He has never seen a good horse in America, nor a
good coach, nor a good inn. Here is very good earth and water, and
plenty of them, -- that he is free to allow, -- to all others gifts
of nature or man, his eyes are sealed by the inexorable demand for
the precise conveniences to which he is accustomed in England. Add
to this proud blindness the better quality of great downrightness in
speaking the truth, and the love of fair play, on all occasions, and,
moreover, the peculiarity which is alleged of the Englishman, that
his virtues do not come out until he quarrels. Transfer these traits
to a very elegant and accomplished mind, and we shall have no bad
picture of Walter Savage Landor, who may stand as a favorable
impersonation of the genius of his countrymen at the present day. A
sharp dogmatic man with a great deal of knowledge, a great deal of
worth, and a great deal of pride, with a profound contempt for all
that he does not understand, a master of all elegant learning and
capable of the utmost delicacy of sentiment, and yet prone to indulge
a sort of ostentation of coarse imagery and language.
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