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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/8825-8.txt b/8825-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1792d92 --- /dev/null +++ b/8825-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10237 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life And Letters Of Maria Edgeworth, Vol. 1 +by Maria Edgeworth + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Life And Letters Of Maria Edgeworth, Vol. 1 + +Author: Maria Edgeworth + +Editor: Augustus J. C. Hare + +Release Date: September, 2005 [EBook #8825] +[This file was first posted on August 13, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARIA EDGEWORTH, VOL. 1 *** + + + + +E-text prepared by Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders + + + +THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF + +MARIA EDGEWORTH + +VOL. I + +Edited By + +AUGUSTUS J.C. HARE + + + + + + + +PREFACE + + +In her later years Miss Edgeworth was often asked to write a +biographical preface to her novels. She refused. "As a woman," she said, +"my life, wholly domestic, can offer nothing of interest to the public." +Incidents indeed, in that quiet happy home existence, there were none to +narrate, nothing but the ordinary joys and sorrows which attend every +human life. Yet the letters of one so clear-sighted and sagacious--one +whom Macaulay considered to be the second woman of her age--are +valuable, not only as a record of her times, and of many who were +prominent figures in them: but from the picture they naturally give of a +simple, honest, generous, high-minded character, filled from youth to +age with love and goodwill to her fellow-creatures, and a desire for +their highest good. An admirable collection of Miss Edgeworth's letters +was printed after her death by her stepmother and lifelong friend, but +only for private circulation. As all her generation has long since +passed away, Mr. Edgeworth of Edgeworthstown now permits that these +letters should be read beyond the limits of the family circle. An editor +has had little more to do than to make a selection, and to write such a +thread of biography as might unite the links of the chain. + +AUGUSTUS J.C. HARE. + + + + +MARIA EDGEWORTH + + +In the flats of the featureless county of Longford stands the large and +handsome but unpretentious house of Edgeworthstown. The scenery here has +few natural attractions, but the loving care of several generations has +gradually beautified the surroundings of the house, and few homes have +been more valued or more the centre round which a large family circle +has gathered in unusual sympathy and love. In his _Memoirs_, Mr. +Edgeworth tells us how his family, which had given a name to Edgeworth, +now Edgeware, near London, came to settle in Ireland more than three +hundred years ago. Roger Edgeworth, a monk, having taken advantage of +the religious changes under Henry VIII., had married and left two sons, +who, about 1583, established themselves in Ireland. Of these, Edward, +the elder, became Bishop of Down and Connor, and died without children; +but the younger, Francis, became the founder of the family of +Edgeworthstown. Always intensely Protestant, often intensely +extravagant, each generation of the Edgeworth family afterwards had its +own picturesque story, till Richard Edgeworth repaired the broken +fortunes of his house, partly by success as a lawyer, partly by his +marriage, in 1732, with Jane Lovell, daughter of a Welsh judge. + +Their eldest son, Richard Lovell Edgeworth, was born in 1744, and +educated in his boyhood at Drogheda School and Dublin University. +Strong, handsome, clever, ingenious, and devoted to sports of every +kind, he was a general favourite. But his high spirits often led him +into scrapes. The most serious of these occurred during the festivities +attendant on his eldest sister's marriage with Mr. Fox of Fox Hall, at +which he played at being married to a young lady who was present, by one +of the guests dressed up in a white cloak, with a door-key for a ring. +This foolish escapade would not deserve the faintest notice, if it had +not been seriously treated as an actual marriage by a writer in the +_Quarterly Review._ + +In 1761 Richard Edgeworth was removed from Dublin to Corpus Christi +College at Oxford. There he arrived, regretting the gaieties of Dublin, +and anxious to make the most of any little excitements which his new +life could offer. Amongst the introductions he brought with him was one +to Mr. Paul Elers, who, himself of German extraction, had made a +romantic marriage with Miss Hungerford, the heiress of Black Bourton in +Oxfordshire. Mr. Elers honourably warned Mr. Edgeworth, who was an old +friend of his, that he had four daughters who were very pretty, and that +his friend had better be careful, as their small fortunes would scarcely +fit one of them to be the wife of his son. But the elder Mr. Edgeworth +took no notice--Richard was constantly at Black Bourton; and in 1763, +being then only nineteen, he fled with Miss Anna Maria Elers to Gretna +Green, where they were married. Great as was Mr. Edgeworth's +displeasure, he wisely afterwards had the young couple remarried by +license. + +The union turned out unhappily. "I soon felt the inconveniences of an +early and hasty marriage," wrote the bridegroom; "but, though I heartily +repented my folly, I determined to bear with firmness and temper the +evil which I had brought on myself." His eldest child, Richard, was born +before he was twenty; his second, Maria, when he was twenty-four. Though +he became master of Edgeworthstown by the death of his father in 1769, +he for some years lived chiefly at Hare Hatch, near Maidenhead. Here he +already began to distract his attention from an ungenial home by the +endless plans for progress in agriculture and industry, and the +disinterested schemes for the good of Ireland, which always continued to +be the chief occupation of his life. It was his inventive genius which +led to his paying a long visit to Lichfield to see Dr. Darwin. There he +lingered long in pleasant intimacy with the doctor and his wife, with +Mr. Wedgwood, Miss Anna Seward--"the Swan of Lichfield"--and still more, +with the eccentric Thomas Day, author of _Sandford and Merton_, who +became his most intimate friend, and who wished to marry his favourite +sister Margaret, though she could not make up her mind to accept him, +and eventually became the wife of Mr. Ruxton of Black Castle. With Mrs. +Seward and her daughters lived at that time--partly for educational +purposes--Honora Sneyd, a beautiful and gifted girl, who had rejected +the addresses of the afterwards famous Major André, and who now also +refused those of Mr. Day. "In Honora Sneyd," wrote Mr. Edgeworth, "I saw +for the first time in my life a woman that equalled the picture of +perfection existing in my imagination. And then my not being happy at +home exposed me to the danger of being too happy elsewhere." When he +began to feel as if the sunshine of his life emanated from his +friendship with Miss Sneyd, he was certain flight was the only safety. +So leaving Mrs. Edgeworth and her little girls with her mother, he made +his escape to France, only taking with him his boy, whom he determined +to educate according to the system of Rousseau. Then, for two years, he +remained at Lyons, employing his inventive and mechanical powers in +building bridges. + +Meantime, the early childhood of Maria Edgeworth, who was born, 1st +January 1767, in the house of her grandfather, Mr. Elers, at Black +Bourton, was spent almost entirely with relations in Oxfordshire, or +with her maternal great-aunts, the Misses Blake, in Great Russell Street +in London. It was in their house that her neglected and unloved +mother--always a kind and excellent, though a very sad woman--died after +her confinement of a third daughter (Anna) in 1773. On hearing of what +he considered to be his release, Mr. Edgeworth hurried back at once to +England, and, before four months were over, he was married to Miss +Honora Sneyd, whose assent to so hasty a marriage would scarcely prepare +those who were unacquainted with her for the noble, simple, and faithful +way in which she ever fulfilled the duties of a wife and stepmother. The +son of the first marriage, Richard Edgeworth, went, by his own choice, +to sea, but the three little girls, Maria, Emmeline, and Anna, returned +with their father and stepmother to Edgeworthstown, where they had a +childhood of unclouded happiness. + +In 1775 Maria Edgeworth, being then eight years old, was sent to a +school at Derby, kept by Mrs. Lataffiere, to whom she always felt much +indebted, though her stepmother, then in very failing health, continued +to take part in her education by letter. + + +MRS. HONORA EDGEWORTH _to_ MARIA. + +BEIGHTERTON, NEAR SHIFFNALL, + +_Oct. 10, 1779._ + +I have received your letter, and I thank you for it, though I assure you +I did not expect it. I am particularly desirous you should be convinced +of this, as I _told_ you I would write first. It is in vain to attempt +to please a person who will not tell us what they _do_ and what they do +_not_ desire; but as I tell you very fully what I think may be expected +from a girl of your age, abilities, and education, I assure you, my dear +Maria, you may entirely depend upon me, that as long as I have the use +of my understanding, I shall not be displeased with you for omitting +anything which I had before told you I did not expect. Perhaps you may +not quite understand what I mean, for I have not expressed myself +clearly. If you do not, I will explain myself to you when we meet; for +it is very agreeable to me to think of conversing with you as my equal +in every respect but age, and of my making that inequality of use to you +by giving you the advantage of the experience I have had, and the +observations I have been able to make, as these are parts of knowledge +which nothing but time can bestow. + + * * * * * + +In the spring of 1780 Mrs. Honora Edgeworth died of consumption, leaving +an only son, Lovell, and a daughter, Honora. Mr. Edgeworth announced +this--which to her was a most real sorrow--to his daughter Maria in a +very touching letter, in which he urges her to follow her lost +stepmother's example, especially in endeavouring to be "amiable, +prudent, and _of use;_" but within eight months he married again. Mrs. +Honora Edgeworth, when dying, had been certain that he would do so, and +had herself indicated her own sister Elizabeth as the person whose +character was most likely to secure a happy home to him and his +children. So, with his usual singularity, though he liked her less than +any of her other sisters, and though he believed her utterly unsuited to +himself, he followed the advice which had been given, and in spite of +law and public opinion, Elizabeth Sneyd became the third Mrs. Edgeworth +within eight months of her sister's death. + + * * * * * + +Nothing (wrote Mr. Edgeworth) is more erroneous than the common belief +that a man who has lived in the greatest happiness with one wife will be +the most averse to take another. On the contrary, the loss of happiness +which he feels when he loses her necessarily urges him to endeavour to +be again placed in the situation which constituted his former felicity. + +I felt that Honora had judged wisely and from a thorough knowledge of my +character, when she advised me to marry again as soon as I could meet +with a woman who would make a good mother to my children, and an +agreeable companion to me. She had formed an idea that her sister +Elizabeth was better suited to me than any other woman, and thought I +was equally suited to her. But, of all Honora's sisters, I had seen the +least of Elizabeth. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Elizabeth Edgeworth proved herself worthy of her sister's +confidence. She was soon adored by her stepchildren, and her conduct to +them was in all respects maternal. Maria at this time was removed from +Bath to the school of Mrs. Davis, in Upper Wimpole Street, London, where +she had excellent masters. Here her talent as an improvisatrice was +first manifested in the tales she used to tell to her companions in +their bedroom at night. She also, by his desire, frequently wrote +stories and sent them for her father's criticism and approval. During +holidays which she often spent with his old friend Mr. Day at Anningsly, +she benefited by an admirable library and by Mr. Day's advice as to her +reading. + +In 1782 Mr. and Mrs. Edgeworth returned to Ireland, taking the whole +family with them. Maria was now fifteen, and was old enough to be +interested in all the peculiarities of the Irish as contrasted with the +English character, soon showing such natural aptitude for dealing with +those around her, that her father entrusted her with all his accounts, +and practically employed her as his agent for many years. Thus she +obtained an insight into the lives and characters of her humbler +neighbours, which was of inestimable value to her, when afterwards +writing her sketches of Irish life. She already began to plan many +stories, most of which were never finished. But Mr. Edgeworth +discouraged this. In the last year of her life Miss Edgeworth wrote: "I +remember a number of literary projects, if I may so call them, or +_aperçus_ of things which I might have written if I had time or capacity +so to do. The word _aperçu_ my father used to object to. 'Let us have +none of your _aperçus_, Maria: either follow a thing out clearly to a +conclusion, or do not begin it: begin nothing without finishing it.'" + +Building and planting, alterations and improvements of every kind at +Edgeworthstown were at once begun by Mr. Edgeworth, but always within +his income. He also made two rules: he employed no middlemen, and he +always left a year's rent in his tenants' hands. "Go before Mr. +Edgeworth, and you will surely get justice," became a saying in the +neighbourhood. + + * * * * * + +Some men live with their families without letting them know their +affairs (wrote Miss Edgeworth), and, however great may be their +affection and esteem for their wives and children, think that they have +nothing to do with business. This was not my father's way of thinking. +On the contrary, not only his wife, but his children, knew all his +affairs. Whatever business he had to do was done in the midst of his +family, usually in the common sitting-room; so that we were intimately +acquainted, not only with his general principles of conduct, but with +the minute details of their everyday application. I further enjoyed some +peculiar advantages: he kindly wished to give me habits of business; and +for this purpose allowed me, during many years, to assist him in copying +his letters of business, and in receiving his rents. + + * * * * * + +With the younger children Mr. Edgeworth's educational system was of the +most cheerful kind; they were connected with all that was going on, made +sharers in all the occupations of their elders, and not so much taught +as shown how best to teach themselves. "I do not think one tear per +month is shed in this house, nor the voice of reproof heard, nor the +hand of restraint felt," wrote Mr. Edgeworth to Dr. Darwin. Both in +precept and practice he was the first to recommend what is described by +Bacon as the experimental mode of education. "Surely," says Miss +Edgeworth, "it would be doing good service to bring into a popular form +all that metaphysicians have discovered which can be applied to practice +in education. This was early and long my father's object. The art of +teaching to invent--I dare not say, but of awakening and assisting the +inventive power by daily exercise and excitement, and by the application +of philosophic principles to trivial occurrences--he believed might be +pursued with infinite advantage to the rising generation." + +Maria Edgeworth found very congenial society in the family of her +relation, Lord Longford, at Pakenham, which was twelve miles from +Edgeworthstown, and in that of Lord Granard, at Castle Forbes, nine +miles distant. Lady Granard's mother, Lady Moira, full of wit and +wisdom, and with great nobility of character, would pour out her rich +stores of reminiscence for the young girl with ceaseless kindness. But +more than any other was her life influenced, helped, cheered, and +animated by the love of her father's sister Margaret, Mrs. Ruxton, the +intimate friend and correspondent of forty-two years, whose home, Black +Castle, was within a long drive of Edgeworthstown. Mrs. Ruxton's three +children--Richard, Sophy, and Margaret--were Maria Edgeworth's dearest +companions and friends. + +The great love which Miss Edgeworth always felt for children was tried +and developed to its fullest extent in the ever increasing family +circle. Mrs. Elizabeth Edgeworth added nine more brothers and sisters to +the group of six which already existed; the eldest of them, Henry, born +in 1782, was entrusted to Maria's especial care. + + * * * * * + +MARIA _to_ MISS CHARLOTTE SNEYD. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Dec. 9, 1787._ + +I think, my dear Aunt Charlotte, I did not know till Henry returned to +us after his six weeks' absence, how very agreeable even a child of his +age can make himself, but I am sure that his journey has been productive +of so much pleasure to me from the kindness and approbation you have +shown, and has left on my mind so full a conviction of your skill in the +art of education, that I should part with Henry again to-morrow with +infinitely more security and satisfaction than I did two months ago. I +was really surprised to see with what ease and alacrity little Henry +returned to all his former habits and occupations, and the very slight +change that appeared in his manner or mind; nothing seemed strange to +him in anything, or anybody about him. When he spoke of you to us he +seemed to think that we were all necessarily connected in all our +commands and wishes, that we were all one _whole_--one great polypus +soul. I hope my father will tell you himself how much he liked your +letter, "the overflowings of a full mind, not the froth of an empty +one." + + * * * * * + +In 1790 the family group was first broken by the death from consumption, +at fifteen, of Honora, the beautiful only daughter of Mrs. Honora +Edgeworth. + + * * * * * + +MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Feb. 11, 1790._ + +Your friendship, my dear Aunt Ruxton, has, I am sure, considerably +alleviated the anguish of mind my father has had to feel, and your +letter and well-deserved praise of my dear mother's fortitude and +exertion were a real pleasure to her. She has indeed had a great deal to +bear, and I think her health has suffered, but I hope not materially. In +my father's absence, she ordered everything, did everything, felt +everything herself. Unless, my dear aunt, you had been present during +the last week of dear Honora's sufferings, I think you could not form an +idea of anything so terrible or so touching. Such extreme fortitude, +such affection, such attention to the smallest feelings of others, as +she showed on her deathbed! + +My father has carefully kept his mind occupied ever since his return, +but we cannot help seeing his feelings at intervals. He has not slept +for two or three nights, and is, I think, far from well to-day. + +He said the other day, speaking of Honora, "My dear daughters, I promise +you one thing, I never will reproach any of you with Honora. I will +never reproach you with any of her virtues." There could not be a kinder +or more generous promise, but I could not help fearing that my father +should refrain from speaking of her too much, and that it would hurt his +mind. He used to say it was a great relief to him to talk of my mother +Honora. + + * * * * * + +In the summer of 1791 Mr. and Mrs. Edgeworth went to England, leaving +Maria in sole charge of the large family at home. She used to amuse her +young sisters at this time by stories, which she would write on a slate +during the leisure moments her many occupations permitted, and which she +would read aloud to them in the evening. By their interest or questions +she estimated the stories, which became the foundation of _The Parent's +Assistant._ When her father was with her she always wrote a sketch of an +intended story, and submitted it to his approval, being invariably +guided by his advice. In October Maria was desired to follow her parents +to Clifton, bringing nearly all the children with her, a formidable +undertaking for a young girl in those days of difficult travelling. + + * * * * * + +MARIA _to_ MRS. RUXTON, AFTER RETURNING FROM A VISIT TO BLACK CASTLE. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN. _October 1791._ + +My dear mother is safe and well, and a fine new sister, I suppose you +have heard. My very dear aunt, since the moment I came home till this +instant my hands have trembled, and my head whirled with business, but +the delightful hope of seeing my dear father and mother at Bristol is in +fine perspective at the end. My father has just written the kindest +letter possible, and Emmeline is transcribing his directions about our +journey. We are to set off as soon as we can--on Tuesday morning next, I +believe, for my father is extremely impatient for us to come over. I +write by this night's post to Mr. Hanna, to take lodgings for us in +Dublin, and we are, as you will see, to go by Holyhead. As to coming +round by Black Castle, it is out of the question. For everybody's sake +but my own, I regret this: for my own I do not, the few hours I should +have to spend in your company would not, my dearest aunt, balance the +pain of parting with you all again, which I did feel thoroughly, and if +I had not had the kindest friends and the fullest occupation the moment +I came home, I should have been in the lamentables a long time. Tell my +dear uncle I never shall forget the kindness of his manner towards me +during the whole of my stay at Black Castle, and the belief that he +thinks well of his little niece adds much to her happiness, perhaps to +her vanity, which he will say there was no occasion to increase. And +now, dear Sophy, for your _roaring blade_, Thomas Day, Esq., [Footnote: +This little brother was born the day before the Edgeworth family +received the news of the sudden death of their old friend Mr. Day in +1789.] he is in readiness to wait upon you whenever you can, and will +have the charity to receive him. Name the day, my dear aunt, which will +be the least inconvenient if you can, and Molly or John Langan shall +bring him in the old or new chaise to your door, where I hope he will +not salute you with a cry, but if he does do not be surprised. + +You see, my dear aunt, that I am in a great hurry by my writing, but no +hurry, believe me, can drive out of my mind the remembrance of all the +kindness I received at Black Castle. Oh, continue to love your niece; +you cannot imagine the pleasure she felt when you kissed her, and said +you loved her a thousand times better than ever you did before. + + +MR. SMITH'S, HOLYHEAD, + +_Friday Morning._ + +We are this instant arrived, my dear aunt, after a thirty-three hours' +passage; all the children safe and well, but desperately sick; poor +little Sneyd especially. The packet is just returning, and my head is so +giddy that I scarcely know what I write, but you will only expect a few +shabby lines to say we are not drowned. Mr. Ussher Edgeworth [Footnote: +Brother to the Abbé Edgeworth, who resided in Dublin.] and my Aunt Fox's +servant saw us on board, and Mr. E. was so very good to come in the +wherry with us and see us into the ship. We had the whole cabin to +ourselves; no passenger, except one gentleman, son-in-law to Mr. Dawson, +of Ardee, he was very civil to us, and assisted us much in landing, etc. +I felt, besides, very glad to see one who knew anything even of the name +of Ruxton. Adíeu, my dear aunt; all the sick pale figures around me with +faint voices send their love to you and my uncle. + + +MARIA _to_ MR. RUXTON. + +PRINCE'S BUILDINGS, CLIFTON, + +_Dec. 29, 1791._ + +My Dear Uncle--If you are going to the canal put this letter in your +pocket, and do not be troubled in your conscience about reading it, but +keep it till you are perfectly at leisure: for I have nothing strange or +new to tell you. We live just the same kind of life that we used to do +at Edgeworthstown; and though we move amongst numbers, are not moved by +them, but feel independent of them for our daily amusement. All the +_phantasmas_ I had conjured up to frighten myself, vanished after I had +been here a week, for I found that they were but phantoms of my +imagination, as you very truly told me. We live very near the Downs, +where we have almost every day charming walks, and all the children go +bounding about over hill and dale along with us. My aunt told me that +once when you were at Clifton, when full dressed to go to a ball at +Bath, you suddenly changed your mind, and undressed again, to go out a +walking with her, and now that I see the walks, I am not surprised, even +if you were not to have had the pleasure of my aunt's company. My father +has got a _transfer_ of a ticket for the Bristol library, which is an +extremely fine one; and what makes it appear ten times finer is, that it +is very difficult for strangers to get into. From thence he can get +almost any book for us he pleases, except a few of the most scarce, +which are by the laws of the library immovable. No ladies go to the +library, but Mr. Johns, the librarian, is very civil, and my mother went +to his rooms and saw the beautiful prints in Boydell's Shakespear. +Lavater is to come home in a coach to-day. My father seems to think much +the same of him that you did when you saw him abroad, that to some +genius he adds a good deal of the mountebank. My father is going soon to +Bath, Madame de Genlis is there, and he means to present the translation +of _Adele and Theodore_ to her: [Footnote: Maria Edgeworth, by her +father's advice, had made a translation of _Adèle et Théodore_ in 1782, +but the appearance of Holcroft's translation prevented its publication.] +he had intended to have had me introduced to her, but upon inquiry he +was informed that she is not visited by demoiselles in England. + +For some time I kept a Bristol journal, which I intended to send to +Black Castle in form of a newspaper, but I found that though every day's +conversation and occurrences appeared of prodigious importance just at +the moment they were passing, yet afterwards they seemed so flat and +stale as not to be worth sending. I must however tell you that I had +materials for one brilliant paragraph about the Duchess of York. Mr. +Lloyd had seen the wondrous sight. "When she was to be presented to the +Queen, H.R.H. kept Her Majesty waiting nearly an hour, till at last the +Queen, fearing that some accident had happened, sent to let the Duchess +know that she was waiting for her. When the Duchess at length arrived, +she was so frightened--for a Royal Duchess can be frightened as well as +another--that she trembled and tottered in crossing the presence chamber +so that she was obliged to be supported. She is very timid, and never +once raised her eyes, so that our correspondent cannot speak decidedly +as to the expression of her countenance, but if we may be allowed to say +so, she is not a beauty, and is very low. She was dressed in white and +gold," etc. etc. + +The children all desire their love: they were playing the other day at +going to Black Castle, and begged me to be Aunt Ruxton, which I assured +them I would if I could; but they insisted on my _being_ Sophy, Letty, +and Margaret at the same time, and were not quite contented at my +pleading this to be out of my power. + + +_To_ MISS SOPHY RUXTON. + +CLIFTON, _March 9, 1792._ + +I wish, my dear Sophy, that you could know how often I think of you and +wish for you, whenever we see or hear anything that I imagine you would +like. How does your ward go on? My mother desires me to say the kindest +things to you, and assure yourself, my dear Sophy, that when my mother +says the kindest, they are always at the same time the truest. She is +not a person ever to forget a favour, and the care and trouble you are +now bestowing on little Thomas Day will be remembered probably after you +have forgotten it. But my father interrupts me at this moment, to say +that if I am writing to Sophy I must give him some room at the end, so I +shall leave off my fine speeches. We spend our time very agreeably here, +and have in particular great choice of books. I don't think the children +are quite as happy here as they used to be at home, it is impossible +they should be, for they have neither the same occupations nor liberty. +It is however "restraint that sweetens liberty," and the joy they show +when they run upon the Downs, hunting fossils, and clambering, is indeed +very great. Henry flatters himself that he shall some time or other have +the pleasure of exhibiting his collection to Cousin Sophy, and rehearses +frequently in the character of showman. Dr. Darwin has been so good as +to send him several fossils, etc., with their names written upon them, +and he is every day adding to his little stock of _larning._ There is a +very sensible man here who has also made him presents of little things +which he values much, and he begins to _mess_ a great deal with gums, +camphor, etc. He will at least never come under Dr. Darwin's definition +of a fool. "A fool, Mr. Edgeworth, you know, is a man who never tried an +experiment in his life." My father tells me that Henry has acquired a +taste for improving himself, and that all he has now to fear is my taste +for improving him. + +We went the other day to see a collection of natural curiosities at a +Mr. Broderip's, of Bristol, which entertained us very much. My father +observed he had but very few butterflies, and he said, "No, sir, a +circumstance which happened to me some time ago, determined me never to +collect any more butterflies. I caught a most beautiful butterfly, +thought I had killed it, and ran a pin through its body to fasten it to +a cork: a _fortnight_ afterward I happened to look in the box where I +had left it, and I saw it writhing in agony: since that time I have +never destroyed another." + +My father has just returned from Dr. Darwin's, where he has been nearly +three weeks: they were extremely kind, and pressed him very much to take +a house in or near Derby for the summer. He has been, as Dr. Darwin +expressed it, "breathing the breath of life into the brazen lungs of a +clock" which he had made at Edgeworthstown as a present for him. He saw +the first part of Dr. Darwin's _Botanic Garden_; £900 was what his +bookseller gave him for the whole! On his return from Derby, my father +spent a day with Mr. Keir, the great chemist, at Birmingham: he was +speaking to him of the late discovery of fulminating silver, with which +I suppose your ladyship is well acquainted, though it be new to Henry +and me. A lady and gentleman went into a laboratory where a few grains +of fulminating silver were lying in a mortar: the gentleman, as he was +talking, happened to stir it with the end of his cane, which was tipped +with iron,--the fulminating silver exploded instantly, and blew the +lady, the gentleman, and the whole laboratory to pieces! Take care how +you go into laboratories with gentlemen, unless they are like Sir Plume +skilled in the "nice conduct" of their canes. + +Have you seen any of the things that have been lately published about +the negroes? We have just read a very small pamphlet of about ten pages, +merely an account of the facts stated to the House of Commons. +Twenty-five thousand people in England have absolutely left off eating +West India sugar, from the hope that when there is no longer any demand +for sugar the slaves will not be so cruelly treated. Children in several +schools have given up sweet things, which is surely very benevolent; +though whether it will at all conduce to the end proposed is perhaps +wholly uncertain, and in the meantime we go on eating apple pies +sweetened with sugar instead of with honey. At Mr. Keir's, however, my +father avers that he ate excellent custards sweetened with honey. Will +it not be rather hard upon the poor bees in the end? + +Mrs. Yearsly, the milkwoman, whose poems I daresay my aunt has seen, +lives very near us at Clifton: we have never seen her, and probably +never shall, for my father is so indignant against her for her +ingratitude to her benefactress, Miss Hannah More, that he thinks she +deserves to be treated with _neglect._ She was dying, absolutely +expiring with hunger, when Miss More found her. Her mother was a +washerwoman, and washed for Miss More's family; by accident, in a +tablecloth which was sent to her was left a silver spoon, which Mrs. +Yearsly returned. Struck with this instance of honesty, which was +repeated to her by the servants, Miss More sent for her, discovered her +distress and her genius, and though she was extremely eager in preparing +some of her own works for the press, she threw them all aside to correct +Mrs. Yearsly's poems, and obtained for her a subscription of £600. In +return, Mrs. Yearsly accused her of having defrauded her, of having been +actuated only by vanity in bringing her abilities to light--a new +species of vanity from one authoress to another--in short, abused her in +the basest and most virulent manner. Would you go to see Mrs. Yearsly? + +Lo! I have almost filled the Bristol Chronicle, and have yet much that I +wish to say to you, dear Sophy, and that I could tell you in one +half-hour, talking at my usual rate of nine miles an hour: when that +will be, it is impossible to tell. My mother is now getting better. All +the children are perfectly well: Bessy's eyes are not inflamed: +Charlotte _est faite à peindre et plus encore à aimer_, if that were +French. + + * * * * * + +Little Thomas Day Edgeworth died at the age of three, whilst he was in +the care of the Ruxtons, and about the same time Maria Edgeworth's own +brother Richard, who had paid a long visit to his family at Clifton, +returned to North Carolina, where he had married and was already a +father. + + * * * * * + +MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MISS RUXTON. + +ASHTON BOWER, CLIFTON, _August 14, 1792._ + +Last Saturday my poor brother Richard took leave of us to return to +America. He has gone up to London with my father and mother, and is to +sail from thence. We could not part with him without great pain and +regret, for he made us all extremely fond of him. I wish my dear aunt +could have seen him; he was very sensible of her kindness, and longed to +have a letter from her. He is to come over in '95. Emmeline is still +with Lady Holt and Mrs. Bracebridge, at Atherstone, in Warwickshire. +Miss Bracebridge, grand-daughter to Lady Holt, is a very agreeable +companion to my sister, though some years younger, and she enjoys the +society at Atherstone very much. They are most unwilling to part with +her; but now she has been absent two months, and we all begin to _growl_ +for her return, especially now that my brother is gone, who was "in +himself a host." + +I am engaged to go in October to pay a visit to Mrs. Charles Hoare. I +believe you may remember my talking to you of this lady, and my telling +you that she was my friend at school,[Footnote: Miss Robinson.] and had +corresponded with me since. She was at Lisbon when we first came to +England, and I thought I had little prospect of seeing her, but the +moment she returned to England she wrote to me in the kindest and most +pressing manner to beg I would come to her. Immediately after this, I +dare not add that she is a most amiable and sensible woman, lest Sophy +should exclaim, "Ah! vanity! because she likes you, Mademoiselle Marie!" + +My uncle, William Sneyd, whom I believe you saw at Edgeworthstown, has +just been with us for three weeks, and in that time filled five quires +of paper with dried plants from the neighbouring rocks. He says there is +at Clifton the richest harvest for botanists. How I wish you were here +to reap it. Henry and I will collect anything that we are informed is +worthy of your Serene Highness's collection. There is a species of +cistus which grows on S. Vincent's rock, which is not, I am told, to be +found in any other part of England. Helpless as I am and scoffed at in +these matters, I will contrive to get some of it for you. A shoemaker +showed us a tortoise shell which he had for sale. I wished to have +bought it for La Sophie, but upon inquiry I found it could not be had +for less than a guinea; now I thought at the utmost it would not give +Sophy above half a crown's worth of pleasure, so I left the shoemaker in +quiet possession of his African tortoise. He had better fortune with two +shells, admirals, which he sold to Lady Valentia for three guineas. + +We begin to be hungry for letters. The children all desire their love to +you; Charlotte is very engaging, and promises to be handsome; Sneyd _is_ +and promises everything; Henry will, I think, through life always do +more than he promises; little Honora is a sprightly blue-eyed child, at +nurse with a woman who is the picture of health and simplicity, in a +beautiful romantic cottage, just such a cottage as you would imagine for +the residence of health and simplicity. Lovell is perfectly well, and +desires his kind love to you. Dr. Darwin has paid him very handsome +compliments in his lines on the Barbarini vase, in the first part of the +_Botanic Garden_, which my father has just got. + +Has my aunt seen the _Romance of the Forest_? It has been the +fashionable novel here, everybody read and talked of it; we were much +interested in some parts of it. It is something in the style of the +_Castle of Otranto_, and the horrible parts are we thought well worked +up, but it is very difficult to keep Horror breathless with his mouth +wide open through three volumes. + +Adieu, my dear Sophy: do not let my aunt forget me, for I love her very +much; and as for yourself, take care not to think too highly of Cousin +Maria, but see her faults with indulgence, and you will I think find her +a steady and affectionate friend. + + +_To_ MISS S. RUXTON. + +FLEET STREET, LONDON, + +_October 17, 1792._ + +I have been with Mrs. Charles Hoare a week, and before I left Clifton +had a budget in my head for a letter to you, which I really had not a +moment's time to write. I left them all very well, just going to leave +Ashton Bower, which I am not sorry for, though it has such a pretty +romantic name; it is not a fit Bower to live in in winter, it is so cold +and damp. They are going to Prince's Place again, and I daresay will fix +there for the winter, though my father has talked of Bath and Plymouth. + +I find in half-rubbed-out notes in my pocket-book, "Sophy--Slave-ship: +Sophy--Rope-walk: Sophy--Marine acid: Sophy--Earthquake: +Sophy--Glasshouse," etc.: and I intended to tell you _à la longue_ of +these. + +We went on board a slave-ship with my brother, and saw the dreadfully +small hole in which the poor slaves are stowed together, so that they +cannot stir. But probably you know all this. + +Mrs. Hoare was at Lisbon during two slight shocks of an earthquake; she +says the night was remarkably fine, there was no unwholesome feeling +that she can remember in the air, immediately preceding the shock: but +they were sitting with the windows open down to the ground, looking at +the clearness of the sky, when they felt the shock. The doors and +windows, and all the furniture in the room shook for a few instants: +they looked at one another in silent terror. But in another instant +everything was still, and they came to the use of their voices. Numbers +of exaggerated accounts were put into the public papers, and she +received vast numbers of terrified letters from her friends in England. +So much for the earthquake. The marine acid I must leave till I have my +father at my elbow, lest in my great wisdom I should set you wrong. + +About the glasshouse: there is one Stephens, an Englishman, who has set +up a splendid glasshouse at Lisbon, and the Government have granted him +a pine wood sixteen miles in extent to supply his glasshouse with fuel. +He has erected a theatre for his workmen, supplied them with scenes, +dresses, etc.; and they have acquired such a taste for theatrical +amusements, that it has conquered their violent passion for drinking +which formerly made them incapable of work three days in the week; now +they work as hard as possible, and amuse themselves for one day in the +week. + +Of the beauty of the Tagus, and its golden sands, and the wolves which +Mrs. Hoare had the satisfaction of seeing hunted, I must speak when I +see you. Mrs. Hoare is as kind as possible to me, and I spend my time at +Roehampton as I like: in London that is not entirely possible. We have +only come up to town for a few days. Mr. Hoare's house at Roehampton is +an excellent one indeed: a library with nice books, small tables upon +castors, low sofas, and all the other things which make rooms +comfortable. Lady Hoare, his mother, is said to be a very amiable, +sensible woman: I have seen her only once, but I was much entertained at +her house at Barnelms, looking at the pictures. I saw Zeluco's figure in +Le Brun's "Massacre of the Innocents." My aunt will laugh, and think +that I am giving myself great airs when I talk of being entertained +looking at pictures; but assure her that I remember what she used to say +about taste, and that without affectation I have endeavoured to look at +everything worth seeing. + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +STANHOPE STREET, LONDON, + +_Nov. 6, '92._ + +I left Roehampton yesterday, and took leave of my friend Mrs. Charles +Hoare, with a high opinion of her abilities, and a still higher opinion +of her goodness. She was exceedingly kind to me, and I spent most of my +time with her as I liked: I say most, because a good deal of it was +spent in company where I heard of nothing but chariots and horses, and +curricles and tandems. Oh, to what contempt I exposed myself in a +luckless hour by asking what a tandem was! I am going in a few days to +meet Mrs. Powys at Bath. Since I have been away from home I have missed +the society and fondness of my father, mother, and sisters more than I +can express, and more than beforehand I should have thought possible: I +long to see them all again. Even when I am most amused I feel a void, +and now I understand what an aching void is, perfectly well. You know +they are going back to Prince's Buildings to the nice house we had last +winter; and Emmeline writes me word that the great red puddle which we +used to call the Red Sea, and which we were forced to wade through +before we could get to the Downs, will not this winter be so terrible, +for my father has made a footpath for his "host." + + +CLIFTON, _Dec. 13, '92._ + +(The day we received yours.) + +The day of retribution is at hand, my dear aunt: the month of May will +soon come, and then, when we meet face to face, and voucher to voucher, +it shall be truly seen whose letter-writing account stands fullest and +fairest in the world. Till then, "we'll leave it all to your honour's +honour." But why does my dear aunt write, "I can have but little more +time to spend with my brother in my life," [Footnote: Mrs. Ruxton lived +thirty-nine years after this letter was written.] as if she was an old +woman of one hundred and ninety-nine and upwards? I remember, the day I +left Black Castle, you told me, if you recollect, that "you had one foot +in the grave;" and though I saw you standing before me in perfect +health, sound wind and limb, I had the weakness to feel frightened, and +never to think of examining where your feet really were. But in the +month of May we hope to find them safe in your shoes, and I hope that +the sun will then shine out, and that all the black clouds in the +political horizon will be dispersed, and that "freemen" will by that +time eat their puddings and hold their tongues. Anna and I stayed one +week with Mrs. Powys [Footnote: The most intimate friend of Mrs. Honora +Edgeworth.] at Bath, and were very thoroughly occupied all the time with +seeing and--I won't say with being seen; for though we were at three +balls, I do not believe any one saw us. The Upper Rooms we thought very +splendid, and the playhouse pretty, but not so good as the theatre at +Bristol. We walked all over Bath with my father, and liked it extremely: +he showed us the house where he was born. + + +GLOUCESTER ROW, CLIFTON, + +_July 21, 1793._ + +My father is just returned to us from Mr. Keir's.... Come over to us, +since we cannot go to you. "Ah, Maria, you know I would come if I +could." But can't you, who are a great woman, trample upon +impossibilities? It is two years since we saw you, and we are tired of +_recollecting_ how kind and agreeable you were. Are you the same Aunt +Ruxton? Come and see whether we are the same, and whether there are any +people in the world out of your own house who know your value better. + +During the hot weather the thermometer was often 80, and once 88. Mr. +Neville, a banker, has taken a house here, and was to have been my +father's travelling companion, but left him at Birmingham: he has a +fishing-stool and a wife. We like the fishing-stool and the wife, but +have not yet seen the family. My father last night wrote a letter of +recommendation to you for a Mr. Jimbernat, a Spanish gentleman, son to +the King of Spain's surgeon, who is employed by his Court to travel for +scientific purposes: he drank tea with us, and seems very intelligent. +Till I saw him I thought a Spaniard must be tall and stately: one may be +mistaken. + +Adieu, for there are matters of high import coming, fit only for the pen +of pens. + +R.L. EDGEWORTH in continuation. + +The matters of high importance, my dear sister, have been already +communicated to you in brief, and indeed cannot be detailed by any but +the parties. Dr. Beddoes, the object of Anna's vows,[Footnote: Dr. +Thomas Beddoes, the celebrated physician and chemist, followed the +Edgeworth family to Ireland, where he was married to Anna Edgeworth, +Maria's youngest _own_ sister.] is a man of abilities, and of great +name in the scientific world as a naturalist and chemist: good-humoured, +good-natured, a man of honour and virtue, enthusiastic and sanguine, and +very fond of Anna. + + +MARIA _to_ MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Nov. 18, 1793._ + +This evening my father has been reading out Gay's _Trivia_ to our great +entertainment. I wished very much, my dear aunt, that you and Sophy had +been sitting round the fire with us. If you have _Trivia_, and if you +have time, will you humour your niece so far as to look at it? I think +there are many things in it which will please you, especially the +"Patten and the Shoeblack," and the old woman hovering over her little +fire in a hard winter. Pray tell me if you like it. I had much rather +make a bargain with any one I loved to read the same book with them at +the same hour, than to look at the moon like Rousseau's famous lovers. +"Ah! that is because my dear niece has no taste and no eyes." But I +assure you I am learning the use of my eyes main fast, and make no +doubt, please Heaven I live to be sixty, to see as well as my +neighbours. + +I am scratching away very hard at the Freeman Family.[Footnote: _i.e. +Patronage_, which, however, was laid aside, and not published till +1813.] + + * * * * * + +In November 1793 the Edgeworth family returned to Ireland, where Mr. +Edgeworth's inventive genius became occupied with a system of telegraphy +on which he expended much time and money. It was offered to the +Government, but declined. Maria Edgeworth was occupied at this time with +her _Letters for Literary Ladies_, as well as with "Toys and Tasks" +which formed one of her chapters on _Practical Education._ + + * * * * * + +_To_ MISS SOPHY RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Feb 23, 1794._ + +Thank my aunt and thank yourself for kind inquiries after _Letters for +Literary Ladies._ [Footnote: Published in 1795--an early plea in favour +of female education.] I am sorry to say they are not as well as can be +expected, nor are they likely to mend at present: when they are fit to +be seen--if that happy time ever arrives--their first visit shall be to +Black Castle. They are now disfigured by all manner of crooked marks of +papa's critical indignation, besides various abusive marginal notes, +which I would not have you see for half a crown sterling, nor my aunt +for a whole crown as pure as King Hiero's; with which crown I am sure +you are acquainted, and know how to weigh it as Honora did at eight +years old, though Mr. Day would not believe it. I think my mother is +better this evening, but she is so very cheerful when she has a moment's +respite, that it deceives us. She calls Lovell the Minute Philosopher at +this instant, because he is drawing with the assistance of a magnifying +glass with a universal joint in his mouth; so that one eye can see +through it while he draws a beautifully small drawing of the new front +of the house. I have just excited his envy even to clasping his hands in +distraction, by telling him of a man I met with in the middle of +Grainger's _Worthies of England_, who drew a mill, a miller, a bridge, a +man and horse going over the bridge with a sack of corn, all visible, +upon a surface that would just cover a sixpence. + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _May 8, 1794._ + +My father is perfectly well, and very busy out of doors and indoors. He +brought back certain books from Black Castle, amongst which I was glad +to see the _Fairy Tales_; and he has related, with various +embellishments suited to the occasion, the story of Fortunatus, to the +great delight of young and old, especially of Sneyd, whose eyes and +cheeks expressed strong approbation, and who repeated it afterwards in a +style of dramatic oratory, which you would have known how to admire. + +We are reading a new book for children, _Evenings at Home_, which we +admire extremely. Has Sophy seen them? And has she seen the fine Aurora +Borealis which was to be seen last week, and which my father and Lovell +saw with ecstasies? The candles were all put out in the library, and a +wonderful bustle made, before I rightly comprehended what was going on. + + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, 1794. + +I will look for the volume of the _Tableau de Paris_ which you think I +have; and if it is in the land of the living, it shall be coming forth +at your call. Do you remember our reading in it of the _garçon +perruquier_ who dresses in black on a Sunday, and leaves his everyday +clothes, white and heavy with powder, in the middle of the room, which +he dares not peep into after his metamorphosis? I like to read as well +as to talk with you, my dear aunt, because you mix the grave and gay +together, and put your long finger upon the very passages which my +short, stumpy one was just starting forward to point out, if it could +point. + +You are very good indeed to wish for "Toys and Tasks," but I think it +would be most unreasonable to send them to you now. We are a very small +party, now that my father, Anna, and Lovell are gone; but I hope we +shall be better when you come. + + +_To_ MRS. ELIZABETH EDGEWORTH. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, 1794. + +All's well at home; the chickens are all good and thriving, and there is +plenty of provender, and of everything that we can want or wish for: +therefore we all hope that you will fully enjoy the pleasures of Black +Castle without being anxious for your bairns. + +Pray tell my dear aunt that I am not ungrateful for all the kindness she +showed to me while I was with her: it rejoiced my heart to hear her say, +when she took leave of me, that she did not love me less for knowing me +better. + +Kitty wakened me this morning saying, "Dear, ma'am, how charming you +smell of coals! quite charming!" and she snuffed the ambient air. +[Footnote: The coal burnt at Black Castle was naturally more agreeable +to Mrs. Billamore (a faithful servant) than the bog turf used at +Edgeworthstown.] + + +_To_ MISS SOPHY RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _July_ 2, 1794, + having the honour to be the fair + day of Edgeworthstown, as is well + proclaimed to the neighbourhood + by the noise of pigs squeaking, + men bawling, women brawling, + and children squealing, etc. + +I will tell you what is going on, that you may see whether you like your +daily bill of fare. + +There are, an' please you, ma'am, a great many good things here. There +is a balloon hanging up, and another going to be put on the stocks: +there is soap made, and making from a receipt in Nicholson's +_Chemistry_: there is excellent ink made, and to be made by the same +book: there is a cake of roses just squeezed in a vice, by my father, +according to the advice of Madame de Lagaraye, the woman in the black +cloak and ruffles, who weighs with unwearied scales, in the frontispiece +of a book, which perhaps my aunt remembers, entitled _Chemie de goút et +de l'odorat._ There are a set of accurate weights, just completed by the +ingenious Messrs. Lovell and Henry Edgeworth, partners: for Henry is now +a junior partner, and grown an inch and a half upon the strength of it +in two months. The use and ingenuity of these weights I do, or did, +understand; it is great, but I am afraid of puzzling you and disgracing +myself attempting to explain it; especially as, my mother says, I once +sent you a receipt for purifying water with charcoal, which she avers to +have been above, or below, the comprehension of any rational being. + +My father bought a great many books at Mr. Dean's sale. Six volumes of +_Machines Approuvés_, full of prints of paper mills, gunpowder mills, +_machines pour remonter les batteaux, machines pour_--a great many +things which you would like to see I am sure over my father's shoulder. +And my aunt would like to see the new staircase, and to see a kitcat +view of a robin redbreast sitting on her nest in a sawpit, discovered by +Lovell, and you would both like to pick Emmeline's fine strawberries +round the crowded oval table after dinner, and to see my mother look so +much better in the midst of us. + + If these delights thy soul can move, + Come live with us and be our love. + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Aug. 11, 1794._ + +Nothing wonderful or interesting, nothing which touches our hopes or +fears, which either moves us to laugh or to be doleful, can happen +without the idea of Aunt Ruxton immediately arising. This, you will +think, is the preface to at least either death or marriage; but it is +_only_ the preface to a history of Defenders. + +There have been lately several flying reports of Defenders, but we never +thought the danger _near_ till to-day. Last night a party of forty +attacked the house of one Hoxey, about half a mile from us, and took, as +usual, the arms. They have also been at Ringowny, where there was only +one servant left to take care of the house; they took the arms and broke +all the windows. To-day Mr. Bond, our high sheriff, paid us a _pale_ +visit, thought it was proper something should be done for the internal +defence of the town of Edgeworthstown and the County of Longford, and +wished my father would apply to him for a meeting of the county. My +father first rode over to the scene of action, to inquire into the truth +of the reports; found them true, and on his return to dinner found Mr. +Thompson of Clonfin, and Captain Doyle, nephew to the general and the +wounded colonel, who is now at Granard. Captain Doyle will send a +sergeant and twelve to-morrow; to-night a watch is to sit up, but it is +supposed that the sight of two redcoats riding across the country +together will keep the evil sprites from appearing to mortal eyes "this +watch." My father has spoken to many of the householders, and he +imagines they will come here to a meeting to-morrow, to consider how +best they can defend their lands and tenements; they bring their arms to +my father to take care of. You will be surprised at our making such a +mighty matter of a visit from the Defenders, you who have had soldiers +sitting up in your kitchen for weeks; but you will consider that this is +our first visit. + +The arts of peace are going on prosperously. The new room is almost +built, and the staircase is completed: long may we live to run up and +down it. + + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, 1794. + +I will treat you, my dear Letty, like a lady for once, and write to you +upon blue-edged paper, because you have been ill: if you should be well +before you receive this, I shall repent of the extravagance of my +friendship. I believe it was you--or my aunt, the teller of all good +things--who told me of a lady who took a long journey to see her sister, +who she heard was very ill; but, unfortunately, the sister was well +before she got to her journey's end, and she was so provoked, that she +quarrelled with her well sister, and would never have anything more to +do with her. + +You will look very blank when you come back from the sea, and find what +doings there have been at Black Castle in your absence. Anna was +extremely sorry that she could not see you again before she left +Ireland; but you will soon be in the same kingdom again, and _that is +one great point gained_, as Mr. Weaver, a travelling astronomical +lecturer, who carried the universe about in a box, told us. "Sir," said +he to my father, "when you look at a map, do you know that the east is +always on your right hand, and the west on your left?"--"Yes," replied +my father, with a very modest look, "I believe I do."--"Well," said the +man of learning, "_that's one great point gained._" + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, 1795. + +My father returned late on Friday night, bringing with him a very bad +and a very good thing; the bad thing was a bad cold--the good is Aunt +Mary Sneyd. Emmeline was delayed some days at Lichfield by the broken +bridges, and bad roads, floods and snows, which have stopped man, and +beast, and mail coaches. Mr. Cox, the man who sells camomile drops under +the title of Oriental Pearls, wrote an apology to my Aunt Mary for +neglecting to send the Pearls in the following elegant phrase: "That the +mistake she mentioned he could no ways account for but by presuming that +it must have arisen from impediments occasioned by the inclemencies of +the season!" + +When my father went to see Lord Charlemont, he came to meet him, saying, +"I must claim relationship with you, Mr. Edgeworth. I am related to the +Abbé Edgeworth, who is I think an honour to the kingdom--I should say to +human nature." + + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _April 11, 1795._ + +My father and Lovell have been out almost every day, when there are no +robbers to be committed to jail, at the Logograph.[Footnote: A name +invented to suit the anti-Gallican prejudices of the day.] This is the +new name instead of the Telegraph, because of its allusion to the +logographic printing press, which prints words instead of letters. +Phaenologue was thought of, but Logograph sounds better. My father will +allow me to manufacture an essay on the Logograph, he furnishing the +solid materials and I spinning them. I am now looking over, for this +purpose, Wilkins's _Real Character, or an Essay towards a Universal +Philosophical Language._ It is a scarce and very ingenious book; some of +the phraseology is so much out of the present fashion, that it would +make you smile: such as the synonym for a little man, a Dandiprat. +Likewise two prints, one of them a long sheet of men with their throats +cut, so as to show the windpipe whilst working out the different letters +of the alphabet. The other print of all the birds and beasts packed +ready to go into the ark. + +Sir Walter James has written a very kind and sensible letter to my +father, promising all his influence with his Viceregal brother-in-law +about the telegraph. My father means to get a letter from him to Lord +Camden, and present it himself, though he rather doubts whether, all +things taken together, it is prudent to tie himself to Government. The +raising the militia has occasioned disturbances in this county. Lord +Granard's carriage was pelted at Athlone. The poor people here are +robbed every night. Last night a poor old woman was considerably +roasted: the man, who called himself Captain Roast, is committed to +jail, he was positively sworn to here this morning. Do you know what +they mean by the White Tooths? Men who stick two pieces of broken +tobacco pipes at each corner of the mouth, to disguise the face and +voice. + + +_April_ 20. + +Here is a whirlwind in our county, and no angel to direct it, though +many booted and spurred desire no better than to ride _in_ it. There is +indeed an old woman in Ballymahon, who has been the guardian angel of +General Crosby; she has averted a terrible storm, which was just ready +to burst over his head. The General, by mistake, went into the town of +Ballymahon, before his troops came up; and while he was in the inn, a +mob of five hundred people gathered in the street. The landlady of the +inn called General Crosby aside, and told him, that if the people found +him they would certainly tear him to pieces. The General hesitated, but +the abler general, the landlady, sallied forth and called aloud in a +distinct voice, "Bring round the chaise-and-four for the gentleman +_from_ Lanesborough, who is going _to_ Athlone." The General got into +the chaise incog., and returning towards Athlone met his troops, and +thus effected a most admirable retreat. + + +_Monday Night._ + +Richard [Footnote: His last visit to Ireland. He returned to America, +and died there in 1796.] and Lovell are at the Bracket Gate. I hope you +know the Bracket Gate, it is near Mr. Whitney's, and so called, as +tradition informs me, from being painted red and white like a bracket +cow. I am not clear what sort of an animal a bracket cow is, but I +suppose it is something not unlike a dun cow and a gate joined together. +Richard and Lovell have a nice tent, and a clock, and white lights, and +are trying nocturnal telegraphs, which are now brought to satisfactory +perfection. + +I am finishing "Toys and Tasks;" I wish I might insert your letter to +Sneyd, [Footnote: Mrs. Elizabeth Edgeworth's second boy.] with the +receipt for the dye, as a specimen of experiments for children. Sneyd +with sparkling eyes returns you his sincere thanks, and my mother with +her love sends you the following lines, which she composed to-day for +him: + + To give me all that art can give, + My aunt and mother try: + One teaches me the way to live, + The other how to _dye._ + +But though she makes epigrams, my mother is far from well. + + * * * * * + +This year _Letters for Literary Ladies_, Miss Edgeworth's first +published work, was produced by Johnson. In 1796 she published the +collection of stories known as _The Parent's Assistant._ In these, in +the simplest language, and with wonderful understanding of children, and +what would come home to their hearts, she continued to illustrate the +maxims of her father. The "Purple Jar" and "Lazy Laurence" are perhaps +the best-known stories of the first edition. To another was added +"Simple Susan," of which Sir Walter Scott said, "That when the boy +brings back the lamb to the little girl, there is nothing for it but to +put down the book and cry." Most of these stories were written in the +excitement of very troubled times in Ireland. + + * * * * * + +MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, + +_Saturday Night, Jan. 1796._ + +My father is gone to a Longford committee, where he will I suppose hear +many dreadful Defender stories: he came home yesterday fully persuaded +that a poor man in this neighbourhood, a Mr. Houlton, had been murdered, +but he found he was only _kilt_, and "as well as could be expected," +after being twice robbed and twice cut with a bayonet. You, my dear +aunt, who were so brave when the county of Meath was the seat of war, +must know that we emulate your courage; and I assure you in your own +words, "that whilst our terrified neighbours see nightly visions of +massacres, we sleep with our doors and windows unbarred." + +I must observe though, that it is only those doors and windows which +have neither bolts nor bars, that we leave unbarred, and these are more +at present than we wish, even for the reputation of our valour. All that +I crave for my own part is, that if I am to have my throat cut, it may +not be by a man with his face blackened with charcoal. I shall look at +every person that comes here very closely, to see if there be any marks +of charcoal upon their visages. Old wrinkled offenders I should suppose +would never be able to wash out their stains; but in others a _very_ +clean face will in my mind be a strong symptom of guilt--clean hands +proof positive, and clean nails ought to hang a man. + + +_To_ MISS S. