Clayden: Rogers and his Contemporaries

The intercourse which Rogers had with Mr. Fox in the last years of that great statesman’s life always remained among his most cherished recollections. More than a third of his volume of ‘Recollections’1 is devoted to Fox, and Rogers records that these scraps of conversation—which year after year he repeated to new friends at his celebrated breakfast parties—were read by Lord Holland with tears in his eyes. They give us the home view of a great political leader—what he was in free talk with a friend. ‘I am well aware,’ says Rogers in a brief prefatory note, ‘that these scraps of conversation have little to recommend them, but as serving to show his playfulness, his love of letters, and his good nature in

1 Recollections, by Samuel Rogers, edited by his nephew, William Sharpe, and published in 1859.

ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

unbending himself to a young man.’ The first meeting with Fox he has put on record was at Mr. Stone’s in 1792,1 but the first conversation recorded in the ‘Recollections’ took place at William Smith’s house in 1796. At the earlier meeting, Talleyrand, then only known as the Bishop of Autun, was present, with Sheridan, Madame de Genlis (then Madame de Sillery), and Pamela. Sheridan was, or pretended to be, desperately smitten with Pamela, and Madame de Genlis tells us he made her an offer of marriage. On this particular evening Sheridan was busy writing verses to her in very imperfect French. Shortly afterwards she married the unfortunate Lord Edward Fitzgerald. During the evening, Fox’s natural son, a deaf and dumb boy, came in, and Fox flew to receive him with the most lively pleasure. He conversed with the boy by signs, and Talleyrand remarked to Rogers how strange it was to meet the first orator in Europe, and see him talking only with his fingers. The chief political remark of Fox’s, which Rogers records in his diary, is that ‘all titles are equally ridiculous.’ The next record of Fox’s conversation is that with which the ‘Recollections’ open. It was at a dinner at William Smith’s, and Rogers puts on record that he was delighted with Fox’s ‘fine tact, his feeling, open and gentlemanlike manner, so full of candour and diffidence, and entering with great ardour and interest into the conversation.’ The next meeting recorded was at Sergeant Heywood’s, when Lord Derby, Lord Stanley, and Lord Lauderdale were present, and Fox ‘pooh-poohed political economy, and spoke lightly of Adam

1 The Early Life of Samuel Rogers, pp. 244-45.

FOX AT ST. ANNE'S HILL

Smith. From this time Fox seems to have numbered Rogers among his friends. They had much intercourse at Paris in 1802, and Rogers visited him in January, 1803, at St. Anne’s Hill. The last visit to Fox’s country house was in July, 1805. Rogers records that he ‘went down with Courtenay and a brace of Weymouth trout.’ Leaving London at eleven, they reached St. Anne’s Hill at three, and found Fox in his garden, dressed in a light-coloured coat and nankeen gaiters, and wearing a white hat. He complained of the coldness of the summer, and of the gnats, and said he had not seen the Chertsey hills for a fortnight. ‘How d’ye do?’ he exclaimed, when it cleared in the evening, and the hills became visible. The talk during this visit fills nearly thirty pages of the ‘Recollections.’ Fox was very cordial. They arrived on the Wednesday, and proposed to return home on Saturday, but Fox insisted on making them stay till Monday, that they might have a quiet day on Sunday. Such a visit to the great Whig orator, when his life was fast drawing to its premature close, was likely to remain, as it did, among the proudest and most cherished of Rogers’s recollections. In his poem of ‘Human Life’ there is an apostrophe to Fox, in which this and other visits are described:—

In the succeeding February, after Fox had been appointed Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in Lord Grenville’s ‘Ministry of All the Talents,’ Fox removed to a house in Stable Yard, Westminster, and there Rogers saw him. At one of these visits Fox was talking earnestly about Dryden, of whom he was so fond that he once thought of editing his works. In the warmth of conversation with a sympathising listener, he forgot that a levee was being held, which, as a Minister of State, it was his duty to attend. When he suddenly recollected it, there was no time to dress, and he set off in his ordinary attire. Reminded that he was not in a Court suit, ‘Never mind,’ he replied; ‘he is so blind, he will never know what I have got on.’

On the 23rd of March Rogers called on him, and found him reading Scott’s ‘Lay of the Last Minstrel,’ which Rogers had lent him. They had been together to see ‘the Young Roscius’ a short time before. Fox’s health was already failing, and, early in April, Rogers was summoned to visit him by apathetic letter from Mrs. Fox. This letter shows the esteem in which Rogers was held by Fox and his wife, and proves that Mrs. Fox had been very anxious about her husband’s health a month before she communicated her anxiety to Captain

FOX'S ILLNESS AND DEATH

Trotter, who says that she first spoke to him on the subject early in May.

