Item 27 - William Whewell to Julius Charles Hare

4 pp.

WW is meeting two Frenchmen tomorrow one of whom JCH would probably like. His name is Rio and he is a friend of the Malcolms who are enchanted by him. He is a philosopher of the school of [Bunald?], an intimate friend of de Maistre and of Schelling. WW is amused by the reason for his trip to England: 'he holds that the Celts are the only sound part of the French population - the only part which has any religion or any social vitality. From the French Celts the regeneration of France must come if it come at all. But the French Celts are poor, and have been oppressed, and have let some of their Celtic spirit and culture slip away from them. This is to be restored by a reinfusion of Celtic poetry and history. So M. Rio is come to cultivate the Welsh'. Connop Thirlwall's 'lectures are admirable and the men take to them with great earnestness'.