previous next
‘ [54] hysterical laugh when she was carried off the stage. I absolutely dread to see her again.’

Mr. Ticknor remained in London a little more than a month, which was to him a period of animated interest and high enjoyment. It was the height of the London season, when Parliament was in session, and the great metropolis gathered within its folds a large proportion of the science, literature, and art of the whole country. Uncommon social opportunities were held out to him, and the kindness with which he was received was an unbiassed tribute to his social gifts; for London society, though hospitable, is fastidious, and will not tolerate any one who cannot contribute his fair share to the common stock of entertainment. In some respects his good fortune was rare and exceptional, for it so happened that he saw frequently, and on easy and familiar terms, Lord Byron, the most brilliant man of letters in England, and Sir Humphry Davy, the most brilliant man of science. Every hour of his time was agreeably filled with social engagements or visits to the many points of interest with which his reading had made him familiar, and the high pulse of his enjoyment is felt in his letters and journals.

To Elisha Ticknor.

London, May 26, 1815.
At last, my dear father, I address you from this great city. . . . . I feel no uncommon elation at finding myself in the world's metropolis. I only feel that I am in the midst of a million of people, whom I know not, and that I am driven forward by a crowd in whose objects and occupations and thoughts I have no share or interest. . . . . I fear, my dear father, that you may be anxious about my going to the Continent, in consequence of the change of affairs in France. I assure you there is not the least occasion for anxiety. . . . . It is not at all dangerous. Mr. Adams, who arrived in town the same day that we did, assures us there is, and will be, no hazard or embarrassment in going now, or after hostilities have commenced, even directly to France, much less to Holland, and to a university which knows no changes of war or peace. Besides, Americans are now treated with the most distinguished kindness and courtesy wherever they are known to be such. This I know from the


Creative Commons License
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.

hide Places (automatically extracted)

View a map of the most frequently mentioned places in this document.

Sort places alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a place to search for it in this document.
France (France) (2)

Download Pleiades ancient places geospacial dataset for this text.

hide People (automatically extracted)
Sort people alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a person to search for him/her in this document.
Geo Ticknor (1)
Elisha Ticknor (1)
Holland (1)
Humphry Davy (1)
Americans (1)
John Quincy Adams (1)
hide Dates (automatically extracted)
Sort dates alphabetically, as they appear on the page, by frequency
Click on a date to search for it in this document.
May 26th, 1815 AD (1)
hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: