32 LORD LILFORD 



there is a degree of archness in it, too, which 

 makes it very entertaining.' 



Here is another ' dinner talk ' at Holland 

 House, August 1824. ' Mr. Kogers at dinner, 

 the conversation took a literary turn, Burns was 

 discussed, Mr. Eogers prefers the " Cotter's 

 Saturday Night," the " Mousie " and the " Daisy" 

 to any of his other productions and confessed 

 he could not understand " Tarn o' Shanter." A 

 comparison between Burns and Byron was made : 

 Papa said he thought the former rather a poet of 

 sense and reason, than of genius or imagination. 

 Lord Byron falls off, whenever he makes any 

 attempt at humour. Mr. Kogers said Burns 

 was a poet of sense — Byron of genius — and Scott 

 of cleverness ; leaving the poets, Papa said it 

 was a remarkable thing, which no one but Mr. 

 Rogers had yet noticed, that in five cases out of 

 six, Gibbon employs the genitive case. The con- 

 versation then turned upon acting, and papa and 

 mamma, and my aunts, as well as Mr. Rogers, all 

 agreed that had they the power of restoring 

 either Mrs. Jordan or Mrs. Siddons to the stage, 

 in their full vigour, it would certainly be the 

 former.' 



