of the Lay Sermons and the Aids to Reflection.  The room was becoming excessively hot:  the first specimen of the new compound was handed to Hook, who paused to quaff it, and then, exclaiming that he was stifled, flung his glass through the window.  Coleridge rose with the aspect of a benignant patriarch and demolished another pane—­the example was followed generally—­the window was a sieve in an instant—­the kind host was furthest from the mark, and his goblet made havoc of the chandelier.  The roar of laughter was drowned in Theodore’s resumption of the song—­and window and chandelier and the peculiar shot of each individual destroyer had apt, in many cases exquisitely witty, commemoration.  In walking home with Mr. Coleridge, he entertained ------ and me with a most excellent lecture on the distinction between talent and genius, and declared that Hook was as true a genius as Dante—­that was his example.”—­Theodore Hook, Lond. 1853, p. 23-4.

[175] Johnson’s Rambler.

[176] The County Land Tax.

[177] The Right Hon. Sir W. Alexander of Airdrie, called to the English Bar 1782, Chief Baron 1824; died in London in his eighty-eighth year, 1842.

[178] Sir Samuel Shepherd

[179] Walter Boyd at this time was M.P. for Lymington; he had been a banker in Paris and in London; was the author of several well-known tracts on finance, and died in 1837.

[180] Campbell died at Boulogne in 1844, aged sixty-seven; he was buried in Westminster, next Southey.

[181] Hor. Epp. ii. 2, 76.

[182] The elder Mr. Adolphus distinguished himself early in life by his History of the Reign of George III.—­J.G.L.

MAY.

May 1.—­Breakfasted with Lord and Lady Leveson Gower,[183] and enjoyed the splendid treat of hearing Mrs. Arkwright sing her own music,[184] which is of the highest order—­no forced vagaries of the voice, no caprices of tone, but all telling upon and increasing the feeling the words require.  This is “marrying music to immortal verse."[185] Most people place them on separate maintenance.

I met the Roxburghe Club, and settled to dine with them on 15th curt.  Lord Spencer in the chair.  We voted Lord Olive[186] a member.

May 2.—­I breakfasted with a Mr. Bell, Great Ormond Street, a lawyer, and narrowly escaped Mr. Irving, the celebrated preacher.  The two ladies of the house seemed devoted to his opinions, and quoted him at every word.  Mr. Bell himself made some apologies for the Millennium.  He is a smart little antiquary, who thinks he ought to have been a man of letters, and that his genius has been mis-directed in turning towards the law.  I endeavoured to combat this idea, which his handsome house and fine family should have checked.  Compare his dwelling, his comforts, with poor Tom Campbell’s!

I dined with the Literary Society; rather heavy work, though some excellent men were there.  I saw, for the first time, Archdeacon Nares, long conductor of the British Critic, a gentlemanlike and pleasing man.  Sir Henry Robert Inglis presided.