This Saturday was either the 5th or 12th of April. Rogers went at once and found Fox lying with Hippocrates open before him. The remark recorded in the ‘Recollections’ was made in an interval of his fits of stupor. He recovered for a time, and on Sunday, the 20th, Rogers dined at his house by formal invitation to a six-o’clock dinner. This was probably the last time Rogers saw him. In May, Mrs. Fox mentioned to Trotter the anxiety her husband’s illness caused her; in June he became worse; and in July, longing to be back at St. Anne’s Hill, set out for home, intending to take Chiswick House on the way. He never got beyond this first stage of the journey, but died at Chiswick on the 13th of September.

The distant years have come and the poet’s prophecy is fulfilled. Fox’s fame is part of the proud inheritance of Englishmen, to whatever party they belong. After more than eighty years, in which we have had statesmen as fearless, leaders as ‘resolved and negligently great,’ and orators as powerful, it is not possible to realise the disappointment, the distress, and the anxiety for the future, which the passing away of this power from the earth caused to the friends of freedom and progress

FOX AND WORDSWORTH

everywhere, as well as to his own immediate circle. It was a time when death seemed busy with the great. Nelson had died on the 21st of the previous October; Pitt had gone on the 23rd of January; and now Fox had followed within eight months. To the Whig party the loss seemed almost fatal. There was no one to take his place. How poignant the personal sorrow and the public and party disappointment were, is illustrated by one of Rogers’s recollections. Many years after Fox’s death he was at a party at Chiswick, and roamed with Sir Robert Adair over the house. They talked of the lost leader, and Sir Robert Adair asked in which room he died. ‘In this very room,’ replied Rogers, and Sir Robert Adair burst into a flood of tears.

In his later years Rogers often told and retold the story of his early intercourse with the greatest of the Whigs. He had introduced Wordsworth to Fox at a ball given by Mrs. Fox. Wordsworth was then little known, but he had already sent Fox a copy of the ‘Lyrical Ballads,’ with a letter in which he had drawn special attention to ‘The Brothers’ and ‘Michael’ as containing pictures of the domestic affections as they exist among the small cultivating proprietors called in the north country ‘statesmen.’ Fox had replied pointing out that ‘Harry Gill,’ ‘We are Seven,’ ‘The Mad Mother,’ and ‘The Idiot Boy’ were his favourites, and expressing his dislike of blank verse for subjects which are to be treated of with simplicity. This correspondence was probably in the minds of both when Fox and Wordsworth met, and accounts for Fox’s greeting, ‘I am glad to see you, Mr. Wordsworth, though I am not of your faction.’

It is easy to understand how Rogers’s ‘Recollections’ of Fox, which every student of English history reads with satisfaction and interest, even in these distant days, told as they were in a manner which all contemporary accounts agree in describing as singularly effective and attractive, endeared him to the Whig circles in which he moved. It is in those ‘Recollections,’ embracing as they did Fox, Burke (through Mrs. Crewe and Dr. Lawrence), Grattan, Porson, Tooke, Talleyrand, Erskine, Scott, Lord Grenville, and the Duke of Wellington, that we have the real Table Talk of Samuel Rogers. The qualities which recommended him to these men, all of whom except Burke he knew personally, and with all of whom except Burke and Talleyrand, and perhaps Wellington, he lived on terms of intimate friendship, must of course be taken into account in any estimate of the causes which made him not only the oracle of the Holland House circle, but of London society generally for so many years. Fox, in illness, often wishing to see him, bears testimony to the pleasure his society gave to men who found a refuge in it from the tedium of weakness, from the anxieties of business, and from the cares of State.

