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 GIFT OF 
 
 SEELEY W. MUDD 
 
 and 
 
 GEORGE I. COCHRAN MEYER ELSASSER 
 
 DR. JOHN R. HAYNES WILLIAM L. HONNOLD 
 
 JAMES R. MARTIN MRS. JOSEPH F. SARTORI 
 
 to the 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 SOUTHERN BRANCH 
 
 JOHN FISKE 
 
 L
 
 
 • 
 
 

 
 
 \
 
 THREESCORE YEARS AND TEN 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF THE LATE 
 S. E. DE MORGAN
 
 SOPHIA ELIZABETH DE MORGAN. 
 
 From a photograph taken in 1886. 
 
 LONDON: RICHARD BENTLEY A SON, 1894.
 
 THREESCORE YEARS AND TEN 
 
 REMINISCENCES 
 
 OF THE LATE 
 
 Sophia Elizabeth De Morgan 
 
 TO WHICH ARE ADDED 
 
 LETTERS TO AND FROM HER HUSBAND THE LATE 
 AUGUSTUS DE MORGAN, AND OTHERS 
 
 EDITED BY HER DAUGHTER 
 
 MARY A. DE MORGAN 
 
 * 
 * * 
 
 
 ■ 
 WITH PORTRAIT 
 
 LONDON 
 RICHARD BENTLEY AND SON 
 
 J)ubli?hcrs in (Proinarc to gjcr ^jRnjcstj) the (Queen 
 
 [All rights rcsened] 
 
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 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Early days — Sir Francis Burdett — His imprisonment in the 
 Tower — Flogging in the Army — Sir Francis Burdett's 
 departure from the Tower — Sir John Bowring — The 
 Allied Sovereigns — The Duke of Wellington — Mr. 
 Robert Hibbert — The Hibbert Lectures — Baron Maseres 
 — Miss Lousada ----- 1-38 
 
 co CHAPTER II. 
 
 * Godfrey Higgins — Lunatic Asylums and their Reform — 
 
 Stoke Newington — Freemasonry — John Landseer — 
 
 (D Sabsean Researches — John Bellamy — Thomas Taylor 
 
 ^q the Platonist— William Blake — S.T.Coleridge - 39-71 
 •H 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 George Dyer — Charles Lamb — Crabb Robinson — Joseph 
 Jekyll — Mrs. Barbauld — Unitarian Chapels — Ram- 
 mohun Roy — Abraham Elias, a Jewish visionary - 72-100 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The first Sunday-school — The Birkbeck Institute — Jewish 
 Free School — University College, etc. — William Allen 
 — Mary Lister — Last days at Stoke Newington — .
 
 v\ CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Thomas Campbell — Hastings — Lady Noel Byron and 
 Cooperation — Social Reformers — Robert Owen and 
 his School ..... 101-160 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Phrenology — Gall and Spurzheim — Experiments in 
 character-reading — Daniel O'Connell — A supposed skull 
 of Cromwell — Lady Noel Byron and her friends — Dr. 
 Andrew and Mr. George Combe — Dr. Tuckerman — 
 Mrs. Fry — Prison reform — The silent system — Mrs. 
 Joanna Baillie— The training of children - - 161-190 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Lady Noel Byron's Agricultural School — Captain Brenton 
 — The Children's Friend Society — Lord Brougham and 
 Lord Palmerston — Phenomena of modern spiritualism 
 — Baron Guldenstiibbe — Rutter's experiments — Mrs. 
 Anna Jameson — Lady Milbanke and the divining-rod — 
 Mrs. Beecher Stowe and the abolition of slavery — 
 'Eliza' — Mrs. Follen - - - 191-225 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Lectures on Hero-worship — Thomas Carlyle — Mrs. Carlyle 
 — Cheyne Row, Chelsea — Anti-vivisection and Cardinal 
 Manning — Lord Shaftesbury - - - 226-250
 
 INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 S. E DE MORGAN. 
 
 Sophia Elizabeth Frend, the writer of the follow- 
 ing reminiscences ', was born on November 10, 1809, 
 in Bridge Street, Blackfriars, at the Rock Insur- 
 ance Office, of which her father was then actuary. 
 Although Bridge Street was not then, as now, 
 encircled by miles of houses extending in all direc- 
 tions, a7id open ground could be reached in a 
 moderate walk, still, it was the centre of London 
 smoke, at that time heavier and thicker in propor- 
 tion to the size of the city ; and my mother, whose 
 love of the country was always excessive, often 
 spoke of the sadness with which her city surround- 
 ings filled her as a child, and the intense joy she 
 felt at the change to Stoke Neivington, then 
 almost country \ when, in 18 19, her family moved 
 there to the fine old house, with a beautiful garden, 
 in which most of her girlhood was spent.
 
 viii INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 
 Many of the environments of the Rock Office 
 were far fro?n exhilarating, and it would certainly 
 not have been chosen as a place of residence by my 
 grandfather and grandmother apart from the 
 work of the former. My mother often told us 
 how in her walks she remembered seeing the poor 
 debtors at the hatch of the old Fleet Prison, and, 
 the Rock Office looki?ig over the old Bridewell 
 {then used as a house of detention), I have heard 
 her speak of the horror which filled her childish 
 imagination at the glimpses she caught through 
 the barred windows of the prisoners, who, she said, 
 would grin at her from behind the rails. Still, 
 eighty years back the country came comparatively 
 near to the heart of the city, and my mother could 
 remember being taken for walks by her nurses to 
 King 's Cross when fields were to be found in that 
 locality ; and from the attic windows of the Rock 
 itself, in clear weather, the Surrey hills could be 
 seen. 
 
 Her father, William Frend, had in early life 
 been a clergyman of the Church of England. He 
 received his education at the Kings School in 
 Canterbury, of which city his father was twice 
 Mayor. He afterwards went to St. Omer, and 
 on leaving school was sent to a mercantile house in
 
 S. E, DE MORGAN. ix 
 
 Quebec, his father s wish being that he sJwuld 
 engage in commerce. The experiment did not last 
 long, as he was only eighteen on his return, when 
 his father, yielding to his strong desire to take 
 orders, entered him in 1776 at Christ's College, 
 Cambridge, where for some time Paley was his 
 tutor. He took his degree in 1780, being Second 
 Wrangler and Smith's Prizeman of his year, and 
 in the same year moved to Jesus College, where he 
 was elected Fellow, and appointed Tutor to the 
 College. In 1 783 he took orders, and in November 
 of that year was presented by Sir John Cotton to 
 the small living of Madingley, in Cambridgeshire. 
 Probably he would have done better for his zv or Idly 
 interests had he accepted an offer made to him at 
 the time of ordination to proceed to St. Peters- 
 burg as tutor to the Archduke Alexander of 
 Russia, which would have been a most lucrative 
 appointment ; but he entered the Church in obedi- 
 ence to the dictates of conscience, though from 
 the same cause he felt constrained to sever his 
 connection with it later on. He held his in- 
 cumbency for four years, during which time his 
 religious opinions underwent so great a change 
 that he fou7id it to be his duty to separate himself 
 from the Church, at whatever risk to his own
 
 x INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 
 prospects and the friendship of those he left 
 behind. That it was impossible for him to do 
 otherwise will be seen from such passages as the 
 following :* ' Tkey will read the history of the 
 Church, which teaches us that the power of the 
 priesthood has in every age and in every part of 
 the world been the cause of error, confusion, and 
 bloodshed, and as human nature is the same in all 
 ages, we may rest assured that as long as a priest- 
 hood remains, so long will our liberties, spiritual 
 and temporal, be in danger. 
 
 ' At the present moment I esteem the Church of 
 Rome as much as I do the Church of England, 
 the Church of England as much as the Church of 
 Scotland, the Church of Scotland as much as the 
 workmen of Demetrius the silversmith. It is the 
 same cry with them all — our craft is set at naught, 
 great is Diana of the Ephesians. 
 
 ' Our Saviour and His Apostles do not coun- 
 tenance such establishments ; the religion they 
 taught is founded on conviction ; it requires no 
 external pomp, no proud parade of worship. 
 
 ' Lordly prelates, subscription to articles, and 
 the imposition of tithes, are necessary only in that 
 
 * From a pamphlet entitled '■Mr. Cotilthursfs Blunders 
 Exposed. '
 
 S. E. DE MORGAN. xi 
 
 system of folly and superstition which disgraces 
 human nature, and is in the present day " le 
 bandeau du vulgaire et le mepris des grands." 
 
 The loss of his post as College Tutor (which he 
 had held for seven years) followed the open ex- 
 pression of his views, not only in print, but from 
 the pulpit of St. Marys, when he was called upon 
 in due course to preach before the University. He 
 must have been fully prepared for the result of his 
 action in tints openly stating his beliefs ; but an 
 interval of six years elapsed before the occurrence 
 which brought him into collision with the authori- 
 ties of his college and the heads of the University. 
 This time zvas spent partly in foreign travel, and 
 in study, in the retirement of his college, where he 
 continued to reside, devoting himself especially to 
 the study of Hebrew, in which he became a dis- 
 tinguished scholar. 
 
 The following account of his banishment from 
 the University is taken verbatim from his obituary 
 notice in the ' Gentleman's Magazine ' for May, 
 1841 : 
 
 ' In 1 793 he zvrote his pamphlet entitled, " Peace 
 and Union recommended to the Associated Bodies 
 of Republicans and Ant i- Republicans" For having 
 published this pamphlet in the University he was.
 
 xii INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 
 to use the terms of the sentence pronounced against 
 him by the Master and a majority of the Fellows 
 of Jesus College, " removed from that college, that 
 is, from the precincts of the college and from resi- 
 dence in it, till he shall produce such proofs of 
 good behaviour as shall be satisfactory to the 
 Master and the major part of the Fellows." From 
 this sentence he appealed to the Bishop of Ely, the 
 visitor of the college, who dismissed the appeal and 
 confirmed the sentence of " amotion" which, it 
 should be observed, was far from being a unani- 
 mous decision, as four out of the ten Fellows dis- 
 sented, a7id three, though they did not approve of 
 several passages in the obnoxious work, protested in 
 a letter to the visitor against the conduct of their 
 colleagues. Three members of the University, 
 distinguished alike for learning and integrity of 
 character, viz., Mr. Lambert, the Senior Fellow 
 and Bursar, and Mr. Jones, the Head Tutor of 
 Trinity College, and the Rev. Robert Tyrwhitt, 
 the founder of the Hebrew scholarship, actively 
 interested themselves on Mr. Frends behalf, and 
 greatly assisted him in his defence in each of his 
 trials. The health of Mr. Herbert Marsh* was 
 
 * Afterwards the Bishop of Peterborough, and a cousin of my 
 grandfather's.
 
 S. E. DE MORGAN. xiii 
 
 the only reason of his not being of the number. 
 While the proceedings in his own college were 
 pending, Mr. Frend was cited to appear before the 
 Court of the Vice- Chancellor of the University on 
 a charge of having violated the statutes of the 
 University, by the publication within its precincts 
 of the pamphlet in question. A trial of eight days 
 ensued, at the conchision of which a sentence of 
 banishment from the University was pronounced 
 against him. Mr. Frend szib sequent ly removed 
 the proceedings into the Court of Delegates, where 
 the sentence of the Vice-Chancellor was confirmed, 
 and at a later date made an application to the 
 Kings Bench at Westminster, but that Court 
 refused to interfere in the matter. Thus ended 
 the proceedings i7i this case, which excited great 
 interest at the time, and the details of which in 
 each stage may be found in the " State Trials^ 
 and also in his own published account.' 
 
 As he never made any recantation, his banish- 
 ment continued in operation ; but he retained his 
 Fellowship till his marriage, and remained a 
 member of the University till his death. 
 
 In the folloiuing letter to Lady Noel Byron 
 may be found his own account of these events, 
 written at the latter end of his life :
 
 xiv INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 
 ' 36, Tavistock Square, 
 
 ' January, 1838. 
 ' My dear Lady Byron, 
 
 ' An octogenarian has the honour of 
 
 addressing your ladyship. Mind, this is a secret, 
 
 for I know not whether even my own family is 
 
 aware of the fact. But be it so or not, be it 
 
 known to you that a fortnight ago 1 entered the 
 
 third decade of old age, and, as Cicero when he 
 
 wrote his treatise on this subject had not entered 
 
 the first decade, I cannot but think that I am 
 
 a better judge of it than the eloquent orator who 
 
 has made a pretty composition to tickle the ear, but 
 
 it is " vox et prczterea nihil." What a difference 
 
 between myself now and myself when I entered the 
 
 third decade of my existence ! Then an object of 
 
 ambition was before my eyes, and I laboured hard 
 
 to attain it. Now the scene is closed, and yet I 
 
 have enough left to compensate me, for I have the 
 
 recollection of the past to ruminate upon, and the 
 
 future, which now necessarily presses more upon 
 
 my mind than in early life, is not withotU its 
 
 pleasing anticipations. I am near the end of my 
 
 journey : I have seen enough to convince me that 
 
 the whole system of human affairs is under the 
 
 control of a wise and good Being, and that the
 
 S. E. DE MORGAN. xv 
 
 whole will manifest His wisdom. I cannot see 
 farther into futurity than as He has generously 
 revealed it to us, but I am convinced that we are 
 at the close of a great period. The time prophesied 
 by Daniel is begun. Men shall run to and fro, 
 and knowledge shall be increased. How far the 
 moral state of the world will be improved we 
 cannot say, but we have every reason to believe that 
 the one will accompany the other. Every prejudice 
 removed makes way for the progress of truth. 
 
 1 1 look back fifty years, and if I had then said 
 I should live to see a Papist one year, and two 
 years following two Jews should be Sheriffs of 
 London, I should have been laughed at ; and if I 
 had added, being then on the University \ that a 
 Quaker should become one year Fourth Wrangler, 
 and in another year a Jew Second Wrangler, the 
 laughter of the gods would have been less than that 
 of my hearers. Yet all this has happened, and 
 only last night the House of Commons manifested 
 the change that has taken place in people s opinions. 
 The question was on taking off the disabilities 
 from Quakers and Moravians ; to this an amend- 
 ment was moved that all disabilities on account of 
 religion should be removed. There were three 
 hundred and twenty-eight members present, and
 
 xvi INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 
 the amendment was lost by a majority of only 
 sixteen, a Cabinet Minister being for it, but on 
 prudential motives siding with the original 
 question, lest, by making the question general, the 
 Lords might pass a negative upon it. The point, 
 then, I look upon as clearly gained in the general 
 opinion, and the absurdity of religious tests will in 
 a short time be universally seen and acknowledged. 
 1 About fifty years ago I published a pamphlet 
 which excited no small sensation at the time, the 
 first edition being of a thousand copies, and the 
 second of fifteen hundred. Were it now published 
 for the first time, it would fall still-born from the 
 press ; not a couple of hundred would be sold. But 
 the agitation in the University was great ; that at 
 Oxford on the Hampden question is nothing in 
 comparison of it. Proceedings were instituted 
 against me both in college and in the University — 
 in the one to deprive me of my Fellowship and to 
 expel rne from college, in the other to deprive me 
 of my degree and to banish me from the Uni- 
 versity. On the first question it is enough to 
 observe that I kept my Fellowship to my marriage, 
 and a week or two ago I went into the city to pay 
 my college bills, sent to me by the Bursar, and I 
 am now senior member of Jesus College. In the
 
 S. E. DE MORGAN. xvii 
 
 University question my opponents were baffled by 
 my proving that there was no such law in existence 
 as the pretended one on which my opponents de- 
 fended themselves. Strype, in his "Annals" and 
 the author of the " History of the Puritans" had 
 both asserted that such a lazu had passed on the day 
 they mentioned. This is a curious circumstance, 
 and shows how little historians are to be depended 
 upon in matters of fact. I am now, and have 
 never ceased to be since I took my degree of M.A., 
 a member of the Senate of the University, as may 
 be seen in every Cambridge Calendar since its first 
 publication. One effect, however, of these proceed- 
 ings was to introduce me to the Chancellor of the 
 University, the then Duke of Grafton, at whose 
 house I was a frequent guest, both in town and in 
 the country. Another curious circztmstance brought 
 about by time was that I, an enemy as declared to 
 the Church, was, excepting my late friend, Mr. 
 Morgan, more consulted by the clergy on its 
 various properties in livings, prebends, etc., than 
 any other person in the United Kingdom ; and if 
 we two had been consulted by the Commissioners on 
 ecclesiastical affairs, their reports would have been 
 much shorter, and more to the purpose. 
 
 ' I am sensible by experience of one effect of old 
 
 b
 
 xviii INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 
 age, which, however, may not be felt by persons 
 equally advanced in years. It is nozv upivards of 
 six weeks since I began this letter ; I meditated on 
 many things I had to say to you, but each day 
 brought up something or other, just as a child runs 
 after butterflies. A few months after I went to 
 the University , the news of the battle of Lexington 
 created a sensation in this country, stronger than 
 what has been felt by the outbreak in Canada ; yet 
 the race is not assured to the swift, nor the battle 
 to the strong. I have been on the spot where a 
 proud army of the Austrians was destroyed by the 
 women and children of Switzerland. What will 
 be the issue of the present contest cannot be so easily 
 foreseen as imagined by numbers on this side of the 
 water, but one thing is certain : that if we conquer 
 we have a discontented colony on our hands ; if we 
 are conquered, we are disgraced. I am sorry for 
 our young Queen that such an untoward event 
 should have marked the commencement of her reign. 
 ' Mr. De Morgan will put this into your hands. 
 If the fog has prevailed as much at Windsor as, 
 since Sophia left us, it has in this tozun, all the 
 beauty and majesty of the place must have been 
 hidden from her. I hope she will bring back a 
 good account of your health. Accept the blessing
 
 S. E. DE MORGAN. xix 
 
 of the octogenarian, and be assured that whatever 
 portion of the decade may be assigned to him by a 
 kind Providence, it will find him to the last, 
 
 ' Yours very sincerely, 
 
 ' William Br end.' 
 
 After his banishment from. Cambridge, my 
 grandfather lived in chambers in the Middle 
 Temple, being engaged in various forms of literary 
 work, scientific and statistical, till, in 1807, 
 shortly before his marriage, he was appointed 
 actuary to the Rock Insurance Office, in whose 
 formation he had taken an important part. He 
 held this office till obliged by ill-health to resign it 
 in 1827. 
 
 In 1808, when near fifty, my grandfather 
 married Sarah Blackbume, daughter of the Rev. 
 Francis Blackbume, Vicar of Brignall in York- 
 shire, and became the father of tliree sons and four 
 datightcrs, of whom my mother was the eldest. 
 Although the daughter of a clergyman of the 
 Established Church, my grandmother s traditions 
 in many ways resembled those of her husband. 
 Her grandfather* Archdeacon Blackbume, had 
 
 * It seems probable that there was a collateral relationship 
 between Archdeacon Blackbume and the eccentric prelate of a
 
 xx INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 
 gained celebrity by the publication, in 1766, of a 
 work entitled ' The Confessional,' which was 
 mainly an effort to introduce a more simple mode 
 of pledge at ordination. The Archdeacon, though 
 he did not feel himself bound to leave the Church, 
 declined further preferment on the ground that he 
 
 very different type, Lancelot Blackhirne, who luas Archbishop of 
 York, 1724. Tradition states that in his younger days this 
 ecclesiastic had been a buccaneer, and Walpole referred to him 
 as ' the jolly old Archbishop who had the manners of a man of 
 quality, though he had been a buccaneer, and was a clergyman ; 
 but he retained nothing of his former profession, except his 
 seraglio? A story goes that, on one of his sea-comrades asking 
 what had become of Blackburne, he was answered that he* had 
 become Archbishop of York. It is also said that on one occasion, 
 after a confirmation, he shocked the vicar of the church by order- 
 ing pipes and tobacco and liquor to be brought into the vestry for 
 his refreshmetit after his labours. According to the current 
 scandal of the day, he was created Archbishop of York for 
 marrying George I. to his mistress, the Duchess of Munster ; 
 but many of his biographers deride the story of his having been a 
 buccaneer o?i the ground of his being an excellent Greek scholar, 
 and having been brought up at Christchurch. When the Arch- 
 deacon, in his youth, presented himself for ordination, the Arch- 
 bishop, noticing the name, asked him where he was born, and, 
 on the young man's replying at Richmond in Yorkshire, but 
 that his ancestors came from Mar rick Abbey, the Archbishop 
 rejoined that his descent was the same. A portrait of a cleric 
 with a steel corselet under his canonicals was till lately possessed 
 by the Archdeacon's descendants, and was believed to be taken 
 from the bucca?ieering priest, and an Andrea Ferrara sword, 
 said to have been his, is still in their possession.
 
 S. E. DE MORGAN. xxi 
 
 could not subscribe again ; and a practical outcome 
 of the book was a petition to Parliament, signed 
 by over two hundred persons, clergymen and others, 
 in favour of relaxation of the vows of ordination. 
 This petition, which was presented by Sir W. 
 Meredith, was rejected by 271 to 71, after a lively 
 debate {Burke speaking against it), and, in conse- 
 quence of its failure, Dr. Disney, the Rector of 
 Panton and Vicar of Swinderby, son-in-law of 
 the Archdeacon, and the Rev. TheopJiilus Lindsey, 
 Vicar of Catterick, who had married his step- 
 daughter, left the Church, and their secession may 
 be looked upon as the founding of the Unitarian 
 body in London, the chapel in Essex Street, 
 Strand, having been built for Mr. Lindsey. 
 
 Among the Archdeacon s papers was the follow- 
 ing letter from the Rev. Peter Peckard, Master 
 of Magdalen, Oxford, Vice-Chancellor, and after- 
 wards Dean of Peterborough (who published a 
 pamphlet, entitled 'Subscription, 1 containing nmch 
 the same arguments as those in ' The Con- 
 fessional'), showing that among the more orthodox 
 clergy the movement also found supporters. The 
 latter part of the letter, dealing with very different 
 matter, may interest lovers of the drama.
 
 xxii INTROPUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 
 ' Fletton, 
 
 '■February 13, 1776. 
 
 ' My dear Sir, 
 
 ' Before this time I apprehend you may 
 have received that which I had sent you, and you 
 yourself had sent for. Without any affectation of 
 modesty or humility, I cannot but say that I think 
 it must appear to you a very mean performance, 
 notwithstanding that your partiality to me may 
 influence you to see it in the most favourable light. 
 I have sent but very few copies — one to Lord 
 Rockingham, one to Sir G. Saville [to both these I 
 am an entire stranger), one to Mr. Car dale, one to 
 Mr. Jebb* and one to yourself. Mr. Jebb sends 
 me word that he hears it muck spoken of, that the 
 Bishop of CA is highly delighted with it, but has 
 no idea who can be the author. I wish it may 
 contribute just to keep the subject in memory, and 
 
 * Dr. John Jebb, Second Wrangler, Fellow of Jesus, and 
 Rector of Ovington, in Norfolk. He left the Church in conse- 
 quence of the rejection of the cle?'ical petition, and, taking his 
 M.D., practised medici?ie successfully in London. His wife, 
 under the nom de plume of ( Friscilla,' entered with warmth into 
 the religious and academical controversies of the day, replying 
 with such success to some of her opponents that she drew from 
 Paley the exclamation, ' The Lord has sold Sisera into the hand 
 of a woman P 
 
 f Dr. Law, Bishop of Carlisle.
 
 S. E. DE MORGAN. xxiii 
 
 then my end will be answered. To expect any 
 good from it would be an idle expectation — at least 
 at present ; for if " The Confessional" can appear 
 without proper effect, I am sure that " Subscrip- 
 tion " must be entirely contemned. Between your* 
 Diocesan and myself there has been a very inti- 
 mate friendship, from the time of our being boys 
 together. He has as much real goodness in him 
 — or, at least, he had — as ever I knew in anyone. 
 He found me, though his senior in the University, 
 an ignorant, unfledged urchin in a nest of Jaco- 
 bites — nido implumem detraxit. I do not mean 
 to insinuate that he is the dunes arator. He 
 showed me the folly of my situation, taught me the 
 principles of Whiggism, and made me a real Whig 
 upon principle, in which principles I have lived 
 ever since, and am determined {if God be graciously 
 pleased to continue to me a sound mind), resolutely 
 determined to die. My old friend, they tell me, 
 has deserted his principles ; I cannot believe it. 
 Prudential views may have bound him fast to 
 Ccrsar, but prudence often makes a man a rascal ; 
 yet I cannot persuade myself to think that any- 
 thing can make him so. If he is angry zvith me, I 
 
 * The Rev. Win. Markham, Archbishop of York.
 
 xxiv INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 
 am sorry for it — amicus Plato, sea 7 magis arnica 
 Veritas. I assume a fictitious character ; this I do 
 that I may not be obliged to answer abuse. So 
 much for " Subscription!" 
 
 1 And so you a7'e become acquainted with my old 
 friend Sheridan. There is not upon this earth a 
 man of 7nore honour and honesty. There is no 
 man for whom I have a more sincere affection. I 
 have been purposely to pass time with him in 
 Ireland, I know not how oft. There he run mad 
 after oratory — he was not contented with insanire 
 sollemnia. He thought all the evils of the land, 
 civil, moral, and religious, were owing to this 
 cause, that the bakers, tailors, and shoemakers, 
 were not brought up orators. I remonstrated as 
 far as I could touch so delicate a subject, con- 
 sidered it as folly. He called me the croaking 
 raven — / was always throwing cold zvater on his 
 most favotirite scheme. Some of this cold water 
 at length fell upon our correspondence ; notwith- 
 standing that, I love him as well as ever. To my 
 certain knowledge, he might at this time, if he had 
 possessed a grain of that quality called prudence, 
 have been worth a hundred thousand pounds, 
 acquired very honourably. But he was overrun 
 with generosity and oratory, and fairly ruined
 
 S. E. DE MORGAN. xxv 
 
 himself. I hear he is now situated where Mr. 
 Garrick long since wished him to be, m the 
 management of Drury Lane. If he plays, and is 
 manager too, zuith his pension, I think he will not 
 have less than two thousand a year income ; and I 
 wish he had ten. Mr. Garrick has more than 
 once made him, by me, what I thought very advan- 
 tageous offers, but he always refused. Adieu, my 
 dear sir. May health and every worldly happi- 
 ness ever attend you. 
 
 1 Ever yours, 
 
 ' P. Peckard! 
 
 Although neither the Archdeacon nor his son. 
 the Rector of Brignall, left the Church, and 
 appear to have disapproved of the secession of 
 Messrs. Lindsey and Disney, apparently believing 
 that the changes they desired could be more satis- 
 factorily effected from within than without, still, 
 the family sacrificed somewhat to their views, not 
 only in declining further preferment, but the 
 youngest son, Thomas, though he had passed a 
 brilliant examination at Cambridge, was refused 
 a degree on objecting to subscribe. This refusal 
 caused some excitement in the University at the 
 time, and was severely criticised, some declaring
 
 xxvi INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 
 that Mr. Blackburne had not been rejected 
 statutably, as he declared himself to be in communion 
 with the Church of England ; but his action was 
 probably of use in helping the growing feeling 
 which eventually caused the Universities to abolish 
 religious tests. The young man afterwards became 
 an M.D. of Edinburgh, and an F.R.S., and was 
 expected to have a brilliant career before him, but 
 died young from an infectious illness contracted in 
 his practice. The liberality of William Freud's 
 views was therefore in no way alien to the feel- 
 ings of his wife's family, although her own 
 relations remained members of the Church he 
 had left. 
 
 It would be difficult to overstate the extent of 
 her fat her s influence on the education and char- 
 acter of my mother. She rarely left home, and 
 during her youth he took a great interest in her 
 training, himself superintending it for a great 
 part, and at a very early age beginning to teach 
 her Hebrew, to the study of which he at all times 
 attached much importance. Although, as she 
 often told me, at the time she felt troubled by the 
 sense that her upbringing was so unlike that of the 
 conventional young lady of the period, she lived to 
 rejoice in it, and particularly to look back with
 
 S. E. DE MORGAN. xxvii 
 
 satisfaction to the time spent in learning a 
 language, the study of which would have proved 
 fruitless to many women, but which enabled her to 
 follow with greater understanding many theological 
 and antiquarian questions which to her were 
 specially interesting. From her father she also 
 learned some amount of Greek and Latin, and he 
 encouraged her in metaphysical and philosophical 
 reading, for which she had a natural bent. 
 
 Those who knew her will recognise in the 
 following letter a leading bias of her mind in 
 after-life. She had been reading Locke ' On the 
 Understanding] and had evidently been writing her 
 impressions to her father. This letter was sent to 
 my mother while on a visit to her imcle, Dr. 
 William Blackburne, at Eastcott House, Wookey, 
 in Somersetshire, where he had settled on giving 
 up practising as a physician in Cavendish Square. 
 This visit was often recalled by my mother in latter 
 days as being among her most happy memories : 
 
 ' Mr dear Sophia, 
 
 1 1 am glad to see that Mr. Locke points 
 out to you the danger of entertaining prejudices on 
 any subject whatsoever. For what is prejudice but 
 prejugd, a prejudgment or a previous determine/,-
 
 xxviii INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 
 Hon, without giving yourself the power of forming 
 a judgment ? A King of Siam told an English 
 traveller that he was tittering a falsehood, because 
 he said in his country the rivers became so hard 
 that an elephant might walk over them. Numbers 
 of people are in the same situation with the King 
 of Siam. A thing is told them which is contrary 
 to some preconceived opinion of theirs, and, zvith- 
 out due consideration, they contradict it immedi- 
 ately. Oh, it cant be so ! they say immediately, 
 but many things are really very different from 
 what they appear to be. The sun appears to rise 
 in the morning, and to set at night, and to be con- 
 stantly moving during the day from east to west ; 
 but it is not the sun that is moving in this manner, 
 it is really ourselves that are in motion, and the 
 earth turning round from west to east makes the 
 sun appear to us to move from east to west. 
 Galileo, a great philosopher, was obliged to ask 
 pardon on his knees for saying that the earth 
 moved, but the priests who made him do so were 
 blinded by their prejudices. We may talk against 
 the truth, but all our talking does not alter the 
 nature of truth. We are doing an injury to our 
 own minds when we cannot bear contradiction on a 
 favourite opinion. If our opinion is right, it will
 
 S. E. DE MORGAN. xxix 
 
 bear the test of examination ; if wi r ong, the sooner 
 we get rid of it the better. The reason that so 
 much of prejtidicc is in the world, and so little of 
 truth, is that meti love darkness better than light ; 
 they cannot bear to be told that they and their 
 fathers have been in an error. Hoiv should you 
 know better than us and our fathers ? goes with 
 them for an argument. Yet the history of the 
 world might teach them that they and their fathers 
 may be in an error. At one time our fathers fell 
 dovjii before the images of Woden, Thor, and 
 Freya. They turned these idols out of their 
 temples, and replaced them with images of wood 
 and stone and painting, to represent the new gods 
 and saints. These latter images retain their 
 places in a great part of Europe, but in this 
 country they have turned them otit of their 
 churches. Truth must be loved for its own sake, 
 but error is adopted and maintained because it 
 suits the purpose of certain sets of people to keep 
 the 1'est as much as possible in ignorance. To 
 guard yourself against prejudice, you must be 
 careful not to be perenptory in your judgment of 
 things. It requires a great deal of time and ex- 
 perience to come to a right apprehension on certain 
 subjects, therefore you must be slow in coming to a
 
 xxx INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 
 decision till you have opportunities of knowing 
 better. Learn something every day, and think 
 often on what you have learned ; by this you will 
 gradually form your mind to embrace truth, from 
 whatever quarter it may come. Contintie to give 
 me an account of what you learn from Locke, and 
 believe me, 
 
 ' Yours very affectionately, 
 
 ' William JFrend. 
 
 From William Frend to Sophia Frend. 
 
 ' My dear Sophia, 
 
 ' L was very much pleased with your letter, 
 but while L think of it, let me just observe that 
 you applied the term "'clever'''' according to a very 
 common custom. I never apply it to intellect ; L 
 should never say a clever physician, a clever lawyer, 
 a clever divine, though clever fellow may be used 
 in a jocose style. You also use the term "who" 
 for " whom," but these are trifles. 
 
 I hope the Doctor* is as much pleased as L am 
 at the restoration of his honours to the Duke of 
 Norfolk. L dined on Tuesday in a mixed party 
 of Catholics and Protestants^ but we were all 
 equally rejoicing in this return of good sense and 
 
 * Dr. Win. Blackburne.
 
 S. E. DE MORGAN. xxxi 
 
 good feeling to the legislature. Lord and Lady 
 Clifford were of the party, and one or two heirs 
 to Catholic honours, and we are to have a dinner 
 of the same party within three years, either at the 
 hotcse of the peer or at our host. Mons. Dumont, 
 who was with us, says he will come from Geneva 
 on the occasion. The point is the restoration of 
 the Catholic peers to their seats in Parliament 
 within three years. According to the detemmia- 
 tion of this event, we dine with either the peer or 
 the commoner. At any rate, a good dinner and a 
 good party will be the result.' 
 
 J£- J/, Jtr -At •!£ 
 
 *JP *Jf> *R" ^P •«■ 
 
 Their correspondence, however, did not treat 
 only of serious matters ; what follows was written 
 on the occasion of her first ball, and shows that it 
 was possible for a learned man to give care ana 
 attention to the frivolous side of life, and rather 
 amusingly demonstrates the versatility of my 
 grandfather" and the manners of the time : 
 
 ' My dear Sophia, 
 
 ' Your letter is of too much importance for 
 me to wait for a frank. Your mother does not 
 
 * The following occurrence, remembered in the family, is very 
 characteristic of my grandfather's impulsive and rather hot-
 
 xxxii INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 
 object to yotir going to the ball ; I may add I not 
 only do not object, but approve of it, as you go in a 
 party in whom I can place the utmost confidence. 
 It is rather too soon for you to go to such places, 
 which are neither to be too eagerly sought after, 
 nor to be fastidiously rejected. Though I was 
 early initiated into the mysteries of dancing, and 
 by a residence in France, before I zvent to College, 
 acquired a somewhat greater skill in capering than 
 the generality of young men of my age, yet I did 
 
 headed chivalry, even when near old age : Stoke Newington, at 
 the time of his residence there, was surrounded by fields, and one 
 evening, on returning home across a lonely path in company -with 
 Mr. Woolgar, a scientific friend, the two gentlemen came upon a 
 girl follotved by a man, who had been giving her serious annoy- 
 ance. On her appealing to the new-comers against her persecutor, 
 my grafidfather took the law into his own hands, and bidding 
 his companion take the offender by the feet, himself took him by 
 tlie shoulders, and carried him to an adjacent pond, to be chastised. 
 The culprit entreated that his coat might be spared, but my 
 grandfather, perceiving that its damage would be the most com- 
 plete punishment, chose a green corner of the pond, covered with 
 weed, and, at his instigation, the unhappy man was dticked 
 therein. As Mr. Frend was close to seventy at the twie, and his 
 companion well advanced i?i life, the encounter was creditable to 
 their muscular powers, if not to their prudence. Another charac- 
 teristic trait of the former was his wearing a blue coat with brass 
 buttons long after it had ceased to be the prevailing fashion, 
 simply in order to emphasize the fact that he had completely 
 severed his connection with the Church, and tuished to be regarded 
 as a layman.
 
 S. E. DE MORGAN. xxxii. 
 
 not go to a ball, except in vacation times in the 
 country, till I had taken my first degree. Young 
 as you ai'e, yet I can trust you in a ball-room 
 without any fears of your being guilty of impro- 
 priety ; yet there are a few things worth your 
 knowing, and some against which you should be on 
 your guard. The main point is to avoid affecta- 
 tion of every kind, whether in walk, gestitre, or 
 talk. In the common modes of dancing you have 
 had instruction enough, a?id of them I say nothing. 
 Anything like romping in dancing is to be care- 
 fully avoided. There is a certain distance to be 
 moved over in a given time. I have seen oirls 
 hurrying through tzvice that distance, and think- 
 ing they had done a great feat ; but, in fact, they 
 only made themselves ridiculous, a7id looked like 
 hoydens. Mind your time and the figure of the 
 dance, and should you ever in the latter be set 
 right by your neighbour, take it in good part, and 
 be sure you make him or her sensible you feel 
 obliged to them. I perceive by your letter that you 
 already have two partners, but should you have 
 any other, which I do/it object to, don't stand like 
 a statue, but converse with him freely, if he is so 
 inclined ; but beware of making any remark that 
 is to the disadvantage of any one person in the
 
 xxxiv INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 
 room. Use your eyes well ; look about you and 
 notice those who appear to be the most graceful in 
 their gestures and manner of conversation. You 
 may probably have some people of rank there, 
 ladies who will discredit by their rude, dashing 
 behaviottr, and others who do credit to their 
 station by propriety of condztct. There is an 
 azvkward bashfulness and a bold look of self-im- 
 portance, between which is the happy medium 
 which distinguishes a well-bred woman. Few are 
 there that can make either a good bow or a good 
 curtsey. I care not whether it is a low one, as 
 in my time, or a nod, or a slip, as is now the 
 fashion ; there is a grace in doing either, which, 
 if you cannot attain, still the extreme may be 
 avoided. Obsei've what is done by others, but 
 avoid imitation ; what may be graceful in one may 
 not suit another. Each has a suitable modification 
 peculiar to himself which, if it is changed by 
 affectation, makes him ridiculous. The great 
 secret, hozuever, is to carry with you a cheerful 
 and innocent heart, desirous of giving and receiv- 
 ing all the satisfaction which the amusement is 
 capable of affording, wishing no ill to your neigh- 
 bours, passing over their faults, and highly regard- 
 ing their excellencies. Though the eyes of many
 
 S. E. DE MORGAN. xxxv 
 
 may be upon you, yet you are to act as if no one 
 regarded you, careful only that zv/iat you are 
 about you do as well as you can. I shall be glad 
 to hear your remarks on the first exhibition of the 
 kind that you have been at.' 
 
 My grandfatlier died in 1 84 1 , four years after 
 my mother s marriage, from the effect of a paralytic 
 stroke, which had incapacitated him from active 
 life for four years before his death. That a man 
 so original and versatile should have an absorbing 
 influence over a daugliter, who might truly be said 
 to idolize hint, was not to be wondered at. My 
 father always spoke of him as of one apart, totally 
 unlike any other lie had ever met, and he seems 
 to have excited a like veneration and love in others 
 who knew him. 
 
 My mothers marriage took place in 1837, and 
 during the first years of married life the cares of 
 a family {she had seven children) prevented her 
 giving serious attention to the studies which had 
 occupied Jier before. She always maintained that 
 a mother ivho did her duty by her children while 
 they were of tender years could have time for little 
 else. 
 
 After her marriage my father and mother lived
 
 xxxvi INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 
 first in Gower Street, and then in Great Camden 
 Street, Camden Town, both of which were con- 
 veniently near to my father s work at University 
 College. My mother had always been strongly in 
 sympathy with the movement for procuring for 
 women more thorottgh and higher education, and 
 in 1849 gave much time and attention to the for- 
 mation of Bedford College, working in conjunction 
 with a few energetic ladies, more especially with 
 her friend Mrs. Reid, who may be regarded as the 
 actual foundress of this pioneer of women s educa- 
 tion. Although my father did not entirely share 
 my mother s views on the point of the need for 
 higher training and political emancipation for 
 women, she succeeded in inducing him to give a 
 course of lectures to the first pupils at Bedford 
 College, and also to join the movement for pro- 
 curing female suffrage. 
 
 After going to live in St. Pancras, my mother 
 became keenly interested in the great need of work- 
 house reform. From the poor people of the neigh- 
 bourhood she heard piteous accounts of the treat- 
 ment they had received at the poorhouse, if obliged 
 to shelter beneath its inhospitable wing, and she 
 determined to endeavour to see for herself the 
 truth of the reports. Though armed with a letter
 
 S. E. DE MORGAN. xxxvii 
 
 from Lord Torrington {then in office), desiring 
 that she might be allowed to visit the wards, she 
 failed to obtain admission for some time, and it 
 was not till the change of the administration of 
 the poor-laws, and the election of a better set of 
 men as guardians, that she succeeded, not only 
 obtaining for herself leave to enter and visit the 
 inmates, but to form a small committee of ladies 
 who were to be alloived to visit the wards regu- 
 larly, and to send to the Board suggestions for the 
 comfort and welfare of the inmates. This little 
 committee, sanctioned by the guardians, was the 
 first instance of work of the sort, and was followed 
 in 1857 by the organization known as the ' Work- 
 house Visiting Association,' which for many years 
 did excellent zuork in the most difficult question of 
 workhouse management. 
 
 Some years later my mother, with two or three 
 friends, initiated a society for providing play- 
 grounds for the poor children of the slums. This 
 association was shortlived, and its efforts for 
 active results were abortive ; but she lived to re- 
 joice in the fact that the Kyrle Society and other 
 associations have been able to carry out more 
 effectually what the Playground Society failed to 
 achieve.
 
 xxxviii INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR OF 
 
 Although brought up a Unitarian, my mother's 
 views underwent a considerable change in mature 
 life, and in her later days approached more nearly 
 to orthodoxy. As she has herself stated in print 
 elsewhere the process by which she arrived at her 
 conclusions, it is unnecessary to do more here than 
 to refer to the fact that she became a believer in 
 the truth of some of the phenomena known as 
 modern spiritualism, to which she attributed the 
 modifications of her religious beliefs. 
 
 After my father s death, and when we had 
 moved to Cheyne Row, where she died, my mother 
 became a warm supporter of the movement for 
 abolishing vivisection, believing (in which view my 
 father had concurred) that whatever gain to know- 
 ledge could be purchased by these means would be 
 more than counterbalanced by the gradual moral 
 degradation to the race which must arise from 
 their acceptance and practice. 
 
 The reminiscences were finished in 1887, and 
 five years later, in 1892, the writer died ; of her 
 last years there is little to record. To the end 
 her intellect was unclouded, and she retained the 
 interest in the intellectual life and movements of 
 the times which had always been one of her most 
 marked characteristics. Far from being fright-
 
 S. F, DE MORGAN. xxxix 
 
 ened by nezv ideas, she welcomed with interest any 
 new theory, even though it obliged her to do battle 
 in the cause of some of her cherished beliefs. Her 
 powers of enjoyment remained undiminished, and 
 her love of nature, and the great pleasure she took 
 thenin, never failed her. In Chelsea her favourite 
 walks were on the embankment by the river, and 
 in Battersea Park, whose beauties she always 
 declared were not half enough known or appre- 
 ciated. Within a fortnight of her death she was 
 able to enjoy a drive there, and to notice how well 
 flozvers and plants grew even so near the centre of 
 London smoke. A visit to the country zvas a 
 pleasure to the end, and zvas alzvays most enjoyed 
 when shared zvith friends, particularly if young 
 people formed a large portion of the society. The 
 kindness of many friends and relations brightened 
 these annual trips, and though near upon eighty, 
 she enjoyed the merry meetings in the evenings 
 with which the days ended, and zvould enter zvith 
 as much enthusiasm as any of the young people into 
 round games, etc. During one of these little visits 
 to Rustington the photograph given as a frontis- 
 piece zvas taken by Mrs. IV. B. Richmond, zvho 
 zvith her young party had been the kind comrades 
 of many a seaside holiday.
 
 xl INTRODUCTORY MEMOIR. 
 
 It is often said that the poiver of making friends 
 departs in later life, but with my mother this was 
 ?iot the case ; she was able to form friendships and 
 take up new interests at eighty with almost the 
 vigour and warmth of eighteen. Naturally of an 
 optimistic temperament, she dwelt often upon the 
 great improvements of the times, unlike most old 
 people, declaring that the zvorld had grown 
 better since her youth. She had said that the 
 only fear she had of death came from the appre- 
 hension of long and painful illness, and of the 
 trouble she must thereby cause to others ; but these 
 fears were not realized. The end came peacefully 
 in her sleep, after being confined to her room for 
 little more than a week, such an end as she would 
 doubtless have desired, or, as she according to her 
 strong beliefs would have said, ' such a passing to 
 another life to begin afresh." 
 
 M. A. DE MORGAN.
 
 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE 
 AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Early days — Sir Francis Burdett — His imprisonment in the 
 Tower — Flogging in the Army — Sir Francis Burdett's 
 departure from the Tower — Sir John Bowring — The 
 Allied Sovereigns — The Duke of Wellington — Mr. Robert 
 Hibbert— The Hibbert Lectures — Baron Maseres — Miss 
 Lousada. 
 
 In the course of a long life I have met with many 
 persons whose mental and physical lineaments 
 have remained in my mind as clearly as if they 
 were not of the past. Some of these have been 
 well known to the world, and duly commemo- 
 rated. Others have been comparatively obscure, 
 but deserving of remembrance, as having con- 
 tributed to make the world what it is : better than 
 our grandfathers found it, but far from what it 
 ought to be, and will be some time hence. 
 
 My father, William Frend, had been not un- 
 known during the earlier part of his life. He 
 
 1
 
 2 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 had taken high honours at Cambridge, and left 
 his University and the Church on account of 
 having adopted opinions contrary to its doctrines. 
 He was an astronomer, a mathematician, and a 
 scholar, learned in Greek and Hebrew, and in all 
 that was then known of ancient scriptures and 
 worship. These pursuits explain the attraction 
 of his society for a variety of characters, some of 
 whom might appear like the guests in a miniature 
 Crotchet Castle. 
 
 One of the very earliest of my recollections is 
 of Sir Francis Burdett. My father was his warm 
 friend and ally during his reforming days ; and as 
 he was fond of children and kind to them, my 
 sister and I were sometimes taken by him to the 
 politician's house in St. James's Place, where 
 there was a garden. 
 
 Once, long before then, it was matter of tra- 
 dition that I had been carried by my nurse to 
 visit the State prisoner in the Tower. This 
 nurse, who combined with her other duties strong 
 political opinions, got leave to take me in her 
 arms to the Tower to convey a note of no im- 
 portance, which she insisted on delivering into 
 the prisoner's own hands. After this memorable 
 visit, her enthusiasm found a vent in a short
 
 SIR FRANCIS BURDETT IN THE TOWER. 3 
 
 political catechism : ' Who put Burdett in the 
 Tower ?' to which the infant accents were taught 
 to answer emphatically : ' Naughty men-folk.' 
 
 The tradition was also handed down to me by 
 my father and mother of a really interesting visit 
 paid to their friend during this incarceration. A 
 few lines came from him one day : 
 
 ■ Dear Frend, 
 
 ' Come to me at once. I hardly know what I 
 write.' 
 
 My father went to the Tower, and found Sir 
 Francis in a state of great excitement and horror. 
 
 The prisoner, who had leave to walk over the 
 ramparts on parole, had been taking his accus- 
 tomed exercise that morning, and on coming to 
 the spot where the soldiers were usually drilled 
 and exercised, was witness of a hideous scene. 
 