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Feb. 27, 1796._ + +Long may you feel impatient to hear from your friends, my dear Sophy, +and long may you express your impatience as agreeably. I have a great +deal bottled, or rather bundled up for you. Though I most earnestly wish +that my father was in that situation [Footnote: M.P. for the County of +Longford.] which Sir T. Fetherstone now graces, and though my father had +done me the honour to let me copy his Election letters for him, I am not +the least infected with the electioneering rage. Whilst the Election +lasted we saw him only a few minutes in the course of the day, then +indeed he entertained us to our hearts' content; now his mind seems +relieved from a disagreeable load, and we have more of his company. + +You do not mention Madame Roland, therefore I am not sure whether you +have read her; if you have only read her in the translation which talks +of her Uncle Bimont's dying of a "fit of the gout _translated_ to his +chest," you have done her injustice. We think some of her memoirs +beautifully written, and like Rousseau: she was a great woman and died +heroically, but I don't think she became more amiable, and certainly not +more happy by meddling with politics; _for_--her head is cut off, and +her husband has shot himself. I think if I had been Mons. Roland I +should not have shot myself for her sake, and I question whether he +would not have left undrawn the trigger if he could have seen all she +intended to say of him to posterity: she has painted him as a harsh, +stiff, pedantic man, to whom she devoted herself from a sense of duty; +her own superiority, and his infinite obligations to her, she has taken +sufficient pains to blazon forth to the world. I do not like all this, +and her duty work, and her full-length portrait _of_ herself _by_ +herself. The foolish and haughty Madame de Boismorrel, who sat upon the +sofa, and asked her if she ever wore feathers, was probably one of the +remote causes of the French Revolution: for Madame Roland's Republican +spirit seems to have retained a long and lively remembrance of this +aristocratic visit. + +As soon as the blind bookseller [Footnote: A pedlar who travelled +through the country, and sometimes picked up at sales curious books new +and old.] can find them for us, we shall read Miss Williams's _Letters._ +I am glad we both prefer the same parts in Dr. Aikin's _Letters_: I +liked that on the choice of a wife, but I beg to except the word +_helper_, which is used so often and is associated with a helper in the +stables. Lovell dined with Mr. Aikin at Mr. Stewart's, at Edinburgh, and +has seen the Comte d'Artois, who he says has rather a silly face, +especially when it smiles. Sneyd is delighted with the four volumes of +_Evenings at Home_, which we have just got, and has pitched upon the +best stories, which he does not, like M. Dalambert, spoil in the +reading--"Perseverance against Fortune," "The Price of a Victory," and +"Capriole." We were reading an account of the pinna the other day, and +very much regretted that your pinna's brown silk tuft had been eaten by +the mice--what will they not eat?--they have eaten my thimble case! I am +sorry to say that, from these last accounts of the pinna and his cancer +friend, Dr. Darwin's beautiful description is more poetic than accurate. +The cancer is neither watchman nor market-woman to the pinna, nor yet +his friend: he has free ingress to his house, it is true, and is often +found there, but he does not visit on equal terms, or on a friendly +footing, for the moment the pinna gets him in he shuts the door and eats +him; or if he is not hungry, kills the poor shrimp and keeps him in the +house till the next day's dinner. I am sorry Dr. Darwin's story is not +true. + + +_Saturday Night._ + +I do not know whether you ever heard of a Mr. Pallas, who lives at +Grouse Hall. He lately received information that a certain Defender was +to be found in a lone house, which was described to him; he took a party +of men with him in the night, and got to the house very early in the +morning: it was scarcely light. The soldiers searched the house, but no +man was to be found. Mr. Pallas ordered them to search again, for that +he was certain the man was there: they searched again, in vain. They +gave up the point, and were preparing to mount their horses when one man +who had stayed a little behind his companions, saw something moving at +the end of the garden behind the house: he looked again, and beheld a +man's arm come out of the ground. He ran towards the spot and called his +companions, but the arm had disappeared; they searched, but nothing was +to be seen, and though the soldier persisted in his story he was not +believed. "Come," said one of the party, "don't waste your time here +looking for an apparition among these cabbage-stalks, come back once +more to the house." They went to the house, and there stood the man they +were in search of, in the middle of the kitchen. + +Upon examination, it was found that a secret passage had been practised +from the kitchen to the garden, opening under an old meal chest with a +false bottom, which he could push up and down at pleasure. He had +returned one moment too soon. + +I beg, dear Sophy, that you will not call my little stories by the +sublime title of "my works," I shall else be ashamed when the little +mouse comes forth. The stories are printed and bound the same size as +_Evenings at Home_, but I am afraid you will dislike the title; my +father had sent _The Parent's Friend_, [Footnote: Mr. Edgeworth had +wished the book to bear this title.] but Mr. Johnson has degraded it +into _The Parent's Assistant_, which I dislike particularly, from +association with an old book of arithmetic called _The Tutor's +Assistant._ + + * * * * * + +This was the first appearance of _The Parent's Assistant_, in one small +volume, with the "Purple Jar," which afterwards formed part of +_Rosamond._ + + * * * * * + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +1796. + +We heard from Lovell [Footnote: Gone to London with Mr. Edgeworth's +telegraphic invention.] last post. He had reached London, and waited +immediately on Colonel Brownrigg, who was extremely civil, and said he +would present him any day he pleased to the Duke of York. He was +delighted with the telegraphic prospect in his journey: from Nettlebed +to Long Compton, a distance of fifty miles, he saw plainly. He was +afraid that the motion of the stage would have been too violent to agree +with his model telegraph--"his pretty, delicate little telly," as Lovell +calls it. He therefore indulged her all the way with a seat in a +post-chaise, "which I bestowed upon her with pleasure, because I am +convinced that, when she comes to stand in the world upon ground of her +own, she will be an honour to her guardian, her parents, and her +country." + + * * * * * + +Miss Edgeworth now began to write some of the stories which were +afterwards published under the title of _Moral Tales_, but which she at +first intended as a sequel to _The Parent's Assistant_; and she began to +think of writing _Irish Bulls._ + + * * * * * + +_To_ MISS SOPHY RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Oct. 1797._ + +I do not like to pour out the gratitude I feel for your unremitting +kindness to me, my dear Sophy, in vain thanks; but I may as well pour it +out in words, as I shall probably never be able to return the many good +turns you have done me. I am not nearly ready yet for _Irish Bulls._ I +am going directly to _Parent's Assistant._ Any good anecdotes from the +age of five to fifteen, good latitude and longitude, will suit me; and +if you can tell me any pleasing misfortunes of emigrants, so much the +better. I have a great desire to draw a picture of an anti-Mademoiselle +Panache, a well-informed, well-bred French governess, an emigrant. + +By the blind bookseller my father will send you some books, and I hope +that we shall soon have finished Godwin, that he may set out for Black +Castle. There are some parts of his book [Footnote: _Essays_, by the +author of _Caleb Williams._] that I think you will like much--"On +Frankness," and "Self-taught Genius;" but you will find much to blame in +his style, and you will be surprised that he should have written a +dissertation upon English style. I think his essay on Avarice and +Profusion will please you, even after Smith: he has gone a step farther. +I am going to write a story for boys, [Footnote: _The Good Aunt._] which +will, I believe, make a volume to follow the _Good French Governess._ My +father thinks a volume of trials and a volume of plays would be good for +children. He met the other day with two men who were ready to go to law +about a horse which one had bought from the other, because he had one +little fault. "What is the fault?" said my father. "Sir, the horse was +standing with us all the other day in our cabin at the fire, and plump +he fell down upon the middle of the fire and put it out; and it was a +mercy he didn't kill my wife and children as he fell into the midst of +them all. But this is not all, sir; he strayed into a neighbour's field +of oats, and fell down in the midst of the oats, and spoiled as much as +he could have eaten honestly in a week. But that's not all, sir; one +day, please your honour, I rode him out in a hurry to a fair, and he lay +down with me in the ford, and I lost my fair." + + * * * * * + +For the last few years Mrs. Elizabeth Edgeworth's sisters, Charlotte and +Mary Sneyd, had lived entirely at Edgeworthstown, not only beloved and +honoured by the children of their two sisters, but tenderly welcomed and +cherished by the children of their predecessor, especially by Maria, to +whom no real aunts could have been more dear. During the seventeen years +through which her married life lasted, Mrs. Elizabeth Edgeworth had +become increasingly the centre of the family circle, to which she had +herself added five sons and four daughters. In every relation of life +she was admirable. Through the summer of 1797 her health rapidly +declined, and in November she died. + +Mr. Edgeworth, then past fifty, had truly valued his third wife, of whom +he said that he had "never seen her out of temper, and never received +from her an unkind word or an angry look." Yet, when he lost her, after +his peculiar fashion, he immediately began to think of marrying again. + +Dr. Beaufort, Vicar of Collon, was an agreeable and cultivated man, and +had long been a welcome guest at Mrs. Ruxton's house of Black Castle. +His eldest daughter, who was a clever artist, had designed and drawn +some illustrations for Maria Edgeworth's stories. With these Mr. +Edgeworth found fault, and the good-humour and sense with which his +criticisms were received charmed him, and led to an intimacy. Six months +after his wife's death he married Miss Beaufort. + +It may sound strange, but it is nevertheless true, that, in Miss +Beaufort, even more than in her predecessors, he gave to his children a +wise and kind mother, and a most entirely devoted friend. + + * * * * * + +MISS EDGEWORTH _to_ MISS BEAUFORT. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _May 16, 1798._ + +Whilst you, my dear Miss Beaufort, have been toiling in Dublin, my +father has been delighting himself in preparations for June. The little +boudoir looks as if it intends to be pretty. This is the only room in +the house which my father will allow to be finished, as he wishes that +your taste should finish the rest. Like the man who begged to have the +eclipse put off, we have been here praying to have the spring put off, +as this place never looks so pretty as when the lilacs and laburnums are +in full flower. I fear, notwithstanding all our prayers, that their +purple and yellow honours will be gone before your arrival. There is one +other flower which I am sure will not be in blow for you, "a little +western flower called love in idleness." Amongst the many kindnesses my +father has shown me, the greatest, I think, has been his permitting me +to see his heart _à découverte_; and I have seen, by your kind sincerity +and his, that, in good and cultivated minds, love is no _idle_ passion, +but one that inspires useful and generous energy. I have been convinced +by your example of what I was always inclined to believe, that the power +of feeling affection is increased by the cultivation of the +understanding. The wife of an Indian yogii (if a yogii be permitted to +have a wife) might be a very affectionate woman, but her sympathy with +her husband could not have a very extensive sphere. As his eyes are to +be continually fixed upon the point of his nose, hers in duteous +sympathy must squint in like manner; and if the perfection of his virtue +be to sit so still that the birds (_vide_ Sacontala) may unmolested +build nests in his hair, his wife cannot better show her affection than +by yielding her tresses to them with similar patient stupidity. Are +there not European yogiis, or men whose ideas do not go much further +than _le bout du nez_? And how delightful it must be to be chained for +better for worse to one of this species! I should guess--for I know +nothing of the matter--that the courtship of an ignorant lover must be +almost as insipid as a marriage with him; for "my jewel" continually +repeated, without new setting, must surely fatigue a little. + +You call yourself, dear Miss Beaufort, my friend and companion: I hope +you will never have reason to repent beginning in this style towards me. +I think you will not find me encroach upon you. The overflowings of your +kindness, if I know anything of my own heart, will fertilise the land, +but will not destroy the landmarks. I do not know whether I most hate or +despise the temper which will take an ell where an inch is given. A +well-bred person never forgets that species of respect which is due to +situation and rank: though his superiors in rank treat him with the +utmost condescension, he never is "Hail fellow well met" with them; he +never calls them Jack or Tom by way of increasing his own consequence. + +I flatter myself that you will find me gratefully exact _en belle +fille._ I think there is a great deal of difference between that species +of ceremony which exists with acquaintance, and that which should always +exist with the best of friends: the one prevents the growth of +affection, the other preserves it in youth and age. Many foolish people +make fine plantations, and forget to fence them; so the young trees are +destroyed by the young cattle, and the bark of the forest trees is +sometimes injured. You need not, dear Miss Beaufort, fence yourself +round with very strong palings in this family, where all have been early +accustomed to mind their boundaries. As for me, you see my intentions, +or at least my theories, are good enough: if my Practice be but half as +good, you will be content, will you not? But Theory was born in +Brobdingnag, and Practice in Lilliput. So much the better for _me._ I +have often considered, since my return home, as I have seen all this +family pursuing their several occupations and amusements, how much you +will have it in your power to add to their happiness. In a stupid or +indolent family, your knowledge and talents would be thrown away; here, +if it may be said without vanity, they will be the certain source of +your daily happiness. You will come into a new family, but you will not +come as a stranger, dear Miss Beaufort: you will not lead a new life, +but only continue to lead the life you have been used to in your own +happy, cultivated family. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Edgeworth and Miss Beaufort were married 31st May 1798 at St. Anne's +Church in Dublin. Mrs. Edgeworth writes: + +When we set off from the church door for Edgeworthstown, the rebellion +had broken out in many parts of Ireland. + +Soon after we had passed the second stage from Dublin, one of the +carriage wheels broke down. Mr. Edgeworth went back to the inn, then +called the Nineteen-mile House, [Footnote: Now Enfield: a railway +station.] to get assistance. Very few people were to be found, and a +woman who was alone in the kitchen came up to him and whispered, "The +boys (the rebels) are hid in the potato furrows beyond." He was rather +startled at this intelligence, but took no notice. He found an ostler +who lent him a wheel, which they managed to put on, and we drove off +without being stopped by any of _the boys._ A little farther on I saw +something very odd on the side of the road before us. "What is +that?"--"Look to the other side--don't look at it!" cried Mr. Edgeworth; +and when we had passed he said it was a car turned up, between the +shafts of which a man was hung--murdered by the rebels. + +We reached Edgeworthstown late in the evening. The family at that time +consisted of the two Miss Sneyds, Maria, Emmeline, Bessy, Charlotte +(Lovell was then at Edinburgh), Henry, Sneyd, Honora, and William. Sneyd +was not twelve years old, and the other two were much younger. All +agreed in making me feel at once at home, and part of the family; all +received me with the most unaffected cordiality: but from Maria it was +something more. She more than fulfilled the promise of her letter; she +made me at once her most intimate friend; and in all the serious +concerns of life, and in every trifle of the day, treated me with the +most generous confidence. + + +MARIA _to_ MISS SOPHY RUXTON IN NORTH WALES. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _June 20, '98._ + +Hitherto all has been quiet in our county, and we know nothing of the +dreadful disturbances in other parts of the country but what we see in +the newspapers. I am sorry my uncle and Richard were obliged to leave +you and my dear aunt, as I know the continual state of suspense and +anxiety in which you must live while they are away. I fear that we may +soon know by experience what you feel, for my father sees in to-night's +paper that Lord Cornwallis is coming over here as Lord-Lieutenant; and +he thinks it will be his duty to offer his services in any manner in +which they can be advantageous. Why cannot we be left in peace to enjoy +our happiness? that is all we have the conscience to ask! We are indeed +happy: the more I see of my friend and mother, the more I love and +esteem her, and the more I feel the truth of all that I have heard you +say in her praise. I do not think I am _much_ prejudiced by her +partiality for me, though I do feel most grateful for her kindness. I +never saw my father at any period of his life appear so happy as he +does, and has done for this month past; and you know that he _tastes_ +happiness as much as any human being can. He is not of the number of +those _qui avalent leurs plaisirs, il sait les goûter._ So little change +has been made in the way of living, that you would feel as if you were +going on with your usual occupations and conversation amongst us. We +laugh and talk, and enjoy the good of every day, which is more than +sufficient. How long this may last we cannot tell. I am going on in the +old way, writing stories. I cannot be a captain of dragoons, and sitting +with my hands before me would not make any of us one degree safer. I +know nothing more of _Practical Education_: it is advertised to be +published. I have finished a volume of wee, wee stories, about the size +of the "Purple Jar," all about Rosamond. "Simple Susan" went to Foxhall +a few days ago, for Lady Anne to carry to England. + +My father has made our little room so nice for us; they are all fresh +painted and papered. O rebels! O French! spare them! We have never +injured you, and all we wish is to see everybody as happy as ourselves. + + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Aug. 29, '98._ + +We have this moment learned from the sheriff of this county, Mr. Wilder, +who has been at Athlone, that the French have got to Castlebar. They +changed clothes with some peasants, and so deceived our troops. They +have almost entirely cut off the carbineers, the Longford militia, and a +large body of yeomanry who opposed them. The Lord-Lieutenant is now at +Athlone, and it is supposed that it will be their next object of attack. +My father's corps of yeomanry are extremely attached to him, and seem +fully in earnest; but, alas! by some strange negligence their arms have +not yet arrived from Dublin. My father this morning sent a letter by an +officer going to Athlone, to Lord Cornwallis, offering his services to +convey intelligence or reconnoitre, as he feels himself in a most +terrible situation, without arms for his men, and no power of being +serviceable to his country. We who are so near the scene of action +cannot by any means discover what _number_ of the French actually +landed: some say 800, some 1800, some 18,000, some 4000. The troops +march and countermarch, as they say themselves, without knowing where +they are going, or for what. + +Poor Lady Anne Fox! [Footnote: Wife of Mr. Edgeworth's nephew.] she is +in a dreadful situation; so near her confinement she is unable to move +from Foxhall to any place of greater safety, and exposed every moment to +hear the most alarming reports. She shows admirable calmness and +strength of mind. Francis and Barry [Footnote: Brothers of the fourth +Mrs. Edgeworth.] set out to-morrow morning for England: as they do not +go near Conway, my father advises me not to send by them "Simple Susan" +and sundry other little volumes which I wish were in your kind hands. + +GOD send the French may soon go, and that you may soon come. + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +MRS. FALLON'S INN, LONGFORD, + +_Sept. 5, '98._ + +We are all safe and well, my dearest aunt, and have had two most +fortunate escapes from rebels and from the explosion of an ammunition +cart. Yesterday we heard, about ten o'clock in the morning, that a large +body of rebels, armed with pikes, were within a few miles of +Edgeworthstown. My father's yeomanry were at this moment gone to +Longford for their arms, which Government had delayed sending. We were +ordered to decamp, each with a small bundle: the two chaises full, and +my mother and Aunt Charlotte on horseback. We were all ready to move, +when the report was contradicted: only twenty or thirty men were now, it +was said, in arms, and my father hoped we might still hold fast to our +dear home. + +Two officers and six dragoons happened at this moment to be on their way +through Edgeworthstown, escorting an ammunition cart from Mullingar to +Longford: they promised to take us under their protection, and the +officer came up to the door to say he was ready. My father most +fortunately detained us: they set out without us. Half an hour +afterwards, as we were quietly sitting in the portico, we heard--as we +thought close to us--a clap of thunder, which shook the house. The +officer soon afterwards returned, almost speechless; he could hardly +explain what had happened. The ammunition cart, containing nearly three +barrels of gunpowder, packed in tin cases, took fire and burst, halfway +on the road to Longford. The man who drove the cart was blown to +atoms--nothing of him could be found; two of the horses were killed, +others were blown to pieces and their limbs scattered to a distance; the +head and body of a man were found a hundred and twenty yards from the +spot. Mr. Murray was the name of the officer I am speaking of: he had +with him a Mr. Rochfort and a Mr. Nugent. Mr. Rochfort was thrown from +his horse, one side of his face terribly burnt, and stuck over with +gunpowder. He was carried into a cabin; they thought he would die, but +they now say he will recover. The carriage has been sent to take him to +Longford. I have not time or room, my dear aunt, to dilate or tell you +half I have to say. If we had gone with this ammunition, we must have +been killed. + +An hour or two afterwards, however, we were obliged to fly from +Edgeworthstown. The pikemen, three hundred in number, actually were +within a mile of the town. My mother, Aunt Charlotte, and I rode; passed +the trunk of the dead man, bloody limbs of horses, and two dead horses, +by the help of men who pulled on our steeds: we are all safely lodged +now in Mrs. Fallon's inn. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Edgeworth narrates: + +Before we had reached the place where the cart had been blown up, Mr. +Edgeworth suddenly recollected that he had left on the table in his +study a list of the yeomanry corps, which he feared might endanger the +poor fellows and their families if it fell into the hands of the rebels. +He galloped back for it--it was at the hazard of his life--but the +rebels had not yet appeared. He burned the paper, and rejoined us +safely. + +The landlady of the inn at Longford did all she could to make us +comfortable, and we were squeezed into the already crowded house. Mrs. +Billamore, our excellent housekeeper, we had left behind for the return +of the carriage which had taken Mr. Rochfort to Longford; but it was +detained, and she did not reach us till the next morning, when we +learned from her that the rebels had not come up to the house. They had +halted at the gate, but were prevented from entering by a man whom she +did not remember to have ever seen; but he was grateful to her for +having lent money to his wife when she was in great distress, and we +now, at our utmost need, owed our safety and that of the house to his +gratitude. We were surprised to find that this was thought by some to be +a suspicious circumstance, and that it showed Mr. Edgeworth to be a +favourer of the rebels! An express arrived at night to say the French +were close to Longford: Mr. Edgeworth undertook to defend the gaol, +which commanded the road by which the enemy must pass, where they could +be detained till the King's troops came up. He was supplied with men and +ammunition, and watched all night; but in the morning news came that the +French had turned in a different direction, and gone to Granard, about +seven miles off; but this seemed so unlikely, that Mr. Edgeworth rode +out to reconnoitre, and Henry went to the top of the Court House to look +out with a telescope. We were all at the windows of a room in the inn +looking into the street, when we saw people running, throwing up their +hats and huzzaing. A dragoon had just arrived with the news that General +Lake's army had come up with the French and the rebels, and completely +defeated them at a place called Ballinamuck, near Granard. But we soon +saw a man in a sergeant's uniform haranguing the mob, not in honour of +General Lake's victory, but against Mr. Edgeworth; we distinctly heard +the words, "that young Edgeworth ought to be dragged down from the Court +House." The landlady was terrified; she said Mr. Edgeworth was accused +of having made signals to the French from the gaol, and she thought the +mob would pull down her house; but they ran on to the end of the town, +where they expected to meet Mr. Edgeworth. We sent a messenger in one +direction to warn him, while Maria and I drove to meet him on the other +road. We heard that he had passed some time before with Major Eustace, +the mob seeing an officer in uniform with him went back to the town, and +on our return we found them safe at the inn. We saw the French prisoners +brought in in the evening, when Mr. Edgeworth went after dinner with +Major Eustace to the barrack. Some time after, dreadful yells were heard +in the street: the mob had attacked them on their return from the +barrack--Major Eustace being now in coloured clothes, they did not +recognise him as an officer. They had struck Mr. Edgeworth with a +brickbat in the neck, and as they were now, just in front of the inn, +collaring the major, Mr. Edgeworth cried out in a loud voice, "Major +Eustace is in danger." Several officers who were at dinner in the inn, +hearing the words through the open window, rushed out sword in hand, +dispersed the crowd in a moment, and all the danger was over. The +military patrolled the streets, and the sergeant who had made all this +disturbance was put under arrest. He was a poor, half-crazed fanatic. + +The next day, the 9th of September, we returned home, where everything +was exactly as we had left it, all serene and happy, five days +before--only five days, which seemed almost a lifetime, from the dangers +and anxiety we had gone through. + + +MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MISS SOPHY RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Sept. 9, '98._ + +You will rejoice, I am sure, my dear Sophy, to see by the date of this +letter that we are safe back at Edgeworthstown. The scenes we have gone +through for some days past have succeeded one another like the pictures +in a magic-lantern, and have scarcely left the impression of reality +upon the mind. It all seems like a dream, a mixture of the ridiculous +and the horrid. "Oh ho!" says my aunt, "things cannot be very bad with +my brother, if Maria begins her letters with magic-lantern and +reflections on dreams." + +When we got into the town this morning we saw the picture of a deserted, +or rather a shattered village--many joyful faces greeted us at the doors +of the houses--none of the windows of the new houses in Charlotte Row +were broken: the mob declared they would not meddle with them because +they were built by the two good ladies, meaning my aunts. + +Last night my father was alarmed at finding that both Samuel and John, +[Footnote: John Jenkins, a Welsh lad; both he and Samuel thought better +of it and remained in the service.] who had stood by him with the utmost +fidelity through the Longford business, were at length panic-struck: +they wished now to leave him. Samuel said: "Sir, I would stay with you +to the last gasp, if you were not so foolhardy," and here he cried +bitterly; "but, sir, indeed you have not heard all I have heard. I have +heard about two hundred men in Longford swear they would have your +life." All the town were during the whole of last night under a similar +panic, they were certain the violent Longford yeomen would come and cut +them to pieces. Last night was not pleasant, but this morning was +pleasant--and why it was a pleasant morning I will tell you in my next. + + +_Sept. 19._ + +I forgot to tell you of a remarkable event in the history of our return; +all the cats, even those who properly belong to the stable, and who had +never been admitted to the honours of the sitting in the kitchen, all +crowded round Kitty with congratulatory faces, crawling up her gown, +insisting upon caressing and being caressed when she reappeared in the +lower regions. Mr. Gilpin's slander against cats as selfish, unfeeling +animals is thus refuted by stubborn facts. + +When Colonel Handfield told the whole story of the Longford mob to Lord +Cornwallis, he said he never saw a man so much astonished. Lord +Longford, Mr. Pakenham, and Major Edward Pakenham, have shown much +warmth of friendship upon this occasion. + +Enclosed I send you a little sketch, which I traced from one my mother +drew for her father, of the situation of the field of battle at +Ballinamuck, it is about four miles from The Hills. My father, mother, +and I rode to look at the camp; perhaps you recollect a pretty turn in +the road, where there is a little stream with a three-arched bridge: in +the fields which rise in a gentle slope, on the right-hand side of this +stream, about sixty bell tents were pitched, the arms all ranged on the +grass; before the tents, poles with little streamers flying here and +there; groups of men leading their horses to water, others filling +kettles and black pots, some cooking under the hedges; the various +uniforms looked pretty; Highlanders gathering blackberries. My father +took us to the tent of Lord Henry Seymour, who is an old friend of his; +he breakfasted here to-day, and his plain English civility, and quiet +good sense, was a fine contrast to the mob, etc. Dapple, [Footnote: +Maria Edgeworth's horse.] your old acquaintance, did not like all the +sights at the camp as well as I did. + + +_Oct 3, '98._ + +My father went to Dublin the day before yesterday, to see Lord +Cornwallis about the Court of Enquiry on the sergeant who harangued the +mob. About one o'clock to-day Lovell returned from the Assizes at +Longford with the news, met on the road, that expresses had come an hour +before from Granard to Longford, for the Reay Fencibles, and all the +troops; that there was another _rising_ and an attack upon Granard: four +thousand men the first report said, seven hundred the second. What the +truth may be it is impossible to tell, it is certain that the troops are +gone to Granard, and it is yet more certain that all the windows in this +house are built halfway up, guns and bayonets dispersed by Captain +Lovell in every room. The yeomanry corps paraded to-day, all steady: +guard sitting up in house and in the town to-night. + + +_Thursday Morning._ + +All alive and well. A letter from my father: he stays to see Lord +Cornwallis on Friday. Deficient arms for the corps are given by Lord +Castlereagh. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Edgeworth writes: + +The sergeant was to have been tried at the next sessions, but he was by +this time ashamed and penitent, and Mr. Edgeworth did not press the +trial, but knowing the man was, among his other weaknesses, very much +afraid of ghosts, he said to him as he came out of the Court House, "I +believe, after all, you had rather see me alive than have my ghost +haunting you!" + + * * * * * + +In 1798 _Practical Education_ was published in two large octavo volumes, +bearing the joint names of Richard and Maria Edgeworth upon their +title-page. This was the first work of that literary partnership of +father and daughter which Maria Edgeworth describes as "the joy and +pride of my life." + + * * * * * + +MARIA _to_ MISS SOPHY RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Nov. 19, '98._ + +You have, I suppose, or are conscious that you ought to have, whitlows +upon your thumb and all your four fingers for not writing to me! Tell me +what you are saying and doing, and above all where you are going. My +father has taken me into a new partnership--we are writing a comedy: +will you come and see it acted? He is making a charming theatre in the +room over his study: it will be twice as large as old Poz's little +theatre in the dining-room. My aunt's woollen wig for old Poz is in high +estimation in the memory of man, woman, and child here. I give you the +play-bill: + + Mrs. Fangle (a rich and whimsical widow) Emmeline. + Caroline (a sprightly heiress) Charlotte. + Jemima (Mrs. Fangle's waiting-maid) Bessy. + Sir Mordant Idem (in love with Mrs. Fangle, + and elderly, and hating anything _new_) Henry. + Opal (nephew to Sir Mordant, and hating + everything _old_, in love with Caroline, + and wild for illuminatism) Sneyd. + Count Babelhausen (a German illuminatus, + trying to marry either Mrs. Fangle or + Caroline) Lovell. + Heliodorus and Christina (Mrs. Fangle's } William + children, on whom she tries strange } and + experiments) } Honora. + + +To explain illuminatism I refer you to Robinson's book called _Proofs of +a Conspiracy._ It was from this book, which gives a history of the +cheats of Freemasonry and Illuminatism, that we took the idea of Count +Babelhausen. The book is tiresome, and no sufficient proofs given of the +facts, but parts of it will probably interest you. + +Lovell has bought a fine apparatus and materials for a course of +chemical lectures which he is going to give us. The study is to be the +laboratory: I wish you were _in it._ + +In the _Monthly Review_ for October there is this anecdote. After the +King of Denmark, who was somewhat silly, had left Paris, a Frenchman, +who was in company with the Danish Ambassador, but did not know him, +began to ridicule the King--"Ma foi! il a une tête! une tête--" +"Couronnée," replied the Ambassador, with presence of mind and +politeness. My father, who was much delighted with this answer, asked +Lovell, Henry, and Sneyd, without telling the right answer, what they +would have said. + + Lovell: "A head--and a heart, sir." + Henry: "A head--upon his shoulders." + Sneyd: "A head--of a King." + +Tell me which answer you like best. Richard will take your _Practical +Education_ to you. + + * * * * * + +The play mentioned in the foregoing letter was twice acted in January +1799, with great applause, under the title of _Whim for Whim._ Mr. +Edgeworth's mechanism for the scenery, and for the experiments tried on +the children, were most ingenious. Mrs. Edgeworth painted the scenery +and arranged the dresses. + +The day after the last performance of _Whim for Whim_, the family went +to Dublin for Mr. Edgeworth to attend Parliament, the last Irish +Parliament, he having been returned for the borough of St. John's Town, +in the County of Longford. In the spring Mrs. Edgeworth and Maria +accompanied him to England. + + * * * * * + +_To_ MISS CHARLOTTE SNEYD. + +DUBLIN, _April 2, 1799._ + +In the paper of to-night you will see my father's farewell speech on the +Education Bill. + +Some time ago, amongst some hints to the Chairman of the Committee of +Education, you sent one which I have pursued: you said that the early +lessons for the poor should speak with detestation of the spirit of +revenge: I have just finished a little story called "Forgive and +Forget," upon this idea. I am now writing one on a subject recommended +to me by Dr. Beaufort, on the evils of procrastination; the title of it +is "By-and-Bye." [Footnote: The title was afterwards changed to +"To-morrow."] I am very much obliged to Bessy and Charlotte for copying +the Errata of _Practical Education_ for me, and should be _extremely_ +obliged to the whole Committee of Education and Criticism at +Edgeworthstown, if they would send corrections to me from their own +brains; the same eye (if I may judge by my own) can only see the same +things in looking over the book twenty times. Tell Sneyd that there is a +political print just come out, of a woman, meant for Hibernia, dressed +in orange and green, and holding a pistol in her hand to oppose the +Union. + + +MRS. EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. RUXTON. + +RICHMOND PLACE, CLIFTON, + +_May 26, '99._ + +We are very well settled here, and this house is quite retired and quite +quiet. The prospects are very beautiful, and we have charming green +fields in which we walk, and in which dear Sophy could botanise at her +ease. + +A young man, a Mr. Davy,[Footnote: Sir Humphry Davy, the distinguished +chemist and philosopher, born 1778, died 1829.] at Dr. Beddoes', who has +applied himself much to chemistry, has made some discoveries of +importance, and enthusiastically expects wonders will be performed by +the use of certain gases, which inebriate in the most delightful manner, +having the oblivious effects of Lethe, and at the same time giving the +rapturous sensations of the Nectar of the Gods! Pleasure even to madness +is the consequence of this draught. But faith, great faith, is I believe +necessary to produce any effect upon the drinkers, and I have seen some +of the adventurous philosophers who sought in vain for satisfaction in +the bag of _Gaseous Oxyd_, and found nothing but a sick stomach and a +giddy head. + +Our stay at Clifton was made very agreeable (writes Mrs. Edgeworth) by +the charm of Dr. and Mrs. Beddoes' society; [Footnote: Dr. Beddoes, +described by Sir Humphry Davy as "short and fat, with nothing +_externally_ of genius or science," was very peculiar. One of his +hobbies was to convey cows into invalids' bedrooms, that they might +"inhale the breath of the animals," a prescription which naturally gave +umbrage to the Clifton lodging-house-keepers, who protested that they +had not built or furnished their rooms for the hoofs of cattle. Mrs. +Beddoes had a wonderful charm of wit and cheerfulness.] her grace, +genius, vivacity, and kindness, and his great abilities, knowledge, and +benevolence, rendered their house extremely pleasant. We met at Clifton +Mr. and Mrs. Barbauld. He was an amiable and benevolent man, so eager +against the slave-trade, that when he drank tea with us, he always +brought some East India sugar, that he might not share our wickedness in +eating that made by the negro slave. Mrs. Barbauld, whose _Evenings at +Home_ had so much delighted Maria and her father, was very pretty, and +conversed with great ability in admirable language. + + +MARIA _to_ MRS. RUXTON. + +CLIFTON, _June 5, 1799._ + +Good news, my dearest aunt, my mother is fast asleep: she has a fine +little daughter, who has just finished eating a hearty supper. At nine +minutes before six this evening, to my great joy, my little sister Fanny +came into the world. + +We are impatient for dear Sophy's arrival. My father sends his kindest +love to his dear sister, who has been always the sharer of his pains and +pleasures. I said my mother was asleep, and though my father and I talk +in our sleep, all people do not; if she did, I am sure she would say, +"Love to my Sister Ruxton, and my friend Letty." + + * * * * * + +During this summer the Edgeworths visited Dr. Darwin, whom Maria +Edgeworth considered not only a first-rate genius, but one of the most +benevolent, as well as wittiest of men. He stuttered, but far from this +lessening the charm of his conversation, Miss Edgeworth used to say that +the hesitation and slowness with which his words came forth added to the +effect of his humour and shrewd good sense. Dr. Darwin's sudden death, +17th April 1802, whilst he was writing to Mr. Edgeworth, was a great +sorrow to his Irish friends. + +The family returned home in September 1799. + + * * * * * + +MARIA _to_ MISS RUXTON, LIVING AT ARUNDEL IN SUSSEX. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, + +_Jan, 29, 1800._ + +More precious to us than Arundelian marbles are letters from Arundel, +and after an interval of almost three months dear Sophy's letter was +most welcome. I have no complaints to make of you--_sorrow_ bit of right +have I to complain of you. Some time ago we took a walk to see the old +castle of Cranalagh, from which in the last Rebellion (but one) Lady +Edgeworth was turned out: part of it, just enough to swear by, remains +to this day, and with a venerable wig of ivy at top cuts a very +respectable figure; and, moreover, there are some of the finest laurels +and hollies there that I ever saw, and as fine a smell of a pigsty as +ever I smelt, and an arbor-vitae tree, of which I gathered a leaf, and +thought that I and my gloves should never for the remainder of our lives +get rid of the smell of bad apples, of which this same tree of life +smells. But I have not yet come to the thing I was going to say about +the castle of Cranalagh, viz.--for I love old-fashioned viz.--when we +got near the ruined castle, out comes a barking dog, just such another +as assailed us at the old castle near Black Castle, to which we walked +full fifteen years ago; the first walk I ever took with Sophy, and how +she got home without her shoe, to this hour I cannot comprehend. It was +this barking dog which brought you immediately to my mind, and if I have +given you too much of it you must forgive me. Now we are upon the +subject of old castles, do you remember my retailing to you, at second +hand, a description of my father's visit to the Marquis de la Poype's +old château in Dauphiny, with the cavern of bats and stalactites? A +little while ago my father received a letter in a strange hand, which I +copy for my aunt and you, as I think it will please you as it did us, to +see that this old friend of my father's remembers him with so much +kindness through all the changes and chances that have happened in +France. The letter is from the Marquis de la Poype, who addressed it to +the Abbé Edgeworth, in hopes that the Abbé could transmit it to my +father--the lines at the end are in the Abbé's own hand--the handwriting +of so great and good a man is a curiosity. + +Before this reaches you my father will be in Dublin, he goes on Saturday +next to the call of the House for the grand Union business. Tell my aunt +that he means to speak on the subject on Monday. His sentiments are +unchanged: that the Union would be advantageous to all the parties +concerned, but that England has not any right to do to Ireland _good +against her will._ + +Will you tell me what means you have of getting parcels from London to +Arundel? because I wish to send to my aunt a few "Popular Tales," which +I have finished, as they cannot be wanted for some months by Mr. Johnson. +We have begged Johnson to send _Castle Rackrent_, [Footnote: Published +without the author's name in 1800]. I hope it has reached you: do not +mention to any one that it is ours. Have you seen _Minor Morals_, by +Mrs. Smith? There is in it a beautiful little botanical poem called the +"Calendar of Flora." + + * * * * * + +_Castle Rackrent_, the story of an Irish estate, as told by Thady, the +old steward, was first published anonymously in 1800. Its combination of +Irish humour and pathos, and its illustration of the national character, +first led Walter Scott to try his own skill in depicting Scottish +character in the same way. "If I could," he said to James Ballantyne, +"but hit Miss Edgeworth's wonderful power of vivifying all her persons, +and making them live as _beings_ in your mind, I should not be afraid." +With the publication of _Castle Rackrent_, which was intended to depict +the follies of fashionable life, and was speedily followed by _Belinda_ +[Footnote: There is no doubt that _Belinda_ was much marred by the +alterations made by Mr. Edgeworth, in whose wisdom and skill his far +cleverer daughter had unlimited and touching confidence.] the Edgeworths +immediately became famous, and the books were at once translated into +French and German. + + * * * * * + +MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MISS SOPHY RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, + +_Oct. 20, 1800._ + +This morning dear Henry [Footnote: Eldest son of Mrs. Elizabeth +Edgeworth.] took leave of home, and set out for Edinburgh. "God prosper +him," as I in the language of a fond old nurse keep continually saying +to myself. + +Mr. Chenevix, a famous chemist, was so good as to come here lately to +see my father upon the faith of Mr. Kirwan's assurance that he would +"like Mr. Edgeworth." I often wished for you, my dear Sophy, whilst this +gentleman was here, because you would have been so much entertained with +his conversation about bogs, and mines, and airs, and acids, etc. etc. +His history of his imprisonment during the French Revolution in Paris, I +found more to my taste. When he was thrown into prison he studied +Chaptal and Lavoisier's _Chemistry_ with all his might, and then +represented himself as an English gentleman come over to study chemistry +in France, and M. Chaptal got him released, and employed him, and he got +acquainted with all the chemists and scientific men in France. Mr. +Chenevix has taken a house in Brook Street, London, and turned the +cellar into a laboratory; the people were much afraid to let it to him, +they expected he would blow it up. + + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, + +_Dec. 2, 1800._ + +My mother has had a sore throat, and Aunt Charlotte and Honora have had +feverish attacks, and John Jenkins has had fever, so that my father was +obliged to remove him to his own house in the village. There has been +and is a fever in the lanes of Edgeworthstown, and so quickly does ill +news fly, that this got before us to Collon, to the Speaker's, where we +were invited, and had actually set out last week to spend a few days +there. When we got to Allenstown, we were told that a servant from the +Speaker's had arrived with a letter, and had gone on to Edgeworthstown +with it: we waited for his return with the letter, which was to forbid +our going to Collon, as Mrs. Foster, widow of the Bishop, was there with +her daughters, and was afraid of our bringing infection! We performed +quarantine very pleasantly for a week at Allenstown. Mrs. Waller's +inexhaustible fund of kindness and generosity is like Aboulcasin's +treasure, it is not only inexhaustible, but take what you will from it +it cannot be perceptibly diminished. Harriet Beaufort [Footnote: Sister +of Mrs. Edgeworth.] is indeed a charming excellent girl; I love and +esteem her more and more as I know her better: she has been at different +times between three and four months in the house with us, and I have had +full opportunities of seeing down to the kitchen, and up to the garret +of her mind. + +You are so near Johnson, [Footnote: The bookseller.] that you must of +course know more of Maria's sublime works than Maria knows of them +herself; and besides Lovell, who thinks of them ten times more than +Johnson, has not let you rest in ignorance. An octavo edition of +_Practical Education_ is to come out at Christmas: we have seen a +volume, which looks as well as can be expected. The two first parts of +_Early Lessons_, containing Harry and Lucy, two wee, wee volumes, have +just come over to us. Frank and Rosamond will, I suppose, come after +with all convenient speed. How _Moral Tales_ are arranged, or in what +size they are to appear, I do not know, but I guess they will soon be +published, because some weeks ago we received four engravings for +frontispieces; they are beautifully engraved by Neagle, and do justice +to the designs, two of which are by my mother, and two by Charlotte. I +hope you will like them. There are three stories which will be new to +you, "The Knapsack," "The Prussian Vase," and "Angelina." + +Now, my dear friend, you cannot say that I do not tell you what I am +doing. My father is employed making out Charts of History and +Chronology, such as are mentioned in _Practical Education._ He has just +finished a little volume containing Explanations of Poetry for children: +it explains "The Elegy in a Country Churchyard," "L'Allegro," "Il +Penseroso," and "The Ode to Fear." It will be a very useful schoolbook. +It goes over to-night to Johnson, but how long it will remain with him +before you see it in print I cannot divine. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Edgeworth narrates: + +_Belinda_ was published in 1801. Maria was at Black Castle when the +first copy reached her; she contrived, before her aunt saw it, to tear +out the title-pages of the three volumes, and her aunt read it without +the least suspicion of who was the author, and excessively entertained +and delighted, she insisted on Maria's listening to passage after +passage as she went on. Maria affected to be deeply interested in some +book she held in her hand, and when Mrs. Ruxton exclaimed, "Is not that +admirably written?" Maria coldly replied, "Admirably read, I think." And +then her aunt, as if she had said too much, added, "It may not be so +very good, but it shows just the sort of knowledge of high life which +people have who live in the world." Then again and again she called upon +Maria for her sympathy, till quite provoked at her faint acquiescence, +she at last accused her of being envious: "I am sorry to see my little +Maria unable to bear the praises of a rival author." + +At this Maria burst into tears, and showing her aunt the title-page she +declared herself the author. But Mrs. Ruxton was not pleased--she never +liked _Belinda_ afterwards, and Maria had always a painful recollection +of her aunt's suspecting her of the meanness of envy. + +In 1801 a second edition of _Castle Rackrent_ was published, "By Maria +Edgeworth," as its success was so triumphant that some one--I heard his +name at the time but do not now remember it, and it is better +forgotten--not only asserted that he was the author, but actually took +the trouble to copy out several pages with corrections and erasures, as +if it was his original MS.! + +The _Essay on Irish Bulls_ was published in 1802, "By R.L. Edgeworth and +Maria Edgeworth, author of _Castle Rackrent._" A gentleman, much +interested in improving the breed of Irish cattle, sent, on seeing the +advertisement, for this work on Irish Bulls; he was rather confounded by +the appearance of the classical bull at the top of the first page, which +I had designed from a gem, and when he began to read the book he threw +it away in disgust: he had purchased it as Secretary to the Irish +Agricultural Society. + + * * * * * + +Of the partnership in this book, Miss Edgeworth writes long afterwards: + + * * * * * + +The first design of the essay was my father's; under the semblance of +attack, he wished to show the English public the eloquence, wit, and +talents of the lower classes of people in Ireland. Working zealously +upon the ideas which he suggested, sometimes what was spoken by him was +afterwards written by me; or when I wrote my first thoughts, they were +corrected and improved by him; so that no book was ever written more +completely in partnership. On this, as on most subjects, whether light +or serious, when we wrote together, it would now be difficult, almost +impossible, to recollect which thoughts were originally his and which +were mine. + +The notes on the Dublin shoeblacks' metaphorical language are chiefly +his. I have heard him tell that story with all the natural, +indescribable Irish tones and gestures of which written language can +give but a faint idea. He excelled in imitating the Irish, because he +never overstepped the modesty or the assurance of nature. He marked +exquisitely the happy confidence, the shrewd wit of the people, without +condescending to produce effect by caricature. He knew not only their +comic talents, but their powers of pathos; and often when he had just +heard from me some pathetic complaint, he has repeated it to me while +the impression was fresh. In his chapter on Wit and Eloquence in _Irish +Bulls_, there is a speech of a poor free-holder to a candidate who asked +for his vote: this speech was made to my father when he was canvassing +the county of Longford. It was repeated to me a few hours afterwards, +and I wrote it down instantly without, I believe, the variation of a +word. + + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Aug. 1, 1802._ + +You are a goose or a gosling, whichever you like best, for I perceive +you are in great anxiety lest my poor little imagination should not have +been completely set to rights. Now set your heart at ease, for I, +putting my left hand upon my heart, because I could not conveniently put +my right, which holds the pen, though I acknowledge that would be much +more graceful, do hereby declare that I perfectly understood and +understand the explanation contained in your last, and am fully +satisfied, righted, and delighted therewith. + +I have been much interested by the _Letters from Lausanne_; I think them +in some parts highly pathetic and eloquent, but as to the moral tendency +of the book I cannot find it out, turn it which way I will. I think the +author wrote merely with the intention of showing how well he could +paint passion, and he has succeeded. The Savage of Aveyron [Footnote: A +little history of a boy found in France, "a wild man of the woods." He +was brought to Paris, and the philosophers disputed much on his mental +powers; but he died before they came to any conclusion.] is a thousand +times more interesting to me than Caliste. I have not read anything for +years that interested me so much. Mr. Chenevix will be here in a few +days, when we will cross-question him about this savage, upon whom the +eyes of civilised Europe have been fixed. Mr. Chenevix and his sister, +Mrs. Tuite, and with them Mrs. Jephson, spent a day here last week: she +is clever and agreeable. What did you think of M. Pictet's account of +Edgeworthstown? + + * * * * * + +Professor Marc-Auguste Pictet, of Geneva, visited the Edgeworths this +summer, coming over from Mr. Tuite's, of Sonna, where he was staying +with Mr. Chenevix. He afterwards published an interesting account of his +visit to Edgeworthstown in the _Bibliothèque Britannique_, as well as in +his _Voyage de trois mots en Angleterre_, which was published at Geneva +in 1802. Of Maria Edgeworth he says: + + * * * * * + +I had persuaded myself that the author of the work on Education, and of +other productions, useful as well as ornamental, would betray herself by +a remarkable exterior. I was mistaken. A small figure, eyes nearly +always lowered, a profoundly modest and reserved air, with expression in +the features when not speaking: such was the result of my first survey. +But when she spoke, which was too rarely for my taste, nothing could +have been better thought, and nothing better said, though always timidly +expressed, than that which fell from her mouth. + + * * * * * + +M. Pictet's account of the society at Paris induced Mr. Edgeworth to +determine on going there. He set out in the middle of September, with +Mrs. Edgeworth, Maria, Emmeline, and Charlotte. Emmeline left the rest +of the family at Conway, and went to stay with Mrs. Beddoes at Clifton, +where she was married to Mr. King (or Konig, a native of Berne), a +distinguished surgeon. + +In London Mr. Edgeworth purchased a roomy coach, in which his family +travelled very comfortably. + + * * * * * + +MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MISS SOPHY RUXTON. + +LOUGHBOROUGH, _Sept. 25, 1802._ + +I calculate, my dear Sophy, that you have accused me at least a hundred +times of being lazy and good-for-nothing, because I have not written +since we left Dublin; but do not be angry, I was not well during the +time we were in Dublin, nor for two or three days after we landed: but +three days' rest at Bangor Ferry recovered me completely, and thanks to +Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman, I am now in perfectly good +plight. + +To take up things at the beginning. We had a tedious passage, but +Charlotte and I sat upon deck, and were well enough to be much amused +with all the manoeuvring of the sails, etc. The light reflected upon the +waters from the lighthouse contracted instead of diverging: I mention +this, because there was an argument held upon the subject either at +Black Castle or at Collon. As we were all sitting upon deck drinking tea +in the morning, a large, very large, woman who was reading opposite to +us, fell from her seat with a terrible noise. We all thought she had +fallen down dead: the gentlemen gathered round her, and when she was +lifted up, she was a shocking spectacle, her face covered with blood, +she had fallen upon one of the large nails in the deck. She recovered +her senses, but when she was carried down to the cabin she fainted +again, and remained two hours senseless. "She has a mother, ma'am," said +the steward, "who is lying a-dying at Holyhead, and she frets greatly +for her." We were told afterwards that this lady has for twenty years +crossed the sea annually to visit her mother, though she never could +make the passage without swooning. She was a coarse, housekeeper-looking +woman, without any pretence to sentimentality, but I think she showed +more affection and real heroism than many who have been immortalised by +the pen or pencil. + +Nothing new or entertaining from Holyhead to Bangor. A delightful day at +Bangor, pleasant walk: Charlotte drew some Welsh peasants and children: +we tried to talk to them, but _Dumsarzna_, or words to that effect, "I +don't understand English," was the constant answer, and the few who +could speak English seemed to have no wish to enter into conversation +with us: the farmers intrenched themselves in their houses and shut +their doors as fast as they could when we approached. From Bangor Ferry +we took a pleasant excursion to Carnarvon--do not be afraid, I shall not +give you a long description of the castle--I know you have seen it, but +I wish I knew whether you and I saw it with the same ideas. I could not +have conceived that any building or ruin could have appeared to me so +sublime. The amazing size! the distinctness of the parts! the simplicity +of the design, the thickness of the walls, the air of grandeur even in +decay! In the courtyard of the castle an old horse and three cows were +grazing, and beneath the cornices on the walls two goats, half black +half white, were browsing. I believe that old castles interest one by +calling up ideas of past times, which are in such strong contrast with +the present. In the courtyard of this castle were brewing vessels in +vaults which had formerly perhaps been dungeons, and pitched sails +stretched upon the walls to dry: the spirit of old romance and modern +manufactures do not agree. + +Mr. Waitman, the landlord of the Carnarvon Hotel, accompanied us to the +castle, and he was indeed a glorious contrast to the enthusiastic old +man who showed the ruins. This old man's eyes brightened when he talked +of the Eagle Tower, and he seemed to forget that he had a terrible +asthma whilst he climbed the flights of stone stairs. Our landlord, a +thorough Englishman, in shrewd, wilful independence, entertained my +father by his character and conversation, and pleased him by his praises +of Lovell, of whom he spoke with much gratitude. We returned at night to +Bangor Ferry. Early next morning my father and mother, on two Welsh +ponies, trotted off to see Lord Penrhyn's slate quarries. We had orders +to follow them in a few hours. In the meantime who do you think arrived? +Mr. and Mrs. Saunderson, with all their children. They seemed as glad to +see me as I was to see them. They had intended to go another road, but +went on to Conway on purpose to spend the day with us. A most pleasant +day we did spend with them. They were going to Bristol to see their son, +and when they found that Emmeline was going there, they offered in the +kindest and most polite manner to take her with them. We parted with +Emmeline and with them the next morning; they went to Keniogy, which I +can't spell, and we went to Holywell, and saw the copper works, a vast +manufactory, in which there seemed to be no one at work. We heard and +saw large wheels turning without any visible cause, "instinct with +spirit all." At first nothing but the sound of dripping water, then a +robin began to sing amongst the rafters of the high and strange roof. +The manufactory in which the men were at work was a strong contrast to +this desolate place, a stunning noise, Cyclops with bared arms dragging +sheets of red-hot copper, and thrusting it between the cylinders to +flatten it; while it passed between these, the flame issued forth with a +sort of screeching noise. When I first heard it I thought somebody was +hurt: the flame was occasioned by the burning of the grease put between +the rollers. There were a number of children employed drawing straight +lines on the sheets of copper, ready for a man with a large pair of +shears to cut. The whole process was simple. + +Saw the famous well, in which the spring supplies a hundred tuns a +minute. Went on to Chester and Newcastle, in hopes of finding Jos. +Wedgwood at Etruria: were told he was not in the country, but just as +our chaise whips up, papa espied Wedgwood's partner, who told him Jos. +_was_ at Etruria: came last night, would stay but one day. Went to +Etruria, Jos. received us as you would expect, and all the time I was +with him I had full in my recollection the handsome manner in which you +told me he spoke of my father. The mansion-house at Etruria is +excellent; but, alas! the Wedgwoods have bought an estate in +Dorsetshire, and are going to leave Etruria. I do not mean that they +have given up their share in the manufactory. Saw a flint mill worked by +a steam-engine just finished, cannot stay to describe it--for two +reasons, because I cannot describe it intelligibly, and because I want +to get on to the Priory to Mrs. and the Miss Darwins. Poor Dr. Darwin! +[Footnote: Dr. Darwin died 17th April 1802.] It was melancholy to go to +that house to which, in the last lines he ever wrote, he had invited us. +The servants in deep mourning: Mrs. Darwin and her beautiful daughters +in deep mourning. She was much affected at seeing my father, and seemed +to regret her husband as such a husband ought to be regretted. I liked +her exceedingly; there was so much heart, and so little constraint or +affectation in all she said and did, or looked. There was a charming +picture of Dr. Darwin in the room, in which his generous soul appeared +and his penetrating benevolent genius. How unlike the wretched +misanthropic print we have seen! While I am writing this at +Loughborough, my father is a few miles off at Castle Donnington. I +forgot to tell you that we spent a delightful day, or remnant of a day, +on our return from the Priory, at Mr. Strutt's. + + +_To_ MRS. MARY SNEYD. + +LONDON, NEROT'S HOTEL, _Sept. 27, 1802._ + +We have been here about an hour, and next to the pleasure of washing +face and hands, which were all covered with red Woburn sand and +Dunstable chalk, and London dust, comes the pleasure of writing to you, +my dear good Aunt Mary. How glad I should be to give you any proof of +gratitude for the many large and little kindnesses you have shown to me. +There is no one in the world who can deserve to be thought of more at +all times, and in all situations, than you; for there is no one thinks +so much of others. As long as there is any one worth your loving upon +earth, you cannot be unhappy. I think you would have been very apt to +make the speech attributed to St. Theresa: "Le pauvre Diable! comme je +le plains! Il ne peut rien aimer. Ah! qu'il doit être malheureux!" + +But whilst I am talking sentiment you may be impatient for news. The +first and best news is, that my father is extremely well. Travelling, he +says, has done him a vast deal of good, and whoever looks at him +believes him. It would be well for all faces if they had that effect on +the spectators, or rather perhaps it would be ill for the credulous +spectators. Isabella of Aragon, _or_ Lord Chesterfield, or both, call a +good countenance the best letter of recommendation. Whenever Nature +gives false letters of recommendation, she swindles in the most +abominable manner. Where she refuses them where they are best deserved, +she only gives additional motive for exertion (_vide_ Socrates or his +bust).