Rogers’s acquaintance with Lord and Lady Holland sprang in all probability out of his intimacy with Fox. He had become a familiar visitor at Holland House before the death of the great Whig orator and statesman, and their common reverence for his memory formed a strong tie between Rogers and Lord Holland, though no two men could more widely differ from each other. They were united by literary sympathies, by political opinions, and by social likes and dislikes; but still more by that

LORD AND LADY HOLLAND

complete dissimilarity which made the one, in many respects, the complement to the other. Writing of Holland House in 1831, after he had received his first invitation to it, Macaulay calls it ‘the favourite resort of wits and beauties, of painters and poets, of scholars, philosophers, and statesmen,’ and he tells his sister that ‘Rogers is the oracle of that circle.’ Rogers had got very early into high favour with the stern and eccentric guardian of its portals, without whose approval few could enter them and none remain. Lord Holland could not ask a friend to dinner without consulting his wife. One day, shortly before his death, Lord Holland met Rogers at the door. He had been calling on Lady Holland, and Lord Holland asked him if he returned to dinner. ‘I have not been invited,’ answered Rogers, and went away. Macaulay describes her, in 1831, as ‘a large, bold-looking woman, with the remains of a fine person and the air of Queen Elizabeth.’ In three brief sentences he sums up the characters of both host and hostess: ‘Lord Holland is extremely kind. But that is of course, for he is kindness itself. Her ladyship too, which is by no means of course, is all graciousness and civility.’ Rogers told Mr. Dyce that, when she wanted to get rid of a fop, she would beg his pardon and ask him to sit a little further off, adding, ‘There is something on your handkerchief I do not quite like.’ When men were standing with their backs close to the chimney-piece, she would call out to them to stir the fire. In 1843, when Brougham and Lady Holland were abroad with Rogers, Brougham writing to Rogers to propose an excursion remarked,‘Among other inducements don’t forget how very angry

ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

it will make Lady H. She hates anybody doing anything.’ It is a striking proof of the essential gentleness of Rogers’s character that he kept the fast friendship, and, as her letters show, the affectionate regard of this imperious person for over forty years.

Lord Holland had a sincere admiration for Rogers’s poetry; and Rogers had a hearty affection for Lord Holland as a man. Macaulay expresses his wonder ‘that such men as Lord Granville, Lord Holland, Hobhouse, Lord Byron, and others of high rank in intellect, should place Rogers, as they do, above Southey, Moore, and even Scott himself.’ His explanation is that ‘this comes of being in the highest society of London.’ But Macaulay here confuses between post hoc and propter hoc. Rogers was in the highest society of London in 1831 because his poems had been so heartily admired for nearly forty years. ‘The Pleasures of Memory’ had made him the fashion before Macaulay was born. There is no doubt that Lord Holland did much to confirm and sustain the fame of his friend. The lines he inscribed on the summer-house in the garden of Holland House are reproduced in the memoirs or the letters of scores of distinguished visitors. It was no ordinary homage from such a man that the summer-house should be called Rogers’s seat, and that he should have inscribed upon it—

Little more than a month after the death of Fox, there was a dissolution of Parliament, and at the general election which followed, many of Rogers’s personal friends found seats in the House of Commons. The Grenville Ministry was so successful at the polls that Horner declared it to be a misfortune for the country that it was deprived of any opposition. The ministry, however, was not strong in itself, and Lord Eldon, anticipating by fifty years a remark attributed to Mr. Disraeli, had declared that Englishmen do not love coalitions. Among Rogers’s friends in the new Parliament were Richard Sharp, who had been returned for Castle Rising, J. W. Ward (afterwards Earl of Dudley), William Lamb, the Lord Melbourne of the Reform era, and Lord Henry Petty (afterwards the Marquis of Lansdowne). The name of Lord Palmerston, then returned for the first time, and spoken of by his contemporaries as a mere lad, seems to link this Parliament of 1806-7, and the transitory gleam of hope it brought to the long-suffering Whigs, with our own times. On the 23rd of March, Sharp, as Mackintosh tells us, greatly distinguished himself by an excellent speech against the

ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

Copenhagen expedition. Ward speaks of it in a letter to Rogers.

‘My dear Rogers,—I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of being one of the first to communicate to you the news of our friend Sharp’s success. He made his debut last night in reply to Sturges Bourne. Nothing could be more happy. He was of course a good deal alarmed, but luckily his alarm by no means suspended the exercise of his powers, and the speech was received, as it well deserved, with the utmost applause and favour by the House. His voice and manner both excellent. Take notice, I am not merely telling you my own opinion, but that of far more competent judges.

Rogers was already in correspondence with Wordsworth and Walter Scott. The earliest letter of Wordsworth’s which has been preserved, arose out of the collection made for a family in Easdale whose parents had perished in a storm.

