Hudson Gurney's Recollections. check, while the regal power and influence have become, or soon will, a mere shadow. In passing through Soho Square, it may amuse you to call in upon Mr. Pickersgill, the portrait painter, where he will be gratified to introduce you to the face of an old friend. Take Charles and Mary Lamb there also. His February 24th.-At the Athenæum, where I had an interesting conversation with Hudson Gurney. He talks freely of himself, and I am not betraying confidence in writing down the following minutes. His mother was a Barclay, and his grandfather a grandson of the famous author. By him he was brought up a Quaker, and his first opinions or feelings were High Tory. grandfather, though a Quaker, had inspired him with a great hatred of the Presbyterians. His favourite. pursuit, rivalled only by a love of leaping over fivebarred gates, was heraldry; and his first hatred of the French Revolution was probably more stimulated by the decree abolishing liveries and arms than anything else. His great delight in London, when a boy, was looking at the carriages going to the levée or drawingroom. But he never saw the people within; he looked only at the panels. However, about the year 1794–5, when at Norwich, he had for about sixteen months an interlude of Jacobinism and infidelity, inspired by the violent men of the day. From Jacobinism he was driven by observing what tyrants, without exception, all the heroes of the Liberty party were. He was cured of his infidelity by Butler's "Analogy." He had - 21 1833. Wordsworth's portrait by Pickersgill. Hudson Gurney's account of himself. 22 1833. Etymology of Mass. CHAP. II. read before a great deal of metaphysics. Butler showed him how far he could go. He has made, he says, no advances ever since. He then forswore all metaphysics, and has kept his oath; but he still has a great love for everything in the shape of an experience. He concurred with me in the praise of John Woolman, of whose writings he says he has thought of publishing an edition, with notes; "but now," he added, "my mind is gone." In spite of his early religious education, he never liked the "Pilgrim's Progress," disliking allegory. Society of Antiquaries. March 7th (Rem.)*-At the Society of Antiquaries this evening, Lord Aberdeen President, an incident. occurred which greatly interested me at the moment, and which is worth being related in detail, if anything be which concerns myself. A few weeks before this time, John Gage, the Director of the Society, calling on me, I incidentally remarked to him that I found he had, in a late paper in the Archæologia, adopted the vulgar error that the Latin Missa, and all the cognate words, Mass, Messe, &c., were derived from the concluding words of the mass dismissing the congregation—Ite, missa est; I pointed out the absurdity of deriving a very important word from an insignificant part of a formal instrument ; the essence of the sacrament being the bread and H. C. R. on wine, as he had himself acknowledged to be the ctymology fact. And I interested him by informing him how I first came to perceive this, by being told in Germany that Kirmess, a parish festival, was an abridgment of Kirchmess, or church feast, being the feast day of the of Mass. * Written in 1853. One of Goethe's Best Works. patron saint. It flashed upon my mind at once that Messe must mean feast; and I cited Michaelmas as proving it, being the feast of St. Michael, Christmas the feast of Christ, &c. From this moment I had but to seek for formal evidence to prove what was manifest. Mr. Director on this begged me to throw the matter of this new etymology into a paper, which, he said, the Society would be glad of. And this evening it was read. There is no doubt it was flippant in style, and it was read very badly; but it gave offence, not because it was dull or obscure, but because it was said to be irreverent. Lord Bexley and the Bishop of Bath and Wells were there. Perhaps the evil was aggravated by there being an audible laugh at the closing words of the paper, " Ite, missa est."* 23 CHAP. II. 1833. and Dorothea. March 10th.-I went on reading "Hermann and Doro- Hermann thea," which I have just finished. I hold it to be one of the most delightful of all Goethe's works. Not one of his philosophical works, which the exclusives exclusively admire, but one of the most perfectly moral as well as beautiful. It realizes every requisite of a work of genius. I shed tears over it repeatedly, but they were mere tears of tenderness at the perfect beauty of the characters and sentiments. Incident there is none. The paper, which had really no value whatever, as actually read, appears now to more advantage in the "Archæologia," Vol. XXVI. p. 242. All the evidence was collected after the paper was read; and the collateral remarks on the German origin of Italian words, taken from the great Italian scholar of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Muratori), and the incidental proofs cited, render the paper amusing as well as instructive. Scarcely a page is now what it originally was.-H. C. R. 24 CHAP. II. 1833. Lamb on literary facility. Death of Lamb's Album Verses. I April 9th.-I reached the Lambs at tea-time. found them unusually well in health, but not comfortable. They seem dissatisfied in their lodgings; but they have sold all their furniture, and so seem obliged to remain as they are. I spent the evening playing whist; and after Lamb and his sister went to bed, I read in his album (Holcroft's "Travels" pasted with extracts in MS. and clippings out of newspapers, &c.). Lamb says that he can write acrostics and album verses, and such things, at request, with a facility that approaches that of the Italian Improvisatori; but that he has great difficulty in composing a poem or piece of prose which he himself wishes should be excellent. The things that cost nothing are worth nothing. He says he should be happy had he some literary task. HayIward has sent him his "Faust." He thinks it well done, but he thinks nothing of the original. How inferior to Marlowe's play! One scene of that is worth the whole! What has Margaret to do with Faust? Marlowe, after the original story, makes Faust possess Helen of Greece! April 16th.-Mr. Denman called with the news that Flaxman. Miss Flaxman died this morning about three o'clock. I was not surprised by the intelligence. Life had lost all its charms for her, and her constitution was entirely broken. An easy death was all her friends could wish for her, and that she seems to have been blessed with. She was an excellent person, and I sincerely regret her loss. April 25th.-I did not rise till it was time to dress to go to Miss Flaxman's funeral. It is worthy of notice Miss Flaxman's Death. that, in consequence of the mortality of the season through influenza, it was with great difficulty that a mourning-coach could be procured. The burial took place in St. Giles's Churchyard. It was a ceremony I felt to be a comfort in the respect shown to the very relics of humanity. May 14th.-Went with Mrs. Aders to the Exhibition. Only three or four pictures which I wish to recollect. A monk confessing to another monk. A marvellous expression, singular contrast of feeling, in spite of similarity of dress and a like emaciation. The fingers of both skinny and cramped, all agitation and compression, but still most dissimilar. One of the most striking pictures I ever saw. This is by Wilkie. He has also a portrait of the Duke of Sussex-a good likeness. No man comes near Wilkie this year, though both Uwins and Eastlake have fine pictures. Uwins tells very clearly the tale of a nun taking the veil, and Eastlake has a beautiful group of trembling Greeks on the seashore-Turks hastening to massacre them, an English boat advancing to their rescue. There are some delightful landscapes by Callcott. 25 CHAP. II. 1833. On the burial service. Roval Academy. Pickersgill's portrait of Wordsworth. May 30th.-I went with Mrs. Aders to Pickersgill's, to see his portrait of Wordsworth. It is in every respect a fine picture, except that the artist has made the disease in Wordsworth's eyes too apparent. The picture wants an oculist. In the evening, being unsettled, I went to Drury Lane Theatre at half-price. An opera— "La Sonnambula." I saw Malibran. Her acting in Malibran. the scene in which, after a sleep-walking (which was very disagreeable), she awakes and sees her lover or |
