Mr. Gladstone and the congé d'élire — the bishop's family and Devonshire — His praise of Exeter — Rundle at Oxford — his character — Rundle and Whiston — A "cheese-cake" entertainment —Rundle's preferments — Speaker Onslow — Bishop Talbot— Rundle's friendship with Jemmy Thomson — Rundle's dinners — Rundle and the see of Gloucester — clerical opposition— His "splendid banishment" — Rundle, Pope and Swift — His library — His ailments and death pp. 1—13
His descent and parentage — his connection with Hawstead, near Bury St. Edmunds — prosperous distiller at West Ham — Philip Metcalfe in social life — signs the "round robin" to Dr. Johnson on the Latin epitaph to Goldsmith — at Brighton and in Sussex with Johnson — Johnson's dying gift to him — Metcalfe as trustee for Johnson's servant — as treasurer of the fund for the proposed monument of Johnson — Metcalfe's visit with Reynolds to the art galleries of the Low-countries — proposed dedication to him by Reynolds of the contemplated volume on this tour — Metcalfe as executor with Burke and Malone to Reynolds's will — their letter in French to the empress of Russia — the sale of Reynolds's pictures — the funeral of Reynolds — Metcalfe and the Dilettanti Society — Metcalfe in parliament — Metcalfe abroad — visits of Malone and others to him at Brighton — Metcalfe and Jeremy Bentham — Metcalfe and the refugee French clergy — his almshouses at Hawstead — his death, burial, and vast fortune pp. 14—34
His character and parentage — his father's works — his education at St. Paul's school and Trinity college, Cambridge — Warner as vicar of West Ham — his translation of a Spanish romance — his sermons as a popular preacher in a proprietary chapel — abroad with George Selwyn — John Howard the philanthropist — Warner in his "cabin" — his love of cards and dinners — his ride to Scrivelsby — his kindness to distressed friends — lines on "Mie Mie" — abroad as a "spy" for the earl of Carlisle — his free letters — Selwyn's desire to obtain preferment for him and his disappointment — the statue to John Howard — Warner's friendship with Anna Seward, William Hayley, and George Romney — Warner in Sussex — Warner and his friends in Paris — Warner and William Huskisson — Warner and Selwyn's love of executions — his detention in France — his quarrel with Mathias — his dissertation on the pronunciation of Latin — the views of English scholars on it — fresh attack from Mathias — Warner on English ladies and French dinners — his portrait by Meyer — his letters to George Cumberland — his friendship with Home Tooke and the other reformers — His death and will — the youth whom he adopted — his career and rise to be K.C. pp. 35—70
His friendship with theatrical stars — his grandfather, the Chevalier and oculist — the Chevalier's surprising career — the strange memoirs of him — Taylor's father, also an oculist — John Taylor himself, an oculist — his education — Writes for the press — Taylor and the "Morning Post" — Taylor and the "True Briton" — Taylor and the "Sun" — his differences with William Jerdan — their rival advertisements in the paper — eulogy, followed by satire on lord Byron — Byron's letter to Taylor — Jerdan bought out— Taylor's writings for the stage and his poems — his connection with the "Monthly Mirror" — his poem of "Monsieur Tonson" — anecdotes of him by Crabb Robinson, William Hazlitt and Tom Moore — Taylor and the clubs of the day — his "records of my life" and its anecdotes on "everybody" — Boswell triumphs over Pitt's stolidity— Boswell and the proof-sheet of the title-page of his life of Johnson — Taylor's death pp. 71—100
Byron's friends at Cambridge— descent of Scrope Davies — his parentage and family— educated at Eton and King's college, Cambridge — Davies and Byron at the university — two of the jests of Davies — Gronow's estimate of him — his winnings as a gambler — Davies and drink — Davies and Byron in London — Byron dedicates "Parisina" to him — Davies and Hobhouse with Byron on his leaving England — Davies and "gentleman" Jackson, the pugilist— Davies and "beau" Brummell, their correspondence — Davies and Hobhouse visit Byron in Switzerland — Davies and his quarrel with George Lamb — some jests by Davies — Moore and he as guests of Sir Francis Burdett — his quarrel with Hobhouse — Davies cuts his throat six times — his exile — life in Belgium — his projected life of Byron — Davies in France with Tom Raikes and Ball Hughes — his praise of the table d'hote at Rouen — his death at Paris — the supposed relics of Byron —More of the sayings of Davies — errors and omissions about him pp. 101—123
Life at Edinburgh about 1790 — Dugald Stewart and his classes — Seymour's education — his meeting with Anna Seward while calling on the "Maids of Llangollen" — Henry Cockburn's description of him — Seymour and the scientific societies of Edinburgh and London — Seymour and Henry Mackenzie's parties — Seymour studies with Francis Horner — Seymour's travels with Playfair in Scotland and among the Lakes — Seymour and bishop Watson — Seymour in Derbyshire and Cheshire— his visit to Henry Hallam — Seymour in Hampshire — Sydney Smith dedicates his sermons to him — More travels with Playfair — Seymour as a military man — his friendship with Miss Berry — his discovery at the seaside by Ward, lord Dudley — his purchase of a Scotch property — his friendship with the Minto family — His note in Sir Walter Scott's "Rokeby" — his friendship for Thomas Campbell, sir Charles Bell, Washington Irving and others — his decline and death — his character as depicted by his friends — forgotten for many years pp. 124—148
The salons of the literary ladies — literary interest of Claudius Clear and C. K. S. in Lydia White — her parentage — Samuel Rogers meets her at Brighton — Lydia White in Ireland and at Tunbridge Wells — her visits to Sir Walter Scott— "nineteen times nine dyed blue" — her sketches— the Irishman's attempt to impose upon Scott — Lydia White in private theatricals— her friendship with Sir Roderick Murchison and Sir Henry Holland — William Spencer and the authors of the Rejected addresses — Lydia White in Italy — Tom Moore and her parties — descriptions of her by lady Charlotte Bury and the rev. William Harness — her parties as described by lady Charlotte— Lydia White and the chief literary ladies, Mrs. Somerville, Mrs. Marcet and Miss Edgeworth— Lydia White and the poets lord Byron and Bulwer Lytton — her fight against death — She entertains to the last — her death and her will — commemorated by Lytton in "Pelham" — her jests — kindly estimate of her by lady Charlotte Bury and Sir Walter Scott pp. 149—171
The great families of East Anglia in the eighteenth century — parentage and birth of Townshend — A Whig he contests the representation of the university of Cambridge — is defeated, returned, and defeated again — his friendship with Fox — Tickell addresses a poem to him — his triumphant return for Westminster — M.P. for Knaresborough — A mimic and a poet — The Rolliad — Jekyll a political eclogue — his verses in Brummell's note-book — his life in society — his wife and family — his death and his epitaph pp. 172—183