 Groans of agony, in place of the word of the 
 drill-sergeant, met his ear, and instead of the 
 rather monotonous exercise of the men, he saw a 
 private under the lash ; I do not remember his 
 offence. One hundred lashes had been given, 
 and the torn and bleeding skin and flesh hung in 
 ribbons. Then the involuntary inflicter of torture 
 was tired, and another man took his place with
 
 4 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 the cat-o'-nine-tails, while another drummer was 
 called to support the culprit, who had still to 
 receive many — I am afraid to say how many* — 
 lashes, each one penetrating more deeply into the 
 lacerated flesh. The man, more dead than alive, 
 was at length taken away to the hospital, and the 
 prisoner, whose mental suffering almost equalled 
 the bodily torment he had witnessed, determined 
 that no effort of his should be untried which 
 might prevent a repetition of such horrors. 
 
 That night he could not sleep, and for many 
 days and nights he was haunted by the remem- 
 brance of what he had seen. He begged my 
 father again to go to him, to consult with other 
 friends upon the best means of getting the 
 practice of flogging in the army abolished, or 
 made less terrible. And as soon as he was free 
 he did exert himself effectually in this direction. 
 To his earnest efforts in the House of Commons 
 was due a searching inquiry into the nature and 
 extent of the punishment as then carried out, with 
 the result of getting it much, though at that time 
 not sufficiently, reduced. Since then flogging 
 both in the army and navy has been abolished, 
 except in extreme cases, and this relaxation of 
 
 * More than five hundred were often inflicted.
 
 SIR F. BURDETT AND FLOGGING IN THE ARMY. 5 
 
 severity has not been attended with an increase 
 of misrule or lawlessness among the men.* 
 
 I have often heard my father, to whom I was a 
 constant companion, describe the way in which, 
 when the time of his sentence was expired, 
 Burdett left his prison. 
 
 The Liberal party, Whigs or Reformers they 
 were then, and milder in their aims than the 
 Radicals — far more moderate than the Socialists 
 or Democrats of to-day — held Sir Francis 
 Burdett in high honour. He was considered the 
 champion of the people's rights, and at that time 
 he certainly enjoyed and deserved his popularity. 
 So when he was to be liberated, it was arranged 
 to bring him through the town in triumph. A 
 
 * The following letter from Sir Francis Burdett to 
 my grandfather shows how strongly he felt about what 
 he had witnessed. — Ed. 
 
 ' Dear Frend, 
 
 1 I am truly astonished at your information, but 
 there is no end to the meanness and cruelty of this 
 atrocious system. The scenes of this morning have 
 filled my mind with sensations difficult to describe, 
 and will make the remainder of my residence here 
 much more painful than before. Good journey. 
 
 ' Yours, 
 
 ' F. Burdett.'
 
 6 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 lofty car was constructed, banners were to be 
 carried, and bands were to play, and clubs and 
 companies were to walk in procession. The 
 ' man of the people ' was to have his discharge 
 early in the day. Shortly after the hour ap- 
 pointed, my mother, who was far from strong, was 
 called down the long- flights of stone stairs of a 
 house in Bridge Street, Blackfriars, to speak with 
 two gentlemen who had ridden up, and whose 
 horses waited. These two, without any circum- 
 locution, asked her peremptorily, strengthening 
 their words with the expletives in common use, 
 where her husband was. 
 
 She did not know. She had not seen him 
 since he left the house just after breakfast. 
 
 It was no use, they said, for her to try to 
 deceive them. She had better say all she knew. 
 Burdett was not to be found in the Tower, the 
 people were getting excited and angry, and, by 
 something or other, there would be bloodshed. 
 
 ' What can I say ?' said my poor mother, 
 trembling ; ' I know no more about it than you 
 do.' 
 
 They explained. The procession was formed 
 and waiting to start, the streets were thronged 
 with people, but Sir Francis could not be found,
 
 A SECRET DEPARTURE FROM THE TOWER. 7 
 
 and it had been supposed that Mr. Frend was 
 with him. 
 
 But she could say no more, and, using strong 
 language, they left her trembling and terribly 
 uneasy. 
 
 1 1 was late in the day when my father returned. 
 He told her that he had gone direct to the Tower, 
 where, according to agreement, he met Mr. Jones 
 Burdett, Sir Francis's brother. They had been 
 very apprehensive of the consequences of the 
 immense gathering of people, for outbreaks and 
 riots were of everyday occurrence, and the con- 
 spicuous place designed for the hero of the day 
 would expose him to danger from well-aimed 
 shots from adverse hands, and would be likely 
 thus to endanger the peace ; and under such cir- 
 cumstances, an excited street mob, partly com- 
 posed of helpless women and children, was a 
 matter to be contemplated with terror. 
 
 As soon as Sir Francis had his discharge, the 
 three walked down to the Tower stairs, where 
 they found a wherry, engaged by them, waiting 
 for the released prisoner. I only remember hear- 
 ing of one pair of oars, but there might be two, 
 for they had to go through a rather crowded part 
 of the river, and it was five miles to Putney.
 
 3 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 They all sat quiet until they had cleared the craft 
 and shipping ; then my father, who enjoyed the 
 situation, began, addressing the boatman : 
 
 ' Well, I think you must wish to see the show 
 to-day in the streets.' 
 
 'No, sir, I don't.' 
 
 'How's that?' 
 
 'Well, I'm not so sure Burdett would get 
 through all right. I'd rather we had him here.' 
 
 ' What would you do with him if you had him 
 here ?' said my father. 
 
 ' I'd pull a strong oar, as I am doing now.' 
 
 I suppose the boatman understood the whole 
 transaction. Even if Sir Francis did not shake 
 hands with him at parting, of which all who knew 
 him could have little doubt, the recompense for 
 his work and the sight of the carriage which met 
 them at Putney to take them on to Wimbledon 
 would have enlightened him. 
 
 The following letter, of which I lately found a 
 copy among the MS. notes of a friend," 1 " will 
 explain some of the reasons for the step taken. 
 The writer mentions his brother, but does not go 
 
 * It is probable that William Smith, M.P. for Norwich, was 
 the gentleman addressed. He was a friend of Burdett's, and 
 the letter was found among the papers of one of his family.
 
 REASONS FOR AVOIDING A DEMONSTRATION. 9 
 
 into any particulars as to who were his two com- 
 panions on the occasion. It happened seventy- 
 seven years ago, and I have only my own word 
 for the little narrative I have given ; but I have 
 not been romancing : 
 
 'Wimbledon, 
 
 '■June 29, 18 10. 
 ' My dear Sir, 
 
 ' I am very happy to hear that you approve of 
 my conduct in avoiding the honours prepared for me 
 at my liberation from the Tower. I have no doubt 
 that far the greater part of the public, as well as the 
 wiser few, will agree in thinking that I acted with pro- 
 priety ; at all events, I feel sure of what is far more im- 
 portant to me, the approbation of my own mind. I 
 understand many of your friends blame me for not 
 having acquainted what they call my committee with 
 my intention. In the first place, I have no committee. 
 In the next, it was impossible to be certain of effecting 
 the purpose if anybody had been made acquainted with 
 it, as it would then have depended upon them to 
 defeat it if they pleased ; and so I told Mr. Powell was 
 my reason for not acquainting anybody with it, who has 
 very improperly and incorrectly repeated a conversation 
 he had with my brother and me upon the subject. There 
 was no other way of ensuring success, and if my friends 
 had defeated me, and forced me into the procession (as 
 Mr. Powell said he was sorry he had not), I leave you 
 to judge how my pretended modesty, as it would have 
 been called, would have been ridiculed. I beg to be
 
 io MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 remembered to the two young men who paid me a visit 
 
 in the Tower, and am, sir, 
 
 ' Yours very truly, 
 
 1 F. BURDETT.' 
 
 The manner in which the flogging affected 
 the politician showed his kindness of heart. 
 His imprisonment in the King's Bench years 
 after was the penalty imposed for the strong 
 language of a letter in which he expressed his 
 feelings on the charge by the Manchester 
 Yeomanry Cavalry on an unarmed populace, in 
 which women and children were exposed to the 
 swords of the men, and many unoffending persons 
 were killed.* 
 
 * Some of the riots attending the passing of the 
 Corn Law were described by my grandfather in the 
 following letter to Lady Noel Byron in 1816. — Ed. 
 
 ' William Frend to Lady Noel Byron. 
 
 ' The Rock Office, 
 
 'December, 1816. 
 
 1 I have been interrupted here in the midst of my 
 speculations, and I fear the papers to-morrow will give 
 an account of riot, confusion, and bloodshed. A meet- 
 ing had been advertised in Spa Fields, but the notoriety 
 of it seemed to me to dissipate any cause for alarm, 
 and the march of troops by my house last night con-
 
 SIR FRANCIS BURDETT IN THE KING'S BENCH. 1 1 
 
 I went with my father to see him in this im- 
 prisonment. He w r as in a comfortable room, in 
 which there was a sofa and a few bookshelves 
 with his books, and he offered us tea. My father 
 asked if he could send him anything, but the 
 prisoner said he had all he wanted ; of course, 
 
 vinced me that Government was fully aware of the 
 danger, and prepared to suppress it. I was surprised, 
 however, on stepping out to find most of the shops in 
 Fleet Street, Ludgate Hill, and Cheapside shut up. 
 This has been in consequence of a party of rioters 
 appearing at the top of Fleet Market, who broke into 
 a gun-shop, wounded the shopman, and seized a 
 quantity of arms. Thence they went down to the 
 Tower, and a gentleman come from that quarter told 
 me that he had heard the reports of guns, but whether 
 they had encountered the military or not is not known. 
 A party is also said to be in Moorfields, where the 
 military are said to have fired upon them. Another 
 party is reported to have gone to the King's Bench 
 Prison to release Lord Cochrane, but the great body is 
 in Spitalfields, and of its proceedings I have not had 
 any account. I passed a party of light dragoons, five- 
 and-twenty in number, stationed at the top of Cheap- 
 side, which will be a sufficient guard to the avenue 
 from Newgate Street. The night will scarcely pass 
 over without some temporary tumult at some part of 
 the town, but the vigilance of the Lord Mayor will, I 
 think, preserve the City quiet, and the military will
 
 iz MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 extra indulgences were to be had by paying for. 
 The bedroom, I suppose, led out of the sitting- 
 room, for I saw no bed. 
 
 My father took a Bible to the prisoner, I sup- 
 pose for the sake of settling some question on 
 religion which had been raised by them ; but he 
 did not show any interest in this matter, and from 
 the few expressions on religious subjects which I 
 remember, I think he was what in these days 
 would be called an Agnostic,* which, as Dr. 
 Jessop says, is Greek for ignoramus. On the 
 
 soon dissipate the rioters in other quarters. It is 
 melancholy to think, however, that there is such a 
 spirit in the lower orders. The passing of the Corn 
 Bill has been in my opinion the occasion of a great 
 injury to the country. The landowners in pursuing 
 their private interests were not sufficiently attentive to 
 the general welfare of the kingdom.' 
 
 '■December 13, 18 16. 
 
 ' We are all perfectly quiet in London — thanks to 
 our Lord Mayor, who is beyond all praise. The 
 Parliament may, however, produce confusion. It has 
 an awful task to perform. May God grant our senators 
 wisdom !' 
 
 * In the literal sense of the word, not necessarily an 
 Atheist.
 
 MR. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS. 13 
 
 occasion of Home Tooke's funeral, Sir Francis 
 begged my father to join the party who were 
 ' to follow our old friend to his last home/ and 
 the expression naturally called for a strong pro- 
 test from one who lived and died in the belief 
 that this world is only our first home, and that 
 death opens the gateway to another. 
 
 One memorable visit of Sir F. Burdett to my 
 father was on the occasion of a few friends beinof 
 invited to meet Mr. John Quincy Adams, the 
 American Minister at the English Court. I was 
 too young to dine with the party, but was allowed 
 to go in to dessert. I can only remember several 
 gentlemen talking in a very animated way, and 
 being rather a precocious little person, and accus- 
 tomed to listen to grown-up people's talk, which 
 at our house was often political, I thought they 
 were discussing methods of election in the United 
 States and in England. Sir Francis spoke ener- 
 getically, Mr. Adams quietly. Children are sen- 
 sitive to first impressions, and like or dislike at 
 once. I ' liked ' Mr. Adams, I thought he was 
 ' good,' and was glad to hear my father and 
 mother afterwards express the opinion, though I 
 forget the words, that he was a gentleman among 
 gentlemen.
 
 i 4 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 I remember an earnest argument held at my 
 father's table, some years after, between Sir F. 
 Burdett and Mr., afterwards Sir John, Bowring. 
 The former had spoken of patriotism as the 
 'highest virtue,' and appealed confidently to his 
 host to support his view, for my father had some 
 years before written a small volume entitled 
 'Patriotism; or, The Love of our Country.' 
 This was addressed to the volunteers of England, 
 of whom he was one, at the time when an in- 
 vasion of the French, under Napoleon Bona- 
 parte, was imminent.""" The writer had not upheld 
 
 * The following account of some manoeuvres of the 
 volunteers was sent, in 1803, by Mrs. Theophilus 
 Lindsey to her niece, Mrs. William Frend, then Miss 
 Sarah Blackburne. — Ed. 
 
 ' The late Acts of Parliament are as complicated and 
 
 puzzling as need be, and differently interpreted even 
 
 by the law-makers. It is, however, very happy that 
 
 the country is so generally roused to a sense of danger 
 
 from without, and getting ready to meet it, which 
 
 probably may discourage the attempt. We are glad 
 
 that you are alert in your quarter. Francis is quite 
 
 right in joining the volunteers under Mr. Tekel ; the 
 
 example is an encouragement to the lower orders. 
 * * * * * 
 
 ' I bid Westly, our newsman, send you, in our absence, 
 
 any Chronicle that contained important intelligence
 
 SIR J. BOWRING AND SIR F. BURDETT. 15 
 
 patriotism as opposed to philanthropy, but had 
 shown that the patriot, who must be ready, if 
 needful, to give his life for his country, must also 
 be willing when called upon to sacrifice himself 
 for the good of mankind. 
 
 during our absence here. Now that Parliament is pro- 
 rogued, there can only be foreign intelligence or what 
 may further happen in the sister kingdom, which seems 
 to have been excited rather prematurely, and its worst 
 effects happily frustrated. By a private letter to a 
 friend from the Chancellor, Lord Redesdale, he seems 
 in good spirits, and thinks the plot is broken. They 
 have a good military commander, General Fox, and 
 about 35,000 men in arms of one description or other. 
 
 ' We were pleased with an account by letter from a 
 friend at Woodbridge, in Suffolk, of the efforts of Sir 
 Sydney Smith, who says that he will attack Bonaparte 
 with his own ship's crew, let him land where he will. 
 I send you an extract from our friend's letter : " The 
 camp at Bromswell, commanded by Sir Eyre Coote, is 
 so near to us that we can distinctly hear the music 
 when sitting in the house. Sir Sydney Smith often 
 comes on shore from his ship in Hollesly Bay, about 
 seven miles from the camp, which he visits. In a few 
 days Sir S. S. and his men are to personate Bonaparte 
 and legions, and attempt a landing, and the whole 
 force of the camp, and Woodbridge also, are to go to 
 oppose the landing. This may be of some use to teach 
 our people how such things are managed, as Sir S. S. 
 is well experienced." '
 
 16 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 Mr. Bowring enlarged upon this view, showing 
 that the highest virtue of all was that unselfish- 
 ness which proceeds from the love for all our 
 fellow-creatures. He advocated the motive which 
 in recent times has been called altruism, or the 
 enthusiasm of humanity. Sir Francis intimated 
 that the love of one's own country implied hatred 
 or animosity to other countries, and that war, 
 like duelling, was inevitable in any case of insult 
 or provocation.* Bowring, with less of the poli- 
 tician and more of the poet or prophet, looked 
 forward to the time when national and personal 
 quarrels should be settled in the first case* by 
 arbitration ; in the second, by good feeling, with- 
 out the help of powder and shot. 
 
 Bowring' s expectations in the matter of duelling 
 were fulfilled a few years after, when, in conse- 
 quence of a man being shot in a duel by his 
 brother-in-law, a prosecution was instituted. And 
 we now talk of arbitration between nations as a 
 desirable and natural means of settling a quarrel. 
 Burdett did not depreciate philanthropy, though 
 he thought it might be incompatible with what he 
 
 * Sir F. Burdett had fought a duel in the year 1807 with a 
 tailor, for which he was lectured by William Frend and cari- 
 catured by Gillray.
 
 PATRIOTISM versus PHILANTHROPY. 17 
 
 held to be the highest virtue. Great as was their 
 respect for him, I think all those present agreed 
 with his opponent. 
 
 During the last years of his life Burdett and 
 my father did not meet. The views of the 
 politician had changed, and he was no more the 
 ' man of the people,' held up by them as ' Eng- 
 land's pride and Westminster's glory.' But his 
 exceeding kindness of heart never altered, and 
 he was always ready to give to the needy 
 and deserving. About the year 1835 I joined 
 the committee of the Children's Friend Society 
 at the request of Lady Noel Byron. This 
 was in course of formation by the Hon. Amelia 
 Murray, the first maid of honour chosen by 
 the young Queen. I will tell more hereafter 
 of its objects and fate. At an early committee 
 Lady George Murray, at whose house in Green 
 Street we met, said she had heard or knew 
 that Sir Francis Burdett was very generous, 
 especially in charitable matters, but she did not 
 know him personally. Did anyone there know 
 him ? I said I had known him in former 
 times, and would ask him for a subscription. So 
 I left our prospectus with a line, saying that 
 Sophia Frend, whom he might remember as a 
 
 2
 
 1 8 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 child, was working in the cause of the vagrant 
 children — would Sir F. Burdett help us ? The 
 next post brought a cheque for £20. And I 
 could tell of cases in which his purse was ready 
 for the assistance, to a large amount, of friendless 
 young men, to whom an education would be pro- 
 vision for life. This munificence has been in- 
 herited, as we all know, by his daughter. 
 
 When I was about six years old I was taken 
 to see a balcony full of grand 'personages.' The 
 Allied Sovereigns met in London after the Pro- 
 clamation of Peace which followed the first victory 
 over Napoleon, and on the occasion of a grand 
 review in the Park, these royal and noble people 
 came out of a house and showed themselves to 
 the assembled multitude, who were ranged before 
 them in groups upon the grass. My father and 
 mother took me to see this sight, one feature of 
 which touched me specially, as any action of 
 young girls always interests those younger than 
 themselves. I do not know in whose house or at 
 what hotel the royal and noble lions were assem- 
 bled, but they came out of the window on to a 
 balcony, and bowed to the spectators. There was 
 the Emperor Alexander, a rather tall, pleasant- 
 looking man, in full uniform, covered with stars
 
 THE ALLIED SOVEREIGNS. 19 
 
 and garters, or stars and orders. His features 
 were not, I think, fine or classical, but his coun- 
 tenance was not bad, and at that time he was 
 a popular Sovereign. Then came the King of 
 Prussia and Marshal Blucher, the hard and grizzly- 
 soldier, whose approach with his Prussians decided 
 the victory over Napoleon at Waterloo. He 
 looked his character — a soldier, and only a soldier. 
 He was greatly admired and applauded ; but I 
 cannot help thinking that as time goes on, and 
 when our standard of worth has risen higher than 
 it is now — -far higher than it was then — we shall 
 admire the old ' hero ' and his likes as we should 
 a royal tiger or hyaena fighting for life. 
 
 The Duchess of Oldenburg had an infant son, 
 and the future soldier was brought out to see the 
 world in the arms of the young Princess Char- 
 lotte, whose intended husband, Prince Leopold of 
 Saxe-Coburg, afterwards King of the Belgians, 
 was also with her. Having a baby sister at home, 
 whom I sometimes was allowed to hold, I con- 
 sidered myself an expert, and as such regarded 
 the young nurse and her charge with a critical 
 eye. She showed it to the assembled multitude, 
 whose noisy welcome frightened it, and then she 
 kissed it, and folded it to her bosom, winning my
 
 20 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 childish heart and the hearts of many older and 
 wiser than myself. Well I remember the dark 
 winter day on which the news came that this dear 
 young Princess was taken, with her own little 
 baby, from the nation, and the wail of great 
 sorrow which arose from persons of all ages, and 
 from all sorts and conditions of men. 
 
 On the day when the show of heroes was seen, 
 Lord Wellington was not with the rest in the 
 balcony, for, if I am not mistaken, he was review- 
 ing the troops, who were to receive the thanks of 
 the Regent, in another part of the Park. Years 
 after that time I was heedlessly crossing a narrow 
 street that led into the Quadrant, when I found 
 myself close under a horse. The rider drew up 
 quickly, and quietly lifted his hat, and kindly 
 apologized for what was my fault. If the horse 
 had been less perfectly trained, or had had a less 
 perfect rider, I might have had a kick, or worse. 
 As it was, it was worth being startled to see the 
 Duke, and to hear him speak. 
 
 Many years after, I was acquainted with a lady 
 who had lived when a child with the Duke and 
 the Duchess. She told me he dearly loved 
 children, and would take her on his knee, and 
 tell her stories, and teach her little things. She
 
 THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON. 21 
 
 described his simple but hearty religion, not tinc- 
 tured by the Calvinism which surrounded him, 
 but a faith strengthened by the sense of duty 
 which pervaded his character, and made him in 
 his straightforward, soldierly way a hero. From 
 this lady I heard a comment of his on the text, 
 ' He went to visit the spirits in prison.' This he 
 thought should be read, 'the spirits under guard.' 
 It was a military version ; I do not know whether 
 a Greek scholar would sanction it. # 
 
 The Duke had the character of being fond of 
 children and helpless animals ; but he was stern 
 among men and equals. The two elements of 
 character are distinct and different. 
 
 It was more than eight years after the display 
 of royal and noble lions in the balcony that the 
 streets of London were the scene of another 
 
 The Duke was admired by Radicals as well as 
 Tories. In 1829, in a letter to Lady Noel Byron, Wm. 
 Frend wrote as follows : 
 
 ' I am delighted with all that I hear of the Duke of 
 Wellington. I was told the other day, that on a friend 
 mentioning to him the report then circulating of dis- 
 satisfaction in a certain quarter at his conduct, he 
 replied that he was perfectly at his ease, as his accounts 
 were made up every night before he went to bed, and 
 he was ready to quit at a moment's notice.' — Ed.
 
 22 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 unusual show. Oueen Caroline went to St. Paul's 
 to return thanks for her acquittal. We had a 
 window at a publisher's in Ludgate Hill, and a 
 good view of the heroine of the day. She was in 
 an open carriage — a landau, I think — with four 
 horses, and her friends and supporters followed in 
 their carriages. I have never on the occasion of 
 any procession heard anything like the noisy 
 plaudits of the people as they tried to approach 
 her. The mob was overwhelming in number, 
 but very peaceable. The Queen Consort sat, of 
 course, on the front seat, and her devoted friend, 
 Lady Ann Hamilton, opposite; but the former was 
 either very short or very rotund, for she seemed 
 to roll about, and, as she bowed constantly and 
 incessantly to her loyal subjects, we fancied her 
 feet did not touch the bottom of the carriage. 
 Her Majesty wore a sort of Mary Queen of Scots 
 bonnet, dipping down over the forehead, and 
 decorated with three ostrich feathers placed like 
 those in the Prince of Wales's plume. She was 
 very much painted, and dressed rather showily. 
 She must, however, have had the faculty of win- 
 ning love and loyalty. Her Solicitor-General, 
 Mr. Denman, to whose eloquence and acumen — 
 next only to that of Mr. Brougham — she owed her
 
 QUEEN CAROLINE AND HER CHAMPIONS. 23 
 
 acquittal, when the cause was won and his work 
 over, asked permission to kiss her Majesty's hand. 
 Had he been only a professional advocate, he 
 would not have shown his belief in this way in 
 the justice of her claim. 
 
 I remember a more absurd instance of loyalty 
 in a laundress. This devoted subject took her 
 baby to be christened. The clergyman asked for 
 the name, and was told ' Carolenia Regenia.' 
 
 'That's not a real name,' said he; 'think of 
 something- more suitable.' 
 
 'It is suitable,' said the mother. ' It's an 
 honour to my Queen, and an honour to my child 
 to be named after her.' So the clergyman had to 
 yield. 
 
 While writing this I hear descriptions of the 
 Jubilee thanksgiving of our present Queen, Vic- 
 toria. Her procession to Westminster Abbey, 
 surrounded by many sovereigns and by all the 
 nobles of the land, showed a peaceful contrast to 
 those who remembered the misguided but ill-fated 
 wife of George IV. 
 
 In my very early days, barley-sugar was in the 
 ascendant, and associated with the recollection of 
 it is the beaming, kind face of the founder of the 
 Hibbert Lectures, Mr. Robert Hibbert, who was
 
 24 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 a very old friend of my father's. He was fond of 
 children, and, having none of his own, did every- 
 thing in his power to spoil those of his friends, 
 giving them large supplies of figs, barley-sugar, 
 and sugar-candy. Mr. Hibbert was the owner — 
 partly by inheritance, partly by purchase — of 
 large estates in Jamaica. He had always been 
 anxious that the slaves should be treated with the 
 greatest kindness and humanity, and they felt that 
 his treatment was so much better than that of 
 most other planters, that they were proud of 
 belonging to the Georgia estate. Still, their con- 
 dition weighed upon the owner's mind, and, 
 though he was afraid of the effects of a sudden 
 emancipation, he thought their state might be 
 much improved. And he sent out as a resident 
 missionary a young Unitarian minister and his 
 wife, who were to teach, help, and befriend the 
 negroes, according to the best of their judgment, 
 on the Georgia estate. This gentleman, who had 
 expected to find no cruelties or abuses, was horri- 
 fied by witnessing — notwithstanding the strongly- 
 expressed desire of the owner — instances of 
 barbarity on the plantation such as Uncle Tom 
 has made known to us. 
 
 Neither the owner nor the missionary had
 
 MISSIONARY EXPERIMENTS. 25 
 
 reckoned on the dangers of educating the negro, 
 who, as soon as he could read and write, began, 
 as a matter of course, to try to obtain his free- 
 dom. There was, I think, another difficulty. 
 The superstitions of the poor blacks were ex- 
 pected to vanish before the light of an entirely 
 ' rational ' doctrine, but it was found impossible 
 to eradicate all these superstitions, for some of 
 them contain elements of vital reality, which a 
 few years after were modified and incorporated 
 into their religious teaching by the native leaders 
 of the abolition movement. The missionary 
 scheme, which cost much money and anxious 
 thought, was a failure. 
 
 Mr. Hibbert's name will be remembered as 
 that of the founder of the Hibbert Lectures, a 
 course given annually on learned antiquarian and 
 philological subjects. The expenses of these are 
 paid out of a sum of money left by him in trust 
 for a purpose expressed in his own words : ' The 
 fund to be called the Anti-Trinitarian Fund . . . 
 and to be applied for teaching the simplest form 
 of Christianity.' The Anti - Trinitarianism the 
 teaching of which the testator contemplated was 
 very simple. There arc shades and varieties of 
 this form of belief, but if he had been asked to
 
 26 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 repeat his creed he would probably have said, as I 
 heard old Baron Maseres do on his ninety-second 
 birthday, ' I believe in Thee, the only true God, 
 and in Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.' 
 
 There were scholarships endowed, and other 
 applications of the money, all of which would 
 have been strictly in harmony with the testator's 
 design. And the lectures given have been such 
 as to impart the most valuable knowledge in 
 the most interesting form ; but it is not easy 
 for one who knew Robert Hibbert well and 
 intimately, with the singleness of his aims and 
 the earnestness of his character, to reconcile the 
 substance of the lectures with the promulgation 
 of opinion which he contemplated. 
 
 Among those given have been : In 1880, by 
 M. Ernest Renan, 'On the Influence of the Insti- 
 tution, Thought, and Culture of Rome on the 
 Development of Christianity.' In 1879, by P. 
 Lepage Renouf, ' On the Origin and Growth of 
 Religion, as illustrated by the Religion of Ancient 
 Egypt.' In 1878, by Professor Max Miiller, 'On 
 the Origin and Growth of Religion, as illustrated 
 by the Religions of India.' 
 
 The circumstances of this bequest furnish 
 material for thought on the possibility of the
 
 THE HIBBERT LECTURES. 27 
 
 fulfilment by trustees of the intention of a legacy, 
 especially when the design has reference to 
 opinion. No two persons ever interpret the 
 words in which opinions are expressed in exactly 
 the same way, and as time goes on, the difficulty 
 increases, for ideas on the subject of opinion vary 
 from day to day, and the names of sects and 
 parties convey a different notion to a young 
 generation from that formed by their grand- 
 parents. 
 
 I was not long ago speaking of the inevitable 
 misapplication of Mr. Robert Hibbert's bequest 
 with a clergyman who was well able to appreciate 
 the use made of it, but whose own opinions I 
 believe to have been far more Agnostic than 
 those held by my old friend. After telling him 
 of Mr. Hibbert's simple, unmystical creed, I said : 
 
 ' How do you think he would like this contra- 
 vention of his wish ?' 
 
 'I think,' my friend said, 'that he would turn 
 n his grave.' 
 
 ' Perhaps,' I said, ' if he ever were in it.' 
 
 But I went on, and hope I was not alone in the 
 belief I expressed, that as the testator's range of 
 vision was probably now much wider than it had 
 been when he made his will, he would be satisfied
 
 28 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 by perceiving that his legacy, given to extend the 
 knowledge of the Gospel, would do so more cer- 
 tainly, if less directly, by making known the origins 
 of all those forms of religion which prepared the 
 world to receive it, than if the money had been 
 devoted to the repetition of arguments in support 
 of his own views. Whichever way we look at 
 the question, there is no doubt that a trust for 
 the promulgation of opinions is a difficult thing to 
 deal with. 
 
 The reference to old Baron Maseres reminds 
 me of a large circle of his friends and admirers, 
 for he was much respected and esteemed ; and as 
 he had many tales to tell of what happened before 
 the French Revolution of 'Sy, and was, moreover, 
 a learned scholar and a very able and sound- 
 thinking man, he became a sort of oracle, and his 
 sayings were quoted by his friends. Mr. Maseres's 
 grandfather had come over at the revocation of 
 the Edict of Nantes. I suppose his family had 
 been noble, or allied to noblesse, for after his death 
 one of his relations, named Whitaker, who in- 
 herited a small part of his wealth, tried to estab- 
 lish a claim to the marquisate of Rambouillet, but 
 was, of course, unsuccessful. 
 
 Maseres was the last Cursitor Baron of the
 
 BARON MASERES. 29 
 
 Exchequer, an office now abolished. I believe it 
 was almost a sinecure, but what the holder of it 
 had to do I never understood. The name sug- 
 gested cursing ; but that, we were told, was not 
 like Christians, and we heard the Baron spoken 
 of as a cxood Christian. He must have been 
 more than eighty when I first remember him. 
 He was courteous and polite, and probably did 
 not undervalue ranks and dignities, for, as Mr. 
 Cobbett tells, he had a visit from him in prison, 
 the visitor being clad in his robes and insignia of 
 office. 
 
 Baron Maseres had a house in the country and 
 one in London, but he preferred living in his old 
 chambers on the ground-floor in the King's Bench 
 Walk, Temple. Thither we were taken almost 
 every day by our nurses to get the key to the 
 Temple Gardens, which the Baron kindly lent 
 us. If I ever went to the house with my father 
 to see the old gentleman, I heard, with a good 
 deal of mathematics which I did not understand, 
 a good deal of literary gossip touching the cele- 
 brated men and women he had known. 
 
 Dr. Johnson was a contemporary, though older 
 by twenty - seven years than Maseres, whose 
 French blood and courteous manner made him
 
 30 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 unsympathetic with the leviathan's roughness. He, 
 as well as many other of my friends, had known 
 the learned Grecian, Dr. Parr, of whom, at the 
 beginning of this century, many stories were in 
 circulation, most of them touching the great 
 scholar's disregard of the usual proprieties and 
 amenities of life. The following was never 
 printed, and is hardly worth printing : Dr. Parr 
 went to visit a clergyman in the country, but 
 declined to preach for his host, and, of course, 
 was one of his hearers on Sunday, so this couplet 
 was written, perhaps by himself : 
 
 1 Here's a paradox exceeding all paradoxes far ; 
 Here's Parr below the preacher, and the preacher below par.' 
 
 Baron Maseres was really generous and liberal 
 in his estimate of women's learning, though he 
 certainly must have thought their powers very far 
 below those of men. I heard him express ad- 
 miration for a lady who had learnt Greek and 
 Latin — to some extent an unusual acquirement 
 then — and who pronounced Greek a fine lan- 
 guage, but Latin a very crabbed one. My father 
 introduced him to Miss Lousada, a Jewish lady of 
 great intellectual power. She was a mathema- 
 tician, and had translated Diophantus, and edited
 
 BARON MASERES AND MISS LOUSADA. 31 
 
 or annotated Mascheroni. She had written many 
 volumes of universal history, and would have 
 been at any time a very distinguished scholar, 
 not far second to Mrs. Somerville. She had, I 
 imagine, few opportunities of meeting persons 
 who could exchange ideas with her on scientific 
 subjects, and her much anticipated interview with 
 Maseres amazed my father and mother. The 
 two mathematicians plunged at once into deep 
 water, the entrance of my mother being so little 
 noticed that she left them to settle some disputed 
 question, and returned after half an hour to find 
 them just where they were. 
 
 Baron Maseres wrote an account of, or essay 
 on, ' Logarithmic Writers.' I suppose this was 
 not valuable, for a large number were sold for 
 waste-paper. 
 
 As we lived in Blackfriars* for a part of each 
 
 It must have been during his residence in Bridge 
 Street, Blackfriars, that my grandfather received the 
 following letter from Dr. E. D. Clarke, the traveller 
 and mineralogist, who was an old friend, and also had 
 been a pupil, of his. I print it here, together with my 
 father's notes on the same. The letter is without date, 
 but the post-mark is 1817, and the scene referred to 
 seems to have just taken place. Dr. Clarke was Uni-
 
 32 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 year until I was ten years old, the Temple 
 Gardens were a great resource to us. They 
 were not nearly so pleasant as they are now, 
 for many soot-begrimed houses have been re- 
 moved, fresh air has been let in, and the great 
 bank of mud which reached half across the river 
 
 versity Professor of Mineralogy at Cambridge from 
 1808 till shortly before his death in 1822. — Ed. 
 
 • My dear Sir, 
 
 ' I will attend most punctually to all you direct 
 to be done. Never was such a scene as that which 
 took place in my lecture - room. Present : D*ean 
 Milner, ci-devant Professor of Chemistry ; Dr. Wollas- 
 ton ; Professor Cumming, Professor of Chemistry ; 
 Mr. Holme, indefatigable chemist ; Ed. D. Clarke, 
 workman. The drama opened with Milner's taking off 
 his wig and putting on a nightcap. Dr. Wollaston 
 then put on also a nightcap, and thus armed, these 
 mighty leaders of the dispute sat down to discuss, or 
 rather to define, what each of them intended by the 
 word metal. About an hour passed before this could 
 be determined. Then I was permitted to exhibit the 
 supposed metal of Barytes. Milner swore that it was 
 as much a metal as iron ; Holmes agreed with Milner ; 
 Wollaston and Cumming both allowed it to be a 
 metallic body, but not a metal. Here I offered to 
 pause, because this was granting all that I have main- 
 tained. But Milner and Wollaston fell warmly into
 
 THE TEMPLE GARDENS. 33 
 
 has been turned into the Embankment ; the fine 
 show of flowers in the garden testifying to its 
 fertilizing quality. But as I first knew them, the 
 Temple Gardens were far better than streets or 
 squares. You could lie on the grass, looking at 
 the sky, and filling the blue with aerial cloud- 
 dispute. Milner filed the end of a file, saying he saw 
 no difference between my metal and the metal of the 
 file. Wollaston then rested upon his grand argument, 
 that my metal would not conduct electricity. An electro- 
 meter was brought, when Milner triumphantly proved 
 that my metal does conduct electricity. Thus driven 
 from every point, you would suppose that the London 
 philosopher ought to have made us the amende honor- 
 able, and acknowledged our victory ; but not a jot of 
 this. He returned to London as obstinate as ever, 
 confessing, however, that he had seen some things that 
 he did not before believe in nor expect to see. This 
 fine day I am going with my family to use the telescope 
 you so kindly gave us on the Castle Hill. 
 
 ' Very sincerely yours, 
 
 ' E. D. Clarke.' 
 
 Note by A. De Morgan on the above Letter. 
 
 A Question in the History of every Science. 
 
 ' " The fact . . . was established by ... in the 
 year ..." The blanks may be filled up in a hundred 
 ways. Those who look back to the very time will, 
 most probably, reduce the assertion to the fact that 
 
 3
 
 34 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 palaces and people ; or, if your imagination more 
 soberly kept on things of earth, you might listen 
 for echoes of the ghostly voices of Dr. Johnson, 
 and Boswell, and Oliver Goldsmith, talking, or 
 wrangling, on the seat under the old oak near 
 Paper Buildings. The tree was fresh and green 
 when I remember it, but it is quite dead now, 
 
 ... in the year . . . gave what ultimately turned 
 out to be the means of establishing . . . — or else 
 established a part and suspected the rest. There may 
 have been years of discussion, but the common practice 
 is to set down the finished knowledge as of the date at 
 which the investigator put the result in a way to 
 become certain. Those who carefully read the dis- 
 covery, who are not one in three of subsequent investi- 
 gators themselves, learn to know the dawn which pre- 
 cedes the full light. But those who are content with 
 history imagine that the knowledge came into sight as 
 rapidly as the tropical sunrise, which enabled the 
 Princess Scheherazade to stop in the middle of a 
 sentence with, " I see day." And it may happen that 
 even those who doubted come in course of time to 
 forget their own doubts, or to take them from a 
 different point of view. 
 
 1 Davy, it is said, discovered barium, the metallic 
 base of baryta, in the year 1808, by a process suggested 
 by Berzelius and Pontin. It is quite true that Davy, 
 in 1808, announced the decomposition of baryta ; but I 
 do not find that he announced the " globule " which he
 
 THE TEMPLE GARDENS, 35 
 
 though reverently enclosed with a railing, and 
 still known as 'Johnson's Oak.' 
 
 The church, too, with its dark nooks and 
 mysterious corners, furnished food for fancy, 
 though its condition was far from what it should 
 have been, seeing what a venerable relic it really 
 was. It is much more beautiful now, with its 
 
 had obtained to be a metal. If he did, the discovery 
 was not admitted ; there were years of doubt. Dr. E. 
 D. Clarke, in 1817, effected the decomposition by the 
 blow-pipe. 
 
 ' In 1854 I sent a copy of this letter to the late Prof, 
 dimming for his amusement. It is but fair to give 
 his answer : 
 
 ' " I have distinct recollection of the lecture-room 
 scene, and have often mentioned it as one of the most 
 amusing I ever witnessed. Dr. Clarke's description is 
 somewhat poetical, as everyone who knew him might 
 expect ; Wollaston's wig, for instance " (but this is a 
 misapprehension ; it is only Milner who is represented 
 as taking off a wig. Prof. Cumming seems to admit the 
 nightcaps) ; " and I have no remembrance of the 
 electrometer. As perhaps you do not know the occa- 
 sion of this meeting of Wollaston and Milner, I may as 
 well tell it. In the course of Clarke's experiments with 
 the oxy-hydrogen blow-pipe, he persuaded himself that 
 he had reduced the metal barium from the nitrate 
 of barytes ; he certainly fused it, and the globule, when 
 filed, had the metallic lustre. In this Wollaston and I
 
 36 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 Devonshire marble columns and basilica - like 
 interior, and the effigies of the Crusaders re- 
 posing in good case in the nave, instead of 
 lying, as I remember them, in the coarse long 
 grass, most of them without their heads. But the 
 
 agree, but how we could have called it a metallic body 
 and denied it to be a metal I do not understand. I 
 did not think much at the time of Milner allowing it to 
 be a metal, for it was evident to me that he did it 
 merely for an argument with Wollaston. These ex- 
 periments excited a good deal of interest in the London 
 chemists, who repeated them unsuccessfully, and, I 
 think, not fairly ; for Clarke operated with the hydro- 
 gen in excess, which they did not. Theoretically I see 
 no improbability in the reduction of barium by intense 
 heat in an atmosphere of hydrogen. If you have any 
 curiosity on the subject, you will find the details of 
 Clarke's experiments in the Annals of Philosophy." ' 
 
 Eighteen years before this date Dr. E. D. Clarke 
 had undertaken the scientific journey to the North, 
 during which he made his celebrated collections. His 
 speedy departure was announced to my grandfather in 
 the following letter. — Ed. 
 
 ' My dear Sir, 
 
 ' I should have been employed at this moment 
 in writing to you, but for an unfortunate accident 
 which befell me in visiting the cutter on board of which 
 we are to sail to-morrow. I thank you sincerely for
 
 THE T.EMPLE CHURCH BEFORE RESTORATION. 37 
 
 mystery of the place is gone ; it is the price paid 
 for trimness and restoration. One cannot fancy 
 Brian de Bois Guilbert doing penance for his 
 many sins in the Temple Church ; but he might 
 
 your kind offer. Our tour is calculated to comprehend 
 all the shores of the Baltic Sea, including the Gulf of 
 Bothnia, etc., together with the towns and cities which 
 are situated either upon them, or in their immediate 
 neighbourhood. If you will have the kindness to direct 
 any letters " A la Poste Restante, Stockholm," we shall 
 receive them after we return from the North Pole. It 
 is my full determination not to quit those frozen 
 regions without having penetrated within the Arctic 
 Circle. I wish you health and happiness. Mr. Cripps, 
 my pupil, is so good as to perform the office of an 
 amanuensis. Malthus* and Ottert particularly desire 
 to be remembered to you. Vive l'enterprise ! Adieu. 
 
 ' Your sincere friend, 
 
 ' Ed. Dan Clarke. 
 
 ' P.S. — I forgot to add the nature of my accident. 
 My ankle is violently sprained, and the pain prevents 
 my writing.' 
 
 ' I am sorry I did not see you in town. I called 
 two or three times since I saw you without finding you 
 at home. — R. Malthus.' 
 
 * The writer on population, who accompanied Dr. Clarke on 
 part of his journey. 
 
 t Afterwards Bishop of Chichester. 
 
 i tj o
 
 38 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 have done so as long as it remained in its original 
 state, for the Templars moved in in 1185, leaving 
 their old habitation near Southampton Buildings, 
 Chancery Lane. Was this the beautiful old inn 
 which was pulled down a few years ago ?
 
 [ 39] 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Godfrey Higgins — Lunatic Asylums and their Reform — Stoke 
 Newington — Freemasonry — John Landseer — Sabaean 
 Researches — John Bellamy — Thomas Taylor the Platonist 
 — William Blake — S. T. Coleridge. 
 
 One of my pleasantest recollections is of Godfrey 
 Higgins, the honest and persevering antiquary, 
 and most sanguine and bold of hobby-riders. 
 
 He had not applied himself to antiquarian 
 research when I first saw him. My sister and I 
 were then very young, perhaps eight or ten years 
 old. Mr. Higgins was under forty, and had a 
 wife and two charming daughters. When I first 
 saw him he was full of a visit to Italy, where he 
 had found many curious things which he could 
 not at that time account for. But it was not 
 until after the death of his wife and one daughter, 
 and the marriage of the other, that he became 
 entirely absorbed in those investigations which 
 have made him known as the author of The 
 Celtic Druicls and Anacalypsis.
 
 40 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 He deserves a notice, however, for works more 
 directly practical than these revelations and 
 theories. One incident which I heard him relate 
 to my father and mother is worthy to be re- 
 corded. 
 
 Mr. Higgins had been at Trinity Hall, Cam- 
 bridge, was a major in the militia of the North 
 Riding of Yorkshire, and the owner of a delight- 
 ful place called Skellow Grange, near Doncaster. 
 It was in his capacity of Justice of the Peace that 
 he was able to assist in effecting the good work 
 described below. 
 
 There were two asylums for the insane at 
 York. One of these, founded in 1792 by William 
 Tuke, was becoming celebrated as the Retreat. 
 The other, the York Lunatic Asylum, was in a 
 very bad condition, and suspicions had been raised 
 as to its state by the founder of the Retreat, and 
 some of his family. Through their appeals in the 
 newspapers, Mr. Higgins became aware of what 
 was probably going on, and felt that a more com- 
 plete scrutiny was required than had hitherto been 
 made in the official visits of the magistrates. 
 During these visits everything had been made to 
 look as clean and neat as possible. 
 
 In those days very few persons were enlightened
 
 THE TREATMENT OF THE INSANE. 41 
 
 on the treatment of the insane, and very few had 
 an idea either what asylums were, or what they 
 ought to be. The visitors were withheld from a 
 thorough examination of the whole building by 
 being told that the inmates were dangerous, and 
 the visits ended with mutual satisfaction on the 
 part of the managers and visiting magistrates. 
 But, after what Mr. Higgins had heard, he was 
 determined that his next visit should not be a 
 superficial one. When he visited the Asylum for 
 the purpose of making a thorough investigation, 
 Mr. Samuel Tuke and other gentlemen were 
 appointed to join in the inquiry. They found 
 the usual apparent cleanliness in some of the best 
 wards, but other wards were dirty, and the visitors 
 were convinced that some parts of the building 
 were hidden from their inspection. 
 
 On one of these visits of inquiry Mr. Higgins 
 said he should like to see the kitchen. The 
 party went to it, and found all clean and well 
 arranged. 
 
 ' What is this door ?' said the troublesome 
 visitor, pointing to one in the basement, which 
 showed no means of admission. 
 
 ' It leads only to an unused cellar, in which 
 lumber has been stowed away.'
 
 42 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 ' Let us have it open,' said the visitor, and the 
 keeper was told to bring the key. 
 
 This could not be found, and the door was said 
 not to have been opened for years. Then Mr. 
 Higgins, saying he would soon find a key, went 
 into the kitchen and brought out the poker. On 
 this the keeper produced the key, the door was 
 opened, and the party went in. It was no cellar 
 for lumber, but contained a row of cells quite 
 dark, and giving out a horrible smell. These 
 cells were occupied at night by thirteen women. 
 
 The date of this occurrence was about i§i3. 
 The whole condition of the Asylum was examined 
 and exposed, and the humane system pursued at 
 the York Retreat came more prominently into 
 notice when contrasted with it. 
 
