Chief among these he mentions Mr.and Mrs.
Cowper-Temple, afterwards Lord and Lady Mount Temple.

The acquaintance with Samuel Rogers, inauspiciously begun many years before, now ripened into something like friendship; Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton) and other men of letters were met at Rogers' breakfasts.

A little later a visit to the Master of Trinity, Whewell, at Cambridge, brought him into contact with Professer Willis, the authority on Gothic architecture, and other notabilities of the sister University.

There also he met Mr.and Mrs.Marshall of Leeds (and Coniston); and he pursued his journey to Lincoln, with Mr.Simpson, whom he had met at Lady Davy's, and to Farnley for a visit to Mr.F.H.Fawkes, the owner of the celebrated collection of Turners (April, 1851).
In London he was acquainted with many of the leading artists and persons interested in art.

Of the "teachers" of the day he was known to men so diverse as Carlyle--and Maurice, with whom he corresponded in 1815 about his "Notes on Sheepfolds"-- and C.H.Spurgeon, to whom his mother was devoted.