little reflection will convince the few sur- the branches, still, or lightly waving in the vivors who have enjoyed both, that it involves no injustice to either; while with those who are too young to have been admitted to these rare festivities, we may exercise the privilege of age by boasting what good fellowship was once enjoyed, and what "good talk" there was once in the world! 66 But let us call to mind the aspects of each scene, before we attempt to tell of the conversation, which will be harder to recall and impossible to characterise. And first, let us invite the reader to assist at a dinner at Holland House in the height of the London and Parliamentary season, say a Saturday in June. It is scarcely seven-for the luxuries of the house are enhanced by a punctuality in the main object of the day, which yields to no dilatory guest of whatever pretensionand you are seated in an oblong room, rich in old gilding, opposite a deep recess, pierced by large old windows through which the rich branches of trees bathed in golden light, just admit the faint outline of the Surrey Hills. Among the guests are some perhaps of the highest rank, always some of high political importance, about whom the interest of busy life gathers, intermixed with others eminent already in literature or art, or of that dawning promise which the hostess delights to discover and the host to smile on. All are assembled for the purpose of enjoyment; the anxieties of the minister, the feverish struggles of the partisan, the silent toils of the artist or critic, are finished for the week; professional and literary jealousies are hushed; sickness, decrepitude, and death are silently voted shadows; and the brilliant assemblage is prepared to exercise to the highest degree the extraordinary privilege of mortals to live in the knowledge of mortality without its consciousness, and to people the present hour with delights, as if a man lived and laughed and enjoyed in this world for ever. Every appliance of physical luxury which the most delicate art can supply, attends on each; every faint wish which luxury creates is anticipated; the noblest and most gracious countenance in the world smiles over the happiness it is diffusing, and redoubles it by cordial invitations and encouraging words, which set the humblest stranger guest at perfect ease. As the dinner merges into the dessert, and the sunset casts a richer glow on evening light, and on the scene within, the harmony of all sensations becomes more perfect; a delighted and delighting chuckle invites attention to some joyous sally of the ¦ richest intellectual wit reflected in the faces of all, even to the favourite page in green, who attends his mistress with duty like that of the antique world; the choicest wines are enhanced in their liberal but temperate use by the vista opened in Lord Holland's tales of bacchanalian evenings at Brookes's, with Fox and Sheridan, when potations deeper and more serious rewarded the Statesman's toils and shortened his days; until at length the serener pleasure of conversation, of the now carelessly scattered groups, is enjoyed in that old, long, unrivalled library in which Addison mused, and wrote, and drank; where every living grace attends; "and more than echoes talk along the walls." One happy peculiarity of these assemblies was, the number of persons in different stations and of various celebrity, who were gratified by seeing, still more, in hearing and knowing each other; the statesman was relieved from care by association with the poet of whom he had heard and partially read; and the poet was elevated by the courtesy which "bared the great heart" which "beats beneath a star;" and each felt, not rarely, the true dignity of the other, modestly expanding under the most genial auspices. Now turn to No. 4, Inner Temple Lane, at ten o'clock, when the sedater part of the company are assembled, and the happier stragglers are dropping in from the play. Let it be any autumn or winter month, when the fire is blazing steadily, and the cleanswept hearth and whist-tables speak of the spirit of Mrs. Battle, and serious looks require "the rigour of the game." The furniture is old-fashioned and worn; the ceiling low, and not wholly unstained by traces of "the great plant," though now virtuously forborne: but the Hogarths, in narrow black frames, abounding in infinite thought, humour and pathos, enrich the walls; and all things wear an air of comfort and hearty English welcome. Lamb himself, yet unrelaxed by the glass, is sitting with a sort of Quaker primness at the whist-table, the gentleness of his melancholy smile half lost in his intentness on the game; his partner, the author of “ Political Justice," (the majestic expression of his large tinual triumph of "Don Giovanni," for which head not disturbed by disproportion of his Lamb, incapable of