‘I was glad to hear that our friend Sharp was so much benefited in his health by his late visit to our beautiful country. We passed one pleasant day together, but we were unlucky, upon the whole, in not seeing

WORDSWORTH ON CRABBE'S APOTHECARY

much of each other, as a more than usual part of his time was spent about Keswick and Ulswater. I am happy to find that we coincide in opinion about Crabbe’s verses, for poetry in no sense can they be called. Sharp is also of the same opinion. I remember that I mentioned in my last that there was nothing in the last publication so good as the description of the parish workhouse, apothecary, &c. This is true, and it is no less true that the passage which I commended is of no great merit, because the description, at the best of no high order, is, in the instance of the apothecary, inconsistent—that is, false. It no doubt sometimes happens, but, as far as my experience goes, very rarely, that country practitioners neglect and brutally treat their patients; but what kind of men are they who do so?—not apothecaries like Crabbe’s professional, pragmatical coxcombs, “all pride, generally neat, business, bustle, and conceit”—no, but drunken reprobates, frequenters of boxing-matches, cock-fightings, and horse-races. These are the men who are hard-hearted with their patients, but any man who attaches so much importance to his profession as to have strongly caught, in his dress and manner, the outward formalities of it may easily indeed be much occupied with himself, but he will not behave towards his “victims,” as Mr. Crabbe calls them, in the manner he has chosen to describe. After all, if the picture were true to nature, what claim would it have to be called poetry? At the best, it is the meanest kind of satire, except the merely personal. The sum of all is, that nineteen out of twenty of Crabbe’s pictures are mere matters of fact, with which the Muses have just about as

ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

much to do as they have with a collection of medical reports or of law cases.

The long poem Wordsworth had then in hand was ‘The Excursion,’ from which he seems, after writing to Rogers, to have turned aside to give vent to his rage in a pamphlet on ‘The Convention of Cintra,’ and to express other feelings in two noble sonnets on the same subject.

A short note from Rogers to Richard Sharp curiously illustrates one of the differences between those days and our own. Sharp writes to ask Rogers to go down to Mickleham that they might go together to Leatherhead fair. Rogers replies on the 6th of October, 1808—

‘When I received your kind letter, my dear Sarah, I felt a strong wish to answer it directly, but at that time Mrs. M. was writing, and I have since put it off from time to time—I am sure I don’t know why—for I never feel more pleasure than when I sit down to write to you. I did indeed fear you would be cruelly disappointed. [He then refers at some length to a picture about which this cruel disappointment had been experienced, and continues.] But the pen-drawing done in the Temple, slight as it is, is however something to remember by. It was done as you sat, and it tells you how you used to sit together, and there are some circumstances about it, my dear, dear Sarah, that would make me value it more than any picture. I rejoice to hear you are passing your time comfortably—pleasantly, I hope. Perhaps you have left Quarry Bank and are now at Cheadle. But I think it best to direct to Mrs. Greg’s, to whom pray remember me very affectionately. Henry, I thought, seemed to like his journey pretty well, though he made it very short, and caught cold at Brighton, as I have done.

ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

I left town to go again to Leatherhead fair, which was very pretty, though the day was not so fine as last year. I dined afterwards at Norbury, and there met a Miss Barton, a cousin of Mrs. Wm. Lock, who inquired very particularly after you. She had seen you, I believe, at Cheadle. Mrs. Lock’s booth cleared 50l. the first day. Mrs. Fox was there; she had come over from St. Anne’s. Miss Willoughby, she says, is very poorly. She says we must go to her fair next year—and, indeed, I wish now we had paid her a visit. The next night I dined and slept at Chart, Sir Charles Talbot’s, and the day afterwards came here, riding all the way (except one stage in a returned chaise). Alas! I met with a sad misfortune the other day. I was walking the poor old mare very near my lodgings, when down she came and cut her knees to the bone; but she kept her head erect, poor thing! so I felt little or no shock, and I am happy to think she has never thrown me in the fifteen years we have spent together. They say she will never do again, so I must look out for some place of rest for her, if she is not shot, like Golumpus and the other old worthies of the family. I have been here a fortnight to-morrow, and have a very small house in a street leading from the Marine Parade, which last is now very expensive, and which is very gay on a fine day.

