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

Sheridan he undervalued, I think, and especially placed his conversation quite low; and Brougham he thought, since he became Chancellor, had been misconducting nearly the whole time. He said that within his own knowledge it had been determined, when Lord Melbourne took office the second time, that Brougham should be left out, on the ground that he would do more injury to the administration as a member of it, than as an opponent; that Brougham, however, persisted in believing that he had been rejected by the King personally; that he —Lord Spencer—had tried to undeceive him twice, but that Brougham would not be approached on the subject, and that when the Queen came in and he could no longer doubt why he was excluded from the Ministry, he took the unprincipled and violent course he has pursued ever since. Lord Spencer looks upon him as politically ruined. He talked, too, a good deal about himself, and explained the circumstances under which he took office with Lord Grey, and how he carried it as leader of the House of Commons, without being able to make a speech. It was all very curious and interesting; for, though he does not talk fluently or gracefully, he is full of facts, from an experience and familiarity with whatever has been most distinguished in affairs or society for the last thirty-five years, and his fairness and honesty are so sure that you can trust implicitly to his statements. We sat, therefore, late with him, and went to bed reluctantly.

May 20.—We walked to church, about a mile through the park. . . . . Lord Spencer told me that his family was originally from Warwickshire, where they still possess estates, and that they removed to Althorp in the time of Henry VII . . . . It is the fashion, he added, to hold only by annual leases in this part of the country, but there are several families on the estate who have been there by annual renewals of their rent-holds from the time when the Spencers first came here; a fact very remarkable in itself, and very creditable to both parties . . . . . .

When we had lunched, Mr. Appleyard and Lord Spencer began in earnest to show us the library, and taking us to the beautiful room built by the late Earl, and called the Poet's Library, where the most splendid books are collected, they took down successively some of the most magnificent works of art, of the sort, that I ever beheld. Among them were the original drawings for the Magna Charta, that was published some years since; those for the coronation of George IV.; and the outlines of Flaxman for Aeschylus, interleaved in a beautiful copy of the original, and presented to the late Countess Spencer by Flaxman, with a manuscript inscription. The large paper copies of books in this