TABLE-TALK OF SAX GEL ROGERS. * THE Nestorian age of Samuel

Rogers connected him familiarly with two generations ; his reminiscences extended to a time so remote that it has ceased to be even traditional save to very old people. His whilom literary repute, the idea of respectability connected with the title of " banker-poet," his recherché mode of living, and equally perhaps with the rest his reputation for talking epigrammatically and writing epigrams, enabled him to associate with a very varied and distinguished society. The familiar conversation of such a man could not be other than in- teresting from its range and fulness of subjects. And on these two points the volume of " Recollections" will not disappoint the reader. He will be carried back to the days of Ranelagh, high- waymen, hoops, and swords. He will catch glimpses of men who were born before the house of Brunswick ruled in Britain, and be introduced to the once celebrated poet Mr. Hayley, as well as to Adam Smith and others of that sera. The celebrities of the last sixty years meet him in almost every page : Fox, Burke, Sheri- dan, F\Tindham, Pitt, Dundas, Wilberforce, and lesser names, in politics ; in the literature of that generation, Wordsworth, Cole- ridge, Mackintosh, Byron, Moore, Scott, and Campbell,—the last, we think, " survey'd with scornful yet with jealous eyes." Among the well-known fashionables, are the Prince of Wales in his prime, the Duchess of Devonshire, and Lady Jersey of the scandalous chronicle, with whom Rogers was very intimate. Among the distinguished of our own day, or belonging to two generations, are Wellington, Brougham, Sydney Smith, the Lady Holland and her Lord, Chantrey, and various others. Such names, even when the notice is trivial or the story not particularly pointed, (both of which are too often the case,) excite attention, while the brevity of anecdote or remark prevents weariness.

The volume, however, may disappoint those whose expectations have been much raised by a name. Great felicity of expression can seldom be preserved, even should it occur in conversation, from the difficulties under which it must be reported. Table- talk must mainly consist of facts or thoughts. Rogers's thoughts do not seem to have been very profound. The "banker-poet" had looked on life without drawing many lessons from it, or "hiving wisdom with each studious year." He was of the world, worldly. Even when he has a thought, it generally has a direct bearing upon himself; as in these on making up quarrels, and old age.

" When people have had misunderstandings with each other, and are anxious to be again on good terms, they ought never to make attempts at reconciliation by means of letters ; they should see each other. Sir Walter Scott quarrelled with Lady Rosh; in consequence, I believe, of some ex-

• Recollections of the Table-Talk of Samuel Rogers. Tb which is added Por- soniana. Published by Moxon.

pressions he had used about Fox. If Scott,' said she, ' instead of writing to me on the subject, had only paid me a visit, I must have forgiven him.' " There had been for some time a coolness between Lord Durham and my- self ; and I was not a little annoyed to find that I was to sit next him at one of the Royal Academy dinners : I requested the stewards to change my place at the table ; but it was too late to make any alteration. We sat down. Lord Durham took no notice of me. At last I said to him, Will your Lordship do me the honour of drinking a glass of wine with me ?' Ile answered, ' Certainly, on condition that you will come and dine with me soon.'

* * •

" One afternoon, at Court, I was standing beside two intimate acquaint- ances of mine, an old nobleman and a middle-aged lady of rank, when the former remarked to the latter that he thought a certain young lady near us was uncommonly beautiful. The middle-aged lady replied, I cannot see any particular beauty in her.' Ah, madam,' he rejoined, to us old men youth always appears beautiful '; (a speech with which R ordsworth, when I repeated it to him, was greatly struck.) The fact is, till we are about to leave the world, we do not perceive how much it contains to excite our inte- rest and admiration : the sunsets appear to me far lovelier now than they were in other years ; and the bee upon the flower is now an object of curi- osity to me, which it was not in my early days."