opera, is happy to take comparatively diminutive stature,) is regard- his word. Now and then an actor glances ing his hand with a philosophic but not a on us from "the rich Cathay" of the world careless eye; Captain Burney, only not vener- behind the scenes, with news of its brighter able because so young in spirit, sits between human-kind, and with looks reflecting the them; and H. C. R., who alone now and then public favour-Liston, grave beneath the breaks the proper silence, to welcome some weight of the town's regards—or Miss Kelly, incoming guest, is his happy partner-true unexhausted in spirit by alternating the winner in the game of life, whose leisure drolleries of high farce with the terrible achieved early, is devoted to his friends! At pathos of melodrama,-or Charles Kemble another table, just beyond the circle which mirrors the chivalry of thought, and ennobles extends from the fire, sit another four. The the party by bending on them looks beaming broad, burly, jovial bulk of John Lamb, the with the aristocracy of nature. Meanwhile Ajax Telamon of the slender clerks of the Becky lays the cloth on the side-table, under old South Sea House, whom he sometimes the direction of the most quiet, sensible, and introduces to the rooms of his younger kind of women - who soon compels the brother, surprised to learn from them that younger and more hungry of the guests to he is growing famous, confronts the stately partake largely of the cold roast lamb or but courteous Alsager; while P.,"his few hairs boiled beef, the heaps of smoking roasted bristling" at gentle objurgation, watches his potatoes, and the vast jug of porter, often partner M. B., dealing, with "soul more replenished from the foaming pots, which the white" * than the hands of which Lamb once best tap of Fleet-street supplies. Perfect said, "M., if dirt was trumps, what hands freedom prevails, save when the hospitable you would hold!" In one corner of the pressure of the mistress excuses excess; and room, you may see the pale earnest counte- perhaps, the physical enjoyment of the playnance of Charles Lloyd, who is discoursing goer exhausted with pleasure, or of the "of fate, free-will, fore-knowledge absolute," author jaded with the labour of the brain, is with Leigh Hunt; and, if you choose to not less than that of the guests at the most listen, you will scarcely know which most to charming of aristocratic banquets. As the admire the severe logic of the melancholy hot water and its accompaniments appear, reasoner, or its graceful evasion by the trick- and the severities of whist relax, the light some fantasy of the joyous poet. Basil of conversation thickens: Hazlitt, catching Montague, gentle enthusiast in the cause of the influence of the spirit from which he has humanity, which he has lived to see lately begun to abstain, utters some fine triumphant, is pouring into the outstretched criticism with struggling emphasis; Lamb ear of George Dyer some tale of legalised stammers out puns suggestive of wisdom, for injustice, which the recipient is vainly en- happy Barron Field to admire and echo; the deavouring to comprehend. Soon the room various driblets of talk combine into a stream, fills; in slouches Hazlitt from the theatre, while Miss Lamb moves gently about to see where his stubborn anger for Napoleon's that each modest stranger is duly served; defeat at Waterloo has been softened by Miss turning, now and then, an anxious loving eye Stephens's angelic notes, which might "chase on Charles, which is softened into a half anger, and grief, and fear, and sorrow, and humorous expression of resignation to inevitpain from mortal or immortal minds;' "able fate, as he mixes his second tumbler ! Kenney, with a tremulous pleasure, announces that there is a crowded house to the ninth representation of his new comedy, of which Lamb lays down his cards to inquire; or Ayrton, mildly radiant, whispers the con • Lamb's Sonnet, dedicatory of his first volume of prose to this cherished friend, thus concludes :— "Free from self-seeking, envy, low design, I have not found a whiter soul than thine." This is on ordinary nights, when the accustomed Wednesday-men assemble ; but there is a difference on great extra nights, gladdened by " the bright visitations" of Wordsworth or Coleridge :-the cordiality of the welcome is the same, but a sedater wisdom prevails. Happy hours were they for the young disciple of the then desperate, now triumphant cause of Wordsworth's genius, to be admitted to the presence of the poet who had opened a new world for him in the undiscovered riches of his own nature, and its affinities with the outer universe; whom he worshipped the more devoutly for the world's scorn; for whom he felt the future in the instant, and anticipated the "All hail hereafter!" which the great poet has lived to enjoy! To win him to