and the equally
curious contrast between the clerical amplitude of his person, and the
most unclerical wit, whim, and petulance of his eye. I shook hands with
him very heartily; and on the Catholic question we immediately fell,
regretted Evans, triumphed over Lord George Beresford, and abused
the Bishops. [These allusions refer to the general election which had
recently taken place.] He then very kindly urged me to spend the time
between the close of the Assizes and the commencement of the Sessions
at his house; and was so hospitably pressing that I at last agreed to go
thither on Saturday afternoon. He is to drive me over again into York
on Monday morning. I am very well pleased at having this opportunity
of becoming better acquainted with a man who, in spite of innumerable
affectations and oddities, is certainly one of the wittiest and most
original writers of our times.

Ever yours affectionately

T. B. M.

Bradford: July 26, 1826.

My dear Father,--On Saturday I went to Sydney Smith's. His parish lies
three or four miles out of any frequented road. He is, however, most
pleasantly situated. "Fifteen years ago," said he to me as I alighted
at the gate of his shrubbery, "I was taken up in Piccadilly and set down
here. There was no house, and no garden; nothing but a bare field." One
service this eccentric divine has certainly rendered to the Church.
He has built the very neatest, most commodious, and most appropriate
rectory that I ever saw. All its decorations are in a peculiarly
clerical style; grave, simple, and gothic. The bed-chambers are
excellent, and excellently fitted up; the sitting-rooms handsome; and
the grounds sufficiently pretty. Tindal and Parke, (not the judge
of course,) two of the best lawyers, best scholars, and best men in
England, were there. We passed an extremely pleasant evening, had a very
good dinner, and many amusing anecdotes.

After breakfast the next morning I walked to church with Sydney Smith.
The edifice is not at all in keeping with the rectory. It is a miserable
little hovel with a wooden belfry. It was, however, well filled, and
with decent people, who seemed to take very much to their pastor. I
understand that he is a very respectable apothecary; and most liberal
of his skill, his medicine, his soul, and his wine, among the sick.
He preached a very queer sermon--the former half too familiar and the
latter half too florid, but not without some ingenuity of thought and
expres