‘Westall has been sketching boats and fishermen for a few days here; he went to-day. Lady Donegal goes on Friday, and I go on Monday to Glynde, a seat of Lord Hampden’s near Lewes, for three or, four days, and then return home. I once thought of Crewe and of

ROGERS AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

Cheadle, my dear Sarah, but at present I feel chilly and frightened at the thoughts of such an expedition. When do you mean to come back to us? I hope the time won’t he long, but of the time exactly you are not unfortunately complete mistress. Pray remember me very particularly to all at Cheadle, about whom I feel just as warmly as I ever did, notwithstanding the letter which I thought it my duty to write when acting in my commercial character for others, as well as myself. The Prince is not here this season, but his stables are nearly finished, and are exactly like one of those Indian mausoleums in Daniel’s views. They are really very pretty, and are done by Porden, who is building Lord Grosvenor’s near you. Here is hunting, but I am now too old for even such a part as I used to take in it. We have had a most miserable supply of fish, but this place is now a town, shooting out in all directions but one, where the sea presents a small obstacle. The George Edisons are here. Farewell, my dear Sarah! Pray write to me in town, and believe me to be,

‘Dear Rogers,—As I have always great pleasure in visiting you, I should have been sorry to be engaged (as I am) at York Place on Saturday if I had not resolved not to come to St. James’s Place any more till I see Columbus, as you promised long ago.

‘I had not read the Pleasures of Memory from the time of its first publication till last week, and I cannot find words to tell you how delighted I was with the reconsideration of its beauties. I admit that its author ought to pause before he publishes, as it is not easy not to disappoint those who, in the double sense of the expression, have the Pleasures of Memory; but let me see Columbus, and I will give you my opinion.

‘Dear Rogers,—You are too much a man of the world to embark in any undertaking that has not received the sanction of public approbation. I can, with a little more confidence, endeavour now to press you into the service of the Quarterly Review, since the work increases in circulation to an extent that much exceeds the expectation of the most sanguine of the undertakers. It is the wish of the leaders of this Review that you would assist in supporting it with your talents occasionally, leaving it to your own choice to remain concealed, or to claim the honours of your pen. The work they wish you to take in hand, at present, is Shee’s last publication, the notes to which I propose to examine in conjunction with you. I am at present employed in dissecting Hayley’s Life of Romney, which is immediately wanted, and I have neither health nor leisure enough to undertake both for the next number. Have the goodness to inform me, in the course of a day or two, whether you are inclined, or not, to accede to this proposal. It is at the express desire of G. Ellis and Gifford that I press you upon this subject.

‘Why won’t you think of coming to see our lands of mist and snow? Not that I have the hardness of heart to wish you and George Ellis here at this moment, for it would be truly the meeting of the weird sisters in thunder, lightning, and in rain. The lightning splintered an oak here before my door last week with such a concussion that I thought all was gone to wrack. I have pretty good nerves for one of the irritable and sensitive race we belong to, but I question whether even the poet laureate would have confided composedly in the sic evitabile fulmen annexed to his wreath of bays.

‘Accept my best thanks, my dear Rogers, for your letter with the beautiful enclosure, a delightful though a melancholy tribute to the fate of poor Mrs. Duff, with whom I had the pleasure to be acquainted. I dined in company with her during the time that the hidden infection was in her veins, and have often since reflected upon her manner and conversation during the course of that day. She mentioned the story of the dog repeatedly (indeed, it seemed to hang upon her spirits), but never dropt the slightest hint of his having bitten, or rather grazed, the skin of her face. It is a melancholy recollection, and your pathetic verses have awakened it very strongly. Many thanks to you, however, for the gratification they have afforded me, though chastened by these sad reflections.

‘I have been deeply concerned for Mr. Canning’s wound;1 he is one of the few, very few, statesmen who unite an ardent spirit of patriotism to the talents necessary to render that living spirit efficient, and I don’t see how the present ministry can stand without him. That, however, would be the least of my regrets were I certain that his health was restored.

‘Dear Mr. Rogers,—I am commanded by H.R.H. the Princess of Wales to say she will call for you in St. James’s Place to-morrow evening at eight o’clock to take you to the play.

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Edwin Wilkins Field (1804-1871) The law-partner of William Sharpe and husband of Mary Sharpe, Samuel Rogers's nephew and niece. He was an enthusiastic artist who assisted Henry Crabb Robinson in forming the Flaxman Gallery at University College, London.

Lord Edward Fitzgerald (1763-1798) After serving in the American war and becoming an Iroquois chieftain he became a leader of the United Irishmen and was killed during the 1798 rebellion. His life was written by Thomas Moore (1831).

Pamela Fitzgerald (1776 c.-1831) The illegitimate daughter of Madame de Genlis; she married the Irish revolutionary Edward Fitzgerald in 1792; after his death in 1798 she lived on the Continent.

