SMITH, Sydney (1771-1845). Canon of St Paul's and author.
Fine series of fifty-two letters to Mrs Leicester Stanhope, ca 100 pages various formats mostly with envelopes or addresses, 1833-1844 where dated. An apparently unpublished and unknown correspondence of great intensity from the later years of Sydney Smith's life.
Sydney Smith's correspondent here is Elizabeth, née Green, wife of Leicester Fitzgerald Charles Stanhope (later fifth Earl of Harrington). The letters cover a very short period, from 1843 (nine letters) and 1844 (thirty-seven letters) with five undated evidently from the same time. None were published by Nowell C Smith (The Letters of Sydney Smith, 1953, 2 volumes) and Mrs Stanhope is not mentioned in the index nor by Alan Bell (Sydney Smith - A biography, 1980). The friendship is not chronicled by Lady Holland (Smith's daughter) and Mrs Austin in their two-volume Memoir and Letters of 1855. The projected new four-volume edition of Smith's letters heralded by Alan Bell in 1980 does not appear to have materialised.
 The letters are characterstic of Sydney Smith's style, full of wit and mock self-deprecation, smattered with allusions to literary and other friends. Although in part of a social nature they contain a good deal of more mature material. As a measure of the intensity of the correspondence Nowell Smith published only eight letters from 1843 (there are at least nine more here) and fifty-six from 1844 (the thirty-seven or more here add very considerably to this total).

'I have no Spirit left in me. I am in the Country - the grass is grown over me. My London images have faded away. ... Why do you quarrel with all the perfumes? has it been a little fit of Temper? and an assumption of Superiority make friends dear Stanhope make it an art & a talent you will be all the happier for it. Little Tommy Moore is coming to pay me a visit next Week. You don't know him as well as you ought to know him - he is a very amiable person. I have learnt to sing several of his Songs ...' [Combe Florey, 31 July 1843]
'You know I am always thinking about you. It struck me finally the other night as I lay awake that you were very likely to be guilty of excessive mince pies at this season. Oh Stanhope we must all die but let us die nobly, leave it to fever & apoplexy to destroy us but do not let us die of Pye.Here Mrs Leicester Stanhope lies
Who died of eating Hot mince piesWho could shed a tear over such a monument? ... Colburn the publisher called on me the other day and requested I would write something imaginative, which he explained to mean a novel. I told him if I did it must be a professional one, an Archdeacon the Lover a Bishops Wife the Victim and a parish Clerk the Mercury. ... You seem to have peculiar talent for captivating old people how you have done for Rogers and me. ...' [postmark 17 December 1843]
'When do I come to town? when does the Blue Bottle fly that is buzzing now in your drawing room mean to buzz in the dining parlour? what can it signify fair Stanhope to any sentient being when I come to town? ... [postmark 31 January 1844]
'Forget you Stanhope - how can such an idea come across you - When I forget my Tithes - when my Teeth know not how to masticate ... when I remember what Bishops write or forget the Poetry of Rogers - then believe that I have forgotten you. ... I have just reconducted the american Minister to the railroad he has been staying here ... you would not like him. ... The English hate two things poverty & Wit. they never believe that a witty man has any morals or any Senses. I am glad to hear that you are so prudent about Pies. ...' [postmark 16 January 1844]
'... The Rhyming Rogers the languishing Luttrell the Sacerdotal Sydney all these will soon become Vegetables ... and you will dip Rogers in Butter and he will be served up to you on toast. ...' [postmark 13 May 1844]
'... I have just finished Stanleys Memoirs of Dr Arnold - a man of great Genius Learning honesty & liberality without 5 Grains of common Sense. ...' [postmark 21 July 1844]
(An isolated letter to Leicester Stanhope when Mrs Stanhope and her daughter were staying at Combe Florey) '... I think it right to call your attention to the extraordinary appetite of Mrs Stanhope. Bread & Butter toasted Rolls in the morning incredible - an admirable Luncheon - and a dinner which beggars all description besides she has brought a cheese in private for herself. I find great difficulty in making acquaintance with the little Girl - but she is not inaccessible to sugar plums and will talk on the subject of Cats. We are all delighted with Mrs Stanhope but I can safely say I have not been able to get in a Word since she has been with us. Pray speak to her on the impropriety of silencing a modest Canon in his own house. ...' [postmark 10 September 1844].

Together with seven Autograph Letters Signed from Caroline Amelia Smith (née Pybus) to Elizabeth Stanhope, three dated 1845, '46 and '47, but some from before Sydney Smith's death.

'... I send you what you have already heard My dear Lady. It now comes before you as the fearless light of truth bursting from his Tomb! - By wiser persons than myself it was deem'd right to publish it. ... I will ask you to come & see me, & I am sure you will do so, if not for my sake assuredly for the sake of him who loved me from his heart's core. ...' [undated]
'... It grieves me to think you have destroyed your letters My dear Mrs Stanhope; for with the omission of names much might have been retain'd. In this manner I have managed almost all I have retaining names where the notice was laudatory ... Mr Hayward told me there were many excellent & clever letters amongst them! ...' [3 August 1847]
[No: 20540]