[425] . . . . Mr. Weld is a man of moderate fortune, much connected with whatever is distinguished for intelligence and science in Ireland, and author of several books and many papers in their Transactions; but his ‘Travels in America’ was a youthful production,. . . . for the opinions of which, touching the United States, he expressed his regret, as mistaken. Soon after we had established ourselves in our very comfortable quarters at Ravenswell, his place near the village of Bray,. . . . we set off for a dejeuner and fete champetre given by Mr.Putland and Mrs. Putland. . . . . A great many of the members of the Association had stayed another day to be present at it, and we saw again there Sir John Ross, Tom Moore, Wilkie, Lady Morgan, Dr. Sands, Sir John Tobin, Dr. Lardner,1 and many more most agreeable people. . . . . At six o'clock we returned to Mr. Weld's and found dinner ready. . . . There were soon collected the Taylors,2 Sir William Hamilton,3 Sir John and Lady Franklin, and several other interesting people, with whom we passed a delightful evening.
This text is part of:
1 One evening, during the meeting in Dublin, Mr. Ticknor heard Dr. Lardner make the well-known discourse in which he pronounced it to be impossible that a steamboat should ever cross the ocean; but though he often referred to this assertion afterwards, it did not so much impress him at the time as to induce him to remark on it in his journal.
2 Previously mentioned by Mr. Ticknor as ‘Mr. John Taylor, the geologist, and main authority upon whatever is done in mining in England and elsewhere, with his wife and two pleasant daughters.’ Mr. Ticknor and his family made a short visit, ten days later, at the Taylors' pretty place, Coeddhu, in Wales, beside a visit at St. Asaph's.
3 Sir William Hamilton sent Mr. Ticknor, as a parting souvenir, a copy of a sonnet, written by him on the occasion of his receiving the honor of knighthood, just described, which Mr. Ticknor always regarded as one of the finest sonnets in the English language. It has since appeared in an article on the character and genius of this very extraordinary man, in the ‘Dublin University Magazine’ for January, 1842.
Boston, J. R. Osgood and company, 1876.
Tufts University provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.