 The state of Bethlehem Hospital was found to 
 be much like that of the York Asylum. The 
 whole was brought before Parliament ; but Com- 
 mittees work slowly, and there was not much 
 legislation until the year 1827, when Mr. Gordon 
 moved for leave to bring in a Bill on the subject. 
 His efforts, seconded by those of Lord Ashley, 
 afterwards Lord Shaftesbury, were in some degree 
 successful ; but many abuses went on, less in some 
 places than in others, until Lord Ashley succeeded
 
 THE REFORM OF LUNATIC ASYLUMS. 43 
 
 in procuring an investigation of the state of Lunatic 
 Asylums and the treatment of the insane through- 
 out the country. His great Bill passed in 1845. 
 
 Many of us have an idea of what Hanwell and 
 Bethlehem Asylums are now, but few know or 
 have ever heard what efforts have been needed to 
 bring them to their present state. Mr. and Mrs. 
 (afterwards Sir William and Lady) Ellis had been 
 friends of Godfrey Higgins and of Mr. S. Tuke, 
 by whom they had been placed at Wakefield 
 Asylum, and afterwards were appointed to the 
 direction of Hanwell Asylum, which soon bore 
 witness to the admirable treatment employed.* 
 
 When I was about twenty years old, and we 
 were living at Stoke Newington, in the ancient 
 house where Daniel Defoe had lived, and some- 
 times, I believe, hid himself from political pur- 
 suers, Mr. Higgins became our frequent visitor. 
 He had been travelling, chiefly in Italy, and had 
 amassed an immense quantity of knowledge of a 
 rather miscellaneous character, which, when given 
 out to superficial hearers, seemed to resolve itself 
 into a general hatred and mistrust of priests, and 
 
 * For a full account of all these reforms see Chapters on Hie 
 Insane in the British Is/es, by Dr. D. Hack Tuke. Kegan Paul 
 and Co., London.
 
 44 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 a suspicion of the existence of relics of ancient 
 mysteries in every old crypt and behind every old 
 altar, ready to be brought out as occasion offered, 
 in Canterbury Cathedral or Westminster Abbey. 
 But his learning, though crude and miscellaneous, 
 was real, strong material for subsequent explorers. 
 He collected the geographical and astronomical 
 facts, which showed that the cairns and mono- 
 liths of the East symbolized the same ideas in 
 India as they did in Ireland and Wales, and in 
 every place where the Sun, the universal symbol, 
 has been reverenced as the earthly representative 
 of Heavenly Power. Other explorers were already 
 on the same track. Not to mention the steady 
 translators, such as Anquetel Duperron and Sir 
 William Jones, Sir W. Drummond, Dupuis, and 
 others, were discovering the germs of ancient 
 religions mingled with Sun - worship in India, 
 Persia, and Egypt ; but the psychical truths which 
 the older nations had formulated into a real re- 
 ligion were forgotten, and the symbolic forms 
 under which principles were represented were 
 supposed to be themselves the objects of worship. 
 The early antiquaries having settled that every- 
 thing was reducible to the worship of the Sun and 
 Stars, pronounced that the ' Secrets ' and ' Mys-
 
 GODFREY HIGGINS. 45 
 
 teries ' of the religion were — at least, so far as 
 there was anything valuable in them — only scien- 
 tific, chiefly astronomical, knowledge. All the 
 phenomena described by Herodotus as appearing 
 in the Oracles, and by Plato, Iamblichus, and 
 others, as occurring in the Eleusinian and other 
 Mysteries, were set down to fraud and covetous- 
 ness on the part of the priests, and credulity and 
 superstition on that of the people. My dear old 
 friend, whose belief was that, in order to profit by 
 this ignorance, secrecy and exclusion were main- 
 tained, was not aware that the secrets kept by the 
 priests were absolutely such as could not be gener- 
 ally divulged without the greatest danger to health 
 and sanity. The Psychical Research Society will 
 perhaps discover this if they persevere in their 
 experiments. He also had an idea that these 
 'priests, the curse of the world,' had transmitted 
 their ' secret system ' through the clergy of all 
 times and nations, and that in the Chapter House 
 at York, as well as in the College of Cardinals, 
 might be found numbers of clericals who could 
 explain why the stones at Stonehenge, the Pyra- 
 mids, and the Fire-towers of Ireland, were placed 
 as they are with reference to the sun's course ; 
 why the Devil's Arrows, near Bowbridge, were as
 
 46 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 many feet below the ground as they were above 
 it ; and why the painted signs of the Zodiac are, 
 or were, to be found in Becket's Crown in Canter- 
 bury Cathedral and behind the Papal Chair in the 
 Vatican. All this was probably inseparable from 
 the first impressions made by newly-discovered 
 resemblances and analogies on one who, with his 
 love of the mysterious, and ignorance of the mys- 
 tical, was one of the typical men — the Cyclopeans 
 — whose work it was to bring together the stones 
 of that bridge which should connect the religions 
 of the past with those of the present. 
 
 In the course of his inquiries, Mr. Higgins 
 found many of the marks and symbols which he 
 knew to be used by Freemasons engraved or 
 inscribed on the walls of old Indian Temples, as 
 well as on the oldest Round Towers, and walls of 
 churches. He suspected, with truth, that the Free- 
 masons had the ' secret system ' somehow or other 
 hid away in their Lodges, and he learnt the origin 
 and meaning of the ceremonies of the craft, before 
 he became a ' Free and Accepted Mason.' But I 
 believe he held it all, or almost all, to be Sun- 
 worship, and in this he followed Richard Carlile, 
 the infidel publisher, who believed the whole, 
 with what it had of Eastern mythology, to be a 
 mythical symbolism in Astronomical form, and that
 
 HIS ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES. 47 
 
 neither the Temple of Jerusalem, King Solomon, 
 nor Hiram Abiff, had any historical foundation. 
 
 All that Mr. Higgins discovered — or, rather, 
 all that he held valuable — he embodied in his 
 two large quarto volumes entitled Anacafypsis, 
 or, the Saitic Veil of I sis removed. He died 
 before the second volume was published ; but 
 some years before this time, and when much of 
 the work was in manuscript, I (being about 
 twenty-two years old) went with my father and 
 mother to spend a few days at Skellow Grange. 
 I had before had great pleasure in hearing him 
 tell of the facts which one after another he had 
 elicited from old books and documents, and 1 
 sometimes kept references for him to any scrap 
 of ancient learning which I met with in my 
 father's (then) good collection of curious old books. 
 My reading was not like that of the young ladies 
 of my time, and I often shrank humiliated before 
 the well-formulated rules of grammar and well- 
 chosen extracts with which my companions were 
 familiar. But I was able to take great delight in 
 Mr. Higgins' researches, and at that time im- 
 plicitly believed in all his conclusions. I have 
 since learnt that the ' Sun-worship ' to which he 
 and many antiquaries have relegated all the 
 mysteries of old religions, was in many of its
 
 4 8 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 parts only a system of symbols embracing and 
 concealing spiritual knowledge.* 
 
 About the time when the Anacalypsis was 
 finished, during the visit referred to, we took a 
 walk from Skellow Grange to a place called 
 Askern or Askeron, an incipient Harrogate, com- 
 memorated by Mr. Henry Chorley in this stanza, 
 which I give, with apologies for plain speaking, as 
 it was given to me : 
 
 ' Passing close to Askeron, 
 Was asked what I thought thereon, 
 Quoth I, judging from the stink, 
 " We can't be far from hell, I think." ' 
 
 * The following letters are characteristic of the 
 writer, who believed that his discoveries were of more 
 importance than proved to be the case. — Ed. 
 
 From Godfrey Higgins to William Frend. 
 
 ' Skellow Grange, 
 
 '■September 19, 1829. 
 ' Dear Frend, 
 
 ' I find my " Mohamed " is likely to be taken 
 up by the priests in some way or other, besides the 
 press, and I want your advice and assistance. I sent 
 a copy of it to Mr. De Morgan, with a request that 
 he would present it to the London University. Now 
 I am afraid that this should place it in a disagree- 
 able situation, for I do not believe the managers of that 
 institution would wish to affront me by refusing it, and
 
 FREEMASONRY. 49 
 
 Certainly the atmosphere in the wells savoured 
 of Dante's Inferno. 
 
 But during that pleasant walk my companion, 
 helping me over ditches and across ploughed 
 fields, talked earnestly of the work just completed, 
 which I promised to read in manuscript. He 
 explained what he believed he had discovered of 
 the principles and origin of Freemasonry, which, 
 however, contains only a vitiated remnant of the 
 1 Great System ' which prevailed in Asia in the 
 earliest times, and wherever the first immigrants 
 settled in Europe, bringing with them their astro- 
 nomical knowledge and mystical rites. 
 
 I fear that if they should thank me for it, they should 
 lay themselves open to attacks from their enemies, 
 which I should very much regret. On these accounts 
 I would wish to withdraw the present, if it could be 
 done, and I shall be very much obliged to you to call 
 on Mr. De Morgan, and to talk confidentially with him 
 on the subject, and to do in it for me whatever you 
 think most expedient. 
 
 ' Believe me, yours very truly, 
 
 ' Godfrey Higgins. 
 
 ' P.S. — You will see the letter on the other side may 
 be torn off and given to Mr. De Morgan, if you think it 
 expedient. I am exactly in the same situation with 
 the Asiatic Society, and I should wish you, if it be not 
 requesting too much of you, to speak to Mr. Hutman 
 
 4
 
 50 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 ' Now,' he added, ' mind you do not forget 
 anything I have told you. I am going to be 
 made a Freemason ; then I shall show the Duke 
 of Sussex all I have written. It is all in my 
 book, and I do not expect to learn anything more 
 in the Lodge. If the Duke thinks my becoming a 
 Templar will prevent my publishing what I now 
 know, I shall not become one. But mind you 
 remember all I have told you.' 
 
 I read the manuscript, and noticed a few under- 
 lined sentences, all of which referred to what he 
 had said to me. These will almost all be found 
 in the second volume of the Anacalypsis. The 
 
 about it ; for I know from Hutman that the Society is 
 considered with some suspicion by the orthodox. You 
 will see that I have placed these Societies in rather an 
 awkward situation. If you talk confidentially with Mr. 
 Hutman, you will be able to judge what is best to be 
 done, or if anything be necessary to be done. He will 
 know the nature of the committee, and whether, with- 
 out compromising me or himself in any way, he can dis- 
 cuss the matter with them, or whether it be necessary 
 to state the matter at all to them. Suppose he could 
 delay delivering them till I see how my opponents pro- 
 ceed. I know that they have failed in their first attempt. 
 Probably, if they do nothing, it will pass, and no notice 
 be taken more than of any other book presented to them. 
 Suppose before you open the business to Hutman you
 
 FREEMASONRY. 51 
 
 author was admitted into the Duke of Sussex's 
 Lodge — the oldest, I think — and went speedily- 
 through the three degrees and that of Royal Arch. 
 When I next saw him in London I asked 
 whether he could tell me anything new. He 
 put his fingers on his lips, looking very full of 
 fun, and said : ' Mum's the word ; but I have 
 nothing to tell.' So I knew that he had learnt 
 nothing new connected with the valuable ancient 
 realities of Freemasonry ; and such information as 
 could be got from manuals, etc., he had before. 
 I afterwards found the references mentioned 
 
 ask him if he have received the copies, and what he has 
 done with them. But in everything use your own dis- 
 cretion, doing anything or doing nothing. 
 
 ' Yours truly, 
 
 'G. H.' 
 
 'Skellow Grange, 
 ' Dear Frend, 'April, 1832. 
 
 ' As I can get a frank, I write to ask you a 
 question. I have just got sight of Whiston's theory of 
 the earth, and to my very great surprise he advocates 
 some doctrines respecting the deluge, and accounts for 
 some effects in a way which exactly squares with some 
 theories of mine. In short, he and I, travelling by 
 roads as different as possible, arrive at the same end. 
 He goes East, I go West, and we meet in the middle. 
 Now, what I want you to tell me is if you know
 
 52 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 printed in italics in the Anacalypsis ; and many 
 years after, when I inquired at Reeves and 
 Turner's for something better than the manuals, 
 I was referred to this book, which I was told was 
 very scarce, but which contained everything that 
 could be learnt on the origin and nature of the 
 ' Craft.' This was true at that time, but recent 
 histories of Zoroaster, and treatises on his doc- 
 trines and on the Persian religion generally, 
 contain many additions to the knowledge of 
 Freemasonry, easily found by those who know 
 its mystical element and where to look for it.' 
 
 whether any person ever attempted to refute Whiston's 
 theory of the destruction of the world by a comet, and 
 also his theory that the year by that event was length- 
 ened from 360 to 365 days. My object is solely con- 
 lined to these points, for there are innumerable matters 
 in his writings where I do not agree with him. He 
 professes to prove these assertions, not only by ancient 
 history, but by mathematical demonstration. I sup- 
 pose his astronomical and chronological calculations 
 must have been examined by hundreds of persons, and 
 their truth or falsity very well established. Or has the 
 nonsense with which they are accompanied caused the 
 whole to be treated with contempt ? I beg to be most 
 kindly remembered to Mrs. and the Miss F.'s. 
 
 ' Yours very truly, 
 
 'Godfrey Higgins.'
 
 FREEMASONRY. 53 
 
 The Duke of Sussex used to say that Godfrey 
 Higgins, Richard Carlile, and he himself, were 
 the only persons who knew anything of the 
 matter. But a prophet has no honour in his own 
 family, and I heard, many years ago, that, after 
 the last of Mr. Higgins' immediate family was 
 gone, some more distant relations who came into 
 the possession of Skellow Grange found a number 
 of copies of the Anacalypsis in sheets, and, 
 being alarmed by their anti - clerical and un- 
 orthodox character, burnt them all.* 
 
 The next person whom I remember as having 
 been our visitor when I was very young indeed, 
 and continuing his acquaintance after my marriage 
 
 * Apparently Mr. Higgins had at one time some in- 
 tention of going into Parliament, as in 1832 the follow- 
 ing was written by William Frend to A. De Morgan. 
 — Ed. 
 
 ' I have had another letter from Higgins, who is 
 going forward rapidly with his work, in which are 
 many wonderful discoveries. I think it is not at all 
 improbable that he will be in the next Parliament, but 
 he keeps to his resolution not to pay for a seat, and 
 to be, if he is elected, the legislatorial attorney (his own 
 words) of his constituents. This is better than any 
 pledges, for the two parties will be properly connected 
 together. If they desire him to do what he dislikes, he 
 will then resign his attorneyship.'
 
 5+ MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 in 1837, was Mr. John Landseer, the father of 
 Sir Edwin Landseer, the immortal animal-painter. 
 Mr. Landseer was an antiquary, and was also 
 engraver to the King, and in both capacities he 
 was, early in this century, interested in, and able 
 to examine, the sculptured fragments then begin- 
 ning- to be collected from the ruined Cities of the 
 Plain. Like Mr. Higgins, he found sermons in 
 stones ; but while those in which the unveiler of 
 I sis sought his discourses were the Cyclopean 
 monuments of the Druids and their related wor- 
 ships, Mr. Landseer drew a great deal of Biblical 
 knowledge from the small and beautifully-graven 
 cylinders known as the ' Babylonish gems,' found 
 in large numbers in the remains of Babylon, 
 Nineveh, and Persepolis. These are familiar to 
 us all now, but seventy years ago people looked 
 with wonder and reverence upon the little rollers 
 of jasper, haematite, jade, chalcedony, or cor- 
 nelian, which were perforated longitudinally and 
 finely engraved after the manner of a seal, with 
 the images of Assyrian and Chaldean deities, 
 kings, and priests, constellations and arrow-headed 
 characters, like those on the Nineveh marbles in 
 the British Museum. These relics had been 
 recognised as intended to be strung, and probably
 
 JOHN LANDSEER AND SAB^AN RESEARCHES. 55 
 
 worn by the owner ; but they were then generally 
 and rather vaguely supposed to be amulets or 
 charms. Mr. Landseer showed by rolling them 
 on some soft substance — I think plaster of Paris 
 — how they were used, and that they were seals 
 or signets. And he greatly rejoiced in setting 
 forth how Joseph's signet, hidden in Benjamin's 
 sack, and others mentioned in the Old Testa- 
 ment, was a cylinder of this kind. They might 
 possibly also be amulets. They certainly were 
 often engraved so as to show the nativity of the 
 owner ; and, as might be expected in a country 
 where all the educated men were priests, and all 
 the priests astronomers, both the intaglio engrav- 
 ings and the bas-reliefs were historical documents 
 as well as religious monuments. Mr. Landseer 
 embodied his ideas on these cylinders in a series 
 of lectures first given to the Royal Society, and 
 afterwards condensed into essays under the title 
 of Sabcean Researches. His extreme deafness 
 made conversation with him difficult, and he was, 
 like other hobby-riders, very unwilling to listen 
 to differences of opinion, so I believe my father 
 soon gave up trying to change some of his views 
 on the precession of the equinoxes and the mean- 
 ing of certain Hebrew words. I do not know
 
 56 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 which of these early students came nearest to the 
 facts now established, but if the interpreter of the 
 signets was slightly dogmatical, his monologue 
 was always interesting. He would occasionally 
 ask me to write out a Hebrew text for him. 
 The last one, I think, had reference to the stars 
 mentioned in Job, and another one described 
 Sennacherib and his march. 
 
 Many years after the publication of the Sabcean 
 Researches the author brought to our house in 
 London, and lectured on, a large slab from a 
 rocky pass in Syria, the sculptured figures .on 
 which he thought represented one of the Assyrian 
 leaders named in Scripture. On this occasion 
 Mr. Joseph Bonomi accompanied him. Years 
 after this time I recognised my old friend 
 the tablet in the Soane Museum, of which 
 Mr. Bonomi was then curator or manager. 
 Thougfh the stones of the ruined cities have 
 given us many sermons since that first decipher- 
 ing, some of their legends are still, I believe, 
 hidden in myth. Among the fragments of the 
 great Nineveh Library, translated with such won- 
 derful ability by Mr. George Smith, are several 
 ' Records of the Past ' which treat of the doings of 
 the Gods, the Creation, the Deluge, etc. May I
 
 THE CHALDEAN ACCOUNT OF THE DELUGE. 57 
 
 suggest a possible meaning for the last-named of 
 these ? It came to my mind about eight years ago. 
 Though the sound of the letters is not known, 
 and only their values could be given, yet, seeing 
 that they must be in a Chaldean dialect resem- 
 bling, if not quite the same as Hebrew, I thought 
 something might be gathered from getting the 
 Hebrew meaning of the roots of the proper 
 names, of which so many occur in this curious 
 story. So I found, or thought I found, in the 
 account of the flood, Sisits* consultation of 
 Isdubar (whose name certainly implies an em- 
 bodiment of the Word,f and who had attained 
 to a life among the Gods), his building the Ark 
 and filling it with living creatures (typical of sen- 
 sations and feelings), his steering safely through 
 the storm of evil powers, and his resting at length 
 upon Mount Nazar,\ where he built an altar and 
 cast away all bad thoughts (typified by birds), 
 sending the Dove, the Holy One, heavenward — 
 all these and a good many other features of the 
 story § seemed to show that it was a myth of the 
 
 * The ladder, the ascender, 
 t Isdubar. Debar is the Hebrew for ' Word.' 
 \ Purification or separation, whence Nazarite. 
 § The name of the ferryman, Ubara/u/i/, who takes 
 passengers across to the place where the immortals dwell,
 
 58 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 soul in its passage through life, its encounter 
 with temptations and troubles, its victory and 
 purification, and at length its reception of the 
 Spirit (the wife), after which it has achieved a 
 place among the Gods (immortality). 
 
 I took courage, and told all this suggested 
 explanation to Mr. Bonomi, a year before his 
 death. He was pleased with it, reminding me 
 that many religionists saw the same meaning in 
 the Exodus from Egypt ; and that the labours 
 of Hercules, thought by some scholars to be 
 depicted in the Zodiac, had been said to have 
 features in common with the Chaldean narrative, 
 and to set forth a similar myth of the soul. We 
 may also possibly find an interpretation of Noah's 
 Ark, and the ship Argos, and the Golden Fleece, 
 may acquire an unsuspected but profound mean- 
 ing. Mr. Bonomi begged me to embody my 
 ideas on these myths of ancient nations in a 
 paper which he would read to the Archaeological 
 Society. I would have tried to do this, but he 
 died shortly after I saw him. 
 
 To return to Mr. Landseer and his early specu- 
 lations. He occasionally met at our house John 
 
 suggests Taute, Thoth, or Hermes (Mercury). Is not Ubara- 
 tutu the leader of souls over the boundary?
 
 A TRANSLATOR OF THE BIBLE. 59 
 
 Bellamy, who deserves a passing word. Having 
 been an uneducated working man, he had, by 
 dint of indefatigable industry and in the face of 
 many difficulties, mastered enough of the Hebrew 
 language to translate several books of the Bible. 
 It is true that the translation was deficient in 
 almost all that would have been supplied by a 
 more idiomatic knowledge of the language and 
 an acquaintance with the researches of others. 
 Still, the work was undertaken at a time when 
 little attention was paid to archaeology and 
 philology, and, all things considered, Mr. Bel- 
 lamy was certainly a learned Hebraist, and was 
 esteemed and helped by several scholarly men, 
 who thought his translation might contain some 
 valuable readings. My father, who was after- 
 wards trustee for the Tyrwhitt Scholarship at 
 Cambridge, lost no opportunity of promoting any 
 effort which might possibly throw light on ancient 
 scriptures, and carefully went through the first 
 sheets with the translator.* 
 
 * The following letter from William Frend to Lady 
 Noel Byron expresses his interest in the Hebrew 
 language and religion. What the enclosure referred to 
 was I have been unable to ascertain, but it must have 
 reference to a supposed outbreak of incendiarism by
 
 60 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 I remember a few discussions between Mr. 
 Bellamy and Mr. Landseer, hot and strong, for 
 the Antiquary was deaf and the Hebraist posi- 
 tive — so positive, indeed, that he sometimes 
 startled us all by knocking his hand violently 
 on the table and denouncing all former translators 
 of the Bible as ' Fools ! Blockheads ! Asses !' for 
 believing that the ' sacered writer ' could be 
 guilty of the blasphemy of saying that Balaam's 
 ass spoke, and for other crimes of criticism. My 
 mother, who remembered John Wesley's visiting 
 her grandfather, Archdeacon Blackburne, with 
 whom she had lived, said that Mr. Bellamy in 
 
 Polish Jews. The entire letter is given, as, although 
 
 the latter part has reference to other matters, it may be 
 
 found of interest. — Ed. 
 
 1 Stoke Newington, 
 
 '1830. 
 ' My dear Lady Byron, 
 
 ' The enclosed confirms my opinion. Many 
 books that you see in Hebrew characters are not 
 written in the Hebrew language, but in that of the 
 country where they were printed — German, Polish, 
 Turkish, etc. A parchment found on the downs of 
 Cumberland once puzzled the learned, and after all it 
 turned out to be merely a magic square, probably 
 written by a Jew pedlar for his amusement. I do not 
 blame, however, in these times the apprehensions of the
 
 BIBLICAL CRITICISM. 61 
 
 appearance reminded her forcibly of that good 
 man ; but he was more combative, and less 
 devout and benignant. My mother told how, 
 when she was a little girl, John Wesley had laid 
 his hand on her head and given her his blessing. 
 
 My very early recollections are chiefly of pecu- 
 liar people, men who had a leading thought or 
 special study. Many of these were self-taught, 
 and, so far, unlike the cultivated scholars who are 
 now engaged in showing the mysteries of the 
 Old — or, as we ought rather to say, the Young — 
 World. One noteworthy specimen of a powerful 
 mind absorbed in a leading study, whom to desig- 
 
 turnpike people, but you may be sure of this, that, of 
 all people in the world, the Jews are the least likely to 
 be concerned with our conflagrations. My interpreter 
 is a very learned Jew, and if it falls in your way to 
 recommend a Hebrew teacher to anyone, I beg you to 
 remember him. I look upon it as a very great ad- 
 vantage of my early life that I came to town in one 
 summer vacation on purpose to learn Hebrew. This 
 led me to an acquaintance with the nation. I have 
 dined in its booths on the Feast of Tabernacles, have 
 several times taken the Pascal Supper — which, by the 
 way, explains the New Testament better than all the 
 commentary on the Lord's Supper — have spent hours 
 upon hours in the synagogue on the days of the great 
 atonement, have heard the Hosannahs repeatedly there :
 
 6z MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 nate a hobby-rider would be to misapply terms, 
 was Thomas Taylor, the Platonist. 
 
 He called on my father, and was sometimes 
 accosted with ' Welcome, Jupiter Olympius !' 
 The conversation that ensued was earnest and 
 energetic, especially on the side of the Greek 
 philosopher. Years after this when I read, and 
 thought I understood, Iamblichus and Plotinus, 
 translated by Mr. Taylor, I wished his dis- 
 cussions and arguments with my father had 
 been held when I could have understood and 
 profited by them. We are now beginning to see 
 that as profound a symbolism, setting forth 
 
 and the fruit of all this is that I think I see rather 
 more clearly into the meaning of the prophet Ezekiel, 
 chap, xxxvii., and of Rev. xv. 3 and xxi. 12, than the 
 generality of my countrymen ; and, though the madness 
 of the people should render England a scene of desola- 
 tion, yet my last words will, I hope, be like those of 
 Habakkuk iii. 17. 
 
 ' What a strange letter this is to a lady of high rank, 
 and what a laughter would be excited if it were read in 
 the two houses ! Such uncouth names as Ezekiel and 
 Habakkuk would by themselves be enough to excite 
 universal derision, yet in spite of the laughers I shall 
 still maintain my opinion that from the volume from 
 which my quotations are taken, and from that alone, 
 can be derived those sound maxims by which the
 
 THOMAS TAYLOR THE PLATONIST. 63 
 
 psychical and even religious truth, underlies the 
 myths of gods and goddesses, and the mysteries 
 of the Greek worship at its different periods, as 
 has been brought to light in the mythologies of 
 India and Egypt. The scholarship of 'Jupiter 
 Olympius ' is acknowledged, but perhaps we 
 hardly yet know how far the old Platonist looked 
 beyond the learning of his time. I have since 
 wondered what it was that brought him to my 
 father. The latter, with a clearness of thought 
 which occasionally brought on him the charge of 
 being matter-of-fact, was a disciple of Locke with 
 a difference, and that a great one. Locke believed 
 
 conduct of individuals and of Governments can be 
 
 properly regulated. However, all this is surdis fabula. 
 
 ***** 
 
 1 1 perceive the Lords have had a long debate on the 
 poor ; but what signifies talking to persons who will 
 not consent to any alterations of the game laws — laws 
 which tend more to the demoralization of the poor 
 than anything else in England ? Till the Lords have 
 washed off this blot on their characters they may talk 
 
 to the winds. 
 
 ***** 
 
 ' I have now in my possession the paper on which 
 the King wrote the inscription on the tablet erected by 
 him to the memory of his friend, the late Admiral Fox. 
 You have probably read it in the papers, and the
 
 64 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 every mind to be a tabula rasa ; a sheet of paper, 
 on which you may write anything you like. 
 My father knew better than this, as anyone must 
 know who has had children. He qualified the 
 statement by saying that some minds are like 
 blotting-paper, some like delicate white paper, 
 and some like hard brown. But he never would 
 admit that some kinds of minds are quite un- 
 receptive of some kinds of impressions ; that 
 admission would have overturned some of his 
 theories of education. But with all this belief in 
 impressions from the outer world and rejection of 
 innate ideas, he had a corner in his nature which 
 
 anecdote may amuse you. The Admiral's executors 
 sent the King, then Duke of Clarence, in common with 
 several other of the deceased's friends, a ring, for which 
 the Duke returned thanks in very kind terms. On 
 coming to Ramsgate, his first visit was to the church 
 where his friend was laid, and after some conversation 
 with workmen in the place, to whom he was unknown, 
 he desired one of them to call on a friend of mine to 
 express his wish of seeing him the next day. He, of 
 course, went, and the Duke expressed a desire that a 
 tablet might be placed at his expense, a proposal which 
 could not be otherwise received than as an honour to 
 the family. The next point was the inscription, when 
 the Duke wrote off-hand what is now on the tablet, 
 requesting only that it might be put into the hands of
 
 PICTURES IN THE EYES. 65 
 
 might have made him even to some extent a 
 follower of Swedenborg if he had been led to 
 consider ' the Writings ' seriously, and which made 
 him tolerant of Mr. Taylor's expositions of Plato's 
 Ideal World. This was a faculty he had in 
 common with many similarly-constituted persons 
 in all times, but which has only of late years 
 attracted the notice of scientific men. It is 
 described by Coleridge in the lines : 
 
 1 My eyes make pictures when they are shut : 
 I see a river broad and fair, 
 A willow and a ruined hut, 
 
 And thee, and me, and Mary there.' 
 
 someone who knew better than himself how to write 
 inscriptions. Thus written, it was carried to my late 
 friend, Mr. Abbot, who died at the age of ninety-three, 
 and had been tutor of St. John's, Cambridge, and to 
 Home Tooke, and was one of our first scholars. On 
 looking it over, he declined making any alteration, and 
 recommended that it should be adopted exactly in its 
 present form. Had it been carried to our old friend Parr, 
 we should have had, I think, a very different inscription. 
 
 ' Ever yours very sincerely, 
 
 1 W. Frend.' 
 
 The following letter of a much earlier date from Sir 
 James Mackintosh (at that time Recorder of Bombay), 
 to my grandfather, shows the active interest of the 
 latter in all forms of Eastern learning, and therefore 
 
 5
 
 66 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 My father believed that everybody's eyes would 
 make pictures when they were shut if the seer 
 would only fix his attention upon them, and 
 became almost impatient with me when I per- 
 sisted that I could see nothing, while he was 
 describing houses, trees, temples, and other 
 objects seen under his closed eyelids, or, as he 
 said, with the 'mind's eye.' 
 
 I once saw a man whose experience was passing 
 great in this matter, and who could have en- 
 lightened even the scientific of these days. His 
 visions, illustrated by powerful drawing and won- 
 derful poetry, have made him famous ; but few of 
 
 finds a place here, although not in immediate relation 
 to the reminiscences. — Ed. 
 
 • Bombay, 
 
 ' Dear Sir, V"™* i8i °- 
 
 ' I received your letter of December 29, and your 
 nephew, who is now passing some days with me in this 
 house, and who seems an amiable and promising young 
 man. I have caused inquiries to be made respecting 
 the best arithmetical books of the natives. I shall 
 supply your nephew with such as I can find, and shall 
 have great pleasure in contributing to your collection 
 of comparative arithmetic. Some time ago Mr. 
 Strachey, then at Poonah, sent home (but to what 
 algebraists I know not) a Hindu treatise on algebra, 
 to ascertain whether it bore marks of Greek or Arabic
 
 WILLIAM BLAKE AND HIS VISIONS. 67 
 
 his admirers who prize his works as the fruits of 
 a rich imagination, realize that he depicted scenes 
 of another state, and had entered into another 
 sphere of perception, when he saw the spirits of 
 William the Conqueror, Cceur de Lion, and the 
 terrible Flea. 
 
 When I was about ten years old I was walking 
 with my father in the Strand, when we met a 
 man who had on a brown coat, and whose eves, 
 I thought, were uncommonly bright. He shook 
 hands with my father, and said : 
 
 1 Why don't you come and see me ? I live 
 
 origin, or whether it seemed to be a native of this 
 country. I should be glad to know what was thought 
 on the subject. I am procuring translations of Hindu 
 logic to determine whether it be the peripatetic system 
 brought here by the Arabs. I also hope to procure a 
 translation of the principal work of the Vedante 
 philosophers, the Hindu Bakeleians, and a book by the 
 Nastac, the negatives, or Hindu atheists. It will be 
 curious to see how far they coincide with, or vary from, 
 the Western philosophers who have strayed into the 
 same paths of speculation. In every age and country 
 many good men have sacrificed both private sincerity 
 and public improvement to tranquillity. The principles 
 which lead to such sacrifice have been carried to their 
 utmost extent in this country. The whole of it is a 
 mass of misery and degradation — a vast monument of
 
 68 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 down here ;' and he raised his hand and pointed 
 to a street which led to the river. 
 
 Each said something about visiting the other, 
 and they parted. I asked who that gentleman 
 was, and was told : 
 
 ' He is a strange man ; he thinks he sees 
 spirits.' 
 
 'Tell me his name,' I said. 
 
 'William Blake.' 
 
 I may here mention, with reference to the 
 question of inner vision, what my husband's dear 
 old friend, Sir John Herschel, told us many years 
 after of his experience on recovering from an 
 
 the dreadful consequences to which such principles 
 tend. Even the tranquillity to which everything has 
 been sacrificed has not been obtained. Nothing is 
 secure but those abuses which cause universal in- 
 security. I own, therefore, that I shall carry with me 
 from this country a greater hatred of Rajahs and 
 Brahmins than I brought hither, and consequently a 
 greater respect for those who, like yourself, have sacri- 
 ficed interest to conscience. I congratulate you on 
 your marriage to a lady who must inherit principles 
 like your own. I have not forgotten the agreeable day 
 which I passed nearly twenty years ago in the barge 
 from Ghent to Bruges, and I should be heartily glad to 
 pass as much time with you soon again. I have little 
 prospect of such a pleasure for some time ; but I have
 
 SIR JOHN HERSCHEL AND SENSORIAL VISION. 69 
 
 illness. He had read a short paper on ' Sensorial 
 Vision ' before the Philosophical Society of Leeds, 
 describing the pictures which passed before his 
 closed eyes while he was quite awake. He said 
 that the appearance of faces and landscapes with 
 which he was familiar was not uncommon ; but 
 he called attention to the geometrical patterns 
 which passed before his eyes from left to right, 
 and were sometimes of great beauty, believing 
 that if they depended on any action of the mind 
 on the brain their origin might be most readily 
 ascertained. The faces and landscapes he did 
 not attempt to deal with ; but of the simpler forms 
 of the phenomenon he says : 
 
 ' Where does the pattern itself originate ? Certainly 
 not in any action consciously exerted by the mind, for 
 both the particular pattern to be formed and the time 
 of its appearance are not merely beyond our will and 
 control, but beyond our knowledge. . . . The question 
 
 another self in London, to whom I am most desirous 
 of procuring the enjoyments of enlightened society. 
 Either Mr. Sharp or Mr. Butler would do me the 
 favour of making you acquainted with Lady Mackin- 
 tosh. 
 
 ' With kind respects to Mrs. Frend, 
 
 ' I am, dear sir, yours truly, 
 
 ' James Mackintosh.'
 
 70 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 still recurs . . . How is it that we are utterly un- 
 conscious of such a power, utterly unable voluntarily to 
 exert it, and only aware of its being exerted at times 
 and in a manner we have no part in, except as spectators 
 of its results ?' 
 
 Sir John told me the last time I ever saw him 
 that he then saw more faces and fewer land- 
 scapes. The faces, which appeared in quick suc- 
 cession, were gray and colourless. The landscapes 
 were of great beauty, but such as he had never 
 seen in the world. I referred him to a few sen- 
 tences in Locke 'On the Understanding,'- in 
 which the philosopher describes his own experi- 
 ences of the same kind. Since the paper was 
 read at Leeds some interesting experiences have 
 been given in the St. James s Gazette, February, 
 1882, and the subject has been treated at some 
 length by Mr. Francis Galton. 
 
 Sir John Herschel could afford better than 
 most scientific men to admit his ignorance of 
 some things. Among these he always, he said, 
 wished to find out the reason why the poker laid 
 across the top of the fire makes it burn up. He 
 knew it was the case. I had long believed this, 
 and triumphed accordingly. 
 
 Perhaps, though Sir John Herschel disclaimed
 
 SIR JOHN HERSCHEL AND SENSORIAL VISION. 71 
 
 the suggestion, and though he had none to offer 
 instead, these ' sensorial visions ' may have a 
 deeper origin than simple optical derangements. 
 Blake knew what they were, and Coleridge had a 
 guess, though in his case they arose abnormally, 
 and were produced by opium. 
 
 My remembrance of Coleridge is vague and 
 shadowy, but I have heard him talking to, not 
 with, my father for many hours when I, being a 
 child only, wished he would stop, as much as 
 when, years after, I went with my father to call 
 on him at Highgate, I wished he had been well 
 enough to let us hear him talk. We only then 
 saw the terrace-walk in the garden, on which he 
 spent many hours in fine weather, and heard from 
 Mr. Gillman, in whose house he lived, of his daily 
 life.
 
 [ 7* ] 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 George Dyer — Charles Lamb — Crabb Robinson — Joseph Jekyll 
 — Mrs. Barbauld — Unitarian Chapels — Rammohun Roy 
 — Abraham Elias, a Jewish visionary. 
 
 I must now come down to a scholar and poet of a 
 humble type, little known for his own work, but 
 having gained some renown from his large acquaint- 
 ance with the best men of his time, and from 
 the esteem and affection in which they held him. 
 When I was very young, George Dyer lived on 
 the ground-floor chambers of an old dirt-begrimed 
 house in Clifford's Inn, near the old gateway, now 
 removed. He was supposed to be cared for by 
 relations, who received money for taking no care 
 of him. Several friends — among them Joseph 
 Jekyll, Charles Lamb, John Rickman, of the 
 House of Commons, and my father, some of 
 whom had helped Dyer in his college days — 
 saw and lamented the neglected state of the poor 
 scholar, and my father made many efforts to
 
 GEORGE DYER, AND HIS FRIENDSHIPS. 73 
 
 procure comfort and cleanliness in his daily life. 
 He was short-sighted, almost to blindness, and 
 always mentally up in the clouds, so his own sur- 
 roundings troubled him less than they might have 
 done a less dreamy man of the world. 
 
 Many were the stories told of Dyer's adven- 
 tures and misadventures, all owing to his blind- 
 ness and absence of mind. The chief narrators 
 were Charles Lamb, Joseph Jekyll, my father, 
 Crabb Robinson, and latterly John Bowring, and 
 in none of their hands did the tales lose effect. 
 At one period of his life — I fancy before he went 
 as a sizar to Emmanuel College — Dyer was a 
 Baptist minister, and I have seen his consterna- 
 tion and alarm when thus reminded of his minis- 
 trations by my father : 
 
 Wm. Frend : ' You know, Dyer, that was before 
 you drowned the woman.' 
 
 G. Dyer : '/ never drowned any woman !' 
 
 Wm. Frend : ' You have forgotten.' To the 
 company generally : ' Dyer had taken the woman's 
 hand and made her clip in the water ; he then 
 pronounced the blessing and left her there.' 
 
 G. Dyer (troubled) : ' No, no ; you are joking. 
 It could not be.' 
 
 Wm. Frend : ' I think the clerk or the deacon
 
 74 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 or somebody got her out, so she got off with a 
 bad cold.' 
 
 Charles Lamb told how one afternoon Dyer, 
 who missed the way to his (Mr. Lamb's) house, 
 where he was to pay a visit, walked up to his 
 waist through the New River and came in like a 
 merman. I never could find how much or how 
 little truth there was in this, nor in the statement, 
 attested by Dr. Bowring, that, on leaving his 
 house at Clapton, Dyer, who could not find his 
 hat, turned a small coal-scuttle over his head, and 
 walked off with this head-gear. 
 
 While in the old chambers and in the neg-- 
 lected state in which I first remember him, Dyer 
 worked hard. His chief work was a history of 
 the University of Cambridge, not, I believe, of 
 any great value, and probably now forgotten or 
 superseded. He also gave much time and labour 
 to an edition of the ' Delphin Classics,' edited by 
 Dr. Valpy, and very poorly paid. 
 
 But late in life a tide came in his affairs. A kind 
 woman, the widow of a solicitor, who owned the 
 chambers opposite to his, watched him going in 
 and out, and 'saw his quiet, harmless ways.' As 
 she afterwards said in her Devonshire dialect, she 
 ' could not abear to see the peure gentleman so
 
 AN ECCENTRIC BETROTHAL. 75 
 
 neglected.' So she made acquaintance with him, 
 invited him across the Inn, and gave him tea and 
 hot cakes and muffins ' comfortable.' At one of 
 these entertainments, when the guest was ex- 
 pressing his satisfaction and thankfulness, she 
 observed : 
 
 ' Yes, Mr. Dyer, sir, you du want someone to 
 look after you.' 
 
 The rejoinder was ready : 
 
 ' Will you be that one ?' 
 
 'Well, sir, I don't say but what I've thought of 
 it ; but you must speak to your friends, and let 
 me see them, and if Mr. Frind approves ' 
 
 So my father was informed of the proposal, and 
 in some alarm went to meet the intended victim 
 at the chambers of the 'designing widow,' who 
 had already 'buried' three husbands. His views 
 of the case were soon altered. She was so 
 simple, so open, and so evidently kind-hearted, 
 that, after examining and comparing all circum- 
 stances, he thought that his old friend's happiness 
 would be secured by the marriage. It took place 
 shortly after in St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet 
 Street. 
 
 When the newly-married pair came to visit us 
 at Stoke Newington, we who were in doubt as to
 
 76 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 what we were to expect were pleased to find her 
 a sensible, kindly-hearted woman, who had made 
 of our neglected old friend a fine-looking, well- 
 dressed elderly man, beaming with kindness and 
 happiness. 
 
 After the marriage it was pleasant to visit Mr. 
 and Mrs. Dyer. Old friends gathered round 
 them, and Mr. Dyer would often repeat to us 
 with pleasure what Mr. Charles Lamb or Mr. 
 Joe Jekyll said about her talents in housekeeping, 
 making bread, and other wifely qualifications. I 
 have seen these men, and many others whose 
 company would have been coveted in far prouder 
 places, talking and jesting merrily in the rooms at 
 the top of the old house in Clifford's Inn ; the 
 house next that on which the sundial had shown 
 the time so long, and which looked sideways into 
 the little Inn garden. 
 
 Mr. Jekyll was a humorist, and Dyer greatly 
 enjoyed his jests. The following is a mild speci- 
 men, but it is the only one I remember : 
 
 One day he left the chambers just as we were 
 going in, and I found Mr. and Mrs. Dyer laugh- 
 ing. Mr. Jekyll had told them of his troubles, 
 which he said were far harder to bear than Mr. 
 Dyer's, who was only afflicted with whitewashing,
 
 MR. AND MRS. DYER AND THEIR VISITORS. 77 
 
 for his (Mr. Jekyll's) door in Spring Gardens had 
 been painted, and the knocker fastened up too 
 high. ' So, you see,' he said, ' I was knocked up 
 to begin with. And when I begged that it might 
 be lowered, it was put so low that I had to stoop ; 
 so I had to knock under at last.' 
 
 Another visitor in Clifford's Inn, who always 
 took a lauo-h with him if he did not find one 
 ready prepared, was James Tate, during the last 
 years of his life a Canon of St. Paul's, but for- 
 merly Headmaster of Richmond School, Yorks. 
 Many of the Cambridge men known in the early 
 part of this century as the Northern Lights had 
 been his pupils. Among these were Whewell, 
 Adam Sedgwick, Thirlwall, Richard Sheepshanks, 
 and others, whose affection for their old master 
 was equal to his pride in them. Canon Tate 
 gladdened Dyer's heart by many a tale and 
 epigram fresh from the alma mater. At that 
 time Dr. Thompson was Master of Trinity, and 
 the old controversy about the authorship of 
 Eikon Basilike had been wound up with a 
 parody of ' Cock Robin ' : 
 
 ' Who wrote Who ivrote Eikon Basilike ? 
 " I," said the Master of Trinity, 
 " With my little divinity, 
 And I wrote Who wrote Eikon Basilike ?'"
 
 78 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 I remember Mr. Tate at Richmond, the centre 
 of a little circle of his old pupils who had stopped 
 to see the beauties of the town and country during 
 a vacation tour. The Flags is a broad pave- 
 ment on which the elite of the town used to 
 assemble for learned talk, politics, or gossip, as 
 the case might be. Mr. Tate was a perfect 
 guide-book, and the party on the Flags was dis- 
 cussing the castle, which stands on the other side 
 of the market-place, on a steep by the river- 
 side. 
 
 'Yes,' said the authority, 'as Mac says," it's 
 
 a varra kenspeckle object.' 
 
 ' What's that word ?' said an etymologist. 
 
 'Kenspeckle. In your Southern dialect, con- 
 spicuous.' 
 
 ' Which is derived from which ? Or how do 
 they come to bear the same meaning and to be 
 so much alike in sound, if they are not etymo- 
 logically related ?' 
 
 The person questioned, looking solemn and 
 oracular, observed that ' there were many mys- 
 teries in language, especially in the Northern 
 
 tongue. 
 
 ' For instance,' he said, ' in which of the classics 
 can you find a sentence like this one, of which
 
 CANON TATE AT RICHMOND. 79 
 
 you transpose all the parts and keep the mean- 
 ing ?' 
 
 ' Give it to us.' 
 
 And he repeated gravely : 
 
 ' 1. They're a hard thing to drive, very, when 
 there's many of them, is a pig. 2. They're a hard 
 thing to drive, is a pig, when there's many of 
 them, very. 3. They're a hard thing, is a pig, 
 very, to drive, when there's many of them. 
 4. They're a hard thing to drive, very, is a pig, 
 when there's many of them. And it's susceptible, 
 you will find, of other permutations and combina- 
 tions' 
 
 Charles Lamb was, I think, very like the sil- 
 houette placed as the frontispiece of the memoir 
 — a small man, quaint and old-fashioned-looking, 
 and usually when I saw him indulging in what is 
 now called 'chaff' at the expense of his host; 
 also, on the occasion which I best remember, 
 indulging in a bottle of London stout. He felt 
 much esteem for my father, but his often-repeated 
 promises of coming to see us were never fulfilled, 
 owing, I think, to the occurrence about that time 
 of the great sorrow of his life. The following 
 stanza was written at the Clifford's Inn chambers
 
 So MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 one day after my father and he had had a conver- 
 sation there : 
 
 ' Friend of the friendless, friend of all mankind, 
 To thy wide friendships I have not been blind ; 
 But looking at them nearly, in the end 
 I love thee most that thou art Dyer's Frend.' 
 
 He was asked to write for me in my book, and 
 I have the two poems in his firm, neat writing 
 now. One, the longest, was meant as an intro- 
 duction to the whole collection. It has been 
 printed only within the last year by the Rev. 
 Alfred Aino-er in his recent work* on Lamb, but 
 he allows it to have a place here : 
 
 'TO THE BOOK. 
 
 ' Little Casket ! Storehouse rare ! 
 Of rich conceits, to please the Fair ! 
 Happiest he of mortal men, — 
 (I crown him monarch of the pen,) 
 To whom Sophia deigns to give 
 The flattering prerogative 
 To inscribe his name in chief, 
 On thy first and maiden Leaf. 
 When thy pages shall be full 
 Of what brighter wits can cull 
 Of the Tender or Romantic, 
 Creeping Prose or verse Gigantic, — 
 Which thy spaces so shall cram 
 That the Bee-like Epigram 
 
 * ' Poems, Plays, and Essays of Charles Lamb.' London, 
 1884.
 
