Her marriage detached Harriet Grote from the gentry circles in which she had been brought up. The
Philosophical Radicals, who formed George's intellectual and social circle, she found dour, theoretical and irreligious. A number of them were near neighbours in Threadneedle Street, in particular
Jeremy Bentham and
James Mill. There were regular mornings with
Charles Buller,
John Stuart Mill,
Thomas Eyton Tooke and others. An overlapping discussion group on political economy, in which Harriet also joined and which she called the "Brangles", included too
David Ricardo and
John Ramsay McCulloch. Of old friends, and not of interest to George, Harriet retained the Plumers of
Gilston Park;
William Plumer (1736–1822) MP, close to
Lord William Bentinck, was a "distant cousin" of the Lewins, and Lord William and his wife befriended Harriet. Her naval brother Richard John Lewin married in 1825 Plumer's widow Jane, daughter of
George Hamilton, but died after two years. Harriet arranged a small dinner for the purpose of discussion between James Mill and Lord William, shortly before the latter sailed to become
Governor-General of India in 1828. During George Grote's parliamentary period, from 1832 to 1841, Harriet supported him by holding together the party of radical reformers socially. Both Place and
Richard Cobden were under the impression that, had she been a man, she could have emerged as the leader of the Philosophical Radicals. Later, Harriet Grote's social circle was broad: it has been described as "an extensive group of (mainly but not exclusively) liberal and radical intellectuals, politicians, writers and artists." One opinion was that Harriet Grote had a most curious salon, where practically all worlds met, artists as well as savants and politicians, and which was quite assiduously frequented by, among others,
John Stuart Mill,
Carlyle and his wife,
Cornwall Lewis, Sidney Smith, not to mention Thalberg, Lablache, and, during his visits to London, Mendelssohn [...] The wit
Sydney Smith coined "queen of the radicals" for Harriet, but also the unkind quip that she was the origin of the term
grotesque.
The musical world An accomplished musician, Grote cultivated friendly relations with performers including
Jenny Lind.
French connections Thomas Lewin, Harriet's father, was an admirer of French literature. Harriet first visited Paris in 1817. By 1827 she was corresponding on political economy with
Jean Baptiste Say. In May 1830, the Grotes were in Paris, staying also at the
Château de la Grange-Bléneau with
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette. This visit to Lafayette, on a shortened form of an intended journey to
Switzerland, took place with an introduction from
Charles Comte, son-in-law of Say. It was shortly before the
July Revolution: George Grote sent money to support it, through Comte. Harriet from then on cultivated French public men. Thomas Carlyle in the late 1830s described with relish to
Jane Carlyle the process of Charles Buller introducing
Godefroi Cavaignac to her.
George Sand gave her writer friend
Charles Duvernet a detailed briefing on what to say to Harriet on meeting. In 1852, Harriet took a political article in Paris from
Alexis de Tocqueville, on the
1851 French coup d'état, and saw through
Henry Reeve that it was published in London in
The Times. ==Reputation and appearance==