Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries
Samuel Rogers to Sir James Mackintosh, [July 1820]
‘Dear Mackintosh,—Dr. Parr dines with me on Thursday, 3rd of
August, and he wishes to meet some of his old friends under my roof, as it may
be for the last time. He has named Whishaw, and Sharp, and
Lord Holland, and he says,
‘“I want to shake hands with Mackintosh once before I die.”
‘May I ask you to be of the party? That you can forgive
I know full well. That you will forgive in this instance, much as you have to
forgive, I hope fervently. Some of the pleasantest moments of my life have been
spent in the humble office I am now venturing to take upon myself, and I am
sure you will not take it amiss if I wish on this occasion to add to the
number.
‘Yours very truly,
‘S. R.’
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.
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).
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).
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.
