knocker; an excellent hint to persons whose notoriety exposes them
to self-interested intruders, who have no claim upon their time and
attention.
[24] “L’amour,” said the Abbé Chaulieu, “s’étoit retiré jusque dans les
rides de son front.”
[25] “I read your letter before him, and in spectacles; but they become
me pretty well. I have always had a grave look. If he is in love with
that merit which is here called _distingué_, your wish may perhaps be
accomplished. Every day I am consoled for my lost attractions by this
fine phrase.”
[26] “And I am myself so excellent at forgetfulness, that I forget my own
works as much as those of other persons.”
[27] “You swear, Friar? It is only for ornament. These are the colours of
Ciceronian rhetoric.”
[28] Maurice Quill, the Sir John Falstaff of the Irish troops, during
the Peninsular war, who assigned as a reason for entering into the 71st
regiment (I believe) his desire to be near his brother, who was in the
72d. His personal circumspection was said to be merely assumed, as a
medium for his humour.
[29] One evening, while thus engaged, to the utter abstraction from all
surrounding circumstances, we had arrived at “Hark, I hear the toll of
the bell,” when a sudden crash of all dissonant sounds produced as sudden
a suspension of our own somewhat heteroclite harmonies. Tambourines,
triangles, pokers, tongs, and shovels, were all pressed into the service.
The ladies of the party, thus armed for discord, had encircled us; and
they added a general chorus of inextinguishable laughter, _ad libitum_,
to the instrumental accompaniment they volunteered to Lord C.’s vocal
performances. At the head of the band was Lady Castlereagh herself.
[30] Les Veillées du Château.
[31] I do not mean to say that in the progress of things it may not
become perfectly justifiable to wear a white waistcoat in the morning;
or that certain developments of mind, or combinations of circumstance,
may not render it imperative to do so. I go but with my age; and I appeal
to Lord A——y, or to my old friend Lord A——n, whether, _de nos jours_, a
man who pays a morning visit in a virgin-white Marseilles waistcoat, is
admissible within the pale of civilized society.
[32] Dr. Macartney, professor of anatomy in Trinity College, Dublin,
one more celebrated abroad than known at home—the common fate of
super-eminent talent every where. Dr. Macartney’s classes are attended by
students from all parts of Europe and America.
[33] Her late Majesty Queen Caroline.
[34] Having received the proof sheet of the above little entry, (made in
mere _gaieté de cœur_ into my ledger,) at a moment when I am surrounded
by an absolute congress of the United States, presented to me by my
illustrious friend, General La Fayette, I take the opportunity to say,
that they deny all knowledge of the journal in question, further than
such a publication had lived and died within a few weeks, and was edited
by a person bearing an _Irish name_, a writer for Blackwood’s Magazine.
[35] First Dissertation to the Encyclopedia.
[36] “Her father was dead; and as soon as she heard the news, she shut
herself up in her chamber for six weeks, remaining constantly upon a bed
covered with white linen, and resting on pillows. She wore her stomacher,
her cloak, and hood, which were lined with minever, and the said cloak
had a long train; and at the borders, and before the hood, for the
breadth of a palm, the minever was curled outwards. The chamber was hung
with black cloth in the place of tapestry, and before this chamber was
another great chamber, or hall, likewise hung with black. While Madame
was alone, she did not remain on the bed, or confined to one room.”
[37] “The duchess received compliments of condolence on the death of the
Duke. She was on a bed, and in her hood, which is the dress of princesses
of the blood, when they receive in state the compliments on the death of
their husbands.”
[38] Mademoiselle Delaunay.
[39] The family of the Duke de Croy is, I believe, one of the oldest
in France. The entreaty of one of the duke’s ancestors to _Noah_, of
“_Sauvez les papiers des Croys_,” is well known.
[40] “The easy conversations, the circles, the delicate pleasantry, the
familiar and playful letters, to which wit and intellect alone gave
access—all have disappeared.”
[41] “They talk there without ceasing, but nothing remains in the heart
of all they say; and Dangeau is ravished with this gossip.”
[42] Sir W. Betham is so learned in all that concerns Irish antiquities,
that there could have been no difficulty whatever on his part, in
guessing the contents of the Caah: such reliquaries were destined only to
the one pious purpose.
[43] “Great talents require pressing.”
[44] “What would you have? There are scoundrels in all times.”
[45] Monseigneur Luize de Breme, ex-grand almoner of Italy, and son to
the minister of the interior (of Sardinia), was one of those European
characters whom to name, is to recal to the memory of all the most
distinguished strangers who visited Milan. Eminently amiable and
accomplished, he was a liberal patron of Italian literature, in all its
branches; and he was at the head of the school of romanticism in Milan.