[Footnote: An alabaster bust of Socrates, which stood on the +chimney-piece in the drawing-room at Black Castle.] And after all, +Nature is forced out of her letters of recommendation sooner or later. +You know that it is said by Lavater, that the _muscles_ of Socrates' +countenance are beautiful, and these became so by the play given to them +by the good passions, etc. etc. etc. + +Charlotte tells me she carried you in her last as far as Loughborough +and Castle Donnington, will you be so good to go on to Leicester with +me? But before we set out for Leicester, I should like to take you to +Castle Donnington, "the magnificent seat of the Earl of Moira." But then +how can I do that, when I did not go there myself? Oh! I can describe +after a description as well as my betters have done before me in prose +and verse, and a description of my father's is better than the reality +seen with my own eyes. The first approach to Donnington disappointed +him; he looked round and saw neither castle, nor park, nor anything to +admire till he came to the top of a hill, when in the valley below +suddenly appeared the turrets of a castle, surpassing all he had +conceived of light and magnificent in architecture: a real castle! not a +modern, bungling imitation. The inside was suitable in grandeur to the +outside; hall, staircase, antechambers; the library fitted up entirely +with books in plain handsome mahogany bookcases, not a frippery +ornament, everything grand, but not gaudy; marble tables, books upon the +tables; nothing littered, but sufficient signs of living and occupied +beings. At the upper end of the room sat two ladies copying music: a +gentleman walking about with a book in his hand: neither Lord Moira nor +Lady Charlotte Rawdon in the room. The gentleman, Mr. Sedley, not having +an instinct like Mademoiselle Panache for a gentleman, did not, till +Lord Moira entered the room and received my father with open arms, feel +sure that he was worthy of more than monosyllable civility. Lord Moira +took the utmost pains to show my father that he was pleased with his +visit, said he must have the pleasure of showing him over the house +himself, and finished by giving him a letter to the Princess Joseph de +Monaco, who is now at Paris. She was Mrs. Doyle. He also sent to Mrs. +Edgeworth the very finest grapes I ever beheld. I wished the moment I +saw them, my dear aunt, that you had a bunch of them. + +We proceeded to Leicester. Handsome town, good shops: walked whilst +dinner was getting ready to a circulating library. My father asked for +_Belinda, Bulls_, etc., found they were in good repute--_Castle +Rackrent_ in better--the others often borrowed, but _Castle Rackrent_ +often bought. The bookseller, an open-hearted man, begged us to look at +a book of poems just published by a Leicester lady, a Miss Watts. I +recollected to have seen some years ago a specimen of this lady's +proposed translation of Tasso, which my father had highly admired. He +told the bookseller that we would pay our respects to Miss Watts, if it +would be agreeable to her. When we had dined, we set out with our +enthusiastic bookseller. We were shown by the light of a lanthorn along +a very narrow passage between high walls, to the door of a +decent-looking house: a maid-servant, candle in hand, received us. "Be +pleased, ladies, to walk upstairs." A neatish room, nothing +extraordinary in it except the inhabitants. Mrs. Watts, a tall, +black-eyed, prim, dragon-looking woman in the background. Miss Watts, a +tall young lady in white, fresh colour, fair thin oval face, rather +pretty. The moment Mrs. Edgeworth entered, Miss Watts, mistaking her for +the authoress, darted forward with arms, long thin arms, outstretched to +their utmost swing, "OH, WHAT AN HONOUR THIS IS!!" each word and +syllable rising in tone till the last reached a scream. Instead of +embracing my mother, as her first action threatened, she started back to +the farthest end of the room, which was not light enough to show her +attitude distinctly, but it seemed to be intended to express the +receding of awestruck admiration--stopped by the wall. Charlotte and I +passed by unnoticed, and seated ourselves by the old lady's desire: she +after many twistings of her wrists, elbows, and neck, all of which +appeared to be dislocated, fixed herself in her armchair, resting her +hands on the black mahogany _splayed_ elbows. Her person was no sooner +at rest than her eyes and all her features began to move in all +directions. She looked like a nervous and suspicious person electrified. +She seemed to be the acting partner in this house to watch over her +treasure of a daughter, to supply her with worldly wisdom, to look upon +her as a phoenix, and--scold her. Miss Watts was all ecstasy and lifting +up of hands and eyes, speaking always in that loud, shrill, theatrical +tone with which a puppet-master supplies his puppets. I all the time sat +like a mouse. My father asked, "Which of those ladies, madam, do you +think is your sister authoress?"--"I am no physiognomist"--in a +screech--"but I do imagine that to be the lady," bowing as she sat +almost to the ground, and pointing to Mrs. Edgeworth. "No, guess +again."--"Then that must be _she_" bowing to Charlotte. "No."--"Then +this lady," looking forward to see what sort of an animal I was, for she +had never seen me till this instant. To make me some amends, she now +drew her chair close to me, and began to pour forth praises: "Lady +Delacour, O! Letters for Literary Ladies, O!" + +Now for the pathetic part. This poor girl sold a novel in four volumes +for ten guineas to Lane. My father is afraid, though she has +considerable talents, to recommend her to Johnson, lest she should not +_answer._ Poor girl, what a pity she had no friend to direct her +talents; how much she made me feel the value of mine! + + +_To_ MISS SOPHY RUXTON. + +BRUSSELS, _Oct. 15, 1802._ + +After admiring on the ramparts of Calais the Poissardes with their +picturesque nets, ugly faces, and beautiful legs, we set out for +Gravelines, with whips clacking in a manner which you certainly cannot +forget. The stillness and desolation of Gravelines was like the city in +the Arabian Tales where every one is turned into stone. Fortifications +constructed by the famous Vauban, lunes, and demi-lunes, and curtains, +all which did not prevent the French from trotting through it. + +We left Gravelines with an equipage at which Sobriety herself could not +have forborne to laugh: to our London coach were fastened by long rope +traces six Flemish horses of different heights, but each large and +clumsy enough to draw an English waggon. The nose of the foremost horse +was thirty-five feet from the body of the coach, their hoofs all shaggy, +their manes all uncombed, and their tails long enough to please Sir +Charles Grandison himself. These beasts were totally disencumbered of +every sort of harness except one strap which fastened the saddle on +their backs; and high, high upon their backs, sat perfectly +perpendicular, long-waisted postillions in jack-boots, with pipes in +their mouths. The country appeared one vast flat common, without hedges, +or ditches, or trees, tiled farmhouses of equal size and similar form at +even distances. All that the power of monotony can do to put a traveller +to sleep is here tried; but the rattling and jolting on the paved roads +set Morpheus and monotony both at defiance. To comfort ourselves we had +a most entertaining _Voyage dans les Pays Bas par M. Breton_ to read, +and the charming story of Mademoiselle de Clermont in Madame de Genlis's +_Petits Romans._ I never read a more pathetic and finely written tale. + +Dunkirk is an ugly, bustling town. Strange-looking _charettes_, driven +by thin men in cocked hats,--the window-shutters turned out to the +streets and painted by way of signs with various commodities. A variety +of things, among them little shifts, petticoats, and corsets, were +fairly spread upon the ground on the bridges and in the streets. The +famous basin, about which there have been such disputes, is little +worth. Voltaire wonders at the English and French waging war "for a few +acres of snow"; he might with equal propriety have laughed at them for +fighting about a _slop-basin._ The _pont-tournant_ is well worth seeing, +and for those who have strong legs and who have breakfasted, it is worth +while to climb the two hundred and sixty-four steps of the tower. Whilst +we were climbing the town clock struck, and the whole tower vibrated, +and the vibration communicated itself to our ears and heads in a most +sublime and disagreeable manner. + +At Dunkirk we entered what was formerly called L'ancien Brabant, and all +things and all persons began to look like Dutch prints and Dutch toys, +especially the women with their drop earrings, and their necklaces like +the labels of decanters, their long-waisted, long-flapped jackets of one +colour, and stiff petticoats of another. Even when moving the people all +looked like wooden toys set in motion by strings--the strings in +Flanders must be of gold: the Flemings seem to be all a money-making, +money-loving people: they are fast recovering their activity after the +Revolution. + +The road to Bruges, fifty feet broad, solidly paved in the middle, +seems, like all French and Flemish roads, to have been laid out by some +inflexible mathematician: they are always right lines, the shortest +possible between two points. The rows of trees on each side of these +never-ending avenues are of the ugliest sort and figure possible: tall +poplars stripped almost to the top, as you would strip a pen, and +pollarded willows: the giant poplar and the dwarf willow placed side by +side alternately, knight and squire. The postillions have badges like +the badges of charity schools, strapped round their arms; these are +numbered and registered, and if they behave ill, a complaint may be +lodged against them by merely writing their names on the register, which +excludes them from a pension, to which they would be entitled if they +behaved well for a certain number of years. The post-houses are often +lone, wretched places, one into which I peeped, a _grenier_, like that +described by Smollett, in which the murdered body is concealed. At +another post-house we met with a woman calling herself a _servante_, to +whom we took not only an aversion, but a horror; Charlotte said that she +should be afraid, not of that woman's cutting her throat, but that she +would take a mallet and strike her head flat at one blow. Do you +remember the woman in _Caleb Williams_, when he wakens and sees her +standing over him with an uplifted hatchet? Our _servante_ might have +stood for this picture. + +Bruges is a very old, desolate-looking town, which seems to have felt in +common with its fellow-towns the effects of the Revolution. As we were +charged very high at the Hôtel d'Angleterre, at Dunkirk, my father +determined to go to the Hôtel de Commerce at Bruges, an old strange +house which had been a monastery: the man chamber-maid led us through +gallery after gallery, up stairs and down stairs, turning all manner of +ways, with a bunch of keys in his hand, each key ticketed with a pewter +ticket. There were twenty-eight bed-chambers: thank heaven we did not +see them all! I never shall forget the feeling I had when the door of +the room was thrown open in which we were to sleep. It was so large and +so dark, that I could scarcely see the low bed in a recess in the wall, +covered with a dark brown quilt. I am sure Mrs. Radcliffe might have +kept her heroine wandering about this room for six good pages. When we +meet I will tell Margaret of the night Charlotte and I spent in this +room, and the footsteps we heard overhead--just a room and just a night +to suit her taste. + +In the morning we went to see the Central School; it is in what was an +old monastery, and the church belonging to it is filled with pictures +collected from all the suppressed convents, monasteries, and churches. +Buonaparte has lately restored some of their pictures to the churches, +but those by Rubens and Raphael are at Paris. In the cabinet of natural +history there is the skeleton and the skin of a man who was guillotined, +as fine white leather as ever you saw. The preparations for these Écoles +Centrales are all too vast and ostentatious: the people are just +beginning to send their children to them. Government finds them too +expensive, and their number is to be diminished. The librarian of this +École Centrale at Bruges is an Englishman, or rather a Jamaica man, of +the name of Edwards. Brian Edwards was his great friend, and he was well +acquainted with Johnson the bookseller, and Dr. Aikin, and Mr. and Mrs. +Barbauld. Mr. Edwards and his son had often met Lovell at Johnson's, and +spoke of him quite with affection. The two sons spent the evening with +us, and they and their father accompanied us next morning part of our +way to Ghent. We went by the canal barque, as elegant as any +pleasure-boat I ever was in. My father entertained the Edwards with the +history of his physiognomical guesses in a stage-coach. The eldest son +piques himself upon telling character from handwriting. He was positive +that mine could not be the hand of a woman, and then he came off by +saying it was the writing of a _manly_ character! We had an extremely +fine day, and the receding prospect of Bruges, with its mingled spires, +shipping, and windmills, the tops of their giant vanes moving above the +trees, gave a pleasing example of a Flemish landscape, recalling the +pictures of Teniers and the prints of Le Bas. We had good and agreeable +company on board our barque, the Mayor of Bruges and his lady; her +friend, a woman of good family; and an old Baron Triste, of a +sixteen-quartering family. At the name of Mayor of Bruges, you probably +represent to yourself a fat, heavy, formal, self-sufficient +mortal--_tout au contraire_: our Mayor was a thin gentleman, of easy +manners, literature, and amusing conversation: Madame, a beautiful +Provinciale. M. Lerret, the Mayor, found us out to be the Edgeworths +described by M. Pictet in the _Journal Britannique._ Since we came to +France we have found M. Pictet's account very useful, for at every +public library, and in every École Centrale, the _Journal Britannique_ +is taken, and we have consequently received many civilities. It was +Sunday, and when we arrived at Ghent, all the middling people of the +town in their holiday clothes were assembled on the banks of the canal +according to custom to see the barque arrive: they made the scene very +cheerful. The old Baron de Triste, though he had not dined, and though +he had, as he said of himself, "un faim de diable," stayed to battle our +coach and trunks through an army of custom-house officers. We stayed two +days at Ghent, and saw pictures and churches without number. Here were +some fine pictures by that Crayer of whom Rubens said, "Crayer! personne +ne te surpassera!" Do not be afraid, my dear Sophy, I am not going to +overwhelm you with pictures, nor to talk of what I don't understand; but +it is extremely agreeable to me to see paintings with those who have +excellent taste and no affectation. At the École Centrale was a smart +little librarian, to whom we were obliged for getting the doors of the +cathedral opened to us _at night_: we went in by moonlight, the +appearance was sublime; lights burning on the altar veiled from sight, +and our own monstrous shadows cast on the pillars, added to the effect. +The verger took one of the tall candles to light us to some monuments in +white marble of exquisite sculpture. There were no pictures, but the +walls were painted in the manner of the Speaker's room at the Temple, +and by the master who taught De Gray. This kind of painting seems to +suit churches, and to harmonise well with sculpture and statues. + +My dear friend, I have not room to say half I intended, but let me make +what resolutions I please, I never can get all I want to say to you into +a letter. + + +_To_ MISS CHARLOTTE SNEYD. + +CHANTILLY, _Oct. 29, 1802._ + +I last night sent a folio sheet to Sophy, giving the history of +ourselves as far as Brussels, where we spent four days very much to our +satisfaction: it is full of fine buildings, charming public walks, the +country about it beautiful. In the Place Royale are two excellent +hotels, Hôtel d'Angleterre and Hôtel de Flandres, to which we went, and +found that Mr. Chenevix and Mr. Knox were in the other. + +My father thought it would be advantageous to us to see inferior +pictures before seeing those of the best masters, that we might have +some points of comparison; and upon the same principle we went to two +provincial theatres at Dunkirk and Brussels: but unluckily, I mean +unluckily for our _principles_, we saw at Brussels two of the best Paris +actors, M. and Madame Talma. The play was Racine's _Andromaque_ +(imitated in England as the _Distressed Mother_). Madame Talma played +Andromaque, and her husband Orestes: both exquisitely well. I had no +idea of fine acting till I saw them, and my father, who had seen +Garrick, and Mrs. Siddons, and Yates, and Le Kain, says he never saw +anything superior to Madame Talma. We read the play in the morning, an +excellent precaution, otherwise the novelty of the French mode of +declamation would have set my comprehension at defiance. There was a +ranting Hermione, who had a string too tight round her waist, which made +her bosom heave like the bellows of a bagpipe whenever she worked with +her clasped hands against her heart to pump out something like passion. +There was also a wretched Pyrrhus, and an old Phoenix, whose gray wig I +expected every moment to fall off. + +Next to this beautiful tragedy, the thing that interested and amused me +most at Brussels were the dogs: not lap-dogs, but the dogs that draw +carts and heavy hampers. Every day I beheld numbers of these +_traîneaux_, often four, harnessed abreast, and driven like horses. I +remember in particular seeing a man standing upright on one of these +little carriages, and behind him two large hampers full of mussels, the +whole drawn by four dogs. And another day I saw a boy of about ten years +old driving four dogs harnessed to a little carriage; he crossed our +carriage as we were going down a street called La Montagne de la Cour, +without fearing our four Flemish horses. La Montagne de la Cour is a +very grand name, and you may perhaps imagine that it means a MOUNTAIN, +but be it known to you, my dear aunt, that in Le Pays Bas, as well as in +the County of Longford, they make mountains of molehills. The whole road +from Calais to Ghent is as flat and as straight as the road to Longford. +We never knew when we came to what the innkeeper and postillions call +mountains, except by the postillions getting off their horses with great +deliberation and making them go a snail's walk--a snail's gallop would +be much too fast. Now it is no easy thing for a French postillion to +walk himself when he is in his boots: these boots are each as large and +as stiff as a wooden churn, and when the man in his boots attempts to +walk, he is more helpless than a child in a go-cart: he waddles on, +dragging his boots after him in a way that would make a pig laugh. As +Lord Granard says, "A pig can whistle, though he has a bad mouth for +it," [Footnote: A long argument on genius and education, between Lady +Moira and Mr. Edgeworth, had been ended by Lord Granard wittily saying, +"A pig may be made to whistle, but he has a bad mouth for it."] I +presume that _by a parity of reasoning_ a pig may laugh. But I must not +talk any more nonsense. + +We left Brussels last Sunday (you are looking in your pocket-book, dear +Aunt Mary, for the day of the month; I see you looking). The first place +of any note we went to was Valenciennes, where we saw houses and +churches in ruins, the effect of English wars and French revolutions. +Though Valenciennes lace is very pretty we bought none, recollecting +that though Coventry is famous for ribbons, and Tewkesbury for +stockings, yet only the worst ribbons, and the worst stockings are to be +had at Coventry and Tewkesbury. Besides, we are not expert at counting +Flemish money, which is quite different from French, and puzzling enough +to drive the seven sages of Greece mad. Even the natives cannot count it +without rubbing their foreheads, and counting in their hands, and +repeating _c'a fait, cela fait._ For my part I fairly gave the point up, +and resolved to be cheated rather than go distracted. But indeed the +Flemish are not cheats, as far as I have seen of them. They would go to +the utmost borders of honesty for a couronne de Brabant, or a +demi-couronne, or a double escalin, or a single escalin, or a plaquet, +or a livre, or a sous, or a liard, or for any the vilest denomination of +their absurd coin, yet I do not believe they would go beyond the bounds +of honesty with any but an English Milor: they are privileged dupes. A +maid at the hotel at Dunkirk said to me, "Ah! Madame, nous autres nous +aimons bien de voir rouler les Anglais." Yes, because they think the +English roll in gold. + +Now we will go to Cambray, famous for its cambric and its archbishop. +Buonaparte had so much respect for the memory of Fénelon, that he fixed +the seat of the present Archbishopric at Cambray instead of at Lille, as +had been proposed. We saw Fénelon's head here, preserved in a church. +But to return from archbishops to cambrics. Our hostess at Cambray was a +dealer in cambrics, and in her bale of _baptistes_ she seemed literally +to have her being. She was, in spite of cambric and Valenciennes +lace--of which she had a dirty superfluity on her cap lined with +pink--the very ugliest of the female species I had ever beheld. We were +made amends for her by a most agreeable family who kept the inn at Roye: +their ancestors had kept this inn for a hundred and fifty years; the +present landlord and his wife are about sixty-eight and sixty, and their +daughter, about twenty, of a slight figure, vast vivacity in her mind +and in all her motions; she does almost all the business of the house, +and seems to love _papa et maman_ better than anything in the world, +except talking. My father formed a hundred good wishes for her: first, +when he heard her tell a story, she used such admirable variety of +action, that he wished her on the stage: then when she waited at supper, +with all the nimbleness and dexterity of a female harlequin, he wished +that she was married to Jack Langan, that she might keep the new inn at +Edgeworthstown: but his last and best wish for her was that she should +be waiting-maid to you and Aunt Mary. He thought she would please you +both particularly: for my part, I thought she would talk a great deal +too much for you. However, her father and mother would not part with her +for Pitt's diamond. + +We saw to-day the residence of the Prince de Condé, and of a long line +of princes famous for virtue and talents--the celebrated palace of +Chantilly, made still more interesting to us by having just read the +beautiful tale by Madame de Genlis, "Mademoiselle de Clermont;" it would +delight my dear Aunt Mary, it is to be had in the first volume of the +_Petits Romans_, and those are to be found by Darcy, if he be not drunk, +at Archer's, Dublin. After going for an hour and a half through thick, +dark forest, in which Virginia might have lived secure from sight of +mortal man, we came into open day and open country, and from the top of +a hill beheld a mass of magnificent building, shaded by wood. I imagined +this was the palace, but I was told that these buildings were only the +stables of Chantilly. The Palace, alas! is no more! it was pulled down +by the Revolutionists. The stables were saved by a petition from the War +Minister, stating that they would make stabling for troops, and to +this use they are now applied. As we drove down the hill we saw the +melancholy remains of the Palace: only the white arches on which it was +built, covered with crumbled stone and mortar. We walked to look at the +riding-house, built by the Prince de Condé, a princely edifice! Whilst +we were looking at it, we heard a flute played near us, and we were told +that the young man who played it was one of the poor Prince de Condé's +chasseurs. The person who showed the ruins to us was a melancholy- +looking man, who had been employed his whole life to show the +gardens and Palace of Chantilly: he is about sixty, and had saved some +hundred pounds in the Prince's service. He now shows their ruins, and +tells where the Prince and Princess once slept, and where there _were_ +fine statues, and charming walks. + +We have had but one day's rain since we left you; if we had picked the +weather we could not have had finer. The country through which we came +from Brussels was for the most part beautiful, planted in side-scenes, +after my father's manner, you know. The English who can see nothing +worth seeing in this country, must certainly pass through it with huge +blinkers of prejudice. + + +PARIS, _Wednesday._ + +We arrived about three o'clock, and are lodged for a few days at the +Hôtel de Courlande. I forgot to tell you that we saw an officer with +furred waistcoat, and furred pockets, and monstrous moustache; he looked +altogether very like the Little Gibbon in Shaw's _Zoology_, only the +Little Gibbon does not look as conceited as this man did. + +We are now, my dear Aunt Mary, in a magnificent hotel in the fine +square, formerly Place Louis Quinze, afterwards Place de la Revolution, +and now Place de la Concorde. Here the guillotine was once at work night +and day; and here died Louis Seize, and Marie Antoinette, and Madame +Roland: opposite to us is the Seine and _La Lanterne._ On one side of +this square are the Champs Élysées. + + +_To_ MRS. MARY SNEYD. + +PARIS, RUE DE LILLE, + +_Oct. 31, 1802._ + +I left off at the Hôtel de Courlande. We were told there was a fine view +of Paris from the leads; and so indeed there is, and the first object +that struck us was the Telegraph at work! The first _voiture de remise_ +(job-coach in plain English) into which we got, belonged to--whom do you +think?--to the Princess Elizabeth. The Abbé Edgeworth had probably been +in this very coach with her. The master of this house was one of the +King's guards, a Swiss. Our apartments are all on one floor. The day +after our arrival M. Delessert, he whom M. Pictet describes as a French +Rumford, invited us to spend the evening with his mother and sister. We +went: found an excellent house, a charming family, with whom we felt we +were perfectly acquainted after we had been in the room with them for +five minutes. Madame Delessert, [Footnote: The benevolence of the +generous Madame Delessert is said to be depicted in one of the stories +in Berquin's _Ami des Enfans._] the mother, an elderly lady of about +sixty, has the species of politeness and conversation that my Aunt +Ruxton has: I need not say how much I like her. Her daughter, Madame +Gautier, has fine large black eyes, very obliging and sensible, well +dressed, not at all naked: people need not be naked here unless they +choose it. Rousseau's _Letters on Botany_ were written for this lady; he +was a friend of the family. She has two fine children of eight and ten, +to whose education she devotes her time and talents. Her second brother, +François Delessert, about twenty, was educated chiefly by her, and does +her great credit, and what is better for her, is extremely fond of her: +he seems the darling of his mother, _François mon fils_ she calls him +every minute. In his countenance and manners he is something like Henry; +he has that sober kind of cheerfulness, that ingenuous openness, and +that modest, gentlemanlike ease which pleases without effort, and +without bustle. Madame Gautier does not live at Paris, but at a country +house at Passy, the Richmond of Paris, about two miles out of town. She +invited us to spend a day there, and a most pleasant day we passed. The +situation beautiful, the house furnished with elegance and good sense, +the society most agreeable. M. Delessert _père_, an old sensible man, +the rest of the family, and Madame de Pastoret, [Footnote: Madame de +Pastoret is the "Madame de Fleury" of Miss Edgeworth's story. She first +established infant schools in France.] a literary and fashionable lady, +with something of Mrs. Saunderson's best style of conversation: M. de +Pastoret, her husband, a man of diplomatic knowledge; Lord Henry Petty, +son of Lord Lansdowne, with whom my father had much conversation; the +Swiss Ambassador, whose name I will not attempt to spell; M. Dumont, +[Footnote: M. Pierre Etienne Louis Dumont, tutor to Lord Henry Petty +(afterwards the famous second Marquis of Lansdowne), had translated +Bentham's _Traités sur la Législation_, and _Théorie des Peines et des +Récompenses._ He became an intimate friend and much-valued critic of +Miss Edgeworth.] a Swiss gentleman, travelling with Lord Henry Petty, +very sensible and entertaining, I am sorry that he has since left Paris; +M. d'Etaing, of whom I know nothing; and last, but indeed not least, the +Abbé Morellet, [Footnote: The author of several works on political +economy and statistics; born 1727, died 1819.] of whom you have heard my +father speak. O! my dear Aunt Mary, how you would love that man, and we +need not be afraid of loving him, for he is near eighty. But it is +impossible to believe that he is so old when one either hears him speak, +or sees him move. He has all the vivacity, and feeling, and wit of +youth, and all the gentleness that youth ought to have. His conversation +is delightful, nothing too much or too little; sense, and gaiety, and +learning, and reason, and that perfect knowledge of the world which +mixes so well but so seldom with a knowledge of books. He invited us to +breakfast, and this morning we spent with him. My dearest Aunt Mary, I +do wish you had been with us; I know that you would have been so much +pleased. The house so convenient, so comfortable, so many inventions the +same as my father's. He has a sister living with him, Madame de +Montigny, an amiable, sensible woman: her daughter was married to +Marmontel, who died a few years ago: she alas! is not at Paris. + +My father did not present any of his letters of introduction till +yesterday, because he wished that we should be masters and mistresses of +our own time to see sights before we saw people. We have been to +Versailles--melancholy magnificence--La petite Trianon: the poor Queen! +and at the Louvre, or as it is now called, La Musée, to see the +celebrated gallery of pictures. I was entertained, but tired with seeing +so many pictures, all to be admired, and all in so bad a light, that my +little neck was almost broken, and my little eyes almost strained out, +trying to see them. We were all extremely interested yesterday seeing +what are called Les Monuments Français--all the statues and monuments of +the great men of France, arranged according to their dates in the +apartments of the ancient Monastery des Augustins. Here we saw old Hugh +Capet, with his nose broken, and King Pepin, with his nose flattened by +time, and Catherine de Medicis, in full dress, but not in full beauty, +and Francis I., and dear Henry IV. + +We have been to the Théâtre Français and to the Théâtre Feydau, both +fine houses: decorations, etc., superior to English: acting much +superior in comedy; in tragedy they bully, and rant, and throw +themselves into Academy attitudes too much. + + +R.L. EDGEWORTH _to_ MISS CHARLOTTE SNEYD. + +PARIS, _Nov. 18, 1802._ + +Maria told you of M. and Madame de Pastoret; in the same house on +another floor--for different families here have entire "apartments," you +observe the word, in one house--we met M. and Madame Suard: [Footnote: +M. Suard was editor of the _Publiciste._] he is accounted one of the +most refined critics of Paris, and has for many years been at the head +of newspapers of different denominations; at present he is at the head +of _La Publiciste._ He is prudent, highly informed, not only in books, +but in the politics of different states and the characters of men in all +the different countries of Europe. Madame Suard has the remains of much +beauty, a _belle esprit_, and aims at singularity and independence of +sentiment. Would you believe it, Mr. Day paid his court to her thirty +years ago? She is very civil to us, and we go to their house once a +week: literati frequent it, and to each of them she has something to +say. + +At Madame de Pastoret's we met M. Degerando [Footnote: Marie Joseph +Degerando, writer on education and philosophy, 1772-1842.] and M. +Camille Jordan. Not Camille de Jourdan, the assassin, nor Camille +Desmoulins, another assassin, nor General Jourdan, another assassin, but +a young man of agreeable manners, gentle disposition, and much +information; he lives near Paris, with his Pylades Degerando, who is +also a man of much information, married to a pretty sprightly domestic +woman, who nurses her child in earnest. Camille Jordan has written an +admirably eloquent pamphlet on the choice of Buonaparte as first consul +for life; it was at first forbidden, but the Government wisely +recollected that to forbid is to excite curiosity. We three have had +profound metaphysical conferences in which we have avoided contest and +have generally ended by being of the same opinion. We went, by +appointment, to Madame Campan's--she keeps the greatest boarding-school +in France--to meet Madame Recamier, the beautiful lady who had been +nearly squeezed to death in London. How we liked the school and its +conductress, who professes to follow _Practical Education_, I leave to +Maria to tell you. How we like Madame Recamier is easily told; she is +certainly handsome, but there is nothing noble in her appearance; she +was very civil. M. de Prony, [Footnote: Gaspard Clair François Marie +Riche, baron de Prony, the great mathematician, 1755-1839.] who is at +the head of the Engineers des Ponts et Chaussées--civil engineers--was +introduced to us by Mr. Watt. I forgot to speak of him; he has just left +Paris. M. de Prony showed us models and machines which would have +delighted William. M. l'Abbé Morellet's niece next engaged our +attention; she and her husband came many leagues to see us; and we met +also Madame de Vergennes, Madame de Remusat, and Madame Nansoutit, all +people of knowledge and charming manners. Madame Lavoisier and the +Countess Massulski, General Kosciusko, Prince Jablounsk_i_, and Princess +Jablounsk_a_, and two other Princesses, I leave to Maria. Mons. +Edelcrantz, private secretary to the King of Sweden; Mons. Eisenman, a +German; Mons. Geofrat, the guardian from Egypt of the Kings of Chaldea +and seven Ibises; Mons. de Montmorenci--that great name: the Abbé +Sicard, who dines here to-morrow; Mons. Pang, Mons. Bertrant, Mons. +Milan, Mons. Dupont, Mons. Bareuil the illuminati man, and Mr. Bilsbury, +I leave to her and Charlotte. + + +MRS. EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. MARY SNEYD. + +PARIS, _Nov. 21, 1802._ + +Mr. Edgeworth's summary of events closed, I believe, last Thursday. +Friday we saw beauty, riches, fashion, luxury, and numbers at Madame +Recamier's; she is a charming woman, surrounded by a group of adorers +and flatterers in a room where are united wealth and taste, all of +modern execution and ancient design that can contribute to its +ornament--a strange _mélange_ of merchants and poets, philosophers and +parvenus--English, French, Portuguese, and Brazilian, which formed the +company; we were treated with distinguished politeness by our hostess, +who concluded the evening by taking us to her box at the Opera, where, +besides being in company with the most fashionable women in Paris, _we +were seen_ by Buonaparte himself, who sat opposite to us in a railed +box, through which he could see, but not be seen. + +Saturday we saw the magnificent Salle of the Corps Legislatif, and in +the evening passed some hours in the agreeable society of Madame de +Vergennes and her daughters. Sunday we were very happy at home. Monday +morning, just as we were going out, M. Pictet was announced; we neither +heard his name nor distinctly recollected his looks, he is grown so fat +and looks so well, more friendly no man can be. I hope he perceives we +are grateful to him. The remainder of that day was spent in the gallery +of pictures, where we met Mr. Rogers, the poet, and Mr. Abercrombie. The +evening was spent with M. Pictet at his sister's, an agreeable, +well-informed widow, with three handsome daughters. Tuesday we went to +the National Library, where we were shown a large number of the finest +cameos, intaglios, and Roman and Greek medals, and many of the +antiquities brought from Egypt; and in the evening we had again the +pleasure of M. Pictet's company, and of the charming Madame de Pastoret, +who was so obliging as to drink tea with us. Yesterday we had the +pleasure of being at home, when several learned and ingenious men called +on us, and consequently heard one of the most lively and instructive +conversations on a variety of topics for three hours: as I think it is +Mr. Edgeworth's plan to knock you down with names, I will just enumerate +those of our visitors, Edelcrantz, a Swede, Molard, Eisenman, Dupont, +and Pictet the younger. After they went, we paid a short visit to the +pictures and saw the Salle du Tribunat and the Consul's apartments at +the Tuileries: on the dressing-table there were the busts of Fox and +Nelson. At our return home we saw the good François Delessert and +another man, who was the man who took Robespierre prisoner, and who has +since made a clock which is wound up by the action of the air on +mercury, like that which Mr. Edgeworth invented for the King of Spain. +He told us many things that made us stare, and many that made us shiver, +and many more that made us wish never to see him again. + +In the evening we went to Madame Suard's. Don't imagine that these +ladies are all widows, for they have husbands, and in many instances the +husband _vaut mieux que la femme._ At Madame Suard's we met the famous +Count Lally Tolendal and the Duc de Crillon. This morning Maria has gone +with the Pictets to see the Abbé Sicard's deaf and dumb. + +Mr. Edgeworth has not yet seen Buonaparte: he goes to-morrow to wait on +Lord Whitworth as a preliminary step. It is a singular circumstance that +Lord Whitworth, the new Ambassador, has brought to Paris the same +horses, and the same wife, and lives in the same house as the last +Ambassador did eleven years ago: he has married the widow of the Duke of +Dorset, who was here then. + +In England many are the tales of scandal that have been related of the +Consul and all his family: I don't believe them. A lady told me it was +"vraiment extraordinaire qu'un jeune homme comme lui ait de moeurs si +exemplaires--et d'ailleurs on ne s'attend pas qu'un homme soit fidèle à +une femme qui est plus agée que lui: mais si agée aussi! Il aime la +soumission plus que la beauté: s'il lui dit de se coucher à huit heures, +elle se couche: s'il faut se lever à deux heures, elle se leve! Elle est +une bonne femme, elle a sauvé bien des vies." + +Has Maria told you that she has had her _Belinda_ translated into French +by the young Count de Segur, an amiable young man of one of the most +ancient families of France, married to a grand-daughter of the +Chancellor d'Aguesseau? Many people support themselves by writing for +journals, and by translating English books, yet the price of literature +seems very low, and the price of all the necessaries of life very high. +The influx of English has, they say, doubled the price of lodgings and +of all luxuries. + + +MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. RUXTON. + +PARIS, _Dec. 1, 1802._ + +I have been treasuring up for some time everything I have seen and heard +which I think would interest you; and now my little head is so full that +I must empty it, or it would certainly burst. All that I have seen and +heard has tended to attach me more firmly to you by the double effect of +resemblance and of contrast. Every agreeable person recalls you; every +disagreeable, makes me exclaim, how different, etc. + +I wish I could paint the different people we have seen in little +William's magic-lanthorn, and show them to you. At Madame Delessert's +house there are, and have been for years, meetings of the most agreeable +and select society in Paris: she has the courage absolutely to refuse to +admit either man or woman of whose conduct she cannot approve; at other +houses there is sometimes a strange mixture. To recommend Madame +Delessert still more powerfully to you, I must tell you that she was the +benefactress of Rousseau; he was, it is said, never good or happy except +in her society: to her bounty he owed his retreat in Switzerland. She is +nobly charitable, but if it were not for her friends no one would find +out half the good she does. One of her acts of beneficence is recorded +in Berquin's _Ami des Enfans_, but even her own children cannot tell in +which story it is. Her daughter, Madame Gautier, gains upon our esteem +every day. + +Turn the handle of the magic-lanthorn: who is this graceful figure, with +all the elegance of court manners, and all the simplicity of domestic +virtue? She is Madame de Pastoret. She was chosen preceptress to the +Princess in the _ancien régime_ in opposition to the wife of Condorcet, +and M. de Pastoret had I forget how many votes more than Condorcet when +it was put to the vote who should be preceptor to the Dauphin at the +beginning of the Revolution. Both M. and Madame de Pastoret speak +remarkably well; each with that species of eloquence which becomes them. +He was President of the First Assembly, and at the head of the King's +Council: the four other ministers of that council all perished! He +escaped by his courage. As for her, the Marquis de Chastelleux's speech +describes her: "Elle n'a point d'expression sans grace et point de grace +sans expression." + +Turn the magic-lanthorn. Here comes Madame Suard and Monsieur, a member +of the Academy: very good company at their house. Among others Lally +Tolendal, who is exceedingly like Father Tom, and whose real name of +Mullalagh he softened into Lally, said to be more eloquent than any man +in France; M. de Montmorenci, worthy of his great name. + +Push on the magic-lanthorn slide. Here comes Boissy d'Anglas: a fine +head! Such a head as you may imagine the man to have who, by his single +courage, restrained the fury of one of the National Assemblies when the +head of one of the deputies was cut off and set on the table before him. + +Next comes Camille Jordan, with great eloquence of pen, not of tongue; +[Footnote: Orator and statesman, 1771-1821.] and M. de Prony, a great +mathematician, of whom you don't care to know more, but you would if you +heard him. + +Who comes next? Madame Campan, mistress of the first boarding-school +here, who educated Madame Louis Buonaparte, and who professes to keep +her pupils entirely separate from servants, according to _Practical +Education_, and who paid us many compliments. Teaches drawing in a +manner superior to anything I had any idea of in English schools: she +gave me a drawing in a gilt frame, which I shall show to you. At Madame +Campan's, as my father told you, we met the beautiful Madame Recamier, +and at her dinner we met the most fashionable tragic and comic poet, and +the richest man in Paris sat beside Charlotte. We went to the Opera with +Madame Recamier, who produces a great sensation whenever she appears in +public. She is certainly handsome, very handsome, but there is much of +the magic of fashion in the enthusiasm she creates. + +There is a Russian Princess here, who is always carried in and out of +her carriage by two giant footmen, and a Russian Prince, who is so rich +that he is never able to spend his fortune, and asks advice how he shall +do it. He never thinks, it seems, of _giving_ it away. + +Who comes next? Kosciusko, [Footnote: The Polish patriot and leader, +1756-1817.] cured of his wounds, simple in his manners, like all truly +great men. We met him at the house of a Polish Countess, whose name I +cannot spell. + +Who comes next? M. de Leuze, who translated the _Botanic Garden_ as well +as it could be translated into Fénelon prose; and M. and Madame de +Vindé, who have a superb gallery of paintings, and the best concerts in +Paris, and a library of eighteen thousand volumes well counted and well +arranged; and what charms me more than either the books or the pictures, +a little grand-daughter of three years old, very like my sweet Fanny, +with stockings exactly the same as those Aunt Mary knitted for her, and +listing shoes precisely like what Fanny used to wear: she sat on my +knee, and caressed me with her soft, warm little hands, and looked at me +with her smiling intelligent eyes. + +_Dec._ 3. Here I am at the brink of the last page, and I have said +nothing of the Apollo, the Invalides, or Les Sourds et Muets. What shall +I do? I cannot speak of everything at once, and when I speak to you so +many things crowd upon my mind. + + +Here, my dear aunt, I was interrupted in a manner that will surprise you +as much as it surprised me, by the coming in of Monsieur Edelcrantz, a +Swedish gentleman, whom we have mentioned to you, of superior +understanding and mild manners: he came to offer me his hand and heart!! + +My heart, you may suppose, cannot return his attachment, for I have seen +but very little of him, and have not had time to have formed any +judgment, except that I think nothing could tempt me to leave my own +dear friends and my own country to live in Sweden. + +My dearest aunt, I write to you the first moment, as next to my father +and mother no person in the world feels so much interest in all that +concerns me. I need not tell you that my father, + + Such in this moment as in all the past, + +is kindness itself; kindness far superior to what I deserve, but I am +grateful for it. + + +_To_ MISS SOPHY RUXTON. + +PARIS, RUE DE LILLE, No. 525, + +_Dec. 8, 1802._ + +I take it for granted, my dear friend, that you have by this time seen a +letter I wrote a few days ago to my aunt. To you, as to her, every +thought of my mind is open. I persist in refusing to leave my country +and my friends to live at the Court of Stockholm, and he tells me (of +course) that there is nothing he would not sacrifice for me except his +duty: he has been all his life in the service of the King of Sweden, has +places under him, and is actually employed in collecting information for +a large political establishment. He thinks himself bound in honour to +finish what he has begun. He says he should not fear the ridicule or +blame that would be thrown upon him by his countrymen for quitting his +country at his age, but that he should despise himself if he abandoned +his duty for any passion. This is all very reasonable, but reasonable +for him only, not for me; and I have never felt anything for him but +esteem and gratitude. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Edgeworth, however, writes: + + * * * * * + +Maria was mistaken as to her own feelings. She refused M. Edelcrantz, +but she felt much more for him than esteem and admiration; she was +exceedingly in love with him. Mr. Edgeworth left her to decide for +herself; but she saw too plainly what it would be to us to lose her, and +what she would feel at parting from us. She decided rightly for her own +future happiness and for that of her family, but she suffered much at +the time and long afterwards. While we were at Paris, I remember that in +a shop where Charlotte and I were making some purchases, Maria sat apart +absorbed in thought, and so deep in reverie, that when her father came +in and stood opposite to her she did not see him till he spoke to her, +when she started and burst into tears. She was grieved by his look of +tender anxiety, and she afterwards exerted herself to join in society, +and to take advantage of all that was agreeable during our stay in +France and on our journey home, but it was often a most painful effort +to her. And even after her return to Edgeworthstown, it was long before +she recovered the elasticity of her mind. She exerted all her powers of +self-command, and turned her attention to everything which her father +suggested for her to write. But _Leonora_, which she began immediately +after our return home, was written with the hope of pleasing the +Chevalier Edelcrantz; it was written in a style which he liked, and the +idea of what he would think of it was, I believe, present to her in +every page she wrote. She never heard that he had even read it. From the +time they parted at Paris there was no sort of communication between +them, and beyond the chance which brought us sometimes into company with +travellers who had been in Sweden, or the casual mention of M. +Edelcrantz in the newspapers or scientific journals, we never heard more +of one who had been of such supreme interest to her, and to us all at +Paris, and of whom Maria continued to have all her life the most +romantic recollection. I do not think she repented of her refusal, or +regretted her decision; she was well aware that she could not have made +him happy, that she would not have suited his position at the Court of +Stockholm, and that her want of beauty might have diminished his +attachment. It was better perhaps that she should think so, as it calmed +her mind, but from what I saw of M. Edelcrantz I think he was a man +capable of really valuing her. I believe that he was much attached to +her, and deeply mortified at her refusal. He continued to reside in +Sweden after the abdication of his master, and was always distinguished +for his high character and great abilities. He never married. He was, +except very fine eyes, remarkably plain. Her father rallied Maria about +her preference of so ugly a man; but she liked the expression of his +countenance, the spirit and strength of his character, and his very able +conversation. The unexpected mention of his name, or even that of +Sweden, in a book or a newspaper, always moved her so much that the +words and lines in the page became a mass of confusion before her eyes, +and her voice lost all power. + +I think it right to mention these facts, because I know that the lessons +of self-command which she inculcates in her works were really acted upon +in her own life, and that the resolution with which she devoted herself +to her father and her family, and the industry with which she laboured +at the writings which she thought were for the advantage of her +fellow-creatures, were from the exertion of the highest principle. Her +precepts were not the maxims of cold-hearted prudence, but the result of +her own experience in strong and romantic feeling. By what accident it +happened that she had, long before she ever saw the Chevalier +Edelcrantz, chosen Sweden for the scene of _The Knapsack_ I do not know, +but I remember his expressing his admiration of that beautiful little +piece, and his pleasure in the fine characters of the Swedish gentleman +and peasants. + + +CHARLOTTE EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. CHARLOTTE SNEYD. + +RUE DE LILLE, CHEZ LE CITOYEN VERBER, + +_Dec. 8, 1802._ + +MY DEAR AUNT CHARLOTTE--One of the great objects of a visit to Paris +was, you know, to see Buonaparte; the review is, as you see by the +papers, over, and my father has not spoken to the great man--no, he did +not wish it. All of our distant friends will be I am afraid +disappointed, but some here think that my father's refusal to be +presented to him shows a proper pride. All the reasons for this mode of +conduct will serve perhaps for debate, certainly for conversation when +we return. + +Madame Suard says that those societies are most agreeable where there +are fewest women: if there were not women superior to her I should not +hesitate to assent to her proposition, and I should with pleasure read +Madame de Staël's book called _Le Malheur d'être femme._ If, on the +contrary, all women were Madame de Pastorets, or Madame Delesserts, or +Madame Gautiers, I think I should take up the book with the intention +not to be convinced. + +Some of the most horrible revolutionists were the most skilled in the +sciences, and are held in the utmost detestation by numbers of sensible +men who admire their ingenuity and talents. We saw one of these, a +teacher at one of the chief Academies, and my father, who was standing +near him, heard him, after having been talking on several most amusing +and interesting subjects, give one of the deepest sighs he ever heard. + +The Abbé de Lille reads poetry particularly well, his own verses in a +superior manner: we heard him, and were extremely pleased. He is very +old, and so blind that his wife, whom he calls "Mon Antigone," is +obliged to lead him. + +As you may suppose, we go as often as we can to the Gallery. I thank my +dear Aunt Mary for thinking of the pleasure I should have in seeing the +Venus de Medicis; she has not yet arrived, but I have seen the Apollo, +who did surprise me! On our way here we had seen many casts of him, and +I have seen with you some prints: I could not have believed that there +could have been so much difference between a copy and the original. + +_10th._ You see I am often interrupted. I will introduce you to our +company last night at the Delesserts'. All soirées here begin at nine +o'clock. + +"Madame Edgeworth" is announced:--room full without being +crowded--enough light and warmth. M. Delessert _père_ at a card-table +with a gentleman who is a partner in his bank, and an elderly lady. +There is a warm corner in the room, which is always large enough to +contain Madame Delessert and two or three ladies and gentlemen. Madame +Delessert advances to receive Madame Edgeworth, and invites her to sit +beside her with many kind words and looks. Madame Gautier expresses her +joy at seeing us. Now we are seated. M. Benjamin Delessert advances with +his bow to the ladies. Madame Gautier, my father, and Maria, get +together. M. Pictet, nephew to our dear Pictet, makes his bow and adds a +few words to each. "Mademoiselle Charlotte," says Madame Delessert to +me, "I was just speaking of you." I forget now what she had been saying, +I have only the agreeable idea. Madame Grivel enters, a clever, +good-natured little woman, wife to the partner who is at cards. Enter M. +François Delessert and another gentleman. How the company divides and +changes itself I am not at present supposed to know, for young M. Pictet +has seated himself between my mother and me, and has a long conversation +with me, in which Madame Grivel now and then joins: she is on the other +side of me. Mademoiselle Lullin, our friend Pictet's sister, and his and +her virtues are discussed. Physics and meta-physics ensue; harmony, +astonishing power of chords in music, glass broken by vibration, dreams, +Spain--its manners and government. Young M. Pictet has been there: +people there have little to do, because their wants are easily supplied. + +Here come tea and cakes, sweetmeats, grapes, cream, and all the goods of +life. The lady who was playing at cards now came and sat beside me, +amusing me for a long time with a conversation on--what do you +think?--Politics and the state of France! M. François repeats some good +lines very well. Laughter and merriment. Now we are obliged to go, and +with much sorrow we part. + +I see I never told you that we saw the Review, and we _saw_ a man on a +white horse ride down the ranks; we _saw_ that he was a little man with +a pale face, who seemed very attentive to what he was about, and this +was all we _saw_ of Buonaparte. + + +MARIA EDGEWORTH to MISS SOPHY RUXTON. + +PARIS, _Dec. 1802._ + +I add to the list of remarkables and agreeables the Count and Countess +de Segur, father and mother to our well-bred translator; [Footnote: Of +_Belinda_] she a beautiful grandmother, he a nobleman of the old school, +who adds to agreeable manners a great deal of elegant literature. +Malouet, the amiable and able councillor of the King, must also be added +to your list: we met him yesterday, a fine countenance and simple +manners; he conversed freely with my father, not at all afraid of +_committing_ himself. In general I do not see that prodigious fear of +committing themselves, which makes the company of some English men of +letters and reputation irksome even to their admirers. Mr. Palmer, the +great man of taste, who has lived for many years in Italy, is here, and +is very much provoked that the French can now see all the pictures and +statues he has been admiring, without stirring out of Paris. The Louvre +is now so crowded with pictures, that many of them are seen to +disadvantage. The Domenichino, my Aunt Ruxton's favourite, is not at +present _visible._ Several of the finest pictures are, as they say, +_sick_, and the physicians are busy restoring them to health and beauty. +May they not mar instead of mending! A Raphael which has just come out +of their hospital has the eyes of a very odd sort of modern blue. The +Transfiguration is now in a state of convalescence; it has not yet made +its appearance in public, but we were admitted into the sick-room. + +Half Paris is now stark mad about a picture by Guérin of Phèdre and +Hippolyte, which they actually think equal to Raphael. + +Of the public buildings Les Invalides appears to me the finest; here are +all the flags and standards used in battle, or won from foreign +nations,--a long-drawn aisle of glory that must create ambition in the +rising generation of military in France. We saw here a little boy of +nine years old with his tutor, looking at Turenne's monument, which has +been placed with great taste, alone, with the single word TURENNE upon +the sarcophagus. My father spoke to the little boy and his tutor, who +told him he had come to look at a picture in which the heroic action of +one of the boy's ancestors is portrayed. We went into the hospital +library, and found a circle of old soldiers, sitting round a stove all +reading most comfortably. It was a very pleasing and touching sight. One +who had lost both his hands, and who had iron hooks at the end of his +wrists, was sitting at a table reading _Télémaque_ with great attention; +he turned over the leaves with these hooks. + +My aunt asks me what I think of French society? All I have seen of it I +like extremely, but we hear from all sides that we see only the best of +Paris,--the men of literature and the _ancienne noblesse._ _Les nouveaux +riches_ are quite a different set. My father has seen something of them +at Madame Tallien's (now Cabarus), and was disgusted. Madame Recamier is +of quite an opposite sort, though in the first fashion, a graceful and +_decent_ beauty of excellent character. Madame de Souza, the Portuguese +Ambassadress, is a pretty and pleasing woman, authoress of _Adèle de +Senanges_, which she wrote in England. Her friends always proclaim her +title as author before her other titles, and I thought her a pleasing +woman before I was told that she had pronounced at Madame Lavoisier's an +eloquent eulogium on _Belinda._ I have never heard any person talk of +dress or fashions since we came to Paris, and very little scandal. A +scandalmonger would be starved here. The conversation frequently turns +on the new _petites pièces_ and little novels which come out every day, +and are talked of for a few days with as much eagerness as a new fashion +in other places. They also talk a vast deal about the little essays of +criticism. In yesterday's _Journal des Débats_, after a flaming +panegyric on Buonaparte, "Et après avoir parlé de l'univers de qui +peut-on parler? Des plus grandes des Poètes--de Racine": then follows a +criticism on _Phèdre._ + +We saw the grand Review the day before yesterday from a window that +looked out on the court of the Louvre and Place de Carousal. Buonaparte +rode down the lines on a fine white Spanish horse. Took off his hat to +salute various generals, and gave us a full view of his pale, thin, +woebegone countenance. He is very little, but much at ease on horseback: +it is said he never appears to so much advantage as on horseback. There +were about six thousand troops, a fine show, well appointed, and some, +but not all, well mounted. On those who had distinguished themselves in +the battle of Marengo all eyes were fixed. While I was looking out of +the window a gentleman came in who had passed many years in Spain: he +began to talk to me about Madrid, and when he heard my name, he said a +Spanish lady is translating _Practical Education_ from the French. She +understands English, and he gave us her address that we may send a copy +of the book to her. + +Mr. Knox, who was presented to Buonaparte, and who saw all the wonderful +presentations, says that it was a huddled business, all the world +received in a very small room. Buonaparte spoke more to officers than to +any one else, affected to be gracious to the English. He said, +"L'Angleterre est une grande nation, _aussi bien_ que la France, il faut +que nous soyons amis!" Great men's words, like little men's dreams, are +sometimes to be interpreted by the rule of contraries. + + +_To_ MRS. MARY SNEYD. + +PARIS, _Jan. 10, 1803._ + +_Siècle réparateur,_ as Monge has christened this century. + +I will give you a journal of yesterday: I know you love journals. Got up +and put on our shoes and stockings and cambric muslin gowns, which are +in high esteem here, fur-tippets and _fur-clogs_,--GOD bless Aunt Mary +and Aunt Charlotte for them,--and were in coach by nine o'clock, drove +to the excellent Abbé Morellet's, where we were invited to breakfast to +meet Madame d'Ouditot, the lady who inspired Rousseau with the idea of +Julie. Julie is now seventy-two years of age, a thin woman in a little +black bonnet: she appeared to me shockingly ugly; she squints so much +that it is impossible to tell which way she is looking; but no sooner +did I hear her speak, than I began to like her; and no sooner was I +seated beside her, than I began to find in her countenance a most +benevolent and agreeable expression. She entered into conversation +immediately: her manner invited and could not fail to obtain confidence. +She seems as gay and open-hearted as a girl of fifteen. It has been said +of her that she not only never did any harm, but never suspected any. +She is possessed of that art which Lord Kames said he would prefer to +the finest gift from the queen of the fairies,--the art of seizing the +best side of every object. She has had great misfortunes, but she has +still retained the power of making herself and her friends happy. Even +during the horrors of the Revolution, if she met with a flower, a +butterfly, an agreeable smell, a pretty colour, she would turn her +attention to these, and for the moment suspend her sense of misery, not +from frivolity, but from real philosophy. No one has exerted themselves +with more energy in the service of her friends. I felt in her company +the delightful influence of a cheerful temper, and soft attractive +manners,--enthusiasm which age cannot extinguish, and which spends but +does not waste itself on small but not trifling objects. I wish I could +at seventy-two be such a woman! She told me that Rousseau, whilst he was +writing so finely on education, and leaving his own children in the +Foundling Hospital, defended himself with so much eloquence that even +those who blamed him in their hearts, could not find tongues to answer +him. Once at dinner, at Madame d'Ouditot's, there was a fine pyramid of +fruit. Rousseau in helping himself took the peach which formed the base +of the pyramid, and the rest fell immediately. "Rousseau," said she, +"that is what you always do with all our systems; you pull down with a +single touch, but who will build up what you pull down?" I asked if he +was grateful for all the kindness shown to him? "No, he was ungrateful: +he had a thousand bad qualities, but I turned my attention from them to +his genius and the good he had done mankind." + +After an excellent breakfast, including tea, chocolate, coffee, buttered +and unbuttered cakes, good conversation, and good humour, came M. +Cheron, husband of the Abbé Morellet's niece, who is translating _Early +Lessons_, French on one side and English on the other. Didot has +undertaken to publish the _Rational Primer_, which is much approved of +here for teaching the true English pronunciation. + +Then we went to a lecture on Shorthand, or _Passigraphy_, and there we +met Mr. Chenevix, who came home to dine with us, and stayed till nine, +talking of Montgolfier's _bélier_ for throwing water to a great height. +We have seen it and its inventor: something like Mr. Watt in manner, not +equal to him in genius. He had received from M. de la Poype a letter my +father wrote some years ago about the method of guiding balloons, and as +far as he could judge he thought it might succeed. + +We went with Madame Recamier and the Russian Princess Dalgourski to La +Harpe's house, to hear him repeat some of his own verses. He lives in a +wretched house, and we went up dirty stairs, through dirty passages, +where I wondered how fine ladies' trains and noses could go, and were +received in a dark small den by the philosopher, or rather dévot, for he +spurns the name of philosopher: he was in a dirty reddish night-gown, +and very dirty nightcap bound round the forehead with a superlatively +dirty chocolate-coloured ribbon. Madame Recamier, the beautiful, the +elegant, robed in white satin trimmed with white fur, seated herself on +the elbow of his armchair, and besought him to repeat his verses. +Charlotte has drawn a picture of this scene. We met at La Harpe's Lady +Elizabeth Foster and Lady Bessborough: very engaging manners. + +We were a few days ago at a Bal d'Enfants; this you would translate a +children's ball, and so did we, till we were set right by the +learned:--not a single child was at this ball, and only half a dozen +unmarried ladies: it is a ball given by mothers to their grown-up +children. Charlotte appeared as usual to great advantage, and was much +admired for her ease and unaffected manners. She danced one English +country dance with M. de Crillon, son of the Gibraltar Duke: when she +stood up, a gentleman came to me and exclaimed, "Ah, Mademoiselle votre +soeur va danser, nous attendons le moment où elle va _paraître._" She +appeared extremely well from not being anxious to appear at all. To-day +we stayed at home to gain time for letters, etc., but thirteen visitors, +besides the washerwoman, prevented our accomplishing all our great and +good purposes. The visitors were all, except the washerwoman, so +agreeable, that even while they interrupted us, we did not know how to +wish them gone. + + * * * * * + +On the 27th January Mr. Edgeworth received a peremptory order from the +French Government to quit Paris immediately. He went with Maria to the +village of Passy. Their friend, Madame Gautier, generously offered to +them the use of her house there, but they would not compromise her. M. +de Pastoret and M. Delessert visited Mr. Edgeworth the next morning, +fearless of Buonaparte and his orders, and the day after M. Pictet and +M. Le Breton came to say that he could return to Paris. There had been +some misapprehension from Mr. Edgeworth having been supposed to be +brother to the Abbé Edgeworth. He wrote to Lord Whitworth that he would +never deny or give up the honour of being related to the Abbé. Lord +Whitworth advised him to state the exact degree of relationship, which +he did, and we heard no more of the matter. [Footnote: The Abbé +Edgeworth (who called himself M. de Firmont, from the estate possessed +by his branch of the family) was first cousin once removed to Mr. +Edgeworth, being the son of Essex, fifth son of Sir John Edgeworth, and +brother to Mr. Edgeworth's grandfather, Colonel Francis Edgeworth of +Edgeworthstown.] + + +MISS CHARLOTTE EDGEWORTH _to_ C.S. EDGEWORTH. PARIS, _Feb. 21, 1803._ + +We went yesterday to see the consecration of a Bishop at Nôtre Dame, and +here I endured with satisfaction most intense cold for three hours, and +saw a solemn ridiculous ceremony, and heard music that went through me: +I could not have believed that sounds could have been so fine: the +alternate sounds of voices and the organ, or both together, and then the +faint, distant murmur of prayers: each peal so much in harmony as to +appear like one note beginning softly, rising, rising, rising,--then +dying slowly off. There was one man whose voice was so loud, so full and +clear, that it was equal to the voices of three men. The church itself +is very fine: we were placed so as to see below us the whole ceremony. +The solemnity of the manner in which they walked, their all being +dressed alike, and differently from the rest of the people, rendered +these priests a new set of beings. The ceremony appeared particularly +ridiculous, as we could not hear a word that was said, because the +church is so large, and we were at too great a distance, and all we +could see was a Bishop dressing or undressing, or lying on the ground! +The Archbishop of Paris, who performed the chief part of the ceremony, +is a man about eighty years of age, yet he had the strength to go +through the fatigue which such a ceremony requires for three hours +together in very great cold, and every action was performed with as much +firmness as a man of fifty could do it, and there was but one part which +he left out,--the walking round along with the other bishops with the +cross borne before them. We were told that he has often gone through +similar fatigue, and in the evening, or an hour after, amused a company +at dinner with cheerful, witty conversation: he is not a man of letters, +but he has abilities and knowledge of the world. All these men were +remarkably tall and fine-looking, some very venerable: there were about +sixty assembled. It appears extraordinary that there should not be one +little or mean-looking among a set of people who are not like soldiers +chosen for their height, and as they must have come from different parts +of France. I think there is a greater variety of sizes among the French +than among us: if all the people who stand in the street of +Edgeworthstown every Sunday were Frenchmen, you would see ten remarkably +little for one that you see there, and ten remarkably tall. I think +there are more remarkably tall men in Ireland than in England. Maria is +writing a story, [Footnote: Miss Edgeworth made a sketch for the story +of _Madame de Fleury_ about this time, but did not finish it till long +afterwards. The incident of the locked-up children was told to her by +Madame de Pastoret, to whom it happened, and Maria took the name De +Fleury from M. de Pastoret's country house, the Château de Fleury.] and +has a little table by the fire, at which she sits as she used to do at +Edgeworthstown for half an hour together without stirring, with her pen +in her hand; then she scribbles on very fast. My father intends to +present his lock, with a paper giving some account of it, by way of +introduction to the society of which he is a member, _La Société pour +encourager les arts et metiérs._ I suppose you see in the newspapers +that the ancient Academy is again established under the name of the +Institute? + + +MRS. EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. MARY SNEYD. + +PARIS, _Feb. 22, 1803._ + +The cough you mention has been epidemic here. The thermometer as low as +9° on the morning of the 15th; next day 40°, and the most charming +weather has succeeded: the streets have been so well washed by the rain +and scraped by the snow-cleaners, that they are actually dry and clean +for the first time since October, which is fortunate, as the streets are +crowded with people for the carnival, some in masks, some disguised as +apothecaries, old women, harlequins, and knights-errant, followed by +hundreds and thousands of men, women, and children, to whom they say +what they can, generally nonsense devoid of wit. + +Last Thursday, _jeudi-gras_, we dined at two, and were at St. Germain at +six, at Madame Campan's, where we had been invited to see some plays +acted by her pupils. The little theatre appeared already full when we +entered. We stood a few seconds near the door, when Madame Campan cried +out from above, "Placez Madame Edgeworth, faites monter Madame et sa +compagnie." So we went up to the gallery, where we had very good places +next to a Polish Princess and half a dozen of her countrywomen, who are +all polite and well-bred. The crowd increased, many more than there was +room for. The famous Madame Visconti and Lady Yarmouth sat behind us. +Lady Elizabeth Foster and Lady Bessborough not far from us; and below +there were a number of English, the Duchess of Gordon and her beautiful +daughter, Lady Georgiana. Madame Louis Buonaparte, who had been one of +Madame Campan's _élèves_, was the principal Frenchwoman. The piece, +_Esther_, was performed admirably; the singing of the choir of young +girls charming, and the _petite pièce, La Rosière de Salency_, was +better still: you know it is a charming thing, and was made so touching +as to draw tears from every eye. