Until then, Murray's drawing-room was the main centre of literary intercourse in that quarter of London.

Men of distinction, from the Continent and America, presented their letters of introduction to Mr.Murray, and were cordially and hospitably entertained by him; meeting, in the course of their visits, many distinguished and notable personages.
In these rooms, early in 1815, young George Ticknor, from Boston, in America, then only twenty-three, met Moore, Campbell, D'Israeli, Gifford, Humphry Davy, and others.

He thus records his impressions of Gifford: "Among other persons, I brought letters to Gifford, the satirist, but never saw him till yesterday.

Never was I so mistaken in my anticipations.

Instead of a tall and handsome man, as I had supposed him from his picture--a man of severe and bitter remarks in conversation, such as I had good reason to believe him from his books, I found him a short, deformed, and ugly little man, with a large head sunk between his shoulders, and one of his eyes turned outward, but withal, one of the best-natured, most open and well-bred gentlemen I have ever met.