Some of those who were
present estimated the average attendance at three hundred. They
chiefly consisted of persons of rank and wealth, as the number of
carriages which each day waited the conclusion of the lecture to
receive Mr. Carlyle's auditors, and to carry them to their homes,
conclusively testified. The locality of Mr. Carlyle's lectures has, I
believe, varied every year. The Hanover Rooms, Willis's Rooms, and
a place in the north of London, the name of which I forget, have
severally been chosen as the place whence to give utterance to his
profound and original trains of thought.
"A few words will be expected here as to Mr. Carlyle's manner as a
lecturer. In so far as his mere manner is concerned, I can scarcely
bestow on him a word of commendation. There is something in his manner
which, if I may use a rather quaint term, must seem very uncouth to
London audiences of the most respectable class, _accustomed as they
are to the polished deportment[A] which is usually exhibited in
Willis's or the Hanover Rooms_. When he enters the room, and proceeds
to the sort of rostrum whence he delivers his lectures, he is,
according to the usual practice in such cases, generally received
with applause; but he very rarely takes any more notice of the mark
of approbation thus bestowed upon him, than if he were altogether
unconscious of it.
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