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).

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).

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

Elizabeth Bridget Armistead Fox [née Cane] (1750-1842) English courtesan who succeeded Mary Robinson in the affections of the Prince of Wales; she was secretly married to Charles James Fox in 1795; the marriage was publicly acknowledged in 1802.

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.

Stéphanie-Félicité du Crest, Madame de Genlis (1746-1830) French novelist and memoirist; she published Adéle et Théodore ou Lettres sur l'éducation (1782).

King George IV of Great Britain (1762-1830) Prince Regent (1811-20) and King of Great Britain (1820-1830).

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).

Mary Godfrey (1836 fl.) The half-sister of the husband of Anna May Chichester, Lady Donegal; Miss Godfrey was one of Thomas Moore's correspondents.

Granville Leveson- Gower, first earl Granville (1773-1846) English diplomat and ally of George Canning; he was ambassador to St Petersburg (1804-06, 1807) and ambassador to Paris (1824-1828). The Duchess of Devonshire described him as “the Adonis of his day.”

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

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).

Robert Grosvenor, first marquess of Westminster (1767-1845) Of Eaton Hall, one of William Gifford's early patrons; he was a connoisseur of painting, a Whig MP, and commissioner of the Board of Control. He was created Marquess of Westminster in 1831.

William Hayley (1745-1820) English poet, patron of George Romney, William Cowper, and William Blake. His best-known poem, Triumphs of Temper (1781) was several times reprinted. Robert Southey said of him, “everything about that man is good except his poetry.”

Samuel Heywood (1753-1828) English barrister, serjeant-at-law (1794) and chief justice of the Carmarthen circuit (1807-28); he was a friend and associate of Charles James Fox.

Hippocrates (460 BC c.-370 BC c.) Greek physician who founded the practice of medicine on an empirical basis.

John Cam Hobhouse, baron Broughton (1786-1869) Founder of the Cambridge Whig Club; traveled with Byron in the orient, radical MP for Westminster (1820); Byron's executor; after a long career in politics published Some Account of a Long Life (1865) later augmented as Recollections of a Long Life, 6 vols (1909-1911).

Thomas Hope (1769-1831) Art collector and connoisseur, the son of a wealthy Amsterdam merchant and author of the novel Anastasius (1819) which some thought to be a work by Byron. His literary executor was William Harness.

Francis Horner (1778-1817) Scottish barrister and frequent contributor to the Edinburgh Review; he was a Whig MP and member of the Holland House circle.

John Hoppner (1758-1810) English portrait painter and member of the Royal Academy (1795); he was a close friend of William Gifford and the father of Byron's correspondent Richard Belgrave Hoppner.

Phoebe Hoppner [née Wright] (1761-1827) The daughter of Joseph Wright and the wax sculptor Patience Wright (1725-1786); in 1781 she married the painter John Hoppner.

George Howard, sixth earl of Carlisle (1773-1848) Son of the fifth earl (d. 1825); he was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, wrote for the Anti-Jacobin, and was MP for Morpeth (1795-1806) and Cumberland (1806-28).

Elizabeth Inchbald (1753-1821) English actress and playwright; author of two popular novels, A Simple Story (1791) and Nature and Art (1796).

Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850) Scottish barrister, Whig MP, and co-founder and editor of the Edinburgh Review (1802-29). As a reviewer he was the implacable foe of the Lake School of poetry.

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).

William Lamb, second viscount Melbourne (1779-1848) English statesman, the son of Lady Melbourne (possibly by the third earl of Egremont) and husband of Lady Caroline Lamb; he was a Whig MP, prime minister (1834-41), and counsellor to Queen Victoria.

Sir William Lawrence, first baronet (1783-1867) Professor of anatomy and surgery at the Royal College of Surgeons (1815).

Elizabeth Lock [née Jennings] (1781-1846) The daughter of the art collector Henry Constantine (Dog) Jennings (1731-1819); in 1800 she married the painter and connoisseur William Lock.

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).

Thomas Babington Macaulay, baron Macaulay (1800-1859) English poet, critic, and historian, author of The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, 5 vols (1849-61).

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).

James Maitland, eighth earl of Lauderdale (1759-1839) Scottish peer allied with Charles James Fox; he was author of An Inquiry into the Nature and Origin of Public Wealth, and into the Means and causes of its Increase (1804) and other works on political economy.

