George Ticknor, Life, letters and journals of George Ticknor
George Hillard, Ed.

[414] see united to the venerableness of age, and which is then so very winning; and her conversation, always quiet and never reminding you of her own claims as an author, is so full of good sense, with occasionally striking and decisive remarks and occasionally a little touch of humor, that I do not know when I have been more pleased and gratified than I was by this visit.

She lives exactly as an English gentlewoman of her age and character should live, and everything about her was in good taste and appropriate to her position, even down to the delicious little table she had spread for us in her quiet parlor.

When I asked her about her own works, she answered my questions very simply and directly, but without any air of authorship; and I was very glad to hear her say that, in the autumn, she intends to publish the three remaining volumes of her plays, which have been so many years in manuscript, thinking, as she said, ‘that it is better to do up all her own work, as she has lived to be so old, rather than to leave it, as she originally intended, to her executors.’ She led us a short distance from her house and showed us a magnificent view of London, in the midst of which, wreathed in mist, the dome of St. Paul's towered up like a vast spectre to the clouds, and seemed to be the controlling power of the dense mass of human habitations around and beneath it. It is the most imposing view of London I have ever seen. . . . .

July 19, Sunday.—. . . .We went to St. Paul's and heard Sydney Smith, who had kindly given us his pew . . . . . The sermon was an admirable moral essay, to prove that righteousness has the promise of the life that now is. It was written with great condensation of thought and purity of style, and sometimes with brilliancy of phrase and expression, and it was delivered with great power and emphasis. . . . . It was by far the best sermon I ever heard in Great Britain, though I have heard Alison, Morehead, etc., besides a quantity of bishops and archbishops, and both the manner and matter would have been striking anywhere. After the service was over and we were coming away, Mr. Smith came, in some unaccountable manner, out of one of the iron gates that lead into the body of the church, and went round with us, placed us under the vast dome, and showed us the effect from the end of the immense nave. It was very solemn, notwithstanding which he could not refrain from his accustomed humor and severe criticism.

July 20.—Just as I was going to breakfast I received a very kind note from Mr. Rogers, asking me to come and breakfast with his old