Edward L. Pierce, Memoir and letters of Charles Sumner: volume 1

[302] Austin, Macaulay, Landor, Leigh Hunt, Thomas Campbell, and Theodore Hook. He talked with Wordsworth at his home, and looked with him on the landscapes which had inspired his verse. Among women to whose society he was admitted were the Duchess of Sutherland, Mrs. Montagu, Joanna Baillie, Mrs. Jameson, Mrs. Sarah Austin, Miss Martineau, Mrs. Shelley, Mrs. Marcet, Mrs. Grote, Lady Morgan, Mrs. Norton, and Lady Blessington. With some of these persons the acquaintance was only temporary; with others there followed a correspondence more or less frequent, and a renewal of intercourse in later visits to Europe: and there were those, like Lord Morpeth, Robert Ingham, Joseph Parkes, and Mr. and Mrs. Montagu, with whom a lifelong friendship was established.

The persons already named are referred to more or less frequently in his letters. There were many others not mentioned in them with whom he had more or less association, and from whom he received hospitality or civilities.¹

Sumner's acquaintance with English society was wider and more various than any previously enjoyed by an American, and even exceeded that of most Englishmen. The remarkable favor which he everywhere met was noted at the time, and is still remembered, by those who witnessed it. It was said of him, that ‘when an American gentleman, the gifted Charles Sumner, was in England, his popularity in society became justly so great and so general, that his friends began to devise what circle there was to show him which he had not yet seen, what great house that he had not yet visited.’² A few months after his return home, Mr. Hayward referred to him in the ‘Quarterly Review,’³ as the reporter of Judge Story's decisions, ‘who recently paid a visit ’