William Maltby (1764-1854) A schoolmate and life-long friend of Samuel Rogers; he was a London solicitor and a member of the King of Clubs. In 1809 he succeeded Richard Porson as principal librarian of the London Institution.

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.

George Murray, fifth earl of Dunmore (1762-1836) The son of the fourth earl; he was MP for Liskeard (1800-02) before succeeding to the title in 1809.

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.

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

Richard Porson (1759-1808) Classical scholar and Regius Professor of Greek at Cambridge (1792); he edited four plays of Euripides.

William Porden (1755-1822) English architect and father of the poet Eleanor Anne Porden; a student of James Wyatt, he did work for Royal Pavilion at Brighton.

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).

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 Samuel Romilly (1757-1818) Reformer of the penal code and the author of Thoughts on Executive Justice (1786); he was a Whig MP and Solicitor-General who died a suicide.

John Scott, first earl of Eldon (1751-1838) Lord chancellor (1801-27); he was legal counsel to the Prince of Wales and an active opponent of the Reform Bill.

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).

Daniel Sharpe (1806-1856) The son of Sutton Sharpe and nephew of the poet Samuel Rogers; he was a London merchant and eminent geologist.

Henry Sharpe (1802-1873) The son of Sutton Sharpe and nephew of the poet Samuel Rogers; he was a businessman and philanthropist.

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 (1756-1806) A London brewer whose second marriage (1795) was to Maria, sister of the poet Samuel Rogers. He studied art at the Royal Academy and counted among his friends Flaxman, Opie, and Bewick.

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

William Sharpe (1804-1870) London solicitor, the son of Sutton Sharpe and nephew of the poet Samuel Rogers, whose Reminiscences (1859) he edited.

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

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.

Adam Smith (1723-1790) Friend of David Hume and professor of logic at Glasgow University (1751); he wrote Theory of the Moral Sentiments (1759) and The Wealth of Nations (1776).

William Smith (1756-1835) Educated at the dissenting academy at Daventry, he was a Whig MP for Sudbury (1784-90, 1796-1802), Camelford (1790-96), and Norwich (1802-30), a defender of Joseph Priestley and follower of Charles Fox. His 1817 speech in Parliament denouncing Robert Southey attracted much attention.

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).

William Robert Spencer (1770-1834) English wit and author of society verse. He was the son of Lord Charles Spencer, second son of the third duke of Marlborough, educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford. Spencer was a friend of Fox, Sheridan, and the Prince of Wales.

Edward Smith Stanley, twelfth earl of Derby (1752-1834) Grandson of the eleventh earl (d. 1776); educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge, he was a Whig MP for Lancashire, a friend of Charles James Fox, nephew of John Burgoyne, and a committed sportsman.

John Thomas Stanley, first baron Stanley (1766-1850) Whig MP for Wooton Bassett (1790-96); he was created first Baron Stanley of Alderley in 1839.

Robert Stewart, viscount Castlereagh (1769-1822) British statesman who was foreign secretary (1812-1822). He fought a duel with George Canning in 1809 and died a suicide in 1822.

William Stone (1796 fl.) London coal merchant and member of Friends of the People; in January 1796 he was tried and acquitted of treason, after which he emigrated to France.

Sir Charles Talbot, second baronet (1751-1812) Of Chart Park in Surrey; he was MP for Weobley (1800-02), Rye (1803-06), and Bletchingly (1812); he died unmarried and his estate was annexed to Thomas Hope's Deepdene.

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

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

John Horne Tooke (1736-1812) Philologist and political radical; member of the Society for Constitutional Information (1780); tried for high treason and acquitted (1794).

Thomas Hampden- Trevor, second viscount Hampden (1746-1824) The eldest son of Robert Trevor, fourth baron Trevor; he was succeeded by his brother the diplomat John Hampden-Trevor.

John Bernard Trotter (1775-1818) Irish writer who was private secretary to Charles James Fox; he published Memoirs of the latter years of the Right Honourable Charles James Fox (1811).

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.

Gilbert Wakefield (1756-1801) Unitarian scholar and controversialist who taught at Warrington and Hackney; he was imprisoned for a seditious pamphlet (1799-1801).

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).

Richard Westall (1765-1836) English poet and illustrator who favored literary subjects and published a collection of verse, A Day in Spring and other Poems (1808).

John Whishaw (1764 c.-1840) Barrister, educated at Trinity College, Cambridge; he was Secretary to the African Association and biographer of Mungo Park. His correspondence was published as The “Pope” of Holland House in 1906.