 CHARLES LAMB. Si 
 
 (Which a twofold tribute brings, 
 Honey gives at once, and stings,) 
 Hath not room left wherewithal 
 To infix its tiny scrawl ; 
 Haply some more youthful swain, 
 Striving to describe his pain, 
 And the Damsel's ear to seize 
 With more expressive lays than these, 
 When he finds his own excluded 
 And these counterfeits intruded ; 
 While, loitering in the Muse's bower, 
 He overstayed the eleventh hour, 
 Till the tables filled— shall fret, 
 Die, or sicken with regret, 
 Or into a shadow pine : 
 While this triumphant verse of mine, 
 Like to some favoured stranger-guest, 
 Bidden to a good man's Feast, 
 Shall sit — by merit less than fate — 
 In the upper Seat in State. 
 
 ' Charles Lamb.' 
 
 In the next contribution Mr. Lamb was again 
 tempted to play upon my name. It is not a 
 flattering conviction, but in those funny days I 
 might have lost several such effusions if the name 
 had been different : 
 
 'ACROSTIC. 
 
 ' To S. F. 
 
 ' Solemn Legends we are told 
 Of bright female Names of old, 
 Phyllis fair, Laodameia, 
 Helen, but methinks Sophia 
 Is a name of better meaning 
 And a sort of Christian leaning.
 
 82 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 For it Wisdom means, which passes 
 Rubies, pearls, or golden masses. 
 Ever try that Name to merit ; 
 Never quit what you inherit, 
 Duly from your Father's spirit. 
 
 1 Charles Lamb.' 
 
 Mr. Crabb Robinson was often with George 
 Dyer during the last years of his life, and was 
 very kind to his widow. All Dyer's Cambridge 
 reminiscences were subjects of interest to him, 
 and every incident connected with my father's 
 trial, and all its bearings both on religious and 
 political freedom, were so familiar to Mr. Robin- 
 son that I heard from him details which I never 
 knew from the person most concerned. He was 
 so largely endowed with the faculties of Indi- 
 viduality and Eventuality that his friends, if they 
 wanted to get at the truth of any obscure piece 
 of personal history, could not do better than 
 apply to Crabb Robinson as they would to a 
 biographical dictionary. He carried in his 
 memory every detail of the lives and characters 
 of such of his early contemporaries as had made 
 any mark in the world ; but it pleased him most 
 to recall those who had struggled for right or 
 justice. I have two photographs of Mr. Robin- 
 son taken in his ninetieth year, both looking
 
 CRABB ROBINSON— SOME VENERABLE FRIENDS. 83 
 
 critical and only half pleased. My husband said 
 that one had been taken while he was listening- to 
 some dispraise of Goethe ; but the other, more 
 severe, looked as he would do if it were intimated 
 that Wordsworth had any equal in poetry or 
 philosophy. 
 
 One day, some years after her husband's death, 
 I found Mrs. Dyer sitting with a great-grandchild 
 on her knee, sewing. Mr. Crabb Robinson had 
 just left her, and she remarked that he was com- 
 plaining, but was 'gettin' into years.' 
 
 1 Why, how old is he ?' 
 
 ' Seventy-five, he says.' 
 
 ' And you ?' 
 
 ' Well, Mrs. De Morgan, my dear, I was eighty- 
 eight last birthday, and I can thread my needle 
 and make a pillow-case.' 
 
 She lived to be over ninety-nine years old, and 
 left a twin sister, who must have been a cen- 
 tenarian. 
 
 My father, who, as well as Geo. Dyer, lived to 
 be eighty-four years old, died in the year 1841. 
 He had been paralytic three or four years, and 
 for many months unable to utter two or three 
 words consecutively. The day before his death 
 he pointed to a Bible, and made a sign for me to
 
 84 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 read to him. I read his favourite Psalm, ' The 
 Heavens declare the glory of God,' etc. When I 
 was reading ' As for man, his days are as grass,' 
 he joined in, and repeated with me, clearly and in 
 a firm voice, the verses following to the end of 
 the Psalm. 
 
 During his last illness poor George Dyer sent 
 up daily to inquire after him. When the mes- 
 senger came back for the last time, he asked for 
 the news, and was told he was rather better. ' I 
 understand,' he said ; ' Mr. Frend is dead. Lay 
 me beside him.' He then went into an adjoining 
 room, washed his hands, returned, and quietly sat 
 down in his armchair, as it was thought, to listen to 
 a kind friend (Miss Matilda Betham) who came 
 to read to him. Before beginning she looked up 
 to her hearer, but the loving-hearted old man was 
 dead.* 
 
 * The following letter and verses were sent by 
 George Dyer to my mother. Most likely the verses 
 were intended for her album, in which Charles Lamb 
 had already written. — Ed. 
 
 ' Dear Miss Frend, 
 
 ' I think I owe you a few lines, so I send you 
 the enclosed, written when my faithful four-footed 
 friend died. I do not recollect anything which I had
 
 GEORGE DYER: A PEACEFUL END. 85 
 
 One of my father's reasons for buying our 
 house at Stoke Newington in the year 18 19 had 
 been the knowledge that a small remnant of the 
 literary society, which had raised its character in 
 the days of Dr. Isaac Watts (at one time a 
 dweller in our house), might still be found there. 
 The chief and centre of these few writers and 
 thinkers were Mrs. Barbauld, her brother (Dr. 
 Aikin), and his literary daughter (Lucy Aikin), 
 authoress of several historical memoirs. I was 
 eleven years old when we took up our abode in 
 
 to say which was particular, and if anything should 
 occur, it will come in due course in Mrs. Dyer's letter. 
 
 'ON THE DEATH OF A FAVOURITE DOG. 
 
 ' Duly by thee, my poor four-footed friend, 
 Was paid the debt of nature ; I must pay 
 My debt of gratitude. The promised lay 
 To thee is justly due ; and could I bend 
 My heart's full meaning into words, would say 
 How fond thou wast, at first and to the end, 
 How true and faithful, and didst teach me more 
 Than many a page of old scholastic lore 
 That there's a power which, though we cannot see 
 With eyes of sense, yet do all beings feel, 
 Deeply impressed the Maker's stamp and seal — 
 A power which moves all worlds, which lived and 
 moved in thee.'
 
 86 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 the old place, and greatly delighted in its clean, 
 white, wainscoted rooms, with clusters of roses 
 peeping in at the windows, its spacious recesses 
 and unsuspected nooks and cupboards, and, above 
 all, its large beautiful garden full of trees such 
 as we seldom see near London. Mrs. Barbauld 
 was always very kind to us. We lived four 
 houses from her, and, everything not being quite 
 ready at our house, my sister and I had a bed at 
 hers for a night or two. It was very quiet and 
 cold, white wainscoted like our own, but had not 
 a picture to be seen anywhere, except, I think^ in 
 the drawing-room, where were two little framed 
 faded portraits. The mantelpiece was very high, 
 and had ornaments — at that time called spill-cases 
 — upon it, and the fire was not large. The once 
 pretty chintz curtains were faded, and the house 
 looked to the north, so the whole entozirage, to 
 a child who had been used to the bustle and 
 warmth of a London house, was chilly. Mrs. Bar- 
 bauld was a very thin old lady, small and delicate- 
 looking, with a kind and pleasant face. She had, 
 we were told, improved in appearance with age. 
 According to the ugly fashion of the time, she 
 wore a ' front ' of flaxen curls, although her own 
 hair was, I know, long and abundant, and of
 
 MRS. BARBAULD'S HOUSE, STOKE NEWINGTON. 87 
 
 silvery whiteness. She wore generally a white 
 cap, and dress of slate-coloured or gray silk, with 
 a short train, and a white handkerchief or small 
 shawl folded across the bosom. She had brought 
 up her nephew, ' Little Charles,'* giving him an 
 education undreamed of then, and now found to 
 involve too great a strain upon very young nerves 
 and brains ; but she was among the first who 
 thought a young child should be taught anything 
 intelligible. If Mrs. Barbauld had ever had a 
 baby of her own, and had put it to sleep in her 
 arms, her educational system would have been 
 less intellectual, but more perfect. As it was, 
 she was remarkable for the pleasure she took in 
 the society of young people, and most kind and 
 patient in playing games with them. These 
 games had too much of the classical and intel- 
 lectual element and too little fun in them to make 
 us feel quite at our ease when we, with a few 
 other very young people, spent the evening with 
 her. Sometimes we capped verses. Some of us 
 had an unfailing store of lines in our heads in 
 Gray's ' Elegy,' or Cowper, or ' Ruin seize thee, 
 ruthless King!' I was a dunce and a failure. I 
 knew strings of verses, and might have remem- 
 
 * Mr. Charles Aikin.
 
 88 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 bered lines from songs, or even from Scott or 
 Moore, but they would not come at the right 
 time. There was a historical play which I think 
 Mrs. Barbauld enjoyed as much as her visitors. 
 One of the party left the room, and was accosted 
 on his or her return with speeches referring to his 
 private affairs or political circumstances, from 
 which addresses he was to discover whom he 
 personated. I remember going out once, and, on 
 re-entering, Mrs. Barbauld addressed me sym- 
 pathetically on my affliction in being murdered 
 by the one who owed me most, and another lady 
 congratulated me on my ability in writing a short 
 letter, full of meaning, from which I gathered that 
 I was Julius Caesar. 
 
 A young friend stayed a short time with us 
 before her marriage, and Mrs. Barbauld was, as 
 became a poetess, interested in the love affair and 
 the wedding gifts. In compliance with the request 
 of the giver of a pair of sugar-tongs, the following 
 epigram was written by our kind neighbour : 
 
 'To Mrs. , with a Pair of Sugar-tongs. 
 
 1 To greet with gifts your marriage state 
 These tongs your kind acceptance wait ; 
 But "Where's the sugar?" should you ask. 
 The sweets to find must be your task.'
 
 HER 'EVENINGS AT HOME.' 89 
 
 Mrs. Barbauld had a true poetical feeling for 
 plants and natural things. As she was walking 
 in our garden, I gathered a bunch of violets, which 
 she accepted kindly, but said, as she placed them 
 in the bosom of her dress, that she always felt a 
 hesitation in gathering flowers which were in full 
 bloom and beauty, and possibly enjoyment, on 
 the stalk, but which died so soon. She shared 
 the impression that to gather a flower was a cruel 
 sacrilege, as dooming to a lingering death a thing 
 that was in its own degree enjoying its life. 
 
 One day, when Mrs. Barbauld kindly asked me 
 what books I had read and what I liked, among 
 others the Evenings at Home, written by Dr. 
 Aikin and herself, was mentioned. I really liked 
 Tzitor — George — Harry, and had read these 
 dialogues over and over again, for the dialogue 
 form will make even umbelliferous plants, minerals, 
 and mammalia interesting to a child. The poetess 
 inclined to the fairies : Order and Disorder, and 
 the pretty fairy of the flowers, named, I think, 
 Favoretta, seemed to be her favourites, or, 
 rather, she seemed to think they would be most 
 appreciated by the young feminine mind. 
 
 Mrs. Barbauld naturally felt great interest in 
 the religious reform inaugurated in India by
 
 90 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 Rammohun Roy, and talked much of that re- 
 markable man. He visited England some years 
 after our acquaintance with her began. His 
 coming was looked to by the Unitarians as a 
 means of rousing inquiry into the truth of doc- 
 trines which they held to be contrary to the 
 teaching of Christ, and they were greatly excited 
 by the visit, and ready to welcome and claim him 
 as an advocate of their special belief. 
 
 There were several Unitarian chapels in London 
 and the neighbourhood. Of the two most im- 
 portant, one was within three miles of our house. 
 At this chapel discourses were given every Sunday 
 morning for an hour or more, most commonly on 
 metaphysical questions, sometimes on knotty points 
 of criticism or doctrine. I am bound to say that, 
 from their length and depth, these sermons were 
 sedative to many of the hearers ; but they were 
 probably more highly estimated by those who 
 thought they could follow their meaning, from 
 being out of reach of the rest. And the preacher, 
 a brave and erudite man, was like other Dissent- 
 ing Ministers then — I don't know how they are 
 now — a sort of Archbishop in miniature. 
 
 There were two other large chapels. One was 
 in Finsbury, under the ministry of W. J. Fox,
 
 RAMMOHUN ROY. 91 
 
 who was afterwards engaged by the Corn Law 
 League to give lectures on Free Trade. This last 
 was frequented by persons of all beliefs and of no 
 particular belief, drawn there by the great elo- 
 quence and, in some ways, breadth of sentiment 
 of the preacher. At this chapel I first saw 
 Rammohun Roy, who, with Dr. Bowring, spent 
 a day with us soon after. 
 
 He was a very fine-looking man, his height 
 exceeding that of the admiring Englishmen who 
 crowded to shake hands with him after the 
 service ; and his dark sparkling eyes, olive-brown 
 skin, and black beard, with the picturesque Eastern 
 turban and robe, made him a very striking object. 
 When I saw him afterwards on our green lawn I 
 rejoiced in the beautiful 'bit of colour,' and still 
 more when I listened to his conversation. Like 
 all reformers, he was only half understood, for 
 each sect expected to find in him an advocate of 
 its own particular dogma. He went among 
 Quakers, and acquiesced readily in their doctrine 
 of the reception of the Spirit ; among orthodox 
 Dissenters and Churchmen, accepting salvation 
 by faith, meaning that entire trust in the Divine 
 goodness which shows itself in all the actions of 
 life ; among the Unitarians, dwelling on the unity
 
 92 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 of God and the moral teaching of Jesus. So 
 when it was found that the Brahmin — who could 
 have thrown light into each and all of these 
 narrow chinks and inlets, and understood the one 
 great spiritual truth which was expressed in 
 different forms by all — declared that he was a 
 believer in all those different specialities, he was 
 pronounced to be a seeker for popularity, and ' all 
 things to all men.' If he had sided exclusively 
 with any one ism, and raised the favourite doc- 
 trine of any sect above all the rest, instead of 
 showing that the way to ' know of the doctrine ' 
 was to do God's will, he would have been raised 
 by the favoured party to the rank of Luther, or 
 Calvin. 
 
 With great pleasure I heard him expound this 
 doctrine, which is a literal practical truth, taught 
 by Christ Himself,* and as little understood and 
 acted on in these days as it was in His time. 
 In the East, where inspiration is still believed in, 
 and a certain amount of preparation for it is prac- 
 tised in many of the native religions, Rammohun 
 Roy's teaching — which enjoined a good life as a 
 condition of spiritual endowment — might perhaps 
 
 * ' Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His (its) righteous- 
 ness, and all these things shall be added to you.'
 
 HIS DOCTRINE OF CHRISTIANITY. 93 
 
 be better understood and more literally followed. 
 The miracles of Jesus were spoken of to him as 
 confirmations of the Divine Mission. He said 
 they would not prove anything to his countrymen, 
 to whom miracles even more astonishing were 
 familiar, ' for they saw them all round '; so he 
 dwelt on the higher power, that of reception of 
 the Spirit, to be attained by those who led an 
 unselfish, loving life. 
 
 Soon after the time when, as a poetical-minded 
 Dissenter observed, the ' Star of the East shone 
 over our humble suburb,' a strange character 
 appeared there. As I went out one day at the 
 outer gate — Defoe's gate — I found a dark-eyed, 
 black-haired man waiting admission. He was 
 dressed something like a Turk, in robe, scarf, and 
 turban, the two latter crimson and white, and he 
 looked striking and Eastern. He spoke only 
 French, and I found that he had been sent to 
 my father by a humane Jewish acquaintance, who 
 had seen him violently pushed out of the syna- 
 gogue for professing his belief in Christ, and 
 declaring that the Second Coming was at hand. 
 My father, who knew many of the learned Jews 
 in London, and had little expectation of their 
 conversion to the orthodoxy literally maintained
 
 9+ MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 fifty years ago, was at once interested in this poor 
 Jewish soldier, and believed he might become 
 an instrument for teaching Gospel truth, as Jesus 
 Christ had taught it, to his own people. So he 
 translated some of the enthusiast's writings, which 
 were in a kind of polyglot of French, Italian, and 
 Hebrew, into English, adding what few sentences 
 he thought were needed to make them intelligible. 
 But these met no approval from those to whom 
 they were addressed, and the missionary or mes- 
 senger was again turned out of the Synagogue. 
 This was not wonderful, for I believe he illus- 
 trated his preaching by describing a vision, in 
 which he said he had seen ' le Seigneur dans le 
 soleil,' on which occasion the Second Coming 
 was announced, and that he (the seer) was 
 charged with the message of declaring its ap- 
 proach. Moreover, he strengthened his credential 
 by saying that ' Elias must first come,' and ' Moi, 
 je suis Elie '; for by a lucky coincidence his 
 name was Abraham Elias. This all startled my 
 father, who, though an enthusiast in his own way, 
 did not understand what appeared to him wild, 
 and, moreover, found it very hard to follow the 
 rapid, figurative language in which all these novel 
 ideas were uttered. The visionary had been a
 
 A JEWISH MISSIONARY. 95 
 
 pioneer in the army of Napoleon Bonaparte. 
 ' Ainsi,' he said, 'je le suis encore,' meaning that 
 he held the place of pioneer in the new dispensa- 
 tion. Though after he had delivered his message 
 he borrowed money which was never repaid, I 
 believe he was quite sincere. Since that time I 
 have read Swedenborg with some comprehen- 
 sion, though not with a literal belief, and have a 
 clearer idea than I had then of the meaning of 
 visions of 'the Lord in the Sun,' and even of the 
 possibility of the poor Jew being one of the many 
 announcers of that Advent, of which the signs are 
 apparent to those who know where to look for 
 them. 
 
 Among other interesting matters connected 
 with his adventurous life, we learned from this 
 man the meaning of tsitzith, the word translated 
 fringes in the Testament. They were worn by 
 him on the end of the red scarf which passed 
 round the waist and over the shoulder, and con- 
 sisted of a fringe of worsted or silk, each thread 
 knotted, and divided at intervals by longer ends, 
 each containing a large knot. The whole series 
 indicated prayers, meditations, or fragments of 
 the Law, to be repeated in regular order. These 
 were evidently one of the oldest forms of the
 
 96 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 Rosary. They may be found with variations in 
 several parts of the East. # 
 
 The ' Reverend ' whom I have mentioned as a 
 light and leader among Unitarians was, of course, 
 held to be an infallible authority on every ques- 
 tion by the ladies of his congregation. In a tea- 
 drinking party of these at which I was present, 
 he was very witty at my father's expense in refer- 
 ence to the above-named man, of whose adven- 
 tures some notice had reached him. As a climax 
 he grandly uttered the sentiment, looking at me 
 meanwhile : 
 
 ' If there is a queer fish in the world, he will 
 find his way to Frend's house.' 
 
 Thus challenged, I had but one answer : 
 
 1 Pardon me, Mr. , I do not remember our 
 
 having had the pleasure of seeing you there.' 
 
 The audience was aghast, the oracle ' put out,' 
 and the speaker, frightened at her own temerity, 
 wished herself anywhere away from the offended 
 majesty of the chapel. 
 
 The following must go for what it is worth. I 
 could tell more striking experiences, but this 
 
 * I cannot help thinking, though the idea is vague, that all such 
 religious representations embody the process of redemption, like 
 the stations of the cross.
 
 A JEWISH PHILANTHROPIST. 97 
 
 strongly impressed me, and it will introduce 
 another of those ' queer fishes ' who were said 
 by this authority to congregate under my father's 
 roof like martins in summer-time. 
 
 Close to one side of our house, which on the 
 other three stood in its own grounds, was the 
 house of a retired Jewish merchant. From his 
 name he must have been of Spanish descent. 
 His generosity was unbounded, and as he was 
 rich, he was once made overseer or guardian of the 
 poor/" But as he gave money to every applicant 
 without any distinction as to industry or other 
 grounds of claim, he soon brought down the 
 wrath of the vestry, who stopped his lavish 
 allowances. Then he gave from his own purse, 
 and at the end of his year of office found himself 
 very much poorer than he was at the beginning. 
 He read and thought a great deal ; his reading 
 was chiefly French philosophy — the philosophy of 
 Voltaire, Volney, and all the Encyclopaedists ; his 
 thinking was of the rambling, inaccurate, but 
 kindly sort that might have been expected from a 
 kind-hearted, self-educated man whose mind was 
 fed on such diet. Of course, like his teachers, he 
 
 * The parish arrangements are not the same now as they 
 were sixty years ago. 
 
 7
 
 9 8 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 was as credulous in his unbelief as he was afraid 
 of superstition. He came to my father with the 
 most wonderful and impossible astronomical and 
 historical stories drawn from his favourite writers, 
 and the patience of one in refuting, and of the 
 other in listening to the refutations of these mix- 
 tures of truth and error, was admirable. Mr. 
 
 L 's veneration for his neighbour was great, 
 
 and he would have liked to share some of the 
 strong beliefs now for the first time presented to 
 his mind in reasonable form. He was naturally a 
 gainer by our vicinity, and enjoyed the society of 
 the ' Jews, Turks, heretics, and infidels ' who 
 visited us. 
 
 One evening when he, with one or two other 
 friends, had been holding a discussion on ' Life, 
 Death, and another world,' I said a few words 
 expressing my hope, contrary to that of the other 
 speakers, that the latter was not all a dream. As 
 he left us he said : ' Good-night, my dear Sophy. 
 When I go I will come and tell you all about it.' 
 The next day we heard that he was seriously ill, 
 and after lingering two or three weeks he died. 
 
 My room, a large old wainscoted one, was 
 entered by a step of worm-eaten wood at the 
 door. The windows were brushed by the branches
 
 A REVENANT ? 99 
 
 of a tall elm, and in one corner was a very large 
 skylighted closet giving out on the roof, from 
 which tradition said Defoe used to escape from 
 his political pursuers and get out on the top of 
 the next house, which partly adjoined ours on 
 that side. On lying down the night after the 
 death occurred, I do not remember feeling any 
 unusual nervousness or any expectation of being 
 kept awake, and I am quite sure that at that time 
 the promise of ' coming to tell me all about it ' 
 was not in my thoughts, though it was afterwards 
 remembered ; but just as I was going to sleep I 
 was roused by what I cannot call a noise, it was 
 so weird, eerie, and indefinite. The curtains 
 fluttered, or seemed to do so ; there was a sort of 
 breathing all round the bed ; the old wardrobe 
 creaked, and I, unable to sleep, was conscious of 
 a ' presence ' on one side of the bed. This lasted 
 until the morning dawned, and with the light came, 
 not absence of fear, for I was not frightened, but 
 complete tranquillity of nerves. On lying down 
 each night for more than a week the same sensa- 
 tions were experienced. I did not really believe 
 the imaginary ' presence ' to be that of the de- 
 parted person, for there was no feeling of indi- 
 viduality about it ; but the want of sleep made
 
 ioo MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 me so ill and unable to exert myself that I begged 
 for, and obtained, another room. This will not be 
 interpreted as meaning anything but the effect of 
 fancy upon sensitive nerves. It may have been 
 so, but in that case ' nervous fancies ' form an 
 element which ought not to be overlooked in 
 school or family arrangements.
 
 [ 101 ] 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The first Sunday-school — The Birkbeck Institute — Jewish Free 
 School — University College, etc. — William Allen — Mary 
 Lister — Last days at Stoke Newington — Thomas Campbell 
 — Hastings — Lady Noel Byron and Co-operation — Social 
 Reformers — Robert Owen and his School. 
 
 During the last years of our stay at Stoke 
 Newington my father's health had been very 
 infirm, and he was unable to give any help 
 except by small contributions of money to any of 
 the schools or other good works going on around 
 us. He had, when a clergyman, formed one of 
 the first Sunday-schools then established in his 
 church at Madingley, near Cambridge. In this 
 he had the warm support and assistance of Miss 
 Cotton, Sir John Cotton's daughter, and great 
 must have been the sorrow and trial to both 
 when he felt bound to leave the Church.* I 
 
 * The following letter from my grandfather to Lady 
 Noel Byron gives an account of the formation of this
 
 102 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 remember when I was very young his co-opera- 
 tion with Dr. George Birkbeck in founding the 
 Mechanics' Institute in Southampton Buildings, 
 and his name is, I believe, one of the list of 
 founders and benefactors buried under the Jewish 
 Free School in the City. His last effort was 
 towards the establishment of University College, 
 then called the University of London,* and in 
 the beginning of this he was joined by Thomas 
 Campbell the poet (of whom I have more to 
 tell further on) and by Lord Brougham. 
 
 first Sunday-school. The little girl referred to in the 
 early part of the letter is the writer of the remi- 
 niscences. — Ed. 
 
 1 The Rock, 
 
 ' 1818. 
 ' My dear Lady, 
 
 ' I am glad to hear so good an account of your- 
 self and your little one. As to the latter, do not be in 
 any hurry about her. My eldest little girl gave alarm- 
 ing symptoms of being a prodigy, but I so effectually 
 counteracted them that her mother began in her turn 
 to be alarmed when she was between six and seven 
 years old, lest she should be very backward in her 
 learning. She is now between nine and ten, and fre- 
 
 * Many details of the first formation of University College 
 are given in the memoir of Augustus De Morgan, one of the 
 first professors.
 
 SOCIETY OF FRIENDS AT STOKE NEWINGTON. 103 
 
 Among those with whom my father would 
 most gladly have co-operated in all philanthropic 
 and educational works, if doctrinal matters, which 
 at that time formed either a help or a hindrance 
 to good and useful work, had not been generally 
 in question, was William Allen, the Quaker 
 chemist and philanthropist. His activity in the 
 long struggle for the abolition of negro slavery is 
 well known, and he took a prominent part in 
 other benevolent works. The Friends had then, 
 and I believe have still, a meeting-house and a 
 colony in Stoke Newington. They were actively 
 
 quently puzzles me with words which I am to make 
 out with the ivory letters which have been and are a 
 source of amusement to us all. It is by these letters 
 that they have all learnt in turn, and the youngest now 
 makes a small sentence with them from her book when 
 she has a morning lesson, which is not every day. No 
 spelling-book has been used, and I abominate the 
 system of daily tasks, and getting so many words to 
 spell by heart. And as to a grammar, they will never 
 learn one, nor be troubled with the false notions it in 
 general contains. My eldest has, I believe, found one 
 among my books, and I leave her to read it or not as 
 she likes ; but I have no doubt that when she reads it 
 for herself some three or four years hence she will feel 
 none of the disgust at it which most young people do 
 to whom it has been made an irksome task.
 
 104 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 philanthropic and charitable, and were joined in 
 their many excellent works by the Evangelicals. 
 When I was young those few Unitarians who 
 would gladly have worked with these good people 
 were often withheld from doing so, partly by the 
 fear generally entertained of their negative belief, 
 which was held to be a denial of vital and 
 essential truth, and partly by their own readiness 
 to take alarm at the well-defined literalism of the 
 orthodox creeds. 
 
 ' I do the same with the Hebrew as with the English, 
 telling my child the words she does not understand as 
 they occur, and the frequent repetition of them im- 
 presses them upon her memory. The great fault in 
 our schools is inattention to nature. Languages are 
 made first, and are to be learned first ; the grammar 
 follows afterwards. Young children are better gram- 
 marians than their teachers, and I never correct mine 
 when they speak correctly, as, for example, when they 
 say gooses for geese, standed for stood. They will learn 
 soon enough the corruptions of language made by the 
 learned, the fashionable, and the inattentive. 
 
 ' I am not surprised at your design of establishing a 
 village school, and you are perfectly right in supposing 
 me to acquiesce in the principle of giving instruction 
 to the poor. It was very early in my thoughts, and 
 I have printed and disposed of many thousand little 
 books or papers on this subject, beginning with little
 
 MARY LISTER. 105 
 
 However, nobody was afraid of me, and I was 
 kindly permitted to help in a few interesting 
 charities, one of which was the invalid asylum 
 for young women, formed by Mary Lister, the 
 aunt of the physiologist, one of the most inde- 
 fatigable workers among the poor I have ever 
 met with. My father said she was the most 
 determined beggar he ever saw, and so she was ; 
 but the fruits of her begging were blessings to 
 many who had no one to help them, and who 
 would probably have been lost without her. 
 
 alphabets, and so on. This was in consequence of the 
 establishment of Sunday-schools, in which about thirty 
 years ago I was zealously engaged with some members 
 of the University. My experience in them may en- 
 courage you in your undertaking. I formed a school 
 of this kind in a parish,* which supplied, I think, 
 between thirty and forty children, and my help-mate in 
 the business was Miss Cotton, the eldest daughter of 
 Sir John Cotton, who is, I believe, alive at Bath. The 
 children on their first entering the school were as 
 ignorant as you could well conceive them to be. The 
 best of them could scarcely read a sentence. However, 
 we made a class of the best, and soon brought them 
 to read a chapter in the Testament much better than 
 most of the clergy ; for the rest, we distributed them in 
 classes, and after teaching them their letters, they were 
 
 * Madingley, near Cambridge, of which Wm. Frend was rector.
 
 106 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 While working with Mary Lister I made 
 acquaintance with William Allen, who kindly- 
 allowed me to attend the lectures on chemistry 
 which he gave, with experiments, to a class of 
 young girls. From him I learned the meaning 
 and importance of Dalton's discovery. The 
 atomic theory, then beginning to be understood, 
 was the first step in the raising of chemistry to 
 the rank of a science. Mr. Allen's quick per- 
 ception of facts was greater than his power of 
 following out extensive inferences. He was a 
 
 for a short time kept in short sentences, and then 
 introduced to Watts's hymns for children. First they 
 got a stanza, and then a whole hymn ; and miserable 
 and wretched hand as I was at music, with a hand- 
 organ on which I had some psalm tunes, and my 
 miserable flute, and the still less knowledge of the 
 blacksmith, our children in no great length of time 
 became such adepts in singing, that not only their 
 parents came early to church and stayed after the 
 service to hear them, but people came from the adjoin- 
 ing parishes to witness their improvement. The parish 
 church had pews on each side, and between them was 
 sufficient space for the boys to sit on one form, and the 
 girls on the opposite, and there was space between for 
 three or four persons to walk abreast. The psalmody 
 at the church was wretched before the institution of 
 the Sunday-school, being confined almost entirely to
 
 WILLIAM ALLEN. 107 
 
 good observer and classifier, but stopped at facts 
 and phenomena. In philanthropy the same ready 
 perception and hastiness of inference were ap- 
 parent. His exceeding benevolence and strong 
 impulse to help the suffering led him occasionally 
 into exaggeration of the evils he opposed ; but 
 all good causes need pioneers who overdo their 
 work at first. Without such the work would not 
 be done. 
 
 the clerk, assisted occasionally by the baronet ; but so 
 wretched work they made of it, that scarcely anyone 
 was induced to join them. But the face of things was 
 altered entirely by the children, who made this part of 
 the clerk's business a sinecure. They came to church 
 at eleven, and in the interval between their arrival and 
 the beginning of the service they sang some of Watts's 
 hymns, and this they did at the conclusion of the 
 service. There was no fear of absence in any of them, 
 for not one could be persuaded to keep away but for 
 some very urgent reason. 
 
 ' I used to get to the school at nine o'clock in the 
 morning ; Miss Cotton came, I think, at ten. In the 
 afternoon Miss C. went at four, and I went at five, and 
 the school broke up at six. The children came with 
 the utmost cheerfulness, as you may judge from this 
 circumstance : Our cleverest girl, from her over-sprite- 
 liness, broke in upon the discipline of the school, and 
 her punishment was to stay away. Of course she did 
 not appear at her usual place at church the next
 
 108 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 It was a sorrow to me in many ways when we 
 left our old house at Stoke Newington.* Every 
 blossoming tree — and there were many of rare 
 beauty — had been a friend and companion ; but 
 the greatest grief of all was to bid farewell to the 
 large spreading oak in the field, for it had a seat 
 among the branches, which was reached by a 
 little ladder set against the trunk. I used to 
 climb this on fine mornings, and had read a very 
 miscellaneous collection of books in the oak : 
 Spenser's Faerie Queene, books on natural philo- 
 sophy and chemistry, and, better than all, meta- 
 
 Sunday, but we were obliged to take her in the Sunday 
 after, as she was in danger of crying herself to death. 
 We used in our school the common little books for 
 reading, and some little books of the history of the 
 Bible, with questions at the end of each lesson, which 
 I made for this purpose ; and the upper classes always 
 read some portions of the Bible or Testament, on 
 which they were questioned in succession, answers not 
 being put into their mouths ; but they were encouraged 
 to think of what they read.' 
 
 * The following letter from the Duke of Wellington, 
 apparently in answer to an application for more police 
 protection for Stoke Newington, shows how great is the 
 contrast between that neighbourhood then and now. — 
 En.
 
 REMOVAL FROM STOKE NEWINGTON. 109 
 
 physical works, such as Thomas Browne's Essays 
 and Cousin's Histoire de la Philosophie. It was 
 far from being a systematic course of intellectual 
 training, but I suppose the beautiful sunrises 
 which I sometimes watched threw a light over it, 
 for a orood deal is still remembered. 
 
 o 
 
 During an autumn spent at Hastings before 
 our final transplantation into ' the smoke,' we 
 made the acquaintance of Thomas Campbell, 
 author of the Pleasures of Hope, a poem which 
 does not bear so fully the impress of rich poetical 
 feeling as did some of his short fugitive verses, 
 
 ' Cheltenham, 
 
 1 August 30, 1828. 
 
 ' The Duke of Wellington presents his compliments 
 to Mr. Frend, and has received his letter of the 28th 
 instant. 
 
 ' The state of the police in London and in its neigh- 
 bourhood has recently been the subject of inquiry by 
 a Committee of the House of Commons, and the 
 Government have now the subject under their con- 
 sideration ; but, of course, the remedy cannot be 
 applied immediately. 
 
 ' The Duke begs leave to recommend to Mr. Frend 
 that he should write or speak to Sir R. Birme respect- 
 ing the state of the police at Stoke Newington. 
 
 ' It might probably be expedient that the inhabitants 
 should associate for the purpose of protecting the
 
 i io ME MORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS 
 
 several of which appeared in the New Monthly 
 Magazine, of which he was the editor, and many 
 of which were never published at all. 
 
 In company with him and with Mrs. Pond, the 
 wife of the then Astronomer Royal, I had some 
 delightful walks in what was then a beautiful rural 
 neighbourhood — very different from what it is 
 now. Hastings fifty years ago was a primitive 
 little fishing town, having a bright sea on the 
 south and steep rocky cliffs to the north and east. 
 Wellington Square and Pelham Crescent were 
 just built, and St. Leonards, a mile and a half 
 distant, contained some houses. The Castle Hill, 
 with its fine ruin, was a steep rugged rock, 
 covered here and there with mossy turf, and 
 rising close behind black wooden houses and 
 fishermen's cottages ; and the steep East Cliff 
 over the Fish Market, and the White Rock, with 
 
 property of each against thieves, either by their own 
 personal exertions or by subscriptions to hire watch- 
 men and constables. 
 
 ' The Duke would beg leave to observe to Mr. Frend 
 that, inasmuch as the inhabitants of Stoke Newington 
 enjoy the advantage of being near the Metropolis, they 
 cannot expect at once to enjoy the advantages of a 
 town one hundred miles distant, viz., the comparative 
 absence of thieves.'
 
 HASTINGS FIFTY YEARS AGO. m 
 
 its coastguard station on the west, bounded the 
 little town, and all around it were open fields, 
 sweet wooded lanes, and breezy downs.* 
 
 One day Mr. Campbell walked with me over 
 the hills to Ore, turning to get many a view of 
 the sea, which was, as he had described it, 
 
 'Streaked like the rainbow or the ringdove's neck,' 
 
 and in going over the Camp Hill, behind the 
 castle, he repeated some lines which he said had 
 
 * The following correspondence between my grand- 
 father and father gives some account of Hastings at 
 this time. — Ed. 
 
 From William Frend to A. De Morgan. 
 
 ' Hastings. 
 ' Dear Sir, 
 
 ' We all arrived safe at this place, and after a 
 pleasant journey, and the first party, sleeping at the 
 inn, were ready the next morning to find a proper 
 house, which we did to the satisfaction of all parties. 
 This we changed yesterday for one said not to be so 
 good, and only two doors higher ; but we have room 
 enough, and the dining-room is only one floor above 
 the kitchen, whereas in the other house there was a 
 floor between these sisterly apartments. We have a 
 look-out from the drawing-room east and west, the 
 eastern prospect being bounded by the remains of an 
 antique castle, the western by sea and pleasant hills ;
 
 ii2 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 4 come into his head ' the day before. I do not 
 think they were ever published : 
 
 4 In the deep blue of eve, 
 
 Ere the twinkling of stars had begun, 
 Or the lark took his leave 
 
 Of the skies and the bright setting sun, 
 
 • I stood on the heights 
 
 Where the Norman encamped him of old, 
 With his barons and knights, 
 
 And their banners all broidered with gold. 
 
 ' Soon the ramparted ground 
 
 With a vision my fancy inspires, 
 And I hear the trump sound 
 
 As it marshalled our chivalry's sires. 
 
 1 By the conqueror's side 
 
 There his minstrelsy sat harp in hand, 
 In pavilion wide, 
 
 As they chaunted the deed of Roland. 
 
 ' Over hauberk and helm, 
 
 As the sun's setting splendour was thrown, 
 They looked over a realm, 
 
 And the morrow beheld it their own !' 
 
 and in going out of the windows on the veranda, we 
 have, sitting or standing, good sea-views on one side, 
 bounded by Beachy Head. As I am fond of extended 
 space, I am suited to a T. But this will not hinder me 
 from being well satisfied by a similar prospect to yours, 
 bounded by the houses on the opposite side of the 
 street. We have had capital weather till within these 
 two or three days, but it kept us in only one day.
 
 THOMAS CAMPBELL. 113 
 
 Another of our walks was through the fields to 
 Hollington Church, a small ancient edifice, then 
 unrestored, standing in the middle of a wood. 
 As people do in churchyards, we criticised the 
 
 Three of our party have had one equestrian exercise, 
 and Sophia is now with a party on horseback some- 
 where or other in the environs. 
 
 ' We have great works going forward in the near 
 neighbourhood, by which the sea will be prevented 
 from encroachments, and a beautiful wall will be 
 formed connecting the two towns, Hastings and St. 
 Leonards. Half-way upon the upland a capital 
 establishment is forming by the Catholics. It is said 
 to be intended for a college, but nothing is now to be 
 seen but part of the boundary walls. I am going 
 presently to see what progress has been made since I 
 was there ten days ago. Between fifteen and sixteen 
 acres are to be enclosed, and the establishment will be 
 of great advantage to both towns, as it will bring, 
 probably, a number of Catholic families to reside in 
 them ; but what effect it will have on their Pro- 
 testantism time will show. The mother and daughter 
 are so much alike that it is of little consequence which 
 has most admirers. 
 
 ' I have visited and subscribed to a mechanics' in- 
 stitution. It is in its infancy, and having seen only 
 two of its members, I can form no idea how far they 
 are likely to succeed. They have also a reading-room 
 for the more select inhabitants, which is about the size 
 
 8
 
 ii4 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 epitaphs, many of which, on the graves of poor 
 sailors and fishermen, were of strong imagery and 
 pious meaning. Mr. Campbell repeated an epi- 
 taph which he with Sir Walter Scott had found 
 in an old Scottish kirkyard, and which they both 
 
 of your study, but not so well filled with books ; but 
 they have some good specimens of minerals and insects. 
 But what pleases me the most is the liberality of a 
 gentleman in the town, who allows the members the 
 use of his library, and its catalogue lies upon the table. 
 I am about to avail myself of it. The example set by 
 the possessor of the library may be of use, and I hope 
 the time is not far distant when the cathedral libraries 
 may be made useful to the inhabitants of their towns 
 and neighbourhood. As it is, the books sleep as quietly 
 in their cells as the prebendaries in their stalls. 
 
 ' On the King's birthday I was at St. Leonards, and 
 heard the salute on the occasion from a vessel in the 
 offing, which afforded me an object on my way back. 
 Little did I or the men on board think of what was 
 soon to take place, for we had the news earlier than 
 you that it was soon after run down by a King's 
 frigate while lying at anchor and the sun shining upon 
 it. I find by the papers that a noble lord commanded 
 the frigate, and that he is under arrest ; but why, when 
 he had performed the gallant exploit, he did not go on 
 his voyage to Portsmouth it does not appear, so that 
 the story of the arrest appears to be doubtful. There 
 must, however, be an inquiry into the circumstances of
 
 THOMAS CAMPBELL. 115 
 
 thought one of the finest they had ever met 
 
 with : 
 
 1 Earth walked on earth, glittering in gold, 
 Earth went to earth sooner than wolde, 
 Earth built on earth temples and towers, 
 Earth said to earth, " All shall be ours !" ' 
 
 the case, which to the sailors here appear unaccount- 
 able. As the captain is a lord, he may get out of the 
 scrape. . . . Let me know how you are, and how you 
 enjoy your solitude there, having little more than a 
 million and a quarter of human beings within a walk of 
 you, and believe me ever yours, 
 
 ' Very sincerely, 
 
 ' William Frend.' 
 
 ' Wellington Square, Hastings, 
 
 ' 1835. 
 1 My dear Sir, 
 
 ' Here I am in the same house that I occupied 
 
 last year, sitting in the drawing-room, which has three 
 
 stories above and three below it. Before me is an 
 
 ancient ruined castle, and from the windows at my 
 
 back I have been contemplating the carrying away of 
 
 corn from a lately reaped field. The grass plat in the 
 
 square is as brown as an old coalheaver's hat, and the 
 
 clouds above which now cover the hemisphere do not 
 
 seem likely to let a drop fall to renew the verdure. 
 
 But we have no burning fields as you have near town, 
 
 though the ground is dry enough to catch fire when 
 
 the comet involves us in its fiery tail, that would take,
 
 1 1 6 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 He wrote this for me in the book already men- 
 tioned, and with it his own epitaph made on the 
 spot, and thus suggested. With reference to the 
 graveyard, or ' God's acre,' we talked of consecra- 
 tion, of religious rites, of religion in its constant 
 
 according to Lord Brougham, a thousand years in 
 cooling. 
 
 ' This place has undergone a very great change since 
 I first visited it. Then it was under the dominion of a 
 smuggler's son, who by one illicit trade got as much, or 
 more, money than his father by another. The son's 
 traffic was in Members of Parliament, and he was per- 
 petual Mayor, the corporation of freemen consisting 
 of seventeen persons. The Reform Bill has destroyed 
 their influence entirely, and the day after my arrival I 
 saw bills posted about the town announcing a meeting 
 of the inhabitants called by the Mayor to consider the 
 measures to be taken in consequence of the opposition 
 of the House of Lords to the Municipal Corporation 
 Bill. I at once determined to be a spectator, but about 
 two hours before the meeting took place one of the 
 requisitionists called on me and requested me to pro- 
 pose one of the resolutions. To this I at once gave my 
 assent, and, accompanied by three of his colleagues, 
 entered the town-hall about six in the evening. The 
 Mayor was seated on his throne, two maces with 
 their guardian sergeants in their usual places to the 
 right and left of him, and we took our seats on the 
 bench at a due distance from this exalted personage.
 
 THOMAS CAMPBELL. 117 
 
 connection with the departed, and of one of its 
 earliest forms — the worship of ancestors. Mr. 
 Campbell's idea of religion seemed to me noble 
 and beautiful, but vague. He was perplexed, 
 like many others, by the mystery of evil and 
 
 The hall very soon filled. It is a very pretty one, and 
 the Mayor opened the business of the meeting with a 
 very appropriate speech. He is a physician. The 
 petition, resolutions and a letter to Lord Melbourne 
 were proposed and seconded in due order, and all 
 passed unanimously. The Mayor signed the letter to 
 Lord Melbourne, which was sent by the next morning's 
 coach, and the petition duly signed by the inhabitants 
 followed in the evening. There was no mincing of the 
 matter either in the speeches or what followed them, 
 and if the rest of England resembles the community 
 here, the Lords may do what they please with the Bill, 
 but they cannot delay it beyond this session. I was 
 told afterwards by a lady that none of the elite of the 
 place were there. Of this I could be no judge, but I 
 happened to know one man in the crowd, and him she 
 acknowledged to be one of the most respectable trades- 
 men in the town. But I take it she was right in the 
 main. The aristocracy was assuredly not with us — that 
 is, about a dozen or score men whose purses, not very 
 heavy, are heavier than their neighbours'. It was, 
 however, a meeting legally called and legally held, and 
 most assuredly conveyed the sentiments of a very great 
 majority of the inhabitants.
 
 nS MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 suffering, and very doubtful of the reality of 
 another life. Speaking of the state of those we 
 had lost, he said— as the Positivists now hold — 
 their spirits lived in their works, and that we 
 must think of them only as still existing in the 
 
 'America is not the only place for houses to take 
 journeys, for the other day I saw a respectable mansion 
 with a slate roof in its progress from the west to the 
 east side of the town. It belonged to one of the 
 squatters on a piece of ground belonging to Govern- 
 ment, which has given orders for the whole to be 
 cleared away by Christmas. One man had a coach 
 manufactory upon it, which he has removed to a place 
 on the other side of the road, and erected a mansion 
 for the purpose, which may vie with some of the 
 respectable ones in London. His carriages are con- 
 veyed by a very simple and easy process to the third 
 story, and, by the way, it would not be amiss to adopt 
 it for saving people the trouble of climbing or descend- 
 ing the hills about us. When the space is cleared off, 
 it is to be covered, I understand, by houses of the best 
 description, so as to be a very great ornament to the 
 town. 
 
 ' The foundations of the Catholic cottage or convent 
 are not yet dug, but the stone walls around the 
 premises are nearly finished. They will enclose about 
 sixteen acres. Is Sir I. Newton's prophecy about to 
 be accomplished by the return of this country to its 
 ancient faith ? A native here has set up a penny paper,
 
 THOMAS CAMPBELL. 119 
 
 good done to others. I repeated a few lines of 
 his own beautiful poem, ' Hallowed Ground ' : 
 
 ' What's hallowed ground ? Hath earth a sod 
 Its Maker meant not should be trod 
 By man, the image of his God, 
 
 Erect and free, 
 Unscourged by superstition's rod 
 
 To bow the knee ?' 
 
 and exhorts the people not to turn their faces to the 
 Communion-table when they repeat the Creed ; he will 
 not find many converts, I trow, to his notions. What 
 will become of the Church if this should be given up ? 
 * * * * * 
 
 ' I presume that the memoir of Flamsteed is out by 
 this time. If it is, may I beg of you to take charge of 
 my copy, and let the people of my house have it, that 
 they may send it to me here with whatever letters or 
 papers they may have ? but, at any rate, do not let 
 them delay above a day or two in sending it. You are 
 too great a philosopher to trouble yourself about the 
 Lords, but I have my curiosity on float to see how this 
 Bill comes out of their hands. Lord Lyndhurst takes 
 the lead, I perceive, and he has had a rub on his former 
 opinions, or, rather, supposed former opinions. But 
 the matter of our body changes in twenty years, and 
 can its companion, the soul, remain in the same state ? 
 I hope you have read Lord Brougham and thoroughly 
 digested him. I have read him through, and am much 
 amused by much in it. The display of learning is con- 
 siderable, but I am uotcaught by it.
 
 i20 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 This answered the first question about con- 
 secrating graveyards. For the next, on another 
 life, 1 went on : 
 
 ' But strew his ashes to the wind, 
 Whose sword or voice hath served mankind, 
 And is he dead, whose glorious mind 
 
 Lifts thine on high ? 
 To live in hearts we leave behind 
 
 Is not to die !' 
 
