GOLDWIN SMITH'S " REMINISCENCES."
rro THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—Will you of your courtesy allow me to appeal through your columns for a little information ? I am editing Mr. Goldwin Smith's " Reminiscences," and I am over and over again puzzled by references to people who apparently flourished before I was born. Who, for example, was "Hemming" of the Saturday Review ? Who was "Sally Ward," afterwards Mrs. Bigelow Lawrence, she who was often to be seen at Lady Ashburton's salon at The Grange ? Who were Robert and Samuel Kell, of Bradford ? Patrick Comyn was evidently a good companion, a playgoer, and, I think, a friend of Smyth Pigott, but of his birth, life, and death I have found no particulars. Who, too, was "Temple," under whose tuition Goldwin Smith learned to plead at the Bar? Who was "Professor Simpson of Belfast" Vomit circ. 1860)? Who was " Bishop Spencer, then [circ. 1840] ministering in Paris " ? And will some one tell me who "Mrs. Jones of Pant-y-Glass " (if I have the name right), of whom the Duke of Wellington was " foolishly fond," was ? I need scarcely say how grateful I should be to any of your correspondents who would be kind enough to help me, for I
am working three thousand miles away front the British Museum and the Bodleian.—I am, Sir, &c., The Grange, Toronto, Canada.
ARNOLD HAtLTAIN.
[Patrick Comyn was at Balliol in the days of Jenkyns, and was afterwards a high official in the Education Office. Temple was possibly Leofric Temple, of the Northern Circuit; and Hemming was probably George Hemming, a Senior Wrangler and consulting counsel to the University of Cambridge. Mrs. Jones of Pantglas was a rich Welsh lady who spent a good deal of her time in London. Sir George Grove ("Life," p. 35) tells an amusing story of her introducing the Duke to Henry Weigall, the sculptor. No doubt our readers will be able to furnish Mr. Haultain direct with further details.—ED. Spectator.]
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