speak of his own poetry-to hear him recite its noblest passages-and to join in his brave defiance of the fashion of the age-was the solemn pleasure of such a season; and, of course, superseded all minor disquisitions. So, when Coleridge came, argument, wit, humour, criticism were hushed; the pertest, smartest, and the cleverest felt that all were assembled to listen; and if a card-table had been filled, or a dispute begun before he was excited to continuous speech, his gentle voice, undulating in music, soon "Suspended whist, and took with ravishment The conversation which animated each of these memorable circles, approximated, in essence, much more nearly than might be surmised from the difference in station of the principal talkers, and the contrast in physical appliances; that of the bowered saloon of Holland House having more of earnestness and depth, and that of the Temple-attic more of airy grace than would be predicated by a superficial observer. The former possessed the peculiar interest of directly bordering on the scene of political conflict-gathering together the most eloquent leaders of the Whig party, whose repose from energetic action spoke of the week's conflict, and in whom the moment's enjoyment derived a peculiar charm from the perilous glories of the struggle which the morrow was to renew-when power was just within reach, or held with a convulsive grasp like the eager and solemn pleasure of the soldiers' banquet in the pause of victory. The pervading spirit of Lamb's parties was also that of social progress; but it was the spirit of the dreamers and thinkers, not of the combatants of the world-men who, it may be, drew their theories from a deeper range of meditation, and embraced the future with more comprehensive hope-but about whom the immediate interest of party did not gather; whose victories were all within; whose rewards were visions of blessings for their species in the furthest horizon of benevolent prophecy. If a profounder thought was sometimes dragged to light in the dim circle of Lamb's companions than was native to the brighter sphere, it was still a rare felicity to watch there the union of elegance with purpose in some leader of party-the delicate, almost fragile grace of illustration in some one, perhaps destined to lead advancing multitudes or to withstand their rashness;-to observe the growth of strength in the midst of beauty expanding from the sense of the heroic past, as the famed Basil tree of Boccaccio grew from the immolated relic beneath it. If the alternations in the former oscillated between wider extremes, touching on the wildest farce and most earnest tragedy of life; the rich space of brilliant comedy which lived ever between them in the latter, was diversified by serious interests and heroic allusions. Sydney Smith's wit-not so wild, so grotesque, so deep-searching as Lamb's-had even more quickness of intellectual demonstration; wedded moral and political wisdom to happiest language, with a more rapid perception of secret affinities; was capable of producing epigrammatic splendour reflected more permanently in the mind, than the fantastic brilliancy of those rich conceits which Lamb stammered out with his painful smile. Mackintosh might vie with Coleridge in vast and various knowledge; but there the competition between these great talkers ends, and the contrast begins; the contrast between facility and inspiration; between the ready access to each ticketed and labelled compartment of history, science,art, criticism, and the genius that fused and renovated all. But then a younger spirit appeared at Lord Holland's table to redress the balance-not so poetical as Coleridge, but more lucid-in whose vast and joyous memory all the mighty past lived and glowed anew; whose declamations presented, not groups tinged with distant light, like those of Coleridge, but a series of historical figures in relief, exhibited in bright succession, as if by dioramic art there glided before us embossed surfaces of heroic life.* Rogers too, was there-connecting the literature of the last age with evenings of Holland House and of its admirable master, drawn by this favourite guest himself, from an article * I take leave to copy the glowing picture of the "The time is coming when, perhaps a few old men, the last survivors of our generation, will in vain seek, amidst new streets, and squares, and railway stations, for the site of that dwelling which was in their youth the favourite resort of wits and beauties of painters fluttering expression of graceful trifles, to whisper some deep-toned thought of Ireland's wrongs and sorrows. Literature and Art supplied the favourite topics to each of these assemblies,--both discussed with earnest admiration, but surveyed in different aspects. The conversation at Lord Holland's was wont to mirror the happiest aspects of