 ' Let me know how you are, and what you are about. 
 Mrs. F. is this moment come in with a parapluie over 
 her head, there being about a drop to a square foot. 
 
 ' Ever yours very sincerely, 
 
 ' W. Frend.' 
 
 1 Hastings, 
 
 ' i835- 
 ' My dear Sir, 
 
 ' I have been boiling for a quarter of an hour in 
 a warm bath heat by Fahr. 98, and in meditating on the 
 effects of this sort of ablution, the following problem 
 forced itself upon me : A person resident in London 
 for nine months in the smokiest part of the city 
 deposits his body for a quarter of an hour in the sea- 
 baths. Query : How many baths will it require to 
 bring his skin to the proper colour, i.e., to the colour it 
 had before he came to town ? And, again, supposing 
 London not to receive any inhabitants from the 
 country — query in how many generations would the 
 people become niggers ? I leave the solution to your 
 sagacity, in which you may have some assistance from 
 prudent housekeepers in the country, who, when a box
 
 THOMAS CAMPBELL. 121 
 
 ' I owe you one,' he said ; and forthwith it 
 ' came into his head ' to write his own epitaph in 
 my book. 
 
 It shows the readiness with which he fell into 
 
 of linen comes from town, empty its contents on the 
 grass plot, keeping to windward during the operation. 
 * * * * * 
 
 ' We had a delightful day yesterday, and regretted 
 that you were not with us to enjoy it ; it would have 
 suited you to a T. Two barouches set off from my door 
 about noon, which conveyed us between nine and ten 
 miles from this place to a town distinguished by aiding 
 the Government of this country by its two members, 
 and by its corporation and commonalty, consisting 
 of about a dozen persons. The chief thing we went to 
 see was some ruins in the grounds of a private gentle- 
 man, and when we got half-way it was recollected by one 
 of the party that they were to be seen only on Mondays ; 
 consequently, when we came to the spot, it being 
 Tuesday, we were reminded of that element in our 
 day's work, and got no further than the porter's lodge. 
 However, we did what we could, saw the church, for 
 which I gave the woman a shilling, exhorting her not 
 to bestow a farthing of it on the church missionaries, 
 who are playing up their tricks in this poor desolate 
 place, famed, however, for being the last place at which 
 John Wesley preached in the open air. I did not, 
 however, bring away with me a bough of the ash-tree 
 under which he preached, for which I am now very 
 sorry, as it would have been a proper ornament for 
 your study, over the fireplace. I found there some
 
 122 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 the usual snare offered by my name to kind, 
 punning poets, and is a small specimen of the 
 sort of flourish then held to be the fitting way of 
 
 agreeable companions. The first I saluted was before 
 the prison, of which he gave me a good account, and I 
 could depend on its accuracy, as he had been confined 
 in it for nine months — a hint for travellers to take care 
 what authority they have for the accounts in their 
 memoirs. The second was a shoemaker, whose father 
 had been sent from the county of Durham to be a free- 
 man here and look after the interests of the borough. 
 The third was a miller, who was in high spirits at their 
 having got rid of their members, and at the hopes *of 
 being soon rid of the Corporation — two as great curses 
 as could well befall a town — and to these alone he 
 attributed its present desolation. 
 
 ' During my conversation with this latter wight the 
 carriages were getting ready (alias being got ready — 
 choose which you will, I am for the old Mumpsimus). 
 And now came on a scene in which we regretted more 
 than ever that you were not with us, for though you 
 would have been delighted with our journey to the 
 place, and walks about and conversation in it, yet the 
 return would have raised you to the third heaven. 
 Some few drops greeted us on setting off, but before we 
 were a mile from the place they came down just as you 
 would have them ; so it continued till we were safely 
 housed again. Lament your loss, and no longer ex- 
 patiate on your town delights. Two or three days ago 
 there was a party of pleasure out at sea. The sun 
 shone gloriously over them, the boat capsized, and
 
 THOMAS CAMPBELL. 123 
 
 addressing young women. A blank is left for his 
 
 name : 
 
 ' Epitaph on . 
 
 Here lies, on earth above, 
 
 From life's beginning to its end, 
 
 Who seldom tasted friendly love, 
 And saw too late one lovely Frend. 
 
 their jackets were well soaked before a fishing-boat 
 could get to them. They were half-seas over before 
 this agreeable adventure took place, so that there was 
 a pleasing contest between the wine within and the 
 water without. The news of this day is of a piece of 
 rock falling on a man, which only broke one or two of 
 his ribs and his thigh, and four toes were taken off by 
 the surgeons. Last week a large piece of rock fell 
 on a house, going through the roof to the bottom, 
 and carrying everything before it. Luckily, the 
 children were all up and out of the way, but the mother 
 was terribly bruised. The fall of this rock had been 
 foreseen, but the Lady of the Manor would not consent 
 to its being touched as it was so picturesque ; but she 
 is a kind of good-hearted lady, and has given her con- 
 sent to the owner of the house to take down, at his 
 own expense, what threatened a farther catastrophe. 
 What benevolence there is in the world ! 
 
 ' They are looking forward for the races — not I, I 
 can assure you, though, if they had been ass-raccs, 1 
 might perhaps have been tempted to look at them. 
 
 ' As you have not read Lord Brougham, it is not 
 likely that you have examined the two words to him by 
 a Mr. Jobert. I found in them five, however, worth
 
 i2 4 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 I did not see the poet after we settled in 
 Upper Bedford Place. He had some years before 
 been a friend of Lady Noel Byron's, and spoke of 
 
 noting. "Theology is not science." There is some 
 truth in this, and I am not astonished at the philo- 
 sophers who, looking on it in that light, run into 
 so many vagaries. The Bible begins with a truism, 
 which a blade of grass proves to us as well as the 
 Mecanique Celeste, or, I might say, much better, as the 
 commonest man may understand the former. The 
 proceedings of the Being who created all things are the 
 subjects of Bible history, not matters of syllogistic 
 reasoning. Everything proceeds in the world as it 
 had before been foretold, and the events of the past, 
 present, and the future times bear testimony to the 
 truths of revelation. Mr. J. quotes Helvetius and 
 other learned wights of the same description, Voltaire, 
 etc., of whom I have latelv had much conversation 
 with a young foreigner, who has now the opportunity 
 of digesting their doctrines at his leisure in the gaol of 
 Dover Castle. 
 
 ' Many more things I might expatiate on, but the 
 paper will not allow it, and, besides, are the)- not written 
 in the letters of S. to her numerous correspondents ? — 
 of which, if she has kept copies, she will doubtless 
 favour you with the perusal.' 
 
 From A . De Morgan to William Frend. 
 
 ' My dear Sir, 
 
 ' I hope that by this time you have received 
 Flamsteed and other things that I directed to be sent
 
 THOMAS CAMPBELL. 125 
 
 her to me with a regard amounting to reverence. 
 In this, of course, I sympathized. But when I 
 saw her next, and spoke of him, she regretted 
 
 to you. I hope that this will comfort you in your 
 exile, which I nothing doubt you bear with resignation 
 not unmixed with hope. I have been reading it pretty 
 diligently, and am much amused with it. The part 
 which struck me as most conclusive against Newton 
 was the letter to the Lord Something in p. 318. In 
 calling the money paid to Flamsteed a gratuity, I hold 
 it impossible to believe otherwise than that Newton 
 put his name to that which he knew to be false ; for 
 there is sufficient in the previous part to prove that 
 he, Newton, was aware, and admitted, that Flamsteed 
 had expended money upon account of preparing for 
 press. A great deal of the rest may be matter of 
 opinion, but this is evidence fit for a jury. The whole 
 is one more instance that, though a Tory Administra- 
 tion may make excellent rascals according to con- 
 ventional rules of their own, yet for thorough and 
 undeviating contempt of all rule whatever, there is 
 nothing like a Whig. 
 
 ' Mr. Baily admits that his house was haunted, and 
 that strange sounds have been heard in the room where 
 Flamsteed's MSS. are deposited. He is afraid of a 
 rap from the tail of Halley's comet, which ma)- bear 
 malice ; but, luckily for him, the comet has come 
 without a tail. I should recommend him to make 
 libations of brandy to the ghost, as Fl. says that 
 Halley was fond of it. I have got glorious bills from
 
 iz6 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 that their friendship had come to an end, for she 
 had had much esteem for him. But after Moore's 
 
 the printer for our Society, but as a set-off a hundred 
 and fifty pounds' worth of our memoirs have been sold 
 to the public (not to members) while our volume ix. 
 has been printing. Dollond tells me that there is a 
 very great demand for telescopes, owing, he supposes, 
 to the comet. 
 
 ***** 
 
 ' Mr. Phillott called this morning with your letter of 
 Thursday. I observe all your friends have been in 
 gaol, by your own account. Now, if I, who will stay 
 in town when all the people with free will quit it, were 
 driven to the Rules of the Bench for society, it would 
 not be so wonderful ; but that you should be driven 
 down to Hastings and find no better company is 
 altogether surprising. 
 
 ' When I was at Paris I made acquaintance with a 
 little German named Sturm. He was a very good 
 mathematician, and was known to all the members of 
 the Institute as such ; but nothing could be done for 
 him, as I heard admitted with sorrow at the table of 
 the Minister of Public Instruction, because he was not 
 a Frenchman. This little man has found a very simple 
 method of determining for any equation how many 
 roots it will have in your way of speaking, and how 
 many positive, how many negative, how many im- 
 possible roots it will have in the way of speaking of the 
 rest of the world. 
 
 ' Baily has come to town again between the partridge
 
 THOMAS CAMPBELL. 127 
 
 publication of the life of Byron, and during the 
 paper war which followed it, Mr. Campbell, who 
 
 and the pheasant shooting. His house is all of a heap, 
 tables and chairs riding about upon each other's backs. 
 He has got one room without a carpet to sit in. He is 
 in an awful state, as people always will be who do not 
 let things alone. The idea of a bachelor new-papering 
 his house — mats c'est affreux ! For myself, I have taken 
 to reading Cornelius Agrippa, seeing that, being alone 
 in the house, I ought to know how to exorcise a ghost. 
 I mean to make myself a shield, which I have found in 
 Agrippa with a device thus : 
 
 which I doubt not will drive away demons ; if not, I 
 mean to double its efficacy in this fashion : 
 
 There are a number of infernal spirits who haunt the 
 streets with diabolical machines, out of which they
 
 128 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 felt warmly the injustice of Moore's remarks and 
 conclusions, published a letter written to him by 
 
 grind uncouth music. If hanging the above as a hatch- 
 ment would drive them off, I would do it. 
 
 ' Here is a problem in dynamics : My next-door 
 neighbour has a parrot, a great brute, who screams all 
 day long, and will let nobody talk but himself. Now, 
 he has lately married. Required to know how long 
 will the lady stand that ? I shall be obliged to deter- 
 mine it theoretically, for I have no timepiece on which 
 I can depend for measuring very small intervals. I 
 think that Baily and Sheepshanks would make a 
 capital committee to determine and report on the 
 result. Dr. Lee should be counsel for the lady, and 
 
 Sir J S th for the parrot ; Miss Harriet Frend 
 
 crier of the court. 
 
 ' Stratford is still laid up at Ramsgate with the gout. 
 Whenever men get into office and become dons the 
 gout follows, of course. I rather hope it will do him 
 good, but it is trying medicine. Mr. Phillott tells me 
 that you do not intend to return till the middle of 
 October. I really begin to believe you like the country, 
 I never saw London so completely empty as at the 
 present writing ; people go away who never went away 
 before. If everybody goes away next year, they must 
 let me carry on the Government ; and if they find a 
 House of Lords and a church when they come back, 
 they will find more than I intend they shall find ! I 
 am not quite sure that I shall not abolish the monarch} 7 . 
 I shall certainlv reduce the civil list, and build a
 
 THOMAS CAMPBELL. 129 
 
 Lady Byron in strict confidence. It was a well- 
 meant advocacy, but it made him a dangerous 
 
 whipping-post, with an inscription purporting that it is 
 for those members of the House of Commons who 
 shall utter any distinction between public and private 
 character, or utter anything at all for more than three- 
 quarters of an hour at a time. I hope they would like 
 it, but I am not sure. 
 
 ' Your house has been painted outside, I think, by 
 the look of it. I detest all painting, plastering, paper- 
 ing, and putting to rights of every sort and description 
 whatever, except only with regard to books. My 
 mother always is wanting to have my room turned 
 upside down under pretence of cleaning and dusting, 
 but, unless when I am in the country, I never hear of 
 such a scheme. Ladies have an intense love of not 
 letting things be as they are, which doubtless answers 
 some wise purpose, but what it is I have not the most 
 remote conception. 
 
 ' My mother is returned from Brighton, tired of the 
 country, by her own report, after twenty-four hours. 
 She has been there a week, so that my dislike of the 
 vegetable world is a right of inheritance. I am now 
 going to close up this letter and set to to finish a 
 rascally business about functions. In the meanwhile I 
 give you this theorem to prove : " A discontinuous func- 
 tion of a discontinuous function may be a continuous 
 function." With kind regards to all your party, 
 
 ' I remain yours sincerely, 
 
 ' A. De Morgan.' 
 
 9
 
 130 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS 
 
 champion for one in her circumstances. It ap- 
 peared in an article written by him in the New 
 Monthly Magazine, of which he was editor. I 
 
 'September, 1835. 
 
 ' You have got your copy of Flamsteed in time. 
 The Admiralty have sent to Mr. Baily, begging to have 
 his lists again, to revise them. They say they have had 
 applications from foreign Governments, and have no 
 copies for them. This cannot be true, but I make no 
 doubt the fact is that they have been bullied by some 
 person or other for printing a work at the public ex- 
 pense and distributing it all in presents. It was 
 always my opinion that some ought to have been for 
 sale. However, the presentation was the act of the 
 Lords themselves ; but in the meanwhile one hundred 
 copies are lying at our rooms for different people. 
 Baily went down to-day to confer with Lord Auckland, 
 and I make no doubt he will set the matter right. He 
 has Captain Beaufort's letter, informing him that the 
 Lords, etc., approve of his lists. The copies aforesaid 
 are in my custody at the rooms, being received there 
 as the property of certain individuals named or speci- 
 fied. Without an order of the Council, I don't think I 
 will give them up until it is settled whose property they 
 are. The law is that a letter becomes the property of 
 the person whose address it bears from the moment 
 when it drops into the letter-box. If it shall be judged 
 that the cases are analogous, they shall not have them 
 from me (without the interference of the Council afore-
 
 THOMAS CAMPBELL. 131 
 
 was told by the friend who remonstrated with 
 him on this breach of confidence that he cried 
 
 said), if they send a squadron for them. But I cannot 
 help thinking they are not aware how specific were the 
 directions from themselves under which Baily acted. 
 They would exceedingly disgust a great many people if 
 they were to alter the destination of the actual edition. 
 They had much better print another. I fancy Baily 
 is not a little annoyed about it. N.B. — He was made a 
 Doctor at Dublin. I directed his diploma to him to- 
 day, which was sent to our rooms. I think you can 
 remember when a retired stockbroker would as soon 
 have been an Archangel as a Doctor in one of our 
 orthodoxy shops, if he had been Newton three times 
 over. This is no bad sign of the times. 
 
 '■Monday, September 21. 
 
 1 1 called on the Doctor yesterday. He had an 
 amusing interview with Sir John Barrow, who was very 
 much puzzled to know how many names got on the 
 list. He asked who Gauss was, which shows his 
 qualifications for making out a list of mathematicians. 
 Finally they agreed to all and everything, so there is to 
 be no dispute about the property of the copies. It was 
 the last act of Lord Auckland's Administration, and he 
 is going out to India immediately. 
 
 1 Sheepshanks is gone wandering, he does not know 
 
 where, to get rid of himself; Long is at Birmingham ; 
 
 Stratford is better, but still laid up. 
 
 ' A. De M.'
 
 i 3 2 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 like a child, and became fully conscious of the 
 error he had committed. 
 
 His friendship with Mrs. Joanna and Mrs. 
 Agnes Baillie lasted, I believe, through his life. 
 He spoke to me of his great value for the friend- 
 ship of Professor and Mrs. Dugald Stewart, who 
 were, he said, the happiest couple he knew, 
 though the husband was twice as old as the 
 wife.* 
 
 When, soon after the time I last wrote of, 
 
 * During the summer of 1836 my mother and her 
 family, before settling in Upper Bedford Place, passed 
 some months at Clifton, and were present at the first 
 meeting of the British Association held at Bristol. 
 The subjoined correspondence gives some account of 
 this period and of the meeting of the Association. — Ed. 
 
 From William Frend to A. De Morgan. 
 
 1 Clifton, 
 
 'July, 1836. 
 
 ' I have enough to interest me here. The float, with 
 Brunei's experiment for cleansing it. I am soon to go on 
 board of it with Tate, who is in his office, and is now 
 here to inspect the forming of an exalted bridge over 
 the Avon. We are going this afternoon to the pictures 
 of Mr. Ackermann, the only merchant, as I was told by 
 a physician (with whom I casually entered into con- 
 versation by the roadside) in Bristol. This gentleman
 
 SOCIAL REFORMERS. 133 
 
 we settled in London, we found ourselves among 
 a little knot of philanthropists. Some were 
 
 created in me a great desire to see his warehouses, and 
 a day or two after I had not only that pleasure, but the 
 additional one of being conducted over them by the 
 owner. The quantity of tea in them is enormous, and 
 he trades directly with China, of which, and his im- 
 provement in anchors, he gave me a full account. I 
 have not yet been to see the collieries at Kingswood, 
 but am meditating an excursion to them. The railroad 
 to London is another object, and from my window I 
 have a view of a flag on their intended western railroad ; 
 I see it with my glass, the others with the naked eye. 
 Besides, we are to have a meeting here on a subject in 
 which you take no interest, but I do a very great one ; 
 and last night I received a pamphlet from a person 
 whom I casually met on a seat under a tree, which 
 seems to be a place of nightly resort to him, so that I 
 have a resource for a little chat ; he has been a 
 strenuous opposer of a Church rate, and his arguments 
 are making way, not only here, but all over England. 
 
 1 Could my late dear friend Morgan and the late Bishop 
 of Winchester, Tomline, be brought to life, and they and 
 myself be examined by a Committee of the two Houses, 
 we should fill a good-sized folio volume of reports on 
 the Church question, which would throw a new light 
 upon it, of which, from seeing what occurred in the 
 debate on Friday night, they seem to stand much in 
 need. One orator was out in his statements about two 
 hundred and fifty per cent. Thank your stars that I
 
 13+ MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 political, some social reformers, and all were 
 bent on discovering a panacea for the evils 
 
 did not take up a sheet of long paper, or you would 
 have had more of my twaddle to go through.' 
 
 From William Frend to A. De Morgan. 
 
 4 Clifton, 
 
 ' My dear Sir, 'August, 1836. 
 
 ***** 
 
 ' The people of Bristol are busily employed in 
 the preparation for the grand meeting. I have had 
 occasional conversations with members of the local 
 committee, and I have no doubt that everything will be 
 done by it to give satisfaction. By the way, I hope 
 and trust that Mr. Bailey will be here. I can assure 
 him that, if he has not been at Bristol for some years, 
 he will find abundant matter to engage him. Brunei's 
 machine for cleaning the harbour, his magnificent idea 
 of throwing an iron rod a hundred and fifty feet in 
 length over the Avon, the other preparation for the 
 suspension bridge, and last, not least, the observatory, 
 will claim his attention. I speak not of several other 
 things. The Bristolians are a different race from what 
 they were fifty years ago. They have found out how 
 much they have lost by their selfishness, and every- 
 thing promises prosperity to the place. Pray do not 
 wait for a parcel of letters, but let me know by post, as 
 soon as you have seen Mr. Bailey, in what manner I 
 can be of use to him. I shall be delighted to see him 
 here.
 
 SOCIAL REFORMERS. 135 
 
 which were developing so rapidly then, and 
 have increased so fast since that time as to 
 
 ' I was grieved at the history from the Euphrates. 
 Lieutenant Murphy,* I am glad to see, is alive, but I am 
 afraid that he has lost his instrument. Is the pendulum 
 safe ? 
 
 ' Among the papers that came in your packet is a 
 long list from the Statistical Society, of which I am an 
 unworthy member. I will put them into the hands of 
 some Bristolian, and if he makes good use of them, I 
 shall thus be the means of contributing towards it. 
 Babbage will, I presume, shine in this department. I do 
 not know whether there is to be a mathematical section, 
 but if there is, I am half inclined to give it a paper. 
 
 ' Notwithstanding the diatribes of Sir R. Peel and 
 Sir J. Warrender, the present Government will, I hope, 
 stand. The faults are natural enough, but should the 
 other party kick them out, the triumph will be of short 
 duration. What shall we think of those who opposed 
 the emancipation of the Jews ? You must give the 
 Government credit for supporting that measure, and 
 shall we be better off should Exeter Hall gain the 
 ascendency ? 
 
 * Lieutenant H. F. Murphy, R.E., who accompanied Lieu- 
 tentant-Colonel Chesney, R.A., as astronomer, on the Govern- 
 ment Expedition for the Exploration of the Euphrates, which 
 started in 1835. 
 
 The bad news referred to was the foundering of the Tigris, 
 one of the two steamers employed in the expedition, with 
 twenty hands. — Ed.
 
 136 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 puzzle the best thinkers and farthest seers of our 
 veneration. We had become interested while at 
 
 • I rejoice that you have so much delight in town, 
 
 whilst I have so much here ; but for these two days we 
 
 have been enveloped in mist, which has extended to 
 
 a great distance from this place, and probably you have 
 
 had it ; if so, pray tell me the cause of it, and believe 
 
 me ever, 
 
 ' Yours very sincerely, 
 
 ' W. Frend.' 
 
 From William Frend to A. De Morgan. 
 
 1 Clifton, 
 
 ' September^ 1836. 
 
 ' There were, my dear sir, in those days, vide- 
 licet, some five thousand years ago, giants in the 
 earth, mighty men, men of renown ; but, alas ! there 
 was not in those days an AthencBum, and their names 
 are gone into oblivion. I have been into the society of 
 giants, superior to the former, inasmuch as science is 
 superior to brutal strength. The place of meeting was 
 the chapter-house of a cathedral — think of that ! I 
 was there cheek by jowl with various personages for 
 whom the Church of England charitably offers up its 
 prayers one day in the year — Jews, Turks, heretics, 
 and infidels. By the way, I did not see a Turk there, 
 but I confess my being there filled my mind with awful 
 reflections. To be in such an assembly and in such a 
 place ! Well might a preacher last Sunday at a church
 
 EARLY EFFORTS IN CO-OPERATION. 137 
 
 Hastings in a co-operative association, one of 
 the first formed in England. They had a store 
 
 in Bristol exclaim against the profanation of so holy a 
 structure. But even in Bristol this sentiment was by 
 no means universal, for I heard of a man, a most 
 bigoted Churchman and a desperate Tory, who so far 
 got over his prepossessions as to go to the meetings of 
 various sections, and before the end of the week so 
 notable a change was effected in his mind that he 
 confessed that there might be good and wise men, 
 though they differed from him in religion and politics. 
 Giants, however, will sometimes fail like inferior men. 
 Of this we had an instance in the 6 irapa irav. I 
 was sitting in the row behind Babbage, about three 
 above him, and had a complete view of his face when 
 he rose to speak, and its contortions would have 
 amazed a phrenologist or physiognomist. He got on 
 very well, i.e., with his usual hesitations, for a couple of 
 minutes, whilst we were all attention to the oracle, 
 when on a sudden he broke down ; we encouraged him 
 by the clapping of hands for a minute or two, but 
 all in vain ; his wits went a-woolgathering, and after 
 divers twists of his face to collect them, down he sat, 
 and I will defy you to act the part so well in any 
 assembly. 
 
 ' But joking apart, I was very much gratified with all 
 that I saw and heard, and making due allowance for 
 the extravagant encomiums passed by the heroes on 
 each other, I am persuaded that these meetings are 
 very useful. Everything was well conducted in the
 
 1 38 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 in George Street. The founders or managers, of 
 whom Mr. Rickman Godlee, a large iron-mer- 
 
 two chapter meetings, in which the business of the 
 society was conducted, and considering that our last 
 meeting occupied between four and five hours, this is 
 saying a great deal. The place of the next meeting 
 gave rise to an amusing debate, but at last the matter 
 was settled by an overpowering majority for Liverpool. 
 The choice of the next president took up much less 
 time, but I did not understand the object of one 
 speaker till I was out of the room. He proposed that 
 the election should be by ballot, each person writing 
 down a single name ; but the snare did not take. 
 Lord Burlington was elected by acclamation. The 
 fact, as I understood afterwards, was that some few 
 wished to bring forward Sir R. Peel, but the open 
 mode of proposing him would not have answered this 
 purpose. How far Lord B. is calculated to preside I 
 don't know. Lord Northampton performed his part 
 to admiration, notwithstanding a slip or two ; but he 
 never broke down like our friend Babbage. 
 
 ' I was only once at the theatre, and once was 
 enough ; for though the coup (Vail of the audience was 
 capital, I could hear but little of the speakers' harangues. 
 Being a red ticket, I got myself and party with ease 
 on to the platform, that is, all but one ; but he, being 
 guilty of not keeping close by us, was, while we were 
 getting on, asked for his ticket, and his wife discovered 
 him some time after in the midst of the pit. I paid for 
 my hardihood, as I carried with me the elements of an
 
 EARLY EFFORTS IN CO-OPERATION. 
 
 39 
 
 chant, was a leading member, were many of them 
 Quakers. There were many intelligent working 
 
 incipient cold, which kept me at home the whole of the 
 Thursday. 
 
 ' The favourite sections were the mechanical and the 
 geological. The mathematical was next to them, 
 longo sed intervallo. There was one inconvenience in 
 the distance of the sections from each other, but of the 
 doings in all of them accounts are to be found in the 
 Athentzum. 
 
 ' The laying of the first stone of the suspension 
 bridge was a grand feature in this memorable event. 
 It was at too early an hour for me to see the spectacle. 
 In the evening, however, I was on the spot ; for while I 
 was sitting in my room very quietly, Mrs. Frend came in, 
 very much agitated, for she just saw the basket on the 
 rod over the Avon, and being told that Charles Tate* 
 was in it, she could stay no longer, and hurried home- 
 ward with fearful presentiments. I went up imme- 
 diately, and found that, after a suspension in the air for 
 a short time, he was safe back on the land. With this 
 news I came back and quieted the alarm ; but it was 
 felt at Richmond, for the next morning we had a letter 
 from his mother, whose mind was harassed by the 
 vague reports in the newspapers. They are by this 
 time quieted as to the safety of her son, but as the new 
 rod will be over in a few days, and he most assuredly 
 
 * Son of the Rev. James Tate, afterwards Canon of 
 St. Paul's, and at that time a pupil of I. K. Brunei. — Ed.
 
 140 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 men connected with this society, and Lady Byron, 
 who had lent money, and otherwise helped the 
 
 will be the first living matter that goes over, I am afraid 
 that she will not be quieted till she hears of his safety. 
 I hope they will try the experiment with dead matter 
 before they think of a living subject for their experi- 
 ment. 
 
 ' We are now thinking of our departure, which is to 
 be on Thursday. The route is not yet determined 
 upon, and our arrival in town will depend on circum- 
 stance, as we go circuitously, and may stay more or 
 less time in one place, according to circumstance. 
 
 ' Yours very sincerely, 
 
 ' William Frend.' 
 
 From William Frend to Lady Noel Byron. 
 
 ' Clifton, 
 
 '1836. 
 ' My dear Lady Byron, 
 
 'Little did I think when I left town that I 
 should be present, much less that I should have a part, 
 insignificant as it was, in the transactions of last week. 
 The papers have given you an account, and an en- 
 larged one, of the proceedings. They have made a 
 deep impression on my mind. Saturday last, between 
 twelve and one, I found myself in the cloisters of the 
 cathedral, waiting, with many others, the opening of 
 the door of the chapter-house. About a hundred 
 persons entered, several well known to me, but with
 
 CO-OPERATION. 141 
 
 little institution, was one of the first members. 
 It was at her request that my father, who was 
 
 the majority I was not acquainted, except by name, as 
 the most distinguished were pointed out to me. This 
 was a meeting of business, most judiciously arranged, 
 and very pleasantly discussed. The different com- 
 mittees of sections were appointed, and I found myself 
 enrolled in Section A — Mathematics. On going home, 
 after having shaken hands with various persons for 
 whom the Church of England charitably prays one day 
 in the year, I could not but think of the strangeness of 
 the circumstance that I, a Unitarian, sitting behind a 
 Quaker LL.D., and having on the right, left, and 
 behind, Catholics, Protestant Churchmen, and Dis- 
 senters, should be in the Chapter of a Cathedral. This 
 circumstance has not escaped the vigilant eye of the 
 clergy, for on Sunday last this desecration of the vener- 
 able building was denounced from the pulpit. Be it so 
 or not, it speaks volumes, and, like the appointments of 
 a Catholic and a Jew to the shrievalty of London, is a 
 characteristic feature of the age in which we live. A 
 notable change has taken place in the public mind, 
 which cannot but be accompanied with great results. 
 
 ' In the evening I was sitting quietly with my party 
 between nine and ten, when a gentleman called on me 
 to take me in his carriage to a conversazione about a 
 mile off. It was at the house of the late Mayor, who, 
 unfortunately, held the office at the time of the riots. 
 There I found assembled about a hundred, the greater 
 part well known in similar meetings in town.
 
 142 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 experienced in Benefit Society work, visited the 
 place and made acquaintance with the founders. 
 
 The early efforts at Co-operation differed widely 
 from the establishments we now find so useful. 
 
 ' On Monday morning at ten o'clock I entered 
 upon my official duties, which, in fact, were merely 
 nominal, as everything had been previously arranged, 
 and this consisted only in the selection of papers and 
 the order in which they should be read in the section. 
 This opened at eleven, and we had that day a large 
 audience. The principal feature was a dry mathe- 
 matical subject, very well explained, to those who 
 could follow him, by Sir William Hamilton, into whose 
 hands, by the way, I put a paper very prettily written 
 out by Sophia, which he has not returned to me. 
 This was the paper of which I gave you a hint, but, on 
 due consideration, I did not think it expedient to make 
 it public. 
 
 ' The popular sections were the geological and the 
 mechanical ; in the other sections was a great deal of 
 interesting matter. I was glad to hear Baron Dupuis in 
 the statistical, and Mr. Phillips in the geological. In the 
 latter, a country gentleman of Somersetshire gave an 
 account of some interesting experiments he had made, 
 which would never have been heard of if it had not 
 been for the Association. All that is really valuable is 
 done in the sections, and I cannot doubt that they will 
 be of very great advantage. The free communications 
 of opinions will elicit truth. Books get slowly into the
 
 CO-OPERATION. 143 
 
 The Army and Navy, the Civil Service Store, 
 and others, differ in principle from the early real 
 co-operative stores, being managed by members 
 of other professions for their own advantage, 
 making a profit and paying dividends, like any 
 other joint stock company, to the shareholders. 
 
 hands of persons living in remote quarters ; here they 
 will know what is passing in the world. But to the 
 places which are visited the advantage is incalculable, 
 as, for instance, at Bristol a stanch Tory and bigoted 
 Churchman was freed from his prejudices by seeing the 
 cordiality which existed between men differing in re- 
 ligion and politics, and he has now become sensible that 
 there may be good and worthy men out of his party. 
 
 ' The business of the Association ended, as it began, 
 in the chapter-house. We met between twelve and 
 one, and did not separate till five ; the Marquis of 
 Northampton in the chair, and both here and in the 
 public meetings he performed his part to general 
 satisfaction. There was some debating on the next 
 place of meeting. Invitations had been received from 
 five places. The contest lay between Liverpool and 
 Manchester, but, on coming to the vote, the majority 
 in favour of the latter was overpowering. The name of 
 the next president was attended with general acclama- 
 tions, and assuredly Lord Burlington had the strongest 
 claims. 
 
 ' Yours very sincerely, 
 
 ' W. Frend.'
 
 i 4 4- MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 The humble store in George Street, * Hastings, 
 aimed at affording facilities for working people to 
 exchange their work and produce without more 
 
 * This early store at Hastings, akin to so many 
 efforts of the kind, is more fully described in the follow- 
 ing correspondence. — Ed. 
 
 From Lady Noel Byron to William Frend. 
 
 ' Brighton. 
 ' Dear Mr. Frend, 
 
 ' To the best of my judgment, I would pay my bill 
 to society by aiding anyone who has the merit of being 
 in the industrious, instead of the idle, class. If it be not 
 consistent with the most practicable views of benevolence 
 to "sell all I have and give to the poor," I cannot feel 
 myself acquitted of a violation of the precept unless I 
 study how I may employ "all I have " in the service of 
 the poor, and to improve in that service is the attain- 
 ment in which I am most desirous to excel. I may say 
 that I have been blessed with many poor relations, 
 whose claims upon me cannot admit a question ; but 
 there is enough for strangers too, and I am anxious to 
 seek out those whose characters and circumstances are 
 well attested. 
 
 ' A few days ago I attended a meeting of the co- 
 operative society, and were you brought into contact 
 with the members, you would be convinced that their 
 objects are laudable and tending to the public good. 
 Cowie, the bookseller in Paternoster Row, is now the
 
 CO-OPERATION. 145 
 
 than the absolutely necessary loss on transfer. 
 The problem to be solved by the project was a 
 complicated one, and involved social as well as 
 
 publisher of the Co-operator, some of the last numbers 
 of which present curious considerations. 
 
 ' Yours very sincerely, 
 
 ' A. J. Noel Byron.' 
 
 From William Frend to Lady Noel Byron. 
 
 '22, Wellington Square, 
 
 'Hastings, October, 183 1. 
 ' My dear Lady Byron, 
 
 ' The interest you take in the co-operative 
 societies was a sufficient inducement for me to attend, 
 at the request of Mr. Noel,* a meeting of one under that 
 name in this place. Before I went to it, I looked over 
 its rules, prefixed to which is an account of its object, 
 namely, the mutual happiness and common wealth of 
 its members, in securing and affording to them all the 
 means of satisfying their physical and intellectual 
 wants. A noble object this, most assuredly, and it 
 seems that about two hundred persons had embarked 
 in this design, towards which they each subscribed £2. 
 
 * Mr. Robert Noel (afterwards a major in the militia) was 
 the son of the Rev. Thomas Noel, the rector of Kirkby 
 Mallory, and a cousin of Lady Byron's. He was much 
 interested in the cooperative movements of the day, and was 
 a contributor to various magazines, etc. His brother, Mr. 
 Thomas Noel, was well known at the time as the author of a 
 song called ' The Pauper's Drive.' — Ed. 
 
 IO
 
 146 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 financial elements.* There were all kinds of 
 farm produce — bacon, butter, cheese, fruit and 
 vegetables — and there were articles of clothing of 
 
 This number diminished soon to forty, of which their 
 present society consists ; and they have with this 
 capital set up a shop in which they sell groceries, shoes, 
 and some other articles. Each member is to lay out 
 3s. a week in the shop, or pay one penny for each 
 shilling deficient towards the common stock. Each 
 member may withdraw his capital on March 25 in each 
 year on giving three months' notice, and from this 
 article the society was reduced to its present state, and, 
 if it continues, may be still more reduced. 
 
 ' At the meeting were present fifteen persons (several 
 of them in gabardines), and of that description of 
 which a proper society might be formed ; but as to 
 obtaining any of the objects they propose, I told them 
 plainly that in their present state it was absurd to 
 expect it. In fact, they are nothing more or less than 
 a joint-stock company — keeping a shop, and expecting, 
 like other shopkeepers, a return from it ; and this even 
 cannot be attained by them if the capital is to be 
 diminished ad libitum by the withdrawing of the 
 members. As to any co-operation towards the satisfy- 
 
 * The great difficulty in this scheme of Co-operation is in 
 the payment of workers. The simplest method is, of course, 
 exchange of work. But that is quite impracticable without 
 waste and loss. The next step is payment by tokens. These 
 eventually become money, and money leads to the accumulation 
 of capital.
 
 CO-OPERATION AT HASTINGS. 147 
 
 a coarse, substantial kind. But it was not possible 
 for working men, some of whom had other work 
 to do, to compete with producers who had capital, 
 
 ing of their intellectual wants, nothing can be done in 
 the present state of the society ; and a meeting is to 
 take place next Monday sennight to alter the rule 
 with respect to the withdrawal of capital, and to sub- 
 stitute for it that each member shall be at liberty to 
 dispose of his share to any other person approved of by 
 the committee, so that the capital now in the society, 
 and what may be subscribed by future members, may 
 remain as a permanent fund, on which they may do 
 business like other shopkeepers. If this resolution 
 should pass, the society would be on a permanent foot- 
 ing ; and if they conduct their business properly, they 
 may be able to do something. They will so far be a 
 co-operative society as each member assists by his 
 subscription, and by laying out 3s. a week or equivalent 
 in pence ; but it must be some time before they have 
 profit enough for any essential purpose. 
 
 ' I have promised to attend the next meeting, as Mr. 
 Noel mentioned to me that you are willing to advance 
 £5 towards the undertaking. I beg leave to suggest 
 that, in case the resolution passes, it may not be amiss 
 to give them this little aid, and I will, on your 
 authorizing me to do it, advance it in your name 
 anonymously ; but I recommend that it should be with 
 this proviso, that in whatever manner the future profits 
 may be adjusted, the profits accruing to this £5 should 
 be constantly added to it, and form part of the perma-
 
 148 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 choice of workmen, and every other advantage. 
 The co-operative store at Hastings died a natural 
 death, notwithstanding the strong efforts made by- 
 friends to keep it alive. 
 
 nent stock, and not be infringed upon till the society 
 breaks up and the permanent stock is divided among 
 the members. 
 
 ' If upon this footing, and by the addition of fresh 
 members, a sufficient capital should be formed — since 
 they deal for ready money and purchase for ready money 
 — it is possible that they may be able to co-operate to 
 some purpose. They may then think of a reading- 
 room and of a school, and I should be glad to see such 
 a design put into execution. From the language I 
 have heard from a labourer, I am sure it is much 
 wanted here. I wish it could be repeated in a Com- 
 mittee of the House of Lords, for they would then 
 know the estimation in which they are held by the 
 labouring classes. It grieved me to hear the ex- 
 pressions, and to feel there was but too much ground 
 for them. We have lent the labourer Detroisier's 
 book, and I hope it may have a good effect upon him. 
 I shall go to his field of labour, and in the interval of 
 his work have further chat with him. The paying of 
 the labourers out of the poor-rates has produced in- 
 calculable mischief, and this has prevailed very much in 
 this country, and the demoralizing system of smuggling 
 increases the evil. 
 
 ' I expect in a day or two a dozen copies of
 
 CO-OPERATION. 149 
 
 Lady Byron, who did a very great deal, through 
 a long period of years, both in giving money to 
 establish institutions, and in trying to arouse 
 
 Detroisier's pamphlet, of which I mean to leave some 
 for the use of the members of the house of commons* ; 
 Mr. Noel will tell you where their St. Stephen's is. 
 
 ' Your ladyship knows that I have not very sanguine 
 expectations from these co-operative societies ; the 
 requisites towards the forming are not easily found. 
 The accounts require skill and care and honesty. The 
 plan of them in this society appeared to be good, but 
 they require constant looking after, and, from what I 
 could judge of the men, I saw few of them who were 
 capable of managing them. However, if they could get 
 together one hundred members, they would in that 
 number find, assuredly, sufficiently qualified men to form 
 a committee of five for conducting this business. At 
 any rate, the trial will not cost much, and if they 
 should succeed in the shopkeeping, these men would 
 gradually become better members of society. 
 
 ' There is no want of instructors in this town. I 
 have visited two of their schools and one Sunday- 
 school. At the latter I gave one of the teachers my 
 golden rule for teachers of every description : never ask 
 a child a question in words which he does not under- 
 stand, and which you do not understand. This rule 
 being enforced would destroy nine-tenths of the books 
 
 * A little house on the side of the Castle Hill at Hastings 
 where the fishermen congregated.
 
 150 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 interest in the principle of Co-operation, was not 
 surprised by the failure of the Hastings scheme. 
 She did not expect much from it, for the diffi- 
 
 used in the Sunday-school, and no small quantity in 
 the other schools. 
 
 ' I have seen the King's speech, and am much 
 pleased with his firmness. A reform of the House of 
 Commons will inevitably take place, and it will be for 
 the interest of King, Lords, and Commons, not of the 
 boroughmongering peers, who do not at the utmost 
 constitute a third of the House of Lords, nor of the 
 boroughmongering jobber ; but every office under 
 Government, whether Army, Navy, Church, Excise, 
 Customs, etc., will be better filled. The bishops have 
 acted a very foolish part. My friend Maltby is an 
 exception, and he ought to have been made a bishop 
 at least a dozen years ago. A reform in the Church 
 establishment is inevitable, but whether it will be the 
 means of bringing over people to my Church time only 
 can determine. Pray tell Mr. Noel we miss him, but 
 the Admiral and I have our walks and talks together. 
 
 ' Ever yours very sincerely, 
 
 ' W. Frend.' 
 
 'Fordhook, Acton, 
 
 ' October, 1 83 1 . 
 ' Dear Mr. Frend, 
 
 ***** 
 
 ' I congratulate the co-operators of Hastings on 
 their acquisition of such a friend, and I think that, as 
 you become more intimate with the concerns of the
 
 CO-OPERATION. 151 
 
 culties and complications were great, and needed 
 a stronger organizing power to meet them than 
 any of the leaders possessed. Lady Byron told 
 me with what pleasure she had visited the store, 
 and accepted the kind invitation of the members 
 
 societies, you will see the moral uses to which the 
 scheme may be made subservient. The magnificent 
 prospects held out by the visionaries have turned the 
 attention of the co-operators from what was immedi- 
 ately practicable, whilst the public have been led to 
 ridicule the whole system. 
 
 ' I wish to leave the mode of appropriating the ,£5 to 
 your discretion, as well as the mention of my name. 
 The donations and loans which I have made to various 
 co-operative societies (generally anonymously, but 
 amounting to several hundred pounds) might have 
 been more effectual if accompanied by some con- 
 ditions. These I am still at liberty to make in some 
 instances, and will consult you further on the subject. 
 I have corresponded with one of the Roscoes respect- 
 ing the Liverpool co-operatives, who have set a good 
 example during the scenes of intemperance and turbu- 
 lence in their town. 
 
 ' As soon as I can get a frank, I will enclose the £5 
 
 and some papers. With kind remembrances to Mrs. 
 
 Frend and your daughter, and Ada's thanks for ours, 
 
 believe me, 
 
 ' Yours most sincerely, 
 
 ' A. J. Noel Byron.'
 
 152 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 to dine with them — a visit which, she said, was 
 one of the pleasantest she had ever paid, the 
 only drawback to the entertainment being the 
 large proportion of onions in the stewed mutton, 
 a dish not suited for a guest in very delicate 
 health. 
 
 The next venture of the kind, in which we 
 all felt an interest, was Robert Owen's gigantic 
 attempt at a Utopia, near Gray's Inn. We were 
 for a short time in Guilford Street, not far from 
 the scene of this great undertaking. It was in a 
 building called the Rotunda, and included a large 
 lecture-hall, a space adapted for balls, concerts, 
 and other entertainments, and, I think, places set 
 apart as schools for the children ; but at the time 
 when I saw it these were not completed. The 
 members of this projected community were to 
 come from the slums and alleys in the neighbour- 
 hood, which is now, owing to the improvements 
 in London, a thriving quarter. I believe that 
 the persons who were to benefit by the institution 
 varied in condition from decent tradesmen and 
 servants to tidy laundresses and others lower in 
 the social scale. 
 
 When I first saw Mr. Owen, he was lecturing in
 
 ROBERT OWEN. 153 
 
 the new institution on ' Politics, Social Equality, 
 and Education.' As we went in, we caught the 
 words, ' I am a friend of the ballot.' 
 
 ' Who is that long-nosed friend of the ballot ?' 
 my sister, a merry girl, whispered to me. 
 The words that followed seemed to give the 
 answer. 
 
 ' I am a creature of circumstances. We are all 
 what we are made by the circumstances in which 
 we are placed at birth, and under which we grow 
 up. Tell me the latitude and longitude of a 
 man's birthplace, and I will tell you what he will 
 be and do. 
 
 ' Now, we want to make all men exert them- 
 selves for the good of all, for the good of the 
 whole number includes that of the individual. If 
 we place the mass in favourable circumstances, 
 we shall find each individual constituted accord- 
 ingly.' 
 
 This was the exact purport, if not the exact 
 words, of the discourse. The lecturer went on to 
 explain how he meant to surround all the inhabi- 
 tants of that wretched district with all the comforts 
 and luxuries needful to make life happy. To 
 accomplish this, the chief agency was to be
 
 154 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 co-operation in the work, and equality in the life, 
 of his disciples. There were to be lectures, 
 concerts, balls, and conversaziones in the place, 
 and a large portion of it was to be appropriated 
 to the purpose of the exchange and mart. We 
 went with three or four very earnest, if rather 
 Utopian, reformers to a ball at the Rotunda, said 
 to number 2,000 persons. It was wonderfully 
 quiet and orderly, for some hundreds of persons 
 dancing quadrilles do not present such a lively 
 appearance as half the number whirling in round 
 dances. What I observed among the members, 
 especially the young women, was a quiet self- 
 satisfaction, indicating consciousness of superior 
 enlightenment, and advancement. In the interval 
 of the quadrilles, one of the ladies in a rather 
 limp white dress, garnished with pink ribbons, 
 and having amber beads round her throat, and a 
 cheval-de-frise of hair-pins, visible in her coiffure 
 en giraffe, expounded to me the principles of 
 social co-operation. 
 
