rance. Lord Holland dined by himself on account of his gout.
We sat down to dinner in a fine long room, the wainscot of which is
rich with gilded coronets, roses, and portcullises. There were Lord
Albemarle, Lord Alvanley, Lord Russell, Lord Mahon,--a violent Tory, but
a very agreeable companion, and a very good scholar. There was Cradock,
a fine fellow who was the Duke of Wellington's aide-de-camp in 1815, and
some other people whose names I did not catch. What however is more to
the purpose, there was a most excellent dinner. I have always heard that
Holland House is famous for its good cheer, and certainly the reputation
is not unmerited. After dinner Lord Holland was wheeled in, and placed
very near me. He was extremely amusing and good-natured.

In the drawing-room I had a long talk with Lady Holland about the
antiquities of the house, and about the purity of the English language,
wherein she thinks herself a critic. I happened, in speaking about the
Reform Bill, to say that I wished that it had been possible to form a
few commercial constituencies, if the word constituency were admissible.
"I am glad you put that in," said her ladyship. "I was just going
to give it you. It is an odious word. Then there is _talented_ and
_influential_, and _gentlemanly_. I never could break Sheridan of
_gentlemanly_, though he allowed it to be wrong." We talked about the
word _talents_ and its history. I said that it had first appeared in
theological writing, that it was a metaphor taken from the parable in
the New Testament, and that it had gradually passed from the vocabulary
of divinity into common use. I challenged her to find it in any
classical writer on general subjects before the Restoration, or even
before the year 1700. I believe that I might safely have gone down
later. She seemed surprised by this theory, never having, so far as I
could judge, heard of the parable of the talents. I did not tell her,
though I might have done so, that a person who professes to be a critic
in the delicacies of the English language ought to have the Bible at his
fingers' ends.

She is certainly a woman of considerable talents and great literary
acquirements. To me she was excessively gracious; yet there is a
haughtiness in her courtesy which, even after all that I had heard of
her, surprised me. The centurion did not keep his soldiers in better
order than she keeps her guests. It is to one "Go," and he goeth; and to
another "Do this," and