of the Edinburgh reviewer, "meditated muffineers and planned pokers."

This was no praise of party: contemporary criticism universally allowed
_Anastasius_ to be a work in which great and extraordinary talent
is evinced. It abounds in sublime passages--in sense--in knowledge of
history, and in knowledge of human character;--and the rapid sale of
three editions has proved these superior characteristics to have been
amply recognised by the reading public. The work in its fourth edition
still enjoys a good sale. In each reprint the nicety of the writer is
traceable: the corrections and alterations in the metaphysical portions
on such passages as illustrate points of character, are elaborated with
exquisite skill, and fresh turns of scholarly elegance are observable
throughout each volume of the work. Memory has probably in some
instances enabled the author to re-touch his pictures of Eastern
scenery, and rearrange his grouping of particular incidents. What a
delightful labour of leisure must this have been for so ingenious a
mind! One of his similes--a weeping lady's eyes compared to violets
steeped in dew--has never been out of our recollection; and one of his
battle scenes almost makes the reader imagine himself transfixed to the
spot by a weapon of the contest.

Mr. Hope married, in 1806, the Hon. Louisa Beresford, daughter of the
late Lord Decies, Archbishop of Tuam, and sister of the present peer,
by whom he has left three sons, the eldest of whom, Mr. Henry Hope, was
groom of the bedchamber to the late king, and recently took his seat
in parliament for the borough of West Looe. Of their highly-gifted and
accomplished mother we know many amiable traits; and, however bright
may have been her fashionable splendour in high life, it is more than
counterbalanced by her active benevolence in the county, in visiting the
homes and relieving the distresses of the poor of the neighbourhood.