 'Man,' she said, 'is what he is made by 
 circumstances. According as his circumstances 
 are improved, he rises in the social scale. 'Appi- 
 ness is our aim, and we encourage recreation
 
 ROBERT OWEN. 155 
 
 calculated to dewelop the 'ole individual while 
 his intellectual capacities are enlarged. But this 
 is 'indered by superstition and ignorance, so we 
 must put down kings and priests, and get rid of 
 all class distinctions.'* 
 
 This was a very rough abstract of the doctrine 
 preached among the extreme reformers of that time, 
 more strongly by some of his followers than by 
 Mr. Owen himself, for he was by nature a con- 
 structor rather than a puller-down of institutions ; 
 and though his philosophy contained some weak 
 points, his system had a foundation of truth which 
 might have made it live if it had not come too 
 soon into the world. The weakest part, both of 
 his opinions and his carrying- out of them, was 
 the belief that all individuals were born alike, and 
 that fitting circumstances and training were all 
 that was needed to form character. Akin to this, 
 or a part of it, was his idea that character is 
 moulded from without, instead of having its origin 
 within the soul. These fallacies, on which so 
 much of his structure was based, were the causes 
 of its failure. I do not know how the El Dorado 
 
 * Remember that Board Schools had not begun their work 
 sixty years ago.
 
 156 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 in Gray's Inn Lane went on, but it had not come 
 to an end several years after.* 
 
 * The following description of Robert Owen's school 
 is taken from a contemporary copy of the Star news- 
 paper. — Ed. 
 
 1 The building in which Mr. Owen's new school of philosophy is 
 taught has some peculiarities. In front of the building outside is 
 inscribed, " School of the Rational System of Society, established 
 1831." In two side compartments are the following : "To prevent 
 the longer continuance of ignorance ; to remove the cause of 
 poverty and crime." Below this, in front : " Robert Owen's 
 Institution. Open Sunday 11 a.m., 7.30 p.m. ; Wednesday 8 p.m. : 
 and Thursday 8 p.m." 
 
 ' Mr. Owen has placed inscriptions on all sides of the interior. 
 In front are the three following : 1st, on the left : " This institution 
 is open to develop the rational system of society, intended to 
 supersede the irrational system, by which alone the world has 
 been hitherto so ignorantly and so miserably governed." 2nd, in 
 the centre, behind the teacher's desk : " Sacred to truth, without 
 mystery, mixture of error, or fear of man." 3rd, on the right : 
 " The highest practical duty of man is to exert all his powers, to 
 remove inferior and vicious circumstances from around society, and 
 to replace them with superior and virtuous circumstances only." 
 
 1 On the opposite end, in front of the gallery, is written in two 
 compartments : 1st. " The old system of the world is founded on 
 the belief that the character of man is formed by himself." 2nd. 
 " The new rational system of society is founded on the knowledge 
 that the character of man is formed for him." On the one side : 
 " The fundamental facts on which the rational system of society is 
 founded are : 1st. That man is a compound being, whose character 
 is formed of his constitution or organization at birth, and of the 
 effects of external circumstances upon it from birth to death ; such 
 original organization and external influences continually acting and 
 reacting each upon the other. 2nd. That man is compelled by his 
 original constitution to receive his feelings and his convictions in-
 
 SOCIALIST LECTURERS. 157 
 
 There was a little lecture-hall — I dare say 
 it is there now — in a narrow cul-de-sac behind 
 St. Pancras Church, and at that time the philan- 
 thropists used to engage this for propounding 
 their plans for improving the world. One of 
 these, whom I remember lecturing either there 
 or at the hall in Edward Street, was Miss 
 
 dependent of his will. 3rd. That his feelings or his convictions, or 
 both of them united, create the motive to action called the will, 
 which stimulates him to act, and decides his actions. 4th. That 
 the organization of no two human beings is ever precisely similar 
 at birth, nor can art subsequently form any two individuals, from 
 infancy to maturity, to be the same. 5th. That, nevertheless, the 
 constitution of every infant, except in case of organic disease, is 
 capable of being formed or matured either into a very inferior or 
 a very superior being, according to the qualities of the external 
 circumstances allowed to influence that constitution from birth." 
 On the other side : "The science of society, or social state of man, 
 includes : 1. A knowledge of the laws of human nature derived 
 from demonstrable facts, and which prove man to be a social 
 being. 2. A practical knowledge of the best mode of producing in 
 abundance the most beneficial necessaries and comforts for the 
 support and enjoyment of human life. 3. A practical knowledge 
 of the best mode of distributing these productions most advan- 
 tageously for all. 4. A knowledge of the principles and practice 
 by which to form the new combination of circumstances for train- 
 ing the infant to become the best matured of human beings. 5. A 
 knowledge of the principles and practice by which to govern man 
 under these new arrangements in the best manner as a member of 
 the great family of mankind. 6. A knowledge of the principles 
 and practice for uniting in one general system, in their due pro- 
 portions, the five preceding branches of the science of society ; 
 to effect and secure in the best manner for all, the greatest amount 
 of permanent benefit and enjoyments with the fewest disad- 
 vantages." '
 
 158 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 Frances Wright, the American. She lectured 
 on everything in general, and on Woman's 
 Rights and Socialism in particular. She was 
 thoroughly in earnest, and her sentiments were 
 often good ; but when I heard her she went over 
 the heads of her hearers. There was a ring of 
 Positivism in one sentence which I remember. 
 In giving us her views on a future life, she said : 
 ' Man special lives for ever, man individual comes 
 to an end when the body dies.' 
 
 Most of this school of social reformers and 
 political reconstructors, in their strong reaction 
 against priests and priestly authority, cast off all 
 established forms of religious belief, and many 
 adopted all kinds of wild theories, thrown together 
 irrespective of history, to account for existing 
 religious institutions. The most amusing ex- 
 pounder of this 'gammon,' as it was irreverently 
 called by one who could have said much on the 
 Eastern origins dwelt upon, was a woman who 
 announced herself as Hisis going to remove her 
 wail. The placards called her The /sis. She 
 told in high-sounding words how all the modern 
 creeds were travesties of Buddhist, Egyptian, 
 Chaldean, and Roman mythologies ; talked know- 
 ingly of Precession of the Equinoxes, Zodiacal
 
 A SOCIALIST MILLENNIUM. 159 
 
 signs, and Eleusinian mysteries ; raised some of 
 her hearers to the seventh heaven by her antici- 
 pation of a coming golden age, and threw some 
 into a hopeless puzzle or a quiet slumber. As 
 was natural, many of the reformers went to hear 
 what she had to say. I do not know who this 
 woman was, but from the fact that the substance 
 and composition of her lectures, which she read, 
 were much above the pronunciation and delivery 
 of her words, she probably was paid to read some 
 other person's writing. As may be imagined, 
 reformers and enthusiasts congregated in this 
 hall. After one of the lectures there, a lady, 
 whom I knew slightly, asked if I were going to 
 the Rotunda on a day she named. I was not 
 going, and asked what was expected. 
 
 ' It's the Millennium,' the speaker said. ' It's to 
 begin next week.' 
 
 ' How will it show itself?' 
 
 1 There will be turnips as big as your head, 
 and carrots as long as my arm, and grapes and 
 peaches, and everyone will have all he wants !' 
 
 I did not witness the introduction of the millen- 
 nium, and I believe that soon after this time the 
 Rotunda, with its happy auguries, came to an 
 end. The excellent and truly philanthropic
 
 160 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 founder spent three fortunes on his efforts to 
 raise his fellow-men, and his failures* were the 
 consequence of his implicit trust in human nature, 
 and his conviction that anyone may attain per- 
 fection in any line if properly educated. 
 
 * With one exception. I believe there is still a social com- 
 munity founded by Mr. Owen in America.
 
 [ i6i ] 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Phrenology — Gall and Spurzheim — Experiments in character- 
 reading — Daniel O'Connell — A supposed skull of Crom- 
 well — Lady Noel Byron and her friends — Dr. Andrew 
 and Mr. George Combe — Dr. Tuckerman — Mrs. Fry — 
 Prison reform — The silent system — Mrs. Joanna Baillie 
 — The training of children. 
 
 Just about the time that all the reformers were 
 insisting on the principle that all are born alike, 
 and that only education and training are needed 
 to develop any faculty in any direction, a new 
 doctrine was introduced, which promised to be a 
 strong weapon in the hands of antagonists. Dr. 
 Gall had observed the form of head in connection 
 with character, and had framed, from observation 
 alone, a system of psychology which I venture to 
 say has never been surpassed or superseded. For 
 it should not be forgotten, in criticising Gall either 
 from a psychological or a physiological point of 
 view, that this very complete system, which might 
 have been supposed to be the fruit of a very 
 
 1 1
 
 1 6 2 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 skilful and thoughtful arrangement of faculties 
 according to their supposed share in carrying on 
 the mind's work, was not the result of any study of 
 mental operations, nor of anatomical examination. 
 It appeared as the outcome of a large series 
 of observations on the external head, made 
 without any previous reference to manifestation 
 in character, or calculation of the effects of the 
 combined action of the parts. I do not know 
 whether Gall's doctrine is true, according to Dr. 
 Ferrier, but I should like to know by what 
 wonderful coincidence it was that external indica- 
 tions, observed and noted down separately at 
 haphazard, should have displayed, when brought 
 together and considered as a whole, a very 
 perfect system of mental philosophy. We heard 
 Dr. Spurzheim lecture at the London Institu- 
 tion. His explanations and demonstration of the 
 functions of the brain were clear and instructive, 
 but they were not — indeed, they could not be — of 
 the deeply philosophical character of the six 
 volumes Sur les Fonctions die Cerveau, by Dr. 
 Gall. 
 
 It was difficult to see how Mr. Owen's first 
 principle, that of identity of character in all, or a 
 blank in place of character, at birth, could be
 
 PHRENOLOGY— GALL AND SPURZHEIM. 163 
 
 reconciled with Gall's doctrine that each person is 
 born with more or less susceptibility of develop- 
 ment in many and various directions ; but many 
 followers of Mr. Owen and the Communist party 
 took up phrenology, and some among them 
 welcomed it as a great agent of reform. It might 
 have alarmed them for the success of the com- 
 munistic part of all the various schemes which 
 depended on keeping members at the same level ; 
 for we know that if one level were ever estab- 
 lished, it would be destroyed in a week. A friend, 
 combating the theories of a leading Socialist, who 
 was talking of equal rights in these latter days, 
 
 said to him, ' My dear , what makes you able 
 
 to write as you do, when I cannot write at all ? 
 what right have you to have more brains than I 
 have ?' Only those schemes of reform which 
 allow for an aristocracy of Nature, which in 
 itself implies a giving by the strong to the 
 weak, have a chance of ultimate success. Mr. 
 Owen's followers found a way of escaping from 
 the dilemma involved in the absolute opposition 
 of the two principles, and several of my friends 
 went so far as to say that, although the outward 
 form indicated character at any given time, it 
 could be rapidly changed by a change in conduct.
 
 1 6+ MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 The question of inheritance, which lies at the root 
 of the whole, had not been entertained, and the 
 mysterious problem, the relation of brain to char- 
 acter, was very roughly handled in those days, and 
 does not fare much better now. 
 
 One of my friends — I will not give his name, 
 for he has done good work in many social 
 directions — believed that phrenology was destined 
 to be an all-powerful agent in bringing on the 
 millennium. Beginning with himself, he applied 
 his belief as follows : To estimate his own 
 progress from day to day, he took the dimen- 
 sions of every separate organ with a measur- 
 ing tape every morning, kept the record, and 
 compared his measurements from time to time. 
 The process was gone through by the aid of a 
 looking-glass before he got up in the morning. 
 By the comparison of his different results he could 
 learn, he said, whether his character was stationary 
 or not, and what had been the effect on the form 
 of his head of the mental and moral discipline 
 he had gone through since the last measure- 
 ment! 
 
 At that time there was a Mr. Holmes, a 
 German, living in London and lecturing on 
 phrenology. He took casts, and had a very
 
 EXPERIMENTS IN CHARACTER-READING. 165 
 
 good collection of these, as well as of the skulls 
 of criminals, idiots, and other abnormalities. The 
 collection was lodged in a house in Bedford Street, 
 Bedford Square. When I first saw them they 
 were used by Mr. Holmes to illustrate his phre- 
 nological lectures. After one of these lectures, 
 at which my father, my sisters and I were present, 
 the lecturer pointed out to us some heads which 
 he thought worth observation, as bearing evidence 
 of the agreement of character with external form. 
 In going round the room I descried a cast which 
 I knew. It was that of our friend Mr. De 
 Morgan, and I had seen it before, and heard a 
 description of the uncomfortable process of having 
 a plaster-of- Paris likeness taken. The head was 
 on the top tier of a high stand among a choice 
 company of idiots, hydrocephalic people, and the 
 like. I asked the lecturer what was the special 
 characteristic of that individual, and why he had 
 that place. 
 
 'Ah,' said Mr. Holmes, shaking his head and 
 looking sorrowful as over a 'bootless bene,' 'that 
 is the head of a man who will never do anything. 
 There is every kind of capacity in this head.' 
 He took down the cast and pointed to its pro- 
 portions. * Wonderful endowments in science,
 
 1 66 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 in literature, in every way ; but they are all 
 lost.' 
 
 ' Why so ?' 
 
 ' There is no power to make them active. The 
 poor weak temperament cannot sustain any con- 
 tinued effort, so the fine organization is quite 
 useless.' 
 
 ' What a lamentable case !' 
 
 ' Ay, indeed. If this individual had had a 
 temperament equal to his organization, he would 
 have been a none-such.' 
 
 I need not say that the prediction was not 
 fulfilled. With respect to pronouncing upon 
 character from the estimate of external size and 
 form, we soon learned that a far deeper study and 
 better insight into human nature than is possessed 
 by most manipulators are needed to show the 
 relation of the brain to the moral and mental 
 nature, in any but the most archaic fashion. 
 
 Having told an instance of the non-success 
 of phrenology, let me mention two or three 
 successes ; happy hits they were called, and 
 perhaps were nothing more. They came rather 
 later in my life than those I have mentioned. 
 
 In my visits to Lady Noel Byron, which visits 
 were always like short peeps into Paradise, I
 
 ACTON— MR. AND MRS. KELLY. 167 
 
 made acquaintance with many of the friends who 
 looked up to her as the centre of all that was 
 good and lovable. They became friends of mine, 
 and I owe to my dear friend, to whom we all 
 looked up, many of those happy associations 
 and incidents I have related here. Colonel 
 Montgomery's family lived at Acton — now hardly 
 more than a suburb, then a pleasant country place 
 — near to Lady Byron. His sister had been her 
 confidential friend since the time when they were 
 both children, and I could hardly say which of 
 these two women, so different, yet so devoted to 
 each other, was most beloved and venerated 
 by myself. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Kelly, properly O'Kelly, were 
 neighbours, having a house on Acton Green, 
 near the old church. It is now, I imagine, 
 demolished or used as an institution, and the 
 beautiful garden is either a waste or built over.* 
 This garden deserves a passing mention. On 
 one side was a small wood of tall shady trees, 
 and in the centre of this dark grove a circular 
 basin, filled by a fountain and surrounded with 
 flowers. This spot was said to be haunted, and 
 
 * I have lately seen this house. It is not much changed, 
 but the garden has lost its beauty.
 
 1 68 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 none of the household would go there after 
 dark. 
 
 Lord Derwentwater, the rebel, had lived in this 
 house. The terrace, under a sunny wall at the 
 far end, was his favourite resort, and he was 
 taken through the large iron gates to be exe- 
 cuted at the Tower for high treason. It was, I 
 believe, his ghost which was supposed to haunt 
 the secluded fountain, and I think he or it showed 
 good taste in so doing. The O'Kellys were old 
 Roman Catholics — not new converts, hot and 
 strong, ready to spring a mine of theological 
 argument at every shaky Protestant they met, 
 but quiet, steady, perfectly unquestioning believers 
 in the authority of their ancient Church, and living 
 so as to prove themselves members of the highest 
 Church of all. The struggle for repeal was 
 going on, and Daniel O'Connell, Sheil, and their 
 compatriots were in England. Mr. O'Connell 
 was an old friend and guest of Mr. Kelly's, and 
 on one occasion when he dined at Acton, my 
 friends kindly invited me to accompany Miss 
 Montgomery to meet the Liberator. 
 
 Mr. Kelly's daughters, bright, clever girls, had 
 long been pets of Mr. O'Connell. The youngest, 
 especially, who combined excessive humour with
 
 DANIEL O'CONNELL. 169 
 
 exceeding sweetness, was believed to be able to 
 ' twist him round her finger ' — a wonderful feat, if 
 taken literally, for he was a large, burly man, with 
 a large head and a powerful voice and presence. 
 I think after we went into the drawing-room, and 
 saw the great man in a little knot of priests and 
 patriots, that I said, out of hearing, something 
 about this fine head. Then the devil entered 
 into my dear Adelaide's young heart, and 
 prompted her to say : 
 
 ' Sophy, you must tell Mr. O'Connell's bumps.' 
 
 'Yes,' said Miss Montgomery treacherously; 
 ' it will be capital fun.' 
 
 So the merciless little plotter went to the 
 Liberator, and having sat down on his knee, 
 told him there was a friend of hers who could 
 tell him all he thought, and all he had to do for 
 Ireland, etc. He asked this knowing one's name, 
 and was told. 
 
 1 Which is she ?' 
 
 I suppose I was indicated, and he acquiesced. 
 I heard him say, 'Miss Frind'; and then his 
 brown wig was off, and I was introduced. 
 
 ' Now thin,' he said, ' tell me all mee sins.' 
 
 ' No,' I said, ' that is Father 's business. 
 
 I will tell you all the virtues I can find. I don't
 
 170 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 want to have my grave dug and my coffin made 
 by to-morrow morning.' 
 
 It was rather a fine opportunity for a phrenolo- 
 gist, or would have been, if I had had more confi- 
 dence in my own powers, which were far from 
 strong, in measurements of heads. However, I 
 ventured to mention some salient points, and, 
 seeing the Liberator's love of approbation not 
 small, I endowed him with many saintly and 
 heroic qualities, meanwhile writing with a pencil 
 the relative sizes of all the largest and smallest 
 developments in the head, as well as I could 
 discern them in the short time allowed. I have 
 lost my list, and only retain a dim recollection of 
 its details ; but on the following day it was sent 
 to one of my relations in London, who had 
 remarkable power of combining the elements of 
 character deducible from the proportions of the 
 organs. My friend was told that the brain was 
 large and powerful, and its owner a man not 
 unknown in the world. This, with the ' organs ' 
 given as No. n, large; No. 6, very large, etc., 
 was all the data she had from which to draw up 
 her report. When we received it there were 
 some points of resemblance so marked, and at 
 the same time so characteristic, in the portrait,
 
 A PHRENOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT. 171 
 
 that it was held to be impossible to show it to 
 the original. It is not very long since I mislaid 
 the paper on which this character was written, so 
 my memory may be trusted, though I have not 
 the words to copy. 
 
 He was described as having deep and strong 
 feelings of humanity, being dependent on religious 
 authority, but not devout in the sense in which 
 the old saints and martyrs were so. He was 
 strong and eloquent in speaking, but his oratory 
 not so full of poetical imagery as of intense feel- 
 ing and description, and, always deeply sympa- 
 thetic, was sometimes of a violent character. He 
 was affectionate to his friends and devoted to his 
 children, and happy when he had a number of 
 people around him — never so happy as when 
 followed by a long retinue of people. How my 
 friend evolved the last puzzled us all. There 
 was more that we thought very characteristic, 
 but I am afraid to repeat what I cannot perfectly 
 recollect. 
 
 For the next attempt at discovering character 
 by the form of the head, the subject being one 
 publicly known, I must pass over a few years, to 
 the first after my marriage, and come back to 
 Acton days afterwards.
 
 172 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 My husband's uncle, General Briggs, was a 
 good friend and ally of mine. He took very great 
 interest in many questions which were just then 
 rising among thoughtful people, and among these 
 were my own half- understood subjects, anti- 
 quarianism and mental science, including its 
 supposed adjunct, phrenology. His work in 
 India, both military and administrative, and his 
 scholarly translation of Ferishta, have been told 
 of by his biographer, Major Evans Bell. 
 
 One day General Briggs came to me with a 
 tempting invitation to accompany him in a visit 
 to Mr. Wilkinson, a gentleman living at Camber- 
 well, who had in his possession an old skull or 
 mummied head, which was supposed to have 
 belonged to Oliver Cromwell. I greatly rejoiced 
 in the opportunity of seeing this relic, and gladly 
 accompanied General Briggs to the pleasant house 
 at Camberwell, where a few friends, among whom 
 were Mr. G. R. Porter and other leading members 
 of the Corn Law League, were already assembled. 
 
 It was well known that there were many heads 
 claiming the honour of having belonged to the 
 Protector, and Mr. Wilkinson told us that 
 Mr. Donovan, who was held to be Deville's 
 successor, and other phrenological authorities,
 
 A SUPPOSED SKULL OF CROMWELL. 173 
 
 could not detect anything sufficiently character- 
 istic to determine the identity of this. But the 
 possessor's account of the head, and of the way in 
 which it came into his possession, gave it a strong 
 claim to be considered genuine. 
 
 It will be remembered that Cromwell, after 
 being embalmed, was buried in Westminster 
 Abbey, where he rested quietly until Charles II. 
 came to the throne. He was then taken up and 
 decapitated, and the head, fastened on a spear, 
 was stuck up, with two others, on Temple Bar. 
 It was blown down into the street, and picked up 
 by a soldier, who took it to Mrs. Claypole. After 
 her death it passed on to her descendants until 
 it came into the possession of a spendthrift 
 member of the family, who sold it to a broker 
 for £100. Here my memory fails as to the 
 succeeding owners, but our host showed us letters 
 and documents which seemed to satisfy good 
 judges of its genuineness. After reading and 
 showing these to us, the precious relic was 
 brought out for our inspection. It was a mum- 
 mied head rather than a skull, for the hair, thin 
 and grizzled, remained on some parts ; and the 
 integument was dried, but not gone. A wooden 
 spear-head of the sort used in the seventeenth
 
 174 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 century held it, being passed through the throat 
 and out at the top of the head. The fleur-de-lis, 
 the spear-top, must have been screwed or fastened 
 on afterwards. 
 
 A surgeon in the party called our attention to the 
 throat, the fracture of which showed, he said, that 
 the head must have been severed from the body 
 after death. It would have appeared differently 
 if decapitation had occurred during life. There 
 was a remnant of hair left, and a little rough 
 spot on the skin over one eye, where Cromwell 
 had a wart ; but all our party could not agree that 
 this mark showed the place of one. The head 
 must have been large during life, for it measured 
 nearly twenty-three inches in circumference, and 
 would probably have been an inch larger before 
 the flesh and skin had shrunken. There were 
 several fine organs in the head. Benevolence 
 and conscientiousness were large ; hope and 
 ideality smaller. The shrinking of the eye 
 made it difficult to conjecture what language 
 had been. The range showing family affections 
 appeared to have been large. 
 
 The lady to whom these data were entrusted 
 drew from them a character very like that given 
 in Noble's 'Cromwell'; but she had only been
 
 LADY NOEL BYRON. 175 
 
 told that the elements sent her belonged to a 
 historical character not now in this world. 
 
 I must now return to Acton, and am glad to 
 find an opportunity to mention some traits of one 
 whose characteristic individuality has been lost in 
 the interest attached to the circumstances of her 
 hardly-tried life ; for there is now, I believe, no 
 other person living whose recollection, reaching 
 so far back as 18 16, would enable him to speak 
 as I can of Lady Noel Byron. I was seven years 
 old when I first saw her. My father and mother 
 had a house for the summer on Clapham Common, 
 which was a far more rural suburb then than it is 
 now, even having a claim to be called country. 
 Lady Byron was expected to visit us, and my 
 mother, waiting her arrival, took my sister and 
 me to walk on the Common before the house. 
 As we turned towards home we met our guest, 
 who had seen us as she left her carriage and 
 crossed the green, followed by the nurse who 
 carried the baby, then a few months old. 
 
 A baby was a delight and a mystery to us 
 children, and the little visitor had a lovine 
 welcome. She was a beautiful child. Of her 
 mother I can only say, as Mr. Carlyle said to 
 me many years after, hers was a face never to be
 
 176 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 forgotten. Her complexion was fair and clear, 
 and her features delicately formed, though not 
 regularly beautiful, with the exception of her eyes. 
 These were large and tender, and of a deep blue 
 which seemed to kindle as one looked into them. 
 She had fine eyebrows and a quantity of soft 
 brown hair, but the great charm of her face was 
 its sweet and intellectual, but rather mournful 
 expression. I heard from the friends who had 
 known her intimately in her early youth that she 
 was a bright, cheerful girl, always trying to make 
 all around her happy. When, later in life,- I 
 became intimate with her, the same characteristic 
 traits were prominent. They were happy hours 
 which I spent with her. She was always ready, 
 when not overtired with writing, or with seeing 
 people — both generally for the purpose of doing 
 some kindness or giving help — to have a talk on 
 some interesting question, one, perhaps, as old as 
 the world, and still unsettled. These questions 
 chiefly touched on religion, education, moral 
 philosophy, and all their relations. I never 
 heard Lady Byron dogmatize, but her veneration 
 for some persons made her shy in speaking at 
 length to them, and the effort sometimes to 
 condense her idea made the language appear
 
 LADY NOEL BYRON. 177 
 
 precise and formal. But to those with whom she 
 was familiar her conversation was natural and 
 delightful. 
 
 Her nature was exceedingly affectionate. She 
 threw herself entirely into the feelings of those 
 she loved, and sometimes was disappointed by 
 finding that she had herself suffered more from 
 her sympathy than had the objects of it. This 
 was especially the case in the matter of those who 
 had done wrong, to whom she often attributed 
 the same agonies of remorse which she would 
 have felt in their places. Speaking of this 
 tendency in her own mind, she said : ' I believe 
 that some of my greatest errors have originated 
 in too great readiness to believe repentance 
 sincere. It has misled me in the most impor- 
 tant events of my life.' I once, many years after, 
 asked whether she would wish that all the circum- 
 stances connected with those events should ever 
 be made known. She said : ' Perhaps, after the 
 lapse of thirty years or more, when all were gone 
 who could be pained by the story, it might be 
 useful to the young to know it.' 
 
 One evening her old and dear friend, the 
 Countess of Gosford, was, with Miss Mont- 
 gomery and myself, at Fordhook. After some 
 
 12
 
 178 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 conversation, of which the chief subject was the 
 condition of Ireland — a matter of near personal 
 interest to the two Irish ladies — one of the party, 
 I think Lady Gosford, said that an improvement 
 in the state of Ireland was something too good 
 to hope for. It was then asked, If we could 
 each have our wish, what would each of us 
 desire? Miss Montgomery said she had so many 
 wishes she could not choose among them ; but 
 she asked me mine. I, who had just lost a dear 
 sister, said at once, truly, that I wished most to 
 feel sure of another life, and that we might meet 
 all we loved in it. 'Yes, indeed,' Lady Byron 
 said, ' such a faith as Dr. Tuckerman's is worth 
 wishing for ; but if I had been asked the question 
 when I was beginning life, I should have said that 
 my strongest desire was "to love, and to be loved." 
 
 Among her most esteemed and valued friends 
 were Dr. Andrew Combe and his brother. 
 Dr. Combe was a scientific phrenologist, and 
 his applications of Gall's system to physiology 
 and education were in some respects more pro- 
 found than those of Mr. George Combe, whose 
 useful book made the subject popular and 
 intelligible. 
 
 Lady Byron was greatly interested in this
 
 LADY NOEL BYRON. 179 
 
 study. Many instances had come to her know- 
 ledge of perfect delineation of character by prac- 
 tised phrenologists, but it often happened that 
 she was herself unable to reconcile the outward 
 appearance of a head with what she knew of the 
 character of the owner. I remember one of 
 these puzzles. We had looked at Miss Byron's 
 head and agreed that the indications of great 
 power in many ways were very striking. But 
 one day Lady Byron told me that she had been 
 reading some of Lord Byron's beautiful minor 
 poems — they were all on the book-shelves in the 
 drawing - room — to her daughter, and she was 
 surprised and disappointed by finding how little 
 they were appreciated. ' On the contrary,' she 
 said, 'the words of a popular song' — I forget 
 what — 'were thought quite as good.' But the 
 head showed imagination, wonder, constructive- 
 ness and harmony, with very high intellectual 
 powers. How could these fail of making a 
 poet? We found a solution of the difficulty. 
 Language was not so powerful as the others ; 
 had it been so, there would probably have been 
 a musical poetess instead of, or perhaps as well 
 as, a cultivated poetical musician. As has been 
 often noticed in other cases, music and mathe-
 
 180 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 matics were indicated in this head, and were both 
 strong elements of character. 
 
 The wish for ' a faith like Dr. Tuckerman's ' 
 might have been shared by all willing to do 
 Dr. Tuckerman's work. He was, I believe, the 
 founder, certainly the first worker, of Missions 
 to the Poor in Boston. Lady Byron's happiness 
 in making his acquaintance, and seeing the effects 
 of his steady, undeviating confidence in the sus- 
 taining power of the Almighty, was like that of 
 a person having had a revelation from heaven, 
 and she received the greatest comfort and 
 encouragement from him. She wrote to me of 
 him as 'a real saint,' and she described his 
 benignant face, his voice of music, and, above 
 all, the strength he gained in working, aided by 
 a Power not his own. I dined at her house with 
 him, and was as much impressed by the reverence 
 of the disciple for the teacher as by his own for 
 the Unseen Power by which he was led. We — I 
 mean those of the party who took note of heads 
 — remarked that in all the real earnest friends of 
 their species, and they were many, who found 
 their way to Lady Byron, the head was high in 
 the front and top, the part in which Dr. Gall 
 placed benevolence and veneration. It was 

 
 DR. TUCKERMAN. 181 
 
 notably so in the case of Mrs. Fry, where, as 
 in her saintlike character, those qualities were 
 conspicuous ; but it is only very seldom that they 
 are found, as in her, in combination with admir- 
 able sense and judgment and great activity and 
 energy. A few words which she said to me in 
 reference to her work show that she had the 
 same consciousness of being upheld and directed 
 in it as Dr. Tuckerman.* ' I cannot express to 
 thee how I have been struck by the power of 
 religion to penetrate where no other influence 
 could reach.' She told me some striking 
 instances, but I could not help doubting whether 
 even the religion of love and trust, which she 
 taught and exemplified, would have been as 
 powerful if it had been unaccompanied by the 
 kindly touch, the sympathetic face, and the 
 melodious voice. 
 
 * The following letter from Lady Noel Byron 
 describes her meeting with Dr. Tuckerman. — Ed. 
 
 Lady Noel Byron to Sophia Frend. 
 
 ' Brighton, 
 '1833. 
 ' My dear Sophia, 
 
 ' Though I don't see you, I often hear you ; for 
 Ada frequently speaks so like you, that I could not 
 believe you absent but for my eyes. One day when
 
 1 82 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 The treatment of criminals, and the manage- 
 ment of prisons, were far more unsystematic and 
 undirected when Mrs. Fry began her work than 
 we at present can imagine. Like lunatic asylums 
 in their early days, they were subject to no 
 regular inspection, and to no regular mode of 
 management. But in both cases people's minds 
 were waking up to perceive the horrors and 
 abuses, which had become too excessive to be 
 left any longer unnoticed, or to be placed in the 
 category to which so many of the effects of our 
 own negligence are consigned, that of ' necessary 
 
 she did this I said to her, " You are thinking of Miss 
 Frend ?" " Yes, I often think of her." 
 
 ' It is not well principled of me to write to you to- 
 night. Shall I justify myself by " the better the day 
 the better the deed," being Sunday ? No. I will lay 
 aside my conscience altogether, rather than humbug it. 
 I have something to tell you. I have seen a saint — a 
 real saint — Dr. Tuckerman of Boston, who is now in 
 this place. His phrenological characteristics are : high, 
 moral, and devotional sentiments ; the forehead by no 
 means contracted, yet not full in the reasoning part. 
 The countenance is of a hallowed caste, meek and 
 tender, the speech milk and honey. The effect of this 
 character on Dr. K.'s is wonderful. The ice is melted, 
 all the generous and tender feelings are called forth. 
 It is like a withered tree restored to verdure. / have
 
 ELIZABETH FRY. 183 
 
 evils.' Even now the treatment of criminals calls 
 urgently for improvement. What must it have 
 been when Mrs. Fry began her work? She 
 described to me what she found in Newgate, 
 where men, women, and children, the convicted 
 criminal and the untried prisoner, were crowded 
 together by day and night. Larger prisons were 
 found necessary. Reformatories, which, except 
 in very few instances, had not been thought of, 
 were suggested and established. For the adult 
 criminal everyone had a special nostrum. The 
 separate system and the silent system were believed 
 
 had but one interview with Dr. Tuckerman. We did 
 not converse as strangers ; there was a bond between 
 us in our interest for the young and erring. More has 
 been done for them in America than here. At Boston 
 a society has been formed, an island not far distant 
 purchased, and boys who could not otherwise have 
 been placed beyond the reach of demoralizing circum- 
 stances are located there. Their labour pays the 
 expenses of the institution. The most peculiar of the 
 regulations is one that had just been invented by Miss 
 Doyle : to give marks of approbation, not to intel- 
 lectual acquirements or attainments, but to conduct 
 and dispositions. To a certain number of these marks 
 certain privileges belong, but none that are connected 
 with the principle of emulation, which is entirely ex- 
 cluded. Dr. Tuckerman, one of the directors, declares
 
 1 84 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 by their respective advocates to have in them- 
 selves the elements of vital reform of character, 
 and their merits were much discussed. Having 
 thought and heard a good deal of these subjects, 
 and learnt the opinions of those whose opinions 
 were valuable — among them de Fellenberg and 
 several of his co-workers — I wrote an article 
 on Reform of Prisons for a periodical (of which 
 only two numbers appeared) called, I think, The 
 Monthly Chronicle. Mrs. Fry kindly consented 
 to give me her opinion of these papers, and I 
 went more than once to Upton House to gain 
 
 that the effect of this system, administered by a very 
 judicial superintendent, is most favourable to the 
 formation of character. 
 
 ' With my head full of Dr. Tuckerman, I went to the 
 Pavilion on Friday. Having made up my mind that it 
 was right to go, I did it cheerfully, and found much to 
 observe and learn. The King and Queen were really 
 kind to me, and I should like to see more of them ; but 
 I must not often run such risks. I had a blister on, 
 which saved my chest, and the cold in my head which 
 
 I caught is nearly gone. 
 
 ***** 
 
 ' I was called to sit with the Queen, who retired for 
 an hour to an inner room before the party broke up. 
 So many topics are necessarily excluded from royal 
 conversation, that it must be comparatively insipid ;
 
 PRISON REFORM. 185 
 
 wisdom from her on the teaching of the untaught 
 and criminal. She distinctly objected to complete 
 silence or complete solitude for the criminal — 
 either, she thought, would drive him mad — but 
 gave me instances which she had known of the 
 efficacy of both methods of treatment pursued 
 in turns, and in moderation. The system she 
 recommended was much like that followed, I 
 believe, in our prisons now, the punishment being 
 a severe discipline, having for its chief features a 
 mixture of occasional silence while at work, with 
 short periods of recreation, and occasional inter- 
 course with each other, and free communication 
 for the prisoners with the chaplain. Both 
 de Fellenberg and Mrs. Fry dwelt strongly 
 on the efficacy of direct oral teaching rather 
 than reading or being read to, on the minds of 
 the morally diseased.* 
 
 but the Queen infuses as much sense into it as possible, 
 if she were only assisted by the circle round her. It 
 
 appears, however, that it is etiquette to'stultify one's self. 
 
 ***** 
 
 ' Adieu, dear, dear Sophia, 
 
 'A. I. N. B.' 
 
 * It was a pleasure to hear her say, what people sometimes 
 forget, that by the time we have perfect systems of medicine for 
 mind and body, no prison or hospital will be wanted.
 
 1 86 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 One day, when our conversation and our 
 luncheon were finished at Upton House, Mrs. 
 Fry's baby grandchild was brought in. Lady 
 Byron, who was present, had a baby grandchild 
 about the same age, and my own little one at 
 home was not much older. I suppose we all 
 mentally compared notes, and judging by myself, 
 probably each one was quite certain that her 
 baby far outshone the others in promise and 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 c Rouen, 
 
 'September 14, 1838. 
 
 ' If you have wished for a letter from me, I have 
 wished to write to you ; but I thought that, whilst my 
 correspondence was so expensive, I ought to limit it. 
 Yours, with Ada's letter enclosed, came this morning. 
 You know Rouen, and how much occupation it affords 
 to a curious traveller. Besides the ancient buildings, I 
 mean to see the prison and the Maison des Alienes, 
 both said to be very well conducted. Solitude does 
 not hang heavy on my hands — indeed, it does me good 
 after the excitement produced by various causes, and, 
 last, by my awful voyage of thirty-six, instead of twenty- 
 four, hours, against the wind, and with the addition of a 
 
 thunderstorm worthy of a mountain country. 
 
 ***** 
 
 ' I had intended to go to Paris by the Seine, but the 
 numerous accidents which have occurred in the naviga-
 
 GRANDMOTHERS. 187 
 
 beauty. Mrs. Fry nursed her grandchild as if she 
 were used to the occupation, saying to Lady 
 Byron : ' Dost thou not find it a very pleasant 
 relation ?' Of course she was answered with a 
 cordial assent. I was amused by the ' relation- 
 ship ' between the small creature and the great 
 philanthropist, who certainly had the faculty of 
 giving comfort to men, women, and babies. She 
 understood and sympathized with the last-named 
 
 tion of the upper part of the river have deterred me. 
 This week the boat was near sinking when full of 
 passengers, in consequence of running against the pier 
 of a bridge ; and in some places the stream is so 
 narrow, that if two boats meet, one must back like a 
 carriage in the same situation (I don't mean in the 
 water). 
 
 ' The Jurisconsulte Rossi, whom I was fortunate 
 enough to find on board the steamer from Havre to 
 this place, had come down the Seine from Paris, and 
 entreated me not to hazard my safety by attempting 
 that voyage. I was acquainted with him in Switzer- 
 land, and admired his intellect then. He holds some 
 high situation in the Academie des Sciences Morales et 
 Politiques. He told me that Mrs. Fry's visit had done 
 great good by turning public attention to the state of 
 the neglected children in Paris, but he seemed to doubt 
 the permanence of any benevolent interest amongst the 
 people of that metropolis. Do you know Mdme.
 
 1 88 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 better than one who in many things was as good 
 and loving-hearted as herself, but who had not 
 had the advantage of experience. I mean 
 Mrs. Joanna Baillie, in whose house at Hamp- 
 stead I once took my eldest little girl, then 
 about twelve months old. Little Alice, who had 
 slept in the carriage the whole way, was far too 
 wide awake when we were in Mrs. Baillie's 
 drawing-room to sit quiet on my knee and listen 
 
 Necker de Saussure's work on Education ? I am in- 
 clined to think it is the best philosophical work -on 
 the subject. She is a woman of deep reflection, and 
 superior in truthfulness of mind to her friend, Mdme. 
 de Stael. If this book has not been translated into 
 English, it ought to be.' 
 
 ***** 
 
 The Same to the Same. 
 
 ' Caen. 
 ' Dear Friend, 
 
 ' I knew that you would hear of me, and my 
 
 eyes have not permitted extra work, nor even all that is 
 
 necessary. The very fine days since this month began 
 
 have enabled me to do rather more than usual. I 
 
 came here by the steamer from Havre, and am much 
 
 pleased with Caen. Yesterday I went over Beaulieu 
 
 with Diez, and wished you had been there. He stated 
 
 to me that the discipline was not so good as when the
 
 MRS. JOANNA BAILLIE. 189 
 
 to the conversation. Everything in the room 
 attracted her notice, and she wanted more atten- 
 tion than I could give, for she could run alone 
 and talk at ten months old, and was a sweet and 
 clever, but very excitable, child. I heard after- 
 wards that my friends thought my 'system of 
 training ' had been very faulty. If my baby had 
 been properly managed from her birth, she would 
 not have been so restless. I dare say they were 
 
 reports which we have read were published. The 
 reason is that additional rigour has been insisted on by 
 Government, and, in consequence, the prisoners are 
 less disposed to subordination. He said that anyone 
 who had studied human nature much must see that 
 this was natural. I asked in what respects the regula- 
 tions had been made more severe. One was the en- 
 forcing silence during the hours of relaxation — " Ca 
 leur donne de l'humeur " — the effects of which are 
 seen in their behaviour during their tasks. Cider has 
 also been taken away, and the power of granting or 
 withholding this indulgence was important in Diez's 
 opinion. He said he should resign if measures of 
 greater rigour were imposed. He and Mr. Woolcombe 
 seemed to have the same kind of difficulties. The 
 prison might have been taken for a large manufactory. 
 Indeed, I do not know in what respect it differed from 
 one, except in the number of soldiers walking about ; 
 they are, in fact, the turnkeys. There is about one
 
 190 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 in some measure right ; any way, I have found 
 some children so mercurial that nothing can make 
 them quiet, steady characters ; and some so heavy 
 and dull that they cannot be roused into activity 
 and interest. 
 
 " guardien " to thirty male prisoners. You know the 
 vistas by means of which a continual inspection is 
 carried on all night, as well as in the day. The number 
 of men at present is 900 ; of women 300. Out of the 
 former 50 boys ; out of the latter a few girls. Diez does 
 not expect any good from the Societies of Patronage 
 for the liberated prisoners. He thinks other conditions 
 necessary. I had no time to get an explanation of 
 this. 
 
 'He told me that "recidives" were numerous, but 
 observed that there was a much greater certainty of 
 their detection in France than in England, owing to 
 the passport system. 
 
 * There is but one punishment in this prison — a 
 solitary cell at night, and seclusion from all but com- 
 panions in punishment during the day. They all walk 
 in a file, with a soldier at their head, round a court in 
 silence. Nineteen men only were subjected to this — 
 two per cent, nearly. They were brutal in physi- 
 ognomy.' 
 
 *****
 
 [ i<M ] 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Lady Noel Byron's Agricultural School — Captain Brenton — 
 The Children's Friend Society — Lord Brougham and Lord 
 Palmerston — Phenomena of modern spiritualism — Baron 
 Guldenstiibbe — Rutter's experiments — Mrs. Anna Jame- 
 son — Lady Milbanke and the divining rod — Mrs. Beecher 
 Stowe and the abolition of slavery — ' Eliza ' — Mrs. Follen. 
 
 The many troubles of the working classes, and 
 the insufficiency of all efforts made to improve 
 their condition, suggested to Lady Byron the 
 establishment of an Agricultural School. It was 
 one of the first, and was at Ealing, near her 
 house. She sent a man to Hofwyl, in Switzer- 
 land, to learn the system of de Fellenberg, and 
 her correspondence with him, and friendship with 
 many who thought like him in England, enabled 
 her to enter fully into principles of training which 
 had only just suggested themselves to enlightened 
 philanthropists. These principles were mainly to 
 develop character by giving happiness rather than 
 by repressing faults by severity, and making the
 
 192 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 out-of-door work a delight and an interest. After 
 my marriage, my kind friend lent me her house 
 at Acton two successive summers, and one of my 
 great pleasures was a visit to the school.* 
 
 There was another agricultural and industrial 
 school attached to the Children's Friend Society. 
 This society's object was the saving of those 
 poor little outcasts known as 'gutter-children.' A 
 school for the boys had been established chiefly 
 by the efforts of Captain Brenton, an active 
 practical naval officer. I believe that it was 
 owing to this good man's energy that money 
 
 * The following correspondence is mainly concerned 
 with Lady Byron's plans for helping the cause of 
 education among the poor. — Ed. 
 
 From William Frend to Lady Noel Byron. 
 
 1 Stoke Newington, 
 
 ' December, 1830. 
 ' My dear Lady Byron, 
 
 ' It is stated on respectable authority that there 
 are 15,000 young, idle, and dissolute vagrants in the 
 Metropolis. To transform these into useful members of 
 society would be a good act of benevolence and benefi- 
 cence. Is there enough of these two qualities in the 
 country to bring about such a work ? I think there is. 
 But how they are to be brought into action is the 
 question, and a difficult question it is. 
 
 ' Some years ago 1,500 sailors were lying about the
 
 THE CHILDREN'S FRIEND SOCIETY. 193 
 
 was collected, arrangements made, and a spacious 
 house taken at Hackney Wick, looking over the 
 then extensive lands called the Marshes, or by 
 natives the Meshes. The house had belonged at 
 one time to a rich city man, and the grounds 
 were large, and had been beautiful. I went 
 occasionally to visit Captain Brenton's school, 
 and never saw a more happy or hope-inspiring 
 scene than the boys at work or at play in their 
 stout, coarse jackets, with rosy cheeks and bright, 
 happy faces. There were workshops and a rope- 
 walk round the yard, and a mast ; for the pupils 
 
 streets of London in the greatest distress. Their case 
 excited compassion, and in about three weeks' time, a 
 subscription having been raised for them, they were all 
 lodged in six vessels and taken care of, and the com- 
 mittee that managed this concern was so well satisfied 
 with the subscriptions, that it informed the public that 
 there was no need of further supplies. This was an 
 injudicious act. The experiment succeeded because 
 the object was intelligible, and came home to the feel- 
 ings of everyone, and it was manageable. The com- 
 mittee consisted of persons many of whom understood 
 the characters they had to deal with, and without them, 
 namely, the captains in the East India Company's 
 service, and other naval officers, all the exertions of the 
 public and the committee would have been useless. 
 Now, with the above experiment, and the proposed 
 
 13
 
 194 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 were trained for sea, and taught handicrafts — such 
 as tailoring, shoemaking, and carpentering — to fit 
 them for emigration to the Colonies. I can say 
 more of the system pursued with the girls than 
 of the treatment of the boys, for I was on the 
 committee of management for the girls' home at 
 Chiswick. But the principle of both establish- 
 ments was the same, and the society, of which 
 the formation of the female branch was due to 
 the exertions of the Honourable Amelia Murray 
 and her mother, Lady George Murray, was called 
 the Children's Friend Society. A roomy House 
 
 scheme for the vagrants, what is there in common ? 
 Let us suppose 1,500 of them to be taken out of the 
 streets and placed in three or four receptacles. As far 
 as good lodging and clothing go, they may be as well 
 taken care of as the sailors ; but something more is to 
 be done for them, and if they are collected together and 
 left to themselves, they will leave the establishment 
 worse than they came in. Instruction is to be given 
 them, to put them in the way of getting their bread, 
 and to correct their evil propensities and habits. 
 
