She was very petite and fair, with a sweet benignant countenance that inspired at once admiration and affection.
Almost her first words to me were: "What a pity you did not come ten minutes sooner; for if you had you would have seen Mr.Thomas Campbell, who has just gone away." I was exceedingly sorry to have missed a sight of the author of "Hohenlinden" and the incomparable "Battle of the Baltic," but was quite surprised that he was still seeking much society; for in those days he was lamentably addicted to intoxicants.

On more than one public occasion he was the worse for his cups; and when, after his death, a subscription was started to place his statue in Westminster Abbey, Samuel Rogers, the poet, cynically said, "Yes, I will gladly give twenty pounds any day to see dear old Tom Campbell stand steady on his legs." It is a matter of congratulation that the most eminent men of the Victorian era have not fallen into some of the unhappy habits of their predecessors at the beginning of the last century.

Mrs.Baillie entertained me with lively descriptions of Sir Walter Scott, and of her old friend, Mr.Wordsworth, who was her guest whenever he came up to London.

She expressed the warmest admiration for the moral and political, though not all of the religious, writings of our Dr.
Channing, whom she pronounced the finest essayist of the time.

She also felt a curious interest (which I discovered in many other notable people in England) to learn what she could in regard to our American Indians, and expressed much admiration when I gave her some quotations from the picturesque eloquence of our sons of the forest.
Every American who visited London in those days felt a laudable curiosity to see the young Queen, who had been crowned but four years before.