In literature we have a strong list of names, but in the one I give I do not pretend that it includes every one laying claim to literary merit, but it is merely a representative catalogue:—Joanna Baillie, Mrs. Barbauld, Robert Bloomfield, Lord Byron, Thomas Campbell, Thomas Carlyle, G. Chalmers, S. T. Coleridge, George Crabbe, Alan Cunningham, Madame D'Arblay, Isaac D'Israeli, Sir Philip Francis, William Godwin, George Grote, Henry Hallam, William Hazlitt, Mrs. Hemans, James Hogg, Thomas Hood, Theodore Hooke, Leigh Hunt, Mrs. Inchbald, Mrs. Jameson, J. Keats, Charles Lamb, W. S. Landor, J. Lemprière, M. G. (or Monk) Lewis, Lord Lytton, Edward Malone, Miss Mitford, James Montgomery, Hannah Moore, Thomas Moore, Lady Morgan, Lindley Murray, Mrs. Norton, Mrs. Opie, Jane Porter, Anne Radcliffe, Samuel Rogers, Sir Walter Scott, R. B. Sheridan, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John and Horace Smith, Robert Southey, J. Horne Tooke, Henry Kirke White, William Wordsworth.
Death claimed, during these nine years, some of the older littérateurs, as the Right Rev. Thomas Percy, D.D., Bishop of Dromore, whose "Reliques of Antient English Poetry" is well known. He died Sept. 30, 1811. On March 18, 1812, died John Horne Tooke, who will always be remembered by "The Diversions of Purley." John Philpot Curran, the celebrated Irish lawyer and orator, died at Brompton, October 14, 1817; and Samuel Lysons, the eminent Antiquary, who was Keeper of the Records when they were in the Tower of London, whose "Environs of London" is still a standard book of reference, expired June 29, 1819. On August 25th of the same year, died James Watt, whose name is so well known in connection with the steam engine.
It was a dilletante age for books. It was the first wake up after a long, long sleep. Men were only just beginning to understand the value of the treasures they possessed, and the mysteries of first editions, tall copies, &c., were just coming to light. Old libraries were searched, and their secrets were exposed. I think they over-valued their old books; as a proof, they do not fetch so much now. For instance, take the "Valdarfer Boccaccio," printed in 1471. This book was in the library of the Duke of Roxburghe, and at the sale thereof fetched, on June 17, 1812, the enormous sum of £2,260. It was purchased by the Marquis of Blandford. He afterwards sold it, on June 16, 1819, to Messrs. Longman and Co., at the reduced price of £875, and on December 7, 1881, Mr. Quaritch bought it for £585. At the same sale the Duke of Devonshire bought a Caxton, "The Recuyell of the historyes of Troye," for £1,060. People other than those infatuated called it bibliomania, and so I think it was.
The foundation of the celebrated Roxburghe Club took place on that dies mirabilis, the 17th of June, when the number was limited to twenty-four, and they dined annually afterwards, the great toast of the evening being always, "The memory of the immortal Valdarfer."
Here is a curious Advertisement, May 11, 1814: "A Shabby Old Manuscript, to be seen at No. 15, Noel Street, Berwick Street, Soho, is, perhaps, one of the greatest Curiosities now existing; not so much for its Antiquity, though conjectured to be of the 13th or 14th Century, for it has no date, or any striking peculiarity either in the Character or spelling, as on account of the subject, and the extraordinary nature of its contents. The Proprietor of this singularly curious and interesting document, a gentleman of high literary attainments, would, under certain limitations and restrictions, dispose of a Correct Copy for 200 guineas. Mere curiosity may, however, be gratified with a sight of the original, and of the heads of its principal contents, for a One Pound Bank of England Note, or twenty shillings good and current money."
In Science great strides were being made; they were emerging from the slough of ignorance, and treading the right path at last; and, although they cannot boast either of the scientists, or the discoveries, of the Victorian era, yet an age that could produce a Humphrey Davy and a David Brewster brought forth two famous men.
About this time there was a wonderful boy, who, since, developed into a good Civil Engineer. The earliest notice I can find of him is in a Newspaper of March 4, 1814. "There is now at Moretonhamstead, Devonshire, a boy only seven and a half years old, of a most astonishing genius; indeed, as a Calculator, quite a prodigy. A gentleman asked him how many eyes and toes six score of bullocks had, and how many minutes in a year, each of which questions he answered with the same ease and quickness. Another person put many difficult questions to him in arithmetic, to the whole of which he immediately replied correctly. The boy cannot account how he does it, and, till within a few weeks, did not know a figure. His name is Bidder, and his father is a mason at the above place."
We hear of him again in October, 1819. "A singular phenomenon appeared in the metropolis this month, a boy of the name of George Bidder, solved the most difficult questions in arithmetic by mental calculation, in less time than could be accomplished by the most skilful by the ordinary operation; and what was more remarkable he did not work by common arithmetical rules, but by a process entirely his own."
Among the musical composers who were then living may be named Sir Henry R. Bishop, Dr. Calcott, Muzio Clementi, Dr. Crotch, Charles Dibdin, Thomas Greatorex, Thomas Kelly, Vincent Novello, John Parry, Cipriani Potter, and Samuel Wesley.
Medical Science had emerged from the empiricism in which it had so long been shrouded: and to this era belong some great names, both in Medicine and Surgery. Still, the Pharmacopœia was a great deal too redundant, and the family doctor was pompous, and not too learned. Doctors and Clergymen still stuck to their wigs—Barristers and Judges still do to theirs—and he could not be worth his salt as a physician, unless he carried a gold-headed cane, often with a round ball a-top, which was a relic of the time when it contained some aromatic mixture, which he smelt, in order to guard himself against contagion.