Springtime and Other Essays Part 21

{164} My uncle, Henry Wedgwood, as an undergraduate at Jesus, made a happy use of Peac.o.c.k's name:-

"Walk in and see Our menagerie, For amateurs a feast, Where Dawes and Peac.o.c.k Are our birds And . . . is our beast."

I have forgotten the name of the beast, but he was an unpopular fellow of Jesus.

{166} I am surprised that so large a sum was charged in those days; in my time the coach received 8.

{175a} _A Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith_, by his daughter, Lady Holland. With a selection from his letters, edited by Mrs Austin. 2nd Edit., 1855.

{175b} Her maiden name was Pybus; they were married in 1799 or 1800.

{175c} Sydney Smith believed (i., p. 403) that "one of the Duke of Wellington's earliest victories was at Eton, over" Sydney's "eldest brother Bobus."

{176a} The remark was allowable since Robert was singularly handsome (i., p. 4).

{176b} I gather that the fellows.h.i.+p was but 100 per annum.

{177a} Francis Jeffrey, afterwards Lord Jeffrey, 17731850, was the son of a high Tory, but personally a Liberal. He is described as being healthy though diminutive. Sydney Smith makes jokes about his stature: _e.g._, 3rd September 1809, "Are we to see you? (a difficult thing at all times to do)." In character he is described as "nervous, sensitive, and tender." Sydney wrote to him in 1806:-If "you could be alarmed into the semblance of modesty you would charm everybody; but remember my joke against you about the moon;-'D---n the solar system! bad light-planets too distant-pestered with comets-feeble contrivance;-could make a better with great ease.'"

{177b} Horner, Francis (17781817), called to the Bar in 1807, and was through the influence of Lord Carrington returned for the borough of Wendover. He was a man of sound judgment and una.s.suming manners, of scrupulous integrity, and great amiability of character. He was a correct and forcible speaker, and though without the gift of humour, exercised a remarkable influence in the House of Commons, owing to his personal character. He was one of the original founders of the _Edinburgh Review_, the other two being Jeffrey and Sydney Smith.

{178a} The closely allied name, _Sabelina_, occurs in Sir N. Moore's _History of St Bartholomew's Hospital_, vol. i., p. 64.

{178b} It was said (i., p. 138) that the King, who had been reading Sydney's _Edinburgh Review_ articles, remarked that he was a very clever fellow but would never be a bishop.

{183} It appears (i., p. 282) that he felt deeply the fact that he had not been offered a Bishopric, though he had made up his mind to refuse it. Lord Melbourne is said to have much regretted not having made a bishop of Sydney.

{185} Sydney wrote of Macaulay: "I always prophesied his greatness from the first moment I saw him, then a very young and unknown man, on the Northern Circuit." His enemies might say he talked rather too much, "but now he has occasional flashes of silence, that make his conversation perfectly delightful" (i., p. 415).

{186} The wife of Henry Richard Va.s.sall Fox, 3rd Baron Holland (17731840), only son of Stephen, 2nd Lord Holland by Lady Mary Fitzpatrick, daughter of the Earl of Upper Ossory. He was a consistent Liberal in politics, and supported all measures against the slave trade and was in favour of emanc.i.p.ation, and this in spite of being the owner of "extensive plantations in Jamaica." After his death the following verse in his handwriting was found on his dressing-table:-

"Nephew of Fox, and friend of Grey, Enough my mead of fame If those who deign'd to observe me say I injured neither name."

In the version quoted by Sydney Smith (_Memoir and Letters_, vol. ii., p.

457) the last line is "I tarnished neither name"; the punctuation is slightly different from the above, which is taken from the _Dict. of Nat.

Biog._

{199} My authorities are:-_The Letters of Charles d.i.c.kens_, edited by his sister-in-law and his eldest daughter, 2 vols., 1882; _The Life of Charles d.i.c.kens_, by John Forster, 8th Edit., 1872; _My Father as I recall him_, by Mamie d.i.c.kens, Roxburghe Press, N.D. The auth.o.r.ess says that "it is twenty-six years since my father died"; this would make the date of her book 1896.

{200a} His son.

{200b} M. d.i.c.kens, p. 26.

{201} Forster, i., p. 4.

{202a} Forster, i., p. 9.

{202b} In writing to Walter Savage Landor (Letters, ii., p. 48), 1856, he asks (in reference to _Robinson Crusoe_) if it is not a testimony to the homely force of truth that-"One of the most popular books on earth has nothing in it to make anyone laugh or cry. Yet I think, with some confidence, that you never did either over any pa.s.sage in _Robinson Crusoe_. In particular, I took Friday's death as one of the least tender and (in the true sense) least sentimental things ever written. . . ." He goes on:-"It is a book I read very much; and the wonder of its prodigious effect on me and everyone, and the admiration thereof, grows on me the more I observe this curious fact."

{203} Was it chance or intention that gave his hero the initials D.C., an inversion of C.D.?

{205} _Pickwick_, chap. ix.

{206} A corruption of Moses in the _Vicar of Wakefield_.

{208} His sense of the reality of his characters is shown by his daughter's recollection of her father pointing out the exact spot where Mr Winkle called out, "Whoa! I have dropped my whip."

{209} William Charles Macready, 17931873, the son of William Macready, actor and manager, was born in London; his mother was an actress.

In 1803 he went to Rugby, the idea being that he should go to the Bar.

In 1810 Macready made his first appearance on the stage, taking the part of Romeo with considerable success. Mrs Siddons, with whom he acted, encouraged him-telling him to "study, study, study, and do not marry till you are thirty." During the four years he remained with his father he played seventy-four parts. He seems to have failed to agree with his father, and took an engagement at Bath in 1814. In 1816 he made his first appearance at Covent Garden. Kean was in the audience and applauded loudly. His Richard III. (in London 1819) took a firm hold of the public and established "a dangerous rivalry for Kean." His temper seems to have been violent, for in 1836 he knocked down Bunn as "a d.a.m.ned scoundrel" and had to pay damages. In 1837 he was manager of Covent Garden Theatre. He was the original Claude Melnotte in 1838.

In 1850 he played at Windsor Castle under Charles Kean, who "sent him a courteous message and received a characteristically churlish reply." He took the last of many farewell performances in 1851. His diary and reminiscences have been edited by Sir F. Pollock.

{216} In 1858 he wrote to a friend asking him to convey a note of thanks "to the author of _Scenes of Clerical Life_ whose two first stories I can never say enough of, I think them so truly admirable." He adds that they are undoubtedly by a woman.

{219} Lady Holland.

{221} Mr Arthur Smith, his friend and secretary.

{228} It was curious that he should use so provincial an expression as _riding_ in a cab.

{231a} Originally published in the proceedings of the _Cotteswold Nat.

Field Club_, 1918, under the t.i.tle, "The Effects of the Cold Spring of 1917 on the Flowering of Plants."

{231b} _A Naturalist's Calendar kept at Swaffham Bulbeck_, _Cambridges.h.i.+re_. By Leonard Blomefield (formerly Jenyns). Edited by Francis Darwin. Cambridge: at the University Press, 1903.

{232} I am also indebted to Mr Embrey for his kind help in this matter.

{233} Kjellman, in Nordenskiold's _Studien und Forschungen_, 1885, pp.

449, 467.

{234} Botan: Zeitung, 1877.

{235} _A Naturalist's Calendar_, p. xii.

{237} _The Times Literary Supplement_, 12th January 1917, p. 326.