Quick-tempered and impulsive, he was at the same time warm-hearted and generous to a fault, while a genuine sense of humour, which constantly shows itself in his letters, saved him many a time from those troubles into which the hasty often fall.  “I wish,” wrote George Borrow, within a short time of the publisher’s death, “that all the world were as gay as he.”

He was in some respects indolent, and not infrequently caused serious misunderstandings by his neglect to answer letters; but when he did apply himself to work, he achieved results more solid than most of his compeers.  He had, moreover, a wonderful power of attraction, and both in his conversation and correspondence possessed a gift of felicitous expression which rarely failed to arouse a sympathetic response in those whom he addressed.  Throughout “the trade” he was beloved, and he rarely lost a friend among those who had come within his personal influence.

He was eager to look for, and quick to discern, any promise of talent in the young.  “Every one,” he would say, “has a book in him, or her, if one only knew how to extract it,” and many was the time that he lent a helping hand to those who were first entering on a literary career.

To his remarkable powers as a host, the many descriptions of his dinner parties which have been preserved amply testify; he was more than a mere entertainer, and took the utmost pains so to combine and to place his guests as best to promote sympathetic conversation and the general harmony of the gathering.  Among the noted wits and talkers, moreover, who assembled round his table he was fully able to hold his own in conversation and in repartee.

On one occasion Lady Bell was present at one of these parties, and wrote:  “The talk was of wit, and Moore gave specimens.  Charles thought that our host Murray said the best things that brilliant night.”

Many of the friends whose names are most conspicuous in these pages had passed away before him, but of those who remained there was scarcely one whose letters do not testify to the general affection with which he was regarded.  We give here one or two extracts from letters received during his last illness.

Thomas Mitchell wrote to Mr. Murray’s son: 

“Give my most affectionate remembrances to your father.  More than once I should have sunk under the ills of life but for his kind support and countenance, and so I believe would many others say besides myself.  Be his maladies small or great, assure him that he has the earnest sympathies of one who well knows and appreciates his sterling merits.”

Sir Francis Palgrave, who had known Mr. Murray during the whole course of his career, wrote to him affectionately of “the friendship and goodwill which,” said he, “you have borne towards me during a period of more than half my life.  I am sure,” he added, “as we grow older we find day by day the impossibility of finding any equivalent for old friends.”  Sharon Turner also, the historian, was most cordial in his letters.