VARIOUS FRIENDS. 173 



way. Besides several of those I have named, many of the 1848. 

 Professors of University College and their families of 

 course visited us. At this time the Rev. Alexander Scott, 

 afterwards Principal of Owen's College, Manchester, filled 

 a chair in University College. Mr. Arthur Hugh Clough 

 was Principal of University Hall. M. Libri and his wife, 

 Dr. Westland Marston, Miss Mulock, now Mrs. George 

 Craik, Mrs. Follen, the abolitionist, and Mrs. Catherine 

 Crowe, of ghostly renown, were among our guests. As 

 rny husband was connected with the Athenceum, his vic- 

 tims and co-reviewers were a lively element in these 

 mixed assemblies, and we found in the meeting of persons 

 of very opposite pursuits, that some who seemed the 

 farthest removed from each other would often rejoice to 

 meet, and were found in unexpected connection. Several 

 friends addicted to what are called mystical studies, 

 found their way to us, drawn partly by my own love of 

 trying to unveil mysteries, partly by the sounder know- 

 ledge which my husband, who did not quite despise 

 the obscure sides of early science and mediaeval philo- 

 sophy, could bring to the subject. Of these, I think 

 the Rev. Jas. Smith, author of 'The Divine Drama 

 of History,' was the most learned and the least appreci- 

 ated by the world at large ; for his estimate of Sweden- 

 borg as an authority on spiritual questions, and his 

 admiration for Joanna Southcote as a ' typical woman,' 

 were thought to throw discredit on his good sense. 

 Swedenborg is not held utterly contemptible now though, 

 as Mr. Smith said then, he is least understood by his own 

 followers. 



A not infrequent visitor on these evenings was Mrs. The Ladies 

 Elizabeth Reid, a widow lady of property, whose father Bedford^ 

 had been an influential Nonconformist, and who had long s< i uare ' 

 sought for coadjutors in her design of establishing a 

 model ladies' College. She had written to Lady Byron 

 and to me of it fifteen years before, but her plans were 

 not as practical as her intentions were good, and it was 



