582 APPENDIX. 



neys into other parts of the kingdom. In London their time was 

 happily spent at the houses of many friends, and particularly at the 

 house of Charles Dilly, Queen's Square, so often mentioned by Boswell 

 in his life of Johnson. Mr. Dilly took great satisfaction in showing to 

 his guests the arm-chair in which Dr. Johnson always sat at his table, 

 and where he enjoyed himself, perhaps, more than at any other house 

 in London. It was at this hospitable table that Dr. Johnson met with 

 and learned to tolerate the great radical leader, John Wilkes. 



In Mr. Dilly's house the young secretary had the gratification to 

 meet with the venerable Pascal Paoli, with Richard Cumberland, with 

 a brother of James Boswell, and with many of the literary celebrities 

 and other notorieties of the day. And Benjamin West, the President 

 of the Royal Society, in his attentions to the father and son, did not 

 forget the obligations which, in early life, he owed to his friend and 

 patron. Dr. William Smith. 



In the home of Mr. West, in Great Newman street, and in the pic- 

 ture-gallery, young William Rudolph Smith met and formed friendships 

 with many of the great painters and artists of England and of the con- 

 tinent, for in those stirring times London was the city of refuge for the 

 emigres and for all classes of refugees seeking safety from the whirlwind 

 of strife then sweeping over every country in Europe. George Cadou- 

 dal, the great Vendean chief, and General Pichegrou, both afterwards 

 concerned in the attempt to assassinate Napoleon, were among the ac- 

 quaintances thus formed. These London days, teeming with the recol- 

 lections of Sarah Siddons, of John and Stephen Kenible, of the old 

 crazy King George III., to whom he had been presented at court, of the 

 Prince of Wales and Beau Brummel, of the soldiers and statesmen who 

 were then shaping the destiny of the civilized world, were the solace 

 of many an hour in after years, and, related in his inimitable way, the 

 delight of three succeeding generations of listening friends. 



Intended by his father for the bar, young Smith, during his residence 

 in England, commenced a preparatory course of study under the direc- 

 tion of Thomas Kearsley, Esq., of the Middle Temple, and from this 

 period until the autumn of 1S08 he was a diligent student — for the first 

 two years after their return to America under the direction of his 

 father, at his country residence, five miles from the city, on the Old 

 York road, and afterwards in the office of James Milnor, in Philadel- 

 phia; in after years Mr. Milnor removed to the city of New York, and, 

 having taken orders, became a distinguished minister of the Episcopal 

 Church. In 1808 Mr. Smith was admitted to the bar in Philadelphia; 

 his examiners were Richard Rush, Thomas Ross and Peter A. Browne ; 

 the Judge was Jacob Rush. The following year he removed to Hunt- 