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Edgeworth writes: + +At the time this letter was written rumours that war would break out +with England began to be prevalent in Paris. Mr. Edgeworth inquired +among his friends, who said they feared it was true. He decided to set +out immediately, and we began to pack up. Other friends contradicted +this fear. We were anxious on another account to leave Paris, from the +bad state of Henry Edgeworth's health, his friends at Edinburgh urging +us to go there to see him. Better news of him, and the hope that the +rumours of war were unfounded, made us suspend our packing. M. Le Breton +called, and said he was sure of knowing before that evening the truth as +to Buonaparte's warlike intentions, and that if Mr. Edgeworth met him at +a friend's that night, he would know by his suddenly putting on his hat +that war was imminent. He was unable to visit us again, and afraid if he +wrote that his letter might be intercepted, and still more was he afraid +of being overheard if he said anything at the party where they were to +meet. Mr. Edgeworth went, and saw M. Le Breton, who did suddenly put on +his hat, and on Mr. Edgeworth's return to us he said we must go. + +The next day was spent in taking leave of our kind friends, from whom we +found it so painful to part, and who expressed so much regret at losing +us, and so much doubt as to the probability of war, that Mr. Edgeworth +promised that if on his arrival in London, his Paris friends wrote to +say Peace, he would return to them, and bring over the rest of his +family from Ireland for a year's residence. + + +MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. MARY SNEYD. + +CALAIS, _March 4, 1803._ + +At last, my dear Aunt Mary, we have actually left Paris. Perhaps we may +be detained here for some days, as the wind is directly against us; but +we have no reason to lament, as we are in Grandsire's excellent house, +and have books and thoughts enough to occupy us. Thoughts of friends +from whom we have parted, and of friends to whom we are going. How few +people in this world are so rich in friends! When I reflect upon the +kindness which has been shown to us abroad, and upon the affection that +awaits us at home, I feel afraid that I shall never be able to deserve +my share of all this happiness. + +Charlotte is perfectly well: I believe no young woman was ever more +admired at Paris than she has been, and none was ever less spoiled by +admiration. + + +DOVER, _March_ 6. + +All alive and merry: just landed, after a fine passage of six hours. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Edgeworth narrates: + +On our arrival in London, we found the expected letter from M. Le +Breton. It had been agreed that if there was to be peace, he was to +conclude his letter with "Mes hommages à la charmante Mademoiselle +Charlotte": if war, the _charmante_ was to be omitted. He ended his +letter, which made not the smallest allusion to politics or public +events, with "Mes hommages à Mademoiselle Charlotte," and we set out for +Edinburgh. + +On the first rumours of war, while we were in France, Mr. Edgeworth +wrote to warn his son Lovell, who was on his way from Geneva to Paris, +but he never received the letter: he was stopped on his journey, made +prisoner, and remained among the _détenus_ for eleven years, till the +end of the war in 1814. + + +MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. MARY SNEYD. + +EDINBURGH, _March 19, 1803._ + +Just arrived in Edinburgh, all four in perfect health, and I cannot +employ myself better than in _bringing up_ the history of our last week +at Paris. The two most memorable events were Madame Campan's play and +the visit to Madame de Genlis. The theatre at Madame Campan's was not +much larger than our own; the dresses "magnificent beyond description"; +the acting and the dancing infinitely too good for any but young ladies +intended for the stage. The play was Racine's _Esther_, and it +interested me the next day to read Madame de Sevigné's account of its +representation by the young ladies of St. Cyr, under the patronage of +Madame de Maintenon. Madame de Genlis's beautiful _Rosière de Salency_ +was acted after _Esther_, and the scene where the mother denounces her +daughter, and pushes her from her, was so admirably written and so +admirably played, that it made me forget the stage, the actors, and the +spectators,--I could not help thinking it real. + +Full of the pleasure I had received from the _Rosière de Salency_, I was +impatient to pay a visit to Madame de Genlis. A few days afterwards we +dined with Mr. and Mrs. Scotto, rather a stupid party of gentlemen. +After dinner my father called me out of the room and said, "Now we will +go to see Madame de Genlis." She had previously written to say she would +be glad to be personally acquainted with Mr. and Miss Edgeworth. She +lives--where do you think?--where Sully used to live, at the Arsenal. +Buonaparte has given her apartments there. Now I do not know what you +imagined in reading Sully's _Memoirs_, but I always imagined that the +Arsenal was one large building, with a façade to it like a very large +hotel or a palace, and I fancied it was somewhere in the middle of +Paris. On the contrary, it is quite in the suburbs. We drove on and on, +and at last we came to a heavy archway, like what you see at the +entrance of a fortified town: we drove under it for the length of three +or four yards in total darkness, and then we found ourselves, as well as +we could see by the light of some dim lamps, in a large square court, +surrounded by buildings: here we thought we were to alight; no such +thing; the coachman drove under another thick archway, lighted at the +entrance by a single lamp, we found ourselves in another court, and +still we went on, archway after archway, court after court, in all which +reigned desolate silence. I thought the archways, and the courts, and +the desolate silence would never end: at last the coachman stopped, and +asked for the tenth time where the lady lived. It is excessively +difficult to find people in Paris: we thought the names of Madame de +Genlis and the Arsenal would have been sufficient, but the whole of this +congregation of courts, and gateways, and houses, is called the Arsenal, +and hundreds and hundreds of people inhabit it who are probably perfect +strangers to Madame de Genlis. At the doors where our coachman inquired, +some answered that they knew nothing of her, some that she lived in the +Fauxbourg St. Germain, others believed that she might be at Passy, +others had heard that she had apartments given to her by Government +somewhere in the Arsenal, but could not tell where; while the coachman +thus begged his way, we anxiously looking out at him, from the middle of +the great square where we were left, listened for the answers that were +given, and which often from the distance escaped our ears. At last a +door pretty near to us opened, and our coachman's head and hat were +illuminated by the candle held by the person who opened the door, and as +the two figures parted with each other we could distinctly see the +expression of their countenances and their lips move: the result of this +parley was successful: we were directed to the house where Madame de +Genlis lived, and thought all difficulties ended. No such thing, her +apartments were still to be sought for. We saw before us a large, +crooked, ruinous stone staircase, lighted by a single bit of candle +hanging in a vile tin lantern in an angle of the bare wall at the turn +of the staircase--only just light enough to see that the walls were bare +and old, and the stairs immoderately dirty. There were no signs of the +place being inhabited except this lamp, which could not have been +lighted without hands. I stood still in melancholy astonishment, while +my father groped his way into a kind of porter's lodge, or den, at the +foot of the stairs, where he found a man who was porter to various +people who inhabited this house. You know the Parisian houses are +inhabited by hordes of different people, and the stairs are in fact +streets, and dirty streets to their dwellings. The porter, who was +neither obliging nor intelligent, carelessly said that "Madame de Genlis +logeait au seconde à gauche, qu'il faudrait tirer sa sonnette," he +believed she was at home, if she was not gone out. Up we went by +ourselves, for this porter, though we were strangers, and pleaded that +we were so, never offered to stir a step to guide or to light us. When +we got to the second stage, we faintly saw by the light from the one +candle at the first landing-place, two dirty large folding-doors, one +set on the right and one on the left, and hanging on each a bell, no +larger than what you see in the small parlour of a small English inn. My +father pulled one bell and waited some minutes--no answer: pulled the +other bell and waited--no answer: thumped at the left door--no answer: +pushed and pulled at it--could not open it: pushed open one of the +right-hand folding-doors--utter darkness: went in, as well as we could +feel, there was no furniture. After we had been there a few seconds we +could discern the bare walls and some strange lumber in one corner. The +room was a prodigious height, like an old playhouse. We retreated, and +in despair went down again to the stupid or surly porter. He came +upstairs very unwillingly, and pointed to a deep recess between the +stairs and the folding-doors: "Allez, voilà la porte et tirez la +sonnette." He and his candle went down, and my father had but just time +to seize the handle of the bell, when we were again in darkness. After +ringing this feeble bell we presently heard doors open, and little +footsteps approaching nigh. The door was opened by a girl of about +Honora's size, holding an ill-set-up, wavering candle in her hand, the +light of which fell full upon her face and figure: her face was +remarkably intelligent: dark sparkling eyes, dark hair, curled in the +most fashionable long cork-screw ringlets over her eyes and cheeks. She +parted the ringlets to take a full view of us, and we were equally +impatient to take a full view of her. The dress of her figure by no +means suited the head and the elegance of her attitude: what her "nether +weeds" might be we could not distinctly see, but they seemed to be a +coarse short petticoat, like what Molly Bristow's children would +wear--not on Sundays, a woollen gray spencer above, pinned with a single +pin by the lapels tight across the neck under the chin, and open all +below. After surveying us, and hearing that our name was Edgeworth, she +smiled graciously, and bid us follow her, saying, "Maman est chez elle." +She led the way with the grace of a young lady who has been taught to +dance, across two antechambers, miserable-looking, but miserable or not, +no house in Paris can be without them. The girl, or young lady, for we +were still in doubt which to think her, led us into a small room, in +which the candles were so well screened by a green tin screen that we +could scarcely distinguish the tall form of a lady in black, who rose +from her armchair by the fireside as the door opened: a great puff of +smoke issuing from the huge fireplace at the same moment. She came +forward, and we made our way towards her as well as we could through a +confusion of tables, chairs and work-baskets, china, writing-desks and +ink-stands, and bird-cages, and a harp. She did not speak, and as her +back was now turned to both fire and candle, I could not see her face, +or anything but the outline of her form, and her attitude; her form was +the remains of a fine form, and her attitude that of a woman used to a +better drawing-room. I, being foremost, and she silent, was compelled to +speak to the figure in darkness: "Madame de Genlis nous a fait l'honneur +de nous mander qu'elle voulait bien nous permettre de lui rendre visite, +et de lui offrir nos respects," said I, or words to that effect: to +which she replied by taking my hand and saying something in which +_charmée_ was the most intelligible word. Whilst she spoke she looked +over my shoulder at my father, whose bow I presume told her he was a +gentleman, for she spoke to him immediately as if she wished to please, +and seated us in fauteuils near the fire. + +I then had a full view of her face and figure: she looked like the +full-length picture of my great-great-grandmother Edgeworth you may have +seen in the garret, very thin and melancholy, but her face not so +handsome as my great-grandmother's; dark eyes, long sallow cheeks, +compressed thin lips, two or three black ringlets on a high forehead, a +cap that Mrs. Grier might wear,--altogether an appearance of fallen +fortunes, worn-out health, and excessive, but guarded irritability. To +me there was nothing of that engaging, captivating manner which I had +been taught to expect by many even of her enemies; she seemed to me to +be alive only to literary quarrels and jealousies: the muscles of her +face as she spoke, or as my father spoke to her, quickly and too easily +expressed hatred and anger whenever any not of her own party were +mentioned. She is now you know _dévote acharnement._ When I mentioned +with some enthusiasm the good Abbé Morellet, who has written so +courageously in favour of the French exiled nobility and their children, +she answered in a sharp voice, + +"Oui, c'est un homme de beaucoup d'esprit, à ce qu'on dit, à ce que je +crois même, mais il faut vous apprendre qu'il n'est pas des NÔTRES." My +father spoke of Pamela, Lady Edward Fitzgerald, and explained how he had +defended her in the Irish House of Commons; instead of being pleased or +touched, her mind instantly diverged into an elaborate and artificial +exculpation of Lady Edward and herself, proving, or attempting to prove, +that she never knew any of her husband's plans, that she utterly +disapproved of them, at least of all she suspected of them. This defence +was quite lost upon us, who never thought of attacking: but Madame de +Genlis seems to have been so much used to be attacked, that she has +defences and apologies ready prepared, suited to all possible occasions. +She spoke of Madame de Staël's _Delphine_ with detestation, of another +new and fashionable novel, _Amélie_, with abhorrence, and kissed my +forehead twice because I had not read it, "Vous autres Anglaises vous +êtes modestes!" Where was Madame de Genlis's sense of delicacy when she +penned and published _Les Chevaliers du Cygne_? Forgive me, my dear Aunt +Mary, you begged me to see her with favourable eyes, and I went to see +her after seeing her _Rosière de Salency_ with the most favourable +disposition, but I could not like her; there was something of malignity +in her countenance and conversation that repelled love, and of hypocrisy +which annihilated esteem, and from time to time I saw, or thought I saw +through the gloom of her countenance a gleam of coquetry. But my father +judges much more favourably of her than I do; she evidently took pains +to please him, and he says he is sure she is a person over whose mind he +could gain great ascendency: he thinks her a woman of violent passions, +unbridled imagination, and ill-tempered, but _not_ malevolent: one who +has been so torn to pieces that she now turns upon her enemies, and +longs to tear in her turn. He says she has certainly great powers of +pleasing, though I neither saw nor felt them. But you know, my dear +aunt, that I am not famous for judging sanely of strangers on a first +visit, and I might be prejudiced or mortified by Madame de Genlis +assuring me that she had never read anything of mine except _Belinda_, +had heard of _Practical Education_, and heard it much praised, but had +never seen it. She has just published an additional volume of her +_Petits Romans_, in which there are some beautiful stories, but you must +not expect another "Mademoiselle de Clermont:" one such story in an age +is as much as one can reasonably expect. + +I had almost forgotten to tell you that the little girl who showed us in +is a girl whom she is educating, "_Elle m'appelle maman, mais elle n'est +pas ma fille._" The manner in which this little girl spoke to Madame de +Genlis, and looked at her, appeared to me more in her favour than +anything else. She certainly spoke to her with freedom and fondness, and +without any affectation. I went to look at what the child was writing, +she was translating Darwin's _Zoonomia._ I read some of her translation, +it was excellent; she was, I think she said, ten years old. It is +certain that Madame de Genlis made the present Duke of Orleans such an +excellent mathematician, that when he was during his emigration in +distress for bread, he taught mathematics as a professor in one of the +German Universities. If we could see or converse with one of her pupils, +and hear what they think of her, we should be able to form a better +judgment than from all that her books and enemies say for or against +her. I say her _books_, not her _friends_ and enemies, for I fear she +has no friends to plead for her, except her books. I never met any one +of any party who was her friend: this strikes me with real melancholy; +to see a woman of the first talents in Europe, who lived and has shone +in the gay court of the gayest nation in the world, now deserted and +forlorn, living in wretched lodgings, with some of the pictures and +finery, the wreck of her fortunes, before her eyes, without society, +without a single friend, admired--and despised: she lives literally in +spite, not in pity. Her cruelty in drawing a profligate character of the +Queen after her execution, in the _Chevaliers du Cygne_, her taking her +pupils at the beginning of the Revolution to the revolutionary clubs, +her connection with the late Duke of Orleans and her hypocrisy about it, +her insisting upon being governess to his children when the Duchess did +not wish it, and its being supposed that it was she who instigated the +Duke in all his horrible conduct; and more than all the rest, her own +attacks and _apologies_, have brought her into all this isolated state +of reprobation. And now, my dear aunt, I have told you all I know, or +have heard, or think about her; and perhaps I have tired you, but I +fancied that it was a subject particularly interesting to you, and if I +have been mistaken you will with your usual good-nature forgive me and +say, "I am sure Maria meant it kindly." + +Now to fresh fields.--In London you know that we had the pleasure of +meeting Mr. and Mrs. Sneyd, and Emma: there is such a general likeness +between her and Charlotte, that they might pass for sisters. Mrs. Sneyd +bribed us to like her by her extreme kindness. We went to Covent Garden +Theatre and saw the new play of _John Bull_: some humour, and some +pathos, and one good character of an Irishman, but the contrast between +the elegance of the French theatre and the _grossièreté_ of the English +struck us much. But this is the judgment of a disappointed playwright! + +Now, Aunt Mary, scene changes to York, where we stayed a day to see the +Minster; and as we had found a parcel of new books for us at Johnson's, +from Lindley Murray, we thought ourselves bound to go and see him. We +were told that he lived about a mile from York, and in the evening we +drove to see him. A very neat-looking house: door opened by a pretty +Quaker maidservant: shown into a well-furnished parlour, cheerful fire, +everything bespeaking comfort and happiness. On the sofa at the farther +end of the room was seated, quite upright, a Quaker-looking man in a +pale brown coat, who never attempted to rise from his seat to receive +us, but held out his hand, and with a placid, benevolent smile said, +"You are most welcome--I am heartily glad to see you; it is my +misfortune that I cannot rise from my seat, but I must be as I am, as I +have been these eighteen years." He had lost the use of one arm and +side, and cannot walk--not paralytic, but from the effects of a fever. +Such mild, cheerful resignation, such benevolence of manners and +countenance I never saw in any human being. He writes solely with the +idea of doing good to his fellow-creatures. He wants nothing in this +life, he says, neither fortune nor fame--he seems to forget that he +wants health--he says, "I have so many blessings." His wife, who seemed +to love and admire "my husband" as the first and best of human beings, +gave us excellent tea and abundance of good cake. + +I have not room here under the seal for the Minster, nor for the giant +figures on Alnwick Castle, nor for the droll man at the beautiful town +of Durham; but I or somebody better than me will tell of them, and of +Mrs. Green's drawings and painted jessamine in her window, and Mr. +Wellbeloved and his charming children, and Mr. Horner, [Footnote: +Francis Horner.] at Newcastle, and Dr. Trotter, at ditto. My father +says, "I hope you have done;" and so perhaps do you. + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +EDINBURGH, _March 30, 1803._ + +In a few days I hope we shall see you. I long to see you again, and to +hear your voice, and to receive from you those kind looks and kind +words, which custom cannot stale. I believe that the more variety people +see, the more they become attached to their first and natural friends. I +had taken a large sheet of paper to tell you some of the wonders we have +seen in our nine days' stay in Edinburgh, but my father has wisely +advised me to content myself with a small sheet, as I am to have the joy +of talking to you so soon, and may then say volumes in the same time +that I could write pages. I cannot express the pleasure we have felt in +being introduced to Henry's delightful society of friends here, both +those he has chosen for himself and those who have chosen him. Old and +young, grave and gay, join in speaking of him with a degree of affection +and esteem that is most touching and gratifying. Mr. and Mrs. Stewart +[Footnote: Mr. and Mrs. Dugald Stewart. As Professor at the University +of Edinburgh, Mr. Stewart gave those lectures which Sir James Mackintosh +said "breathed the love of virtue into whole generations of pupils."] +surpassed all that I had expected, and I had expected much. Mr. Stewart +is said to be naturally or habitually grave and reserved, but towards us +he has broken through his habits or his nature, and I never conversed +with any one with whom I was more at ease. He has a grave, sensible +face, more like the head of Shakespear than any other head or print that +I can remember. I have not heard him lecture; no woman can go to the +public lectures here, and I don't choose to go in men's or boys' +clothes, or in the pocket of the Irish giant, though he is here and well +able to carry me. Mrs. Stewart has been for years wishing in vain for +the pleasure of hearing one of her husband's lectures. She is just the +sort of woman you would like, that you would love. I do think it is +impossible to know her without loving her; indeed, she has been so kind +to Henry, that it would be doubly impossible (an Irish impossibility) to +us. Yet you know people do not always love because they have received +obligations. It is an additional proof of her merit, and of her powers +of pleasing, that she makes those who _are_ under obligations to her +forget that they are bound to be grateful, and only remember that they +think her good and agreeable. + + +_To_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH (the second sister in the family of the +name). + +GLASGOW, _April 4, 1803._ + +I have not forgotten my promise to write to you, and I think I can give +you pleasure by telling you that Henry is getting better every day, +[Footnote: Henry was only better for a time: he was never really +restored to health, though he lived till 1813.] and that we have all +been extremely happy in the company of several of his friends in +Edinburgh and Glasgow. He has made these friends by his own good +qualities, and good conduct, and we hear them speak of him with the +greatest esteem and affection. This morning Dr. Birkbeck, one of Henry's +friends, took us to see several curious machines, in a house where he +gives lectures on mechanical and chemical subjects. He is going to give +a lecture on purpose for children, and he says he took the idea for +doing so from _Practical Education._ He opened a drawer and showed to me +a little perspective machine he had made from the print of my father's; +and we were also very much surprised to sec in one of his rooms a large +globe of silk, swelled out and lighted by a lamp withinside, so that +when the room was darkened we could plainly see the map of the world +painted on it, as suggested in _Practical Education._ My father +mentioned to this gentleman my Aunt Charlotte's invention of painting +the stars on the inside of an umbrella: he was much pleased with it, and +I think he will make such an umbrella.... Tell Sneyd that we saw at +Edinburgh his old friend the Irish giant. I suppose he remembers seeing +him at Bristol? he is so tall that he can with ease lean his arm on the +top of the room door. I stood beside him, and the top of my head did not +reach to his hip. My father laid his hand withinside of the giant's +hand, and it looked as small as little Harriet's would in John Langan's. +This poor giant looks very sallow and unhealthy, and seemed not to like +to sit or stand all day for people to look at him. + + * * * * * + +After the return of the family to Edgeworthstown, Miss Edgeworth at once +began to occupy herself with preparing for the press _Popular Tales_, +which were published this year. She also began _Emilie de Coulanges, +Madame de Fleury_, and _Ennui_, and wrote _Leonora_ with the romantic +purpose already mentioned. + +In 1804 she found time to write _Griselda_, which she amused herself +with at odd moments in her own room without telling her father what she +was about. When finished, she sent it to Johnson, who had the +good-nature, at her request, to print a title-page for a single copy +without her name to it: he then sent it over to Mr. Edgeworth as a new +novel just come out. Mr. Edgeworth read it with surprise and admiration. +He could not believe Maria could have had the actual time to write it, +and yet it was so like her style; he at last exclaimed, "It must be +Anna's. Anna has written this to please me. It is by some one we are +interested in, Mary was so anxious I should read it." Miss Sneyd was in +the secret, and had several times put it before him on the table: at +last she told him it was Maria's. He was amused at the trick, and +delighted at having admired the book without knowing its author. + + * * * * * + +MISS EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. CHARLOTTE SNEYD. BLACK CASTLE, _December 1804._ + +Though Henry will bring you all the news of this enchanted castle, and +though you will hear it far better from his lips than from my pen, I +cannot let him go without a line. I need not tell you I am perfectly +happy here, and only find the day too short. Pray make Henry give you an +account of the grand dinner we were at, and the Spanish priest who +called Rousseau and Voltaire _vagabones_, and the gentleman who played +the "Highland Laddie" on the guitar, and of Mr. Grainger, who was +_present_ at one of the exhibitions of that German spectre-monger +celebrated in Wraxall. + +The cottages are improving here, the people have paved their yards, and +plant roses against their walls. My aunt likes _Ennui._ I had thoughts +of finishing it here, but every day I find some excuse for idleness. + + +_To_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH. + +BLACK CASTLE, _Jan. 1805._ + +I have thought of you often when I heard things that would entertain +you, and thought I had collected a great store, but when I rummage in my +head, for want of having had, or taken time to keep the drawers of my +cabinet of memory tidy, I cannot find one single thing that I want, +except that it is said that plants raised from cuttings do not bear such +fine flowers as those raised from seeds.--That a lady, whose parrot had +lost all its feathers, made him a flannel jacket. . . . I will bring a +specimen of the silk spun by the _Processionaires_, of whom my aunt gave +you the history. There is a cock here who is as great a tyrant in his +own way as Buonaparte, and a poor Barbary cock who has no claws, has the +misfortune to live in the same yard with him; he will not suffer this +poor defenceless fellow to touch a morsel or grain of all the good +things Margaret throws to them till he and all his protégées are +satisfied. + + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Feb. 26, 1805._ + +I have been reading _a power_ of good books: _Montesquieu sur la +Grandeur et Décadence des Romains_, which I recommend to you as a book +you will admire, because it furnishes so much food for thought, it shows +how history may be studied for the advantage of mankind, not for the +mere purpose of remembering facts and repeating them. + +Sneyd [Footnote: Second son of Mrs. Elizabeth Edgeworth.] has come home +to spend a week of vacation with us. He is now full of logic, and we +perpetually hear the words _syllogisms_, and _predicates, majors_ and +_minors, universals_ and _particulars, affirmatives_ and _negatives_, +and BAROK and BARBARA, not Barbara Allen or any of her relations: and we +have learnt by logic that a stone is not an animal, and conversely that +an animal is not a stone. I really think a man talking logic on the +stage might be made as diverting as the character of the _Apprentice_ +who is arithmetically mad; pray read it: my father read it to us a few +nights ago, and though I had a most violent headache, so that I was +forced to hold my head on both sides whilst I laughed, yet I could not +refrain. Much I attribute to my father's reading, but something must be +left to Murphy. I have some idea of writing in the intervals of my +_severer studies_ for _Professional Education_, a comedy for my father's +birthday, but I shall do it up in my own room, and shall not produce it +till it is finished. I found the first hint of it in the strangest place +that anybody could invent, for it was in Dallas's _History of the +Maroons_, and you may read the book to find it out, and ten to one you +miss it. At all events pray read the book, for it is extremely +interesting and entertaining: it presents a new world with new manners +to the imagination, and the whole bears the stamp of truth. It is not +well written in general, but there are particular parts admirable from +truth of description and force of feeling. + +Your little goddaughter Sophy is one of the most engaging little +creatures I ever saw, and knows almost all the birds and beasts in +Bewick from the tom-tit to the hip-po-pot-a-mus, and names them in a +sweet little droll voice. + + +_To_ HENRY EDGEWORTH, AT EDINBURGH. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _March 1805._ + +It gives me the most sincere pleasure to see your letters to my father +written just as if you were talking to a favourite friend of your own +age, and with that manly simplicity characteristic of your mind and +manner from the time you were able to speak. There is something in this +perfect openness and in the courage of daring to be always yourself, +which attaches more than I can express, more than all the +Chesterfieldian arts and graces that ever were practised. + +The worked sleeves are for Mrs. Stewart, and you are to offer them to +her,--nobody can say I do not know how to choose my ambassadors well! If +Mrs. Stewart should begin to say, "O! it is a pity Miss Edgeworth should +spend her time at such work!" please to interrupt her speech, though +that is very rude, and tell her that I like work very much, and that I +have only done this at odd times, after breakfast you know, when my +father reads out Pope's _Homer_, or when there are long sittings, when +it is much more agreeable to move one's fingers than to have to sit with +hands crossed or clasped immovably. I by no means accede to the doctrine +that ladies cannot attend to anything else when they are working: +besides, it is contrary, is not it, to all the theories of _Zoonomia_? +Does not Dr. Darwin show that certain habitual motions go on without +interrupting trains of thought? And do not common sense and experience, +whom I respect even above Dr. Darwin, show the same thing? + + +_To_ MISS SOPHY RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _March 25, 1805._ + +To-morrow we all, viz. Mr. Edgeworth, two Miss Sneyds, and Miss Harriet +Beaufort, and Miss Fanny Brown, and Miss Maria, and Miss Charlotte, and +Miss Honora, and Mr. William Edgeworth, go in one coach and one chaise +to Castle Forbes, to see a play acted by the Ladies Elizabeth and +Adelaide Forbes, Miss Parkins, Lord Rancliffe, Lord Forbes, and I don't +know how many grandees with tufts on their heads, for every grandee man +must now you know have a tuft or ridge of hair upon the middle of his +pate. Have you read Kotzebue's _Paris_? Some parts entertaining, mostly +stuff. We have heard from Lovell, still a prisoner at Verdun, but in +hopes of peace, poor fellow. + + +_To_ C. SNEYD EDGEWORTH, AT TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _May 4, 1805._ + +We are all very happy and tolerably merry with the assistance of William +and the young tribe, who are always at his heels and in full chorus with +him. Charlotte _cordials_ me twice a day with _Cecilia_, which she reads +charmingly, and which entertains me as much at the third reading as it +did at the first. + +We are a little, but very little afraid of being swallowed up by the +French: they have so much to swallow and digest before they come to us! +They did come once very near to be sure, but they got nothing by it. + + +_To_ MISS S. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _June 1, 1805._ + +My father's birthday was kept yesterday, much more agreeably than last +year, for then we had company in the house. Yesterday Sneyd, now at home +for his vacation, who is ever the promoter of gaiety, contrived a pretty +little _fête champêtre_, which surprised us all most agreeably. After +dinner he persuaded me that it was indispensably necessary for my health +that I should take an airing; accordingly the chaise came to the door, +and Anne Nangle, and my mother, with little Lucy in her arms, and Maria +were rolled off, and after them on horseback came rosy Charlotte, all +smiles, and Henry, with eyes brilliant with pleasure--riding again with +Charlotte after eight months' absence. It was a delightful evening, and +we thought we were pleasing ourselves sufficiently by the airing, so we +came home _thinking of nothing at all_, when, as we drove round, our +ears were suddenly struck with the sound of music, and as if by +enchantment, a fairy festival appeared upon the green. In the midst of +an amphitheatre of verdant festoons suspended from white staffs, on +which the scarlet streamers of the yeomen were flying, appeared a +company of youths and maidens in white, their heads adorned with +flowers, dancing; while their mothers and their little children were +seated on benches round the amphitheatre. John Langan sat on the pier of +the dining-room steps, with Harriet on one knee and Sophy on the other, +and Fanny standing beside him. In the course of the evening William +danced a reel with Fanny and Harriet, to the great delight of the +spectators. Cakes and syllabubs served in great abundance by good Kitty, +formed no inconsiderable part of the pleasures of the evening. William, +who is at present in the height of electrical enthusiasm, proposed to +the dancers a few electrical sparks, to complete the joys of the day. +All--men, women, and children--flocked into the study after him to be +_shocked_, and their various gestures and expressions of surprise and +terror mixed with laughter, were really diverting to my mother, Anne +Nangle, and me, who had judiciously posted ourselves in the gallery. +Charlotte and Sneyd, as soon as it was dark, came to summon us, and we +found the little amphitheatre on the grass-plat illuminated, the lights +mixed with the green boughs and flowers were beautiful, and boys with +flambeaux waving about had an excellent effect. I do wish you could have +seen the honest, happy face of George, as he held his flambeau bolt +upright at his station, looking at his own pretty daughter Mary. O my +dear aunt, how much our pleasure would have been increased if you had +been sitting beside us at the dining-room window. + + +_To_ MISS MARGARET RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _June 21, 1805._ + +I had a most pleasant long letter from my father to-day. He has become +acquainted with Mrs. Crewe--"Buff and blue and Mrs. Crewe"--and gives an +account of a _déjeûner_ at which he _assisted_ at her house at Hampstead +as quite delightful. Miss Crewe charmed him by praising "To-morrow," and +he claimed, he says, remuneration on the spot--a song, which it is not +easy to obtain: she sang, and he thought her singing worthy of its +celebrity. He was charmed with old Dr. Burney, who at eighty-two was the +most lively, well-bred, agreeable man in the room. Lord Stanhope begged +to be presented to him, and he thought him the most wonderful man he +ever met. + +Tell my aunt _Leonora_ is in the press. + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Sept 6, 1805._ + +Thank you, thank you. Unless you could jump into that skin out of which +I was ready to jump when your letter was read, you could not tell how +very much I am obliged by your so kindly consenting to come. + +I have been at Pakenham Hall and Castle Forbes: at Pakenham Hall I was +delighted with "that sweetest music," the praises of a friend, from a +person of judgment and taste. I do not know when I have felt so much +pleasure as in hearing sweet Kitty Pakenham speak of your Sophy; I never +saw her look more animated or more pretty than when she was speaking of +her. + +Lady Elizabeth Pakenham has sent to me a little pony, as quiet and +almost as small as a dog, on which I go trit-trot, trit-trot; but I +hope it will never take it into its head to add + + When we come to the stile, + Skip we go over. + + +_To_ MISS SOPHY RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Feb. 7, 1806._ + +I am ashamed to tell you I have been so idle that I have not yet +finished _Madame de Fleury._ You will allow that we have gadded about +enough lately: Sonna, Pakenham Hall, Farnham, and Castle Forbes. I don't +think I told you that I grew quite fond of Lady Judith Maxwell, and I +flatter myself she did not dislike me, because she did not keep me in +the ante-chamber of her mind, but let me into the boudoir at once. + +So Lord Henry Petty is Chancellor of the Exchequer--at twenty-four on +the pinnacle of glory! + +Sneyd and Charlotte have begun _Sir Charles Grandison_: I almost envy +them the pleasure of reading Clementina's history for the first time. It +is one of those pleasures which is never repeated in life. + + +_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH. + +ROSSTREVOR, _March 21, 1806._ + +I have spent a very happy week at Collon; [Footnote: Dr. Beaufort, +father of the fourth Mrs. Edgeworth, was Vicar of Collon.] I never saw +your mother in such excellent spirits. She and Dr. Beaufort were so good +as to bring me to Dundalk, where my aunt had appointed to meet me; but +her courage failed her about going over the Mountain road, and she sent +Mr. Corry's chaise with hired horses. I foresaw we should have a battle +about those horses, and so we had--only a skirmish, in which I came off +victorious! Your father, who, next to mine, is, I think, the best and +most agreeable traveller in the world, walked us about Dundalk and to +the Quay, etc., whilst the horses were resting, and we ate black +cherries and were very merry. They pitied me for the ten-mile stage I +was to go alone, but I did not pity myself, for I had Sir William +Jones's and Sir William Chambers's _Asiatic Miscellany._ The +metaphysical poetry of India, however, is not to my taste; and though +the Indian Cupid, with his bow of sugar-cane and string of bees and five +arrows for the five senses, is a very pretty and very ingenious little +fellow, I have a preference in favour of our own Cupid, and of the two +would rather leave orders with "my porter" to admit the "well-known +boy." [Footnote: From an Address to Cupid, by the Duc de Nivernois, +translated by Mr. Edgeworth.] + +Besides the company of Sir William Jones, I had the pleasure of meeting +on the road Mr. Parkinson Ruxton and Sir Chichester Fortescue, who had +been commissioned by my aunt to hail me; they accordingly did so, and +after a mutual broadside of compliments, they sheered off. The road to +Newry is like Wales--Ravensdale, three miles of wood, glen, and +mountain. + +My aunt and Sophy were on the steps of the inn at Newry to receive me. +The road from Newry to Rosstrevor is both sublime and beautiful. The inn +at Rosstrevor is like the best sort of English breakfasting inn. But to +proceed with my journey, for I must go two miles and a half from +Rosstrevor to my aunt's house. Sublime mountains and sea--road, a flat +gravelled walk, walled on the precipice side. You see a slated English +or Welsh-looking farmhouse amongst some stunted trees, apparently in the +sea; you turn down a long avenue of firs, only three feet high, but +old-looking, six rows deep on each side. The two former proprietors of +this mansion had opposite tastes--one all for straight, and the other +all for serpentine lines; and there was a war between snug and +picturesque, of which the traces appear every step you proceed. You seem +driving down into the sea, to which this avenue leads; but you suddenly +turn and go back from the shore, through stunted trees of various sorts +scattered over a wild common, then a dwarf mixture of shrubbery and +orchard, and you are at the end of the house, which is pretty. The front +is ugly, but from it you look upon the bay of Carlingford--Carlingford +Head opposite to you--vessels under sail, near and distant--little +islands, sea-birds, and landmarks standing in the sea. Behind the house +the mountains of Morne. I saw all this with admiration, tired as I was, +for it was seven o'clock. In the parlour is a surprising chimney-piece, +as gigantic as that at Grandsire's at Calais, with wonderful wooden +ornaments and a tablet representing Alexander's progress through India, +he looking very pert, driving four lions. + +After dinner I was so tired, that in spite of all my desire to see and +hear, I was obliged to lie down and refit. After resting, but not +sleeping, I groped my way down the broad old staircase, _felt_ my road, +passed _two_ clock-cases on the landing-place, and arrived in the +parlour, where I was glad to see candles and tea, and my dear aunt, and +Sophy, and Margaret's illumined, affectionate faces. Tea. "Come, now," +says my aunt, "let us show Maria the wonderful passage; it looks best by +candlelight." I followed my guide through a place that looks like Mrs. +Radcliffe in lower life--passage after passage, very low-roofed, and +full of strange lumber; came to a den of a bed-chamber, then another, +and a study, all like the hold of a ship, and fusty; but in this study +were mahogany bookcases, glass doors, and well-bound, excellent books. +All kinds of tables, broken and stowed on top of each other, and parts +of looking-glasses, looking as if they had been there a hundred years, +and jelly glasses on a glass stand, as if somebody had supped there the +night before. Turn from the study and you see a staircase, more like a +step-ladder, very narrow, but one could squeeze up at a time, by which +we went into a place like that you may remember at the post-house in the +Low Countries--two chambers, if chambers they could be called, quite +remote from the rest of the house, low ceilings, strange scraps of +many-coloured paper on the walls, an old camp bed, a feather bed with +half the feathers out; one window, low, but wide. + +"Out of that window," said my aunt, "as Isabella told us, the corpse was +carried." + +"Who is Isabella?" cried I; but before my aunt could answer I was struck +with new wonder at the sight of two French looking-glasses, in gilt +frames, side by side, reaching from the ceiling to the floor, and placed +exactly opposite the bed! [Footnote: This mysterious apartment had +belonged to a poor crazed lady who died there, and who had, as Isabella, +the gardener's wife, related, a passion for fine papers, different +patterns of which were put on the walls to please her, and also the +French mirrors, on which she delighted to look from her bed. And when +she died her coffin was, to avoid the crooked passages, taken out of the +window.] + +I was now so tired that I could neither see, hear, nor understand, +imagine, or wonder any longer. Sophy somehow managed to get my clothes +off, and literally put me into bed. The images of all these people and +things flitted before my eyes for a few seconds, and then I was fast +asleep. + +Mrs. and Miss Fortescue came in the morning, and among other things +mentioned the fancy ball in Dublin. Mrs. Sheridan [Footnote: Mrs. Tom +Sheridan.] was the handsomest woman there. The Duchess of Bedford was +dressed as Mary Queen of Scots, and danced with Lord Darnley. At supper +the Duchess _motioned_ to Lady Darnley to come to her table; but Lady +Darnley refused, as she had a party of young ladies. The Duchess +reproached her rather angrily. "Oh," said Lady Darnley, "when the Queen +of Scots was talking to Darnley, it would not have done for me to have +been too near them." + + +MRS. EDGEWORTH _to_ MISS SOPHY RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _April 3, 1806._ + +We were at Gaybrook when your letter came, and when the good news of +Miss Pakenham's happiness arrived: [Footnote: Catherine, second daughter +of the second Lord Longford, married, 10th April 1806, Sir Arthur +Wellesley, afterwards the first and great Duke of Wellington. He had, at +this time, just returned from India, after a stay of eleven years.] it +was announced there in a very pleasant, sprightly letter from your +friend Miss Fortescue. Your account of the whole affair is really +admirable, and is one of those tales of real life in which the romance +is far superior to the generality of fictions. I hope the imaginations +of this hero and heroine have not been too much exalted, and that they +may not find the enjoyment of a happiness so long wished for inferior to +what they expected. Pray tell dear good Lady Elizabeth we are so +delighted with the news, and so engrossed by it, that, waking or +sleeping, the image of Miss Pakenham swims before our eyes. To make the +romance perfect we want two material documents--a description of the +person of Sir Arthur, and a knowledge of the time when the interview +after his return took place. + + +MARIA _to_ MRS. EDGEWORTH. + +ALLENSTOWN, _May-day, 1806._ + +Dr. Beaufort, tell Charlotte, saw Sir Arthur Wellesley at the Castle: +handsome, very brown, quite bald, and a hooked nose. He could not travel +with Lady Wellesley; he went by the mail. He had overstayed his leave a +day. She travelled under the care of his brother, the clergyman. + + +_To_ MISS MARGARET RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _May 23, 1806._ + +I have been laughed at most unmercifully by some of the phlegmatic +personages round the library table for my impatience to send you _The +Mine._ "Do you think Margaret cannot live five minutes longer without +it? Saddle the mare, and ride to Dublin, and thence to Black Castle or +Chantony with it, my dear!" + +I bear all with my accustomed passiveness, and am rewarded by my +father's having bought it for me; and it is now at Archer's for you. +Observe, I think the poem, as a drama, tiresome in the extreme, and +absurd, but I wish you to see that the very letters from the man in the +quick-silver mine which you recommended to me have been seized upon by a +poet of no inferior genius. Some of the strophes of the fairies are most +beautifully poetic. + +Lady Elizabeth Pakenham told us that when Lady Wellesley was presented +to the Queen, Her Majesty said, "I am happy to see you at my court, so +bright an example of constancy. If anybody in this world deserves to be +happy, you do." Then Her Majesty inquired, "But did you really never +write _one_ letter to Sir Arthur Wellesley during his long +absence?"--"No, never, madam."--"And did you never think of him? +"--"Yes, madam, very often." + +I am glad constancy is approved of at courts, and hope "the bright +example" may be followed. + + +_To_ MISS SOPHY RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _July 12, 1806._ + +This is the third sheet of paper in the smallest hand I could write I +have had the honour within these three days to spoil in your service, +stuffed full of geological and chemical facts, which we learned from our +two philosophical travellers, Davy and Greenough; but when finished I +persuaded myself they were not worth sending. Many of the facts I find +you have in Thomson and Nicholson, which, "owing to my ignorance," as +poor Sir Hugh Tyrold would say, "I did not rightly know." + +Our travellers have just left us, and my head is in great danger of +bursting from the multifarious treasures that have been stowed and +crammed into it in the course of one week. Mr. Davy is wonderfully +improved since you saw him at Bristol: he has an amazing fund of +knowledge upon all subjects, and a great deal of genius. Mr. Greenough +has not, at first sight, a very intelligent countenance, yet he _is_ +very intelligent, and has a good deal of literature and anecdote, +foreign and domestic, and a taste for wit and humour. He has travelled a +great deal, and relates well. Dr. Beddoes is much better, but my father +does not think his health safe. I am very well, but shamefully idle: +indeed, I have done nothing but hear; and if I had had a dozen pair +extraordinary of ears, and as many heads, I do not think I could have +heard or held all that was said. + + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Feb. 1807._ + +While Charlotte [Footnote: Charlotte Edgeworth, the idol and beauty of +the family, died, after a long illness, 7th April 1807.] was pretty well +we paid our long-promised visit to Coolure, and passed a few very +pleasant days there. Admiral Pakenham is very entertaining, and appears +very amiable in the midst of his children, who doat on him. He spoke +very handsomely of your darling brother, and diverted us by the mode in +which he congratulated Richard on his marriage: "I give you joy, my good +friend, and I am impatient to see the woman who has made an honest man +of you." + +Colonel Edward Pakenham burned his instep by falling asleep before the +fire, out of which a turf fell on his foot, and so he was, luckily for +us, detained a few days longer and dined and breakfasted at Coolure. He +is very agreeable, and unaffected, and modest, after all the flattery he +has met with. [Footnote: Colonel, afterwards Sir Edward Pakenham, +distinguished in the Peninsular War, fell in action at New Orleans, 8th +January 1815.] + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Sept. 1807._ + +My beloved aunt and friend--friend to my least fancies as well as to my +largest interests,--thank you for the six fine rose-trees, and thank you +for the little darling double-flowering almond tree. Sneyd asked if +there was nothing for him? so I very generously gave him the +polyanthuses and planted them with my own hands at the corners of his +garden pincushions. + +Mr. Hammond may satisfy himself as to the union of commerce and +literature by simply reading the history of the Medici, where commerce, +literature, and the arts made one of the most splendid, useful, and +powerful coalitions that ever were seen in modern times. Here is a fine +sentence! Mr. Hammond once, when piqued by my raillery, declared that he +never in his life saw, or could have conceived, till he saw me, that a +_philosopher_ could laugh so much and so heartily. + +Enclosed I send a copy of an epitaph written by Louis XVIII., on the +Abbé Edgeworth; I am sure the intention does honour to H.M. heart, and +the critics here say the Latin does honour to H.M. head. William +Beaufort, who sent it to my father, says the epitaph was communicated to +him by a physician at Cork, who being a Roman Catholic of learning and +foreign education, maintains a considerable correspondence in foreign +countries. + + +_To_ HENRY EDGEWORTH, IN LONDON. + +PAKENHAM HALL, + +_Christmas Day_, 1807. + +A Merry Christmas to you, my dear Henry and Sneyd! I wish you were here +at this instant, and you would be sure of one; for this is really the +most agreeable family and the pleasantest and most comfortable castle I +ever was in. + +We came here yesterday--the _we_ being Mr. and Mrs. Edgeworth, Honora, +and me. A few minutes after we came, arrived Hercules Pakenham--the +first time he had met his family since his return from Copenhagen. My +father has scarcely ever quitted his elbow since he came, and has been +all ear and no tongue. + +Lady Wellesley was prevented by engagements from joining this party at +Pakenham Hall; both the Duke and Duchess of Richmond are so fond of +her as no tongue can tell. The Duke must have a real friendship for Sir +Arthur; for while he was at Copenhagen his Grace did all the business of +his office for him. + + +_To_ C. SNEYD EDGEWORTH, IN LONDON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Jan. 1, 1808._ + +A Happy New Year to you, my dear Sneyd. It is so dark, I can hardly see +to write, and it has been pouring such torrents of rain, hail, and snow, +that I began to think, with John Langan, that the "old prophecies found +in a bog" were all accomplishing, and that Slievegaulry was beginning to +set out [Footnote: An old woman had, before Christmas, gone about the +neighbourhood saying that, on New Year's Day, Slievegaulry, a little +hill about five miles from Edgeworthstown, would come down with an +earthquake, and settle on the village, destroying everything.] on its +proposed journey. My mother has told you about these predictions, and +the horror they have spread through the country _entirely._ The old +woman who was the cause of the mischief is, I suppose, no bigger than a +midge's wing, as she has never been found, though diligent search has +been made for her. Almost all the people in this town sat up last night +to _receive_ the earthquake. + +We have had the same physiognomical or character-telling _fishes_ that +you described to Honora. Captain Hercules Pakenham brought them from +Denmark, where a Frenchman was selling them very cheap. Those we saw +were pale green and bright purple. They are very curious: my father was +struck with them as much, or more, than any of the children; for there +are some wonders which strike in proportion to the knowledge, instead of +the ignorance, of the beholders. Is it a leaf? Is it galvanic? What is +it? I wish Henry would talk to Davy about it. The fish lay more quiet in +my father's hand than could have been expected; only curled up their +tails on my Aunt Mary's; tolerably quiet on my mother's; but they could +not lie still one second on William's, and went up his sleeve, which I +am told their German interpreters say is the worst sign they can give. +My father suggested that the different degrees of dryness or moisture in +the hands cause the emotions of these sensitive fish, but after _drying_ +our best, no change was perceptible. I thought the pulse was the cause +of their motion, but this does not hold, because my pulse is slow, and +my father's very quick. It was ingenious to make them in the shape of +fish, because their motions exactly resemble the breathing, and panting, +and floundering, and tail-curling of fish; and I am sure I have tired +you with them, and you will be sick of these fish. [Footnote: It was +afterwards ascertained that these conjuring fish had been brought from +Japan by the Dutch, and were made of horn cut extremely thin. Their +movements were occasioned, as Mr. Edgeworth supposed, from the warm +moisture of the hand, but depended upon the manner in which they were +placed. If the middle of the fish was made to touch the warmest part of +the hand, it contracted, and set the head and tail in motion.] + + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _April 1808._ + +We have just had a charming letter from Mrs. Barbauld, in which she asks +if we have read _Marmion_, Mr. Scott's new poem: we have not. I have +read _Corinne_ with my father, and I like it better than he does. In one +word, I am dazzled by the genius, provoked by the absurdities, and in +admiration of the taste and critical judgment of Italian literature +displayed through the whole work. But I will not I dilate upon it in +a letter; I could talk of it for three hours to you and my aunt. I +almost broke my foolish heart over the end of the third volume, and my +father acknowledges he never read anything more pathetic. + +Pray remember my garden when the Beauforts come to us. It adds very much +to my happiness, especially as Honora and all the children have shares +in it, and I assure you it is very cheerful to see the merry, +scarlet-coated, busy little workwomen in their territories, sowing, and +weeding, and transplanting hour after hour. + + +_June 4._ + +Lady Elizabeth Pakenham and Mrs. Stewart and her son Henry, a fine +intelligent boy, and her daughter Kitty, who promises to be as gentle as +her mother, have been here. I liked Mrs. Stewart's conversation much, +and thought her very interesting. + + +_June 9._ + +My father and mother have gone to the Hills to settle a whole clan of +tenants whose leases are out, and who _expect that because_ they have +all lived under his Honour, they and theirs these hundred years, that +his Honour shall and will contrive to divide the land that supported ten +people amongst their sons and sons' sons, to the number of a hundred. +And there is Cormac with the reverend locks, and Bryan with the flaxen +wig, and Brady with the long brogue, and Paddy with the short, and Terry +with the butcher's-blue coat, and Dennis with no coat at all, and Eneas +Hosey's widow, and all the Devines, pleading and quarrelling about +boundaries and bits of bog. I wish Lord Selkirk was in the midst of +them, with his hands crossed before him; I should like to know if he +could make them understand his _Essay on Emigration._ + +My father wrote to Sir Joseph Banks to apply through the French +Institute for leave for Lovell to travel as a _literate_ in Germany, and +I have frequently written about him to our French friends; and those +passages in my letters were never answered. All their letters are now +written, as Sir Joseph Banks observed, under evident constraint and +fear. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Edgeworth writes: + +This summer of 1808 Mr. and Mrs. Ruxton and their two daughters passed +some time with us. My father, mother, and sister came also, and Maria +read out _Ennui_ in manuscript. We used to assemble in the middle of the +day in the library, and everybody enjoyed it. One evening when we were +at dinner with this large party, the butler came up to Mr. Edgeworth. +"Mrs. Apreece, sir; she is getting out of her carriage." Mr. Edgeworth +went to the hall door, but we all sat still laughing, for there had been +so many jokes about Mrs. Apreece, who was then travelling in Ireland, +that we thought it was only nonsense of Sneyd's, who we supposed had +dressed up some one to personate her; and we were astonished when Mr. +Edgeworth presented her as the real Mrs. Apreece. She stayed some days, +and was very brilliant and agreeable. She continued, as Mrs. Apreece and +as Lady Davy, to be a kind friend and correspondent of Maria's. + + +MARIA _to_ C. SNEYD EDGEWORTH, AT EDINBURGH. