s from it: I am in such extravagant spirits that I must lose blood,
or look out for some one who will bore and depress me."

LADY HOLLAND, _July_ 1831.--"I thank God heartily for my comfortable
situation in my old age,--above my deserts, and beyond my former hopes."

MRS MEYNELL, _Sept._ 1831.--"I am just stepping into the carriage to be
installed by the Bishop. . . . It is, I believe, a very good thing, and
puts me at my ease for life. I asked for nothing--never did anything
shabby to procure preferment. These are pleasing recollections."

(It was a Prebendal Stall at St Paul's, given to him by Lord Grey.)

COUNTESS OF MORLEY, 1831.--"I went to court, and, horrible to relate!
with strings to my shoes instead of buckles--not from Jacobinism, but
ignorance. I saw two or three Tory Lords look at me with dismay."

The Clerk of the Closet spoke to Sydney, who had to gather his sacerdotal
petticoats about him "like a lady conscious of thick ankles."

R. SHARPE, 1835.--"You have met, I hear, with an agreeable clergyman: the
existence of such a being has been hitherto denied by the naturalists;
measure him, and put down on paper what he eats."

SIR WILMOT HORTON, 1835.--"No book has appeared for a long time more
agreeable than the Life of Mackintosh; it is full of important judgments
on important men, books, and things." Elsewhere he speaks of travelling
one hundred and fifty miles in his carriage, with a green parrot and the
_Life of Mackintosh_.

MRS ---, 7_th Sept._ 1835.--"I send you a list of all the papers written
by me in the _Edinburgh Review_. Catch me, if you can, in any one
illiberal sentiment, or in any opinion which I have need to recant; and
that after twenty years scribbling upon all subjects."

COUNTESS GREY, 20_th Oct._ 1835 (Paris).--"I shall not easily forget a
_matelote_ at the Rochers de Cancale, an almond tart at Montreuil, or a
_poulet a la Tartare_ at Grignon's. These are impressions which no
changes in future life can obliterate."

MISS G. HARCOURT, 1838.--"I have no relish for the country; it is a kind
of healthy grave."

SIR GEORGE PHILIPS, about _Sept._ 1838.--"Nickleby is very good. I stood
out against Mr Dickens as long as I could, but he has conquered me."

MRS MEYNELL, _Oct._ 1839.--"I feel for --- about her son at Oxford;
knowing as I do, that the only consequences of a University education
are, the growth of vice and the waste of money."

LADY HOLLAND, 28_th Dec._ 1839.--"