1815-1816] The Sydney Smiths 91 



off. But if M. Constant is against it, it is decisive, as men 

 are always better judges than women, and he is besides (as 

 the Smiths tell me) a very sensible man. The Smiths came 

 here on Wednesday to dinner from Mr Philipps's of Man- 

 chester. Mrs Sydney, Saba, Emily, Douglas, and a sweet 

 infant of two years old, called Windham, in their own chaise, 

 a very good-looking affair that Sydney bought last year in 

 London for 70. The Cid himself came in the coach. We 

 had no company to meet them on Wednesday, but on 

 Thursday I asked the three girl Cald wells, who stayed with 

 us till Sunday, and very much they enjoyed their visit. 

 You would be surprised to hear how little literary our con- 

 versation was. I don't think we talked of any book but 

 Rhoda, which is a novel by Miss Jackson, very good, but 

 which I thought the Cid overpraised. He was in very 

 high fooling every day but the last, when, whether he was 

 made flat by the departure of his three great admirers, 

 or whether he was vexed by some letters he received I 

 don't know, but he was silent and walking up and down 

 the room a great part of the evening. \Ve got him to 

 read prayers and a sermon in the afternoon. The sermon 

 was one he had preached at Sedgeley, it was against envy, 

 and very good. He recovered his spirits next morning 

 when Elizabeth and I walked to Newcastle and saw him 

 depart in a Birmingham coach. They go to Bath to see 

 his father. Mrs Sydney and her children stay there two 

 months, Sydney I suppose as short a time as his filial piety 

 will allow, as he hates Bath mortally, and loves London 

 spiritually. I thought the Cid looked better than when I 

 saw him last, but he gets fat. Mrs Sydney is both younger 

 and handsomer than she was when here last. More good- 

 humoured she could not be. Saba is grown a very genteel 

 girl and seems perfectly good-humoured and amiable, but, 

 like Fanny Waddmgton, 1 is so educated that all nature is 

 gone, answering every word you say with a sweet undis- 

 tinguishing smile that says nothing. She must be clever 

 from her parentage, but it is impossible to find it out through 



1 Afterwards Mme de Bunsen. 



