At Bayonne
J. M.—Could you call foreign invasion the intervention of the Scotch?
Mr. G.—Well, not quite. I suppose it is certain that it was Cromwell who cut off Charles's head? Not one in a hundred in the nation desired it.
J. M.—No, nor one in twenty in the parliament. But then, ninety-nine in a hundred in the army.
In the afternoon we all drove towards Bayonne to watch the ships struggle over the bar at high water. As it happened we only saw one pass out, a countryman for Cardiff. A string of others were waiting to go, but a little steamer from Nantes came first, and having secured her station, found she had not force enough to make the bar, and the others remained swearing impatiently behind her. The Nantes steamer was like Ireland. The scene was very fresh and fine, and the cold most exhilarating after the mugginess of the last two or three days. Mr. G., who has a dizzy head, did not venture on the jetty, but watched things from the sands. He and I drove home together, at a good pace. “I am inclined,” he said laughingly, “to agree with Dr. Johnson that there is no pleasure greater than sitting behind four fast-going horses.”[293] Talking of Johnson generally, “I suppose we may take him as the best product of the eighteenth century.” Perhaps so, but is he its most characteristic product?
Wellington.—Curious that there should be no general estimate of W.'s character; his character not merely as a general but as a man. No love of freedom. His sense of duty very strong, but military rather than civil.
Montalembert.—Had often come into contact with him. A very amiable and attractive man. But less remarkable than Rio.
Latin Poets.—Would you place Virgil first?
J. M.—Oh, no, Lucretius much the first for the greatest and sublimest of poetic qualities. Mr. G. seemed to assent to this, though disposed to make a fight for the second Aeneid as equal to anything. He expressed his admiration for [pg 482] Catullus, and then he was strong that Horace would run anybody else very hard, breaking out with the lines about Regulus—
“Atqui sciebat quæ sibi barbarus