The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart
Chapter 20: 1826-52
John Gibson Lockhart to John Wilson, 9 May 1851
“Sussex Place, May 9, 1851.
“Dear
Professor,—Yours of yesterday beats all cockfighting! But you have
sickened me about William
Wordsworth in
toto. How or what can I now write on his Life—Prose or Prelude?
“You can’t have recollected the language of
your former sheets, when you said in the penult that I must put in every word
or none. Could one make the Quarterly Review talk of William Wordsworth as the fat ugly cur, for instance? It would cause old Gifford to snort in his grave. You were
laughing! But in truth I am very unwell, and now despair of doing the
job—at least now. Lord Lonsdale has
surprised me by writing that on examination he finds the statement about his
father’s payment in 1806 to be
‘near the mark’—that he believes the old peer had
rebelled at the extravagance of his solicitor’s charges—but that he
(Lord Lonsdale) would now like nothing to be said of
the concern. Sir James, I fancy, was next door to mad.
There is a picture of William Wordsworth in this
Exhibition, by the younger Pickersgill,
which would give you a good chuckle. The Stamp-master is at full length,
reclining or leaning on a rock near a stream, and is smiling so sweetly.
Evidently the foreground should have displayed the
daffodils. ‘The Professor,’1 by
Watson Gordon, was much noticed by
the Queen, who, on hearing who it was,
turned back again and
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| 282 | LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART. | |
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said, ‘Oh, a very distinguished man—I must
look at it again.’ This I had from Gordon,
who had it from Roberts, who conducted
the lady round that room as Keeper. But, I think, the best portrait in the
place is Dr. Wardlaw, by M’Nee of Glasgow, of whom I had not
heard before—never.
“Lord Peter is
here, guest of a rich City man, Peter Dixon, in this pack
celebrated for his cookery. Peter R—— dined
with me yesterday and seemed in high fig, though not at all riotous. It was the
first time any one had dined with me for many months—for I am as much a
recluse now as you can be.—Ever affectionately yours,
William Gifford (1756-1826)
Poet, scholar, and editor who began as a shoemaker's apprentice; after Oxford he
published
The Baviad (1794),
The Maeviad
(1795), and
The Satires of Juvenal translated (1802) before becoming
the founding editor of the
Quarterly Review (1809-24).
Sir John Watson- Gordon (1788-1864)
Scottish portrait painter and president of the Royal Scottish Academy (1850); Sir Walter
Scott, John Wilson, and James Hogg were among his subjects.
John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854)
Editor of the
Quarterly Review (1825-1853); son-in-law of Walter
Scott and author of the
Life of Scott 5 vols (1838).
William Lowther, second earl of Lonsdale (1787-1872)
The son of the first earl (d. 1844); educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge,
he was a Tory MP for Cockermouth (1808-13), and Westmorland (1813–31, 1832-41).
Sir Daniel Macnee (1806-1882)
Scottish portrait painter and president of the Royal Scottish Academy (1876).
Henry William Pickersgill (1782-1875)
English portrait painter who exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1806, to which he was
elected in 1826. Among his sitters were Hannah More, Jeremy Bentham, William Godwin and
William Wordsworth.
David Roberts (1796-1864)
Scottish-born artist employed as a scene-painter before travelling in the Middle-East and
exhibiting at the Royal Academy from 1826.
Patrick Robertson [Peter] (1794-1855)
Scottish judge, poet, wit, and friend of John Wilson; familiarly known as “Peter,” in
1848 he was elected lord rector of Marischal College.
Ralph Wardlaw (1779-1853)
Educated at Glasgow University, he was a Scottish Congregational Minister and a founder
of the Glasgow Anti-Slavery Society in 1823.
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).
William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
With Coleridge, author of
Lyrical Ballads (1798), Wordsworth
survived his early unpopularity to succeed Robert Southey as poet laureate in 1843.
The Quarterly Review. (1809-1967). Published by John Murray, the
Quarterly was instigated by Walter
Scott as a Tory rival to the
Edinburgh Review. It was edited by
William Gifford to 1824, and by John Gibson Lockhart from 1826 to 1853.