 ' Here we come to the first difficulty. The sailors' 
 committee was easily formed, and the object was 
 temporary. Here is a necessity for a well-formed plan 
 and constant superintendence. But supposing the lads 
 well housed and well trained, what is to be done with 
 them afterwards ? How are they to be restored again
 
 THE CHILDREN'S FRIEND SOCIETY. 195 
 
 was taken on Chiswick Mall, overlooking the 
 river, and in this the little gutter-children gained 
 health, some amount of training, and perhaps the 
 first taste of happiness they had ever known.* 
 Our part — but I ought not to say 'our,' when 
 Miss Murray did so much that some ladies 
 grumbled at having nothing to do — was to 
 procure and prepare the house and matron, or 
 matrons, to collect money from friends, and to 
 find and recommend little destitute children for 
 admission. With the funds subscribed, the rent, 
 clothing, and food were paid for. Each person 
 recommending a child was to bring seven pounds 
 for expenses of emigration, placing out at service, 
 
 to the world ? These are considerations to be settled 
 before the public should be called on for subscriptions. 
 ' The idea of collecting these vagrants on board a 
 ship and shipping them off to distant colonies is by no 
 means a bad one, for it is better that they should be 
 there, whether instructed or not, than that they should 
 run, as they now do, wild about the streets. But I 
 much doubt if the public would contribute enough to 
 defray the expenses of such an establishment. 
 
 * Some characteristic incidents occurred when the children were first 
 taken into this home. I remember two or three little girls, almost babies, 
 who rushed into the coal-cellar and sat on the coals. When brought out 
 they cried, 'Don't hit me !' We supposed that their parents had shut them 
 up in some hole answering to the cellar, and had beaten them when they 
 got out.
 
 196 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 etc. No child was ever taken without the full 
 consent, signed, of its parents or supposed 
 guardians. Generally these when found were so 
 drunk, and in every way depraved, that they were 
 glad to get rid of the children except when they 
 wanted to send them out to beg. It was a 
 harrowing sight to see these unhappy little beings 
 when they were brought to the home, pale and 
 wasted, often in the dirtiest rags, covered with 
 vermin, and often cut and bruised by the treat- 
 ment of their parents, or by accidents in the street. 
 A fortnight would make a striking difference 
 
 ' I would by no means throw impediments in the 
 way of the benevolent, but a scheme of this kind re- 
 quires the utmost care in the onset. It is requisite 
 that receptacles for these vagrants should be first found, 
 whether in town or country ; the expenses of each 
 receptacle should be clearly stated ; the mode of em- 
 ploying the vagrants in them should be clearly laid 
 down ; and, above all, it is necessary that the public 
 should know what is to become of them when they are 
 supposed to be properly trained for their re-entrance 
 into the world. 
 
 ' I do not imagine that the most sanguine persons 
 employed in the present undertaking calculate on so 
 many as 10,000 being taken out of the streets in the 
 first year, and this will leave us a nucleus of 5,000. Will 
 this nucleus increase or diminish ? But whence comes
 
 THE CHILDREN'S FRIEND SOCIETY. 197 
 
 in the appearance of the worst of them. Chil- 
 dren recover flesh very rapidly, and the warmth, 
 cleanliness, and wholesome food did wonders. 
 The matron, a Scotchwoman, begged she might 
 give them oatmeal porridge and milk for break- 
 fast, and soon convinced us of its fattening- 
 properties. The children had meat twice a 
 week, I think, but in all respects they were 
 far better fed, and more judiciously treated, than 
 children whose food cost the same in workhouse- 
 schools, of which institutions, as well as the more 
 recent District-schools, I have seen a great deal. 
 
 it to pass that there are 15,000 vagrants in this highly- 
 civilized, polished Metropolis ? This is a very im- 
 portant question, and the answer to it would probably 
 lead to the conviction that something more is requisite 
 than to transplant shoots from the hotbed of vice and 
 misery. In the prospectus of the designed institution 
 this question ought not to be neglected. 
 
 ' I have thrown together these few thoughts for your 
 consideration, which may lead you, perhaps, to be on 
 your guard before you commit yourself to any plan 
 that has not been thoroughly digested. Entre nous I 
 suspect that I have heard and seen enough to doubt 
 whether anything effectual will be done ; but I will beg 
 the favour of you to let me know how the plan goes on. 
 I have never heard it mentioned but by yourself and 
 the Captain, and it is very likely that I shall not hear
 
 198 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 When a party of little girls, numbering about 
 twelve or twenty, were restored to health, trained 
 in habits of obedience, and able to do a little 
 house and needlework, they were sent under the 
 care of a matron to Canada, Cape Town, and 
 others of our Colonies, where young servants 
 were required. A committee of ladies and 
 gentlemen received them in a home prepared 
 for the purpose, and they were then engaged 
 as servants, on it being made a condition, with the 
 
 of it from any other quarter. If there is to be a public 
 meeting, some popular character should be asked to 
 
 take the lead, and the committee greatly increased.' 
 
 ***** 
 
 From Lady Noel Byron to Miss Sophia Frend. 
 
 ' Brighton, 
 
 ' November 3, 1833. 
 
 ' In the meantime I will tell you something of my 
 personal concerns. The most satisfactory result of my 
 residence here has been the improvement of my ac- 
 quaintance with Lord Brougham, who shows a dis- 
 position to enter into the school projects with all his 
 heart. Mr. Duppa* has been with me, and will shortly 
 publish his pamphlet. The papers furnished by Mr. 
 Yatest have been of great use to him. He wishes to 
 
 * Mr. B. F. Duppa, the author of various papers on industrial education, 
 etc., and hon. sec. of the Central Society of Education. — Ed. 
 + Mr. John Ashton Yates, political economist. — Ed.
 
 THE CHILDREN'S FRIEND SOCIETY. 199 
 
 hirers, that the guardian committee should be 
 applied to at any time if any complaint should 
 be made by employer or servant. These last 
 were bound by indenture as apprentices for a 
 stated term, and the wages were fixed by the 
 society. Half the sum paid annually to the 
 young servant (or apprentice) was to be kept by 
 himself or herself for clothes, etc. ; the other half 
 was to accumulate, with interest, for her use until 
 the term of her engagement had expired. All 
 was going on as well as possible. The committees 
 
 dedicate his book to me, but I think you will agree 
 with me that my name would be more likely to do 
 harm than good, at present, to the cause of education. 
 It is difficult to convey this idea to one who is ignorant 
 of the facts on which my opinion is grounded. I send 
 you a paper in which an amended edition of Mr. 
 Bermingham's* letter has been introduced, but sadly 
 misprinted. The Chancellor was much interested by 
 Mr. Smith's experiment as detailed by Mr. Smith him- 
 self in a letter I was able to show him. There is no 
 school under Mr. Smith's direction, only the land 
 allotted to the juvenile tenants. All this may not 
 appear to be strictly my " personal " concerns, but you 
 know that I am identified with paupers and vagrants ! 
 Apropos to the letter, ten girls have just been sent to the 
 Cape, though the school is not yet formed. The 
 
 * Mr. Thomas Bermingham, who superintended an experiment in home 
 colonization made on Lord Clonbrock's estate at Roscommon. — Ed.
 
 200 MEMORIES OE THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 abroad did their work effectively, and many- 
 letters were received from the children, describing 
 their new homes and their happy lives in the new 
 countries. 
 
 However, before many years had passed, our 
 useful work came to an end. The doings of the 
 society were looked on with suspicion by some 
 politicians, who always descried a bad motive in 
 every effort made to help the poor by persons 
 who had a prefix to their names ; and the list of 
 dukes and duchesses, lords and ladies, whose 
 interest had been enlisted by Miss Murray, -and 
 
 demand and supply are likely to be commensurate. 
 Miss Doyle went to see the School of Reform at 
 Chelsea, and was struck by the dulness and want of 
 recreation in the educational system. She said she 
 should certainly have run away had she been one of the 
 inmates, even with the fear of the gallows before her 
 eyes ! I hope something better may be devised for the 
 vagrants.' 
 
 ' Fordhook, 
 
 ' March 18, 1834. 
 ' Dear Sophia, 
 
 ' These north-east winds make me afraid of 
 London. You may, perhaps, have heard of the pro- 
 ceedings at the opening of the Fordhook Session. 
 There was no division ; the Bill passed, provided that
 
 THE CHILDREN'S FRIEND SOCIETY. 201 
 
 who appeared as patrons and patronesses, etc., 
 alarmed some sensitive M.P.'s (I may say, par 
 parentkese, that I am a Radical) in opposition. 
 Whether there was anything unconstitutional or 
 subversive of the liberty of the subject in our 
 arrangements, I have never discovered. But the 
 Duke of Wellington, who loved children, and felt 
 for the miseries of the poor little outcasts, was 
 Prime Minister, and everything he approved was 
 likely to be objected to. One evening a Radical 
 M.P., whose name I forget, and who had never 
 seen either of the homes, or really inquired into 
 
 there should be a labour school within seven miles 
 from London, to consist at first of at least twenty-five 
 boys as day scholars, and four boarders not younger 
 than twelve, to be selected from the monitors of 
 established schools, and to be educated for school- 
 masters. Land and a schoolmaster and money are to 
 be got as soon as possible. In order to obtain the 
 first, I have sent for Charles Noel to look about in the 
 neighbourhood. Which way to turn for a school- 
 master I know not, but think of advertising. Money 
 will not be wanting. I think £1,000 would suffice for 
 the experiment. 
 
 ' I do indeed value de Fellenberg's friendship, ac- 
 quired in two hours ! We have ever since sympathized 
 deeply, I believe. He writes as if he knew the tears I 
 had shed on hearing of his son's death. I felt then all
 
 202 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 the working of the society, asked whether 
 honourable members were aware that, with the 
 sanction of the highest names, and even with the 
 countenance of the Court, English children were 
 taken away from their parents and sold for slaves 
 in foreign countries. A short debate ensued, and 
 our work was condemned as unconstitutional, and 
 a revival of the slave-trade, and a good deal of 
 the same sort was said. It appeared that some 
 worthless parents, who had readily parted with 
 their children and signed a paper declaring 
 that they gave up the guardianship to * our 
 
 he describes himself to have felt for the wanderer who 
 was to return no more ! But " may they rejoice, no 
 wanderer lost, a family in heaven." ' 
 
 From Lady Noel Byron to Miss Frend. 
 
 ' Fordhook, 
 
 ' June 28, 1834. 
 ' My dear Sophy, 
 
 ' When I read your letter, Miss Carr asked me 
 what had given me so much pleasure. I want you to 
 know what is going on here, though I am not inclined 
 to expatiate. Recollections associated with this season 
 of the year make me melancholy. 
 
 ' The Agricultural School is bom. Land engaged, 
 with buildings convertible to the purpose, at £60 for 
 one year, with the option of a twenty-one years' lease,
 
 ITS UNFORTUNATE TERMINATION. 203 
 
 society, claimed to have them sent home again, 
 and, finding this not done, at once applied to a 
 magistrate. A dispute ensued, which ended by 
 the case coming to the knowledge of the Radical 
 member, who was ready to take up any weapon 
 against the opposite party. The saddest result 
 of all this was the death, caused by shock and 
 sorrow, of Captain Brenton, the benevolent inde- 
 fatigable founder of the whole. After this time 
 no more boys or girls were received at the 
 schools ; the subscriptions, which were difficult 
 to keep up, even under favourable circumstances, 
 
 and the proprietor interested in the plan. Mr. Craig, 
 the schoolmaster, appears efficient, and is to go imme- 
 diately to Hofwyl, in order to return for the opening of 
 the school at Michaelmas. His salary, £75 per annum. 
 During one year I am to take the whole of the ex- 
 penses, therefore solicitations for subscriptions need 
 not be made until something is done. 
 
 * * * ■ * * 
 
 ' Ada was greatly delighted with the first of Dr. 
 Lardner's lectures on Babbage's machine at the 
 Mechanics' Institute, where Lord Brougham spoke. 
 She went with Mrs. King. The next is on Wednesday. 
 I fear it would not be intelligible to you, as you were 
 not at the first. The Carrs left me yesterday, Mrs. 
 Carr having made considerable progress towards con- 
 valescence. I go to town on Thursday to stay the
 
 20 4 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 were no longer paid, and the whole came to an 
 end.* 
 
 In the early part of this century, and in the 
 good old times that were before, it was the 
 general belief, as I have already said, that teach- 
 ing will form character. No matter from what 
 parents a child is born, give him but a suitable 
 training, and you may make what you please of 
 him. It was vain to urge that no teaching in the 
 world could make a Newton into a Mozart, or a 
 Dr. Johnson into a Raffaelle. The reply always 
 was, ' Don't be sure till you have tried ' ; and 
 
 night and attend the rehearsal at Westminster Abbey 
 next day. Are you going to any of those perform- 
 ances ?' 
 
 1 OCKHAM, 
 
 ' January 26, 1839. 
 ' Dear Friend, 
 
 ' . . . The school is becoming so popular that 
 
 Lord Lovelace's may be stocked from the rejected 
 
 boarders. He does not desire to qualify the boys 
 
 especially for pedagogues, and it will therefore not be 
 
 unfair to return to Ockham those who have no turn 
 
 for that occupation. . . . 
 
 * It is pleasant to know that work of the same sort, and 
 having great success, is carried on at this time on a very large 
 scale, on rather different lines, by Miss Rye, Miss Macpherson, 
 and Dr. Barnardo.
 
 THEORIES OF EDUCATION. 205 
 
 when certain experiences were brought in answer, 
 the captious objector was told they were excep- 
 tional cases. It has of late years been suspected 
 that the child has, even before birth, been sub- 
 jected to influences which may determine its 
 character, and from the earliest commencement of 
 its existence has the germs of its prevailing 
 tendencies from its parents. But among those 
 who did not go into these subtleties sixty years 
 ago, the great want of general enlightenment in 
 all ways was beginning to be felt. And, as 
 might be expected, for the intellectual faculties 
 
 ' And now for a castle in the air, about which I have 
 private reasons for feeling anxious. Did you not 
 concur in Mr. Porter's* views as to the advantage which 
 the upper classes might derive from infant schools for 
 their children ? If not in all cases, I am sure that in 
 many, such institutions would furnish a discipline 
 which the most judicious parent cannot give ; for 
 instance, too precious young heirs who will make the 
 discovery of their own importance in the family circle, 
 and can only be unegotized in a mass of their fellow- 
 creatures, treated exactly like themselves. Mr. Porter 
 speaks of some such school at Stoke Newington, but 
 the situation is so much out of the way. I should like 
 to see a reformed infant school, free from theology, 
 at Bayswater, for about thirty children, with two 
 
 * Mr. G. R. Porter, author of The Progress of Nations. — En.
 
 206 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 come to maturity before the moral ones in both 
 individuals and nations, it was taken for granted 
 that the deficiency could be supplied by intel- 
 lectual training. It was said, ' Teach people to 
 read and write, and give them the rudiments of 
 language and science, and crime will disappear.' 
 This embodied only a half-truth, but that was 
 better than none at all ; and the Useful Know- 
 ledge Society and its publications, and the new 
 Colleges, Mechanics' Institutes, and improved 
 schools, were good pioneers of the more en- 
 lightened condition, of which a few glimpses -are 
 coming to us now. And so I preface my few 
 recollections of the man who has been held to be 
 the chief leader of the movement, and who has 
 been handed down to posterity by Mr. Thomas 
 Love Peacock as the 'learned friend.'* 
 
 mistresses. There must be a garden and lawn. I 
 think it might almost be accomplished by me and my 
 friends, as far as pecuniary wheels were necessary, and 
 other wheels could be procured. Would not Mr. 
 Porter himself be glad to help ? I do not exactly know 
 
 * ' A learned friend, who is for doing all the world's business as well as 
 his own, and is equally well qualified to handle every branch of human 
 knowledge. I have a great abomination of this learned friend. As author, 
 lawyer, politician, he is triformis, like Hecate ; and in every one of his 
 three forms he is bifrons, like Janus, the true Mr. Facing-both-ways of 
 Vanity Fair.' — Crotchet Castle, by Thomas Love Peacock.
 
 LORD BROUGHAM. 207 
 
 I was young when I first saw and listened to 
 Lord Brougham. He dined alone with my father 
 and mother that they might discuss the desirable- 
 ness, and the possibility, of establishing a Uni- 
 versity in London. Mr. Campbell, the poet, and 
 one or two others, were already thinking of this 
 scheme, and my father had written about it in 
 more than one periodical.* The time of this 
 meeting must have been shortly after the trial 
 and acquittal of Queen Caroline, for whom Mr. 
 Brougham, as Attorney-General, made such a 
 successful defence. My sister and I, after the 
 custom of that time, when the party was small, 
 went in 'for dessert,' and I well remember my 
 wonder on hearing our visitor tell of the letters he 
 received and the work he did during that trial. 
 The letters, he said, were more than once brought 
 
 what are the arrangements of proprietary schools in 
 general, for if the funds fall short we might have re- 
 course to that mode of increasing them. Do you think 
 10s. a week would be a fair charge ? The mistress to 
 have more than a governess in a private family, and 
 the second mistress to have about £50. I suppose the 
 house and land would be from about £200 to £300 per 
 annum.' 
 
 * In the Monthly Reformer, and I think in the Champion, a 
 paper which did not live long, edited by John Thelwall.
 
 208 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 to his house in a wheelbarrow. Of course, I 
 often saw Lord Brougham in after-years, for he 
 had a scientific acquaintance with my husband, as 
 well as an interest in Useful Knowledge in its 
 various aspects. He often gave away the prizes 
 at University College, and knew by heart all 
 that ought to be said on those interesting occa- 
 sions. 
 
 One day, late in the history of the College, 
 Lord Palmerston consented to take the chair. 
 He was not so familiar with the sort of speech 
 expected in such a place as he would have 
 been at Westminster, and, meaning to adapt 
 his rhetoric to the occasion, began very appro- 
 priately, ' It has been said that "a little learning 
 is a dangerous thing," but it is better than — 
 
 better than — better than ' Here a dead 
 
 stop. Lord Brougham, who sat beside the 
 speaker, came to the rescue, speaking with his 
 peculiar nasal twist, ' Better than a great deal of 
 ignorance.' This, of course, brought down the 
 house, and during a volley of laughter, cheers, 
 and Kentish fire, Lord Palmerston recovered the 
 lost thread of his speech, and finished it with his 
 usual ease and fluency. 
 
 During my husband's later visits to Lord
 
 PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 209 
 
 Brougham, they had a good deal of conversation 
 on the phenomena called spiritual, in the genuine- 
 ness of which, or rather of many of which, my 
 husband fully believed, and gave Lord Brougham 
 an account of the incidents which he had wit- 
 nessed, and which had produced in his mind a 
 conviction of the reality of their occurrence, 
 though he had not satisfied himself as to their 
 cause.* Lord Brougham, who had only had 
 very few experiences with Mr. Home, was gener- 
 ally inclined to believe that there was in the whole 
 movement so much of imposture and self-decep- 
 tion that the genuine article, if there were any, 
 could not be found. But he was a little staggered 
 by the appearance of a bookt by Baron Gulden- 
 sttibbe, a Swedish gentleman, whom he, Lord 
 
 * As I have been told that these words imply a stronger 
 belief than my husband would have professed, I give his own 
 statement : 
 
 ' I am satisfied by the evidence of my own senses of some 
 of the facts narrated ; of some others I have evidence as good 
 as testimony can give. I am perfectly convinced that I have 
 both seen and heard, in a manner which should make unbelief 
 impossible, things called spiritual which cannot be taken by 
 a rational being to be capable of explanation by imposture, 
 coincidence, or mistake.' — Preface to From Matter to Spirit. 
 
 t La Realite des E sprits, et le Phcnomene merveilleux de leur 
 Ecriture directe, par Baron Guldenstiibbe. Paris, 1856. 
 
 14
 
 210 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 Brougham, knew, and believed to be a man of 
 high integrity and intellectual culture. After 
 reading this book, I saw the writer, and was 
 struck by what appeared to me the reality of his 
 wonderful gifts, and the simple, straightforward 
 way in which he spoke to his friends of his ex- 
 periences in the world of spirit. 
 
 As there has lately been some discussion and 
 interest excited on the subject of the supposed 
 writing by spirits without the intervention of 
 human hands, it may be suitable here to give a 
 very short notice of the contents of this book, 
 which at the time of its appearance puzzled more 
 than one scholar used to weigh evidence. Baron 
 Guldenstiibbe, who, from a life's experience in his 
 own person, had long been a believer in the 
 phenomena of spiritualism, thought of trying to 
 obtain proof of the reality of this writing, which 
 has been called direct, and supposed, I think, 
 erroneously to be produced quite independently 
 of any aid or influence from a person in the body. 
 The way in which he tried his experiments, of 
 which the first was made in 1856, was to place a 
 piece of blank paper and a pencil in a box, the 
 key of which he kept always about him. The 
 first time he opened the box the paper was just
 
 BARON GULDENSTUBBE'S EXPERIMENTS. 211 
 
 as when it was first placed there. For twelve 
 days nothing legible appeared on this paper, but 
 on the thirteenth he found some strange characters 
 marked on it. This was repeated ten times that 
 day, a fresh piece of paper being placed in the 
 box every half-hour. After this time he did not 
 lock up his paper, but laid it on a table, or on the 
 pedestal of a statue, or on a monument in a church. 
 
 After thirty successful trials of this kind, by 
 which he obtained writings in different languages, 
 the Baron told his friend Count d'Ourches of 
 his experiments. The Count, who accepted the 
 evidence of the fact, but at first had some doubts 
 as to the character of the invisible writers, was 
 at length convinced of their being what they 
 professed themselves. He had written a sentence 
 from John iv. 2 : ' Every spirit that confesses that 
 Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God.' The 
 text was in French. 
 
 At the end of ten minutes the words were 
 written : ' Je confesse Jesus en chair.' This was 
 signed with the name of a deceased friend, who 
 was not at once recognised, but was afterwards 
 remembered and identified by the Baron. 
 
 After this time Baron Guldenstubbe made 
 2,000 experiments in the presence of educated,
 
 212 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 sensible, and trustworthy witnesses in different 
 parts of Europe and America. These experi- 
 ments spread over thirteen years. They were 
 tried by laying the paper sometimes on a vault, 
 or on a monument in St. Denis, sometimes 
 in the experimenter's own house ; at Versailles, 
 St. Cloud, the Louvre, the British Museum, and 
 in many other places. Mr. Dale Owen was one 
 among many of the witnesses whom I knew, but 
 Lord Brougham's acquaintance with those who 
 attested the facts was considerable, and he 
 assured my husband that these were most of 
 them persons whose evidence would be held 
 sufficient to establish any fact in everyday life. 
 
 And here I may refer to a supposed incident 
 of the kind, spoken of as an early Christian 
 legend by Dean Stanley in his ' History of the 
 Eastern Church.' It is recounted by Nicephorus 
 as having occurred after the Council of Nicsea : 
 
 ' It was believed in later times that two of the 
 318 bishops, Chrysanthus and Mysonius, who had 
 entirely concurred in the views of the Council, 
 had died before the close of its sessions, and been 
 buried in the cemetery of Nicsea. When the day 
 for the final subscription arrived, the bishops took 
 the volume to the grave of the two dead men,
 
 AN EARLY CHRISTIAN LEGEND. 213 
 
 addressed them as Mussulmans still address their 
 dead saints, and solemnly adjured them that, if 
 now in the clearness of the Divine Presence they 
 still approved, they would come again and sign 
 with their brethren the decrees of the faith. 
 They then sealed the volume, and laid it on 
 the tomb ; watched all night, and returned in the 
 morning, when, on breaking the seal, they found 
 the two subscriptions : ' We, Chrysanthus and 
 Mysonius, fully concurring with the first Holy 
 and (Ecumenical Synod, have signed the volume 
 with our own hands ' (Stanley's Eastern Church, 
 p. 201). 
 
 Of course this tradition has a very slender 
 foundation, but the similarity with Guldensttibbe's 
 experience is worth remarking. Who invented 
 it ? As I have fallen, or risen, into a region 
 which, according to the intelligence of the 
 explorer, is called the supersensual, the miracu- 
 lous, or the supernatural, I may refer to some 
 experiments tried at Brighton by Mr. Rutter 
 about the years 1845-50. Like many physical 
 and metaphysical ' scientists ' — the new upstart 
 word must go into the pillows of inverted commas 
 — Dr. King of Brighton was interested in these 
 as well as in those tried by Dr. Leger on the
 
 2i + MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 same lines ; and Lady Byron and many of my 
 friends watched the result of their inquiries, 
 hoping that some valuable conclusion might be 
 drawn from them as to the function of the brain 
 and nerves. I do not remember particulars of 
 these experiments. I only know that Mr. Rutter 
 believed that the body might be compared to a 
 large magnet. Some of the simpler experiments 
 which I saw repeated were very curious, if not 
 conclusive ; probably all the conditions of their 
 success were not known. Lady Byron, who was 
 staying at a hotel in Dover Street, kindly asked 
 me to join a few friends one evening. As I was 
 shown into the drawing-room, I heard Mrs. Jame- 
 son's sweet voice say : ' Tread softly ; you are on 
 enchanted ground.' So I went in, silent and 
 expectant. There was an elderly gentleman 
 sitting in an arm-chair. Mrs. Jameson, who 
 stood before him, was holding a little pendulum — 
 a silken thread, to which a small weight was 
 attached — over his bald head. The pendulum 
 was whirling rapidly in one direction (from left 
 to right, I think). The gentleman quietly clasped 
 his hands, and the whirling ceased. A letter, 
 taken from a desk some yards off, was then put 
 into his hand, and while the movements, which
 
 MR. RUTTER'S EXPERIMENTS. 21 
 
 3 
 
 had recommenced, were going on, this was taken 
 away and another put in its place. Mrs. Jameson, 
 who still held the pendulum, did not see the last 
 letter, nor another which was afterwards substi- 
 tuted for it. But at each change the direction of 
 the rotations was altered, and Lady Byron, who 
 had placed the letters, told us that the first was 
 written by a woman, the next by a man, and the 
 third by a woman again. This experiment was 
 tried more than once, but seemed to lose dis- 
 tinctness and to become confused. It did not 
 succeed so well with anyone present as with 
 Mrs. Jameson, who was, I imagine, what Reichen- 
 bach calls a 'sensitive,' and who, from a few other 
 experiences which she had had, felt a strong 
 interest in questions bordering on the occult. 
 She told me she had once seen, or rather heard, 
 a banshee. This was in Ireland at the house of 
 some friends. As she was going to bed she 
 heard a sighing or moaning close to her. She 
 held the candle down, looking - all over the floor 
 and under the bed, but the noise continued, 
 sounding, as it passed through the door, like an 
 /Kolian harp. She followed it down one or two 
 flights of stairs, until she came to an open 
 window, through which the mysterious wail was
 
 2*6 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 heard till it seemed to be lost in the distance. 
 She was afterwards told that the house was 
 honoured by the possession of a banshee, but I 
 forget whether any death followed this visit. 
 
 In the many questions which, it was hoped, 
 might find their solution as the researches of Dr. 
 Leger and Mr. Rutter went on, Lady Byron felt 
 much interested. There was one reason, per- 
 haps, for her belief that one day an open link 
 might appear in that great mystery, expressed so 
 perfectly, as she said, by Lord Byron : ' The 
 electric chain wherewith we are darkly bound.' 
 She had herself seen much of one of the most 
 common, though not the most intelligible, of the 
 mysterious processes which seem to strike the 
 electric chain. This was the turning of the hazel 
 twig above a place which, on being dug into, 
 showed water beneath. Lady Byron's mother, 
 Lady Milbanke, had the faculty of using the 
 divining-rod, and was often asked by her neigh- 
 bours and tenants in Durham county to exercise 
 it for their benefit when they wanted to sink a 
 well. Lady Byron told us that she had seen her 
 mother's hands held tightly by Dr. Fenwick, a 
 well-known scientific physician in the North, who, 
 going behind Lady Milbanke, pressed the fingers
 
 LADY MILBANKE AND THE DIVINING ROD. 217 
 
 of each hand, holding it so as to make the stick 
 point upward in the air. Nevertheless, when the 
 lady had walked a few steps, the twig suddenly 
 turned round, and, defying the doctor's hold, 
 pointed to the ground with such violence as to 
 tear the skin from the fingers, and even to draw 
 blood. # In Lady Milbanke's presence many 
 persons tried the experiment, but the faculty, or 
 peculiarity, was found to be possessed by very 
 few. Lady Milbanke made her experience known 
 to Dr. Charles Hutton, Mathematical Professor 
 at Woolwich, asking him to explain the cause of 
 
 * I am permitted, by the courtesy of the Earl of 
 Lovelace, to print the following testimony to Lady 
 Milbanke's successful experiments with the divining- 
 rod. — Ed. 
 
 Copy of Mrs. Harland? s and Dr. Fenwick's Testimony 011 
 
 the Divining-rod. 
 
 The following statements are attested by Mrs. 
 
 Harland : 
 
 ' Durham, 
 
 '■January 16, 1838. 
 
 ' Mrs. Harland frequently heard Sir Charles Har- 
 land, at that time Mr. Charles Hoar, speak of the 
 power he possessed of finding water by the divining- 
 rod, and on some occasions witnessed its operation, 
 especially in one instance when living in a house upon
 
 2i8 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 it. It was arranged, as the phenomenon was 
 quite unknown to Dr. Hutton, that the experi- 
 ment should be tried under his observation at 
 Woolwich, and thither Lady Milbanke went with 
 some friends, and in the presence of a large 
 party, some of whom were scientific men, showed 
 the turning of the hazel twig in such a way that 
 all were convinced of its reality, and the doctor 
 wrote a detailed account of it in the Mathe- 
 matical Recreations, which he translated and 
 enlarged, giving notes from the French of the 
 mathematician Montucla, who says, 'Those "who 
 believe in such reveries must be exceedingly weak.' 
 As we were all probably what M. Montucla 
 
 the Green at Durham, where Mr. Hoar slept in the 
 attics, and one day called her upstairs into his bed- 
 room to show her the violence with which the rod 
 turned in his hand in walking over a particular spot of 
 the floor, and upon trial a copious spring was found 
 there. 
 
 ' Dr. Fenwick, of Durham, also remembers Mr. C. 
 Hoar accompanying him to Page Bank (a property of 
 Dr. F.'s near to Durham), where Mr. Hoar tried for 
 water and found some, but observed the water was low 
 down in the ground, or the spring not a powerful one, 
 as the rod turned but feebly. This, upon boring, was 
 proved to be the case. Mr. Charles Hoar accompanied 
 a Welsh nobleman (Mrs. Harland believes him to be
 
 THE CAUSE OF THE PHENOMENA. 219 
 
 called 'exceedingly weak,' and, as to physical 
 science, what Sir James South called ' ignorami ' 
 (fitting the gender to the occasion), we guessed 
 and ' fluked ' ad libitum at the cause of this 
 curious phenomenon ; and if I hazard a guess 
 here, it may be pardoned, as on such an obscure 
 question nobody can set me right if I am wrong. 
 The hazel is not the only tree which turns over 
 the place where water is found. Two or three 
 other kinds of wood have the same property, but 
 not in so marked a decree. There seems to be 
 in the process something analogous to electricity, 
 which is conducted to the earth by an iron rod. 
 
 Lord Penryn) to his castle in Wales in order to procure 
 water, which he succeeded in finding by the divining- 
 rod, where springs were never before suspected to exist. 
 
 ' Mrs. Harland perfectly remembers the late Lady 
 Milbanke possessing the same power, and she is 
 strongly impressed with the idea that Lady Milbanke 
 was requested to, and did, exhibit this faculty before his 
 late Majesty, George III. 
 
 ' Lady Milbanke was the first person who spoke of 
 this extraordinary gift before Mr. C. Hoar, who was 
 then unconscious of his being possessed of this 
 power. On its being described by Lady Milbanke, he 
 immediately felt an odd fluttering sensation, and could 
 not rest till he had made the experiment, when, to his 
 astonishment, the rod turned in his hand ; he felt at
 
 22o MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 And it may be that, as the earth attracts the 
 electric discharge, the water beneath the earth 
 may attract the unknown element, which has the 
 same affinity for the hazel that the lightning 
 has for the iron rod. I am afraid to talk about 
 'force' or 'power,' because electricians will tell 
 me to define, but there seems to be something 
 unknown generated or caused by the meeting of 
 two other unknowns. In the case of electricity, 
 whatever may be suspected, I believe it is not 
 known whether one of these is active, and the 
 other passive, or what forms the attraction 
 between the current or currents believed to pass 
 through the wires. In the experiment with the 
 hazel twig there appear to be two, also influences 
 
 first as if he should faint. Lady Milbanke described 
 having the same sensations upon this faculty being 
 first mentioned in her presence.* 
 
 ' Both Lady Milbanke and Mr. C. Hoar disliked 
 speaking of or exhibiting this extraordinary gift. 
 
 'Anne Harland.' 
 
 ' I perfectly remember Mr. C. Hoar trying the 
 
 divining-rod at Page Bank. It is correctly stated 
 
 above. 
 
 'J. R. Fenwick.' 
 
 * ' This is a mistake. It was upon the first essay that she 
 experienced it.' (Note by Lady Byron.)
 
 MAGICAL PLANTS. 221 
 
 or receptivities : one that attracts power which 
 may be supposed to reside in the water under the 
 ground, the other from the holder of the hazel 
 twig ; for it seems certain that the stick is only a 
 conductor, as might be a pipe through which the 
 current passes. If it were not so, if the element 
 were generated in the bough, it would turn in 
 anyone's hands. And, moreover, the exercise of 
 the faculty causes some exhaustion, and a shock 
 like electricity is felt when the stick turns down. 
 
 In an interesting book, The Outlines of 
 Primitive Belief in the Indo - Eitropean Races, 
 the author, Mr. Charles Keary, classes the 
 divining-rod, which he says ' inherits its qualities 
 from the divining-tree,' with other trees believed 
 to possess magical virtues : the ash of Ygdrasil, 
 the oaks of Dodona, with their whispering leaves, 
 and the laurels of Delphi. These last have 
 justified their claim to hold a place in the working 
 apparatus of Apollo, by showing how they affect 
 the nerves in the form of prussic acid. The 
 mistletoe probably had some kindred property 
 which made it valuable to the Druid prophet, 
 enabling him to become ecstatic. This con- 
 jecture is not quite without foundation, for I 
 knew a lady who cured fits with mistletoe
 
 222 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 berries, perhaps on the homoeopathic principle. 
 And I find a suspicion expressed in the Chips 
 from a German Workshop, not, however, con- 
 firmed by the author, that the mistletoe may have 
 been the soma or ecstatic drink used in their 
 mysteries by the Parsees. What was the aconian 
 drink taken by the adept in the Eleusinian 
 Mysteries but a drink to produce a spiritual or 
 ecstatic state ? If some lover of plants would 
 collect all the weird, classical, and fairy traditions 
 belonging to each, the work would be most profit- 
 able to students in many branches of knowledge. 
 
 Since writing the above, I have received from 
 my friend, Mr. G. Boyce, the artist, the following 
 extract from Prior's Popular Names of British 
 Plants : 
 
 ' J. Grimm observes : " Der hirt zeigt uns das einfache 
 vorbild des fiirsten, des iroifx^v Xacov, sein haselstab 
 erscheint weider im zepter der Konige ; ' hafa i hendi 
 heslikylfa ' (holds in hand a hazel staff) ; " an expression 
 that occurs in Saemund's Edda in the second lay of 
 the Helgaguida, str. 20. The verb hcelsian, foretell, 
 seems to be derived from the use of the hazel for pur- 
 poses of divination.' 
 
 Those of us who are old enough remember the 
 great stirring up of feeling in England which
 
 MRS. BEECHER STOWE AND ELIZA. 223 
 
 immediately followed the publication of Uncle 
 Toms Cabin, and the number of abolitionists 
 from the States who came to England during 
 the years in which the struggle between the North 
 and South continued before freedom came to the 
 slaves. Mrs. Stowe was in England on her first 
 visit, and I had the gratification of seeing her at 
 Mrs. Reid's ; but while so many distinguished 
 friends were anxious to hear and converse with 
 her, I could only look on at a distance, but 
 regretted that my husband never met her, for he 
 was exceedingly interested in her work, and sat 
 up nearly the whole of one night, reading Uncle 
 Tom's Cabin. 
 
 That very sweet and graceful young woman, 
 the original of Eliza, the fugitive slave, who 
 escaped her ruffian pursuers by crossing the 
 river on the blocks of ice, with her young baby 
 in her arms, was in England, having come over 
 with Mrs. Stowe. I met her more than once at 
 Mrs. Reid's, and, like all my friends, was charmed 
 with her. She was what is called by her own 
 people a ' yaller girl.' Her mother was half- 
 blood, and her father a Spanish general of good 
 family ; such unions, one would think, give a 
 sufficient answer to those who believe the person-
 
 22 + MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 ality of the negro to present an obstacle to all 
 social intermixture of the whites and blacks. 
 Eliza, who took the name of Mrs. Webb in 
 England, delighted us by reading in a most 
 musical voice a sketch of Mrs. Stowe's — Deacon 
 Bidott. I cannot say whether there was more 
 of pathos or of humour in her reading. She and 
 her husband remained some time in England, but 
 she died of consumption a few years after. 
 
 I think it was after Mrs. Stowe's first visit that 
 we became acquainted with Mrs. Follen ; and her 
 son, Mr. Charles Follen, was a pupil of* my 
 husband's at University College. His mother 
 was one of the most lovable women, as well as the 
 bravest, I ever knew. Her method of forwarding 
 the cause of the slave was to show the white man 
 how nearly in mental and moral powers his dark 
 brother approached him. She had many friends 
 among the negroes who were in England at that 
 time. I once met a party of seven at her house, 
 most of them being Methodist or Baptist ministers. 
 One, evidently the strongest intellectually and 
 morally, was a full black, having thick woolly 
 hair, and all the characteristic features of the 
 race ; and the others had yellow or dark skins 
 of different shades of colour.
 
 THE NEGRO CHARACTER. 225 
 
 From much conversation with the educated 
 refugees, who were here at that time, I was led 
 to believe that the religious element, faith, which 
 I understand to be the consciousness of union 
 with, and constant dependence on, the Divine 
 Power, was a leading feature in the negro 
 character. But their intellectual condition does 
 not furnish them with an intelligent comprehen- 
 sion of natural objects, so the symbolism they 
 employ is grotesque, and their language is too 
 defective and confused to express even the ideas 
 they have. But with all this faulty apparatus to 
 bring it out, they seem to have a perception of 
 spiritual things, and a reality of faith such as are 
 seldom found in the most scholarly theologians. 
 I suppose it is only a question of degree through- 
 out ; and the finest symbolism used by the Eastern 
 prophets is probably as much like fetichism to the 
 archangel, as the negroes' Uncle Remus - like 
 pictures are to us. It only needs a higher 
 development of the intellectual element in the 
 African to turn what now is generally held to 
 be superstition into a vital and enlightened 
 religion. In some ways Uncle Tom was nearer 
 than St. Paul to Jesus of Nazareth. 
 
 15
 
 [ 226 ] 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Lectures on Hero-worship — Thomas Carlyle — Mrs. Carlyle — 
 Cheyne Row, Chelsea — Anti-vivisection and Cardinal 
 Manning — Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 I first saw Mr. Carlyle when he was giving his 
 lectures on Hero-Worship in London more* than 
 forty years ago. His appearance and manner 
 were very striking. The tall figure, deep florid 
 complexion, large blue eyes, and broad Scotch 
 accent, would have secured attention even before 
 his hearers had been startled by the truths 
 brought home to them by the rich, strong voice. 
 But the effect of the whole was like a revelation. 
 I went with Lady Byron to some of these 
 lectures. Many of the thoughts had, I think, 
 been her own, as they had, more or less, been 
 those of other hearers, but they were condensed 
 and given out so as to seem like a ray of new 
 light. Lady Byron showed me her notes of the 
 first lecture. I am sure that she, too, added
 
 THOMAS CARLYLE. 227 
 
 features of so much originality that the lecturer 
 would hardly have recognised the fruits of his 
 suggestion in her words. 
 
 I saw Mr. Carlyle some years after this time, 
 at an evening party at Professor Scott's. 
 Mrs. Carlyle was present, and was kindly dis- 
 posed to talk with me ; but I failed to find in 
 her conversation the charm of exceeding bril- 
 liancy and humour which it had for many friends, 
 and which appears in many of her letters. This, 
 doubtless, was my own fault, but it was owing 
 to the fact that Mr. Carlyle and Mr. Ruskin 
 were talking earnestly together, and Archdeacon 
 Hare, Mr. F. D. Maurice, and my husband, who 
 all stood near, joined occasionally in the conversa- 
 tion. The subject, suggested by some passing 
 event, was the social and political state of Europe 
 generally, but many special moral evils were dwelt 
 upon. According to Mr. Carlyle, the look-out 
 was dark in all directions, but Mr. Maurice and 
 Mr. Scott threw in gleams of hope from one 
 quarter of the social, or, rather, the religious, 
 horizon, and Archdeacon Hare supported their 
 views. I well remember Mr. Carlyle's expres- 
 sion as he looked up and said : ' Show me the 
 remedy.' And just after, resting his head upon
 
 228 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 his hand, and his arm upon a little table, he never 
 perceived that his elbow was plunged in a nose- 
 gay of lilies of the valley which stood upon it. 
 
 Many years after this time, in 1873, after my 
 husband had been taken from me, we came to live 
 in Chelsea, three doors from Mr. Carlyle. His wife 
 had been dead some years, and his niece, Miss 
 Mary Aitken, now Mrs. Alexander Carlyle, kept 
 his house. I am glad to have this opportunity of 
 saying what I know Mr. Carlyle felt, and would 
 have said to be absolutely essential to the truth 
 of any notice of the last years of his life, that all 
 the comfort he certainly enjoyed, and all the 
 alleviation of suffering possible in his case, were 
 due to the care and devoted affection of his niece. 
 It is a rare thing to find a girl of twenty ready 
 and willing to attend hourly to the wants and 
 weakness of a man of fourscore. But this was 
 done by Mary Aitken, not grudgingly, nor as if 
 it were a duty to be got through, but with her 
 whole heart. # I do not apologize for referring in 
 this way to one still living, for all the friends who 
 knew and really loved the Chelsea prophet could 
 
 * This is written without Mrs. Alexander Carlyle's know- 
 ledge. I rejoice to see that Dr. Garnett, in his admirable Life 
 of Carlyle, has expressed this better than I have done.
 
 THOMAS CARLYLE. 229 
 
 bear witness to her loving care of him during 
 his life, and her intense sorrow when he died. 
 Wherever she was, or however amused, she 
 never forgot her ' lion ' at home, or her promise 
 to return at a stated time. I have heard certainly 
 of his being occasionally irritable, as is everyone 
 of strong temperament who is afflicted with liver, 
 but I have also often heard of the way in which 
 the clouds disappeared, leaving the ' lion ' more 
 kind and affectionate than before. She said he 
 was easy to live with, for whenever he felt he 
 had been hasty, he was always the first to seek 
 a reconciliation. 
 
 Cheyne Row is a quiet little street now. It 
 was quieter, and had a touch of rurality when 
 Mr. Carlyle chose it for his home years before, 
 for opposite his house there were trees and 
 green grass, where now an ugly edifice, called 
 the Peabody Buildings, covers the ground. And 
 this model lodging-house yields in ugliness to an 
 enormous structure nearer the river — a building 
 which insists on being noticed from any part of 
 Cheyne Row. It consists of seven stories of 
 'flats,' being a model lodging-house for gentle- 
 folks, and, as if to add insult to injury, bears the 
 name of the Carlyle Mansions. Happily, the old
 
 230 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 man, who loved to see the sky and trees, and 
 to feel the breeze from the river, was gone to 
 his mansion not built with hands before this 
 monstrosity appeared. He had at first resented 
 the Embankment, and for some time disliked to 
 walk on it, or in Battersea Park, but I think 
 became rather more reconciled to both before he 
 died. The last time I saw him walking out he 
 was going in that direction with the Laureate 
 and another friend. His own house was, until 
 very lately, in a most deplorable condition ; every 
 pane of glass broken, and mud and dirt collected 
 wherever they could find a lodgment. I fear that 
 our friends from across the Atlantic, who come 
 still to look with reverence at the place whence 
 issued those denunciations of falsehood and words 
 of warning, must wonder how such a state of things 
 could have come to pass. But there was no help 
 for it, and as Mr. Carlyle only rented the house, 
 the lease of which expired shortly after his death, 
 none of his friends or kinsfolk are responsible."" 
 
 His nervous sensitiveness made quiet really 
 necessary for his literary work, and the street 
 musicians before, and the cocks and hens behind, 
 
 * It is now put into repair. September, 1887.
 
 THOMAS CARLYLE. 231 
 
 his house, were a source of great discomfort ; so 
 the neighbours, to secure him peace and quiet, 
 gave up keeping poultry. I have seen him rush 
 out of his house in his morning wrap, sending a 
 torrent of words, not descriptive of the state of 
 the blest, over two Italians who were playing an 
 orchestrion opposite. The poor men gave way 
 at once to the general imprecations, asked his 
 pardon, and departed ; and I thought they were 
 a shilling the better for the transaction. He 
 really suffered from street-noises ; but I was 
 walking with him once at Christmas time, when 
 he asked me to wait a minute. This was for 
 the purpose of giving a Christmas-box to the 
 watercress-woman, whose notes are anything but 
 harmony. She is still crying watercresses, but 
 he said it was an old institution then. 
 
 All the neighbours and tradespeople in Chelsea 
 were naturally proud of the sage who made their 
 little nook of London so famous. The conductors 
 of the omnibuses were very careful not to hurry 
 him in getting in and out, and I once saw him 
 pointed out by one of these to a friend. 
 
 'That 'ere old irent has written a lot of books.' 
 
 ' Have you read them ?' the friend asked. 
 
 ' No; but the Queen has, and the Government.'
 
 232 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 It was pleasant to me to be introduced again 
 to Mr. Carlyle, for he kindly said he was glad to 
 see me, as he was indebted to my husband for a 
 notice of his mathematical work. This work had 
 been the subject of a correspondence between 
 Mr. Carlyle and Mr. De Morgan some years 
 before. It is thus referred to in the appendix 
 to the Budget of Paradoxes. 
 
 After giving a method of proof that the ratio 
 of the circumference to the diameter is incom- 
 mensurable, my husband says : 
 
 ' The foregoing ' is (in my own language) '"from 
 Dr. (now Sir David) Brewster's English edition 
 of Legendre's Geometry, translated by someone 
 who is not named. I picked up a notion, 
 which others had at Cambridge in 1825, that the 
 translator was Mr. Galbraith, then known at 
 Edinburgh as a teacher and writer. 
 
