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

[163] too, I find, is beginning to make a noise here, as it does in London, but finds less favor. Brougham was much discussed; and it was plain he has great authority in the ‘Edinburgh Review’ because he writes so much and so well for it, and not because they have a great respect for him or his opinions. Napier avowed openly, that he tried very hard to get him to strike out the passage in a recent number abusing Lord Melbourne, but could not succeed, and did not seem to be aware that he ought then to have refused the article.

April 26.—We had a visit early from Lord Fullerton, who offered again to go with us about the town; but I know it so well from my former long visit, that I did not think it quite right to bore him to such an extent; and so, taking a few directions from him, we sallied forth again . . . .

We dined at Lord Fullerton's, where we met Thomson and his wife, Graham, Sir William and Lady Hamilton, Wilson, and two or three others. Lord Fullerton's wife is a beautiful woman, and so is his eldest daughter; and the dinner was pleasant. The person I was most curious about was Wilson, the successor of Dugald Stewart, and the editor of ‘Blackwood.’ He answered much to the idea given of him among the roisterers of the ‘Noctes Ambrosianae.’ He is a stout, coarse, red-faced person, with a great deal of red, bushy hair flying about his face and shoulders, taking snuff freely, and careless in his dress, talking brilliantly, sometimes petulantly, and once or twice savagely. He is a strange person. He talks of coming to the United States. . . . . Boat-building has been a passion with him, and when he lived near Bowness, he practised it a good deal.¹ . . .

April 27.—We drove out this morning to see my old friend Mrs. Fletcher, around whom, in the early days of the ‘Edinburgh Review,’ Brougham, Jeffrey, and all that clique were gathered, and whose talents still command their admiration and regard. She is living with her daughter, the author of ‘Concealment,’ at the little village of Duncliffe. . . . . She received us very kindly, and talked most agreeably, so agreeably that we should have been very glad to accept more of her hospitality, if our time would have permitted. . . .

We had a visit from the Fullertons, and dined at Sir Charles Bell's, the well-known surgeon, and author of one of the Bridgewater Treatises. Lady Bell is quite a delightful person, and must once have been beautiful, for she is still fine-looking; and Sir Charles, though beginning to grow old, is fresh, perfectly preserved, and abounding in pleasant knowledge and accomplishment. Sir William