The Ayrshire Legatees

I am much indebted to you for the introduction to your friend G---. He

is one of us; or rather, he moves in an eccentric sphere of his own,

which crosses, I believe, almost all the orbits of all the classed and

classifiable systems of London. I found him exactly what you described;

and we were on the frankest footing of old friends in the course of the

first quarter of an hour. He did me the honour to fancy that I belonged,

as a matter of course, to some one of the literary fraternities of

Edinburgh, and that I would be curious to see the associations of the

learned here. What he said respecting them was highly characteristic of

the man. "They are," said he, "the dullest things possible. On my

return from abroad, I visited them all, expecting to find something of

that easy disengaged mind which constitutes the charm of those of France

and Italy. But in London, among those who have a character to keep up,

there is such a vigilant circumspection, that I should as soon expect to

find nature in the ballets of the Opera-house, as genius at the

established haunts of authors, artists, and men of science. Bankes

gives, I suppose officially, a public breakfast weekly, and opens his

house for conversations on the Sundays. I found at his breakfasts, tea

and coffee, with hot rolls, and men of celebrity afraid to speak. At the

conversations, there was something even worse. A few plausible talking

fellows created a buzz in the room, and the merits of some paltry

nick-nack of mechanism or science was discussed. The party consisted

undoubtedly of the most eminent men of their respective lines in the

world; but they were each and all so apprehensive of having their ideas

purloined, that they took the most guarded care never to speak of

anything that they deemed of the slightest consequence, or to hazard an

opinion that might be called in question. The man who either wishes to

augment his knowledge, or to pass his time agreeably, will never expose

himself to a repetition of the fastidious exhibitions of engineers and

artists who have their talents at market. But such things are among the

curiosities of London; and if you have any inclination to undergo the

initiating mortification of being treated as a young man who may be

likely to interfere with their professional interests, I can easily get

you introduced."

I do not know whether to ascribe these strictures of your friend to

humour or misanthropy; but they were said without bitterness; indeed so

much as matters of course, that, at the moment, I could not but feel

persuaded they were just. I spoke of them to T---, who says, that

undoubtedly G---'s account of the exhibitions is true in substance, but

that it is his own sharp-sightedness which causes him to see them so

offensively; for that ninety-nine out of the hundred in the world would

deem an evening spent at the conversations of Sir Joseph Bankes a very

high intellectual treat.