Sir John Franklin-Lamb-Coleridge and Irving-Athenæum Club Opened-Lady Morgan-Tour in Normandy-Visit to the Trappists 265 Blake-Lamb-Irving-Coleridge-Tour in Ireland-Journey with January 9th.-(At Norwich.) This morning I went A dentist. immediately after breakfast to a Jew dentist, C—, who put in a natural tooth in the place of one I swallowed yesterday. He assured me it came from Waterloo, and promised me it should outlast twelve artificial teeth. January 17th.-(At Bury.) I called with sister on Mrs. Clarkson, to take leave of her. The Clarksons leave Bury to-day, and are about to settle on a farm (Playford) near Ipswich. No one deserves of the present race more than Clarkson to have what Socrates proudly claimed of his judges-a lodging in the Prytaneion at the public expense. This ought to exclude painful anxiety on his account, if the farm should not succeed. They were in good spirits. VOL. II. B Mr. Clark son leaves Bury for Playford. CHAP. I. 1816. A legal subtlety. Mrs. Barbauld. February 6th.-I attended the Common Pleas this morning, expecting that a demurrer on which we had a consultation last night would come on, but it did not. I heard, however, an argument worthy of the golden age of the English law, scil., the age of the civil wars between the Houses of York and Lancaster, when the subtleties and refinements of the law were in high flourishing condition, or the silver age, that of the Stuarts: An almshouse corporation, the warden and poor of Croydon, in Surrey, on the foundation of Archbishop Whitgift, brought an action for rent against their tenant. He pleaded that, for a good and valuable consideration, they had sold him the land, as authorized by the statute, for redeeming land-tax. They replied that, in their conveyance, in setting out their title, they had omitted the words, "of the foundation of Archbishop Whitgift," and therefore they contended the deed was void, and that they might still recover their rent, as before. Good sense and honesty prevailed over technical sense. February 11th.-I walked to Newington, and dined with Mrs. Barbauld and Miss Finch. Miss Hamond and Charles Aikin were there. As usual, we were very comfortable. Mrs. Barbauld can keep up a lively argumentative conversation as well as any one I know; and at her advanced age (she is turned of seventy), she is certainly the best specimen of female Presbyterian society in the country. N.B.-Anthony Robinson requested me to inquire whether she thought the doctrine of Universal Restoration scriptural. She said she thought we must bring to the interpretation of the Primogeniture Scriptural. Scriptures a very liberal notion of the beneficence of CHAP. I. the Deity to find the doctrine there. 1816. 3 Giles Over reach. February 12th.-I dined with the Colliers, and in the Kean's Sir evening went to Drury Lane with Jane Collier and Miss Lamb, to see "A New Way to Pay Old Debts," a very spirited comedy by Massinger, Kean's Sir Giles Overreach is a very fine piece of acting indeed. His rage at the discovery of the fraud in the marriage of his daughter is wrought up to a wonderful height, and becomes almost too tragical. On the contrary, Munden, who also plays admirably the part of a knavish confidant, is infinitely comical, and in one or two instances. he played too well, for he disturbed the impression which Kean was to raise by the equally strong effect of his own acting. Oxberry played Greedy, the hungry magistrate, pleasantly, and Harley was thought to perform Wellborn well; but he displeases me in this, that he seems to have no keeping. Sometimes he reminds one of Bannister, sometimes Lewis; so that at last he is neither a character nor himself. Mrs. Glover was agreeable in playing Lady Allworth, ture. February 15th.-A curious argument on the law of PrimogeniPrimogeniture. It was used by my friend Pattisson, and is a scriptural one. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, the Father says to his dissatisfied elder Son, "Son, all that I have is thine," which is a recognition of the right in the firstborn. February 25th.-At eight I went to Rough's, where I met Kean-I should say to see him, not to hear him ; for he scarcely spoke. I should hardly have known him. He has certainly a fine eye, but his features were Kean in society. 4 1816. Kean.-Coleridge his own Publisher. CHAP. 1. relaxed, as if he had undergone great fatigue. When he smiles, his look is rather constrained than natural. He is but a small man, and from the gentleness of his manners, no one would anticipate the actor who excels in bursts of passion. Law as an instrument sion. March 10th.-(On Circuit at Bedford.) I was a little of oppres- scandalized by the observation of the clerk of a prosecutor's solicitor, in a case in which I was engaged for the prosecution, that there was little evidence against one of the defendants,-that, in fact, he had not been very active in the riots,-but he was a sarcastic fellow, and they wished to punish him by putting him to the expense of a defence without any expectation of convicting him ! Coleridge. His own publisher. April 6th.-I rode to London by the old Cambridge coach, from ten to four. Soon after I arrived I met Miss Lamb by accident, and in consequence took tea with her and Charles. I found Coleridge and Morgan at their house. Coleridge had been ill, but he was then, as before, loquacious, and in his loquacity mystically eloquent. He is endeavouring to bring a tragedy on the stage, in which he is not likely, I fear, to succeed; and he is printing two volumes of Miscellanies, including a republication of his poems. But he is printing without a publisher! He read me some metaphysical passages, which will be laughed at by nine out of ten readers; but I am told he has written popularly, and about himself. Morgan is looking very pale-rather unhappy than ill. He attends Coleridge with his unexampled assiduity and kindness. |