Mary Wilkins [née Sharpe] (1800-1831) Niece of the poet Samuel Rogers; she married Edwin Wilkins, a barrister.

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

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

The Examiner. (1808-1881). Founded by John and Leigh Hunt, this weekly paper divided its attention between literary matters and radical politics; William Hazlitt was among its regular contributors.

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.

John Ballantyne (1774-1821) English Minstrelsy. Being a Selection of Fugitive Poetry from the best English Authors; with some Original Pieces, hitherto unpublished. 2 vols (Edinburgh: J. Ballantyne and Co., 1810). Edited by John Ballantyne with assistance from Walter Scott.

Henry Francis Cary (1772-1844) The Vision, or, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. 3 vols (London: Taylor and Hessey, 1819). A second edition of Cary's translation of the Divine Comedy was printed in 1819.

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

Charles James Fox (1749-1806) A History of the early Part of the Reign of James the Second; with an introductory Chapter. (London: W. Miller, 1808). Posthumously published.

William Hayley (1745-1820) The Life of George Romney, Esq. (London: T. Payne, 1809).

Elizabeth Inchbald (1753-1821) Nature and Art. 2 vols (London: G. G. and J. Robinson, 1796). Prose fiction.

Francis Jeffrey, Lord Jeffrey (1773-1850) “Moore's Poems” in Edinburgh Review. Vol. 8 (July 1806): 456-465. A review of Epistles, Odes, and other Poems; the review is not now attributed to Jeffrey.

Thomas Moore (1779-1852) Epistles, Odes, and other Poems. (London: J. Carpenter, 1806). The review in the Edinburgh provoked the famous duel between Moore and Francis Jeffrey.

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.

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).

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) “Dante: with a new Italian Commentary” in Edinburgh Review. Vol. 29 (February 1818): 453-474. Samuel Rogers contributed the portion of the article on Cary's Dante.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) An Epistle to a Friend with other Poems. (London: T. Cadell, junior, and W. Davies, 1798).

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

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) Poems by Samuel Rogers. (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1812). Reprinted with additions in 1814, 1816, and 1822.

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

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) “To Two Sisters” in Poems by Samuel Rogers. (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1812). In the 1816 edition; 1812 not seen. Written 1805 ca.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) “To a Voice that had been lost” in Poems by Samuel Rogers. (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1812). In the 1816 edition; 1812 not seen. Written 1805 ca.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) The Voyage of Columbus, a Poem. (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1810). Reprinted with additions 1812, 1816.

Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) “Written in Westminster Abbey” in Poems by Samuel Rogers. (London: T. Cadell and W. Davies, 1812). On the death of Charles James Fox; written 1806.

Sir Walter Scott, baronet (1771-1832) The Lay of the Last Minstrel: a Poem. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1805). The first of Scott's metrical romances, the Lay recounts the love of Margaret of Branksome for Henry of Cranstoun during a sixteenth-century border raid.

Sir Martin Archer Shee (1769-1850) Elements of Art, a Poem; in Six Cantos: with Notes and a Preface; including strictures on the state of the Arts, Criticism, Patronage, and Public Taste. (London: William Miller, 1809).

William Windham (1750-1810) The Diary of the Right Hon. William Windham, 1784-1810. (London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1866). Edited by Cecilia Anne Baring.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) “The Brothers” in Lyrical Ballads with a few other Poems. (Bristol: T. N. Longman, 1798).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) Concerning the Relations of Great Britain, Spain, and Portugal, to each other, and to the common Enemy, at this Crisis; and specifically as affected by the Convention of Cintra the whole brought to the Test of those Principles, by which alone the Independence and Freedom of Nations can be preserved or recovered. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, 1809). Originally published in The Courier.

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) “Harry Gill” in Lyrical Ballads with a few other Poems. (Bristol: T. N. Longman, 1798).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) “The Idiot Boy” in Lyrical Ballads with a few other Poems. (Bristol: T. N. Longman, 1798).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) Lyrical Ballads with a few other Poems. (Bristol: T. N. Longman, 1798). Anonymous, by William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge; reprinted with additions in 2 vols, 1800.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) “The Mad Mother” in Lyrical Ballads with a few other Poems. (Bristol: T. N. Longman, 1798).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) “Michael” in Lyrical Ballads with a few other Poems. (Bristol: T. N. Longman, 1798).

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) “We are Seven” in Lyrical Ballads with a few other Poems. (Bristol: T. N. Longman, 1798).

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