He was the dear friend of Madame de Staël and her family, and of Monti,
the poet, and he was intimately known to Lord Byron, Ugo Foscolo, and to
most of the celebrated persons of Europe, whose opinions and writings
favoured his peculiar sect in literature.
[46] The household of the great families and cardinals of Rome are called
_la famiglia_, or the family. A cardinal never drives or walks out, or
pays a visit, without a train of liveried servants.
[47] “A great politician, and something of a libertine,—for the rest, an
amiable man, but perhaps a little dangerous.”
[48] “Because it was but a point of discipline.”
[49] A few lines written by the author, who had supposed the daughter of
the Bishop of Derry to have been an Irishwoman.
[50] “She makes verses like an angel.”
[51]
Insigne mœstis præsidium reis,
Et consulenti, Pollio, curiæ.
HORAT. l. 2, Ode 1.
[52] “Nam neque deesse, neque superesse reipublicæ volo.”
[53] Opposed to this frivolous picture, take the picture of a celebrated
German authoress, as described by a recent traveller:—
“DESCRIPTION OF A GERMAN LITERARY LADY.—Never shall I forget the first
appearance, to me, of Madame de B. She was sitting, or rather reclining,
in the most unaffected posture, with her legs crossed, and her hands
clasped behind her head, on a large sofa—one old, indeed, and crazy, but
doubtless endeared to her by some association, perhaps with the days of
her childhood; for, from its colour, and dilapidations, and fashion, it
could scarcely be more modern. Behind her, and on each side, extended a
floor, or rather ocean of books, rising in volumes, like wave upon wave,
tossing and tumbling, and some, as it were, foaming open, and revealing
their white margins. In the midst of these, like an island, stood a large
old-fashioned mahogany table, covered with various articles, which I
might forbear to enumerate, if it were not interesting to the sensible
mind to learn even the most trifling attributes of genius. Such persons
will readily forgive me that I mention a large black tea-pot, tea-cup
of antique China, an ink-stand, with the owner’s cipher, apparently
scratched on the metal; a pair of saucers, of divers patterns; a large
phial labelled ‘laudanum;’ a tortoise-shell watch-case, a small plate of
bread crusts, and a long hair comb, a tall wine-glass half filled with
sugar of the brown description, a snuff-box, a pair of snuffers, a small
miniature, a few twisted fragments of brown and blue paper, two slender
candles, some small pieces of copper coin, and a single stocking, marked
D.R.A.B.”
[54] Mons. Bautte, the celebrated bijoutier of Geneva.
[55] The chair of the good King Dagobert is, perhaps, one of the oldest
and most curious articles of furniture of the Christian era. In form, it
resembles the curule chair of the Romans. The legs are more ancient, and
of better workmanship, than the upper part; but tradition assigns its
fabrication to the holy hands of St. Eloi. It was preserved for centuries
in the treasury of the Abbey of St. Denis, and was regilt in the time of
the Abbot Suger. In August, 1804, it was transported to Boulogne, for the
distribution of the crosses of the Legion of Honour; and a medal, struck
on that occasion, represents the modern Charlemagne, seated in this relic
of _le bon Roi Dagobert_. It now takes its place, with other antiquities,
in _la Bibliothèque du Roi_, at Paris.
[56] See Somner’s History of Canterbury, Appendix, Scriptura, xvj.
[57]
“My home, my home, though small it be,
Yet still that home is dear to me.”
[58] “The whole weight of his eighteen volumes was in his step.”
[59] The art of being tiresome consists in leaving nothing unsaid.
[60] “Je vous vois ici avec douleur dansant le triolet, et vous divertir
lorsque vous devriez être en lieu, où vous vous fissiez casser la tête,
ou vous remettre la couronne sur la tête.”
[61] “Je conçus de lui une fort mauvaise opinion d’être roi à son âge,
et n’avoir aucune connaissance des affaires: ce n’est pas que je n’eusse
par là dû reconnaître mon sang. Les Bourbons sont gens fort appliqués aux
bagatelles, et peu solides. Il ne mangea point d’ortolons, il se jeta sur
une pièce de bœuf, et sur une épaule de mouton, comme s’il n’y eut que
cela.”
[62] See letter to the Reviewers of Italy, prefixed to the third edition
of that work.
[63] Although this first letter does not more than allude to the
immediate subject before me, the public, I think, will not be sorry
to possess, in its integrity, so good a specimen of the grace and
playfulness of Mons. Denon’s turn of mind, which, in one of his advanced
age, is peculiar to the climate and temperament of France.
[64] The celebrated Comte de Ségur, the ambassador to Catherine of
Russia, and one of the most distinguished authors which modern France has
produced. His own memoirs, lately published, have added a brilliant gem
to the bright galaxy of French autobiography.
[65] “Here, gentlemen, here is the whole royal family of France and the
Princess Caroline, all for a penny.”
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