 ' But it turns out that it was by a very different 
 person, and one destined to shine in quite another 
 walk ; it was a young man named Thomas Carlyle. 
 He prefixed, from his own pen, a thoughtful and 
 ingenious essay on Proportion — as good a substi- 
 tute for the fifth book of Euclid as could have 
 been given in the space, and quite enough to 
 show that he would have been a distinguished
 
 THOMAS CARLYLE. 233 
 
 teacher and thinker on first principles. But he 
 left the field immediately.'* 
 
 Mr. Carlyle did not possess the volume in 
 which this occurs, and I felt it an honour to 
 present it to him. In return he gave me a 
 photograph of himself, cabinet size, ' With kind 
 regards ' in his own writing, or, rather, written by 
 himself in pencil, and traced over with ink by his 
 niece. He borrowed the Formal Logic, and read 
 it, but I do not think he cared enough for the 
 subject to enter fully into its strongest point, the 
 quantification of the predicate. He said he liked 
 logical reasoning, but did not approve of such 
 forms as Barbara, Celarent, etc., as a help to 
 comprehension. I said I thought the formula was 
 more as a help to noting down and expressing what 
 required great accuracy. He said that anyone 
 having real clear thought and reasoning power 
 could arrange his arguments without a verbal 
 form as a guide. But he did not, I think, look 
 upon the obnoxious words as a help to classifica- 
 tion, but more in the way of an artificial memory, 
 and he was rather bitter on both. 
 
 All his friends knew what a delightful com- 
 
 * See Budget of Paradoxes, Appendix, by Augustus De 
 Morgan, p. 499.
 
 234 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 panion Mr. Carlyle was in a walk or a drive ; 
 but for me, who was becoming deaf, it was a trial 
 to lose many of the capital stories and bits of 
 strong sarcasm or humour which were called up on 
 those occasions. I remember one great loss of this 
 sort, when he gave me specimens of the descrip- 
 tions of raiders and cattle lifters who figure in 
 some of the Border ballads. One Jock of some- 
 thing, I remember, seemed to excite his admira- 
 tion. This worthy had got himself, as no doubt 
 he fully deserved, into the strictest restraint in 
 the Tolbooth, or some northern stronghold-; but 
 he contrived, in a way that must have indicated 
 genius (or the narrator would not have shown the 
 pleasure he did in recounting the feat), to elude 
 his warders and throw off his shackles, to clear 
 the walls, and to escape into the open. Now, I 
 confess it did appear a little paradoxical for the 
 great upholder of order and discipline to delight in 
 the doings of a person who set all law at defiance. 
 But it was really the exercise of strength and 
 courage in any form that was approved in his 
 heart. I think that law and discipline came 
 second in his estimation in the case of Jock. 
 
 For the same reasons, my deafness, and his 
 habit of looking straight before him when he 
 talked, I lost many anecdotes and remarks which
 
 THOMAS CARLYLE AND ANTI-VIVISECTION. 235 
 
 I would gladly have remembered. One day, 
 when he had told me much about some of his 
 friends, I asked him if he liked a certain marriage. 
 
 ' Eh, no,' he said, striking- his stick on the 
 pavement ; ' she went and married an empty 
 prating wind-bag, when she might have had a 
 German student well read in the metaphysics.' 
 
 He was strong in denouncing the hideous 
 practice of vivisection. Like my husband, he 
 believed that no real and valuable addition to 
 knowledge would be gained by violating the laws 
 of justice and mercy ; and he dwelt particularly 
 on the justice due to animals, who, he said, had 
 their rights — the right that is gained by fulfilling 
 a duty to us.* So he willingly headed a petition 
 on the subject (the name following his being that 
 of M. Victor Schoelcher), and we (I mean the 
 friends of the cause) hoped he would have con- 
 sented to go up with a deputation from the 
 Victoria Street Societyt to the Home Office to 
 urge on the Secretary of State, Mr. Cross, the 
 introduction by Government of a Bill in accord- 
 
 * If this principle were held to be binding, the patient 
 horses, which have done man the greatest service for many 
 years, would not, in their old age and helplessness, be treated 
 as they are at Alfort and in knackers' yards. 
 
 f In 1876.
 
 236 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 ance with the recommendation of the Royal Com- 
 mission. The deputation was introduced by- 
 Lord Shaftesbury, and Cardinal Manning was 
 one. Mr. Carlyle was asked to go, but refused 
 to accompany Cardinal Manning, on whom, or 
 rather on whose Church, he bestowed one of his 
 choicest and strongest epithets. It was vain to 
 observe, as I ventured to do, that as this good 
 defender of our righteous cause had worked in 
 it with Lord Shaftesbury, perhaps other friends 
 who differed as much as they did in doctrine 
 might follow their example. But not ev6n his 
 indignation with the vivisectors could induce 
 him to give the support of his presence. I think, 
 however, that his age and weakness made him 
 hesitate, and he heartily wished us success. He 
 had a splendid tabby cat, Tib, which sometimes 
 sat on his knee or shoulder ; and he honoured 
 our collie, Dido, with his notice, so that if she saw 
 him in the street she would run up to greet him, 
 and more than once alarmed me by jumping up 
 too vigorously and setting her forefeet against the 
 philosopher, making him stagger. He said that 
 the name ' collie ' came from Colin, the name given 
 to a shepherd in Scotland. A collie is a shep- 
 herd's dog.
 
 A DRIVE WITH THE PHILOSOPHER. 237 
 
 One bright summer day Mr. Carlyle kindly 
 asked me to accompany him, his niece, and a 
 friend in an open carriage drive. We went across 
 the old bridge to Battersea, Wandsworth, and on 
 to Wimbledon ; and in the old streets among the 
 quaint old houses, many of which have since 
 been pulled down, he showed me many which 
 either had been inhabited by some notoriety of 
 former times, or had been distinguished by some 
 historical association. All along the road, through 
 Chelsea, Putney, and Barnes, these relics here 
 and there presented themselves, and many of 
 them brought out interesting anecdotes, coloured, 
 especially in the case of persons connected with 
 royalty, with his strong painting. When we 
 reached Wimbledon Common we were discussing 
 Shelley, and, in speaking of a bust in the 
 possession of Mr. W. B. Scott, I asked if Mr. 
 Carlyle remembered the form of his head, which 
 was very peculiar. He could not say, ' but if 
 phrenology were true, it must have been a very 
 bad one.' This led to his talking of phrenology, 
 and it appeared, by the way in which Mr. Carlyle 
 spoke of ' bumps,' that he had not considered the 
 'science,' or 'system,' in a way which Mr. 
 Deville, or perhaps more philosophical phrenolo-
 
 238 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 gists, would have approved ; and I ventured to 
 tell him I thought he hardly did it justice, also 
 observing that his own wonderful power of 
 language confirmed the truth of one observation 
 of Gall's, which led him to believe that language 
 was in apart of the brain behind the eye, pushing 
 it rather forward. He made some funny remarks 
 on the language of the eyes, and then took off his 
 velvet cap and said : ' Come, tell me what I have 
 got in my head.' It was a warm day, so no harm 
 came of his being uncovered. 
 
 I lost an excellent opportunity then, from dis- 
 trust of my own power, and wished some better 
 judge had been in my place. The head showed, 
 as might be expected, a very powerful and com- 
 plicated organization, some parts being much 
 larger than others, and indicating very strong 
 mental characteristics. No one could fail to see 
 that language, order, individuality, and eventu- 
 ality, among the perceptions, comparison, caus- 
 ality, in the forehead, firmness, conscientiousness, 
 and destructiveness, were all large ; hope, not so, 
 and the domestic affections, strong. This sketch 
 is so very slight and imperfect, that perhaps I ought 
 not to write it ; but if there is a cast taken during 
 life in existence, it will be easy to see what are the
 
 AN ATTEMPT TO READ HIS CHARACTER. 239 
 
 omissions. Even if I had been more confident 
 of my own ability to find the organization of this 
 very powerful head, the thick bushy hair would 
 have made it difficult ; and the busts and statues 
 now supposed to represent our distinguished 
 men are so much idealized, that the strongest 
 characteristics are often lost. The beautiful 
 statue of Mr. Carlyle on the Embankment is 
 admirable in its presentation of the face and 
 attitude, though the hair is too thick to allow the 
 full form of head to be seen. I wish this statue 
 were under cover, for I well remember the dislike 
 he expressed of seeing the effigies of those we 
 wished to honour exposed to the rain and smoke 
 in our public places. 
 
 During the drive to Wimbledon there was 
 some mention made, in Mr. Carlyle's searching, 
 sweeping style, of the honesty of literary men 
 and publishers. I spoke of one whom I knew 
 slightly, asking if the giving up of a small income 
 for a scruple of conscience was not a proof of 
 honesty. 'Without doubt,' he said, 'of honesty 
 up to ^200 a year.' Certainly he was sometimes 
 like Diogenes going in search of an honest man ! 
 
 As to the manner in which his wonderful 
 faculty of language showed itself, it has been
 
 240 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 thought that the habit of forming compound 
 epithets, which gave such force to his writing 
 and speaking, had been unconsciously acquired 
 by his great familiarity with German literature. 
 This might have been the case in some degree, 
 but I believe it was in himself, especially as some 
 others of his family had the same characteristic 
 style. Those who heard him talk could not fail 
 to be struck with the readiness with which words 
 absolutely fitting the subject presented themselves 
 in his speech, as well as his writing. His was a 
 rare gift of words, and he appreciated it in others. 
 When Mr. Morris's poem of Sigurd was pub- 
 lished, Mr. Carlyle read it quite through, never 
 leaving the book till he reached the end, and 
 then saying, ' What a many words that man has !' 
 
 But it is certain that the gloominess of his 
 views, and the vituperative language in which he 
 expressed them, varied with the state of his health. 
 I was one day walking with him in a street near 
 Cheyne Row, when a number of rough boys just 
 out of school began shouting and throwing about 
 sticks and stones. A stick hit Mr. Carlyle's hat, 
 and I feared the next might do more mischief. 
 
 ' There,' he said, 'be quiet, can't ye, you ne'er- 
 do-weels !'
 
 HIS MEWS OF THE TIMES. 241 
 
 The boys were only thoughtless, and were 
 soon quiet. I had noticed the deep colour of 
 his face, and the unusually strong yellow lines 
 about his eyes, and wondered that he spoke so 
 quietly. I observed that the Board Schools had 
 a good deal more to do. Mr. Carlyle said, 
 seeming to be thinking aloud : 
 
 4 When I was a lad I was taught to respect 
 my seniors, and made to do my duty, and to 
 walk in God-fearing ways ; now all those duties 
 are passed over, and nobody remembers that he 
 owes anything to any but himself. It's all selfish- 
 ness and self-seeking, from the highest to the 
 lowest !' 
 
 I ventured to hope that this very sweeping 
 condemnation might have some exceptions, and 
 mentioned some really practical philanthropists 
 who were devoting their lives to raising the 
 condition of the poor. 
 
 He did not believe it. If there were such, the 
 number was very small — only perhaps one here 
 and there whose work was not a show and a 
 sham carried on for their own glorification. And 
 he went on, painting a dark picture of the iniqui- 
 ties of trade and commerce, and even in the 
 professions — how it was all grasping and knavery, 
 
 16
 
 242 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 everyone trying to over - reach his neighbour. 
 ' But,' he said, 'it will bring its own fruit. There 
 is such a crisis approaching as the country has 
 never known. I have long seen it impending, 
 and I have warned them, but they will take no 
 heed, and the storm will burst when they don't 
 expect it.' 
 
 There was something in this dark prophecy 
 which reminded me of the poor man who called, 
 1 Woe to Jerusalem !' till he was lost in the falling 
 city. I could only give the weak reply, that it 
 was certainly not for want of warning frorrt him 
 if distress and confusion arose in consequence of 
 the sins and misdoings of the country. He then 
 spoke of our dealings with other nations, and the 
 dishonesty of statesmen, all expressed in his own 
 strong language, but of which I lost a good deal 
 from the noise in the street. 
 
 That evening, as we were sitting quietly at 
 home rather late, a message came from Miss 
 Aitken, asking for some of the medicine her 
 uncle usually took, as the druggists' shops were 
 shut. Fortunately I had some to send. The 
 next day I did not see Mr. Carlyle ; but on the 
 day following met him on his own doorstep, going 
 out with his niece. He looked quite happy, com-
 
 A MORE HOPEFUL MOOD. 243 
 
 pared with what he was two days before, though 
 Cheyne Row resounded with the clamour of a 
 large number of boys and girls just released from 
 the Board School at Cook's Ground, close by. 
 This time / grumbled, suggesting that the inhabi- 
 tants should send a request to the managing 
 committee, begging them to take means to 
 quiet this disturbance,* which took place twice 
 a day when the children came out of school. But 
 Mr. Carlyle would not agree. He only said 
 kindly : ' Ah, poor little things ; let them alone, 
 they'll never be so happy again.' 
 
 He once spoke to me of the sadness of life, 
 and the uncertainty of ever meeting again those 
 we had valued and lost. He was very sympa- 
 thetic, and spoke kindly of my many losses and 
 sorrows. My own great support and hope comes 
 from the belief that our life here is but the first 
 stage of a long journey ; and I said something 
 implying this, adding that I fully believed all 
 whom I had lost were happier than they had 
 been here, and that they were waiting for those 
 they had left behind. 'Ah, no,' he said despond- 
 ingly ; ' they are all gone, we know not whither, 
 
 * By the arrangement of another outlet through the play- 
 ground, the exit of the children is now better regulated.
 
 2 +4 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 and there is nothing whatever to give us any 
 information as to their state.' I dared not say 
 another word on this question, for it would have 
 been useless to appeal for the confirmation of 
 facts to Gospel narrative, though he called himself 
 an old Scotch Presbyterian. And as to ghosts, 
 or any other supposed evidence of another state, 
 I remembered his judgment of some phenomena 
 not wisely received — indeed, very imperfectly 
 comprehended — that it was ' a liturgy of dead 
 sea-apes,' so I did not attempt to defend my 
 own conviction. But it is so natural to a Scotch- 
 man to believe in second sight, which is half- 
 way to accepting spiritual, or, in the more fashion- 
 able phrase, psychic, phenomena, that I can hardly 
 think he would have declared his scepticism as 
 to apparitions. I must not lengthen this little 
 notice, or I could recall several neighbourly 
 kindnesses which we received from Mr. Carlyle ; 
 and I hope that many of these showing his con- 
 sideration for his friends will not be lost and for- 
 gotten in the greater interest attending utterances 
 of great social and political principles, by which 
 those who were much with him were impressed, 
 and which, of course, would be first chronicled. 
 Mr. Carlyle is not quite the last of whom I
 
 LORD SHAFTESBURY. 245 
 
 could write, for another memory has arisen — that 
 of one greater and better than all. The mention, 
 however, can be little but a name, for I knew 
 Lord Shaftesbury only slightly in his public and 
 charitable work until the later years of his life. 
 But it is pleasant to write, as the last of my 
 reminiscences, the name of one whose whole life 
 was spent in unselfish efforts to promote goodness 
 and to diminish vice and cruelty in the world. 
 For forty years I had worked under Lord 
 Shaftesbury's leadership in many directions, and 
 I knew how his heart bled for the sufferings of 
 the little chimney-sweeps, and how vigorous were 
 his efforts for their relief, and for that of the 
 factory children. His battles for the freedom of 
 the slave, the better treatment of the lunatic and 
 the prisoner — in short, for all who were suffering 
 and oppressed, are written in history ; but it is 
 harder to tell how he felt for little children and 
 helpless animals. I often met him on ragged 
 school anniversaries and prize days, and on occa- 
 sions that brought him into the company of the 
 very poor. He really enjoyed giving the prizes 
 for window-garden shows, noticing the beauties 
 of the finest plants, and often giving shillings or 
 more for a second prize when two plants were
 
 246 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 nearly equal. It was not a dry task to be got 
 through, but a pleasant opportunity of meeting 
 his poorer friends ; for he was simple and natural 
 himself, and seemed to feel as much at home with 
 simple and natural people, whose interest was set 
 on the beauty of a pelargonium or a fuchsia, as 
 with his peers with whom he had to legislate for 
 the welfare of millions. Mothers and children 
 watched for his coming, and when he shook hands 
 with those whom he knew, and perhaps recalled 
 some incident of their former meeting, they felt 
 cheered and encouraged to persevere in good and 
 honest ways. 
 
 A good clergyman, the Rev. David Laing, in- 
 cumbent of Trinity Church, N.W., felt much for 
 the little gutter children, whose sport was really 
 to be had only in the gutters and dirty alleys of 
 the neighbourhood. He proposed that a piece 
 of ground — there were plenty of waste lots in the 
 neighbourhood then — should be bought or hired 
 and made into a public playground, the boys and 
 girls being kept apart, and a safe place secured 
 for the babies. I joined Mr. Laing's committee, 
 and was fortunate enough to get some subscrip- 
 tions for this. A short article which I sent to 
 Household Words made the plan known. The
 
 LORD SHAFTESBURY. 247 
 
 newspapers also gave us some articles, and our 
 prospect was very encouraging. Lord Shaftes- 
 bury took the chair at a meeting in Hanover 
 Square Road, Lord Ebury and my husband being 
 on his right and left. It was on that occasion 
 that I was first formally introduced to him, and 
 he told me he had often thought of something of 
 the kind. I told him I fully believed he would 
 bring us success, for all his work was successful. 
 We were going on well — a nice piece of land was 
 negotiated for, and the purchase nearly arranged, 
 when one day at the committee a member, who 
 was an architect, proposed that we should have a 
 stately triumphal arch, of which he had made the 
 plans, for an entry to the ground. Had his idea 
 been adopted, the expense would have been great, 
 and the work would have been incongruous ; for 
 the neighbourhood consisted of small ' tene- 
 ments ' and narrow streets. For one, I opposed 
 it strongly. But it appeared there was some 
 defect in the title to the land ; and this caused 
 delay, during which our excellent friend. Mr. 
 Laing, became seriously ill, the affairs of the society 
 fell into great confusion, and the whole plan was 
 abandoned. The want has been supplied by the 
 large playgrounds attached to the Board Schools,
 
 248 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 but these might be made more useful in summer 
 than they are now, to the scholars. 
 
 It was during the latter part of his life, in 
 which, with all the strength of his strong heart, 
 he took up the cause of the vivisected animals, 
 tortured to satisfy the lust for supposed science, 
 that I became personally acquainted with Lord 
 Shaftesbury, and am happy in remembering that 
 I have talked and shaken hands with him. I 
 have said supposed science. I have heard it 
 called false science, and justly, if, as the highest 
 authorities allege, not one of the results attained 
 by vivisection has added any real knowledge to 
 physiology which could not have been reached 
 more certainly by lawful means. Lord Shaftes- 
 bury said that vivisection was as needless as it 
 was cruel. But he valued true science, and him- 
 self pursued it in another form. Ever since the 
 formation of the Astronomical Society he had 
 been a member, and continued so until his death. 
 My husband always had pleasure in working with 
 him, and though some of their religious opinions 
 differed, there could be no disagreement as 
 to the glory and wonder of the stars. Mr. De 
 Morgan, then honorary secretary, always relied 
 on Lord Shaftesbury for good sense and
 
 LORD SHAFTESBURY. 249 
 
 sound judgment. He was ' a thoroughly upright 
 and honourable man.' In 1830 the Admiralty 
 applied to the Astronomical Society to investi- 
 gate the state of the Nautical Almanack, 
 which was known to require revision, and on 
 which the safety of all ships of whatever descrip- 
 tion depended. A committee of forty members 
 was appointed, and Lord Shaftesbury was one. 
 In i860, long after the work was done, there 
 were but eight of the number left. My husband 
 and Lord Shaftesbury were the two survivors of 
 these, and Lord Shaftesbury was the last. 
 
 The last time I saw him was in July, 1885, at 
 the meeting of the Victoria Street Society. This 
 was not long before his death ; and though he 
 filled the President's chair, and spoke a few words, 
 he was not strong enough to remain till the end 
 of the proceedings ; and his altered and enfeebled 
 look as he left the room, leaning on the arm of a 
 friend, impressed all present with the feeling that 
 they would never see him in that place again. 
 The whole audience stood up in silence, and 
 many shed tears. 
 
 A year before he died, he had said to his friend 
 and fellow-worker, Miss Cobbe, ' When I feel 
 age creeping on me, and know I must soon die —
 
 250 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 I hope it is not wrong to say it — but I cannot 
 bear to leave the world with all the misery there 
 is in it.' This was the most unselfish thought, 
 for, whatever were his theological notions of the 
 next state, he could hardly doubt that it would be 
 better than the one he was leaving. And as so 
 much of his happiness here consisted in giving 
 relief to suffering and misery, the same sources of 
 happiness in a higher form would, it seems 
 certain, await him on entering a new life. I hope 
 it is not a presumptuous belief that the friend of 
 the slave, the prisoner, and, above all, the suffer- 
 ing child, is still happy in ministering to their 
 welfare.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Abbott, Mr. (Tutor of St. 
 John's), 65 n. 
 
 Acade'mie des Sciences Morales 
 et Politiques, 187 n. 
 
 Ackermann, Mr. (Bristol mer- 
 chant), 132 n. 
 
 Acrostic, 81 
 
 Acton, 150 n., 167, 168, 171, 175, 
 192 
 
 Adams, John Quincy, 13 
 
 Agricultural Schools, 191, 192, 
 193, 202 n. 
 
 Aikin, Dr., 85, 89 
 
 Mr. Charles, 87 
 
 Lucy, Miss, 85 
 
 Ainger, Rev. Alfred, 80 
 
 Aitken, Miss Mary (Mrs. Alex- 
 ander Carlyle), 228, 229, 242 
 
 Alexander, Archduke, ix 
 
 The Emperor, 18 
 
 Aliendes, Maison des, 186 n. 
 
 Allen, William, 103, 106, 107 
 
 Allied Sovereigns, The, 18 
 
 Anacalypsis, Godfrey Higgins's, 
 
 39. 47, 48, 5°, 52, 53 
 Annals of Philosophy, 36 n. 
 Anti - vivisection, xxxviii, 235, 
 
 236, 248 
 Archaeological Society, The, 58 
 
 Ashley, Lord, 42 
 
 Asiatic Society, The, 49 n. 
 
 Askeron, 48 
 
 Astronomical Society, The, 248, 
 
 249 
 Auckland, Lord, 130 n., 131 n. 
 
 Babbage, Charles, 135 n., 137 n., 
 
 138 n. 
 Babbage's machine, 203 n. 
 Babylonish gems, 54 
 Baily, Mr. Francis, 125 n., 126 n., 
 
 128 n., 130 n, 131 n., 134 n. 
 Baillie, Mrs. Agnes, 132 
 
 Mrs. Joanna, 132,188, 189 
 
 Bakeleians, The Hindu, 67 
 Balaam's Ass, 60 
 Barbauld, Mrs., 85, 86, 87, 88, 89 
 Barrow, Sir John, 131 n. 
 Battersea Park, xxxix, 230 
 Beachy Head, 112 
 Beaufort, Captain, 130 n. 
 Beaulieu, 1S8 n. 
 Becket's Crown, 46 
 Bedford College, xxxvi 
 Bedford Place, Upper, 124,132 
 Bell, Major Evans (Life of 
 
 General Briggs), 172 
 Bellamy, John, 59, 60
 
 252 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 Bermingham, Mr. Thomas, 
 
 199 n. 
 Berzelius, 34 n. 
 Betham, Miss Matilda, 84 
 Bethlehem Hospital, 42, 43 
 Birkbeck, Dr. George, 102 
 Birme, Sir R., 109 n. 
 Blackburne, Dr. William, xxvii, 
 xxx 
 
 Archdeacon, xix, xx, 
 
 xxi, xxv, 60 
 
 Rev. Francis, xix 
 
 Lancelot (Arch- 
 bishop of York), xx 
 
 Miss Sarah, xix, 14 n. 
 
 Thomas, xxv, xxvi 
 
 Blake, William, 68, 71 
 Blucher, Marshal, 19 
 Bonaparte, Napoleon, 14, 15 n., 
 
 18, 19, 95 
 Bonomi, Joseph, 56, 58 
 Border Ballads, 234 
 Boswell, James, 34 
 Bowring, Sir John, 14, 15, 16, 73, 
 
 74,9i 
 Boyce, Mr. George, 222 
 Brenton, Captain, 192, 193, 203 
 Bridewell, viii 
 
 Bridge Street, Blackfriars, vii, 6 
 Briggs, General, 172 
 Brighton, 129 n., 144 n., 213 
 Brignall in Yorkshire, xix, xxv 
 Bristol, 132 n., 134 n., 137 n., 
 
 143 n. 
 British Association, 132 n.-i43 n. 
 British Museum, 212 
 Bromswell, 15 n. 
 Brougham, Lord, 22, 102, n6n., 
 
 119 n., 123 n., 198 n., 203 n., 
 
 207, 208, 209, 212 
 Browne, Thomas, 109 
 Brunei, I. K., 134 n., 139 n. 
 
 Budget of Paradoxes, 232, 233 
 
 Burdett, Sir Francis, 2-18 
 
 Burdett, Mr. Jones, 7 
 
 Burke, xxi 
 
 Burlington, Lord, 138 n., 143 n. 
 
 Byron, Lady Noel, xiii, xiv, 10 n., 
 17, 21 n., 59n.,6on., 101 n., 124, 
 129, 144 n., 145 n., 166, 167, 
 175-180, 181 n., 186, 187, 191, 
 192 n., 198 n., 214, 215, 216, 
 220 n., 226 
 
 Byron, Lord, 179, 216 
 
 Miss, 179, 181 n., 186 n. 
 
 Moore's Life of, 126 
 
 Camberwell, 172 
 
 Cambridge Calendar, xvii 
 
 Cambridge, W. Frend's banish- 
 ment from, xix 
 
 Cambridge, ix, 101, 105 n. 
 
 Camden Street, xxxvi 
 
 Campbell, Thomas, 102, 109- 
 131, 207 
 
 Canterbury, Cathedral, 44, 46 
 
 Canterbury, King's School at, viii 
 
 Cardale, Mr., xxii 
 
 Carlile, Richard, 46, 53 
 
 Carlyle, Mrs. Alexander, 228, 
 229 
 
 Carlyle, Mrs. Thomas, 227 
 
 Thomas, 175, 226-244 
 
 Carr, Miss, 202 n., 203 n. 
 
 Mrs., 203 n. 
 
 Celtic Druids, The, 39 
 Champion, The, 207 n. 
 Charles II., 173 
 
 Chesney, Lieutenant - Colonel, 
 
 135 n- 
 Cheyne Row, xxxviii, 229, 240, 
 
 243 
 Children's Friend Society, 17, 
 192-203
 
 INDEX. 
 
 253 
 
 Chips from a German Work- 
 shop, 222 
 Chiswick Mall, 195 
 Chorley, Mr. Henry, 48 
 Christ's College, Cambridge, ix 
 Chronicle, The, 14 n. 
 Chrysanthus, 212, 213 
 Cities of the Plain, 54 
 Clarence, Duke of, 64 
 Clarke, E. D., 31 11.-37 n. 
 Claypole, Mrs., 173 
 Clifford's Inn, 72, 76, 77, 79 
 Clifford, Lord and Lady, xxxi 
 Clifton, 132 n., 134 n., 136 n., 
 
 140 n. 
 Clonbrock, Lord, 199 n. 
 Cobbe, Frances Power, 249 
 Cochrane, Lord, 1 1 n. 
 Coleridge, S. T., 65, 71 
 Combe, Dr. Andrew, 178 
 
 Mr. George, 178 
 
 Confessional, The, xx, xxi, xxiii 
 Co-operation, 137-15 l 
 Co-operator, The, 145 n. 
 Coote, Sir Eyre, 15 n. 
 Cornelius Agrippa, 127 n. 
 Corn Law League, The, 91, 172 
 
 Riots, 10 n. 
 
 Cotton, Miss, 101, 105 n., 107 n. 
 
 Sir John, ix, 101, 105 
 
 Coulthursfs, Mr., Blunders Ex- 
 posed, x n. 
 
 Court of Delegates, xiii 
 
 Court of the Vice-Chancellor of 
 Cambridge, xiii 
 
 Cousin's Histoire dc la Philo- 
 sophic, 109 
 
 Cowie, Mr. (co-operative book- 
 seller), 144 n. 
 
 Craig, Mr., 203 n. 
 
 Cripps, Mr., 37 n. 
 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 172, 173, '74 
 
 Cross, Mr., 235 
 
 Cummin^, Professor, 32 n., 35 n. 
 Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer, 
 The, 28, 29 
 
 Davy, Sir Humphrey, 34 n. 
 
 De Fellenberg, 184, 185, 191, 
 201 n. 
 
 Defoe, Daniel, 43, 99 
 
 Defoe's Gate, 93 
 
 Delphin Classics, The, 74 
 
 Demetrius the silversmith, x 
 
 De Morgan, Augustus, xviii, 33 n., 
 48 n., 49 n., 53 n., 102, ill, 
 124 m-131 n., 132 n., 134 n., 
 136 n., 165, 232, 233 n., 
 248 
 
 Denman, Mr. Justice, 22 
 
 Derwentwater, Lord, 168 
 
 De Stael, Madame, 188 n. 
 
 Detroisier, 149 n. 
 
 Deville, 172, 237 
 
 Devil's Arrows, The, 45 
 
 Diana of the Ephesians, x 
 
 Diez, M., 188 n.,189 11., 190 n. 
 
 Diophantus, 30 
 
 Disney, Dr., xxi, xxv 
 
 Dollond, 126 n. 
 
 Donovan, Mr., 172 
 
 D'Ourches, Count, 211 
 
 Dover Castle, 124 n. 
 
 Doyle, Miss Selina, 183 n., 
 200 n. 
 
 Druids, The, 54 
 
 Drummond, Sir William, 44 
 
 Dumont, Mons., xxxi 
 
 Duperron, Anquetel, 44 
 
 Duppa, Mr. B. F., 198 n. 
 
 Dupuis, Baron, 44, 142 n. 
 
 Dyer, Mr. George, 72-77, 80, 
 
 82, S3, 84 
 Dyer, Mrs., 76, 83, 85 n.
 
 254 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 Ealing, 191 
 
 Ebury, Lord, 247 
 
 Edward Street, 157 
 
 Eikon Bast like, 77 
 
 Elias, Abraham, 94 
 
 ' Eliza,' 223 
 
 Ellis, Sir William and Lady, 43 
 
 Ely, The Bishop of, xii 
 
 Encyclopaedists, The, 97 
 
 Euphrates, The, 135 n. 
 
 Evenings at Home, 89 
 
 Fenwick, Dr., 216, 217 n., 218 n., 
 220 n. 
 
 Ferishta, 172 
 
 Ferrier, Dr., 162 
 
 Fire-towers of Ireland, 45 
 
 Flamsteed, U9n., 124 n., 125 n., 
 130 n. 
 
 Fleet Prison, viii 
 
 Follen, Mr. Charles, 224 
 
 Mrs., 224 
 
 Formal Logic, 233 
 
 Fox, Admiral, 63 n., 64 n. 
 
 General, 15 n. 
 
 W.J, 90 ' 
 
 Freemasonry, 46, 49, 51, 52, 53 
 
 Frend, Harriet, 128 n. 
 
 Frend, Sophia, vii, xviii, xxvi, 
 xxvii, xxx, xxxi, 17, 181 n., 
 182 n., 198 n, 202 n. 
 
 Frend, William, viii, xii, xiii, 
 xix, xxvi, xxx, xxxii, 1, 7, 10 n., 
 16 n, 21 n, 48 n, 51 n.,53n, 
 59 n, 65 n, 73 n, 84, 96 n, 
 109 n., no n., in n., 115 n., 
 120 n., 124 n, 132 n, 134 n., 
 136 n, 140 n, 143 n, 145 n, 
 150 n., 192 n. 
 
 Frend, Mrs. William, 6, 14 n, 
 139 n. 
 
 Friends, Society of, 103 
 
 Fry, Elizabeth, 181, 182, 183, 
 185, 186, 187 
 
 Galbraith, Mr., 232 
 
 Galileo, xxviii 
 
 Gall, Dr., 161-163, 180, 238 
 
 Galton, Mr. Francis, 70 
 
 Garnett, Dr. Richard, 228 
 
 Garrick, David, xxv 
 
 Gauss, 131 n. 
 
 Gentleman's Magazine, The, xi 
 
 George L, xx n., 219 n. 
 
 George IV, 23 
 
 Gillman, Mr., 71 
 
 Gilray, J., 16 n. 
 
 Godlee, Mr. Rickman, 138 
 
 Goldsmith, Oliver, 34 
 
 Gordon, Mr., 42 
 
 Gosford, Countess of, 177, 178 
 
 Gower Street, xxxvi 
 
 Grafton, Duke of, xvii 
 
 Gray's Inn, 152 
 
 Grimm, J., 222 
 
 Guldenstubbe, Baron, 209-213 
 
 Guilford Street, 152 
 
 Hackney Marshes, 193 
 Halley's comet, 125 n. 
 Hamilton, Lady Ann, 22 
 
 Sir William, 142 n. 
 
 Hampden question, The, xvi 
 Hanwell Asylum, 43 
 Hare, Archdeacon, 227 
 Harland, Sir Charles, 217 n. 
 Mrs, 217 n, 218 n, 
 
 219 n. 
 Hastings, 109, no, in n, 113 n., 
 
 115 n, 120 n, 126 n., 137, 144, 
 
 145 n, 147, 148, 149, 150 
 Helvetius, 124 n. 
 Herschel, Sir John, 68, 69, 70, 
 
 7i
 
 INDEX 
 
 2 55 
 
 Hibbert Lectures, The, 25-27 
 
 Hibbert, Mr. Robert, 23, 24, 25, 
 26, 27 
 
 Higgins, Godfrey, 39-54 
 
 Hoar, Mr. Charles, 217 n., 218 n., 
 219 n., 220 n. 
 
 Hofwyl, 191, 203 n. 
 
 Hollesly Bay, 15 n. 
 
 Hollington Church, 113 
 
 Holmes, Mr., 32 n. 
 
 Holmes, Mr. (phrenological lec- 
 turer), 164, 165 
 
 Home, D. D., 209 
 
 Household Words, 246 
 
 Hutman, Mr., 49 n., 50 n. 
 
 Hutton, Dr. Charles, 217, 218 
 
 Hutton's Mathematical Recrea- 
 tions, 218 
 
 Isdubar, 57 
 /sis, The, 158 
 
 Jameson, Mrs. Anna, 214, 215 
 
 Jebb, Dr. John, xxii 
 
 Jekyll, Mr. Joseph, 72, 73, 76, 
 
 77 
 Jessop, Dr., 12 
 Jesus College, ix, xii, xvi 
 Jews, Polish, 60 n. 
 Jews, The Emancipation of the, 
 
 xv, 135 n. 
 Jewish Free School, The, 102 
 Jobert, Mr., 123 
 Johnson, Samuel, 29, 34 
 Jones, Sir William, 44 
 
 Mr. (Tutor of Trinity), xii 
 
 Jubilee, The Oueen's, 23 
 
 Keary's Outlines of Primitive 
 Belief, 221 
 
 Kelly, Mr. and Mrs., 167, 168 
 Kelly, Miss Adelaide, 169 
 
 King's Bench, xiii 
 
 Bench Prison, 10, 11 n. 
 
 Cross, viii 
 
 School, Canterbury, viii 
 
 King, Dr. (of Brighton), 213 
 
 Mrs., 203 n. 
 
 Kingswood, The collieries at, 
 133 n. 
 
 L , Mr., 98 
 
 Laing, Rev. David, 246, 247 
 Lamb, Charles, 72, 73, 74, 76, 
 
 79, 80, 81, 82, 84 n. 
 Lambert, Mr. (Bursar of Trinity), 
 
 xii 
 Landseer, Sir Edwin, 54, 58 
 
 Mr. John, 54, 55, 58, 
 
 60 
 
 Lardner, Dr., 203 n. 
 
 Law, Dr. (Bishop of Carlisle), 
 
 xxii 
 Lee, Dr., 128 n. 
 Legendre's Geometry, 232 
 Leger, Dr., 213, 216 
 Leopold, Prince (of Saxe 
 
 Coburg), 19 
 Lexington, The Battle of, xviii 
 Lindsey, Rev. Theophilus, xxi, 
 
 XXV 
 
 Lindsey, Mrs. Theophilus, 14 n. 
 Lister, Mary, 105, 106 
 Liverpool, 138 n., 143 n. 
 
 Co-operatives, 151 n. 
 
 Locke, xxvii, 63, 70 
 London, Sheriffs of, xv 
 
 University, 48 
 
 Long, Mr. C, 131 n. 
 Lousada, Miss, 30, 31 
 Louvre, The, 212 
 
 Lovelace, Late Earl of, 204 n. 
 
 Present Earl of, 217 n. 
 
 Lyndhurst, Lord, 1 19 n.
 
 256 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 Mackintosh, Sir James, 65 n., 
 
 69 n. 
 Madingley, ix, 101, 105 n. 
 Maltby, Dr., 150 n. 
 Malthus, R., 37 n. 
 Manchester, 143 n. 
 Yeomanry Cavalry, 
 
 10 
 Manning, Cardinal, 236 
 Marick Abbey, xx n. 
 Markham, Rev. W. (Archbishop 
 
 of York), xxiii 
 Marsh, Rev. Herbert (Bishop of 
 
 Peterborough), xii 
 Mascheroni, 31 
 Maseres, Baron, 26, 28-31 
 Maurice, Rev. F. D., 227 
 Max Muller, Professor, 26 
 Mecanique Celeste, 124 n. 
 Melbourne, Lord, 117 n. 
 Meredith, Sir William, xxi 
 Milbanke, Lady, 212 n., 216, 217, 
 
 218, 219 n., 220 n. 
 Milner, 32 n, 33 n, 35 n, 36 n. 
 Mohamed, 48 n. 
 Montgomery, Colonel, 167 
 Miss, 167, 169, 177, 
 
 178, 200 
 Monthly Chronicle, The, 184 
 
 Reformer, The, 207 
 
 Montucla, 218 
 Moore, Thomas, 126, 128 
 Morgan, Mr. William, xvii, 133 n. 
 Munster, Duchess of, xx n. 
 Murphy, Lieutenant, R.E., 135 n. 
 Murray, Hon. Amelia, 17, 194, 
 
 195, 200 
 Murray, Lady George, 17, 194 
 Mysonius, 212, 213 
 
 Nastac, The, 67 
 
 Nautical Almanack, The, 249 
 
 Nazar, Mount, 57 
 
 Necker de Saussure, Madame, 
 
 188 n. 
 Newgate, 183 
 New Monthly Magazine, The, 
 
 130 
 Newton, Sir Isaac, 119, 125, 
 
 131 n. 
 Nineveh marbles, 54 
 Noble's 'Cromwell,' 174 
 Noel, Mr. Charles, 201 n. 
 Noel, Major Robert, 145 n., 
 
 147 n., 149 n., 150 n. 
 Noel, Mr. Thomas, 145 n. 
 Norfolk, Duke of, xxx 
 Northampton, Lord, I38n., 143 n. 
 Northern Lights, tj 
 
 Ockham, 204 n. 
 
 O'Connell, Daniel, 168, 169, 170, 
 
 171 
 Oldenburg, The Duchess of, 19 
 Oracles, The, 45 
 Ore, in 
 Otter, Bishop of Chichester, 
 
 37 n. 
 Owen, Robert, 152-160, 162, 163 
 Owen, R. Dale, 212 
 Oxford, xv 
 
 Page Bank, 218 n., 220 n. 
 Paley, ix, xxii n. 
 Palmerston, Lord, 208 
 Parr, Dr., 30 
 Patriotism, 14 
 Peace and Union, xi 
 Peacock, Thomas Love, 206 
 Peckhard, The Rev. Peter, xxi- 
 
 xxv 
 Peel, Sir Robert, 135 n., 138 n. 
 Penrhyn, Lord, 219 
 Phillips, Mr., 142 n.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 257 
 
 Phillott, Mr. Arthur, 126 n., 128 n. 
 Philosophical Society of Leeds, 
 
 69 
 Playground Society, xxxvii 
 Pleasures of Hope, The, 109 
 Pond, Mrs., no 
 Pontin, 34 n. 
 Porter, Mr. G. R., 172, 205 n., 
 
 206 n. 
 Powell, Mr., 9 
 Princess Charlotte, 19, 20 
 Prior's British Plants, 222 
 ' Priscilla.' xxii 
 Prussia, King of, 19 
 Puritans, History of the, xvii 
 Pyramids, The, 45 
 
 Quakers and Moravians, xv 
 
 Quebec, ix 
 
 Queen Adelaide, 184 n., 185 n. 
 
 Caroline, 22, 207 
 
 Victoria, 23 
 
 Rambouillet, Marquisate of, 28 
 Rammohun Rov, 90, 91, 92 
 Records of the Past, 56 
 Redesdale, Lord, 15 n. 
 Reeves and Turner, 52 
 Reform Bill, The, 116 n. 
 Reid, Mrs., xxxvi, 223 
 Renan, Ernest, 26 
 Renouf, P. Lepage, 26 
 Richmond, Mrs. W. B., xxxix 
 Richmond in Yorkshire, 77, 78, 
 
 139 n. 
 Rickman, Mr. John, 72 
 Robinson, Mr. Crabb, 72, 82, 
 
 Rockingham, Lord, xxii 
 Rock Insurance Office, The, vii, 
 viii, xix 
 
 Roscoes, The, 151 n. 
 Rossi, Jurisconsulte, 187 n. 
 Rotunda, The, 152, 154, 159 
 Rouen, 186 n. 
 Ruskin, Mr. John, 227 
 Rustington, xxxix 
 Rutter, Mr., 213, 214, 216 
 
 Sabaan Researches, The, 55, 56 
 
 St. Cloud, 212 
 
 St. Denis, 212 
 
 St. Leonards, no, 113 n., 1 14 n. 
 
 St. Mary's, Cambridge, xi 
 
 St. Omer, viii 
 
 St. Pancras Church, 157 
 
 St. Petersburg, ix 
 
 Savile, Sir George, xxii 
 
 Schoelcher, M. Victor, 235 
 
 School of Reform at Chelsea, 
 
 200 n. 
 Scott, Professor Alexander, 227 
 
 Sir Walter, 114 
 
 Mr. W. B., 237 
 
 Sedgwick, Adam, 77 
 Shaftesbury, Lord, 42, 236, 245- 
 
 250 
 Sheepshanks, Rev. Richard, 77, 
 
 128 n., 131 n. 
 Sheil, 168 
 Shelley, P. B., 237 
 Sheridan, Richard, xxiv 
 Sheriffs of London, xv 
 Siam, King of, xxviii 
 Sigurd, Morris's, 240 
 Sisit, 57 
 Skcllow Grange, 40, 47, 48, 
 
 53 
 
 Smith, Mr. George, 56 
 
 Smith, Mr. (account of agricul- 
 tural experiment), 199 n. 
 
 Smith, Sir Sydney, 15 n.
 
 258 MEMORIES OF THREESCORE AND TEN YEARS. 
 
 Smith, William, M.P., 8 n. 
 Soane Museum, 56 
 Somerville, Mrs. Mary, 31 
 South, Sir James, 219 
 Spenser's Faerie Queene, 108 
 Spurzheim, Dr., 162 
 Stanley's Eastern Church, 212, 
 
 213 
 State Trials, xiii 
 Statistical Society, The, 135 n. 
 Stewart, Professor Dugald, 132 
 Stoke Newington, vii, xxxii n., 
 
 4.3, 75, 85, 101, 103, 108, 109, 
 
 no, 192, 205 n. 
 Stonehenge, 45 
 
 Stowe, Mrs. Beecher, 223, 224 
 Strachey, Mr., 66 n. 
 Stratford, Lieutenant, 128 n., 
 
 131 n. 
 Strype's Annals, xvii 
 Sturm, 126 n. 
 
 Subscription, xxi, xxiii, xxiv 
 Sun-worship, 44, 46, 47 
 Sussex, Duke of, 50, 51, 53 
 Swedenborg, 65, 95 
 
 Tate, Canon, 77, 78, 139 n. 
 
 Charles, 132 n., 139 n. 
 
 Taylor, Thomas (the Platonist), 
 
 62, 65 
 Tekel, Mr., 14 n. 
 Temple Bar, 173 
 
 Church, The, 35, 37 
 
 . — Gardens, The, 33, 35 
 
 Thelwall, John, 207 n. 
 Thirlwall, 77 
 
 Thompson, Dr. (Master of 
 
 Trinity), 77 
 Tigris, The, 135 n. 
 Tomline, Dr., 133 n. 
 Tooke, Home, 13,65 n. 
 
 Torrington, Lord, xxxvii 
 Tower, The, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9 
 Tsitzith, The, 95 
 Tuckermann, Dr., 178, 180, 181, 
 
 182 n., 183 n., 184 n. 
 Tuke, Dr. D. Hack, 43 n. 
 
 Mr. Samuel, 41, 43 
 
 Mr. William, 40 
 
 Tyrwhitt, The Rev. Robert, xii 
 Tyrwhitt Scholarship, The, xii, 
 
 59 
 
 Uncle Tonics Cabin, 223 
 Unitarian chapels, xxi, 90, 91 
 Unitarians, xxi, 90, 96 
 University College, xxxvi, 102, 
 
 208, 224 
 University of London, 102, 207 
 Upton House, 184, 186 
 Urbaratutu, 57 n. 
 Useful Knowledge Society, 206 
 
 Valpy, Dr., 74 
 
 Vedante Philosophers, The, 
 
 67 n. 
 Volney, 97 
 Voltaire, 97, 124 n. 
 
 Wakefield Asylum, 43 
 Warrender, Sir J., 135 n. 
 Watts, Dr. Isaac, 85 
 Webb, Mrs. (Eliza), 224 
 Wellington, Duchess of, 20 
 Wellington, Duke of, 20, 21, 
 
 108 n., 109 n., no n., 201 
 Wesley, John, 60, 61, 121 n. 
 Westminster Abbey, 44, 173, 
 
 204 n. 
 Whewell, 77 
 Whiston, 51 n., 52 n.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 259 
 
 Whitaker, 28 
 
 Wilkinson, Mr., 172 
 
 William IV., 63 n., 64 n., 
 
 184 n. 
 Winchester, Bishop of, 133 n. 
 Wollaston, 32 n., 33 n., 35 n., 
 
 36 n. 
 Woodbridge, 15 
 Woolcombe, Mr., 189 n. 
 Woolgar, Mr., xxxii, n. 
 Woolwich, 218 
 
 Workhouse Visiting Association, 
 
 The, xxxvii 
 Wright, Frances, 158 
 
 Yates, Mr. John Ashton, 
 
 198 n. 
 York Lunatic Asylum, 40-42 
 Retreat, 40-42 
 
 Zodiac, Signs of the, 46, 58 
 Zoroaster, 52 
 
 ERRATA. 
 
 Page 134 (note), /or ' Bailey ' read ' Baily.' 
 
 Page 145 (note) and page 151 {xio\.€),for 'A. J. Noel Byron' read 
 'A. I. Noel Byron. 
 
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