347 



frost and snow. I was laid up there last December 

 by a cold caught in going. 



Ever most affectionately yours, 



J. E. Smith. 



Mr. Roscoe to Sir J. E. Smith. 



My dear Friend, Allerton, Sept. 13, 18 12. 



I ordered a Liverpool Mercury to be sent you 

 yesterday, by which you will see we have been 

 giving a splendid dinner to Mr. Brougham, at which 

 several of your friends took an active part. The 

 lords present all spoke with great spirit, and the 

 reading of the letters from the principal members 

 of both houses went off extremely well. On the 

 whole this meeting will do some good, and tend to 

 draw closer that connexion between the commercial 

 and manufacturing interests and the nobility and 

 great proprietors of land, which is become essential 

 not only to the prosperity, but the safety of the 

 country. 



And now, my dear friend, for your last letter. 



" So cunning was the apparatus, 



The powerful pothooks did so move him, 

 That, will he, nill he, to the great house 

 He went as if the devil drove him." 



It would not, however, be so much for the sake of 

 the great house, nor for all it contains, though no- 

 thing in its way could be more attractive, that I 

 should wish to visit Holkham. It would be with 

 the view of paying my respects to its excellent and 



