1858-1860. AEt. 44-46.
RETURN TO ENGLAND.--SOCIAL RELATIONS.--LADY HARCOURT'S LETTER.
During the years spent in Europe in writing his first history, from 1851
to 1856, Mr. Motley had lived a life of great retirement and simplicity,
devoting himself to his work and to the education of his children, to
which last object he was always ready to give the most careful
supervision. He was as yet unknown beyond the circle of his friends, and
he did not seek society. In this quiet way he had passed the two years of
residence in Dresden, the year divided between Brussels and the Hague,
and a very tranquil year spent at Vevay on the Lake of Geneva. His health
at this time was tolerably good, except for nervous headaches, which
frequently recurred and were of great severity. His visit to England with
his manuscript in search of a publisher has already been mentioned.
In 1858 he revisited England. His fame as a successful author was there
before him, and he naturally became the object of many attentions. He now
made many acquaintances who afterwards became his kind and valued
friends. Among those mentioned by his daughter, Lady Harcourt, are Lord
Lyndhurst, Lord Carlisle, Lady William Russell, Lord and Lady Palmerston,
Dean Milman, with many others. The following winter was passed in Rome,
among many English and American friends.
“In the course of the next summer,” his daughter writes to me, “we
all went to England, and for the next two years, marked chiefly by
the success of the 'United Netherlands,' our social life was most
agreeable and most interesting. He was in the fulness of his health
and powers; his works had made him known in intellectual society,
and I think his presence, on the other hand, increased their
effects. As no one knows better than you do, his belief in his own
country and in its institutions at their best was so passionate and
intense that it was a part of his nature, yet his refined and
fastidious tastes were deeply gratified by the influences of his
life in England, and the spontaneous kindness which he received
added much to his happiness. At that time Lord Palmerston was Prime
Minister; the weekly receptions at Cambridge House were the centre
of all that was brilliant in the political and social world, while
Lansdowne House, Holland House, and others were open to the
'sommites' in all branches of literature, science, rank, and
politics. . . . It was the last year of Lord Macaulay's life,
and as a few out of many names which I recall come Dean Milman, Mr.
Froude (whose review of the 'Dutch Republic' in the 'Westminster'
was one of the first warm recognitions it ever received), the Duke
and Duchess of Argyll, Sir William Stirling Maxwell, then Mr.
Stirling of Keir, the Sheridan family in its different brilliant
members, Lord Wensleydale, and many more.”
There was no society to which Motley would not have added grace and
attraction by his presence, and to say that he was a welcome guest in the
best houses of England is only saying that these houses are always open
to those whose abilities, characters, achievements, are commended to the
circles that have the best choice by the personal gifts which are
nature's passport everywhere.