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Peter Plymley's Letters, and selected essays By: Sydney Smith (1771-1845) |
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Contents:
Introduction
Peter Plymley's Letters
Historical Apology For The Irish Catholics
Ireland and England
Moore's Captain Rock INTRODUCTION. Sydney Smith, of the same age as Walter Scott, was born at Woodford,
in Essex, in the year 1771, and he died of heart disease, aged
seventy four, on the 22nd of February, 1845. His father was a
clever man of wandering habits who, when he settled in England,
reduced his means by buying, altering, spoiling, and then selling
about nineteen different places in England. His mother was of a
French family from Languedoc, that had been driven to England by the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Sydney Smith's grandfather, upon
the mother's side, could speak no English, and he himself ascribed
some of his gaiety to the French blood in his veins. He was one of four sons. His eldest brother Robert known as Bobus
was sent to Eton, where he joined Canning, Frere, and John Smith,
in writing the Eton magazine, the Microcosm; and at Cambridge Bobus
afterwards was known as a fine Latin scholar. Sydney Smith went
first to a school at Southampton, and then to Winchester, where he
became captain of the school. Then he was sent for six months to
Normandy for a last polish to his French before he went on to New
College, Oxford. When he had obtained his fellowship there, his
father left him to his own resources. His eldest brother had been
trained for the bar, his two younger brothers were sent out to
India, and Sydney, against his own wish, yielded to the strong
desire of his father that he should take orders as a clergyman.
Accordingly, in 1794, he became curate of the small parish of
Netherhaven, in Wiltshire. Meat came to Netherhaven only once a
week in a butcher's cart from Salisbury, and the curate often dined
upon potatoes flavoured with ketchup. The only educated neighbour was Mr. Hicks Beach, the squire, who at
first formally invited the curate to dinner on Sundays, and soon
found his wit, sense, and high culture so delightful, that the
acquaintance ripened into friendship. After two years in the
curacy, Sydney Smith gave it up and went abroad with the squire's
son. "When first I went into the Church," he wrote afterwards, "I
had a curacy in the middle of Salisbury Plain; the parish was
Netherhaven, near Amesbury. The squire of the parish, Mr. Beach,
took a fancy to me, and after I had served it two years, he engaged
me as tutor to his eldest son, and it was arranged that I and his
son should proceed to the University of Weimar in Saxony. We set
out, but before reaching our destination Germany was disturbed by
war, and, in stress of politics, we put into Edinburgh, where I
remained five years." Young Michael Beach, who had little taste for study, lived with
Sydney Smith as his tutor, and found him a wise guide and pleasant
friend. When Michael went to the University, his brother William
was placed under the same good care. Sydney Smith, about the same
time, went to London to be married. His wife's rich brother
quarrelled with her for marrying a man who said that his only
fortune consisted in six small silver teaspoons. One day after
their happy marriage he ran in to his wife and threw them in her
lap, saying, "There, Kate, you lucky girl, I give you all my
fortune!" The lucky girl had a small fortune of her own which her
husband had strictly secured to herself and her children. Mr. Beach
recognised the value of Sydney Smith's influence over his son by a
wedding gift of 750 pounds. In 1802 a daughter was born, and in the
same year Sydney Smith joined Francis Jeffrey and other friends, who
then maintained credit for Edinburgh as the Modern Athens, in the
founding of The Edinburgh Review, to which the papers in this
volume, added to the Peter Plymley Letters, were contributed. The
Rev. Sydney Smith preached sometimes in the Episcopal Church at
Edinburgh, and presently had, in addition to William Beach, a son of
Mr... Continue reading book >>
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Genres for this book |
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Essay/Short nonfiction |
History |
Literature |
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Wikipedia – Sydney Smith |
Wikipedia – Peter Plymley's Letters, and selected essays |
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