Remarks on literature occur, but they are not very striking, having the spirit of the grammarian rather than the critic. Quo- tations from obscure writers to whom Rogers referred in illustra- tion of an opinion might as well have been spared. Some of the facts, though new when Rogers mentioned them, have become common property. His good stories are occasionally Joe Millers. Thus, he ascribes to Dr. Fordyce the exclamation Drunk, by God !" when no effort could extract a symptom from the lady s pulse, but the character of the physician was saved by the patient next day pleading guilty to the imputation : the story is as old at all events as Radcliffe, to whose habits and language it is more appropriate. Now and then Rogers seems to report errors of fact. In early youth he was in the company of General Ogle- thorpe—Pope's Oglethorpe—who said "that he had shot snipes in Conduit Street." This seems scarcely credible, from the man- ner in which the site of Conduit Street must have been surrounded by buildings. Old Bond Street was commenced in 1686; Golden Square was built soon afterwards—Boling- broke resided there in 1704 ; Cavendish Square was begun in 1717 ; Hanover Square and Great George Street in 1718 ; Berke- ley Square in 1698, the year of Oglethorpe's birth. No doubt, in the then state of the country as regards traffic and cultivation, birds were more numerous, and would approach nearer to towns than they do now : within this century snipes have been shot, or at least sportsmen have gone snipe-shooting, where the Colosseum is now built, which was then a marsh : but there were no houses round the spot. The site of Conduit Street even when Oglethorpe was in his teens could scarcely have harboured snipe. Perhaps most of the miscellaneous anecdotes are more inte- resting from the names attached to them than valuable for their intrinsic character. The two men who do not open their mouths without saying something are Sydney Smith and the Duke of Wellington. Here is the Duke.

" Speaking to me of Bonaparte, the Duke of Wellington remarked: that in one respect he was superior to all the generals who had over existed. Was it,' I asked, in the management and skilful arrangement of his troops ?" No,' answered the Duke ; 'it was in his power of concentrating such vast masses of men—a most important point in the art of war.' " I have found,' said the Duke, that raw troops, however inferior to the old ones in maneuvering, are far superior to them in downright hard fighting with the enemy : atlVaterloo, the young Ensigns and Lieutenants, who had never before seen a battle, rushed to meet death as if they had been playing at cricket.' " The Duke thinks very highly of Napier's History ; its only fault, ha says, is that Napier is sometimes apt to convince himself that a thing must be true, because he wishes to believe it. Of Southey's History he merely said, I don't think much of it.'

"Of the Duke's perfect coolness on the most trying occasions, Colonel Gurwood gave me this instance. He was once in great danger of being drowned at sea. It was bed-time, when the captain of the vessel came to him, and said, It will soon be all over with us'—' Very well,' answered the Duke, then I shall not take off my boots.' "

Here are some of Sydney's.

" At one time, when I gave a dinner, I used to have candles placed all round the dining-room, and high up, in order to show off the pictures. I asked Smith how he liked that plan. Not at all,' he replied : ' above there is a blaze of light, and below nothing but darkness and gnashing of teeth.'

" He said that — was so fond of contradiction, that he would throw up the window in the middle of the night, and contradict the watchman who was calling the hour. " When his physician advised him to take a walk upon an empty sto- mach,' Smith asked, Upon whose ?'

" Lady Cork,' said Smith, was once so moved by a charity sermon that she begged me to lend her a guinea for her contributi n. I did so. She never repaid me, and spent it on herself.' " Smith said, The Bishop of — is so like Judas, that I now firmly be. aye in the Apostolical Succession.' "

The editor has affixed to the Table-talk of Rogers, under the title of " Porsoniana," a variety of anecdotes of the great Grecian. They were communicated to him by Mr. Maltby, a friend of Ro- gers and a very intimate friend of Porson. Mr. Maltby was ori- ginally a solicitor ; but, being devoted to literature,—though he never wrote anything, so that his stores of knowledge were wasted, —he gave up his business to succeed his friend in the of of Librarian at the London Institution. The anecdotes of Person which are here preserved present a picture of the man in his in- temperance, his learning, his racy strength of native genius which his learning never oppressed, and, let it be said to his hon- our, in his independence of character—independent alike of rank or fashion. We conceive the Porsoniana to have quite as much substantial interest as the Table-talk would have if it were con- siderably curtailed.

