He became British whose consent she would not marry. chaplain at Genoa, but kept up a certain degree of communication through the Hebers. Reginald Heber was appointed preacher at Lincoln's Inn, which detained him and his wife in London. Then every evening Maria Leycester would ride over to Hodnet to visit their child, Emily. In April 1822 Heber was elected to the preachership of Lincoln's Inn, the whole number of benchers except three being present. He had written to John Thornton: "I hope, in my anxiety to obtain the preachership of Lincoln's Inn, the idea that I may be useful in such a pulpit, and with the sort of audience which I may expect to see round me there, has borne no inconsiderable part. Yet I will own the wish to see more of the valuable friends from whom I am now in a great measure separated has very much, perhaps principally, contributed to it. I feel by no means sanguine of success, indeed rather the contrary, as Maltby is, in all respects, a formidable. opponent." To the Bishop of Oxford's congratulations he replied: "The chambers appropriated to the preacher here do not, indeed, lay claim to the character of a house; they are, however, more convenient than I expected to find them, and, though small, will hold my wife as well as myself very comfortably during the summer terms. The two others I shall come up as a bachelor. The situation in all other respects, of society, etc., is a most agreeable one, and the more so as it does not take me away from Hodnet more than three months in the year." Next to Thornton, R. J. Wilmot was his most intimate correspondent. "HODNET RECTORY, 26th August 1822. "I wish I had so much as suspected that you were to obtain a sufficient furlough from Downing Street. "I am now at work on my sermons for next term. I foresee already that, if I mean to do any good, or to keep whatever credit I have got at Lincoln's Inn, I must take a great deal of pains, and bear in mind that I have a very fastidious audience; and it happens that I am also engaged in a course of lectures at Hodnet, which obliges me to write a fresh sermon every week for my rustic hearers." "November 1822. ". . . Among the possible conductors of the Quarterly Review, a name has just occurred to me which I cannot help thinking very likely to answer. It is that of Lockhart, the son-in-law of Walter Scott, and the author of Peter's Letters, which are written with abundant talent and caustic humour. He is, I understand, an advocate in Edinburgh, of great acknowledged talent, but little practice; and as his principles are decidedly Tory he may be very useful at the present moment." Of all his friendships the closest, as it was the earliest, seems to have been with Charlotte Dod. Some of the sweetest of his unpublished verses were written on the successive anniversaries of her birthday, such as this:— "December's Day is short and drear, And bleak and bare December's tree, 'Dear Snowdrop of the shorten'd day, Can match the blossoms of thy mind! "December's snow is on thine arm, It decks and guards thy virgin breast; ; "How slowly, clogg'd with doubt and fear, Yet still to faithful memory dear I bless my Charlotte's natal day!" When on a visit to the Grosvenors in November 1819 he thus wrote to her : "EATON, 1st November 1819. "I have met very pleasant people here, and like the Grosvenors themselves very much, but, though my visit has therefore been an agreeable one, and one which I would not willingly have missed, I have not been able to help regretting the windy beach and smoky parlour of Woodside, and the party I left behind me there. Emily will tell you the obstacles which prevent my immediate return to your trio. I hope, however, to accomplish it by tomorrow se'nnight, when if, as I hope, Mr. Leycester assists me, I shall be far less hurried for time than I now should have been. "I found Edward Davenport here on Friday, not in good spirits, as several of the company besides myself discovered. He left us on Saturday, and was succeeded by Lady Glynn and the H. W. Wynns. We have had to-day a real good Sunday, all having been twice at church, once at sacrament, and having had family prayers in the evening, which last I find are seldom omitted here even on week-days. The great hall makes a famous chapel, but Lord G., not having quite tired himself with brick and mortar, is about to add a new wing to his house, of which an appropriate chapel is to be part. Lady G. played some glorious ancient music on the organ. She is very religious, but differs advantageously from your friend Lord R. S. in preferring Mant and D'Oyley to Whitefield and Mr. Scott. I found on Friday everybody talking about Peter's Letters. The author, it seems, is, as we suspected, a lawyer and Scotsman of the name of Lockhart. "Tell Emily that unless I hear from her soon, she shall not have another letter from me Heaven knows when, and take notice one and all of you, Charlotte, Louisa, and Emily, that you are during this week to bathe, walk, ride, rise early, eat, drink, and do all things which can keep you well or make you so, since nothing will make me so cross on my return as to be welcomed by pale cheeks, weak backs, etc. Lady Williams has told me of some entertaining new books, which, however, I shall not tell you of till I am at Woodside to read them myself. Lebe wohl, liebste beste schwester, but, alas, you have now no German ears, so I must be content to sign myself in plain English.