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Dec. 30, 1808._ + +How little we can tell from day to day what will happen to us or our +friends. I promised you a merry frankful of nonsense this day, and +instead of that we must send you the melancholy account of poor Dr. +Beddoes' death. [Footnote: Dr. Beddoes, who had married Anna Edgeworth, +was the author of almost innumerable books. His pupil, Sir Humphry Davy, +says: "He had talents which would have exalted him to the pinnacle of +philosophical eminence, if they had been applied with discretion."] I +enclose Emmeline's letter, which will tell you all better than I can. +Poor Anna! how it has been possible for her weak body to sustain her +through such trials and such exertions, GOD only knows. My father and +mother have written most warm and pressing invitations to her to come +here immediately, and bring all her children. How fortunate it was that +little Tom [Footnote: Thomas Lovell Beddoes, 1803-1849, author of _The +Bride's Tragedy_, and of _Death's Jest-Book._] came here last summer, +and how still more fortunate that the little fellow returned with Henry +to see his poor father before he died. + + +To MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Jan. 1809._ + +On Friday we went to Pakenham Hall. We sat down thirty-two to dinner, +and in the evening a party of twenty from Pakenham Hall went to a grand +ball at Mrs. Pollard's. Mrs. Edgeworth and I went, papa and Aunt Mary +stayed with Lady Elizabeth. Lord Longford acted his part of Earl Marshal +in the great hall, sending off carriage after carriage, in due +precedence, and with its proper complement of beaux and belles. I was +much entertained: had Mrs. Tuite, and mamma, and Mrs. Pakenham, and the +Admiral to talk and laugh with: saw abundance of comedy. There were +three Miss ----s, from the County of Tipperary, three degrees of +comparison--the positive, the comparative, and the superlative; +excellent figures, with white feathers as long as my two arms joined +together, stuck in the front of what were meant for Spanish hats. How +they towered above their sex, divinely vulgar, with brogues of true +Milesian race! Supper so crowded that Caroline Pakenham and I agreed to +use one arm by turns, and thus with difficulty found means to reach our +mouths. Caroline grows upon me every time I see her; she is as quick as +lightning, understands with half a word literary allusions as well as +humour, and follows and leads in conversation with that playfulness and +good breeding which delight the more because they are so seldom found +together. We stayed till between three and four in the morning. Lord +Longford had, to save our horses which had come a journey, put a pair of +his horses and one of his postillions to our coach: the postillion had, +it seems, amused himself at a _club_ in Castle Pollard while we were at +the ball, and he had amused himself so much that he did not know the +ditch from the road: he was ambitious of passing Mr. Dease's +carriage--passed it: attempted to pass Mr. Tuite's, ran the wheels on a +drift of snow which overhung the ditch, and laid the coach fairly down +on its side in the ditch. We were none of us hurt. The _us_ were my +mother, Mr. Henry Pakenham, and myself. My mother fell undermost; I +never fell at all, for I clung like a bat to the handstring at my side, +determined that I would not fall upon my mother and break her arm. None +of us were even bruised. Luckily Mrs. Tuite's carriage was within a few +yards of us, and stopped, and the gentlemen hauled us out immediately. +Admiral Pakenham lifted me up and carried me in his arms, as if I had +been a little doll, and set me down actually on the step of Mrs. Tuite's +carriage, so I never wet foot or shoe. And now, my dear aunt, I have +established a character for courage in overturns for the rest of my +life! The postillion was not the least hurt, nor the horses; if they had +not been the quietest animals in the world we should have been undone: +one was found with his feet level with the other's head. The coach could +not be got out of the deep ditch that night, but Lord Longford sent a +man to sleep in it, that nobody else might, and that no one might steal +the glasses. It came out safe and sound in the morning, not a glass +broken. Miss Fortescue, Caroline, and Mr. Henry Pakenham went up, just +as we left Pakenham Hall, to town or to the Park to Lady Wellesley, who +gives a parting ball, and then follows Sir Arthur to England. + + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Feb. 2, 1809. ._ + +This minute I hear a carman is going to Navan, and I hasten to send you +the _Cottagers of Glenburnie_, [Footnote: By Miss Elizabeth Hamilton, +with whom Miss Edgeworth had become intimate at Edinburgh in 1803.] +which I hope you will like as well as we do. I think it will do a vast +deal of good, and besides it is extremely interesting, which all _good_ +books are not: it has great powers, both comic and tragic. I write in +the midst of Fortescues and Pakenhams, with dear Miss Caroline P., whom +I like every hour better and better, sitting on the sofa beside me, +reading Mademoiselle Clairon's _Memoirs_, and talking so entertainingly, +that I can scarcely tell what I have said, or am going to say. + +I like Mrs. Fortescue's conversation, and will, as Sophy desires, +converse as much as possible with obliging and ever-cheerful Miss +Fortescue. But indeed it is very difficult to mind anything but +Caroline. + + +_Feb. 5._ + +Three of the most agreeable days I ever spent we have enjoyed in the +visit of our Pakenham Hall friends to us. How delightful it is to be +with those who are sincerely kind and well-bred: I would not give many +straws for good breeding without sincerity, and I would give at any time +ten times as much for kindness _with_ politeness as for kindness without +it. There is something quite captivating in Lady Longford's voice and +manners, and the extreme vivacity of her countenance, and her quick +change of feelings interested me particularly: I never saw a woman so +little spoiled by the world. As for Caroline Pakenham, I love her. They +were all very polite about the reading out of _Emilie de Coulanges_, and +took it as a mark of kindness from me, and not as an exhibition. Try to +get and read the _Life of Dudley, Lord North_, of which parts are highly +interesting. I am come to the Ambition in _Marie de Menzikoff_, which I +like much, but the love is mere brown sugar and water. The mother's +blindness is beautifully described. My father says "Vivian" will stand +next to "Mrs. Beaumont" and "Ennui"; I have ten days' more work at it, +ten days' more purgatory at other corrections, and then, huzza! a heaven +upon earth of idleness and reading, which is my idleness. Half of +_Professional Education_ is printed. + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _March 1809._ + +Indeed you are quite right in thinking that the expressions of affection +from my uncle and you are more delightful to me than all the compliments +or admiration in the world could be. It is no new thing for me to be +happy at Black Castle, but I think I was particularly happy there this +last time. You both made me feel that I added to the pleasures of your +fireside, which after all, old-fashioned or not, are the best of all +pleasures. How I did laugh! and how impossible it is not to laugh in +some company, or to laugh in others. I have often wondered how my ideas +flow or ebb without the influence of my will; sometimes when I am with +those I love, flowing faster than tongue can utter, and sometimes +ebbing, ebbing, till nought but sand and sludge are left. + +We have been much entertained with _Le petit Carilloneur._ I would send +it to you, only it is a society book; but I do send by a carman two +volumes of Alfieri's _Life_ and Kirwan's _Essay on Happiness_, and the +Drogheda edition of _Parent's Assistant_, which, with your leave, I +present to your servant Richard. + +The Grinding Organ [Footnote: Afterwards published in 1827 in a small +volume, entitled _Little Plays._] went off on Friday night better than I +could have expected, and seemed to please the spectators. Mrs. Pakenham +brought four children, and Mr. and Mrs. Thompson two sons, Mr. and Mrs. +Keating two daughters, which, with the Beauforts, Molly, George, and the +rest of the servants, formed the whole audience. I am sure you would +have enjoyed the pleasure the Bristows showed on seeing and hearing Mary +Bristow perform her part, which she did with perfect propriety. Sophy +and Fanny were excellent, but as they were doomed to be the _good_ +children, they had not ample room and verge enough to display powers +equal to the little termagant heroine of the night. William in his Old +Man (to use the newspaper style) was correct and natural. Mr. Edgeworth +as the English Farmer evinced much knowledge of true English character +and humour. Miss Edgeworth as the Widow Ross, "a cursed scold," was +quite at home. It is to be regretted that the Widow Ross has no voice, +as a song in character was of course expected; the Farmer certainly gave +"a fair challenge to a fair lady." His Daniel Cooper was given in an +excellent style, and was loudly encored. + + +_April 28._ + +The Primate [Footnote: William Stuart, Archbishop of Armagh, fifth son +of the third Earl of Bute.] was very agreeable during the two days he +spent here. My father travelled with him from Dublin to Ardbraccan, and +this reputed silent man never ceased talking and telling entertaining +anecdotes till the carriage stopped at the steps at Ardbraccan. This I +could hardly credit till I myself heard his Grace burst forth in +conversation. The truth of his character gives such value to everything +he says, even to his humorous stories. He has two things in his +character which I think seldom meet--a strong taste for humour, and +strong feelings of indignation. In his eye you may often see alternately +the secret laughing expression of humour, and the sudden open flash of +indignation. He is a man of the warmest feelings, with the coldest +exterior I ever saw--a master mind. I could not but be charmed with him, +because I saw that he thoroughly appreciated my father. + + * * * * * + +_Tales of Fashionable Life_ were published in June 1809, and greatly +added to the celebrity of their authoress. "Almeria" is the best, and +full of admirable pictures of character. In all, the object is to depict +the vapid and useless existence of those who live only for society. +Sometimes the moralising becomes tiresome. "Vraiment Miss Edgeworth est +digne de l'enthousiasme, mais elle se perd dans votre triste utilité," +said Madame de Staël to M. Dumont when she had read the Tales. In that +age of romantic fiction an attempt to depict life as it really was took +the reading world by surprise. + +"As a writer of tales and novels," wrote Lord Dudley in the _Quarterly +Review_, "Miss Edgeworth has a very marked peculiarity. It is that of +venturing to dispense common sense to her readers, and to bring them +within the precincts of real life and natural feeling. She presents them +with no incredible adventures or inconceivable sentiments, no +hyperbolical representations of uncommon characters, or monstrous +exhibitions of exaggerated passion. Without excluding love from her +pages, she knows how to assign to it its just limits. She neither +degrades the sentiment from its true dignity, nor lifts it to a +burlesque elevation. It takes its proper place among the passions. Her +heroes and heroines, if such they may be called, are never miraculously +good, nor detestably wicked. They are such men and women as we see and +converse with every day of our lives, with the same proportional mixture +in them of what is right and what is wrong, of what is great and what is +little." + +Lord Jeffrey, writing in the _Edinburgh Review_, said: "The writings of +Miss Edgeworth exhibit so singular an union of sober sense and +inexhaustible invention, so minute a knowledge of all that distinguishes +manners, or touches on happiness in every condition of human fortune, +and so just an estimate both of the real sources of enjoyment, and of +the illusions by which they are so often obstructed, that we should +separate her from the ordinary manufacturers of novels, and speak of her +Tales as works of more serious importance than much of the true history +and solemn philosophy that comes daily under our inspection.... It is +impossible, I think, to read ten pages in any of her writings without +feeling, not only that the whole, but that every part of them, was +intended to do good." + + * * * * * + +MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MISS RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _June 1809._ + +A copy of _Tales of Fashionable Life_ [Footnote: The first set +containing "Ennui," "Madame de Fleury," "Almeria," "The Dun," and +"Manoeuvring," in three volumes.] reached us yesterday in a Foster +frank: they looked well enough,--not very good paper, but better than +_Popular Tales._ I am going to write a story called "To-day," [Footnote: +Never written.] as a match for "To-morrow," in which I mean to show that +Impatience is as bad as Procrastination, and the desire to do too much +to-day, and to enjoy too much at present, is as bad as putting off +everything till to-morrow. What do you think of this plan? Write next +post, as, while my father is away, I am going to write a story for his +birthday. My other plan was to write a story in which young men of all +the different professions should act a part, like the "Contrast" in +higher life, [Footnote: "Patronage."] or the "Freeman Family," only +without princes, and without any possible allusion to our own family. I +have another sub-plan of writing "Coelebina in search of a Husband," +without my father's knowing it, and without reading _Coelebs_, that I +may neither imitate nor abuse it. + +I daresay you can borrow Powell's _Sermons_ from Ardbraccan or Dr. +Beaufort; the Primate lent them to my father. There is a charge on the +connection between merit and preferment, and one discourse on the +influence of academical studies and a recluse life, which I particularly +admire, and wish it had been quoted in _Professional Education._ + +Mr. Holland, a grand-nephew of Mr. Wedgwood's, and son to a surgeon at +Knutsford, Cheshire, and intended for a physician, came here in the +course of a pedestrian tour--spent two days--very well informed. Ask my +mother when she goes to you to tell you all that Mr. Holland told us +about Mr. and Mrs. Barbauld and Mrs. Marcet, who is the author of +_Conversations on Chemistry_--a charming woman, by his account. + + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Aug. 22, 1809._ + +I have just been reading Carleton's _Memoirs_, and am in love with the +captain and with his general, Lord Peterborough; and I have also been +reading one of the worst-written books in the language, but it has both +instructed and entertained me--Sir John Hawkins's _Life of Johnson._ He +has thrown a heap of rubbish of his own over poor Johnson, which would +have smothered any less gigantic genius. + +M. Dumont writes from Lord Henry Petty's: "Nous avons lu en société à +Bounds, _Tales of Fashionable Life._ Toute société est un petit théâtre. +'Ennui' et 'Manoeuvring' ont eu un succès marqué, il a été très vif. +Nous avons trouvé un grand nombre des dialogues du meilleur comique, +c'est à dire ceux où les personnages se developpent sans le vouloir, et +sont plaisants sans songer à l'être. Il y a des scènes charmantes dans +'Madame de Fleury.' Ne craignez pas les difficultés, c'est là où vous +brillez." + + +_To_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH. + +_Nov 30._ + +We have had a bevy of wits here--Mr. Chenevix, Mr. Henry Hamilton, +Leslie Foster, and his particular friend Mr. Fitzgerald. Somebody asked +if Miss White [Footnote: The then well-known Miss Lydia White, for many +years a central figure in London literary society.] was a bluestocking. +"Oh yes, she is; I can't tell you how blue. What is bluer than +blue?"--"_Morbleu_," exclaimed Lord Norbury. Miss White herself comes +next week. + + +_Dec. 11._ + +Among other things Miss White entertained my father with was a method of +drawing the human figure, and putting it into any attitude you please: +she had just learned it from Lady Charleville--or rather not learned it. +A whole day was spent in drawing circles all over the human figure, and +I saw various skeletons in chains, and I was told the intersections of +these were to show where the centres of gravity were to be; but my +gravity could not stand the sight of these ineffectual conjuring tricks, +and my father was out of patience himself. He seized a sheet of paper +and wrote to Lady Charleville, and she answered in one of the most +polite letters I ever read, inviting him to go to Charleville Forest, +and he will go and see these magical incantations performed by the +enchantress herself. + + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +_December 1809._ + +I have spent five delightful days at Sonna and Pakenham Hall. Mrs. +Tuite's kindness and Mr. Chenevix's various anecdotes, French and +Spanish, delighted us at Sonna; and you know the various charms both for +the head and heart at Pakenham Hall. + +I have just been reading, for the fourth time, I believe, _The Simple +Story_, which I intended this time to read as a critic, that I might +write to Mrs. Inchbald about it; but I was so carried away by it that I +was totally incapable of thinking of Mrs. Inchbald or anything but Miss +Milner and Doriforth, who appeared to me real persons whom I saw and +heard, and who had such power to interest me, that I cried my eyes +almost out before I came to the end of the story: I think it the most +pathetic and the most powerfully interesting tale I ever read. I was +obliged to go from it to correct _Belinda_ for Mrs. Barbauld, who is +going to insert it in her collection of novels, with a preface; and I +really was so provoked with the cold tameness of that stick or stone +Belinda, that I could have torn the pages to pieces: and really, I have +not the heart or the patience to _correct_ her. As the hackney coachman +said, "Mend _you!_ better make a new one." + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Jan. 1810._ + +I have had a very flattering and grateful letter from Lydia White; she +has sent me a comedy of Kelly's--_A Word to the Wise._ She says the +_Heiress_ is taken from it. Just about the same time I had a letter from +Mrs. Apreece: [Footnote: Afterwards Lady Davy.] she is at Edinburgh, and +seems charmed with all the wits there; and, as I hear from Mr. Holland, +[Footnote: Afterwards Sir Henry Holland.] the young physician who was +here last summer, she is much admired by them. Mrs. Hamilton and she +like one another particularly; they can never cross, for no two human +beings are, body and mind, form and substance, more unlike. We thought +Mr. Holland, when he was here, a young man of abilities--his letter has +fully justified this opinion: it has excited my father's enthusiastic +admiration. He says Walter Scott is going to publish a new poem; I do +not augur well of the title, _The Lady of the Lake._ I hope this lady +will not disgrace him. Mr. Stewart has not recovered, nor ever will +recover, the loss of his son: Mr. Holland says the conclusion of his +lectures this season was most pathetic and impressive--"placing before +the view of his auditors a series of eight-and-thirty years, in which he +had zealously devoted himself to the duties of his office; and giving +the impression that this year would be the period of his public life." + +I have had a most agreeable letter from my darling old Mrs. Clifford; +she sent me a curiosity--a worked muslin cap, which cost sixpence, done +in tambour stitch, by a steam-engine. Mrs. Clifford tells me that Mrs. +Hannah More was lately at Dawlish, and excited more curiosity there, and +engrossed more attention, than any of the distinguished personages who +were there, not excepting the Prince of Orange. The gentleman from whom +she drew _Cælebs_ was there, but most of those who saw him did him the +justice to declare that he was a much more agreeable man than Cælebs. If +you have any curiosity to know his name, I can tell you that--young Mr. +Harford, of Blaise Castle. + + +_Feb. 1810._ + +My father has just had a letter from your good friend Sir Rupert George, +who desires to be affectionately remembered to you and my uncle. His +letter is in answer to one my father wrote to him about his clear and +honourable evidence on this Walcheren business. Sir Rupert says: "I must +confess I feel vain in receiving commendations from such a quarter. The +situation in which I was placed was perfectly new to me, and I had no +rule for the government of my conduct but the one which has, I trust, +governed all my actions through life--to speak the truth, and fear not. +Allow me on this occasion to repeat to you an expression of the late +Mrs. Delany's to me a few years before she died: 'The Georges, I knew, +would always prosper, from their integrity of conduct. Don't call this +flattery: I am too old to flatter any one, particularly a grand-nephew; +and to convince you of my sincerity, I will add--for which, perhaps, you +will not thank me--that there is not an ounce of wit in the whole +family.'" + +"Oh how my sister would like to see this letter of Sir Rupert's!" said +my father; and straightway he told, very much to Sophy and Lucy's +edification, the history of his dividing with sister Peg the first peach +he ever had in his life. + + +_March 2._ + +Have you any commands to Iceland? My young friend Mr. Holland proposes +going there from Edinburgh in April. Sir George Mackenzie is the chief +mover of the expedition. + +This epigram or epitaph was written by Lord I-don't-know-who, upon +_Doctor_ Addington--Pitt's Addington--in old French: + + Cy dessous reposant + Le sieur Addington git: + Politique soi-disant, + Médecin malgré lui. + + +_March 19._ + +The other day we had a visit from a Mrs. Coffy--no relation, she says, +to your Mrs. Coffy. She looked exactly like one of the pictures of the +old London Cries. She came to tell us that she had been at Verdun, and +had seen Lovell. From her description of the place and of him, we had no +doubt she had actually seen him. She came over to Ireland to prove that +some man who is a prisoner at Verdun, and who is a life in a lease, is +not dead, but "all alive, ho!" and my father certified for her that he +believed she had been there. She knew nothing of Lovell but that he was +well, and fat, and a very merry gentleman two years ago. She had been +taken by a French privateer as she was going to see her sons in Jersey, +and left Verdun at a quarter of an hour's notice, as the women were +allowed to come home, and she had not time to tell this to Lovell, or +get a letter from him to his friends. She was, as Kitty said, "a comical +body," but very entertaining, and acted a woman chopping bread and +selling _un liv'--deux liv'--trois liv'--Ah, bon, bon_, as well as Molly +Coffy [Footnote: Mrs. Molly Coffy, for fifty years Mrs. Ruxton's +housekeeper.] herself acted the elephant. She was children's maid to Mr. +Estwick, and Mr. Estwick is, my father says, son to a Mr. Estwick who +used to be your partner and admirer at Bath in former times!! + + +_To_ C. SNEYD EDGEWORTH, IN LONDON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _April 1810._ + +I do not like Lord Byron's _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_, though, +as my father says, the lines are very strong, and worthy of Pope and +_The Dunciad._ But I was so much prejudiced against the whole by the +first lines I opened upon about the "paralytic muse" of the man who had +been his guardian, and is his relation, and to whom he had dedicated his +first poems, that I could not relish his wit. He may have great talents, +but I am sure he has neither a great nor good mind; and I feel dislike +and disgust for his Lordship. + + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _May 1810._ + +Now I have to announce the safe arrival of my aunts and Honora in good +looks and good spirits. My father went to Dublin to meet them. I am +sorry he did not see the Count de Salis, [Footnote: The Count de Salis, +just then going to be married to Miss Foster, daughter of Mr. +Edgeworth's old friend and schoolfellow, the Bishop of Clogher.] but he +was much pleased with Harriet Foster, which I am glad of; for I love +her. + + +To MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _June 21, 1810._ + +When shall we two meet again? This is a question which occurs to me much +oftener than even you think, and it always comes into my mind when I am +in any society I peculiarly like, or when I am reading any book +particularly suited to my taste and feelings; and now it comes _á +propos_ to the Bishop of Meath and Mrs. O'Beirne and _The Lady of the +Lake._ By great good fortune, and by the good-nature of Lady Charlotte +Rawdon, we had _The Lady of the Lake_ to read just when the O'Beirnes +were with us. A most delightful reading we had; my father, the Bishop, +and Mr. Jephson reading it aloud alternately. It is a charming poem: a +most interesting story, generous, finely-drawn characters, and in many +parts the finest poetry. But for an old prepossession--an unconquerable +prepossession--in favour of the old minstrel, I think I should prefer +this to either the _Lay_ or _Marmion._ Our pleasure in reading it was +increased by the sympathy and enthusiasm of the guests. + +Have you read, or tried to read, Mademoiselle de l'Espinasse's three +volumes of Letters? and have you read Madame du Deffand? [Footnote: The +blind friend and correspondent of Horace Walpole.] Some of the letters +in her collection are very entertaining; those of the Duchesse de +Choiseul, the Comte de Broglie, Sir James Macdonald, and a few of Madame +du Deffand's: the others are full of _fade_ compliments and tiresome +trifling, but altogether curious as a picture of that profligate, +heartless, brilliant, and _ennuyed_ society. There is in these letters, +I think, a stronger picture of _ennui_ than in Alfieri's _Life._ Was his +passion for the Countess of Albany, or for horses, or for pure Tuscan, +the strongest? or did not he love NOTORIETY better than all three? + + +_Sept._ 1810. + +Sir Thomas and Lady Ackland spent a day here: he is nephew to my friend +Mrs. Charles Hoare. He says he is twenty-three, but he looks like +eighteen. + + +To MISS RUXTON. + +_Oct. 1810._ + +We have had a visit from Captain Pakenham, the Admiral's son, this week: +I like him. I was particularly pleased with his respectful manner to my +father. He has some of his father's quickness of repartee, but with his +_own_ manner--no affectation of his father's style. We were talking of a +Mrs. ----. "What," said I, "is she alive still? The last time I saw her +she seemed as if she had lived that one day longer by particular +desire."--"I am sure, then," said Captain Pakenham, in a slow, gentle +voice,--"I am sure, then, I cannot tell at _whose desire._" + +I have been hard at work at Mrs. Leadbeater: I fear my notes are +rubbish. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Edgeworth writes: + +Mrs. Leadbeater, the Quaker lady who lived at Ballitore, whose father +had been tutor to Edmund Burke, and whose Letters have been published, +wrote to Maria this year, asking her advice about a book she had +written, _Cottage Dialogues_, and sent the MS. to her. Mr. Edgeworth +was so much pleased with it, that Maria offered, at Mr. Edgeworth's +suggestion, to add a few notes to give her name to the book; and it was +published by Johnson's successor with great success. + +Mr. Edgeworth, Maria, and I went this autumn to Kilkenny to see the +amateur theatricals, with which we were much delighted. Mr. Edgeworth, +who remembered Garrick, said he never saw such tragic acting as Mr. +Rothe, in _Othello_: how true to nature it was, appeared from the +observation of our servant, Pat Newman, who had never seen a play +before, when Mr. Edgeworth asked him if he did not pity the poor woman +smothered in bed: "It was a pity of her, but I declare I pitied the man +the most." The town was full to overflowing, but we were most hospitably +received, though our friends the O'Beirnes were their guests, by Doctor +and Mrs. Butler. He had been a friend of Mr. Edgeworth's when he lived +in the county of Longford, and she had been, when Miss Rothwell, a +Dublin acquaintance of mine. This visit to Kilkenny was rich in +recollections for Maria: the incomparable acting, the number of +celebrated people there assembled, the supper in the great gallery of +old grand Kilkenny Castle, the superb hospitality, the number of +beautiful women and witty men, the gaiety, the spirit, and the +brilliancy of the whole, could have been seen nowhere else. + + +MISS EDGEWORTH _to_ MISS RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Nov. 1810._ + +We are to set out for Dublin on the 13th, to hear Davy's Lectures. Lord +Fingal was so kind as to come here yesterday with Lady Teresa Dease, and +he told me that my uncle is gone to Dublin. Tell me everything about it +clearly. Honora, Fanny, and William go with us. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Edgeworth interpolates: + +We spent a few weeks in Dublin. Davy's Lectures not only opened a new +world of knowledge to ourselves and to our young people, but were +especially gratifying to Mr. Edgeworth and Maria, confirming, by the +eloquence, ingenuity, and philosophy which they displayed, the high idea +they had so early formed of Mr. Davy's powers. + + +MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MISS RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _April 1811._ + +I think Hardy's _Life of Lord Charlemont_ interesting, and many parts +written in a beautiful style; but I don't think he gives a clear, +well-proportioned history of the times. There is a want of _keeping_ and +perspective in it. The pipe of the man smoking out of the window is as +high as the house. Mr. Hardy is more a portrait than a history painter. + +If you have any curiosity to know the names of the writers of some of +the articles in the _Edinburgh Review_, I can tell you, having had +to-day, from my literary intelligencer, Mr. Holland, two huge sheets, +very entertaining and sensible. Jeffrey wrote the article on +Parliamentary Reform and that on the Curse of Kehama, Sydney Smith that +on Toleration, and Malthus that on Bullion; and if you have any +curiosity, I can also tell you those in the _Quarterly_, among whom +Canning is one. Thank my aunt for her information about Walter Scott; my +father will write immediately to ask him here. I wish we lived in an old +castle, and had millions of old legends for him. Have you seen +Campbell's poem of _O'Connor's Child_? it is beautiful. In many parts I +think it is superior to Scott. + + +_May-day._ + +This being May-day, one of the wettest I have ever seen, I have been +regaled, not with garlands of May flowers, but with the _legal_ +pleasures of the season; I have heard of nothing but _giving notices to +quit, taking possession, ejectments, flittings_, etc. What do you think +of a tenant who took one of the nice new houses in this town, and left +it with every lock torn off the doors, and with a large stone, such as +John Langan could not lift, driven actually through the boarded floor of +the parlour? The brute, however, is rich, and if he does not die of +whisky before the law can get its hand into his pocket, he will pay for +this waste. + +I have had another [Footnote: No less than five letters were received by +Miss Edgeworth at different times, from different young people, asking +for a description of the dresses in the "Contrast."] odd letter signed +by three young ladies--Clarissa Craven, Rachel Biddle, and Eliza Finch, +who, after sundry compliments in very pretty language, and with all the +appearance of seriousness, beg that I will do them the favour to satisfy +the curiosity they feel about the wedding dresses of the Frankland +family in the "Contrast." I have answered in a way that will stand for +either jest or earnest; I have said that, at a sale of Admiral Tipsey's +smuggled goods, Mrs. Hungerford bought French cambric muslin wedding +gowns for the brides, the collars trimmed in the most becoming manner, +as a Monmouth milliner assured me, with Valenciennes lace, from Admiral +Tipsey's spoils. I have given all the particulars of the bridegrooms' +accoutrements, and signed myself the young ladies' "obedient servant and +perhaps _dupe._" + +I am going on with "Patronage," and wish I could show it to you. _Do_ +get _O'Connor's Child_, Campbell's beautiful poem. + +Last Saturday there was the most violent storm of thunder and lightning +I ever saw in Ireland, and once I thought I felt the ground shake under +me, for which thought I was at the time laughed to scorn; but I find +that at the same time the shock of an earthquake was felt _in the +country, which shook Lissard House to its foundations._ I tell it to you +in the very words in which it was told to me by Sneyd, who had it from +Councillor Cummin. A man was certainly killed by the lightning near +Finac, _for_ the said councillor was knocked up at six o'clock in the +morning, _to know_ if there was to be a coroner's inquest. + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Aug. 30, 1811._ + +I have written a little play for our present large juvenile audience, +[Footnote: Mrs. Beddoes and her three children were now at +Edgeworthstown.] not for them to act, but to hear; I read it out last +night, and it was liked. The scene is in Ireland, and the title "The +Absentee." When will you let me read it to you? I would rather read it +to you up in a garret than to the most brilliant audience in +Christendom. + +Anna's children are very affectionate. Henry is beautiful, and the most +graceful creature I ever saw. The eight children are as happy together +as the day is long, and give no sort of trouble. + +What book do you think Buonaparte was reading at the siege of +Acre?--_Madame de Staël sur l'influence des Passions_! His opinion of +her and of her works has wonderfully changed since then. He does not +follow Mazarin's wise maxim, "Let them _talk_ provided they let me +_act._" He may yet find the recoil of that press, with which he meddles +so incautiously, more dangerous than those cannon of which he well knows +the management. + + +_Note Physical and Economical_ + +I am informed from high authority, that if you give Glauber's salts to +hens, they will lay eggs as fast as you please! + + * * * * * + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _October 1811._ + +Davy spent a day here last week, and was as usual full of entertainment +and information of various kinds. He is gone to Connemara, I believe, to +fish, for he is a little mad about fishing; and very ungrateful it is of +me to say so, for he sent to us from Boyle the finest trout! and a trout +of Davy's catching is, I presume, worth ten trouts caught by vulgar +mortals. Sneyd went with him to Boyle, saw Lord Lorton's fine place, and +spent a pleasant day. Two of Mr. Davy's fishing friends have since +called upon us: Mr. Solly, a great mineralogist, and Mr. Children, a man +of Kent. + +I am working away at "Patronage," but cannot at all come up to my idea +of what it should be. + + +_To_ MRS. MARY SNEYD. + +ARDBRACCAN HOUSE, _Nov. 1811._ + +Nothing worthy of note occurred on our journey to Pakenham Hall, where +we found to our surprise dear Lady Longford and Lord Longford, who had +come an hour before on one of his flying visits, and a whole tribe of +merry laughing children, Stewarts and Hamiltons. Lady Longford showed us +a picture of Lady Wellington and her children; they are beautiful, and +she says very like--Lady Wellington is not like: it is absurd to attempt +to draw Lady Wellington's face; she has no _face_, it is all +countenance. My father and Lady Elizabeth played at cribbage, and I was +looking on: they counted so quickly fifteen two, fifteen four, that I +was never able to keep up with them, and made a sorry figure. Worse +again at some genealogies and intermarriages, which Lady Elizabeth +undertook to explain to me, till at last she threw her arms flat down on +each side in indignant despair, and exclaimed, "Well! you are the +stupidest creature alive!" + +When Lord Longford came in I escaped from cribbage and heard many +entertaining things: one was of his meeting a man in the mail coach, who +looked as if he was gouty, and seemed as if he could not stir without +great difficulty, and never without the assistance of a companion, who +never moved an inch from him. At last Lord Longford discovered that this +_gentleman's_ gouty overalls covered _fetters_; that he was a malefactor +in irons, and his companion a Bow Street officer, who treated his +prisoner with the greatest politeness. "Give me leave, sir--excuse +me--one on your arm and one on mine, and then we are sure we can't leave +one another." + +A worse travelling companion this than the bear, whom Lord Longford +found one morning in the coach when day dawned, opposite to him--the +gentleman in the fur cloak, as he had all night supposed him to be! + + * * * * * + +A second series of _Tales of Fashionable Life_ appeared in 1812. Of +these "The Absentee" was a masterpiece, and contains one scene which +Macaulay declared to be the best thing written of its kind since the +opening of the twenty-second book of the _Odyssey._ Yet Mrs. Edgeworth +tells that the greater part of "The Absentee" was "written under the +torture of the toothache; it was only by keeping her mouth full of some +strong lotion that Maria could allay the pain, and yet, though in this +state of suffering, she never wrote with more spirit and rapidity." Mr. +Edgeworth advised the conclusion to be a Letter from Larry, the +postillion: he wrote one, and she wrote another; he much preferred hers, +which is the admirable finale to "The Absentee." + + * * * * * + +MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MISS MARGARET RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _July 20, 1812._ + +I am heartily obliged to my dear Sophy--never mind, you need not turn to +the direction, it _is_ to Margaret, my dear, though it begins with +thanks to Sophy--for being in such haste to relieve my mind from the +agony it was in that _Fashionable Tales_ should reach my aunt. I cannot +by any form of words express how delighted I am that you are none of you +angry with me, and that my uncle and aunt are pleased with what they +have read of "The Absentee." I long to hear whether their favour +continues to the end and extends to the catastrophe, that dangerous rock +upon which poor authors, even after a prosperous voyage, are wrecked, +sometimes while their friends are actually hailing them from the shore. +I have the _Rosamond_ vase [Footnote: A glass vase which Miss Edgeworth +painted for Mrs. Ruxton, in brown, from Flaxman's designs for the +_Odyssey._] madness so strong upon me, that I am out of my dear bed +regularly at half-past seven in the morning, and never find it more than +half an hour till breakfast time, so happy am I daubing. On one side I +have Ulysses longing to taste Circe's cakes, but saying, "No, thank +you," like a very good boy: and on the other side I have him just come +home, and the old nurse washing his feet, and his queen fast asleep in +her chair by a lamp, which I hope will not set her on fire, though it +is, in spite of my best endeavours, so much out of the perpendicular +that nothing but a miracle can keep it from falling on Penelope's crown. + +Little Pakenham is going on bravely (not two months old), and I am just +_beginning_ to write again, and am _in_ "Patronage," and have corrected +all the faults you pointed out to me; and Susan, who was a fool, is now +Rosamond and a wit. + +I suppose you have heard various _jeux d'esprit_ on the marriage of Sir +Humphry Davy and Mrs. Apreece? I scarcely think any of them worth +copying: the best _idea_ is stolen from the _bon mot_ on Sir John Carr, +"The Traveller be_k_nighted." + +"When Mr. Davy concluded his last Lecture by saying that we were but in +the _Dawn_ of Science, he probably did not expect to be so soon +be_k_nighted." + +I forget the lines: the following I recollect better:-- + + To the famed widow vainly bow + Church, Army, Bar, and Navy; + Says she, I dare not take a vow, + But I will take my Davy. + +Another my father thinks is better: + + Too many men have often seen + Their talents underrated; + But Davy owns that his have been + Duly _Appreec_iated. + + +_Aug 22._ + +I enclose a copy of Lovell's letter, which will give my dear aunt +exquisite pleasure. His request to my father to pass him over, a +prisoner and of precarious health, and make his next brother his heir, +shows that if he has suffered he has at least had an opportunity of +showing what he is. We shall do all we can to get at Talleyrand or some +friend for his exchange. How happy Lady Wellington must be at this +glorious victory. Had you in your paper an account of her _running_ as +fast as she could to Lord Bury at Lord Bathurst's when he alighted, to +learn the first news of her husband! _Vive l'enthousiasme_! Without it +characters may be very snug and comfortable in the world, but there is a +degree of happiness which they will never taste, and of which they have +no more idea than an oyster can have. + + +_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH. + +BLACK CASTLE, _Oct. 1812._ + +After a most delightful journey with Mr. and Mrs. Henry Hamilton, +laughing, singing, and talking, we dined with them. [Footnote: Mr. and +Mrs. Hamilton were paying a visit at Edgeworthstown, when the papers +announced Mr. Sadler's intention of crossing the Channel in a balloon +from Dublin. Mr. Edgeworth proposed to Mr. Hamilton that they should go +to Dublin together to see the ascent, and he and Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton, +Maria, Sneyd, William, and two little sisters formed the party.] Dear +old Mr. Sackville Hamilton dined with us, fresh from London: +intellectual and corporeal dainties in abundance. The first morning was +spent in cursing Mr. Sadler for not going up, and in seeing the Dublin +Society House. A charming picture of Mr. Foster, by Beachey, with plans +in his hand, looking full of thought and starting into life and action. +Spent an hour looking over the books of prints in the library--Fanny +particularly pleased with a Houbracken: Harriet with Daniel's Indian +Antiquities: my father with Sir Christopher Wren's and Inigo Jones's +designs. After dinner Richard Ruxton came in, and said my aunt and uncle +had thoughts of coming up to see the balloon. In the evening at +Astley's. The second day to see the elephant: how I pitied this noble +animal, cooped up under the command of a scarcely human creature, who +had not half as much reason as himself. Went on to see the Panorama of +Edinburgh: I never saw a sight that pleased me more; Edinburgh was +before me--Princes Street and George Street--the Castle--the bridge over +dry land where the woman met us and said, "Poor little things they be." +At first a mistiness, like what there is in nature over a city before +the sun breaks out; then the sun shining on the buildings, trees, and +mountains. + +Thursday morning, to our inexpressible joy, was fine, and the flag, the +signal that Sadler would ascend, was, to the joy of thousands, flying +from the top of Nelson's Pillar. Dressed quickly--breakfasted I don't +know how--job coach punctual: crowds in motion even at nine o'clock in +the streets: tide flowing all one way to Belvidere Gardens, lent by the +proprietor for the occasion: called at Sneyd's lodgings in Anne Street: +he and William gone: drove on; when we came near Belvidere such strings +of carriages, such crowds of people on the road and on the raised +footpath, there was no stirring: troops lined the road at each side: +guard with officers at each entrance to prevent mischief; but +unfortunately there were only two entrances, not nearly enough for such +a confluence of people. Most imprudently we and several others got out +of our carriages upon the raised footpath, in hopes of getting +immediately at the garden door, which was within two yards of us, but +nothing I ever felt was equal to the pressure of the crowd: they closed +over our little heads, I thought we must have been flattened, and the +breath squeezed out of our bodies. My father held Harriet fast, I behind +him held Fanny with such a grasp! and dragged her on with a force I did +not know I possessed. I really thought your children would never see you +again with all their bones whole, and I cannot tell you what I suffered +for ten minutes. My father, quite pale, calling with a stentor voice to +the sentinels. A fat woman nearly separated me from Fanny. My father +fairly kicked off the terrace a man who was intent upon nothing but an +odious bag of cakes which he held close to his breast, swearing and +pushing. Before us were Mrs. Smyley and Mr. Smyley, with a lady he was +protecting. Unable to protect anybody, he looked more frightened than if +he had lost a hundred causes: the lady continually saying, "Let me back! +let me back! if I could once get to my carriage!" + +The tide carried us on to the door. An admirable Scotch officer, who was +mounting guard with a drawn sword, his face dropping perspiration, +exclaimed at the sight of Harriet, "Oh the child! take care of that +child! she will be crushed to death!" He made a soldier put his musket +across the doorway, so as to force a place for her to creep under: quick +as lightning in she darted, and Fanny and I and my father after her. All +was serene, uncrowded, and fresh within the park. + +We instantly met Sneyd and William, and the two Mr. Foxes. Music and the +most festive scene in the gardens: the balloon, the beautiful +many-coloured balloon, chiefly maroon colour, with painted eagles, and +garlands, and arms of Ireland, hung under the trees, and was filling +fast from pipes and an apparatus which I leave for William's scientific +description: terrace before Belvidere House--well-dressed groups +parading on it: groups all over the gardens, mantles, scarves, and +feathers floating: all the commonalty outside in fields at half-price. +We soon espied Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton, and joined company, and were +extremely happy, and wished for you and dear Honora. Sun shining, no +wind. Presently we met the Solicitor-General: he started back, and made +me such a bow as made me feel my own littleness; then shook my hands +most cordially, and in a few moments told me more than most men could +tell in an hour: just returned from Edinburgh--Mrs. Bushe and daughters +too much fatigued to come and see the balloon. + +The Duke and Duchess of Richmond, and Sir Charles Vernon, and Sir +Charles Saxton. The Miss Gunns seated themselves in a happily +conspicuous place, with some gentlemen, on the roof of Belvidere House, +where, with veils flying and telescopes and opera-glasses continually +veering about, they attracted sufficient attention. + +Walking on, Sneyd exclaimed, "My Uncle Ruxton!" I darted to him: "Is my +aunt here?"--"Yes, and Sophy, and Margaret, but I have lost them; I'm +looking for them."--"Oh, come with me and we'll find them." Soon we +made our way behind the heels of the troopers' horses, who guarded a +sacred circle round the balloon: found my aunt, and Sophy, and +Mag--surprise and joy on both sides: got seats on the pedestal of some +old statue, and talked and enjoyed ourselves: the balloon filling +gradually. Now it was that my uncle proposed our returning by Black +Castle. + +The drum beats! the flag flies! balloon full! It is moved from under the +trees over the heads of the crowd: the car very light and slight--Mr. +Sadler's son, a young lad, in the car. How the horses stood the motion +of this vast body close to them I can't imagine, but they did. The boy +got out. Mr. Sadler, quite composed, this being his twenty-sixth aërial +ascent, got into his car: a lady, the Duchess of Richmond, I believe, +presented to him a pretty flag: the balloon gave two majestic nods from +side to side as the cords were cut. Whether the music continued at this +moment to play or not, nobody can tell. No one spoke while the balloon +successfully rose, rapidly cleared the trees, and floated above our +heads: loud shouts and huzzas, one man close to us exclaiming, as he +clasped his hands, "Ah, musha, musha, GOD bless you! GOD be wid you!" +Mr. Sadler, waving his flag and his hat, and bowing to the world below, +soon pierced a white cloud, and disappeared; then emerging, the balloon +looked like a moon, black on one side, silver on the other; then like a +dark bubble; then less and less, and now only a speck is seen; and now +the fleeting rack obscures it. Never did I feel the full merit of +Darwin's description till then. + +Next day, at eight in the morning, my father and William (who proceed to +the Bishop of Derry's) and Fanny went to Collon. Sneyd, Harriet, and I +came here. + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Oct. 26, 1812._ + +Elections have been the order of the day with us as well as with you. I +am glad to tell you that Lord Longford's troubles are over; he is now +here, and has just been telling us that his victory for Colonel Hercules +was as complete as his heart could wish. There would have been a duel +but for Admiral Pakenham. One gentleman in his speech said that another +had made the drummer of his corps play "Protestant Boys." The other +said, "That's a lie;" and both were proceeding to high words, when the +Admiral stepped between them, and said, very gravely, "Gentlemen, I did +not know this meeting was a music meeting, but since you appeal to us +electors to decide your cause by your musical merits, let the past be +past; and now for the present give us each of you a song, and here's the +sheriff,"--who has no more ear than a post--"shall be judge between +you." Everybody laughed, and the two angry gentlemen had to laugh off +their quarrel. + +Another gentleman said to the Admiral, after the election was over, "Do +you know, I had a mind to have stood myself; if I had, what would you +have said?"--"That it was all a game of brag, and that, as you had the +shuffling of the pack, there was no knowing what knave might turn up." + +Lord Longford told us of Colonel Hercules Pakenham, at the siege of +Badajos, walking with an engineer. A bomb whizzed over their heads and +fell among the soldiers, as they were carrying off the wounded. When the +Colonel expressed some regret, the engineer said, "I wonder you have not +steeled your mind to these things. These men are carried to the +hospital, and others come in their place. Let us go to the depot." Here +the engineer had his wheelbarrows all laid out in nice order, and his +pickaxes arranged in stars and various shapes; but, just as they were +leaving the depot, a bomb burst in the midst of them. "Oh, heavenly +powers, my picks!" cried the engineer, with clasped hands, in despair. + + +_To_ C. SNEYD EDGEWORTH, IN DUBLIN. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Feb. 10, 1813._ + +_Rokeby_ is, in my opinion--and let every soul speak for +themselves--most beautiful poetry: the four first cantos and half the +fifth are all I have yet read. I think it a higher and better, because +less Scotch, more universal style of poetry than any Walter Scott has +yet produced, though not altogether perfect of its kind. It has more +discrimination of character, more knowledge of human nature, more +generalised reflection, much more moral aim. + + * * * * * + +In March, Miss Edgeworth accompanied her father and stepmother to +England. + + * * * * * + +MARIA _to_ MRS. MARY SNEYD. + +BANGOR FERRY, _March 31, 1813._ + +"I will go and write a few lines of a letter to my dear Aunt Mary." + +"Oh! why should you write now, my dear? You have nothing new to tell +her." + +"Nothing new, but I love her, and wish to write to her; if I did not +love her, I should be worse than Caliban." + +"Well, write only a few lines." + +"That is just what I mean to do, and go on with my letter at any odd +place where we _stop the night._" + +You have heard of all we saw at Howth, so I go on from Holyhead. +Breakfasted in company with Mr. Grainger: he has lived in very good +company abroad, and told us a variety of entertaining anecdotes: +Caulaincourt, now Due de Vincennes, was brought up in the family of the +Prince de Condé, _l'enfant de la Maison_, the playfellow of the Due +d'Enghien. Buonaparte employed Caulaincourt to seize the Due d'Enghien; +the wretch did so, and has been repaid by a dukedom. + +We asked how the present Empress was liked in France. "Not at all by the +Parisians; she is too haughty, has the Austrian scornful lip, and sits +back in her carriage when she goes through the streets." The same +complaint was made against Marie Antoinette. On what small things the +popularity of the high and mighty depends! + +Josephine is living very happily, amusing herself with her gardens and +her shrubberies. This _ci-devant_ Empress and Kennedy and Co., the +seedsmen, are, as Mr. Grainger says, in partnership; she has a licence +to send to him what shrubs and seeds she chooses from France, and he has +licence to send cargoes in return to her. Mr. Grainger will carry over +my box to Madame Recamier. + +At the inn door at Bangor Ferry we saw a most curiously packed curricle, +with all manner of portmanteaus and hat-boxes slung in various ingenious +ways, and behind the springs two baskets, the size and shape of Lady +Elizabeth Pakenham's basket. A huge bunch of white feathers was sticking +out from one end of one of these baskets; and as we approached to +examine it, out came the live head of a white peacock--a Japan peacock +and peahen. The gentleman to whom the carriage belonged appeared next, +carrying on a perch a fine large macaw. This perch was made to fasten +behind the carriage. The servant who was harnessing the horses would not +tell to whom the carriage belonged. He replied to all inquiries, "It +belongs to that there gentleman." + +We have enjoyed this fine day: had a delightful walk before dinner in a +hanging wood by the water-side--pretty sheep-paths, wood anemonies in +abundance, with their white flowers in full blow. Two ploughs going in +the field below the wood: very cheerful the sound of the Welshmen's +voices talking to their horses. The ploughing, giving the idea of +culture and civilisation, contrasted agreeably with the wildness of the +wood and mountains. Good-night. + + +_Thursday._ + +This morning we set out for the slate quarries; we took our time, full +time to see everything at leisure. The railways are above six miles +long; they are very narrow. I had formed an idea of their being much +more magnificent, but in this country canals and railways are made as +useful and as little splendid as possible. I was surprised to see these +railways winding round the rocks, and going over heaps of rubbish where +you would think no wheelbarrow even could go. + +From the slate-cutting we went to the slate quarries. We had been +admiring the beauty of the landscape. My father did not say anything to +raise my expectations, but when we arrived near the place, he took me by +the hand, and led me over a heap of rubbish, on the top of which there +was a railway. We walked on until we came between two slate mountains, +and found ourselves in the midst of the quarries. It was the most +sublime sight of all the works of man I ever beheld. The men looked like +pigmies. There is a curious cone of grayish-coloured slate standing +alone, which the workmen say is good for nothing; but it is good for its +picturesque appearance. A heavy shower of hail came on, which, falling +between the rifts of the rocks, and blown by the high wind, added to the +sublimity of the scene: we were comfortably sheltered in one of the +sheds. + +Finding that Mr. Worthington was at Liverpool, my father determined to +go there, and we have come on to Conway. During a storm of wind, +thunder, and lightning last night it snowed just enough to cover the +tops of the mountains with white, to increase the beauty of the prospect +for us: they appeared more majestic from the strong contrast of bright +lights and broad shades: the leaves of the honeysuckles all green in the +hedges, fine hollies, primroses in abundance: it was literally spring in +the lap of winter. Penmanmawr has, my father says, considerably altered +its appearance, since he knew it first, from the falling of masses of +rock, and the crumbling away of the mighty substance. Cultivation has +crept up its sides to a prodigious height. A little cottage nestled just +under the mountain's huge stone cap. The fragments of rock that have +rolled down, some of them across the road, are ten times the size of the +rock in Mr. Keating's lawn, [Footnote: A curious isolated stone, about +ten feet by four, which stood in the Vicarage lawn at Edgeworthstown, +said to have been aimed at the church by a Pagan giant from the Hill of +Ardagh. It is now destroyed.] and in contrast with this idea of danger +are sheep and lambs feeding quietly; the lambs looking not larger than +little Francis's deceased kittens Muff and Tippet. + +We reached Conway at six o'clock. The landlady of the Harp Inn knew my +father, and recollected Lovell and my Aunt Ruxton. The boy to whom +Lovell used to be so good, and who stopped my father on Penmanmawr to +tell him that Lovell had given him Lazy Lawrence, was drowned with many +others crossing the Ferry in a storm. The old harper who used to be the +delight of travellers is now in a state of dotage. There was no harper +at Bangor: the waiter told us "they were no profit to master, and was +always in the way in the passage; so master never lets them come now." + +In the midst of all the sublime and beautiful I had a happy mixture of +the comic, for we had a Welsh postillion who entertained us much by his +contracted vocabulary, and still more contracted sphere of ideas. He and +my father could never understand one another, because my father said +"qu_a_rry," and the Welshman said "qu_e_rry"; and the burthen of all he +said was continually asking if we would not like to be "driven to +Caernarvon." + +_Friday morning, seven o'clock_, dressed, and ready to go on with my +scribbling. I assure you, my dear kind Aunt Mary, it is a great pleasure +to me to write this letter at odd minutes while the horses are changing, +or after breakfast or dinner for a quarter of an hour at a time, so that +it is impossible that it should tire me. I owe all my present +conveniencies for writing to various Sneyds: I use Emma Sneyd's +pocket-inkstand; my ivory-cutter penknife was the gift of my Aunt +Charlotte, and my little Sappho seal a present of Aunt Mary's. + +For miles we have had beautiful hollies in the hedges; I wish my Aunt +Charlotte would be so kind as to have a few small hollies out of +Wilkinson's garden planted in the new ditch between Wood's and Duffy's; +also some cuttings of honeysuckles and pyracanthus--enough can be had +from my garden. I must finish abruptly. + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +LIVERPOOL, _April 6, 1813._ + +Many times--a hundred times within this week--have I wished, my dearest +aunt, to talk over with you the things and people I have seen. I am very +well, very happy, and much entertained and interested. + +Liverpool is very fine and very grand, and my father soon found out Mr. +Roscoe; he was so good as to come to see us, and invited us to his +house, Allerton Hall, about seven miles from Liverpool. He is a +benevolent, cheerful, gentlemanlike old man; tall, neither thin nor fat, +thick gray hair. He is very like the prints you have seen of him; his +bow courteous, not courtly; his manner frank and prepossessing, without +pretension of any kind. He enters into conversation readily, and +immediately tells something entertaining or interesting, seeming to +follow the natural course of his own thoughts, or of yours, without +effort. Mrs. Roscoe seems to adore her husband, and to be so fond of her +children, and has such a good understanding and such a warm heart, it is +impossible not to like her. Mr. Roscoe gave himself up to us the whole +day. Allerton Hall is a spacious house, in a beautiful situation: fine +library, every room filled with pictures, many of them presents from +persons in Italy who admired his Leo the Tenth. One of Tasso has a sort +of mad vigilance in the eyes, as if he that instant saw the genius that +haunted him. Mr. Roscoe has arranged his collection admirably, so as to +show, in chronological order, in edifying gradation, the progress of +painting. The picture which he prized the most was by one of Raphael's +masters, not in the least valuable in itself, but for a frieze below it +by Michael Angelo, representing the destruction of the Oracles; it is of +a gray colour. Mr. Roscoe thinks it one of Michael Angelo's earliest +performances, and says it is _conceded_ to be the only original Michael +Angelo in England. Of this I know nothing, but I know that it struck me +as full of genius, and I longed for you and Margaret when we looked at a +portfolio full of Michael Angelo's sketches, drawings, and studies. It +is admirable to see the pains that a really great man takes to improve a +first idea. Turning from these drawings to a room full of Fuseli's +horribly distorted figures, I could not help feeling astonishment, not +only at the bad taste, but at the infinite conceit and presumption of +Fuseli. How could this man make himself a name! I believe he gave these +pictures to Mr. Roscoe, else I suppose they would not be here sprawling +their fantastic lengths, like misshapen dreams. Instead of _le beau_, +they exhibit _le laid_ ideal. + +At dinner Darwin's poetry was mentioned, and Mr. Roscoe neither ran him +down nor cried him up. He said exactly the truth, that he was misled by +a false theory of poetry--that everything should be picture--and that +therefore he has not taken the means to touch the feelings; and Mr. +Roscoe made what seemed to me a new and just observation, that writers +of secondary powers, when they are to represent either objects of nature +or feelings of the human mind, always begin by a simile: they tell you +what it is like, not what it is. + + +_April 9._ + +I finish this at Mr. Holland's, at Knutsford. We spent a delightful day +at Manchester, where we owed our chief pleasure to Dr. Ferrier and his +daughter. + + * * * * * + +_To_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH. + +DERBY, _April 25, 1813._ + +We have been now five days at Mr. Strutt's. We have been treated with so +much hospitality and kindness by him, and he showed such a high esteem, +and I may say affection for my father, that even if he had not the +superior understanding he possesses, it would be impossible for me not +to like him. From the moment we entered his house he gave up his whole +time to us, his servants, his carriage; everything and everybody in his +family were devoted to us, and all was done with such simplicity of +generosity, that we felt at ease even while we were loaded with favours. +This house is indeed, as Sneyd and William described it, a palace; and +it is plain that the convenience of the inhabitants has everywhere been +consulted: the ostentation of wealth nowhere appears. + +Seven hours of one day Mr. Strutt and his nephew Jedediah gave up to +showing us the cotton mills, and another whole morning he gave up to +showing to us the infirmary; he built it--a noble building; hot air from +below conveyed by a _cockle_ all over the house. The whole institution a +most noble and touching sight; such a GREAT thing, planned and carried +into successful execution in so few years by one man! + +We dined at Mr. Joseph Strutt's, and were in the evening at Mr. George +Strutt's; and I will name some of the people we met, for Sneyd and +William will like to know whom we saw:--Dr. Forrester, Mr. French, Miss +French, who has good taste, as she proved by her various compliments to +Sneyd; Miss Broadhurst, not my heiress, though she says that, after the +publication of the _Absentee_, people used to turn their heads when she +was announced, and ask if that was Miss Edgeworth's Miss Broadhurst! She +met Sneyd in Dublin; has been lately at Kilkenny, and admired Mr. +Rothe's acting of Othello. We saw a good deal of Mr. Sylvester, +[Footnote: The inventor of the Cockle or Sylvester stove.] who is, I +think, a man of surprising abilities, of a calm and fearless mind: an +original and interesting character. Edward Strutt is indeed all that +Sneyd and William described--a boy of great abilities, affectionate, and +with a frank countenance and manner which win at once. One of our +greatest pleasures has been the hearing everybody, from Edward upwards, +speak of Sneyd and William with such affection, and with such knowledge +of their characters. We all like Miss Lawrence. + +We have been at the Priory: Mrs. Darwin at first much out of spirits. +Besides the death of her son, she had lost a grandchild, and her +daughter Harriet, Mrs. Maling, had just sailed with her husband for the +Mediterranean. The Priory is a beautiful place, and Emma Darwin very +beautiful. + +We breakfasted at Markeaton with Mr. Mundy: he is a charming old +gentleman, lively, polite, and playful as if he was twenty. He was +delighted to see my father, and they talked over their school days with +great zest. My father was, you know, at school, Mr. Mundy's horse, +"Little Driver." + + +CAMBRIDGE, _Wednesday._ + +My mother will tell you the history of our night travels over the bad +road between Leicester and Kettering; my father holding the lantern +stuck up against one window, and my mother against the other the bit of +wax candle Kitty gave me. I don't think we could have got on without it. +Pray tell her, for she laughed when I put it in my box and said it might +be of vast use to us at some odd place. + +Mr. Smedley has just called: tell Sneyd we think him very pleasing. I +enclose the "Butterfly's Ball" for Sophy, and a letter to the King +written by Dr. Holland when six years old: his father found him going +with it to the post. Give it to Aunt Mary. + + * * * * * + +This letter was an offer from Master Holland to raise a regiment. He and +some of his little comrades had got a drum and a flag, and used to go +through the manual exercise. It was a pity the letter did not reach the +King: he would have been delighted at it. + + * * * * * + +_To_ C. SNEYD EDGEWORTH. + +LONDON, _May 1, 1813._ + +Please to take this in small doses, but not fasting. + +Let us go back, if you please, to Cambridge. Thursday morning we went to +breakfast with Mr. Smedley. It had been a dreadful rainy night, but +luckily the rain ceased in the morning, and the streets were dried by +the wind on purpose for us. In Sidney College we found your friend in +neat, cheerful rooms, with orange-fringed curtains, pretty drawings, and +prints: breakfast-table as plentifully prepared as you could have had +it--tea, coffee, tongue, cold beef, exquisite bread, and many inches of +butter. I suppose you know, but no one else at home can guess, why I say +_inches_ of butter. All the butter in Cambridge must be stretched into +rolls a yard in length and an inch in diameter, and these are sold by +inches, and measured out by compasses, in a truly mathematical manner, +worthy of a university. + +Mr. Smedley made us feel at home at once: my mother made tea, I coffee; +he called you "Sneyd," and my father seemed quite pleased. After having +admired the drawings and pictures, and Fanny's kettle-holder, we sallied +forth with our friendly guide. It was quite fine and sunshiny, and the +gardens and academic shades really beautiful. We went to the University +Hall--the election of a new Professor to the Chemical Professorship was +going on. Farish was one of the candidates: the man of whom Leslie +Foster used to talk in such raptures when he first came from Cambridge; +the man who lectured on arches, and whose paradox of the one-toothed +wheel William will recollect. My father was introduced to him, and +invited him to dine with us: Mr. Farish accepted the invitation. We sat +on a bench with a few ladies. A number of Fellows, with black tiles on +their heads, walked up and down the hall, whispering to one another; and +in five minutes Mr. Smedley said, "The election is over: I must go and +congratulate Mr. Professor Farish." + +We next proceeded to the University Library, not nearly so fine as the +Dublin College Library. Saw Edward the Sixth's famous little MS. +exercise book: hand good, and ink