Home Tooke was well acquainted with Rogers, Maltby, and Porson. He gives two singular illustrations of the bibacious capacity of Person; which, strange as they look, are confirmed by some stories of Rogers. " Parson would sit up drinking all night, without seeming to feel any bad effects from it. Home Tooke told me that he once asked Poison to dine with him in Richmond Buildings; and, as he knew that Person had not been in bed for the three _preceding nights, he expected to get rid of him at a tolerably early hour. Person, however, kept Tooke up the whole night ; and in the morning the latter, m perfect despair, said, Mr. Porson, I am engaged to meet a friend at breakfast at a coffeehouse in Leicester Square.' Oh!' replied Porson, I will go with you' ; and he accordingly did so. Boon after they had reached the coffeehouse, Tooke contrived to slip out, and running home, ordered his servant not to let Mr. Person in, even if he should attempt to batter down the door. A man,' observed Tooke, who could sit up four nights successively might have sat up forty.' " Tooke used to say that Person would drink ink rather than not drink at all.' Indeed, he would drink anything. He was sitting with a gentle- man, after dinner, in the chambers of a mutual friend, a Templar, who was then ill and confined to bed. A servant came into the room, sent thither by his master for a bottle of embrocation which was on the chimney-piece. ' I drank it an hour ago,' said Poison. " When Hoppner the painter was residing in a cottage a few miles from London, Person, one afternoon, unexpectedly arrived there. Hoppner said that he could not offer him dinner, as Mrs. H. had gone to town, and had carried with her the key of the closet which contained the wine. Person, however, declared that he would be content with a mutton-chop and beer from the next ale-house ; and accordingly staid to dine. During the evening, Person said, I am quite certain that Mrs. Hoppner keeps some nice bottle for her private drinking, in her own bedroom ; so pray, try if you can lay your hands on it.' His host assured him that Mrs. H. had no such secret stores ; but Person insisting that a search should be made, a bottle was at last discovered in the lady's apartment, to the surprise of Hoppner and the joy of Person- who soon finished its contents, pronouncing it to be the best gin he had tasted for a long time. Next day, Hoppner, somewhat out of temper, informed his wife that Person had drunk every drop of her concealed drain. Drunk every drop of it ! ' cried she; my God ! it was spirits of wine for the lamp ! "

The reader of Gibbon's Autobiography will remember his chuckle over the wretched Travis, smarting under the lash of the merciless Person. The historian, it seems, did not confine himself to a posthumous compliment. " Soon after the Letters to Travis were published, Gibbon wrote a note to Person, requesting the pleasure of his acquaintance. Porson accordingly called upon the great historian ; who received him with all kindness and re- spect. In the course of conversation, Gibbon said, ' Mr. Person I feel truly indebted to you for the Letters to Travis; though I must think that occasionally, while praising me, you have mingled a little acid with the sweet. If ever you should take the trouble to read my History over again, I should be much obliged and honoured by any remarks on it which might suggest themselves to you.' Person was highly flattered by Gibbon's having requested this interview, and loved to talk of it. He thought the Decline and Fall beyond all comparison the greatest literary production of the eighteenth century, and was in the habit of repeating long passages. from it. Yet I have heard him say that there could not be a better exercise for a schoolboy than to turn a page of it into English.'

n the Letters to Travis first appeared, Rennell said to me, It is

a book as the Devil would write if Ire ,.ould hold a pen.' " are some anecdotes of Person Its short and sharp as Hen-

n criticism on himself ; but, leaving them for the reader of thcr*olnme, we will take an instance of Porson's independent spirit.

" I hear,' said I to Person, ' that you are to dine today at Holland House.' Who told you so ? ' asked he. I replied, Mackintosh." But I certainly shall not go,' continued Person they invite me merely out of curiosity, and, after they have satisfied it, they would like to kick me down stairs.' I then informed him that Fox was coming from St. Anne's Hill to Holland House for the express purpose of being introduced to him : but he

• persieted in his resolution, and dined quietly with Rogers and myself at Rogers's chambers in the Temple. Many years afterwards, Lord Holland mentioned to Rogers that his uncle (Fox) had been greatly disappointed at not meeting Porson on that occasion." I'