the living mind; to celebrate the latest discoveries in science; to echo the quarterly decisions of imperial criticism; to reflect the modest glow of and poets of scholars, philosophers, and statesmen. young reputations;-all was gay, graceful, They will then remember, with strange tenderness, decisive, as if the pen of Jeffrey could have many objects once familiar to them-the avenue and spoken; or, if it reverted to old times, it rethe terrace, the busts and the paintings; the carving, joiced in those classical associations which the grotesque gilding, and the enigmatical mottoes. With peculiar fondness, they will recal that venerable are always young. At Lamb's, on the other chamber, in which all the antique gravity of a college hand, the topics were chiefly sought among library was so singularly blended with all that female grace and wit could devise to embellish a drawing-room. They will recollect, not unmoved, those shelves loaded with the varied learning of many lands and many ages; those portraits in which were preserved the features of the best and wisest Englishmen of two generations. They will recollect how many men who have guided the politics of Europe-who have moved great assemblies by reason and eloquence-who have put life into bronze and canvas, or who have left to posterity things so written as it shall not willingly let them die-were there mixed with all that was loveliest and gayest in the society of the most splendid of capitals. They will remember the singular character which belonged to that art and science, had its place. They will remember how the last debate was discussed in one corner, and the last comedy of Scribe in another; while Wilkie gazed with modest admiration on Reynolds' Baretti; while Mackintosh turned over Thomas Aquinas to verify a quotation; while Talleyrand related his conversations with Barras circle, in which every talent and accomplishment, every at the Luxemburg, or his ride with Lannes over the the obscure and remote ; the odd, the quaint, the fantastic were drawn out from their dusty recesses; nothing could be more foreign to its embrace than the modern circulating library, even when it teemed with the Scotch novels. Whatever the subject was, however, in the more aristocratic, or the humbler sphere, it was always discussed by those best entitled to talk on it; no others had a chance of being heard. This remarkable freedom from bores was produced in Lamb's circle by the authoritative texture of its commanding minds; in Lord Holland's, by the more direct, and more genial influence of the hostess, which checked that field of Austerlitz. They will remember, above all, tenacity of subject and opinion which somethe grace—and the kindness, far more admirable than times broke the charm of Lamb's parties by grace with which the princely hospitality of that" a duel in the form of a debate." Perhaps ancient mansion was dispensed. They will remember the venerable and benignant countenance, and the beyond any other hostess, certainly far becordial voice of him who bade them welcome. They yond any host, Lady Holland possessed the tact of perceiving, and the power of evoking the various capacities which lurked in every part of the brilliant circles over which she presided, and restrained each to its appropriate sphere, and portion of the evening. To enkindle the enthusiasm of an artist on the theme over which he had achieved the most facile mastery; to set loose the heart of the rustic poet, and imbue his speech with the freedom of his native hills; to draw from the adventurous traveller a breathing picture of his most imminent danger; or to embolden the bashful soldier to disclose his own share in the perils and glories of some famous battle-field; to encourage the generous praise will remember that temper which years of pain, of sickness, of lameness, of confinement, seemed only to make sweeter and sweeter; and that frank politeness, which and most timid writer or artist, who found himself for the first time among Ambassadors and Earls. They will remember that constant flow of conversation, so natural, so animated, so various, so rich with observation and anecdote; that wit which never gave a wound; that exquisite mimicry which ennobled, instead of degrading; that goodness of heart which appeared in every look and accent, and gave additional value to every talent and acquirement. They will remember, too, that he whose name they hold in reverence was not less distinguished by the inflexible uprightness of his political conduct, than by his loving disposition and his winning manners. They will remember that, in the last lines which he traced, he expressed his joy that he had done nothing unworthy of the friend of Fox and Grey; and they will have reason to feel similar joy, if, in looking back on many troubled years, they cannot accuse them at once