conception of my transport. Sharp beckoned me to sit by him in the back
row. These old fellows are so selfish. "Always," said he, "establish
yourself in the middle of the row against the wall; for, if you sit in
the front or next the edges, you will be forced to give up your seat to
the ladies who are standing." I had the gallantry to surrender mine to
a damsel who had stood for a quarter of an hour; and I lounged into the
ante-rooms, where I found Samuel Rogers. Rogers and I sate together on
a bench in one of the passages, and had a good deal of very pleasant
conversation. He was,--as indeed he has always been to me,--extremely
kind, and told me that, if it were in his power, he would contrive to be
at Holland House with me, to give me an insight into its ways. He is the
great oracle of that circle.

He has seen the King's letter to Lord Grey, respecting the Garter; or
at least has authentic information about it. It is a happy stroke of
policy, and will, they say, decide many wavering votes in the House of
Lords. The King, it seems, requests Lord Grey to take the order, as a
mark of royal confidence in him "at so critical a time;"--significant
words, I think.

Ever yours

T. B. MACAULAY.

To Hannah More Macaulay.

London: May 30, 1831.

Well, my dear, I have been to Holland House. I took a glass coach, and
arrived, through a fine avenue of elms, at the great entrance towards
seven o'clock. The house is delightful;--the very perfection of the
old Elizabethan style;--a considerable number of very large and very
comfortable rooms, rich with antique carving and gilding, but carpeted
and furnished with all the skill of the best modern upholsterers. The
library is a very long room,--as long, I should think, as the gallery
at Rothley Temple,--with little cabinets for study branching out of it.
warmly and snugly fitted up, and looking out on very beautiful grounds.
The collection of books is not, like Lord Spencer's, curious; but it
contains almost everything that one ever wished to read. I found nobody
there when I arrived but Lord Russell, the son of the Marquess of
Tavistock. We are old House of Commons friends; so we had some very
pleasant talk, and in a little while in came Allen, who is warden of
Dulwich College, and who lives almost entirely at Holland House. He is
certainly a man of vast information and great conversational powers.
Some other gentlemen dropped in, and we chatted till Lady Holland made
her appea