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[267]

Heber1 is an elegant gentleman, a kind of literary, amateur Maecenas, with a very fine and curious library; in short, a man in whom a gentlemanly air prevails, both in his manners, accomplishments, talents, and knowledge, all of which may be considered remarkable.

Frere is a slovenly fellow. His remarks on Homer, in the ‘Classical Journal,’ prove how fine a Greek scholar he is; his ‘Quarterly Reviews,’ how well he writes; his ‘Rovers, or The Double Arrangement,’ what humor he possesses; and the reputation he has left in Spain and Portugal, how much better he understood their literatures than they do themselves: while, at the same time, his books left in France, in Gallicia, at Lisbon, and two or three places in England; his manuscripts, neglected and lost to himself; his manners, lazy and careless; and his conversation, equally rich and negligent, show how little he cares about all that distinguishes him in the eyes of the world. He studies as a luxury, he writes as an amusement, and conversation is a kind of sensual enjoyment to him. If he had been born in Asia, he would have been the laziest man that ever lived. . . . .

There were of course more who came there, the Ordes, Bennett, Lord William Russell, etc., etc., besides Counts Palmella and Souza; but those I have described, and who were there often, constituted the proper society at Lord Holland's, and gave it that tone of culture, wit, and good talk without pretension, which make it, as an elegant society, the best I have seen in Europe. It was in this society I spent all the leisure time I had while I was in London.

Two days I passed very pleasantly at the Marquess of Salisbury's. He lives at Hatfield, Herts., in a fine establishment, once a residence of James I., and built by him; though a part of it is older, and contains the room where Elizabeth was imprisoned by her sister Mary, and wrote the verses that still remain to us. It is surrounded by a large park, full of venerable oaks, and is a kind of old baronial seat, which well suits with the species of hospitality exercised there. The long gallery is a grand, solemn hall, which, with its ornaments, carries the imagination at once back to the period when it was built; and King James's room, an enormous saloon, fitted up with grave magnificence, is said to be one of the most remarkable rooms in England. . . . . I arrived late in the afternoon,. . . . and, while I was dressing, a large party of gentlemen that had been out hunting passed under my windows, on their return to the hall, with all the uproar and exultation of success. . . . .


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