admirable; shame to the modern +chemists, who cannot make half as good ink now! Saw Faustus' first +printed book and a Persian letter to Lord Wellesley, and an Indian idol, +said to be made of rice, looking like, and when I lifted it feeling as +heavy as, marble. Mr. Smedley smiled at my being so taken with an idol, +and I told him that I was curious about this rice-marble, because we had +lately seen at Derby a vase of similar substance, about which there had +been great debates. Mr. Smedley then explained to me that the same word +in Persian expresses rice and the composition of which these idols are +made. + +We saw the MS. written on papyrus leaves: I had seen the papyrus at the +Liverpool Botanic Garden, and had wondered how the stiff bark could be +rolled up; and here I saw that it is not rolled up, but cut in strips +and fastened with strings at each end. + +In this library were three casts, taken after death--how or why they +came there I don't know, but they were very striking--one of Charles +XII., with the hole in the forehead where the bullet entered at the +siege of Fredericks-hall; that of Pitt, very like his statue from the +life, and all the prints of him; and that of Fox, shocking! no character +of greatness or ability--nothing but pain, weakness, and imbecility. It +is said to be so unlike what he was in health, that none would know it. +One looks at casts taken after death with curiosity and interest, and +yet it is not probable that they should show the real natural or +habitual character of the person: they can often only mark the degree of +bodily pain or ease felt in the moment of death. I think these casts +made me pause to reflect more than anything else I saw this day. + +Went next to Trinity College Library: beautiful! I liked the glass doors +opening to the gardens at the end, and trees in full leaf. The +proportions of this room are excellent, and everything but the ceiling, +which is too plain. The busts of Bacon and Newton excellent; but that of +Bacon looks more like a courtier than a philosopher: his ruff is +elegantly plaited in white marble. By Cipriani's painted window, with +its glorious anachronisms, we were much amused; and I regret that it is +not recorded in Irish Bulls. It represents the presentation of Sir Isaac +Newton to His Majesty George the _Third_, seated on his throne, and +_Bacon_ seated on the steps of the said throne writing! Cipriani had +made the King, Henry VIII., but the Fellows of the College thought it +would be pretty to pay a compliment to His Gracious Majesty George III., +so they made Cipriani cut off Henry VIII.'s head, and stick King George +in his place: the junction is still to be seen in the first design of +the picture, covered with a pasted paper cravat! like the figure that +changes heads in the _Little Henry_ book. + +Saw Milton's original MSS. of his lesser poems, and his letters and his +plan of a tragedy on the subject of _Paradise Lost_, which tragedy I +rejoice he did not write. I have not such delight in seeing the +handwriting of great authors and great folk as some people have; besides +by this time I had become very hungry, and was right glad to accept Mr. +Smedley's proposal that we should repair to his rooms and take some +sandwiches. + +Rested, ate, talked, looked at the engravings of Clarke's marbles, and +read the account of how these ponderous marbles had been transported to +England. We saw the marbles themselves. The famous enormous head of +Ceres must have belonged to a gigantic statue, and perhaps at a great +height may have had a fine effect. It is in a sadly mutilated condition; +there is no face; the appearance of the head in front is exactly like +that of Sophy's doll, whose face has peeled off, yet Clarke strokes it +and talks of its beautiful _contour._ The hair is fine, and the figure, +from its vast size, may be sublime. + +After having recruited our strength, we set out again to the +Vice-Chancellor Davis's, to see a famous picture of Cromwell. As we +knocked at his Vice-Chancellorship's door, Mr. Smedley said to me, "Now, +Miss Edgeworth, if you would but settle in Cambridge! here is our +Vice-Chancellor a bachelor ... _do_ consider about it." + +We went upstairs; found the Vice-Chancellor's room empty; had leisure +before he appeared to examine the fine picture of Cromwell, in which +there is more the expression of greatness of mind and determination than +his usual character of hypocrisy. This portrait seems to say, "Take away +that bauble," not "We are looking for the corkscrew." + +The Vice-Chancellor entered, and such a wretched, pale, unhealthy object +I have seldom beheld! He seemed crippled and writhing with rheumatic +pains, hardly able to walk. After a few minutes had passed, Mr. Smedley +came round to me and whispered, "Have you made up your mind?" "Yes, +quite, thank you." + +Now for the beauty of Cambridge--the beauty of beauties--King's College +Chapel! On the first entrance I felt silenced by admiration. I never saw +anything at once so beautiful and so sublime. The prints give a good +idea of the beauty of the spandrilled ceiling, with its rich and light +ornaments; but no engraved representation can give an idea of the effect +of size, height, and _continuity_ of grandeur in the whole building. +Besides, the idea of DURATION, the sublime idea of having lasted for +ages, is more fully suggested by the sight of the real building than it +can be by any representation or description: for which reason I only +tell you the effect it had upon my mind. + +The organ began to play an anthem of Handel's while we were in the +chapel: I wished for you, my dear Sneyd, particularly at that moment! +Your friend took us up the hundred stairs to the roof, where he was +delighted with the sound of the organ and the chanting voices rising +from the choir below. My father was absorbed in the mechanical wonders +of the roof: that stone roof, of which Sir Christopher Wren said, "Show +me how the first stone was laid, and I will show you how the second is +laid." + +Mr. Smedley exclaimed, "Is not the sound of the organ fine?" To which my +father, at cross purposes, answered, "Yes, the iron was certainly added +afterwards." + +Mr. Smedley at once confessed that he had no knowledge or taste for +mechanics, but he had the patience and good-nature to walk up and down +this stone platform for three-quarters of an hour. He stood observing my +mother's very eager examination with my father of the defects in the +wooden roof, and pointing out where it had been cut away to admit the +stone, as a proof that the stone roof had been an afterthought; and at +last turned to me with a look of astonishment. "Mrs. Edgeworth seems to +have this taste for mechanics _too._" He spoke of it as a kind of mania. +So I nodded at him very gravely, and answered, "Yes, you will find us +all tinctured with it, more or less." At last, to Mr. Smedley's great +joy, he got my father alive off this roof, and on his way to Downing, +the new college of which Leslie Foster talked so much, and said was to +be like the Parthenon. Shockingly windy walk: thought my brains would +have been blown out. Passed Peter House, and saw the rooms in which Gray +lived, and the irons of his fire-escape at the window. Warned Mr. +Smedley of the danger of my father being caught by a coachmaker's yard +which we were to pass. My father overheard me, laughed, and contented +himself with a side glance at the springs of gigs, and escaped that +danger. I nearly disgraced myself, as the company were admiring the +front of Emmanuel College, by looking at a tall man stooping to kiss a +little child. Got at last, in spite of the wind and coachmakers' yards, +within view of Downing College, and was sadly disappointed. It will +never bear comparison with King's College Chapel. + +Home to dinner: Mr. Farish and Mr. Smedley were very agreeable and +entertaining, and _did_ very well together, though such different +persons. Mr. Farish is the most primitive, simple-hearted man I ever +saw. + +The bells were ringing in honour of Professor Farish's election, or, as +Mr. Smedley said, at the Professor's expense. + +Farish insisted upon it very coolly that they were not ringing for him, +but for a shoulder of mutton. + +"A shoulder of mutton! what do you mean?" + +"Why, a man left to the University a shoulder of mutton for every +Thursday, on condition that the bells should always ring for him on that +day: so this is for the shoulder of mutton." + +Mr. Farish paid us no compliments in words, but his coming to spend the +evening with us the day of his election, when I suppose he might have +been feasted by all the grand and learned in the University, was, I +think, the greatest honour my father has received since he came to +England; and so he felt it. + +I suppose you know that Mr. Smedley has published minutes of the trial +of that Mr. Kendal who was accused of having set fire to Sidney College, +and who, though brought off by the talents of Garrow, was so generally +thought to be guilty, and to have only escaped by a quirk of the law, +that he has been expelled the University. What a strange thing that this +trial at Cambridge and that in Dublin, of incendiaries, [Footnote: The +trial in Dublin was that of "Moscow Cavendish."] should take place +within so short a time of each other! It seems as if the fashion of +certain crimes prevailed at certain times. + +"Good-bye, Mr. Smedley! I hope you like us half as well as we liked +you." We thought it well worth our while to have come thirty miles out +of our way to see him and Cambridge, and you, Sneyd, have the thanks of +the whole party for your advice. + +In passing through the village of Trumpington, and just as we came +within sight of Dr. Clarke's house, [Footnote: Edward Daniel Clarke, +1769-1822, one of the most distinguished travellers of the eighteenth +century, was Professor of Mineralogy at Cambridge.] I urged my father to +call upon him. + +"Without an introduction, and two ladies with me! No, with all my +impudence, my dear Maria, I cannot do that." + +"Oh, do! you will repent afterwards if you do not: we shall never have +another opportunity of seeing him." + +"Well, at your peril, then, be it." + +He let down the glass, and ordered the postillion to drive up to Dr. +Clarke's house. I quailed in the corner the moment I heard the order +given, but said nought. Out jumped my father, and during two or three +minutes whilst he was in the house, and my mother and I waiting in the +carriage at the door, I was in an agony. But it was soon over; for out +came little Dr. Clarke flying to us, all civility, and joy, and +gratitude, and honour, and pleasure, "ashamed and obliged," as he handed +us up the steps and into a very elegant drawing-room. + +I do not know whether you have seen him, but from the print I had +imagined he was a large man, with dark eyes and hair, and a penetrating +countenance. No such thing: he is a little, square, pale, flat-faced, +good-natured-looking, fussy man, with very intelligent eyes, yet great +credulity of countenance, and still greater benevolence. In a moment he +whisked about the different rooms upstairs and down, to get together +books, sketches, everything that could please us; and Angelica's +drawings--she draws beautifully. + +Angelica herself, Mrs. Clarke, is a timid, dark, soft-eyed woman, with a +good figure. I am told it is rude to say a person is very clean, but I +may praise Angelica for looking elegantly clean, brilliantly white, with +a lace Mary Queen of Scots cap, like that which I am sure you remember +on Lady Adelaide Forbes. She received us with timid courtesy, but her +timidity soon wore off, and the half-hour we spent here made us wish to +have spent an hour. Dr. Clarke seemed highly gratified that his travels +in Greece had interested us so much: showed us the original drawings of +Moscow, and a book of views of the ruins at Athens by the draughtsman +who went out with the Duc de Choiseul Gouffier--beautifully done; mere +outlines, perfectly distinct, and giving, I think, better architectural +ideas than we have from more finished and flattered drawings. + +We were sorry not to see more, and glad we had seen so much, of Dr. +Clarke and his Angelica, and his fine little boy about five years old. A +tall, dark-eyed, fine fashionable-looking man, Dr. Clarke introduced to +us as Mr. Walpole. My father entered into conversation with him, and +found he had known Captain Beaufort in the Mediterranean. + +When we were going away, Dr. Clarke, between my mother and me, seemed +puzzled how to get us both into the carriage at once; but he called to +Mr. Walpole. "Walpole, put this lady into the carriage." + +And with a "Meadows" air he obeyed. + +Now we are again on the London road, and nothing interrupted our perusal +_Pride and Prejudice_ for the rest of the morning. I am desired not to +give you my opinion of _Pride and Prejudice_, but desire you to get it +directly, and tell us yours. + + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +LONDON, _May 1813._ + +I fear Madame de Staël's arrival may be put off till after we leave +town. The Edinburgh review of her book has well prepared all the world +for her. The first persons who came to see us were Sir Humphry and Lady +Davy, who have been uniformly and zealously kind and attentive to us. We +have been frequently at their dinners and parties, and I should fill a +roll as long as that genealogy Foote unrolled across the stage, if I +were to give you a list of the names of all the people we have met at +their house. Of Lord Byron I can tell you only that his appearance is +nothing that you would remark. The Miss Berrys are all that you have +heard of them from people of various tastes; consequently you know that +they are well bred, and have nice tact in conversation. Miss Catharine +Fanshaw I particularly like; she has delightful talents. Her drawings +have charmed my mother, full of invention as well as taste; her "Village +School" and "Village Children at Play" are beautiful compositions, and +her drawings for the Bath Guide are full of humour and character. + +Lady Crewe has still the remains of much beauty. Except her dress, which +happened to be blue, there appeared to be nothing else _blue_ about her. +The contrast between her really fashionable air and manners and that of +the _strugglers_ and imitators struck me much: Lady Elizabeth Whitbread +is, in one word, delightful. Miss Fox very agreeable--converses at once, +without preface or commonplace: Lady Charlotte Lindsay ditto: Lady +Darnley has been very polite in her attentions: both Lord and Lady +Hardwicke peculiarly gracious. Lord Somerville I cannot help being +charmed with, for he says he is charmed with Lady Delacour and Lady +Geraldine, whom he pronounces to be perfect women of fashion, and says +they are in high repute in the equerry's room at Court. He was quite +indignant against certain pretenders to fashion. I told him the remark +of a friend of ours, that a gentleman or gentlewoman cannot be made +under two generations. "In less than _five_, madam, I think it scarcely +possible," said he. + +Lady Lansdowne, taking in beauty, character, conversation, talents, and +manners, I think superior to any woman I have seen; perfectly natural, +daring to be herself, gentle, sprightly, amiable, and engaging. Lydia +Whyte has been very kind to us, and eager to bring together people who +would suit and please us: very agreeable dinner at her house; she +conducts these _bel esprit_ parties well; her vivacity breaks through +the constraint of those who stand upon great reputations, and are afraid +of committing themselves. + +Charming, amiable Lady Wellington! As she truly said of herself, she is +always "Kitty Pakenham to her friends." After comparison with crowds of +others, _beaux esprits_, fine ladies and fashionable _scramblers_ for +notoriety, her dignified graceful simplicity rises in one's opinion, and +we feel it with more conviction of its superiority. She showed us her +delightful children. Lord Longford, just come to town, met us yesterday +at the Exhibition of Sir Joshua Reynolds's pictures. Some of these are +excellent: his children, from the sublime Samuel to the arch Gipsy, are +admirable. + +We hope to see Mrs. Siddons act on the 25th; it was thought impossible +to get a box, but the moment my father pronounced the name Edgeworth, +Mr. Brandon, the box-keeper, said he should have one. Lady Charleville, +who is a very clever woman, goes with us with her daughter and Lord +Tullamore. We have been to a grand night at Mrs. Hope's--the rooms +really deserve the French epithet of _superbe_--all of beauty, rank, and +fashion that London can assemble, I may say, in the newspaper style, +were there. The Prince Regent stood one-third of the night holding +converse with Lady Elizabeth Monk, she leaning gracefully on a bronze +ornament in the centre of the room, in the midst of the sacred but very +small circle etiquette could keep round them. About 900 people were at +this assembly; the crowd of carriages were so great, that after sitting +waiting in ours for an hour, the coachman told us there was no chance of +our reaching the door unless we got out and walked. Another good-natured +coachman backed his horses, and we bravely crossed the line and got into +the house and up the staircase, but no power of ours could have got us +on, but for the gloriously large body and the good-natured politeness of +the Archbishop of Tuam, who fortunately met us at the door, recognised +us just as he would have done at Mrs. Bourke's, in the county of +Longford, and made way for us through the crowd, and, in the wake of his +greatness, we sailed on prosperously, and never stopped till he +presented us to his beautiful daughter, who received us with a winning +smile. I asked Mr. Hope who some one was? "I really don't know; I don't +know half the people here, nor do they know me or Mrs. Hope even by +sight. Just now I was behind a lady who was making her _speech_, as she +thought, to Mrs. Hope, but she was addressing a stranger." Among the old +beauties the Duchess of Rutland held her pre-eminence and looked the +youngest. + +A few days after we came to town we were told by Mr. Wakefield that +there was to be at the Freemasons' tavern a meeting on the Lancasterian +schools, at which the reports of the Irish Education Committee were to +be alluded to, and that the Dukes of Kent and Sussex, Lord Lansdowne, +Sir James Macintosh, and Mr. Whitbread were all to speak. We went; fine +large hall, ranged with green benches like a lecture room: raised +platform at one end for the _performers_: arm-chairs for the Royal +Dukes, and common chairs for common men. Waited an hour, and were +introduced to various people, among others, to Mr. Allen, who is famous +for his generous benevolence, living most economically and giving +thousands as easily as others would give pence. Dumont came and seated +himself between my mother and me, and the hour's waiting was so filled +with conversation that it seemed but five minutes. + +Enter, on the platform, the Royal Dukes preceded by stewards with white +staves; gentlemen of the Committee ranged at the back of the theatre, +one row in front on each side of the Dukes, Lord Lansdowne, Mr. +Whitbread, Mr. Lancaster, two or three others, and Mr. Edgeworth. The +object of the meeting was to effect a junction between the Bell and +Lancasterian parties. It had been previously agreed that Lancaster +should have his debts paid, and should retire and give up his schools. +Lord Lansdowne spoke extremely well, matter and manner; when he adverted +to the Board of Education he turned to my father and called upon him to +support his assertion, that the dignified clergy in Ireland among those +commissioners had acted with liberality. It had been previously arranged +that my father was to move the vote of thanks to the ladies, but of this +we knew nothing; and when he rose and when I heard the Duke of Kent in +his sonorous voice say "Mr. Edgeworth," I was so frightened I dared not +look up, but I was soon reassured. My father's speaking was, next to +Lord Lansdowne's, the best I heard, and loud plaudits convinced me that +I was not singular in this opinion. The Duke of Kent speaks well and +makes an excellent chairman. + +Yesterday my father was invited to a Lancasterian dinner; for an account +of it I refer you to Lord Fingal, next to whom my father sat, but as you +may not see him immediately I must tell you that my father's health was +drunk, and that when his name was mentioned, loud applause ensued, and +the Duke of Bedford, after speaking of the fourteenth report of the +Irish Board of Education, pronounced a eulogium on "the excellent letter +which is appended to that report, full of liberality and good sense, on +which indeed the best part of the report seems founded. I mean the +letter by Mr. Edgeworth, to whom this country as well as Ireland is so +much indebted." + +Yesterday I had a good hour in comfort to write to you before breakfast, +which was scarcely ended when Mr. Wakefield came in with a letter from +the Duke of Bedford, who is anxious to see my father's experiments on +the draft of wheel-carriages tried. Then came Lord Somerville, who sat +and talked and invited us to his country-house, but all this did not +forward my letter. Then came Lady Darnley; and then my father walked off +with Lord Somerville, and we gave orders no one should be let in; so we +only heard vain thunders at the door, and I got on half a page, but then +came poor Peggy Langan, [Footnote: Grand-daughter to the original of +Thady, in _Castle Rackrent._ Her sister was the original of Simple +Susan.] and her we admitted; she is in an excellent place, with Mrs. +Haldimand, Mrs. Marcet's sister-in-law, and she, Peggy, sat and talked +and told of how happy she was, and how good her mistress was, and we +liked her simplicity and goodness of heart, but as I said before, all +this did not forward my letter. Coach at the door. "Put on your hat, +Maria, and come out and pay visits." + +To save myself trouble, I send a list of the visits we made just as my +mother marked them on the card by which we steered. GOD knows how I +should steer without her. The crosses mark the three places where we +were let in. Lady Milbanke is very agreeable, and has a charming +well-informed daughter. Mrs. Weddell is a perfectly well-bred, most +agreeable old lady, sister to Lady Rockingham, who lived in the Sir +Joshua Reynolds set: tells anecdotes of Burke, Fox, and +Windham--magnificent house--fine pictures. We spoke of having just seen +the exhibition of Sir Joshua Reynolds's pictures. "Perhaps if you are +fond of paintings you would take the trouble of walking into the next +room, and I will show you what gives me a particular interest in Sir +Joshua Reynolds's pictures." Large folding-doors opened--large room full +of admirable copies from Sir Joshua Reynolds in crayons, done by Mrs. +Weddell herself. My mother says they are quite astonishing. Her +conversation, as good as her painting, passed through many books lightly +with touch-and-go ease. I mentioned a curious anecdote of Madame +d'Arblay: that when she landed at Portsmouth, a few months ago, and saw +on a plate at Admiral Foley's a head of Lord Nelson, and the word +Trafalgar, she asked what Trafalgar meant! She actually, as Lady Spencer +told me, who had the anecdote from Dr. Charles Burney, did not know that +the English had been victorious, or that Lord Nelson was dead! This is +the mixed effect of the recluse life she led, and of the care taken in +France to keep the people ignorant of certain events. I mentioned a +similar instance in Thiebault's _Memoirs_, of the Chevalier Mason, +living at Potsdam, and not knowing anything of the Seven Years' War. +Then Mrs. Weddell went through Thiebault and Madame de Bareith's +_Memoirs_, and asked if I had ever happened to meet with an odd +entertaining book, Madame de Baviere's _Memoirs._ How little I thought, +my dear Aunt Ruxton, when you gave me that book, that it would stand me +_in stead_ at Mrs. Weddell's--we talked it over and had a great deal of +laughing and diversion. + +Came home: found my father dressing to go to Sir Samuel Romilly's--we +two were to dine at Lady Levinge's; while we were dressing a long note +from Miss Berry, sent by her own maid, to apologise for a mistake of her +servants who had said "not at home," and to entreat we would look in on +her this evening--much hurried. Lady Levinge's dinner, which was not on +the table till eight o'clock, was very entertaining, because quite a new +set of people. Called in the evening at Miss Berry's--quite like French +society, most agreeable--had a great deal of conversation with Lady +Charlotte Lindsay. Mr. Ward was there, but I did not hear him. Went, +shamefully late, to Mrs. Sneyd's--then home: found my father in +bed--stood at the foot of it, and heard his account of his dinner. Dr. +Parr, Dumont, Malthus, etc., but I have not time to say more. I have +been standing in my dressing-gown writing on the top of a chest of +drawers, and now I must dress for a breakfast at Lady Davy's, where we +are to meet Lord Byron: but I must say, that at the third place where we +were let in yesterday, Lady Wellington's, we spent by far the most +agreeable half-hour of the day. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Edgeworth continues: + +One day, coming late to dinner at Mr. Horner's, we found Dr. Parr very +angry at our having delayed, and then interrupted dinner, but he ended +by giving Maria his blessing. One of our pleasantest days was a +breakfast at Mr. and Mrs. Carr's, at Hampstead, where we met General and +Mrs. Bentham, just come from Russia, full of interesting information. +Maria also spent a day in the country with Sir Samuel and Lady +Romilly--who was so beautiful and so engaging; and to this day's +happiness Maria often recurred. We met one evening at Lady Charleville's +Mrs. Abington, with whom Maria was much entertained; she recited two +epilogues for us with exquisite wit and grace--she spoke with frankness +and feeling of her career, when often after the triumph of success in +some brilliant character, splendidly dressed, in the blaze of light, +with thunders of applause, she quitted the theatre for her poor little +lonely lodging--and admirably described her disenchanted, dispirited +sensations. + +One morning Maria and I went to Westminster Abbey with some friends, +among whom was Sir James Macintosh--only one morning; days might have +been spent without exhausting the information he so easily, and with +such enjoyment to himself, as well as to his hearers, poured forth with +quotations, appropriate anecdotes, and allusions historical, poetical, +and biographical, as we went along. + +We unfortunately missed seeing Madame d'Arblay, and we left London +before the arrival of Madame de Staël. We went on the 16th of June to +Clifton, where we spent some days with Mr. and Mrs. King. [Footnote: Mr. +Edgeworth's second daughter Emmeline.] + +From Clifton we went to Gloucester, where Maria took up a link of her +former life, paying a visit to Mrs. Chandler, from whom she had received +much kindness at Mr. Day's when her eyes were inflamed. We then went on +to Malvern, where Mrs. Beddoes [Footnote: The third daughter--Anna +Edgeworth.] was then living. + + +MARIA to MRS. RUXTON. + +MALVERN LINKS, _June 1813._ + +How good you have been, my dear aunt, in sparing Sophy to +Edgeworthstown, and since you have been so good it is in encroaching +human nature to expect that you will be still better, and that you and +my uncle and Mag will come to Edgeworthstown for her; we shall be home +in a fortnight. What joy, what delight to meet you among the dear faces +who will welcome us there. The brilliant panorama of London is over, and +I have enjoyed more pleasure and have had more amusement, infinitely +more than I expected, and received more attention, more kindness than I +could have thought it possible would be shown to me; I have enjoyed the +delight of seeing my father esteemed and honoured by the best judges in +England: I have felt the pleasure of seeing my true friend and mother, +for she has been a mother to me, appreciated in the best society, and +now with the fulness of content I return home, loving my own friends and +my own mode of life preferably to all others, after comparison with all +that is fine and gay, and rich and rare. + +We spent four days at Clifton with Emmeline, and if our journey to +England had been productive of no other good, I should heartily rejoice +at our having accomplished this purpose. My father was pleased and +happy, and liked all his three grandchildren very much. You may imagine +how much pleasure this gave me. + +We came here the day before yesterday, and have spent our time +delightfully with Anna and her children, and now the carriage is at the +door to take us to Mrs. Clifford's. Yesterday we went to see Samuel +Essington, [Footnote: The servant who was so faithful and so frightened +at the time of the rebellion. He had saved some money and quitted the +service of the Edgeworths in 1800.] at the Essington Hotel. He thought +it was a carriage full of strangers and was letting down the steps when +he beheld my father; his whole face glowed with delight, and the tears +stood in his projecting eyes. "Master! Master, I declare! O sir, ma'am, +miss, Mrs. Beddoes, Miss Edgeworth: how glad I am!" + +He showed us his excellent house, and walked us round his beautiful +little lawn and shrubberies, all his own making; and cut moss roses and +blush roses for us with such eagerness and delight. "And all, all owing +to you, sir, that first taught me." + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Edgeworth writes: + +At Mrs. Clifford's we stayed some days--a beautiful country, not far +from Ross which we visited, and Maria was delighted to see all the +scenes of the Man of Ross. At Mrs. Clifford's we had one day of most +brilliant conversation between Maria, her father, and Sir James +Macintosh, who had just come into that neighbourhood. He joined us, +unexpectedly, one morning as we were walking out, and touching a shawl +Mrs. Clifford wore, "A thousand looms," he said, "are at work in +Cashmere at this instant providing these for you." + + +MARIA _to_ MRS. MARY SNEYD AT EDGEWORTHSTOWN. + +MRS. CLIFFORD'S, _June 1813._ + +_Saturday Evening._ + +Received Sneyd's letter. [Footnote: Announcing his engagement to Miss +Broadhurst. It was singular that this was the name of the heroine in +Miss Edgeworth's _Absentee_, who selected from her lovers the one who +united _worth_ and wit, in reminiscence of an epigram of Mr. Edgeworth +on himself, concluding-- + + There's an edge to his wit and there's worth in his heart.] + +Astonishment! Dear Sneyd, I hope he will be as happy as love and fortune +can make him. All my ideas are thrown into such confusion by this letter +that I _can_ no more. We go to Derby on Tuesday. + + +To MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _July 26, 1813._ + +I have delayed a few days writing to you in the expectation of the +arrival of two frankers to send an extract from Dr. Holland's last +letter, which will, I hope, entertain you as much as it entertained us. +I shall long to hear of our good friend Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton's visit +to Black Castle. + +We have every reason to be in great anxiety at this moment about a +certain trunk containing all our worldly _duds_, and "Patronage" to +boot, but still I have not been able to work myself into any fears about +it, though it is a month since we ought to have seen it, nor have we +heard any news of it. In the meantime, as I cannot set about revising +"Patronage," I have begun a new series of _Early Lessons_ [Footnote: The +second parts of _Frank, Rosamond_, and _Harry and Lucy._] for which many +mothers told me they wished. I feel that I return with fresh pleasure to +literary work from having been so long idle, and I have a famishing +appetite for reading. All that we saw in London, I am sure I enjoyed +while it was passing as much as possible, but I should be very sorry to +live in that whirling vortex, and I find my taste and conviction +confirmed on my return to my natural friends and my dear home. + +I am glad that some of those who showed us hospitality and kindness in +England should have come so soon to Ireland, that we may have some +little opportunity of showing our sense of their attentions. Lord +Carrington, who franks this, is most amiable and benevolent, without any +species of pretension, thinking the best that can be thought of +everything and everybody. Mr. Smith, his son, whom we had not seen in +London, accompanies him, and his tutor, Mr. Kaye, a Cambridge man, and +Lord Gardner, Lord Carrington's son-in-law, suffering from the gouty +rheumatism, or rheumatic gout--he does not know or care which: but +between the twitches of his suffering he is entertaining and agreeable. + +We have just seen a journal by a little boy of eight years old, of a +voyage from England to Sicily: the boy is Lord Mahon's son, Lord +Carrington's grandson. [Footnote: Philip Henry, afterwards fifth Earl +Stanhope, the historian.] It is one of the best journals I ever read, +full of facts: exactly the writing of a child, but a very clever child. +It is peculiarly interesting to us from having seen Dr. Holland's +letters from Palermo. Lord Mahon says that the alarm about the plague at +Malta is much greater than it need be--its progress has been stopped: it +was introduced by a shoemaker having, contrary to law and reason, +surreptitiously brought some handkerchiefs from a vessel that had not +performed quarantine. You will nevertheless rejoice that Dr. Holland did +not go to Malta. How you will regret the loss of the portmanteau of +which that vile Ali Pasha robbed him. + +Mr. Fox dined with us to-day, and was very agreeable. Lord Carrington +and his travelling companions were at Farnham, where they were most +hospitably received. They had no letters of introduction or intention of +going there; but, finding a horrid inn at Cavan, they applied for +charity to a gentleman for lodging. The gentleman took them to walk in +Lord Farnham's grounds. Lord and Lady Farnham saw and invited them to +the house, and they are full of admiration and almost affection, I +think, for Lord and Lady Farnham: they are so charmed by their +hospitality, their goodness to the poor, their care of the young Foxes, +their magnificent establishment, their neat cottages for their tenants, +and, as Lord Gardner sensibly said, "their judicious economy in the +midst of magnificence." + + +_August 9._ + +I like Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton better than ever upon further +acquaintance. She is what the French would call _bonne à vivre_: so +good-humoured, so cheerful, so little disposed to exact attention or to +take an authoritative tone in conversation, so ready to give everybody +their merits, so indulgent for the follies and frailties, and so hopeful +of the reformation of even the faults and vices of the world, that it is +impossible not to respect and love her. She wins upon us daily, and +mixes so well with this family, that I always forget she is a stranger. + +Lady Davy is in high glory at this moment, introducing Madame de Staël +everywhere, enjoying the triumph and partaking the gale. They went down, +a delightful party, to Cobham--Madame de Staël, Lady Davy, Lord Erskine, +Rogers, etc. + +Have you heard that Jeffrey, the reviewer, is gone to America in pursuit +of a lady, or, as some say, to take possession of an estate left to him +by an uncle: he is to be back in time for the _Edinburgh Review_ in +September! + + +_August 19._ + +Lord and Lady Lansdowne came to us on Tuesday. Mr. Greenough comes on +Saturday, and after that I think we shall get to Black Castle. Lord +Longford came yesterday, and though he is not, you know, exuberant in +praise, truly says Lord and Lady Lansdowne are people who must be +esteemed and liked the more they are known. + +Mr. Forbes, just returned from Russia, has this moment come, and is +giving a most interesting account of Petersburgh and Moscow: give me +credit for retiring to finish this letter. My father is calling, +calling, calling. + + +_Nov. 19._ + +Last night a letter came from Lady Farnham, announcing Francis Fox's +marriage, and naming next Monday for us to go to Farnham. We went last +Monday to a play at Castle Forbes, or rather to three farces--"Bombastes +Furioso," "Of Age To-morrow," and "The Village Lawyer," taken from the +famous _Avocat Patelin_: the cunning servant-boy shamming simplicity was +admirably acted by Lord Rancliffe. + +Tell me whether you have seen Madame de Staël's _Essai sur la Fiction_, +prefixed to Zulma, Adelaide, and Pauline--the essay is excellent: I +shall be curious to know whether you think as I do of Pauline. Madame de +Staël calls Blenheim "a magnificent tomb: splendour without, and the +deathlike silence of ennui within." She says she is very proud of having +made the Duke of Marlborough speak four words. At the moment she was +announced he was distinctly heard to utter these words: "Let me go +away." We have just got her _Allemagne._ We have had great delight in +Mrs. Graham's _India_,--a charming woman, writing, speaking, thinking, +or feeling. + + +_Nov. 25._ + +A letter from Lady Romilly--so easy, so like her conversation. All agree +that Madame de Staël is frankness itself, and has an excellent heart. +During her brilliant fortnight at Bowood--where, besides Madame de +Staël, her Albertine, M. de Staël, and Count Palmella, there were the +Romillys, the Macintoshes, Mr. Ward, Mr. Rogers, and M. Dumont--if it +had not been for chess-playing, music, and dancing between times, poor +human nature never could have borne the strain of attention and +admiration. + + +_Jan. 1, 1814._ + +Hunter has sent a whole cargo of French translations--_Popular Tales_, +with a title under which I should never have known them, _Conseils à mon +Fils! Manoeuvring: La Mère Intrigante; Ennui_--what can they make of it +in French? _Leonora_ will translate better than a better thing. _Emilie +de Coulanges_, I fear, will never stand alone. _L'Absent, The +Absentee_,--it is impossible that a Parisian can make any sense of it +from beginning to end. But these things teach authors what is merely +local and temporary. _Les deux Griseldis de Chaucer et Edgeworth_; and, +to crown all, two works surreptitiously printed in England under our +name, and which are _no better than they should be._ + +Pray read _Letters to Sir James Macintosh on Madame de Staël's +Allemagne._ My mother says it is exactly what you would have written: we +do not know who is the author. + + +_Jan. 25._ + +To-day it began to thaw, and thawed so rapidly that we were in danger of +being flooded, wet pouring in at all parts, and tubs, and jugs, and +pails, and mops running about in all directions, and voices calling, and +avalanches of snow thrown by arms of men from gutters and roofs on all +sides, darkening windows, and falling with thundering noise. + +We have been charmed with a little French play, _Les deux Gendres._ I +wish you could get it, and get Mr. Knox to read it to you: he is still +blocked up by the snow at Pakenham Hall. + +We have had an entertaining letter, giving an account of a gentleman who +is now in England, a native of Delhi. He practised as an advocate in the +native courts of Calcutta, from Calcutta to Prince of Wales' Island, and +thence to London, and is now Professor of Oriental Languages at +Addiscombe. He was at Dr. Malkins': Mrs. Malkin offered him coffee: he +refused, and backed. "Not coffee in the house of Madam-Doctor. I take +coffee to keep awake; no danger of being drowsy in the house of +Madam-Doctor." He was at a great ball where Lord Cornwallis was +expected, and he said he would go to him and "bless his father's memory +for his conduct in India." + +Poor old Robin Woods is very ill, and he has a tame robin that sits on +his foot, and hops up for crumbs. One day that I went in, when they were +at dinner with a bowl of potatoes between them, I said "How happy you +two look!" "Yes, miss, we were that every day since we married." + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +15 BAGGOT STREET, [Footnote: Mr. and Mrs. Sneyd Edgeworth's house in +Dublin.] DUBLIN, + +_March 1814._ + +Here we are: arrived at three o'clock: found Henrica looking very well. +Such a nice, pretty, elegant house! and they have furnished it so +comfortably. It is delightful to see my father here; he enjoys himself +so much in his son's house, and Sneyd and Henrica are so happy seeing +him pleased with everything. Lady Longford has been here this morning; +told us Sir Edward Pakenham was so fatigued by riding an uneasy horse at +the battle of Vittoria, he was not able to join for four days. A buckle +of Lord Wellington's sword-belt saved him: he wrote four times in one +week to Lady Wellington, without ever mentioning his wound. I long for +you to see Henrica; she is so kind, and so well-bred and easy in her +manners. + + * * * * * + +In April Mr. Edgeworth had a dangerous illness. He was just out of +danger, when, late at night on the 10th of May, his son Lovell arrived +from Paris, liberated by the peace after eleven years' detention. + + * * * * * + +MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _May 16, 1814/._ + +My father's contentment at Lovell's [Footnote: The only son of Mr. +Edgeworth's second marriage, with Miss Honora Sneyd.] return has done +him more good than all the advice of all the surgeons, I do believe, now +that the danger is over. If you have suffered from suspense in absence, +yet, my dear aunt, you have been spared the torturing terrors we have +felt at the sight of the daily, hourly changes, so rapid, so +unaccountable: one day, one hour, all hope, the next all despair! The +lamp of life, now bright, starting up high and brilliant, then sinking +suddenly almost to extinction; the flame flitting, flickering, starting, +_leaping_, as it were, on and off by fits. Some day we shall talk it +over in security; now I can hardly bear to look back to it. + +All that has passed in France in the last few weeks! a revolution +without bloodshed! Paris taken without being pillaged! the Bourbons, +after all hope and reason for hope had passed, restored to their capital +and their palaces! With what mixed sensations they must enter those +palaces! I daresay it has not escaped my aunt that the Venus de Medicis +and Apollo Belvidere are both missing together: I make no remarks. I +hate scandal--at least I am not so fond of it as the lady of whom it was +said she could not see the poker and tongs standing together without +suspecting something wrong! I wonder where our ideas, especially those +of a playful sort, go at some times? and how it is that they all come +junketing back faster than there is room for them at other times? How is +it that hope so powerfully excites, and fear so absolutely depresses all +our faculties? + + +_Aug. 24._ + +Sneyd has received a very polite letter from the Marquis de Bonay, who +is now ambassador at the Court of Denmark. Mrs. O'Beirne and the Bishop, +who like Mons. de Bonay so much, and who have not heard of him for such +a length of time, will be delighted to hear of his emerging into light +and life. What is more to our purpose is, that he says he can furnish +Sneyd with some notes for the Abbé Edgeworth's life, which he had once +intended to write himself: he did put a short notice of his life into +the foreign papers at Mittau. He says he never knew so perfect a human +creature as the Abbé. + +I had a letter from Dr. Holland this morning saying at the beginning I +should be surprised at its contents; and so I was. The Princess of Wales +has invited him to accompany her abroad as her physician! After +consulting with his friends he accepted the invitation. + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Oct 13, 1814._ + +I had a letter from the Duchess of Wellington the day before yesterday, +dated from Deal, just when she was going to embark for France. The whole +of the letter was full of her children and of sorrow for quitting them. + +Two days ago came a young gentleman, Mr. James Gordon, a nephew of Lady +Elizabeth Whitbread's, with a very polite introductory note from Lady +Elizabeth. He has a great deal of anecdote and information. He has just +come from Paris, and he has given me a better account of Paris, and more +characteristic, well-authenticated anecdotes than I have heard from +anybody else. He mentioned some instances of the gratitude which Louis +XVIII. has shown to people of inferior note in England from whom he had +received kindness, especially to the innkeeper's wife at Berkhampstead. +I am glad for the honour of human nature that this is so. + +What do you think Walter Scott says is the most poetical performance he +has read for years? That account of the battle of Leipsic which Richard +lent to us. + +We went to Coolure and had a pleasant day. _Waverley_ was in everybody's +hands. The Admiral does not like it: the hero, he says, is such a +shuffling fellow. While he was saying this I had in my pocket a letter +from Miss Fanshawe, received that morning, saying it was delightful. +Lady Crewe tells me that Madame d'Arblay cannot settle in England +because the King of France has lately appointed M. d'Arblay to some high +situation in consequence of his distinguished services. + +Shall I tell you what they, my father and all of them, are doing at this +moment? Sprawling on the floor looking at a new rat-trap. Two pounds of +butter vanished the other night out of the dairy; they had been put in a +shallow pan with water in it, and it is averred the rats ate it, and +Peggy Tuite, the dairymaid, to make the thing more credible, gives the +following reason for the rats' conduct. "Troth, ma'am, they were +affronted at the new rat-trap, they only licked the milk off it, and +that occasioned them to run off with the butter!" + +Mr. and Mrs. Pollard have spent a day here, and brought with them Miss +Napier. My father is charmed with her beauty, her voice, and her +manners. We talked over _Waverley_ with her. I am more delighted with it +than I can tell you: it is a work of first-rate genius. + + +_To the_ AUTHOR of "WAVERLEY." + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Oct. 23, 1814._ + +Aut Scotus, Aut Diabolus! + +We have this moment finished _Waverley._ It was read aloud to this large +family, and I wish the author could have witnessed the impression it +made--the strong hold it seized of the feelings both of young and +old--the admiration raised by the beautiful descriptions of nature--by +the new and bold delineations of character--the perfect manner in which +character is ever sustained in every change of situation from first to +last, without effort, without the affectation of making the persons +speak in character--the ingenuity with which each person introduced in +the drama is made useful and necessary to the end--the admirable art +with which the story is constructed and with which the author keeps his +own secrets till the proper moment when they should be revealed, whilst +in the meantime, with the skill of Shakspear, the mind is prepared by +unseen degrees for all the changes of feeling and fortune, so that +nothing, however extraordinary, shocks us as improbable: and the +interest is kept up to the last moment. We were so possessed with the +belief that the whole story and every character in it was real, that we +could not endure the occasional addresses from the author to the reader. +They are like Fielding: but for that reason we cannot bear them, we +cannot bear that an author of such high powers, of such original genius, +should for a moment stoop to imitation. This is the only thing we +dislike, these are the only passages we wish omitted in the whole work: +and let the unqualified manner in which I say this, and the very +vehemence of my expression of this disapprobation, be a sure pledge to +the author of the sincerity of all the admiration I feel for his genius. + +I have not yet said half we felt in reading the work. The characters are +not only finely drawn as separate figures, but they are grouped with +great skill, and contrasted so artfully, and yet so naturally as to +produce the happiest dramatic effect, and at the same time to relieve +the feelings and attention in the most agreeable manner. The novelty of +the Highland world which is discovered to our view powerfully excites +curiosity and interest: but though it is all new to us it does not +embarrass or perplex, or strain the attention. We never are harassed by +doubts of the probability of any of these modes of life: though we did +not know them, we are quite certain they did exist exactly as they are +represented. We are sensible that there is a peculiar merit in the work +which is in a measure lost upon us, the _dialects_ of the Highlanders, +and the Lowlanders, etc. But there is another and a higher merit with +which we are as much struck and as much delighted as any true-born +Scotchman could be: the various gradations of Scotch feudal character, +from the high-born chieftain and the military baron, to the noble-minded +lieutenant Evan Dhu, the robber Bean Lean, and the savage Callum Beg. +The _Pre_--the Chevalier, is beautifully drawn-- + + A prince: ay, every inch a prince! + +His polished manners, his exquisite address, politeness, and generosity, +interest the reader irresistibly, and he pleases the more from the +contrast between him and those who surround him. I think he is my +favourite character: the Baron Bradwardine is my father's. He thinks it +required more genius to invent, and more ability uniformly to sustain +this character than any other of the masterly characters with which the +book abounds. There is indeed uncommon art in the manner in which his +dignity is preserved by his courage and magnanimity, in spite of all his +pedantry and his _ridicules_, and his bear and bootjack, and all the +raillery of M'Ivor. M'Ivor's unexpected "bear and bootjack" made us +laugh heartily. + +But to return to the dear good baron: though I acknowledge that I am not +as good a judge as my father and brothers are of his recondite learning +and his law Latin, yet I feel the humour, and was touched to the quick +by the strokes of generosity, gentleness, and pathos in this old man, +who is, by the bye, all in good time worked up into a very dignified +father-in-law for the hero. His exclamation of "Oh! my son! my son!" and +the yielding of the fictitious character of the baron to the natural +feelings of the father is beautiful. (Evan Dhu's fear that his +father-in-law should die quietly in his bed made us laugh almost as much +as the bear and bootjack.) + +Jinker, in the battle, pleading the cause of the mare he had sold to +Balmawhapple, and which had thrown him for want of the proper bit, is +truly comic: my father says that this and some other passages respecting +horsemanship could not have been written by any one who was not master +both of the great and little horse. + +I tell you without order the great and little strokes of humour and +pathos just as I recollect, or am reminded of them at this moment by my +companions. The fact is that we have had the volumes--only during the +time we could read them, and as fast as we could read--lent to us as a +great favour by one who was happy enough to have secured a copy before +the first and second editions were sold in Dublin. When we applied, not +a copy could be had; we expect one in the course of next week, but we +resolved to write to the author without waiting for a second perusal. +Judging by our own feeling as authors, we guess that he would rather +know our genuine first thoughts, than wait for cool second thoughts, or +have a regular eulogium or criticism put in the most lucid manner, and +given in the finest sentences that ever were rounded. + +Is it possible that I have got thus far without having named Flora or +Vich Ian Vohr--the _last Vich Ian Vohr!_ Yet our minds were full of them +the moment before I began this letter: and could you have seen the tears +forced from us by their fate, you would have been satisfied that the +pathos went to our hearts. Ian Vohr from the first moment he appears, +till the last, is an admirably-drawn and finely-sustained +character--new, perfectly new to the English reader--often +entertaining--always heroic--sometimes sublime. The gray spirit, the +Bodach Glas, thrills _us_ with horror. _Us!_ What effect must it have +upon those under the influence of the superstitions of the Highlands! +This circumstance is admirably introduced: this superstition is a +weakness quite consistent with the strength of the character, perfectly +natural after the disappointment of all his hopes, in the dejection of +his mind, and the exhaustion of his bodily strength. + +Flora we could wish was never called _Miss MacIvor_, because in this +country there are tribes of vulgar Miss _Macs_, and this association is +unfavourable to the sublime and beautiful of _your_ Flora--she is a true +heroine. Her first appearance seized upon the mind and enchanted us so +completely, that we were certain she was to be your heroine, and the +wife of your hero--but with what inimitable art, you gradually convince +the reader that she was not, as she said of herself, _capable of making +Waverley happy._ Leaving her in full possession of our admiration, you +first make us pity, then love, and at last give our undivided affection +to Rose Bradwardine--sweet Scotch Rose! The last scene between Flora and +Waverley is highly pathetic--my brother wishes that _bridal garment_ +were _shroud:_ because when the heart is touched we seldom use metaphor, +or quaint alliteration-bride-favour, bridal garment. + +There is one thing more we could wish changed or omitted in Flora's +character. I have not the volume, and therefore cannot refer to the +page; but I recollect in the first visit to Flora, when she is to sing +certain verses, there is a walk, in which the description of the place +is beautiful, but _too long_, and we did not like the preparation for a +_scene_--the appearance of Flora and her harp was too like a common +heroine, she should be far above all stage effect or novelist's trick. + +These are, without reserve, the only faults we found, or _can_ find in +this work of genius. We should scarcely have thought them worth +mentioning, except to give you proof positive that we are not +flatterers. Believe me, I have not, nor can I convey to you the full +idea of the pleasure, the delight we have had in reading _Waverley_, nor +of the feeling of sorrow with which we came to the end of the history of +persons whose real presence had so filled our minds--we felt that we +must return to the _flat realities_ of life, that our stimulus was gone, +and we were little disposed to read the "Postscript, which should have +been a Preface." + +"Well, let us hear it," said my father, and Mrs. Edgeworth read on. + +Oh! my dear sir, how much pleasure would my father, my mother, my whole +family, as well as myself have lost, if we had not read to the last +page! And the pleasure came upon us so unexpectedly--we had been so +completely absorbed that every thought of ourselves, of our own +authorship, was far, far away. + +Thank you for the honour you have done us, [Footnote: Walter Scott, in +his "Postscript," said that it had been his desire in _Waverley_ "in +some distant degree to emulate the admirable Irish portraits drawn by +Miss Edgeworth."] and for the pleasure you have given us, great in +proportion to the opinion we had formed of the work we had just +perused--and believe me, every opinion I have in this letter expressed, +was formed before any individual in the family had peeped to the end of +the book, or knew how much we owed you.--Your obliged and grateful + +MARIA EDGEWORTH. + + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Dec. 26, 1814._ + +"A merry Christmas and a happy New Year" to you, my dear Sophy, and to +my aunt, and uncle, and Margaret. I have just risen from my bed, where I +had been a day and a half with a violent headache and pains, or as John +Langan calls them, _pins_ in my bones. We have been much entertained +with _Mansfield Park._ Pray read _Eugène et Guillaume_, a modern _Gil +Blas_; too much of opera intrigues, but on the whole it is a work of +admirable ability. Guillaume's character beautiful, and the gradual +deterioration of Eugène's character finely drawn; but the following it +out becomes at last as disgusting and horrible as it would be to see the +corruption of the body after the spirit had fled. + + +_January 1815._ + +I send you some beautiful lines to Lord Byron, by Miss Macpherson, +daughter of Sir James Macpherson. As soon as my father hears from the +Dublin Society we shall go to Dublin. + + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +15 BAGGOT STREET, DUBLIN, + +_Feb 1815._ + +Our time here has been much more agreeably spent than I had any hopes it +would be. My father has been pleased at some dinners at Mr. Knox's, Mr. +Leslie Foster's, and at the Solicitor-General's. Mrs. Stewart is +admirable, and Caroline Hamilton the most entertaining and agreeable +_good_ person I ever saw; she is as good as any saint, and as gay, and +much gayer, than any sinner I ever happened to see, male or female. + +The Beauforts are at Mrs. Waller's: they came up in a hurry, summoned by +a Mrs. Codd, an American, or from America, who has come over to claim a +considerable property, and wants to be identified. She went a journey +when she was thirteen, with Doctor and Mrs. Beaufort and my mother, and +they are the only people in this country who can and will swear _to_ her +and _for_ her. I will tell you when we meet of her entrée with Sir Simon +Bradstreet,--and I will tell you of Honora's treading on the parrot at +Mrs. Westby's party,--and I will tell you of Fenaigle and his ABC. I +think him very stupid. Heaven grant me the power of forgetting his Art +of Memory. + + +_To_ C.S. EDGEWORTH. + +BLACK CASTLE, _May 10, 1815._ + +We, that is my father, mother, little Harriet, and I, went on Sunday +last to Castletown--the two days we spent there, delightful. Lady Louisa +Connolly is one of the most respectable, amiable, and even at seventy, I +may say, charming persons I ever saw or heard. Having known all the most +worthy, as well as the most celebrated people who have lived for the +last fifty years, she is full of characteristic anecdote, and fuller of +that indulgence for human creatures which is consistent with a thorough +knowledge of the world, and a quick perception of all the foibles of +human nature--with a high sense of religion, without the slightest +tincture of ostentation, asperity, or bigotry. She is all that I could +have wished to represent in Mrs. Hungerford, and her figure and +countenance gave me back the image in my mind. + +Her niece, Miss Emily Napier, is graceful, amiable, and very engaging. + +My father went home with Harriet direct from Castletown, but begged my +mother and me to return to Dublin for a fancy ball. We did not go to the +Rotunda, but saw enough of it at Mrs. Power's. Lady Clarke (Lady +Morgan's sister), as "Mrs. Flannigan, a half gentlewoman, from +Tipperary," speaking an admirable brogue, was by far the best character, +and she had presence of mind and a great deal of real humour--her +husband attending her with kitten and macaw. + +Next to her was Mrs. Robert Langrishe, as a Frenchwoman, admirably +dressed. Mrs. Airey was a Turkish lady, in a superb dress, given to her +by Ali Pasha. There were _thatched_ "Wild Men from the North," dancing +and stamping with whips and clumping of the feet, from which Mrs. Bushe +and I fled whenever they came near us. Having named Mrs. Bushe, I must +mention that whenever I have met her, she has been my delight and +admiration from her wit, humour, and variety of conversation. + + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Aug. 1815._ + +I send a note from Lady Romilly, and one from Mr. Whishaw: the four +travellers mentioned in that note called upon us yesterday,--Mr. and +Mrs. Smith, of Easton Grey, Miss Bayley, and Mr. Fuller. Mrs. Smith is +stepdaughter to a certain Mrs. Chandler, who was very kind to me at Mrs. +Day's, and I was heartily glad to see her daughter, even stepdaughter, +at Edgeworthstown, and _my_ kind, dear, best of stepmothers seconded my +intentions to my very heart's wish: I am sure they went away satisfied. +I gave them a note to Lady Farnham, which will I think produce a note of +admiration! While these visitors were with us Mrs. Moutray came over +from Lissard, and we rejoiced in pride of soul to show them our Irish +Madame de Sevigné. _Her_ Madame de Grignan is more agreeable than ever. +Mrs. Moutray told me of a curious debate she heard between Lady C. +Campbell, Lady Glenbervie, and others, on the Modern Griselda, with +another lady, and a wager laid that she would not read it out to her +husband. Wager lost by skipping. + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +_October 16._ + +I send you a letter of Joanna Baillie's; her simple style is so +different from the _fine_ or the _gossip_ style. + +Did you ever hear this epigram, a translation from Martial? + + Their utmost power the gods have shown, + In turning Niobe to stone: + But man's superior power you see, + Who turns a stone to Niobe. + +Here is an epigram quite to my taste, elegant and witty, without +ill-nature or satire. + +Barry Fox has come home with his regiment,[Footnote: Captain Fox had +been serving in Canada. On Buonaparte's return from Elba, his regiment, +the 97th, was summoned home. When the transport entered Plymouth +harbour, and the officers were told that Buonaparte was in the vessel +they had just sailed past, they thought it an absurd jest.] and is very +gentlemanlike. + + +_January 10, 1816._ + +The authoress of _Pride and Prejudice_ has been so good as to send to me +a new novel just published, _Emma._ We are reading _France in 1814 and +1815_, by young Alison and Mr. Tytler: the first volume good. We are +also reading a book which delights us all, though it is on a subject +which you will think little likely to be interesting to us, and on which +we had little or no previous knowledge. I bought it on Mr. Brinkley's +recommendation, and have not repented--Cuvier's _Theory of the Earth._ +It is admirably written, with such perfect clearness as to be +intelligible to the meanest, and satisfactory to the highest capacity. + +I have enlarged my plan of plays, which are not now to be for young +people merely, but rather _Popular Plays_, [Footnote: Published in 1817, +in one volume, containing "Love and Law."] for the same class as +_Popular Tales._ Excuse huddling things together. Mrs. O'Beirne, of +Newry, who has been here, told us a curious story. A man near Granard +robbed a farmer of thirty guineas, and hid them in a hole in the church +wall. He was hurried out of the country by some accident before he could +take off his treasure, and wrote to the man he had robbed and told him +where he had hid the money: "Since it can be of no use to me you may as +well have it." The owner of the money set to work _grouting_ under the +church wall, and many of the good people of Granard were seized with Mr. +Hill's fear there was a plot to undermine the church, and a great piece +of work about it. + + +_March 21._ + +I send a letter of Mrs. O'Beirne's, telling of Archdeacon de Lacy's +[Footnote: It happened that when Albertine de Staël was to be married to +M. de Broglie, at Florence, the only Protestant clergyman to be had was +Archdeacon de Lacy, son-in-law to Mrs. Moutray, the friend of Nelson and +Collingwood.] marrying Madame de Staël's daughter to the Duc de Broglie! +My father is pretty well to-day, and has been looking at a fine bed of +crocuses in full blow in my garden, and is now gone out in the carriage, +and I must have a _scene_ ready for him on his return. + +I have been ever since you were here mending up the little plays; +cobbling work, which takes a great deal of time, and makes no show. + + * * * * * + +It was in January 1816 that Maria Edgeworth received a letter from Miss +Rachael Mordecai, of Richmond, Virginia, gently reproaching her with +having so often made Jews ridiculous in her writings, and asking her to +give a story with a good Jew. This was the origin of _Harrington_, and +the commencement of a correspondence with Miss Mordecai, and of a +friendship with her family. + + * * * * * + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +_July 24._ + +Mr. Strutt and his son have within these few minutes arrived here. He +wrote only yesterday to say that being at Liverpool, he would not be so +near Ireland without going to Edgeworthstown; I hope my father may be +able to enjoy their company, but he was very ill all last night and this +morning. + + +_August 25._ + +I lose not a moment, my dearest aunt, in communicating to you a piece of +intelligence which I am sure will give you pleasure: Lord Longford is +going to be married--to Lady Georgiana Lygon, daughter of Lord +Beauchamp. You will be glad to see the letter Lord Longford wrote upon +the occasion. + +Everybody is writing and talking about Lord Byron, but I am tired of the +subject. _The all for murder, all for crime_ system of poetry will now +go out of fashion; as long as he appeared an outrageous mad villain he +might have ridden triumphant on the storm, but he has now shown himself +too base, too mean, too contemptible for anything like an heroic devil. +Pray, if you have an opportunity, read Haygarth's poem of "Greece." I +like it much, I like the mind that produced it; the poetry is not always +good, but there is a _spirit_ through the whole that sustains it and +that elevates and invigorates the mind of the reader. + + +_September_ 18. + +You know, my dear aunt, it is a favourite opinion of my father's that +_things come in bundles:_ that _people_ come in bundles is, I think, +true, as, after having lived, without seeing a creature but our own +family for months, a press of company comes all at once. The very day +after the Brinkleys had come to us, and filled every nook in the house, +the enclosed letter was brought to me. I was in my own little den, just +beginning to write for an hour, as my father had requested I would, "let +who would be in the house." On opening the letter and seeing the +signature of Ward, I was in hopes it was the Mr. Ward who made the fine +speech and wrote the review of _Patronage_ in the _Quarterly_, and of +whom Madame de Staël said that he was the only man in England who really +understood the art of conversation. However, upon re-examining the +signature, I found that our gentleman who was waiting at the gate for an +answer was another Ward, who is called "the great R. Ward"--a very +gentlemanlike, agreeable man, full of anecdotes, bon-mots, and +compliments. I wish you had been here, for I think you would have been +entertained much, not only by his conversation, but by his character; I +never saw a man who had lived in the world so anxious about the opinions +which are formed of him by those with whom he is conversing, so quick at +discovering, by the countenance and by _implication_, what is thought of +him, or so incessantly alert in guarding all the suspected places in +your opinion. He disclaimed memory, though he has certainly the very +best of memories for wit and bon-mots that man was ever blessed with. +Mr. Ward was Under-secretary of State during a great part of Pitt's +administration, and has been one of the Lords of the Admiralty, and is +now Clerk of the Ordnance, and has been sent to Ireland to reform abuses +in the Ordnance. He speaks well, and in agreeable voice. He told me that +he had heard in London that I had a sort of Memoria Technica, by which I +could remember everything that was said in conversation, and by certain +motions of my fingers could, while people were talking to me, note down +all the ridiculous points!! He happened to have passed some time in his +early life at Lichfield, and knew Miss Seward, and Dr. Darwin, and +various people my father and aunts knew; so this added to his power of +making himself agreeable. Of all the multitude of good things he told +us, I can only at this moment recollect the lines which he repeated, by +Dr. Mansel, the Bishop of Bristol, on Miss Seward and Mr. Hayley's +flattery of each other:-- + + "Prince of poets, England's glory, + Mr. Hayley, _that_ is you!" + "Ma'am, you carry all before you, + Lichfield swan, indeed you do!" + "In epic, elegy, or sonnet, + Mr. Hayley, you're divine!" + "Madam, take my word upon it, + You yourself are all the Nine." + +Some of his stories at dinner were so entertaining, that even old +George's face cut in wood could not stand it; and John Bristow and the +others were so bewildered, I thought the second course would never be on +the table. + + +_November 18._ + +We are reading one of the most entertaining and interesting and NEW +books I ever read in my life--Tully's _Residence in Tripoli_, written by +the sister of the consul, who resided there for ten years, spoke the +language, and was admitted to a constant intercourse with the ladies of +the seraglio, who are very different from any seraglio ladies we ever +before heard of. No Arabian tale is equal in magnificence and +entertainment; no tragedy superior in strength of interest to the +tragedy recorded in the last ten pages of this incomparable book. Some +people affect to disbelieve, and say it is manufactured; but it would be +a miracle that it was invented with such consistency. + + +_Jan 1817._ + +Mr. Knox has come and gone: two of the plays were read to him. My father +gave him a sketch of each, and desired him to choose: he chose the +genteel comedy, "The Two Guardians," and I read it; and those who sat by +told me afterwards that Mr. Knox's countenance showed he was much +amused, and that he had great sympathy. For my part, I had a _glaze_ +before my eyes, and never once saw him while I was reading. He made some +good criticisms, and in consequence I altered one scene, and dragged out +Arthur Onslow by the head and heels--the good boy of the piece; and we +found he was never missed, but the whole much lightened by throwing this +heavy character overboard. Next night "The Rose, Thistle, and Shamrock": +Mr. Knox laughed, and seemed to enjoy it much. