) and youngest brother of the poet Thomas Rogers; he was the head of the family bank, Rogers, Towgood, and Co. until 1824, and a friend of Charles Lamb.

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.

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.

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.

Sutton Sharpe the younger (1797-1843) London solicitor, the son of Sutton Sharpe and nephew of the poet Samuel Rogers.

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).

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.

John Smith (1767-1842) The son of Abel Smith; he was MP for Wendover (1802-06), Nottingham (1806-18), Midhurst (1818-30), Chichester (1830-31), and Buckinghamshire (1831-34).

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).

Germaine de Staël (1766-1817) French woman of letters; author of the novel Corinne, ou L'Italie (1807) and De l'Allemagne (1811); banned from Paris by Napoleon, she spent her later years living in Germany, Britain, and Switzerland.

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

William Taylor of Norwich (1765-1836) Translator, poet, and essayist; he was a pupil of Anna Letitia Barbauld and correspondent of Robert Southey who contributed to the Monthly Magazine, the Monthly Review, the Critical Review, and other periodicals.

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).

Gerald Valerian Wellesley (1809-1882) The third son of Henry Wellesley, first Baron Cowley, and nephew of the Duke of Wellington; he was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge and was rector of Stratfield Saye (1836-1854) and queen Victoria's resident chaplain (1849).

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).

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.

Biographia Britannica: or, the Lives of the most eminent Persons who have flourished in Great Britain and Ireland, from the earliest Ages, to the present Times . 5 vols (London: C. Bathurst, W. Strahan, J. Rivington and Sons, 1778-93). Edited by Andrew Kippis.

Peter William Clayden (1827-1902) The Early Life of Samuel Rogers. (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1887). Continued as Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries (1889).

Thomas Medwin (1788-1869) Conversations of Lord Byron: noted during a Residence with his Lordship at Pisa, in the Years 1821 and 1822. (London: Colburn, 1824). Medwin had been invited to Italy by Shelley and was intimate with both poets.

Charles Mills (1788-1826) The Travels of Theodore Ducas, in various Countries in Europe, at the Revival of Letters and Art. 2 vols (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1822). “Ducas” is a pseudonym.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) The Epicurean: a Tale. (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1827). Alciphron is the hero of Moore's prose romance.

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) 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.

Robert Pollok (1798-1827) The Course of Time: a Poem, in Ten Books. (Edinburgh: W. Blackwood, 1827).

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) 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.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) The Book of the Church. 2 vols (London: J. Murray, 1824). A history of Christianity in England upholding the claims of the Established Church.

Robert Southey (1774-1843) “Medwin and Byron” in The Courier. (7 December 1824). Robert Southey denies writing the reviews in the Quarterly ascribed to him by Byron.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) “The Blind Highland Boy” in Poems in Two Volumes. 2 vols (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1807).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) A Description of the Scenery of the Lakes in the north of England with Additions, and illustrative Remarks upon the Scenery of the Alps. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1822). This “third” edition was the first separate publication.

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

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) The Excursion, being a portion of The Recluse, a Poem. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1814). A poem in nine books of blank verse.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) “Her Eyes are wild” in Lyrical Ballads with a few other Poems. (Bristol: T. N. Longman, 1798). Probably composed 1798.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) “Laodamia” in Poems by William Wordsworth. 2 vols (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1815). Composed 1814.

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) The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth. 5 vols (London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, 1827).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) “The Poet's Epitaph” in Lyrical Ballads with a few other Poems. 2 vols (London: T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1800).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) The River Duddon: a Series of Sonnets; Vaudracour and Julia: and other Poems; to which is annexed, a topographical Description of the country of the Lakes, in the north of England. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1820).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) “Ruth” in Lyrical Ballads with a few other Poems. 2 vols (London: T. N. Longman and O. Rees, 1800). Composed 1798-99.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) Thanksgiving Ode, January 18, 1816, with other short Pieces, chiefly referring to recent Public Events. (London: Longman, Hurst, Orme, and Brown, 1816). The occasion was celebrating the victory of Waterloo.

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

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) The Waggoner: a Poem; to which are added, Sonnets. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1819).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) White Doe of Rylstone, or, the Fate of the Nortons, a Poem. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1815). A historical romance set in the sixteenth century that handles Scott's themes in Wordsworth's manner.

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