Volume 1

Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie / by Timothy Holmes.

  • Timothy Holmes
Date:
1898
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Sir Benjamin Collins Brodie / by Timothy Holmes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    House, then the home of a famous literary circle: Rogers, Sydney Smith, Allen, and later on, Macaulay. We have seen that Brodie’s family had an old con- nection with that of Lord Holland, and this had been made closer by the fact that Marsh, who had been Lord Holland’s tutor at Christ Church, and afterwards travelled with him on the Continent, and became his intimate friend, was the husband of Brodie’s elder sister, and succeeded the Rev. P. B. Brodie as Rector of Winterslow. Of the occupants of Holland House, and of many distinguished persons he met there, Brodie speaks with warm appreciation ; but I find no refer- ence to Macaulay in the Autobiography, though Brodie had asa colleague the uncle, Mr. Babington, after whom Macaulay was named. Macaulay himself was not introduced at Holland House till 1831, at which time Brodie was probably too busy to be there often. Of Lord Holland he gives a most attractive picture, as Macaulay also does, and of Lady Holland, as of almost all the persons whom he thinks it necessary to notice in the Autobiography, he also speaks kindly. In fact, he seems to have acted on the sound and good rule of not recording the names of those of whom he could not say something favourable—awz/ nisi bonum. And so the impression we get of Lady Holland from his mention of her (slight though it is) is much more favourable than that which “ Macaulay’s Life and Letters” conveys.! He says, perhaps with a little covert sarcasm, “ Fortunately, I had no favours to ask t See the letters dated May 3oth, and July 25, 1831, in chap. iv. of “‘ Macaulay’s Life and Letters,” by Sir G. O, Trevelyan.
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