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Edgeworth was now failing rapidly, though as much interested as ever +in all that was going on around. "How I do enjoy my existence!" he often +exclaimed. His daughter, however, says that "he did not for his own sake +desire length of life: he only prayed that his mind might not decay +before his body," and it did not; his mental powers were as bright and +vigorous as ever to the last. + +On the 16th of February Maria Edgeworth read out to her father the first +chapter of _Ormond_ in the carriage going to Pakenham Hall to see Lord +Longford's bride. It was the last visit that Mr. Edgeworth paid +anywhere. He had expressed a wish to his daughter that she should write +a story as a companion to _Harrington_, and in all her anguish of mind +at his state of health, she, by a remarkable effort of affection and +genius, produced the earlier gay and brilliant pages of _Ormond_--some +of the gayest and most brilliant she ever composed. The interest and +delight which her father, ill as he was, took in this beginning, +encouraged her to go on, and she completed the story. _Harrington_, +written as an apology for the Jews, had dragged with her as she wrote +it, and it dragged with the public. But in _Ormond_ she was on Irish +ground, where she was always at her very best. Yet the characters of +King Corny and Sir Ulick O'Shane, and the many scenes full of wit, +humour, and feeling, were written in agony of anxiety, with trembling +hand and tearful eyes. As she finished chapter after chapter, she read +them out--the whole family assembling in her father's room to listen to +them. Her father enjoyed these readings so exceedingly, that she was +amply rewarded for the efforts she made. + + * * * * * + +MARIA _to_ MISS RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _May 31, 1817._ + +This day, so anxiously expected, has arrived--the only birthday of my +father's for many, many years which has not brought unmixed feelings of +pleasure. He had had a terrible night, but when I went into his room and +stood at the foot of his bed, his voice was strong and cheerful, as +usual. I put into his hand the hundred and sixty printed pages of +_Ormond_ which kind-hearted Hunter had successfully managed to get ready +for this day. How my dear father can, in the midst of such sufferings, +and in such an exhausted state of body, take so much pleasure in such +things, is astonishing. Oh, my dear Sophy, what must be the fund of warm +affection from which this springs! and what infinite, exquisite pleasure +to me! "Call Sneyd directly," he said, and swallowed some stir-about, +and said he felt renovated. Sneyd was seated at the foot of his bed. +"Now, Maria, dip anywhere, read on." I began: "King Corny recovered." +Then he said, "I must tell Sneyd the story up to this." + +And most eloquently, most beautifully did he tell the story. No mortal +could ever have guessed that he was an invalid, if they had only _heard_ +him _speak._ Just as I had here stopped writing my father came out of +his room, looking wretchedly, but ordered the carriage, and said he +would go to Longford to see Mr. Fallon about materials for William's +bridge. He took with him his three sons, and "Maria to read +_Ormond_"--great delight to me. He was much pleased, and this wonderful +father of mine drove all the way to Longford: forced our way through the +tumult of the most crowded market I ever saw--his voice heard clear all +the way down the street--stayed half an hour in the carriage on the +bridge talking to Mr. Fallon; and we were not home till half-past six. +He could not dine with us, but after dinner he sent for us all into the +library. He sat in the arm-chair by the fire; my mother in the opposite +arm-chair, Pakenham in the chair behind her, Francis on a stool at her +feet, Maria beside them; William next, Lucy, Sneyd; on the sofa opposite +the fire, as when you were here, Honora, Fanny, Harriet, and Sophy; my +aunts next to my father, and Lovell between them and the sofa. He was +much pleased at Lovell and Sneyd's coming down for this day. + + * * * * * + +Mr. Edgeworth died on the 13th of June, in his seventy-second year. He +had been--by his different wives--the father of twenty-two children, of +whom thirteen survived him. The only son of his second marriage, Lovell +Edgeworth, succeeded to Edgeworthstown, but persuaded his stepmother and +his numerous brothers and sisters still to regard it as a home. + +To enable the reader to understand the relationships of the large family +circle, it may be well to give the children of Mr. Edgeworth. + + 1st marriage with Anna Maria Elers. + Richard, b. 1765; d. s.p. 1796. + Maria, b. 1767; d. unmarried, 1849. + Emmeline married, 1802, John King, Esq. + Anna, married, 1794, Dr. Beddoes. + + 2nd marriage with Honora Sneyd. + Lovell, b. 1776; d. unmarried, 1841. + Honora, d. unmarried, 1790. + + 3rd marriage with Elizabeth Sneyd. + Henry, b. 1782; d. unmarried, 1813. + Charles Sneyd, b. 1786; d .s.p. 1864. + William, b. 1788; d. 1792. + Thomas Day, b. 1789; d. 1792. + William, b. 1794; d. s.p. 1829. + Elizabeth, d. 1800. + Caroline, d. 1807. + Sophia, d. 1785. + Honora, married, 1831, Admiral Sir J. Beaufort, and died, + his widow, 1858. + + 4th marriage with Frances Anna Beaufort. + Francis Beaufort, b. 1809; married, 1831, Rosa Florentina Eroles, + and had four sons and a daughter. The second son, Antonio Eroles, + eventually succeeded his uncle Sneyd at Edgeworthstown. + Michael Pakenham, b. 1812; married, 1846, Christina Macpherson, + and had issue. + Frances Maria (Fanny), married, 1829, Lestock P. Wilson, Esq., + and died, 1848. + Harriet, married, 1826, Rev. Richard Butler, afterwards Dean of + Clonmacnoise. + Sophia, married, 1824, Barry Fox, Esq. and d. 1837. + Lucy Jane, married, 1843, Rev. T.R. Robinson, D.D. + + +During the months which succeeded her father's death, Maria wrote +scarcely any letters; her sight caused great anxiety. The tears, she +said, felt in her eyes like the cutting of a knife. She had overworked +them all the previous winter, sitting up at night and struggling with +her grief as she wrote _Ormond_; and she was now unable to use them +without pain. + +In October she went to Black Castle, and remained there till January +1818, having the strength of mind to abstain almost entirely from +reading and writing. + +It required all Maria Edgeworth's inherited activity of mind, and all +her acquired command over herself, to keep up the spirits of her family +on their return to Edgeworthstown: from which the master-mind was gone, +and where the light was quenched. But, notwithstanding all the +depression she felt, she set to work immediately at what she now felt to +be her first duty--the fulfilment of her father's wish that she should +complete the Memoirs of his life, which he had himself begun. Yet her +eyes were still so weak that she seldom allowed herself what had been +her greatest relaxation--writing letters to her friends. + + * * * * * + +MARIA _to_ MRS. RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Jan. 24, 1818._ + +My dearest aunt and friend--friend of my youth and age, and beloved +sister of my father, how many titles you have to my affection and +gratitude, and how delightful it is to me to feel them all! Since I have +parted from you, I have felt still more than when I was with you the +peculiar value to me of your sympathy and kindness. I find my spirits +sink beyond my utmost effort to support them when I leave you, and they +rise involuntarily when I am near you, and recall the dear trains of old +associations, and the multitude of ideas I used to have with him who is +gone for ever. Thank you, my dear aunt, for your most kind and touching +letter. You have been for three months daily and hourly soothing, and +indulging, and nursing me body and mind, and making me forget the sense +of pain which I could not have felt suspended in any society but yours. +My uncle's opinion and hints about the Life I have been working at this +whole week. Nothing can be kinder than Lovell is to all of us. + +I have read two-thirds of Bishop Watson's life. I think he bristles his +independence too much upon every occasion, and praises himself too much +for it, and above all complains too much of the want of preferment and +neglect of him by the Court. I have Madame de Staël's Memoirs of her +father's private life: I have only read fifty pages of it--too much of a +French Éloge--too little of his private life. There is a _Notice_ by +Benjamin Constant of Madame de Staël's life prefixed to this work, which +appears to me more interesting and pathetic than anything Madame de +Staël has yet said of her father. + + +_February 21._ + +I must and will write to my Aunt Ruxton to-day, if the whole College of +Physicians, and the whole conclave of cardinal virtues, with Prudence +primming up her mouth at the head of them, stood before me. I entirely +agree with you, my dearest aunt, on one subject, as indeed I generally +do on most subjects, but particularly about _Northanger Abbey_ and +_Persuasion._ The behaviour of the General in _Northanger Abbey_, +packing off the young lady without a servant or the common civilities +which any bear of a man, not to say gentleman, would have shown, is +quite outrageously out of drawing and out of nature. _Persuasion_-- +excepting the tangled, useless histories of the family in +the first fifty pages--appears to me, especially in all that relates to +poor Anne and her lover, to be exceedingly interesting and natural. The +love and the lover admirably well drawn: don't you see Captain +Wentworth, or rather don't you in her place feel him taking the +boisterous child off her back as she kneels by the sick boy on the sofa? +And is not the first meeting after their long separation admirably well +done? And the overheard conversation about the nut? But I must stop: we +have got no farther than the disaster of Miss Musgrave's jumping off the +steps. + +I am going on, but very slowly, and not to my satisfaction with my work. + + +_To_ MRS. SNEYD EDGEWORTH. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _March 27._ + +I agree with you in thinking the _MS. de Sainte-Helene_ a magnificent +performance. My father was strongly of opinion that it was not written +by Buonaparte himself, and he grounded this opinion chiefly upon the +passages relative to the Duc d'Enghien: _c'était plus qu'un crime, +c'était une faute_; no man, he thought, not even Nero, would, in writing +for posterity say that he had committed a crime instead of a fault. But +it may be observed that in the Buonaparte system of morality which runs +through the book, nothing is considered what we call a crime, unless it +be what he allows to be a fault. His proof that he did not murder +Pichegru is, that it would have been useless. Le _cachet de_ Buonaparte +is as difficult to imitate as _le cachet de Voltaire._ I know of but +three people in Europe who could have written it: Madame de Staël, +Talleyrand, or M. Dumont. Madame de Staël, though she has the ability, +could not have got so plainly and shortly through it. Talleyrand has +_l'esprit comme un démon_, but he could not for the soul of him have +refused himself a little more wit and wickedness. Dumont has not enough +audacity of mind. + + +_To_ MRS. STARK. [Footnote: Daughter of Mr. Bannatyne, of Glasgow.] + +SPRING FARM, N.T. MOUNT KENNEDY, _June_ 1818. + +I am, and have been ever since I could any way command my attention, +intent upon finishing those Memoirs of himself which my father left me +to finish and charged me to publish. Yet I have accepted an invitation +to Bowood, from Lady Lansdowne, whom I love, and as soon as I have +finished I shall go there. As to Scotland, I have no chance of getting +there at present, but if ever I go there, depend upon it, I shall go to +see you. Never, never can I forget those happy days we spent with you, +and the warmhearted kindness we received from you and yours: those were +"sunny spots" in my life. + + +_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH. + +BOWOOD, _Sept._ 1818. + +I will tell you how we pass our day. At seven I get up--this morning at +half-past six, to have the pleasure of writing to you, my dearest +mother, be satisfied I never write a word at night: breakfast is at half +after nine, very pleasant: afterwards we all _stray_ into the library +for a few minutes, and settle when we shall meet again for walking, +etc.: then Lady Lansdowne goes to her dear dressing-room and dear +children, Dumont to his attic, Lord Lansdowne to his out-of-door works, +and we to our elegant dressing-room, and Miss Carnegy to hers. Between +one and two is luncheon: happy time! Lady Lansdowne is so cheerful, +polite, and easy, just as she was in her walks at Edgeworthstown: but +very different walks are the walks we take here, most various and +delightful, from dressed shrubbery and park walks to fields with +inviting paths, wide downs, shady winding lanes, and happy cottages--not +_dressed_, but naturally well placed, and with evidence in every part of +their being suited to the inhabitants. + +After our walk we dress and make haste for dinner. Dinner is always +pleasant, because Lord and Lady Lansdowne converse so agreeably--Dumont +also--towards the dessert. After dinner, we find the children in the +drawing-room: I like them better and better the more I see of them. When +there is company there is a whist table for the gentlemen. Dumont read +out one evening one of Corneille's plays, "Le Florentin," which is +beautiful, and was beautifully read. We asked for one of Molière, but he +said to Lord Lansdowne that it was impossible to read Molière aloud +without a quicker eye than he had _pour de certains propos_: however, +they went to the library and brought out at last as odd a choice as +could well be made, with Mr. Thomas Grenville as auditor, "Le vieux +Célibataire," an excellent play, interesting and lively throughout, and +the old bachelor himself a charming character. Dumont read it as well as +Tessier could have read it; but there were things which seemed as if +they were written on purpose for the Célibataire who was listening, and +the Célibataire who was reading. + +Lord Lansdowne, when I asked him to describe Rocca [Footnote: Second +husband of Madame de Staël.] to me, said he heard him give an answer to +Lord Byron which marked the indignant frankness of his mind. Lord Byron +at Coppet had been going on abusing the stupidity of the good people of +Geneva: Rocca at last turned short upon him--"Eh! milord, pourquoi donc +venez-vous vous _fourrer_ parmi ces honnêtes gens?" + +Madame de Staël--I jumble anecdotes together as I recollect them--Madame +de Staël had a great wish to see Mr. Bowles, the poet, or as Lord Byron +calls him, the sonneteer; she admired his sonnets, and his Spirit of +Maritime Discovery, and ranked him high as an English genius. In riding +to Bowood he fell, and sprained his shoulder, but still came on. Lord +Lansdowne alluded to this in presenting him to Madame de Staël before +dinner in the midst of the listening circle. She began to compliment him +and herself upon the exertion he had made to come and see her: "O ma'am, +say no more, for I would have done a great deal more to see so great a +_curiosity!_" + +Lord Lansdowne says it is impossible to describe the _shock_ in Madame +de Staël's face--the breathless astonishment and the total change +produced in her opinion of the man. She afterwards said to Lord +Lansdowne, who had told her he was a simple country clergyman, "Je vois +bien que ce n'est qu'un simple curé qui n'a pas le sens commun, quoique +grand poète." + +Lady Lansdowne, just as I was writing this, came to my room and paid me +half an hour's visit. She brought back my father's MS., which I had lent +to her to read: she was exceedingly interested in it: she says, "It is +not only entertaining but interesting, as showing how such a character +was formed." + + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +BOWOOD, _Sept. 19, 1818._ + +You know our history up to Saturday last, when Lord and Lady Grenville +left Bowood: there remained Mr. Thomas Grenville, Le vieux Célibataire, +two Horts, Sir William and his brother, Mr. Gally Knight, and Lord and +Lady Bathurst, with their two daughters. Mr. Grenville left us +yesterday, and the rest go to-day. Mr. Grenville was very agreeable: +dry, quiet humour: grave face, dark, thin, and gentlemanlike: a lie-by +manner, entertained, or entertaining by turns. It is curious that we +have seen within the course of a week one of the heads of the +ministerial, and one of the ex-ministerial party. In point of ability, +Lord Grenville is, I think, far superior to any one I have seen here. +Lord Lansdowne, with whom I had a delightful _tête-à-tête_ walk +yesterday, told me that Lord Grenville can be fully known only when +people come to do political business with him: there he excels. You know +his preface to Lord Chatham's _Letters._ His manner of speaking in the +House is not pleasing, Lord Lansdowne says: from being very near-sighted +he has a look of austerity and haughtiness, and as he cannot see all he +wants to see, he throws himself back with his chin up, determined to +look at none. Lord Lansdowne gave me an instance--I may say a +warning--of the folly of judging hastily of character at first sight +from small circumstances. In one of Cowper's letters there is an absurd +character of Lord Grenville, in which he is represented as a +_petit-maître._ This arose from Lord Grenville taking up his +near-sighted glass several times during his visit. There cannot, in +nature or art, be a man further from a _petit-maître._ + +Lady Bathurst is remarkably obliging to me: we have many subjects in +common--her brother, the Duke of Richmond, and all Ireland; her aunt, +Lady Louisa Connolly, and Miss Emily Napier, and all the Pakenhams, and +the Duchess of Wellington. The Duke lately said to Mrs. Pole, "After +all, home is what we must look to at last." + +Lady Georgiana is a very pretty, and I need scarcely say, +fashionable-looking young lady, easy, agreeable, and quite unaffected. + +This visit to Bowood has surpassed my expectation in every respect. I +much enjoy the sight of Lady Lansdowne's happiness with her husband and +her children: beauty, fortune, cultivated society, in short, everything +that the most reasonable or unreasonable could wish. She is so amiable +and so desirous to make others happy, that it is impossible not to love +her; and the most envious of mortals, I think, would have the heart +opened to sympathy with her. Then Lord and Lady Lansdowne are so fond of +each other, and show it, and _don't show it_, in the most agreeable +manner. His conversation is very various and natural, full of +information, given for the sake of those to whom he speaks, never for +display. What he says always lets us into his feelings and character, +and therefore is interesting. + + +_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH + +THE GROVE, EFFING, _Oct. 4, 1818._ + +I mentioned one day at dinner at Bowood that children have very early a +desire to produce an effect, a sensation in company. "Yes," said Lord +Lansdowne, "I remember distinctly having that feeling, and acting upon +it once in a large and august company, when I was a young boy, at the +time of the French Revolution, when the Duke and Duchess de Polignac +came to Bowood, and my father was anxious to receive these illustrious +guests with all due honour. One Sunday evening, when they were all +sitting in state in the drawing-room, my father introduced me, and I was +asked to give the company a sermon. The text I chose was, quite +undesignedly, 'Put not your trust in princes.' The moment I had +pronounced the words, I saw my father's countenance change, and I saw +changes in the countenances of the Duke and Duchess, and of every face +in the circle. I saw I was the cause of this; and though I knew my +father wanted to stop me, I would go on, to see what would be the +effect. I repeated my text, and preached upon it, and as I went on, made +out what it was that affected the congregation." + +Afterwards Lord Shelburne desired the boy to go round the circle and +wish the company good-night; but when he came to the Duchesse de +Polignac, he could not resolve to kiss her; he so detested the patch of +rouge on her cheek, he started back. Lord Shelburne whispered a bribe in +his ear--no, he would not; and they were obliged to laugh it off. But +his father was very much vexed. + + +HAMPSTEAD, _Oct. 13._ + +We had a delightful drive here yesterday from Epping. Joanna Baillie and +her sister, most kind, cordial, and warm-hearted, came running down +their little flagged walk to welcome us. Mrs. Hunter, widow of John +Hunter, dined here yesterday; she wrote "The son of Alnomac shall never +complain," and she entertained me exceedingly; and both Joanna and her +sister have most agreeable and new conversation--not old, trumpery +literature over again, and reviews, but new circumstance worth telling, +apropos to every subject that is touched upon: frank observations on +character, without either ill-nature or the fear of committing +themselves: no blue-stocking tittle-tattle, or habits of worshipping, or +being worshipped: domestic, affectionate, good to live with, and, +without fussing continually, doing what is most obliging, and whatever +makes us feel most at home. Breakfast is very pleasant in this house, +and the two good sisters look so neat and cheerful. + + +_Oct 15._ + +We went to see Mrs. Barbauld at Stoke Newington. She was gratified by +our visit, and very kind and agreeable. + + +BOWOOD, _Nov._ 3, 1818. + +We have just returned to dear Bowood. We went to Wimbledon, where Lady +Spencer was very attentive and courteous: she is, I may say, the +cleverest person I have seen since I came to England. At parting she +"GOD blessed" me. We met there Lady Jones, widow of Sir William--thin, +dried, tall old lady, nut-cracker chin, penetrating, benevolent, +often--smiling, black eyes; and her nephew, young Mr. Hare; [Footnote: +Augustus William Hare, one of the authors of _Guesses on Truth._] and, +the last day, Mr. Brunel. [Footnote: Afterwards Sir Mark Isambard +Brunel, engineer of the Thames Tunnel, Woolwich Arsenal, etc., +1769-1849.] + +This moment Mrs. Dugald Stewart, who was out walking, has come in--the +same dear woman! I have seen Mr. Stewart--very, very weak--he cannot +walk without an arm to lean on. + + +BOWOOD, _Nov. 4, 1818._ + +The newspapers have told you the dreadful catastrophe--the death, and +the manner of the death, of that great and good man, Sir Samuel Romilly. +My dearest mother, there seems no end of horrible calamities. There is +no telling how it has been felt in this house. I did not know till now +that Mr. Dugald Stewart had been so very intimate with Sir Samuel, and +so very much attached to him--forty years his friend: he has been +dreadfully shocked. He was just getting better, enjoyed seeing us, +conversed quite happily with me the first evening, and I felt reassured +about him; but what may be the consequence of this stroke none can tell. +I rejoice that we came to meet him here: they say that I am of use +conversing with him. Lord Lansdowne looks wretchedly, and can hardly +speak on the subject without tears, notwithstanding all his efforts. + + +_To_ MISS WALLER. [Footnote: Miss Waller was aunt of Captain Beaufort +and the fourth Mrs. Edgeworth.] + +BYRKELY LODGE, _Nov. 24, 1818._ + +In the gloom which the terrible and most unexpected loss of Sir Samuel +Romilly cast over the whole society at Bowood during the last few days +we spent there, I recollect some minutes of pleasure. When I was +consulting Mrs. Dugald Stewart about my father's MS., I mentioned +Captain Beaufort's opinion on some point; the moment his name had passed +my lips, Mr. Stewart's grave countenance lighted up, and he exclaimed, +"Captain Beaufort! I have the very highest opinion of Captain Beaufort +ever since I saw a letter of his, which I consider to be one of the best +letters I ever read. It was to the father of a young gentleman who died +at Malta, to whom Captain Beaufort had been the best of friends. The +young man had excellent qualities, but some frailties. Captain +Beaufort's letter to the father threw a veil over the son's frailties, +and without departing from the truth, placed all his good qualities in +the most amiable light. The old man told me," continued Mr. Stewart, +"that this letter was the only earthly consolation he ever felt for the +loss of his son; he spoke of it with tears streaming from his eyes, and +pointed in particular to the passage that recorded the warm affection +with which his son used to speak of him." + +It is delightful to find the effect of a friend's goodness thus coming +round to us at a great distance of time, and to see that it has raised +him in the esteem of those we most admire. + +Mr. Stewart has not yet recovered his health; he is more alarmed, I +think, than he need to be by the difficulty he finds in recollecting +names and circumstances that passed immediately before and after his +fever. This hesitation of memory, I believe, everybody has felt more or +less after any painful event. In every other respect Mr. Stewart's mind +appears to me to be exactly what it ever was, and his kindness of heart +even greater than we have for so many years known it to be. + +We are now happy in the quiet of Byrkely Lodge. We have not had any +visitors since we came, and have paid only one visit to the Miss +Jacksons. Miss Fanny is, you know, the author of _Rhoda_; Miss Maria, +the author of a little book of advice about _A Gay Garden._ I like the +Gay Garden lady best at first sight, but I will suspend my judgment +prudently till I see more. + +I have just heard a true story worthy of a postscript even in the +greatest haste. Two stout foxhunters in this neighbourhood who happened +each to have as great a dread of a spider as ever fine lady had or +pretended to have, chanced to be left together in a room where a spider +appeared, crawling from under a table, at which they were sitting. +Neither durst approach within arm's length of it, or touch it even with +a pair of tongs; at last one of the gentlemen proposed to the other, who +was in thick boots, to get on the table and jump down upon his enemy, +which was effected to their infinite satisfaction. + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +BYRKELY LODGE, _Jan. 20, 1819._ + +I see my little dog on your lap, and feel your hand patting his head, +and hear your voice telling him that it is for Maria's sake he is there. +I wish I was in his place, or at least on the sofa beside you at this +moment, that I might in five minutes tell you more than my letters could +tell you in five hours. + +I have scarcely yet recovered from the joy of having Fanny actually with +me, and with me just in time to go to Trentham, on which I had set my +foolish heart. We met her at Lichfield. We spent that evening there--the +children of four different marriages all united and happy together. +Lovell took Francis [Footnote: Son of the fourth Mrs. Edgeworth, who was +going to the Charter-house, and who had accompanied his sister Fanny, +with Lovell, from Edgeworthstown.] on with him to Byrkely Lodge, and we +went to Trentham. + +When Honora and I had Fanny in the chaise to ourselves, ye gods! how we +did talk! We arrived at Trentham by moonlight, and could only just see +outlines of wood and hills: silver light upon the broad water, and +cheerful lights in the front of a large house, with wide-open hall door. +Nothing could be more polite and cordial than the reception given to us +by Lady Stafford, and by her good-natured, noblemanlike lord. During our +whole visit, what particularly pleased me was the manner in which they +treated my sisters: not as appendages to an authoress, not as young +ladies merely _permitted_, or to fill up as _personnages muets_ in +society; on the contrary, Lady Stafford conversed with them a great +deal, and repeatedly took opportunities of expressing to me how much she +liked and valued them for their own sake. "That sister Fanny of yours +has a most intelligent countenance: she is much more than pretty; and +what I so like is her manner of answering when she is asked any +question--so unlike the Missy style. They have both been admirably well +educated." Then she spoke in the handsomest manner of my father--"a +master-mind: even in the short time I saw him that was apparent to me." + +Lady Elizabeth Gower is a most engaging, sensible, unaffected, sweet, +pretty creature. While Lady Stafford in the morning was in the library +doing a drawing in water colours to show Honora her manner of finishing +quickly, Fanny and I sat up in Lady Elizabeth's darling little room at +the top of the house, where she has all her drawings, and writing, and +books, and harp. She and her brother, Lord Francis, have always been +friends and companions: and on her table were bits of paper on which he +had scribbled droll heads, and verses of his, very good, on the +"Expulsion of the Moors from Spain"--Lady Elizabeth knew every line of +these, and had all that quick feeling, and _colouring_ apprehension, and +_slurring_ dexterity, which those who read out what is written by a dear +friend so well understand. + +Large rooms filled with pictures, most of them modern--Reynolds, +Moreland, Glover, Wilkie; but there are a few ancient: one of Titian's, +that struck me as beautiful--"Hermes teaching Cupid to read." The chief +part of the collection is in the house in town. After a happy week at +Trentham we returned here. + +Mercy on my poor memory! I forgot to tell you that Lady Harrowby and her +daughter were at Trentham, and an _exquisite_, or tiptop dandy, Mr. +Standish, and young Mr. Sneyd, of Keil--very fashionable. Lady Harrowby +deserves Madame de Staël's good word, she calls her "_compagne +spirituelle_"--a charming woman, and very quick in conversation. + +The morning after Mr. Standish's arrival, Lady Stafford's maid told her +that she and all the ladies' maids had been taken by his _gentleman_ to +see his toilette--"which, I assure you, my lady, is the thing best worth +seeing in this house, all of gilt plate, and I wish, my lady, you had +such a dressing box." Though an exquisite, Mr. Standish is clever, +entertaining, and agreeable. One day that he sat beside me at dinner, we +had a delightful battledore and shuttlecock conversation from grave to +gay as quick as your heart could wish: from _L'Almanac des Gourmandes_ +and _Le Respectable Porc_, to _Dorriforth and the Simple Story._ + + +_Jan 22._ + +My letter has been detained two days for a frank. My aunts [Footnote: +The Miss Sneyds were now living for a time at Byrkely Lodge.] are pretty +well, and we feel that we add to their cheerfulness. Honora plays +cribbage with Aunt Mary, and I read Florence Macarthy; I like the Irish +characters, and the Commodore, and Lord Adelm--that is Lord Byron; but +Ireland is traduced in some of her representations. "Marriage" is +delightful. + + +_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH. + +BYRKELY LODGE, _Feb 8, 1819._ + +Mrs. Sneyd took me with her to-day to Lord Bagot's to return Lady +Dartmouth's visit; she is a charming woman, and appears most amiable, +taking care of all those grandchildren. Lord Bagot very melancholy, +gentlemanlike, and interesting. Fine old cloistered house, galleries, +painted glass, coats of arms, and family pictures everywhere. It was the +first time Lord Bagot had seen Mrs. Sneyd since his wife's death; he +took both her hands and was as near bursting into tears as ever man was. +He was very obliging to me, and showed me all over his house, and gave +me a most sweet bunch of Daphne Indica. + + +TETSWORTH INN, _March 4._ + +On Tuesday morning we left dear, happy, luxurious, warm Byrkely Lodge. +At taking leave of me, Mr. Sneyd began thanking me as if I had been the +person obliging instead of obliged, and when I got up from the breakfast +table and went round to stop his thanks by mine, he took me in his arms +and gave me a squeeze that left me as flat as a pancake, and then ran +out of the room absolutely crying. + +We arrived at tea-time at Mrs. Moilliet's, [Footnote: Daughter of Mr. +Keir, Mrs. Edgeworth's old friend.] Smethwick, near Birmingham, much +pleased with our reception, and with Mr. Moilliet and their five +children. He has purchased a delightful house on the banks of the Lake +of Geneva, where they go next summer, and most earnestly pressed us to +visit them there. + +Mr. Moilliet told us an anecdote of Madame la Comtesse de Rumford and +her charming Count; he, one day in a fit of ill-humour, went to the +porter and forbad him to let into his house any of the friends of Madame +la Comtesse or of M. Lavoisier's--all the society which you and I saw at +her house: they had been invited to supper; the old porter, all +disconsolate, went to tell the Countess the order he had received. +"Well, you must obey your master, you must not let them into the house, +but I will go down to your lodge, and as each carriage comes, you will +let them know what has happened, and that I am there to receive them." + +They all came; and by two or three at a time went into the porter's +lodge and spent the evening with her; their carriages lining the street +all night to the Count's infinite mortification. + +Mr. Moilliet also told Fanny of a Yorkshire farmer who went to the Bank +of England, and producing a Bank of England note for £30,000, asked to +have it changed. The clerk was surprised and hesitated, said that a note +for so large a sum was very uncommon, and that he knew there never had +been more than two £30,000 bank notes issued. "Oh yes!" said the farmer, +"I have the other at home." + +We went to see dear old Mr. Watt: eighty-four, and in perfect possession +of eyes, ears, and all his comprehensive understanding and warm heart. +Poor Mrs. Watt is almost crippled with rheumatism, but as good-natured +and hospitable as ever, and both were heartily glad to see us. So many +recollections, painful and pleasurable, crowded and pressed upon my +heart during this half-hour. I had much ado to talk, but I did, +[Footnote: Mr. Watt had been one of Mr. Edgeworth's most intimate +friends.] and so did he,--of forgeries on bank notes, no way can he +invent of avoiding such but by having an inspecting clerk in every +country town. Talked over the committee report--paper-marks, +vain--Tilloch--"I have no great opinion of his abilities--Bramah--yes, +he is a clever man, but set down this for truth; no man is so ingenious, +but what another may be found equally ingenious. What one invents, +another can detect and imitate." + +Watt is at this moment himself the best encyclopedia extant; I dare not +attempt to tell you half he said: it would be a volume. Chantrey has +made a beautiful, mean an admirable, bust of him. Chantrey and Canova +are now making rival busts of Washington. + +I must hop, skip, and jump as I can from subject to subject. Mr. and +Mrs. Moilliet took us in the evening to a lecture on poetry, by +Campbell, who has been invited by a Philosophical Society of Birmingham +gentlemen to give lectures; they give tickets to their friends. Mr. +Corrie, one of the heads of this society, was _proud_ to introduce us. +Excellent room, with gas spouting from tubes below the gallery. Lecture +good enough. Mr. Campbell introduced to me after lecture; asked very +kindly for Sneyd; many compliments. Mr. Corrie drank tea, after the +lecture, at Mr. Moilliet's--very agreeable benevolent countenance, most +agreeable voice. We liked particularly his enthusiasm for Mr. Watt; he +gave a history of his inventions, and instances of Watt's superiority +both in invention and magnanimity when in competition with others. + +Mr. and Mrs. Moilliet have pressed us to come again. Mr. and Mrs. Watt, +ditto, ditto. Mr. Watt almost with tears in his eyes; and I was ashamed +to see that venerable man standing bareheaded at his door to do us the +last [Footnote: It was the last. Mr. Watt died a few months afterwards.] +honour, till the carriage drove away. + +I beg your pardon for going backward and forward in this way in my +hurry-skurry. I leave the Stratford-upon-Avon, and Blenheim, and +Woodstock adventures, and Oxford to Honora and Fanny, whose pens have +been going _à l'envie l'une de l'autre_; we are writing so comfortably. +I at my desk with a table to myself, and the most comfortable little +black stuffed arm-chair. Fanny and Ho. at their desks and table near the +fire. + +"We must have two pairs of snuffers." + +"Yes, my lady, directly." + +So now, my lady, good-night; for I am tired, a little, just enough to +pity the civilest and prettiest of Swiss-looking housemaids, who says in +answer to my "We shall come to bed very soon," "Oh dear, my lady, we +bees no ways particular in this house about times o' going to bed." + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +GROVE HOUSE, KENSINGTON GORE, + +_March 1819._ + +We arrived here on Saturday last; found Lady Elizabeth Whitbread more +kind and more agreeable than ever. Her kindness to us is indeed +unbounded, and would quite overwhelm me but for the delicate and polite +manner in which she confers favours, more as if she received than +conferred them. Her house, her servants, her carriage, her horses, are +not only entirely at my disposal, but she had the good-natured +politeness to go down to the door to desire the coachman to have George +Bristow always on the box with him, as the shaking would be too much for +him behind. + +Yesterday we spent two hours at Lady Stafford's. I had most agreeable +conversation with her and Lord Stafford, while Lady Elizabeth Gower +showed the pictures to Honora and Fanny. + +Mr. Talbot [Footnote: Son of Lady Talbot de Malahide, a lawyer] is often +here, _l'ami de la maison_ and very much ours. Lady Grey, Lady +Elizabeth's mother, is a fine amiable old lady. Mr. Ellice, the +brother-in-law, very good-humoured and agreeable. Mr. and Mrs. Lefevre, +the son-in-law and daughter, very agreeable, good, and happy. I am more +and more convinced that happiness depends upon what is in the head and +heart more than on what is in the purse or the bank, or on the back or +in the stomach. There must be enough in the stomach, but the sauce is of +little consequence. _By the bye_, Lady Elizabeth's cook is said to be +the best in England; lived with her in the days of her prosperity, as +she says, and has followed her here. + + +KENSINGTON CORE, _March 24, 1819._ + +I have a moment to write to you, and I will use it. We are going on just +as when I last wrote to you. We began by steadily settling that we would +not go out to any dinner or evening parties, because we could not do so +without giving up Lady Elizabeth's society; she never goes out but to +her relations. The mornings she spends in her own apartments, and when +we had refused all invitations to dinner our friends were so kind as to +contrive to see us at our own hours: to breakfast or luncheon. Twice +with Lady Lansdowne--luncheon; found her with her children just the same +as at Bowood. Miss Fanshawe's--breakfast; Lord Glenbervie there, very +agreeable; much French and Italian literature--beautiful drawings, full +of genius--if there be such a thing allowed by practical education? + +Three breakfasts at dear Mrs. Marcet's; the first quite private; the +second literary, very agreeable; Dr. Holland, Mr. Wishaw, Captain +Beaufort, Mr. Mallet, Lady Yonge; third, Mr. Mill--British India--was +the chief _figurante_; not the least of a _figurante_ though, excellent +in sense and benevolence. + +Twice at Mr. Wilberforce's; he lives next door to Lady Elizabeth +Whitbread; there we met Mr. Buxton--admirable facts from him about +Newgate and Spitalfields weavers. One fact I was very sorry to learn, +that Mrs. Fry, that angel woman, was very ill. + +Breakfast with Mr. and Mrs. Hope--quite alone--he showed the house to +Honora and Fanny while I sat with Mrs. Hope. + +On St. Patrick's Day, by appointment to the Duchess of Wellington, +nothing could be more like Kitty Pakenham; a plate of shamrocks on the +table, and as she came forward to meet me, she gave a bunch to me, +pressing my hand and saying in a low voice with her sweet smile, _Vous +en êtes digne._ She asked individually for all her Irish friends. I +showed to her what was said in my father's life, and by me, of Lord +Longford, and the drawing of his likeness, and asked if his family would +be pleased; she spoke very kindly: "would do her father's memory honour; +could not but please every Pakenham." She was obliging in directing her +conversation easily to my sisters as well as to myself. She said she had +purposely avoided being acquainted with Madame de Staël in England, not +knowing how she might be received by the Bourbons, to whom the Duchess +was to be Ambassadress. She found that Madame de Staël was well received +at the Bourbon Court, and consequently she must be received at the Duke +of Wellington's. She arrived, and walking up in full assembly to the +Duchess, with the fire of indignation flashing in her eyes. + +"Eh! Madame la Duchesse, vous ne voulez pas donc faire ma connaissance +en Angleterre?" + +"Non, Madame, je ne le voulais pas." + +"Eh! comment, Madame? Pourquoi donc?" + +"C'est que je vous _craignais_, Madame." + +"Vous me _craignez_, Madame la Duchesse?" + +"Non, Madame, je ne vous crains plus." + +Madame de Staël threw her arms round her, "Ah! je vous adore!" + +I must end abruptly. No; I have one minute more. While we were at the +Duchess of Wellington's a jeweller's man came in with some bracelets, +one was a shell like your Roman shell cameo, of the Duke's head, of +which she was correcting the profile. She showed us pictures of her +sons, and Fanny sketched from them while we sat with her. We saw in the +hall, or rather in the corner of the staircase, Canova's gigantic +"Apollo-Buonaparte," which was sent from France to the Regent who gave +it to the Duke. It is ten feet high, but I could not judge of it where +it is cooped up--shockingly ill-placed. + +Sunday--Lady Harrowby's by invitation, as it is Lord Harrowby's only +holiday. Mr. Ellis, a young man, just entered Parliament, from whom +great things are expected. Mr. Wilmot, and Mr. Frere--Lady Ebrington and +Lady Mary Ryder--Lord Harrowby, most agreeable conversation. Folding +doors thrown open. The Duke of----. Post--letter must go. + + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +DUCHESS STREET, MRS. HOPE'S, + +_April 2, 1819._ + +I left off abruptly just as the folding doors were thrown open, and the +Duke of Wellington was announced in such an unintelligible manner that I +did not know what Duke it was, nor did I know till we got into the +carriage who it was--he looks so old and wrinkled. I never should have +known him from likeness to bust or picture. His manner is very +agreeable, perfectly simple and dignified. He said only a few words, but +listened to some literary conversation that was going on, as if he was +amused, laughing once very heartily. Remind me to tell you some +circumstances about Adèle de Senange which Lord Harrowby told me, and +two expressions of Madame de Staël's--"On depose fleur à fleur la +couronne de la vie," [Footnote: Miss Edgeworth had quoted this +expression with admiration to Lord Harrowby, objecting to a criticism of +it by M. Dumont, "d'abord la vie n'a pas de couronne." To which Lord +Harrowby replied by quoting Johnson's + + Year follows year, decay pursues decay, + Still drops from life some withering joy away. + +It was to this conversation that the Duke of Wellington listened with +smiling attention.] and "Le silence est l'antichambre de la mort." + +Mr. Hope is altered, and he has in his whole appearance the marks of +having suffered much. The contrast between his and Mrs. Hope's +depression of spirits and the magnificence of everything about them +speaks volumes of moral philosophy. + +They were even more kind than I expected in their manner of receiving +us. One large drawing-room Mr. Hope gave us for the reception of our +friends. Mrs. Hope had not since her coming to town had a dinner party, +but she assembled all the people she thought we might like to see. One +day Miss Fanshawe; another day the Duke and Duchess of Bedford, Lord +Palmerston, Lord and Lady Darnley, and Mr. Ellis; Lady Darnley was very +kind, just what she was when I saw her before. Lady Jersey is +particularly agreeable, and was particularly obliging to us, and gave us +tickets for the French play, now one of the London objects of curiosity. +The Duchess of Bedford talked much to me, and very agreeably of her +travels. + +Mrs. Hope was so exhausted by the effort of seeing all these people that +she could not sleep, and looked wretchedly the next day, when nobody was +at dinner but her own sister and Captain Beaufort. Next day, Lady +Tankerville and her daughter, Lady Mary Bennet, came and sat half an +hour. + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +KENSINGTON GORE, _April 28, 1819._ + +We spent ten days delightfully with the kind Hopes at Deepdene, and a +most beautiful place it is. The valley of Dorking is so beautiful that +even Rasselas would not have desired to escape from that happy valley. +Fanny was well enough to enjoy everything, especially some rides on a +stumbling pony with Henry Hope, a fine boy of eleven, well informed, and +very good-natured. We went to see Norbury Park, Mr. Locke's place, and +Wotton, Mr. Evelyn's, and a beautiful cottage of Mrs. Hibbert's, of all +which I shall have much to say to you on my own little stool at your +feet. + +We were received on our return here with affectionate kindness by Lady +Elizabeth Whitbread. + +Remember that I don't forget to tell you of Lady Bredalbane's having +been left in her carriage fast asleep, and rolled into the coach-house +of an hotel at Florence and nobody missing her for some time, and how +they went to look for her, and how ever so many carriages had been +rolled in after hers, and how she wakened, and--I must sign and seal. + + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _July 7, 1819._ + +At Longford last Sunday we heard an excellent sermon by a Mr. M'Lelland, +the first he ever preached; a terrible brogue, but full of sense and +spirit. Some odd faults--quoting the _Quarterly Review_--citing +"Hogarth's Idle Apprentice"--"the Roman poet tells us," etc.; but it was +altogether new and striking, and contained such a fine address to the +soldiers present on the virtues of peace, after the triumphs of war, as +touched every heart. The soldiers all with one accord looked up to the +preacher at the best passages. + + +_To_ MRS. SNEYD EDGEWORTH, AT PARIS. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Sept. 15, 1819._ + +I rejoice that you and Sneyd are well enough to enjoy the pleasures of +Paris. I do not know what Sneyd can have done to make Madame Recamier +laugh; in my time she never went beyond the smile prescribed by Lord +Chesterfield as graceful in beauty. + +This last week we have had the pleasure of having our kind friends Mrs. +and Miss Carr. Except the first day, which was Irish rainy, every day +has been sunshiny, and my mother has taken advantage of the shrievalty +four horses and two yellow jackets to drive about. They went to +Baronston, where there is a link of connection with the Carrs through an +English friend, Mrs. Benyon. Lady Sunderlin and Miss Catherine Malone +did the joint honours of their house most amiably, and gave as fine a +collation of grapes, nectarines, and peaches as France could supply. + +Another morning we took a tour of the tenants. Hugh Kelly's house and +parlour and gates and garden, and all that should accompany a +farm-house, as nice as any England could afford. James Allen, though +grown very old, and in a forlorn black shag wig, looked like a +respectable yeoman, "the country's pride," and at my instance brought +out as fine a group of grandchildren as ever graced a cottage lawn. + +In driving home at the cross-roads by Corbey we had the good fortune to +come in for an Irish dance, the audience or spectators seated on each +side of the road on opposite benches; all picturesque in the sunshine of +youth and age, with every variety of attitude and expression of +enjoyment. The dancers, in all the vivacity and graces of an Irish jig, +delighted our English friends; and we stood up in the landau for nearly +twenty minutes looking at them. + + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +_Oct. 14._ + +We have been much interested in the life and letters of that most +excellent, amiable, and unpretending Lady Russell. [Footnote: Lady +Rachel Wriothesley, second daughter of Thomas Earl of Southampton, who +married (1) Francis Lord Vaughan; (2) William Lord Russell, the patriot, +beheaded July 21, 1683.] There are touches in these letters which paint +domestic happiness, and the character of a mother and a wife with +beautiful simplicity. I even like Miss Berry much the better for the +manner in which she has edited this book. + + +_Nov 5._ + +Have you the fourth number of _Modern Voyages and Travels_ which +contains Chateauvieux's travels in Italy? I have been so much delighted +with it, and feel so sure of its _transporting_ my aunt, that I had +hardly read the last words before I was going to pack it off post-haste +to Black Castle, but Prudence, in the shape of Honora, in a lilac +tabinet gown, whispered, "Better wait till you hear whether they have +read it." + +Have I mentioned to you Bassompierre's _Memoirs_? a new edition, with +notes by Croker, which make the pegs on which they hang gay and +valuable. What an extraordinary collection of strange facts and strange +thoughts are dragged together in the _Quarterly Review_ of the +Cemeteries and Catacombs of Paris; the Jewish _House of the Living_; the +excommunicated skeletons coming into the church to parley with the +Bishop; and the Parisian sentimentalist in the country who sent for +barrels of ink from Paris to put his trees in mourning for the death of +his mother; and the fountain, called the _weeping eye_, for the death of +his wife, by the Dane. I hope, my dear friends, that you have been +reading these things, and that they have struck you as they did me; +there are few things pleasanter than these "jumping thoughts." + +Now that I have a little time, and eyes to read again, I find it +delightful, and I have a voracious appetite, and a relish for food, +good, bad, and indifferent, I am afraid, like a half-famished, +shipwrecked wretch. + + +_28th._ + +Such a scene of lying and counter-lying as we have had with the cook and +her accuser, the kitchen-maid! The cook was dismissed on the spot. One +expression of Peggy Tuite's I must tell you--with her indignant figure +of truth defending herself against falsehood--when Rose, the vile public +accuser, said, in part of her speech, recollecting from Peggy Tuite's +dress, who came clean from chapel, that it was Sunday, "And it's two +masses I have lost by you already!" to which Peggy replied, "Oh, Rose, +the mass is in the heart, not in the chapel! only speak the truth." + + * * * * * + +Miss Edgeworth's steadiness in resting her eyes, neither reading nor +writing for nearly two years, was rewarded by their complete recovery; +and she was able to read, write, and work with ease and comfort all the +rest of her life. + +This autumn of 1819 she was made happy by the return of the two Miss +Sneyds [Footnote: Sisters of her two former stepmothers, the second and +third wives of Mr. R. L. Edgeworth.] from England to Edgeworthstown, +where with short intervals, they continued to reside as long as they +lived. + + * * * * * + +MARIA _to_ MISS RUXTON. + +EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Jan. 1, 1820._ + +Have you seen a life of Madame de Staël by that Madame Neckar de +Saussure, of whom Madame de Staël said, when some one asked, "What sort +of woman is she?" "Elle a tous les talents qu'on me suppose, et toutes +les vertus qui me manquent." Is not that touching and beautiful? + + +_Jan. 14._ + +Poor Kitty Billamore breathed her last this morning at one o'clock. A +more faithful, warm-hearted, excellent creature never existed. How many +successions of children of this family she has nursed, and how many she +has attended in illness and death, regardless of her own health! I am +glad that sweet, dear little feeling Francis, her darling, was spared +being here at her death. Harriet, who, next to him, [Footnote: Francis +and Harriet, children of the fourth Mrs. Edgeworth.] had always been a +great favourite, was with her to the last. All the poor people loved +her, and will long feel her loss. Lovell [Footnote: Lovell, only +surviving child of the second Mrs. Edgeworth (Honora Sneyd), who had +succeeded to the property.] intends that she should be buried in the +family vault, as she deserves, for she was more a friend than a servant, +and he will attend her funeral himself. + + * * * * * + +Having finished the memoirs of her father's life, and settled that they +should be published at Easter, Maria determined to indulge herself in +what she had long projected--a visit to Paris with two of her young +sisters, Fanny and Harriet. They set out on the 3rd of April. + + * * * * * + +MARIA _to_ MISS LUCY EDGEWORTH. + +DUBLIN, _April 10, 1820._ + +In my letter to my mother of the 8th I forgot--no, I had not time to say +that we had a restive mare at Dunshaughlin, who paid me for all I ever +wrote about Irish posting, and put me in the most horrible and +reasonable apprehension that she would have broken my aunt's carriage to +pieces against the corner of a wall. The crowd of people that assembled, +the shouts, the "never fears," the scolding of the landlord and +postillions, and the group surveying the scene, was beyond anything I +could or can paint. The stage coach drove to the door in the midst of +it, and ladies and bandboxes stopped, and all stood to gaze. + +There was also a professional fool in his ass cart with two dogs, one a +white little curly dog, who sat upon the ass's head behind his ears, and +another a black shaggy mongrel, with longish ears, who sat up in a +begging attitude on the hinder part of the ass, and whom the fool-knave +had been tutoring with a broken crutch, as he sat in his covered cart. +Fanny made a drawing of him, and he and his dogs _sat_ for a fivepenny, +which I honestly gave him for his and his dogs' tricks. + + * * * * * + +Steamboats had only begun to ply between Dublin and Holyhead in 1819, +and Maria Edgeworth's first experience of a steamboat was in crossing +now to Holyhead. She disliked the _jigging_ motion, which she said was +like the shake felt in a carriage when a pig is scratching himself +against the hind wheel while waiting at an Irish inn door. + + * * * * * + +MARIA _to_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH. + +MRS. WATT'S, HEATHFIELD, + +_April 1820._ + +I was much surprised at finding that the postillion who drove us from +Wolverhampton could neither tell himself, nor learn from any one up the +road, along the heath, at the turnpike, or even in the very suburbs of +Birmingham, the way to Mr. Watt's! I was as much surprised as we were at +Paris in searching for Madame de Genlis; so we went to Mr. Moilliet's, +and stowed ourselves next day into their travelling landau, as large as +our own old, old delightful coach, and came here. + +Oh, my dear Honora, how melancholy to see places the same--persons, and +such persons gone! Mrs. Watt, in deep mourning, coming forward to meet +us alone in that gay trellice, the same books on his table, his picture, +his bust, his image everywhere, _himself_ nowhere upon this earth. Mrs. +Watt has, in that poor little shattered frame, a prodigiously strong +mind; indeed she could not have been so loved by such a man for such a +length of time if she had not superior qualities. She was more kind than +I can express, receiving Fanny and Harriet as if they had been of her +own family. + +In the morning I fell to penning this letter, as we were engaged to +breakfast at Mr. James Watt's, at Aston Hall. You remember the fine old +brick palace? Mr. Watt has fitted up half of it so as to make it +superbly comfortable: fine hall, breakfast room, Flemish pictures, +Boulton and Watt at either end. After breakfast, at which was Mr. +Priestly, an American, son of Dr. Priestly, we went over all the +habitable and uninhabitable parts of the house: the banqueting room, +with a most costly, frightful ceiling, and a chimneypiece carved up to +the cornice with monsters, one with a nose covered with scales, one with +human face on a tarantula's body. Varieties of little staircases, and a +garret gallery called Dick's haunted gallery; a blocked-up room called +the King's room; then a modern dressing-room, with fine tables of +Bullock's making, one of wood from Brazil--Zebra wood--and no more to be +had of it for love or money. + +But come on to the great gallery, longer than that at Sudbury,--about +one hundred and thirty-six feet long,--and at the farthest end we came +to a sort of oriel, separated from the gallery only by an arch, and +there the white marble bust of the great Mr. Watt struck me almost +breathless. What everybody went on saying I do not know, but my own +thoughts, as I looked down the closing lines of this superb gallery, now +in a half-ruined state, were very melancholy, on life and death, family +pride, and the pride of wealth, and the pride of genius, all so +perishable. + +_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH. + +CANTERBURY, _April 21._ + +I wrote to your dear father the history of our visit to Mr. Wren's at +Wroxall Abbey, and Kenilworth, and Warwick, and Stratford-upon-Avon, and +our pleasant three hours at Oxford. When we were looking at the theatre, +Mr. Biddulph told us, that when all the Emperors and Kings came with the +Regent, the theatre was filled in every part; but such was the hush you +could have heard a pin drop till the Prince put his foot upon the +threshold, when the whole assembly rose with a tremendous shout of +applause. The Prince was supremely gratified, and said to the Emperor of +Russia, "You heard the London mob hoot me, but you see how I am received +by the young gentlemen of England!" + +When Lord Grenville was installed as chancellor, he was, the instant he +look his seat, assailed with loud hisses and groans. Mr. Biddulph said +he admired the dignity with which Lord Grenville behaved, and the +presence of mind of the Bishop of Peterborough (Parsons), who said in +Latin, "Either this disturbance must instantly cease, or I dismiss you +from this assembly!" Dead silence ensued. + + +PARIS, PLACE DU PALAIS BOURBON, + +_April 29._ + +One moment of reward for two days of indescribable hurry I have at this +quiet interval after breakfast, and I seize it to tell you that Fanny is +quite well: so far for health. For beauty, I have only to say that I am +told by everybody that my sisters are _lovely_ in English, and +_charmantes_ in French. Last night was their _début_ at Lady +Granard's--a large assembly of all manner of lords, ladies, counts, +countesses, princes, and princesses, French, Polish, and Italian: +Marmont and Humboldt were there. I was told by several persons of rank +and taste--Lady Rancliffe, the Countess de Salis, Lady Granard, Mrs. +Sneyd Edgeworth, _and_ a Polish Countess, that my sister's dress, the +grand affair at Paris, was _perfection_, and I believed it! Humboldt is +excessively agreeable, but I was twice taken from him to be introduced +to grandeurs, just as we had reached the most interesting point of +conversation. + + +_May 3rd._ + +On Sunday we went with the Comtesse de Salis and the Baronne de Salis, +who is also Chanoinesse, but goes into the world in roses and pink +ribbons nevertheless, and is very agreeable, moreover, and with M. Le +Baron, an officer in the Swiss Guards, an old bachelor, to St. Sulpice, +to hear M. Fressenus. He preached in the Kirwan style, but with +intolerable monotony of thumping eloquence, against _les Liberaux_, +Rousseau, etc.; it seemed to me old stuff, ill embroidered, but it was +much applauded. _Mem._: the _audience_ were not half so attentive or +silent at St. Sulpice as they were at the Théâtre Français the night +before. + +After church a visit to Madame de Pastoret. Oh, my dear mother, think of +my finding her in that very boudoir, everything the same! Fanny and +Harriet were delighted with the beauty of the house till they saw her, +and then nothing could be thought of but her manner and conversation. +They are even more charmed with her than I expected: she is little +changed. + +After a ball at the Polish Countess Orlowski's (the woman who is charmed +with _Early Lessons_, etc.), where Fanny and Harriet were delighted with +the children's dancing--they waltzed like angels, if angels waltz--after +this ball I went with the Count and Countess de Salis and La Baronne--I +was told that the first time it must be without my sisters--to the +Duchesse d'Escars, who _receives_ for the King at the Tuileries: +mounting a staircase of one hundred and forty steps. I thought the +Count's knees would have failed while I leaned on his arm; my own ached. +A long gallery, well lighted, opened into a suite of _little_ low +apartments, most beautifully hung, some with silk and some with +cashmere, some with tent drapery, with end ottomans, and lamps in +profusion. These rooms, with busts and pictures of kings, swarmed with +old nobility, with historic names, stars, red ribbons, and silver bells +at their button-holes: ladies in little white satin hats and _toques_, +with a profusion of ostrich or, still better, _marabout_ powder-puff +feathers; and the roofs were too low for such lofty heads. + +After a most fatiguing morning at all the impertinent and pertinent +dressmakers and milliners, we finished by the dear delight of dining +with Madame Gautier at Passy. The drive there was delicious: we found +her with her Sophie, now a matron mother with her Caroline, like what +Madame Gautier and her Sophie were in that very room eighteen years ago. +All the Delessert family that remain were assembled except Benjamin, who +was detained by business in Paris. Madame Benjamin is very handsome, +nearer the style of Mrs. Admiral Pakenham than anybody I know; François +the same as you saw him, only with the additional crow's-feet of +eighteen years, sobered into a husband and father, the happiest I ever +saw in France. They have three houses, and the whole three terraces form +one long pleasure-ground. Judas-tree, like a Brobdingnag almond-tree, +was in full flower; lilacs and laburnums in abundance. Alexandre +Delessert takes after the father--good, sensible, commercial +conversation. He made a panegyric on the Jews of Hamburgh, who received +him at their houses with the utmost politeness and liberality. This was +_à propos_ of Walter Scott's Jewess, and, vanity must add, my own Jew +and Jewess, who came in for more than their due share. + +Bank-notes were talked of: François tells me that the forging of +bank-notes is almost unknown at Paris: the very best artists--my +father's plan--are employed. + +Tuesday we were at the Louvre: many fine pictures left. Dined at home: +in the evening to Madame de Pastoret's, to meet the Duchesse de Broglie: +very handsome, little, with large soft dark eyes: simple dress, winning +manner, soft Pastoret conversation: speaks English better than any +foreigner I ever heard: not only gracious, but quite _tender_ to me. + +After Madame de Pastoret's we went to the Ambassador's and were received +in the most distinguished manner. We saw crowds of fine people and +conversed with Talleyrand, but he said nought worth hearing. + + +_May 20._ + +Paris is wonderfully embellished since we were here in 1803. Fanny and +Harriet are quite enchanted with the beauty of the Champs Élysées and +the Tuileries gardens: the trees are out in full leaf, and the deep +shade under them is delightful. I had never seen Paris in summer, so I +enjoy the novelty. Some of our happiest time is spent in driving about +in the morning, or returning at night by lamp or moonlight. + +Lady Elizabeth Stuart has been most peculiarly civil to "Madame Maria +Edgeworth et Mesdemoiselles ses soeurs," which is the form on our +visiting tickets, as I was advised it should be. The Ambassador's hotel +is the same which Lord Whitworth had, which afterwards belonged to the +Princess Borghese. It is delightful! opening into a lawn-garden, with +terraces and conservatories, and a profusion of flowers and shrubs. The +dinner was splendid, but not formal; and nobody can _represent_ better +than Lady Elizabeth. She asked us to go with her and Mrs. Canning to the +opera, but we were engaged to Madame Recamier; and as she is no longer +rich and prosperous, I could not break the engagement. + +We went to Madame Recamier's, in her convent--L'Abbaye aux Bois, up +seventy-eight steps; all came in with the asthma: elegant room, and she +as elegant as ever. Matthieu de Montmorenci, the ex-Queen of Sweden, +Madame de Boigne--a charming woman, and Madame la Maréchale de Moreau--a +battered beauty, smelling of garlic, and screeching in vain to pass for +a wit. + +Yesterday we had intended to have killed off a great many visits, but +the fates willed it otherwise. Mr. Hummelaur, attached to the Austrian +Embassy, came; and then Mr. Chenevix, who converses delightfully, but +all the time holding a distorting magnifying glass over French +character, and showing horrible things where we thought everything was +delightful. While he was here came Madame de Villeneuve and Madame de +Kergolay. Scarcely were they all gone, when I desired Rodolphe to let no +other person in, as the carriage had been ordered at eleven, and it was +now near two. "_Miladi!