In spite of some small irregularities and oddities in the furniture of the house and the arrangements of the establishment—­all of which the Rector habitually and humorously exaggerated—­the Rectory was an extremely comfortable home.  It was so constructed as to be full of air, light, and warmth.  The Rector said of it:—­

    “We are about equal to a second-rate inn, as Mrs. Sydney says; but I
    think myself we are equal to any inn on the North Road, except
    Ferrybridge.”

The larder of this “second-rate inn” was pleasantly supplied by the kindness of faithful friends.

“I am very much obliged to you for sending me the pheasants.  One of my numerous infirmities is a love of eating pheasants.”—­“Many thanks for two fine Gallicia hams; but, as for boiling them in wine, I am not as yet high enough in the Church for that; so they must do the best they can in water.”—­“Lord Tankerville has sent me a whole buck; this necessarily takes up a good deal of my time.  Venison is an interesting subject, which is deemed among the clergy a professional one.”—­“Your grouse are not come by this day’s mail, but I suppose they will come to-morrow.  Even the rumour of grouse is agreeable.”—­“Lord Lauderdale has sent me two hundred and thirty pounds of salt fish.”—­“You have no idea what a number of handsome things were said of you when your six partridges were consumed to-day.  Wit, literature, and polished manners were ascribed to you—­some good quality for each bird.”—­“What is real piety?  What is true attachment to the Church?  How are these fine feelings best evinced?  The answer is plain—­by sending strawberries to a clergyman.  Many thanks.”

To the hostelry, thus well victualled, and called by its owner “The Rector’s Head,” many interesting visitors found their way.  Lord and Lady Holland, Miss Fox, Miss Vernon, Sir James Mackintosh, Sir Humphry Davy, Samuel Rogers, Dr. and Mrs. Marcet, and Francis Jeffrey were among the earliest guests.  “Mrs. Sydney was dreadfully alarmed about her side-dishes the first time Luttrell[73] paid us a visit, and grew pale as the covers were lifted; but they stood the test.  Luttrell tasted and praised.”

The neighbours of whom the Smiths saw most were Lord and Lady Carlisle,[74] who drove over from Castle Howard[75] in a coach-and-four with outriders, and were upset in a ploughed field; their son and daughter-in-law, Lord and Lady Georgiana Morpeth, who with their children made “no mean part of the population of Yorkshire”; and the Archbishop of York, who became one of the Smiths’ kindest and most faithful friends.  Every year Sydney paid a visit to London, receiving the warmest of welcomes from all his old associates.  In 1821 he revisited his friends at Edinburgh, and going or coming he visited Lord Grey at Howick, Lord Tankerville at Chillingham, Lord Lauderdale at Dunbar, and Mr. Lambton, afterwards Lord Durham, at Lambton.  At Chillingham he duly admired the beef supplied by the famous herd of wild cattle, but he admired still more the magnificent novelty of gas at Lambton.—­