relieved all the embarrassment of the youngest selves of having done anything unworthy of men who were distinguished by the friendship of Lord Holland." of friendship when the speaker and the subject reflected interest on each other; or win topics of alliances, and marriages, and profrom an awkward man of science the secret motions; and there was not a hopeful enhistory of a discovery which had astonished gagement, or a happy wedding, or a promothe world; to conduct these brilliant deve- tion of a friend's son, or a new intellectual lopments to the height of satisfaction, and triumph of any youth with whose name and then to shift the scene by the magic of a history she was familiar, but became an event word, were among her nightly successes. on which she expected and required congraAnd if this extraordinary power over the tulation as on a part of her own fortune. elements of social enjoyment was sometimes Although there was necessarily a preponderwielded without the entire concealment of ance in her society of the sentiment of its despotism; if a decisive check sometimes popular progress, which once was cherished rebuked a speaker who might intercept the almost exclusively by the party to whom variegated beauty of Jeffrey's indulgent Lord Holland was united by sacred ties, no criticism, or the jest announced and self-expression of triumph in success, no virurewarded in Sydney Smith's cordial and lence in sudden disappointment, was ever triumphant laugh, the authority was too permitted to wound the most sensitive ears clearly exerted for the evening's prosperity, of her conservative guests. It might be that and too manifestly impelled by an urgent some placid comparison of recent with former consciousness of the value of these golden times, spoke a sense of freedom's peaceful hours which were fleeting within its confines, victory; or that, on the giddy edge of some to sadden the enforced silence with more than great party struggle, the festivities of the a momentary regret. If ever her prohibition evening might take a more serious cast, as clear, abrupt, and decisive, indicated news arrived from the scene of contest, and more than a preferable regard for livelier dis- the pleasure might be deepened by the peril ; course, it was when a depreciatory tone was but the feeling was always restrained by the adopted towards genius, or goodness, or supremacy given to those permanent solaces honest endeavour, or when some friend, per- for the mind, in the beautiful and the great, sonal or intellectual, was mentioned in which no political changes disturb. Although slighting phrase. Habituated to a generous the death of the noble master of the venerated partisanship, by strong sympathy with a mansion closed its portals for ever on the great political cause, she carried the fidelity exquisite enjoyments to which they had been of her devotion to that cause into her social so generously expanded, the art of conversarelations, and was ever the truest and the tion lived a little longer in the smaller circle fastest of friends. The tendency, often more which Lady Holland still drew almost daily idle than malicious, to soften down the in- around her; honouring his memory by foltellectual claims of the absent, which so lowing his example, and struggling against insidiously besets literary conversation, and the perpetual sense of unutterable bereaveteaches a superficial insincerity, even to sub-ment, by rendering to literature that honour stantial esteem and regard, and which was sometimes insinuated into the conversation of Lamb's friends, though never into his own, found no favour in her presence; and hence the conversations over which she presided, perhaps beyond all that ever flashed with a kindred splendour, were marked by that integrity of good nature which might admit of their exact repetition to every living individual whose merits were discussed, without the danger of inflicting pain. Under her auspices, not only all critical, but all personal talk was tinged with kindness; the strong interest which she took in the happiness of her friends, shed a peculiar sunniness over the aspects of life presented by the common and those reliefs, which English aristocracy has too often denied it; and seeking consolation in making others proud and happy. That lingering happiness is extinct now; Lamb's kindred circle-kindred, though so different-dispersed almost before he died; the "thoughts that wandered through eternity," are no longer expressed in time; the fancies and conceits, "gay creatures of the element" of social delight, "that in the colours of the rainbow lived, and played in the plighted clouds," flicker only in the backward perspective of waning years; and for the survivors, I may venture to affirm, no such conversation as they have shared in either circle will ever be theirs again in this world! |