-Dearest Charlotte, your affectionate brother. "26 UPPER GROSVENOR STREET, 18th-20th June 1820. "DEAREST CHARLOTTE-I am indeed very sorry that you could not join us at Oxford, because I am convinced that the show and the music were both such as would have pleased and deeply impressed you, though the former lost one of its main attractions by the absence of the Duke of Wellington, whom the King, it is said, insists on keeping close at his elbow as a guardian against any attacks which may be made on him either by his subjects or his wife. We had, however, Lord Hill, Sir Wm. Grant, and a pretty numerous appendage of persons distinguished by talents and eminence of different kinds, and your friend Phillimore, who as Professor of Civil Law had to introduce them with a Latin speech, went through his functions with great talent, and even dignity. Lord Hill, of course, was loudly applauded, but the longest and loudest applause of all was bestowed on Southey, who was affected by it even to tears, and could talk of little else when I met him afterwards at a great dinner given in his honour at his own college-Baliol. There was a very good concert the evening of the same day, which ended with the dinner which I have mentioned to which Milman and I were asked, I believe in our capacity of poets. Be that as it may, I was not sorry to get a long talk with Southey, next to whom I sat at table. W. Scott unfortunately could not come to Oxford. "Palestine was admirably executed on the Thursday both by the vocal and instrumental performers, and the music greatly surpassed my expectations, particularly a chorus at the part Let Sinai tell,' etc., and an air by Miss Stevens, with a chorus of Bartleman Knyvet, Mrs. Salmon, etc., 'In frantic concourse,' etc. The trumpet and the imitation of thunder in the former were more than sublime-they were almost terrible. Miss Stevens, to whom I was introduced during the evening, told me, as I was also told by several reputed cognoscenti who were present, that Crotch had proved himself little, if at all, inferior to Handel and Haydn. You will be glad to hear that there is some chance of his selecting the words for an oratorio from Milman's Jerusalem. I suggested it to him immediately after Palestine was ended, and he seemed to like the idea. Of Milman I saw a good deal, and introduced him to Emily, who likes him much. He has promised to come down to Hodnet, so that he may still have a chance of the introduction to you which he once so much desired, and which you so cruelly denied him. I am, however, sorry to tell you that he is not at all pleased with the review of his poem in the Quarterly, so that it will be as well, if it is not too late, not to mention to anybody that I am the author. I had no communication with him myself on the subject, but this is what I hear from others. I certainly, if he asks me, shall not deny or conceal it, since I do not think I have given him any cause for dissatisfaction. But poets-I know but too well, from the recollection of my own feelings when I was also a poet-are not easily contented with qualified praise, though such praise is precisely that by which a critic does them most good in the opinion of the world at large. "We returned here on Friday, much to Emily's regret, who says she never passed two more delightful days, and would gladly, if our engagements had allowed it, have stayed in Oxford a few days longer. I should myself have liked it well, since it is always pleasant to be in a place where one feels one's self to be liked and esteemed (though above one's real value) by many good and clever people. We returned, however, and found all London in alarm from the mutiny of the Duke of Gloucester's regiment of Guards, which, however, has turned out of far less consequence than was apprehended. It appears to have immediately arisen from some vexatious and unusual restrictions and duty, to which the men had been exposed within the last month. Its ultimate cause may, however, be found in the habitual neglect of the officers, who have been accustomed to leave the men by far too much to their sergeants, and who had now all quitted the parade for different dinner parties, etc., leaving the sergeants to dismiss their companies, when the latter all at once refused to give up their ball cartridges, and uttered many complaints and some threats in which the name of the Queen more than once occurred. The matter is, however, pretty well settled and the men are peniThere is, nevertheless, a dreadful spirit at work in the town. Every morning brings fresh accounts of the attempts made by the mob to bring the soldiery over to them, and the allegiance of the latter is believed to be greatly shaken. I can hardly conceive in any country the existence of stronger symptoms of a probable revolution, and, what is worse, I find almost everybody of nearly the same opinion. tent. "I dined yesterday with some public men and several men of eminent talents, who all said that if the Queen had a little better character, she might put herself at the head either of the troops or the rabble, and send her husband to the Tower, like Catherine II., for that, except Lord Cholmondeley, who is nobody, and perhaps the Duke of Wellington, the King had no friend. But, alas! your father's chivalrous sympathy has found a most unworthy object in the Queen. I have met and conversed with public men of all parties, and cannot find that any except perhaps Williams and Brougham even profess to regard her as anything |