The Autobiography of William Jerdan
John Gibson Lockhart to William Jerdan, [1829?]
“I have not as yet seen or heard anything of
the ‘New Grandpapa
Tales,’ but will send them over the moment I get them,
and no doubt my copy will be a very early one.
“I have no news. Do you know that the
King has bought all Wilkie’s Spanish pictures, seven in number, and
two of the Italian. This munificence will re-establish
David, and ought to be celebrated in prose and
in rhyme.
“Your ‘Literary Gazette’ comes to me every
Saturday morning, and proves an agreeable breakfast-table friend. Have
you seen the Edinburgh
one? I fear it is very poor stuff.
“Mr.
Moore, as you will perceive, is very indignant with
F. M. Reynolds for putting
in extempore without his consent. The poet
asserts in a letter to Murray
that they offered him six hundred guineas for the benefit of his name
in the ‘Keepsake,’ and that he declined the offer. Whether was
Heath or Moore most mad? Our tumbler-shying was
nothing to this.’
“Sir Thomas
Lawrence has just finished a most admirable
painting, a full-length of Mr.
Southey, for Mr.
Peel’s great gallery at Whitehall.
“Sir
Thomas’s contemporary
portraits are now getting into their proper places in the
long gallery at Windsor Castle. One caravan the other morning
conveyed Lord Eldon, Mr. Pitt, and Sir Walter Scott from Russell-square
to their regal destination.”
Charles Theodosius Heath (1785-1848)
English illustrator and engraver whose work was published in
The
Keepsake and other literary annuals.
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).
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).
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.
William Pitt the younger (1759-1806)
The second son of William Pitt, earl of Chatham (1708-1778); he was Tory prime minister
1783-1801.
Frederic Mansel Reynolds (1801-1850)
Son of the dramatist Frederick Reynolds; he edited
The Keepsake
and published a novel,
Miserrimus: a Tale (1833).
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.
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).
Sir David Wilkie (1785-1841)
Scottish-born artist whose genre-paintings were much admired; he was elected to the Royal
Academy in 1811.
The Keepsake. 30 vols (London: Hurst, Chance and Co., 1828-1857). An illustrated annual edited by William Harrison Ainsworth (1828), Frederic Mansel
Reynolds (1829-35), and Caroline Norton (1836).
