Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries
Thomas Campbell to Samuel Rogers, [15 August, 1834]
‘Paris: 15th August, 1834.
‘My dear Friend,—This is the anniversary of the
Ascension, and all the church bells in Paris (God damn them!) are pealing away
as if it were for a wager—at the expense of my heretical ears. In the
midst of all the confusion of ideas which this jangling has produced, I have
recollection enough left me to consider that, as my letter is to contain a
request, I had better get over that disagreeable part of it first in order to
have more pleasure in writing the rest. [Having explained about the loan, and
said that he was going to Algiers, and ![]()
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meant to write a
book about the colony, he proceeds.] When I explain my sole reason for wishing
to visit Algiers, provided the means reach me, not to be known yet for a little
time, I am sure your kind heart will enter into my feelings, though I have not
had the means of joining my fate with a certain inestimable person whom you
have seen, and whom I perhaps need not name, yet our friendship is unabated,
and her anxiety about my health and welfare is as watchful as ever. In good
time I shall communicate to her my intention, but if I did so suddenly and at
present her imagination would conjure up all manner of deaths and dangers as
awaiting me—fevers, Arabs of the desert, &c. Now though I know there
is a sort of fever at present in the colony, yet I have not the least
apprehension of the climate in November, and I am one of the fearless creatures
who never catch contagion. Altogether I would rather wish that my African
scheme were not mentioned at present. I am sorry to find that neither you nor I
are half so popular in Paris as either Galt or Bulwer. They call
us the two Purists—“sed mallem mehercule cum Platone errare quam cum aliis recte
sentire.” We have both, however, gone through more than one
edition. I have said Galt. No, I am wrong. It is Allan Cunningham who is the fashion at
present, and the arrivals that have been most frequently announced are those of
the celebrated Dr. Bowring and Dr. Lardner!!!. . . . At the distribution of
prizes, however, among the élèves of the Institution for the Sourds-Muets, a
French lady sent in my name to the President, and we were transferred from a
bad station near the door to the dais, and were seated ![]()
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fast by the President’s chair. One of the
ex-élèves, a remarkably sprightly young
man, came up to me making signs of great cordiality, and wrote a very
complimentary note on the crown of his hat, saying that he knew English well,
and proved to me that he had read my poems, by a quotation. He sat near me and
we conversed on paper. He mentioned also your works with evident acquaintance
and admiration. I was going to say he spoke, for there was almost speech in his
gesticulations. The exhibition of the poor young creatures was touchingly
interesting—but the effect was a little spoilt by a pedantic
schoolmaster, who was their showman. I saw at one exchange of looks that my
friend, the ex-élève, had the same opinion of
him with myself, and I wrote to him, “My faith, your orator makes me
begin to doubt if speech be such a blessing, for I have been this half-hour
wishing myself deaf and him dumb.” My dumb friend rubbed his hands with a
look of delight, and immediately turned round to another ex-élève, telling him my joke on his fingers. He again told it
to his neighbour, and in a few minutes it was telegraphed through the whole
benches of the ex-élèves, and was everywhere
received with nods and smiles.
‘The heat has been intolerable here; I hope your
weather is behaving better. Somehow or other I have not seen so much of Paris
as I ought, though I have been at the opening of the Chambers, and was hugely
delighted. But I am sanguine in the hope that I shall glean a good deal of
instruction in my tour to come, and be able to send you some more interesting
accounts of it. Have the kindness to address to me: Chez ![]()
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Madame Fleury, No. 43 Rue Neuve St. Augustin, Paris.
‘I beg to be kindly remembered to Miss Rogers.
Sir John Bowring (1792-1872)
Poet, linguist, MP, and editor of the
Westminster Review. He was
the secretary of the London Greek Committee (1823) through which he was wrongly accused of
having enriched himself.
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).
Allan Cunningham [Hidallan] (1784-1842)
Scottish poet and man of letters who contributed to both
Blackwood's and the
London Magazine; he was author of
Lives of the most Eminent British Painters, Sculptors, and
Architects (1829-33).
John Galt (1779-1839)
Scottish novelist who met Byron during the first journey to Greece and was afterwards his
biographer; author of
Annals of the Parish (1821).
Dionysius Lardner (1793-1859)
Lecturer on science and contributor to the
Edinburgh Review; he
published the
Cabinet Cyclopaedia (1829-1846).
Plato (427 BC-327 BC)
Athenian philosopher who recorded the teachings of his master Socrates in a series of
philosophical dialogues.
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).