_" cried Rodolphe, running in with a card, "voilà +une dame qui me dit de vous faire voir son nom." + +It was "Madame de Roquefeuille," with her bright, benevolent eyes: and +much agreeable conversation. There is a great deal of difference between +the manners, tone, pronunciation, and quietness of demeanour of Madame +de Pastoret, Madame de Roquefeuille, and the little old Princess de +Broglie Revel, who are of the old nobility, and the striving, struggling +of the new, with all their riches and titles, who can never attain this +indescribable, incommunicable charm. But to go on with Saturday: Madame +de Roquefeuille took leave, and we caparisoned ourselves, and went to +Lady de Ros. She was at her easel, copying very well a portrait of +Madame de Grignan, and it was a very agreeable half-hour. Lady de Ros +and her daughter are very agreeable people. She has asked Fanny to meet +her three times a week, at the Riding-House, where she goes to take +exercise. + +We were engaged to Cuvier's in the evening, and went first to M. +Jullien's, in the Rue de _l'Enfer_, not far from the Jardin des Plantes, +and there we saw one of the most extraordinary of all the extraordinary +persons we have seen--a Spaniard, squat, black-haired, black-browed, +and black-eyed, with an infernal countenance, who has written the +_History of the Inquisition_, and who related to us how he had been sent +_en pénitence_ to a monastery by the Inquisition, and escaped by +presenting a certain number of kilogrammes of good chocolate to the +monks, who represented him as very penitent. But I dare not say more of +this man, lest we should never get to Cuvier's, which, in truth, I +thought we never should accomplish alive. Such streets! such turns! in +the old, old parts of the city: lamps strung at great distances: a +candle or two from high houses, making darkness visible: then bawling of +coach or cart-men, "Ouais! ouais!" backing and scolding, for no two +carriages could by any possibility pass in these narrow alleys. I was in +a very bad way, as you may guess, but I let down the glasses, and sat as +still as a frightened mouse: once I diverted Harriet by crying out, "Ah, +mon _cher_ cocher, arrêtez;" like Madame de Barri's "Un moment, +_Monsieur_ le Bourreau." It never was so bad with us that we could not +laugh. At last we turned into a _porte-cochère_, under which the +coachman bent literally double: total darkness: then suddenly trees, +lamps, and buildings; and one, brighter than the rest by an open portal, +illuminating large printed letters, "Collège de France." + +Cuvier came down to the very carriage door to receive us, and handed us +up narrow, difficult stairs into a smallish room, where were assembled +many ladies and gentlemen of most distinguished names and talents. +Prony, as like an honest water-dog as ever; Biot (_et moi aussi je suis +père de famille_), a fat, double volume of himself--I could not see a +trace of the young _père de famille_ we knew--round-faced, with a bald +head and black ringlets, a fine-boned skull, on which the tortoise might +fall without cracking it. When he began to converse, his superior +ability was immediately apparent. Then Cuvier presented Prince +Czartorinski, a Pole, and many compliments passed; and then we went to a +table to look at Prince Maximilian de Neufchatel's _Journey to Brazil_, +magnificently printed in Germany, and all tongues began to clatter, and +it became wondrously agreeable; and behind me I heard English well +spoken, and this was Mr. Trelawny, and I heard from him a panegyric on +the Abbé Edgeworth, whom he knew well, and he was the person who took +the first letter and news to the Duchesse d'Angoulême at Mittau, after +she quitted France. She came out in the dead of the night in her +nightgown to receive the letter. + +Tea and supper together: only two-thirds of the company could sit down, +but the rest stood or sat behind, and were very happy, loud, and +talkative: science, politics, literature, and nonsense in happy +proportions. Biot sat behind Fanny's chair, and talked of the parallax +and Dr. Brinkley. Prony, with his hair nearly in my plate, was telling +me most entertaining anecdotes of Buonaparte; and Cuvier, with his head +nearly meeting him, talking as hard as he could: not _striving_ to show +learning or wit--quite the contrary; frank, open--hearted genius, +delighted to be together at home, and at ease. This was the most +flattering and agreeable thing to me that could possibly be. Harriet was +on the off-side, and every now and then he turned to her in the midst of +his anecdotes, and made her completely one of us; and there was such a +prodigious noise nobody could hear but ourselves. Both Cuvier and Prony +agreed that Buonaparte never could bear to have any answer but a +_decided_ answer. "One day," said Cuvier, "I nearly ruined myself by +considering before I answered. He asked me, 'Faut-il introduire le sucre +de betrave en France?' 'D'abord, Sire, il faut songer si vos +colonies----' 'Faut-il avoir le sucre de betrave en France?' 'Mais, +Sire, il faut examiner----' 'Bah! je le demanderai à Berthollet.'" + +This despotic, laconic mode of insisting on learning everything in two +words had its inconveniences. One day he asked the master of the woods +at Fontainebleau, "How many acres of wood are here?" The master, an +honest man, stopped to recollect. "Bah!" and the under-master came +forward and said any number that came into his head. Buonaparte +immediately took the mastership from the first, and gave it to the +second. "Qu'arrivait-il?" continued Prony; "the rogue who gave the guess +answer was soon found cutting down and selling quantities of the trees, +and Buonaparte had to take the rangership from him, and reinstate the +honest hesitater." + +Prony is, you know, one of the most absent men alive. "Once," he told +me, "I was in a carriage with Buonaparte and General Caffarelli: it was +at the time he was going to Egypt. He asked me to go. I said, I could +not; that is, I would not; and when I had said those words I fell into a +reverie, collecting in my own head all the reasons I could for not going +to Egypt. All this time Buonaparte was going on with some confidential +communication to me of his secret intentions and views; and when it was +ended, le seul mot, Arabie, m'avait frappé l'oreille. Alors, je voudrais +m'avoir arraché les cheveux," making the motion so to do, "pour pouvoir +me rapeller ce qu'il venait de me dire. But I never could recall one +single word or idea." + +"Why did you not ask Caffarelli afterwards?" + +"I dared not, because I should have betrayed myself to him." + +Prony says that Buonaparte was not obstinate in his own opinion with men +of science about those things of which he was ignorant; but he would +bear no contradiction in tactics or politics. + + +_May 29._ + +Madame Recamier has no more taken the veil than I have, and is as little +likely to do it. She is still beautiful, still dresses herself and her +little room with elegant simplicity, and lives in a convent [Footnote: +The Abbaye aux Bois.] only because it is cheap and respectable. M. +Recamier is living; they have not been separated by anything but +misfortune. + +We have at last seen a comedy perfectly well acted--the first +representation of a new piece, _Les Folliculaires_: it was received with +thunders of applause, admirably acted in every character to the life. It +was in ridicule of journalists and literary young men. + + +LA CELLE, M. DE VINDÉ'S COUNTRY HOUSE, + +_June 4._ + +Is it not curious that, just when you wrote to us, all full of Mrs. +Strickland at Edgeworthstown, we should have been going about everywhere +with Mr. Strickland at Paris? I read to him what you said about his +little girl and Foster as he was going with us to a breakfast at +Cuvier's, and he was delighted even to tears. + +We breakfasted at Passy on our way here: beautiful views of Paris and +its environs from all the balconied rooms; and Madame François showed us +all their delightful comfortable rooms--the bed in which Madame Gautier +and Madame François had slept when children, and where now her little +Caroline sleeps. There is something in the duration of these family +attachments which pleases and touches one, especially in days of +revolution and change. + +We arrived here in good time. La Celle [Footnote: La Celle St. Cloud, +built by Bachelier, first valet de chambre of Louis XIV., afterwards +sold to Madame de Pompadour, who sold it again in two years.] is as old +as Clotwold, the son of Clovis, who came here to make a hermitage for +himself--La Cellule. Wonderfully changed and enlarged, it became the +residence of Madame de Pompadour. The rooms are wainscotted: very large +_croissées_ open upon shrubberies, with rose acacias and rhododendrons +in profuse flower: the garden is surrounded by lime-trees thick and +high, and cut, like the beech-walk at Collon, at the end into arches +through the foliage, and the stems left so as to form rows of pillars, +through which you see, on one side, fine views of lawn and distant +country, while on the other the lime-grove is continued in arcades, +eight or nine trees deep. + +To each bedroom and dressing-room there are little dens of closets and +ante-chambers, which must have seen many strange exits and entrances in +their day. In one of these, ten feet by six, the white wainscot--now +very yellow--is painted in gray, with monkeys in men's and women's +clothes in groups in compartments, the most grotesque figures you can +imagine. I have an idea of having read of this cabinet of monkeys, and +having heard that the principal monkey who figures in it was some real +personage. + +The situation of La Celle is beautiful, and the country about it. The +grounds, terraces, orchards, farmyard, dairy, etc., would lead me too +far, so I shall only note that, to preserve the hayrick from the +incursion of rats, the feet of the stand, which is higher than that in +our back yard, are not only slated, but at the part next the hay covered +with panes of glass: this defies climbing reptiles. + +M. and Madame de Vindé are exactly what you remember them; and her +grand-daughter, Beatrice, the little girl you may remember, is as kind +to Fanny and Harriet as M. and Madame de Vindé were to their sister. + +Mr. Hutton wrote to me about a certain Count Brennar, a German or +Hungarian--talents, youth, fortune--assuring me that this transcendental +Count had a great desire to be acquainted with us. I fell to work with +Madame Cuvier, with whom I knew he was acquainted, and he met us at +breakfast at Cuvier's; and I asked Prony if M. and Madame de Vindé would +allow me to ask the Count to come here; and so yesterday Prony came to +dinner, and the Count at dessert, and he ate cold cutlets and good +salad, and all was right; and whenever any of our family go to Vienna, +he gave me and mine, or yours, a most pressing invitation thither--which +will never be any trouble to him. + +I have corrected before breakfast here all of the second volume of +_Rosamond_, [Footnote: The sequel, or last part of _Rosamund._] which +accompanies this letter. We have coffee brought to us in our rooms about +eight o'clock, and the family assemble at breakfast in the dining-room +about ten: this breakfast has consisted of mackerel stewed in oil; +cutlets; eggs, boiled and poached, _au jus_; peas stewed; lettuce +stewed, and rolled up like sausages; radishes; salad; stewed prunes; +preserved gooseberries; chocolate biscuits; apricot biscuits--that is to +say, a kind of flat tartlet, sweetmeat between paste; finishing with +coffee. There are sugar-tongs in this house, which I have seen nowhere +else except at Madame Gautier's. Salt-spoons never to be seen, so do not +be surprised at seeing me take salt and sugar in the natural way when I +come back. + +Carriages come round about twelve, and we drive about seeing places in +the neighbourhood--afterwards go to our own rooms or to the _salon_, or +play billiards or chess. Dinner is at half-past five; no luncheon and no +dressing for dinner. I will describe one dinner--Bouilli de boeuf--large +piece in the middle, and all the other dishes round it--rôtie de +mouton--ris de veau piqué--maquereaux--pâtes de cervelle--salad. 2nd +service; œufs aux jus--petits pois--lettuce stewed--gâteaux de +confitures--prunes. Dessert; gâteaux, cerises, confiture d'abricot et de +groseille. + +Hands are washed at the side-table; coffee is in the saloon: men and +women all gathering round the table as of yore. But I should observe, +that a great change has taken place; the men huddle together now in +France as they used to do in England, talking politics with their backs +to the women in a corner, or even in the middle of the room, without +minding them in the least, and the ladies complain and look very +disconsolate, and many ask, "If this be Paris?" and others scream +_ultra_ nonsense or _liberal_ nonsense, to make themselves of +consequence and to attract the attention of the gentlemen. + +But to go on with the history of our day. After coffee, Madame de Vindé +sits down at a round table in the middle of the room, and out of a +work-basket, which is just the shape of an antediluvian work-basket of +mine, made of orange-paper and pasteboard, which lived long in the +garret, she takes her tapestry work: a chair-cover of which she works +the little blue flowers, and M. Morel de Vindé, pair de France, ancien +Conseiller de Parlement, etc., does the ground! He has had a cold, and +wears a black silk handkerchief on his head and a hat over it in the +house; three waistcoats, two coats, and a spencer over all. Madame de +Vindé and I talk, and the young people play billiards. + +When it grows duskish we all migrate at a signal from Madame de Vindé, +"Allons, nous passerons chez M. de Vindé;" so we all cross the +billiard-room and dining-room, and strike off by an odd passage into M. +de Vindé's study, where, almost in the fire, we sit round a small table +playing a game called Loto, with different-coloured pegs and collars for +these pegs, and whoever knows the game of Loto will understand what it +is, and those who have never heard of it must wait till I come home to +make them understand it. At half-past ten to bed; a dozen small round +silver-handled candlesticks, bougeoirs, with wax candles, ready for us. +Who dares to say French country-houses have no comforts? Let all such +henceforward except La Celle. + +The three first days we were here M. de Prony and Count de Brennar were +the only guests, the Count only for one day. M. de Prony is enough +without any other person to keep the most active mind in conversation of +all sorts, scientific, literary, humorous. He is less changed than any +of our friends. His humour and good-humour are really delightful; he is, +as Madame de Vindé says, the most harmless good creature that ever +existed; and he has had sense enough to stick to science and keep clear +of politics, always pleading "qu'il n'etait bon qu'à cela." He +accompanied us in our morning excursions to Malmaison and St. Germain. + +Malmaison was Josephine's, and is still Beauharnais's property, but is +now occupied only by his steward. The place is very pretty--profusion of +rhododendrons, as under-wood in the groves, on the grass, beside the +rivers, everywhere, and in the most luxuriant flower. Poor Josephine! Do +you remember Dr. Marcet telling us that when he breakfasted with her, +she said, pointing to her flowers: "These are my subjects; I try to make +them happy." + +The grounds are admirably well taken care of, but the solitude and +silence and the continual reference to the dead were strikingly +melancholy, even in the midst of sunshine and flowers, and the song of +nightingales. In one pond we saw swimming in graceful desolate dignity +two black swans, which, as rare birds, were once great favourites. Now +they curve their necks of ebony in vain. + +The grounds are altogether very small, and so is the house, but fitted +up with exquisite taste. In the saloon is the most elegant white marble +chimney-piece my eyes ever did or ever will behold, a present from the +Pope to Beauharnais. The finest pictures have been taken from the +gallery; the most striking that remains is one of General Dessain, +reading a letter, with a calm and absorbed countenance--two mamelukes +eagerly examining his countenance. In the finely parqueted floor great +holes appear; the places from which fine statues of Canova's were, as +the steward told us, dragged up for the Emperor of Russia. This the man +told under his breath, speaking of his master and of the armies without +distinctly naming any person, as John Langan used to talk of the robbles +(rebels). You may imagine the feelings which made us walk in absolute +silence through the library, which was formerly Napoleon's: the gilt N's +and J's still in the arches of the ceiling: busts and portraits all +round--that of Josephine admirable. + +At St. Germain, that vast palace which has been of late a barrack for +the English army, our female guide was exceedingly well informed; +indeed, Francis I., Henry IV., Mary de Medicis, Louis XIV., and Madame +de la Valliere seem to have been her very intimate acquaintances. She +was in all their secrets: showed us Madame de la Valliere's room, poor +soul! all gilt--the gilding of her woe. This gilding, by accident, +escaped the revolutionary destruction. In the high gilt dome of this +room, the guide showed us the trap-door through which Louis XIV. used to +come down. How they managed it I don't well know: it must have been a +perilous operation, the room is so high. But my guide, who I am clear +saw him do it, assured me his Majesty came down very easily in his +arm-chair; and as she had great keys in her hand, and is as large nearly +as Mrs. Liddy, I did not hazard a contradiction or doubt. + +Did you know that it was Prony who built the Pont Louis XVI.? Perronet +was then eighty-four, and Prony worked under him. One night, when he had +supped at Madame de Vindé's, he went to look at his bridge, when he +saw--but I have not time to tell you that story. + +During Buonaparte's Spanish War he employed Prony to make logarithm, +astronomical, and nautical tables on a magnificent scale. Prony found +that to execute what was required would take him and all the +philosophers of France a hundred and fifty years. He was very unhappy, +having to do with a despot who _would_ have his will executed, when the +first volume of Smith's _Wealth of Nations_ fell into his hands. He +opened on the division of Labour, our favourite pin-making: "Ha, ha! +voilà mon affaire; je ferai mes calcules comme on fait les épingles!" +And he divided the labour among two hundred men, who knew no more than +the simple rules of arithmetic, whom he assembled in one large building, +and there these men-machines worked on, and the tables are now complete. + + +PARIS, + +_June 9._ + +All is quiet here now, but while we were in the country there have been +disturbances. Be assured that, if there is any danger, we shall decamp +for Geneva. + + +_June 22._ + +We have spent a day and a half delightfully with M. and Madame Molé at +Champlatreux, their beautiful country place. He is very sensible, and +she very obliging. Madame de Ventimille was there, and very agreeable +and kind, also Madame de Nansouti and Madame de Bezancourt, +grand-daughter of Madame d'Houtitot: all remember you most kindly. + +_June 24._ + +You ask for Dupont de Fougères--alas! he has been dead some years. I +went to see Camille Jordan, who is ill, and unable to leave his sofa; +but he is fatter and better-looking than when we knew him--no alteration +but for the better. He has got rid of all that might be thought a little +affected--his vivacity being elevated into energy, and his politeness +into benevolence; his pretty little good wife was sitting beside him. + +Everybody, of every degree of rank or talent, who has read the +_Memoirs_, speaks of them in the most gratifying and delightful manner. +Those who have fixed on individual circumstances have always fixed on +those which we should have considered as most curious. Mr. Malthus this +morning spoke most highly of it, and of its useful tendency both in a +public and private light. Much as I dreaded hearing it spoken of, all I +have yet heard has been what best compensates for all the anxiety I have +felt. + + +_To_ MRS. MARY AND MRS. CHARLOTTE SNEYD. + +PARIS, _July 7, 1820._ + +It is a greater refreshment to me, my dearest Aunt Mary and Charlotte, +to have a quiet half hour in which to write to you, while Fanny and +Harriet are practising with M. Deschamp, their dancing-master, in the +next room. + +We had a delightful breakfast at Degerando's, in a room hung round with +some very valuable pictures: one in particular, which was sent to +Degerando by the town of Pescia, as a proof of gratitude for his conduct +at the time when he was in Italy under Buonaparte--sent to him after he +was no longer in power. There was an Italian gentleman, Marchese +Ridolfi, of large fortune and benevolent mind, intent on improving his +people. We also met Madame de Villette, Voltaire's "_belle et bonne_:" +she has still some remains of beauty, and great appearance of +good-humour. It was delightful to hear her speak of Voltaire with the +enthusiasm of affection, and with tears in her eyes beseeching us not to +believe the hundred misrepresentations we may have heard, but to trust +her, the person who had lived with him long, and who knew him best and +last. After breakfast she took us to her house, where Voltaire had +lived, and where we saw his chair and his writing desk turning on a +pivot on the arm of the chair: his statue smiling, keen-eyed, and +emaciated, said to be a perfect resemblance. In one of the hands hung +the brown and withered crown of bays, placed on his head when he +appeared the last time at the Théâtre Français. Madame de Villette +showed us some of his letters--one to his steward, about sheep, etc., +ending with, "Let there be no drinking, no rioting, no beating of your +wife." The most precious relic in this room of Voltaire's is a little +piece carved in wood by an untaught genius, and sent to Voltaire by some +peasants, as a proof of gratitude. It represents him sitting, listening +to a family of poor peasants, who are pleading their cause: it is +excellent. + +Two of the Miss Lawrences are at Paris. They are very sensible, +excellent women. They brought a letter from Miss Carr, begging me to see +them; and I hope I have had some little opportunity of obliging them, +for which they are a thousand times more greatful than I deserve. +Indeed, next to the delight of seeing my sisters so justly appreciated +and so happy at Paris, my greatest pleasure has been in the power of +introducing to each other people who longed to meet, but could not +contrive it before. We took Miss Lawrence to one of the great schools +established here on the Lancasterian principles, and we also took her to +hear a man lecture upon the mode of teaching arithmetic and geometry +which my father has recommended in _Practical Education_: the sight of +the little cubes was at once gratifying and painful. + +I have just heard from Hunter that he is printing _Rosamond_, and that +my friends at home will correct the proofs for me: GOD bless them! We +spent a very pleasant day at dear Madame de Roquefeuille's, at +Versailles; and, returning, we paid a _latish_ visit to the Princess +Potemkin. What a contrast the tone of conversation and the whole of the +society from that at Versailles! + +Certainly, no people can have seen more of the world than we have done +in the last three months. By seeing the world I mean seeing varieties of +characters and manners, and being behind the scenes of life in many +different societies and families. The constant chorus of our moral as we +drive home together at night is, "How happy we are to be so fond of each +other! How happy we are to be independent of all we see here! How happy +that we have our dear home to return to at last!" + +But to return to the Princess Potemkin: she is Russian, but she has all +the grace, softness, and winning manners of the Polish ladies, and an +oval face, pale, with the finest, softest, most expressive _chestnut_ +dark eyes. She has a sort of politeness which pleases peculiarly--a +mixture of the ease of high rank and early habit with something that is +sentimental without affectation. Madame Le Brun is painting her picture: +Madame Le Brun is sixty-six, with great vivacity as well as genius, and +better worth seeing than her pictures; for though they are speaking, she +speaks, and speaks uncommonly well. + +Madame de Noisville, _dame d'honneur_ to the Princess Potemkin, educated +her and her sisters: the friendship of the pupil and the preceptress +does honour to both. Madame de Noisville is a very well-bred woman, of +superior understanding and decided character, very entertaining and +agreeable. She told us that Rostopchin, speaking of the Russians, said +he would represent their civilisation by a naked man looking at himself +in a gilt-framed mirror. + +The Governor of Siberia lived at Petersburgh, and never went near his +government. One day the Emperor, in presence of this governor and +Rostopchin, was boasting of his farsightedness. "Commend me," said +Rostopchin, "to M. le Gouverneur, who sees so well from Petersburgh to +Siberia." Good-bye. + + * * * * * + +An evening which Miss Edgeworth spent at Neuilly _en famille_ impressed +her with the unaffected happiness of the Orleans family. The Duke showed +her the picture of himself teaching a school in America: Mademoiselle +d'Orleans pointed to her harp, and said she superintended the lessons of +her nieces; both she and her brother acknowledging how admirably Madame +de Genlis had instructed them. The Duchess sat at a round table working, +and in the course of the evening the two eldest little boys ran in from +an École d'enseignement mutuel which they attended in the neighbourhood, +with their schoolbooks in their hands, and some prizes they had gained, +eager to display them to their mother. It was a happy, simple family +party. + + * * * * * + +MARIA _to_ MRS. RUXTON. + +PARIS, _July 1820._ + +From what I have seen of the Parisians, I am convinced that they +require, if not a despot, at least an absolute monarch to reign over +them; but, leaving national character to shift for itself, I will go on +with what will interest you more--our own history. We have been much +pleased, interested, and instructed at Paris by all that we have seen of +the arts, have heard of science, and have enjoyed of society. The most +beautiful work of art I have seen at Paris, next to the façade of the +Louvre, is Canova's "Magdalene." The _prettiest_ things I have seen are +Madame Jacotot's miniatures, enamelled on porcelain--La Valliere, Madame +de Maintenon, Molière, all the celebrated people of that time; and next +to these, which are exquisite, I should name a porcelain table, with +medallions all round of the marshals of France, by Isabey, surrounding a +full-length of Napoleon in the centre. This table is generally supposed +to have been broken to pieces, but by the favour of a friend we saw it +in its place of concealment. + +We have twice dined at the Duchesse Douairière d'Orleans' [Footnote: +Louise Marie Adelaide de Bourbon Condé, widow of Louis Philippe Joseph, +Duc d'Orléans, daughter of the Duc de Penthièvre. Born March 13, 1783. +Died June 23, 1821.] little Court at Ivry, and we shall bring Mr. +William Everard there, as you may recollect he knew her at Port Mahon. +She has a benevolent countenance, and good-natured, dignified manners, +and moves with the air of a princess. Her striking likeness to Louis +XIV. _favours_ this impression. One of her _dames d'honneur_, la +Marquise de Castoras, a Spaniard, is one of the most interesting persons +I have conversed with. + +Yesterday William Everard went with us to the Chapelle Royale, where we +saw Monsieur, the Duchesse d'Angoulême and all the court. In the evening +we were at a _fete de village_ at La Celle, to which Madame de Vindé had +invited us, as like an Irish _pattern_ as possible, allowing for the +difference of dress and manner. The scene was in a beautiful grove on +each side of a romantic road leading through a valley. High wooded +banks: groups of gaily-dressed village belles and beaux seen through the +trees, in a quarry, in the sand-holes, everywhere where there was space +enough to form a quadrille. This grove was planted by Gabrielle +d'Estrées, for whom Henry IV. built a lodge near it. Fanny and Harriet +danced with two gentlemen who were of our party, and they all danced on +till dewfall, when the lamps--little glasses full of oil and a wick +suspended to the branches of the trees--were lighted, and we returned to +La Celle, where we ate ice and sat in a circle, playing _trouvez mon +ami_--mighty like "why, when, and where"--and then played loto till +twelve. Rose at six, had coffee, and drove back to Paris in the cool of +the delicious morning. To-day we are going to dine again at Neuilly with +the other Duchess of Orleans, daughter-in-law of the good old Duchess, +who by the bye spoke of Madame de Genlis in a true Christian spirit of +forgiveness, but in a whisper, and with a shake of her head, allowed +_qu'elle m'avait causée bien des chagrins._ + +Among some of the most agreeable people we have met are some Russians +and Poles. Madame Swetchine, a Russian, is one of the cleverest women I +ever heard converse. At a dinner at the young and pretty Princess +Potemkin's, on entering the dining-room, we saw only a round table +covered with fruit and sweetmeats, as if we had come in at the dessert; +and so it remained while, first, soup, then cutlets, then fish, one dish +at a time, ten or twelve one after another, were handed round, ending +with game, sweet things, and ice. + +A few days ago I saw, at the Duchesse d'Escar's, Prince Rostopchin, the +man who burned Moscow, first setting fire to his own house. I never saw +a more striking Calmuck countenance. From his conversation as well as +from his actions, I should think him a man of great strength of +character. This _soirée_ at Madame d'Escar's was not on a public night, +when she _receives_ for the King, but one of those _petits comités_, as +they call their private parties, which I am told the English seldom see. +The conversation turned, of course, first on the Queen of England, then +on Lady Hester Stanhope, then on English _dandies._ It was excessively +entertaining to hear half a dozen Parisians all speaking at once, giving +their opinions of the English _dandies_ who have appeared at Paris, +describing their manners and imitating their gestures, and sometimes by +a single gesture giving an idea of the whole man; then discussing the +difference between the _petit marquis_ of the old French comedy and the +present dandy. After many attempts at definition, and calling in Madame +d'Arblay's Meadows, with whom they are perfectly acquainted, they came +to "d'ailleurs c'est inconcevable ça." And Madame d'Escar, herself the +cleverest person in the room, summed it up: "L'essentiel c'est que notre +dandy il veut plaire aux femmes s'il le peut; mais votre dandy Anglais +ne le voudrait, même s'il le pourrait!" + +Pray tell Mrs. General Dillon I thank her for making us acquainted with +the amiable family of the Creeds, who have been exceedingly kind, and +who, I hope, like us as much as we like them. The Princess de Craon, +too, I like in another way, and Mademoiselle d'Alpy: they have +introduced us to the Mortemars--Madame de Sevigné's _Esprit de +Mortemar._ + + +_To_ MISS RUXTON. + +PASSY, _July 19._ + +Most comfortably, most happily seated at a little table in dear Madame +Gautier's cabinet, with a view of soft acacias seen through half-open +Venetian blinds, with a cool breeze waving the trees of this hanging +garden, and the song of birds and the cheerful voices of little Caroline +Delessert and her brother playing with bricks in the next room to me, I +write to you, my beloved friend. I must give you a history of one of our +last days at Paris-- + +Here entered Madame Gautier with a sweet rose and a sprig of verbena and +mignonette--so like one of the nose-gays I have so often received from +dear Aunt Ruxton, and bringing gales of Black Castle to my heart. But to +go on with my last days at Paris. + +_Friday, July_ 14.--Dancing-master nine to ten; and while Fanny and +Harriet were dancing, I paid bills, saw tradespeople, and cleared away +some of that necessary business of life which must be done behind the +scenes. Breakfasted at Camille Jordan's: it was half-past twelve before +the company assembled, and we had an hour's delightful conversation with +Camille Jordan and his wife in her spotless white muslin and little cap, +sitting at her husband's feet as he lay on the sofa, as clean, as nice, +as fresh, and as thoughtless of herself as my mother. At this breakfast +we saw three of the most distinguished of that party who call themselves +_Les Doctrinaires_--and say they are more attached to measures than to +men. Camille Jordan himself has just been deprived of his place of +Conseiller d'État and one thousand five hundred francs per annum, +because he opposed government in the law of elections. These three +Doctrinaires were Casimir Périer, Royer Collard, and Benjamin Constant, +who is, I believe, of a more violent party. I do not like him at all: +his countenance, voice, manner, and conversation are all disagreeable to +me. He is a fair, _whithky_-looking man, very near-sighted, with +spectacles which seem to pinch his nose. He pokes out his chin to keep +the spectacles on, and yet looks over the top of his spectacles, +_squinching_ up his eyes so that you cannot see your way into his mind. +Then he speaks through his nose, and with a lisp, strangely contrasting +with the vehemence of his emphasis. He does not give me any confidence +in the sincerity of his patriotism, nor any high idea of his talents, +though he seems to have a mighty high idea of them himself. He has been +well called _Le hero des brochures._ We sat beside one another, and I +think felt a mutual antipathy. On the other side of me was Royer +Collard, suffering with toothache and swelled face; but, notwithstanding +the distortion of the swelling, the natural expression of his +countenance and the strength and sincerity of his soul made their way, +and the frankness of his character and plain superiority of his talents +were manifest in five minutes' conversation. Excellent Degerando +[Footnote: A friend whom the Edgeworths had constantly met in Mme. de +Pastoret's _salon_ in 1802.] gave me an account of all he had done in +one district in Spain, where he succeeded in employing the poor and +inspiring them with a desire to receive the wages of industry, instead +of alms from hospitals, etc. At Rome he employed the poor in clearing +away many feet of earth withinside the Colosseum, and discovered beneath +a beautiful pavement; but when the Pope returned the superstition of the +people took a sudden turn, and conceiving that this earth had been +consecrated, and ought not to have been removed, they set to work and +filled in all the rubbish again over the pavement! + +After this breakfast we went to the Duchesse d'Uzès--a little, +shrivelled, thin, high-born, high-bred old lady, who knew and admired +the Abbé Edgeworth, and received us with distinction as his relations. +Her great-grandfather was the Duc de Chatillon, and she is +great-granddaughter, or something that way, of Madame de Montespan, and +her husband grand-nephew straight to Madame de la Valliere: their superb +hotel is filled with pictures of all sizes, from miniatures by Petitôt +to full-lengths by Mignard, of illustrious and interesting family +pictures--in particular, Mignard's "La Valliere en Madeleine;" we +returned to it again and again, as though we could never see it enough. +A full-length of Madame de Montespan was prettier than I wished. After a +view of these pictures and of the garden, in which there was a catalpa +in splendid flower, we departed. + +This day we dined with Lord Carrington and his daughter, Lady Stanhope: +[Footnote: Catherine Lucy, wife of the fourth Earl Stanhope.] the Count +de Noé, beside whom I sat, was an agreeable talker. In the evening we +received a note from Madame Lavoisier--Madame de Rumford, I +mean--telling us that she had just arrived at Paris, and warmly begging +to see us. Rejoiced was I that my sisters should have this glimpse of +her, and off we drove to her; but I must own that we were disappointed +in this visit, for there was a sort of _chuffiness_, and a sawdust kind +of unconnected cutshortness in her manner, which we could not like. She +was almost in the dark with one ballooned lamp, and a semicircle of +black men round her sofa, on which she sat cushioned up, giving the word +for conversation--and a very odd course she gave to it--on some wife's +separation from her husband; and she took the wife's part, and went on +for a long time in a shrill voice, proving that, where a husband and +wife detested each other, they should separate, and asserting that it +must always be the man's fault when it comes to this pass! She ordered +another lamp, that the gentlemen might, as she said, see my sisters' +pretty faces; and the light came in time to see the smiles of the +gentlemen at her matrimonial maxims. Several of the gentlemen were +unknown to me. Old Gallois sat next to her, dried, and in good +preservation, tell my mother; M. Gamier (_Richesses des Nations_) was +present, and Cuvier, with whom I had a comfortable dose of good +conversation. Just as we left the room Humboldt and the Prince de +Beauveau arrived, but we were engaged to Madame Recamier. + +_15th._--We breakfasted with Madame de l'Aigle, sister to the Due de +Broglie. (Now Madame Gautier is putting on her bonnet, to take us to La +Bagatelle.) I forgot to tell you that Prince Potemkin is nephew to _the_ +famous Potemkin. He has just returned from England, particularly pleased +with Mr. Coke, of Norfolk, and struck by the noble and useful manner in +which he spends his large fortune. This young Russian appears very +desirous to apply all he has seen in foreign countries to the advantage +of his own. + +After our breakfast at Madame de l'Aigle's, we went home, and met Prince +Edmond de Beauveau by appointment, and went with him to the Invalides; +saw the library, and plans and models of fortifications, for which the +Duc de Coigny, unasked, had sent us tickets, and there we met his +secretary, a warm Buonapartist, whom we honoured for his gratitude and +attachment to his old master. + +We dined at Passy, and met Mrs. Malthus, M. Garnier, and M. Chaptal--the +great Chaptal--a very interesting man. In the evening we were at the +Princesse de Beauveau's and Lady Granard's. + +Sunday with the Miss Byrnes to Notre Dame, and went with them to +introduce them to Lady (Sidney) Smith; charming house, gardens, and +pictures. To Madame de Rumford's, and she was very agreeable this +morning. Dined at Mr. Creed's under the trees in their garden, with Mr. +and Mrs. Malthus, and Mrs. and Miss Eyre, fresh from Italy--very +agreeable. + +Now we have returned from a very pleasant visit to La Bagatelle. What +struck me most there was the bust of the Duc d'Angoulême, with an +inscription from his own letter during the Cent Jours, when he was +detained by the enemy: _J'espère--j'exige même--que le Roi ne fera point +de sacrifice pour me revoir; je crains ni la prison ni la mort._ + +Yesterday we went to Sevres--beautiful manufacture of china, especially +a table, with views of all the royal palaces, and a vase six feet and a +half high, painted with natural flowers. + +Louis XV. was told that there was a man who had never been out of Paris; +he gave him a pension, provided he never went out of town; he quitted +Paris the year after! I have not time to make either prefaces or moral. +We breakfast at Mr. Chenevix's on Monday, and propose to be at Geneva on +Saturday. + + +_To_ MISS LUCY EDGEWORTH. + +PASSY, _July 23, 1820._ + +I hope this will find you under the tree in my garden, with Sophy Ruxton +near you, and my mother and Sophy and Pakenham, who will run and call my +aunts, for whom Honora will set chairs; and Lovell will, I hope, be at +home too; so I picture you to myself all happily assembled, and you have +had a good night, and all is right, and Honora has placed my Aunt Mary +with her back to the light--AND Maria is very like Mr. Fitzherbert, who +always tells his friends at home what _they_ are doing, instead of what +he is doing, which is what they want to know. + +Yesterday we dined--for the last time, alas! this season--with excellent +Benjamin Delessert. The red book which you will receive with this letter +was among the many other pretty books lying on the table before dinner, +and I was so much delighted with it, and wished so much that Pakenham +was looking at it with me, that dear François Delessert procured a copy +of _Les Animaux savants_ for me the next morning. We never saw Les Cerfs +at Tivoli, but we saw a woman walk down a rope in the midst of the +fireworks, and I could not help shutting my eyes. As I was looking at +the picture of the stag rope-dancer in this book, and talking of the +wonderful intelligence and feeling of animals, an old lady who was +beside me told me that some Spanish horses she had seen were uncommonly +proud-spirited, always resenting an insult more than an injury. One of +these, who had been used to be much caressed by his master, saw him in a +field one day talking to a friend, and came up, according to his custom, +to be caressed. The horse put his head in between the master and his +friend, to whom he was talking; the master, eager in conversation, gave +him a box on the ear; the horse withdrew his head instantly, took it for +an affront, and never more would he permit his master to caress or mount +him again. + +The little _dessert_ directed for Pakenham [Footnote: Her youngest +brother.] was picked out for him from a dish of bonbons at the last +dessert at Benjamin's. It is impossible to tell you all the little +exquisite instances of kindness and attention we have received from this +excellent family. The respect, affection, and admiration with which, _à +propos_ to everything great and small, they remember my father and +mother, is most touching and gratifying. + +Yesterday morning we had been talking of Mrs. Hofland's _Son of a +Genius_, which is very well translated under the name of _Ludovico._ I +told Madame Gautier the history of Mrs. Hofland, and then went to look +for the lines which she wrote on my father's birthday. Madame Gautier +followed me into this cabinet to read them. I then showed to her Sophy's +lines, which I love so much. + +Sophy! I see your colour rising; but trust to me! I will never do you +any harm. + +Madame Gautier was exceedingly touched with them. She pointed to the +line, + + Those days are past which never can return, + +and said in English, "This is the day on which we all used to celebrate +my dear mother's birthday, but I never _keep_ days now, except that, +according to our Swiss custom, we carry flowers early in the morning to +the grave. She and my father are buried in this garden, in a place you +have not seen; I have been there at six o'clock this morning. You will +not wonder, then, my dear friend, at my being touched by your sister +Sophy's verses. I wish to know her; I am sure I shall love her. Is she +most like Fanny or Harriet?" This led to a conversation on the +difference between our different sisters and brothers; and Madame +Gautier, in a most eloquent manner, described the character of each of +her brothers, ending with speaking of Benjamin. "Men have often two +kinds of consideration in society; one derived from their public +conduct, the other enjoyed in their private capacity. My brother +Benjamin has equal influence in both. We all look up to him; we all +apply to him as to our guardian friend. Besides the advantage of having +such a friend, it gives us a pleasure which no money can purchase--the +pleasure of feeling the mind elevated by looking up to a character we +perfectly esteem, and that repose which results from perfect +confidence." + +I find always, when I come to the end of my paper, that I have not told +you several entertaining things I had treasured up for you. I had a +history of a man and woman from Cochin China, which must now be squeezed +almost to death. Just before the French Revolution a French military man +went out to India, was wrecked, and with two or three companions made +his way, LORD knows how, to Cochin China. It happened that the King of +Cochin China was at war, and was glad of some hints from the French +officer, who was encouraged to settle in Cochin China, married a Cochin +Chinese lady, rose to power and credit, became a mandarin of the first +class, and within the last month has arrived in France with his +daughter. When his relations offered to embrace her, she drew back with +horror. She is completely Chinese, and her idea of happiness is to sit +still and do nothing, not even to blow her nose. I hope she will not +half change her views and opinions while she is in France, or she would +become wholly unhappy on her return to China. Her father is on his word +of honour to return in two years. + +I send by Lord Carrington a cutting of cactus, for my mother, from this +garden: it is carefully packed, and will, I think, grow in the +greenhouse. + + +_To_ MRS. RUXTON. + +AT MR. MOILLIET'S, PREGNY, GENEVA, + +_August 5, 1820._ + +Whenever I feel any strong emotion, especially of pleasure, you, friend +of my youth and age,--you, dear resemblance of my father,--are always +present to my mind; and I always wish and want immediately to +communicate to you my feelings. + +I did not conceive it possible that I should feel so much pleasure from +the beauties of nature as I have done since I came to this country. The +first moment when I saw Mont Blanc will remain an era in my life--a new +idea, a new feeling, standing alone in the mind. + +We are most comfortably settled here: Dumont, Pictet, Dr. and Mrs. +Marcet, and various others, dined and spent two most agreeable evenings +here; and the fourth day after our arrival we set out on our expedition +to Chamouni with M. Pictet, as kind, as active, and as warm-hearted as +ever. Mrs. Moilliet was prevented, by the indisposition of Susan, from +accompanying us; but Mr. Moilliet and Emily came with us at five o'clock +in the morning in Mr. Moilliet's landau: raining desperately--great +doubts--but on we went: rain ceased--the sun came out, the landau was +opened, and all was delightful. + +My first impression of the country was that it was like Wales; but +snow-capped Mont Blanc, visible everywhere from different points of +view, distinguished the landscape from all I had ever seen before. Then +the sides of the mountains, quite different from Wales indeed-- +cultivated with garden care, green vineyards, patches of _blé de +Turquie_, hemp, and potatoes, all without enclosure of any kind, mixed +with trees and shrubs: then the garden-cultivation abruptly +ceasing--bare white rocks and fir above, fir measuring straight to the +eye the prodigious height. Between the foot of the mountain and the road +spread a border-plain of verdure, about the breadth of the lawn at Black +Castle between the trellis and Suzy Clarke's, rich with chestnut and +walnut trees, and scarlet barberries enlivening the green. + +The inns on the Chamouni roads are much better than those on the road +from Paris; we grew quite fond of the honest family of the hotel at +Chamouni. Pictet knows all the people, and wherever we stopped they all +flocked round him with such cordial gratitude in their faces, from the +little children to the gray-headed men and women; all seemed to love +"Monsieur le Professeur." The guides, especially Pierre Balmat and his +son, are some of the best-informed and most agreeable men I ever +conversed with. Indeed for six months of the year they keep company with +the most distinguished travellers of Europe. With these guides, each of +us armed with a long pole with an iron spike, such as my uncle described +to me ages ago, and which I never expected to wield, we came down La +Flegère, which we mounted on mules. In talking to an old woman who +brought us strawberries, I was surprised to hear her pronounce the +Italian proverb, "_Poco a poco fa lontano nel giorno._" I thought she +must have been beyond the Alps--no, she had never been out of her own +mountains. The patois of these people is very agreeable--a mixture of +the Italian fond diminutives and accents on the last syllable-- +Septembré, Octobré. + +Our evening walk was to the arch of ice at the source of the Arveron, +and we went in the dusk to see a manufactory of cloth, made by a single +individual peasant--the machinery for spinning, carding, weaving, and +all made, woodwork and ironwork, by his own hands. He had in his youth +worked in some manufactory in Dauphiné. The workmanship was astonishing, +and the modesty and philosophy of the man still more astonishing. When I +said, "I hope all this succeeds in making money for you and your +family," he answered, "Money was not my object: I make just enough for +myself and my family to live by, and that is all I want; I made it for +employment for ourselves in the long winter evenings. And if it lasts +after me, it may be of service to some of them; but I do not much look +to that. It often happens that sons are of a different way of thinking +from their fathers: mine may think little of these things, and if so, no +harm." + +The _table-d'hôte_ at Chamouni--thirty people--was very entertaining. We +had a most agreeable addition to our party in M. and Madame Arago: he +was very civil to us at Paris, and very glad to meet us again. As we +were walking to a cascade, he told me most romantic adventures of his in +Spain and Algiers, which I will tell you hereafter; but I must tell you +now a curious anecdote of Buonaparte. When he had abdicated after the +battle of Waterloo, he sent for Arago, and offered him a considerable +sum of money if he would accompany him to America. He had formed the +project of establishing himself in America, and of carrying there in his +train several men of science! Madame Bertrand was the person who +persuaded him to go to England. Arago was so disgusted at his deserting +his troops, he would have nothing more to do with him. + +We returned by the beautiful valley of Sallenches and St. Gervais to +Geneva. I forgot to mention about a dozen cascades, one more beautiful +than the other, and I thought of Ondine, which you hate, and _mon Oncle +Friedelhausen._ We had left our carriage at St. Martin, and travelled in +_char-à-bancs_, with which you and Sophy made me long ago +acquainted--cousin-german to an Irish jaunting-car. We were well +drenched by the rain; and as we had imprudently lined our great straw +hats with green, we arrived at St. Gervais with chins and shoulders dyed +green. The hotel at St. Gervais is the most singular-looking house I +ever saw. You drive through a valley, between high pine-covered +mountains that seem remote from human habitation--when suddenly in a +scoop-out in the valley you see a large, low, strange wooden building +round three sides of a square, half Chinese, half American-looking, with +galleries, and domes, and sheds--the whole of unpainted wood. Under the +projecting roof of the gallery stood a lady in a purple silk dress, +plaiting straw, and various other figures in shawls, and caps, and +flowered bonnets, some looking very fine, others deadly sick--all +curious to see the new-comers. M. Goutar, the master, reminded me of +Samuel Essington: [Footnote: An old servant.] full of gratitude to M. +Pictet, who had discovered these baths for him, he whisked about with +his round perspiring face, eager to say a hundred things at once, with a +tongue too large for his mouth and a goitre which impeded his utterance, +and showed us his douches and contrivances, and spits turned by +water--very ingenious. Dinner was in a long, low, narrow room--about +fifty people; and after dinner we were ushered into a room with calico +curtains, very smart--a select party let in. Many unexpected compliments +on _Patronage_ from a Dijon Marquise, who was at the baths to get rid of +a redness in her nose. Enter, a sick but very gentlewomanlike Prussian +Countess, _Patronage_ again: Walter Scott's novels, as well known as in +England, admirably criticised. She promised me a letter to Madame de +Montolieu. + +At Chamouni there is a little museum of stones and crystals, etc., where +MM. Moilliet and Pictet contrived to treat their geological souls to +seven napoleons' worth of specimens. An English lady was buying some +baubles, when her husband entered: "God bless my soul and body, +_another_ napoleon gone!" + +At the inn at Bonneville--_shackamarack_ gilt dirt, Irish-French. Pictet +bought a sparrow some boys in the street threw up at the window, and +said he would bring it home for his little grandson. It was ornamented +with a topping made of scarlet cloth. He put it in his hat, and tied a +handkerchief over it; and hatless in the burning sun he brought it to +Geneva. + + +_August 6._ + +The day after our return we dined at Mrs. Marcet's with M. Dumont, M. +and Madame Prevost, M. de la Rive, M. Bonstettin, and M. de Candolle, +the botanist, a particularly agreeable man. He told us of many +experiments on the cure of goitres. In proportion as the land has been +cultivated in some districts the goitres have disappeared. M. Bonstettin +told us of some cretins, the lowest in the scale of human intellect, who +used to assemble before a barber's shop and laugh immoderately at their +own imitations of all those who came to the shop, ridiculing them in a +language of their own. + + +_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH. + +PREGNY, _Aug. 10, 1820._ + +I wrote to my Aunt Ruxton a long--much too long an account of our +Chamouni excursion, since which we have dined at Pictet's with his +daughters, Madame Prevost Pictet and Madame Vernet, agreeable, sensible, +and the remains of great beauty; but the grandest of all his married +daughters is Madame Enard. M. Enard is building a magnificent house, the +admiration, envy, and _scandal_ of Geneva; we have called it the Palais +de la Republique. + +Dumont, tell Honora, is very kind and cordial; he seems to enjoy +universal consideration here, and he loves Mont Blanc next to Bentham, +above all created things: I had no idea till I saw him here how much he +enjoyed the beauties of nature. He gave us a charming anecdote of Madame +de Staël when she was very young. One day M. Suard, as he entered the +saloon of the Hotel Necker, saw Madame Necker going out of the room, and +Mademoiselle Necker standing in a melancholy attitude with tears in her +eyes. Guessing that Madame Necker had been lecturing her, Suard went +towards her to comfort her, and whispered, _"Un caresse du papa vous +dedommagera bien de tout ça."_ She immediately, wiping the tears from +her eyes, answered, _"Eh! oui, Monsieur, mon père songe à mon bonheur +present, maman songe à mon avenir."_ There was more than presence of +mind, there was heart and soul and greatness of mind, in this answer. + +Dumont speaks to me in the kindest, most tender, and affectionate manner +of our _Memoirs_; he says he hears from England, and from all who have +read them, that they have produced the effect we wished and hoped; the +MS. had interested him, he said, so deeply that with all his efforts he +could not then put himself in the place of the indifferent public. + +M. Vernet, Pictet's son-in-law, mentioned a compliment of a Protestant +curé at Geneva to the new Catholic Bishop which French politeness might +envy, and which I wish that party spirit in Ireland and all over the +world could imitate. "_Monseigneur, vous êtes dans un pays où la moitié +du peuple vous ouvre leurs coeurs, et l'autre moitié vous tende les +bras." + +We have taken a pretty and comfortable caleche for our three weeks' tour +with the Moilliets. But I must tell you of our visit to M. and Madame de +Candolle; we went there to see some volumes of drawings of flowers which +had been made for him. I will begin from the beginning; Joseph +Buonaparte, who has been represented by some as a mere drunkard, did, +nevertheless, some good things; he encouraged a Spaniard of botanical +skill to go over to Mexico and make a Mexican flora; he employed Mexican +artists, and expended considerable sums of money upon it; the work was +completed, but the engraving had not been commenced when the revolution +drove Joseph from his throne. The Spaniard withdrew from Spain, bringing +with him his botanical treasure, and took refuge at Marseilles, where he +met De Candolle, who, on looking over his Mexican flora, said it was +admirably well done for Mexicans, who had no access to European books, +and he pointed out its deficiencies; they worked at it for eighteen +months, when De Candolle was to return to Geneva, and the Spaniard said +to him, "Take the book--as far as I am concerned, I give it to you, but +if my government should reclaim it, you will let me have it." De +Candolle took it and returned to Geneva, where he became not only famous +but beloved by all the inhabitants. This summer he gave a course of +lectures on botany, which has been the theme of universal admiration. +Just as the lectures finished, a letter came from the Spaniard, saying +he had been unexpectedly recalled to Spain, that the King had offered to +him the Professorship he formerly held, that he could not appear before +the King without his book; and that, however unwilling, he must request +him to return it in eight days. One of De Candolle's young-lady pupils +was present when he received the letter and expressed his regret at +losing the drawings: she exclaimed, "We will copy them for you." De +Candolle said it was impossible--1500 drawings in eight days! He had +some duplicates, however, and some which were not peculiar to Mexico he +threw aside; this reduced the number to a thousand, which were +distributed among the volunteer artists. The talents and the industry +shown, he says, were astonishing; all joined in this benevolent +undertaking without vanity and without rivalship; those who could not +paint drew the outlines; those who could not draw, traced; those who +could not trace made themselves useful by carrying the drawings +backwards and forwards. One was by an old lady of eighty. We saw +thirteen folio volumes of these drawings done in the eight days! Of +course some were much worse than others, but even this I liked: it +showed that individuals were ready to sacrifice their own _amour propre_ +in a benevolent undertaking. + +De Candolle went himself with the original Flora to the frontier; he was +to send it by Lyons. Now the custom-house officers between the territory +of Geneva and France are some of the most strict and troublesome in the +universe, and when they saw the book they said, "You must pay 1500 +francs for this." But when the chief of the Douane heard the story, he +caught the enthusiasm, and with something like a tear in the corner of +his eye, exclaimed, "We must let this book pass. I hazard my place; but +let it pass." + + +_To_ MISS LUCY EDGEWORTH. + +PREGNY, _Aug 13, 1820._ + +Ask to see _Lettres Physiques et Morales sur l'Histoire de la Terre et +de l'Homme, adressées à la Reine d'Angleterre. Par M. de Luc._ 1778. + +Ask your mother to send a messenger forthwith to Pakenham Hall to borrow +this book; and if the gossoon does not bring it from Pakenham Hall, next +morning at flight of night send off another or the same to Castle +Forbes, and to Mr. Cobbe, who, if he has not the book, ought to be +hanged, and if he has, drawn and quartered if he does not send it to +you. But if, nevertheless, he should not send it, do not rest satisfied +under three fruitless attempts; let another--not the same boy, as I +presume his feet are weary--gossoon be off at the flight of night for +Baronstown, and in case of a fourth failure there, order him neither to +stint nor stay till he reaches Sonna, where I hope he will at last find +it. Now if, after all, it should not amuse you, I shall be much +mistaken, that's all. Skip over the tiresome parts, of which there are +many, and you will find an account of the journey we are going to make, +and of many of the feelings we have had in seeing glaciers, seas of ice +and mountains. + +I believe I mentioned in some former letter that we had become +acquainted with M. Arago, who, in his height and size, reminded us of +our own dear Dr. Brinckley, but I am sure I did not tell what I kept for +you, my dear Lucy, that you might have the pleasure of telling it to +your mother and all the friends around you. + +When M. Arago was with us in our excursion to Chamouni, he was speaking +of the voyage of Captain Scoresby to the Arctic regions, which he had +with him and was reading with great delight. As I found he was fond of +voyages and travels, and from what he said of this book perceived that +he was an excellent judge of their merits, I asked if he had ever +happened to meet with a book called _Karamania_, by a Captain Beaufort. +He knew nothing of our connection with him, and I spoke with a perfect +indifference from which he could not guess that I felt any interest +about the book, or the person, but the sort of lighting up of pleasure +which you have seen in Dr. Brinckley's face when he hears of a thing he +much approves, immediately appeared in Monsieur Arago's face, and he +said _Karamania_ was, of all the books of travels he had seen, that +which he admired the most: that he had admired it for its clearness, its +truth, its perfect freedom from ostentation. He said it contained more +knowledge in fewer words than any book of travels he knew, and must +remain a book of reference--a standard book. Then he mentioned several +passages that he recollected having liked, which proved the impression +they had made; the Greek fire, the amphitheatre at Sidé, etc. He knew +the book as well as we do, and alluded to the parts we all liked with +great rapidity and delight in perceiving our sympathy. He pointed out +the places where an ordinary writer would have given pages of +amplification. He was particularly pleased with the manner in which the +affair of the sixty Turks is told, and said, "That marked the character +of the man and does honour to his country." + +I then told him that Captain Beaufort was uncle to the two young ladies +with me! + +He told me he had read an article in the _Journal des Sçavans_ in which +_Karamania_ is mentioned and parts translated. I have recommended it to +many at Paris who wanted English books to translate, but I am sorry to +say that little is read there besides politics and novels. Science has, +however, a better chance than literature. + +Whenever any one in your Book Society wants to bespeak a book, perhaps +you could order _Recueil des Éloges, par M. Cuvier._ They contain the +_Lives_, not merely the _Éloges_, of all the men of science since 1880, +written, and with an excellent introduction. The lives of Priestley and +Cavendish are written with so much candour towards the English +philosophers that even Mr. Chenevix cannot have anything to complain of. + + +_To_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH. + +BERNE, + +_August 19, 1820._ + +The day we set out from Pregny we breakfasted at Coppet; from some +misunderstanding M. de Staël had not expected us and had breakfasted, +but as he is remarkably well-bred, easy, and obliging in his manners he +was not _put out_, and while our breakfast was preparing he showed us +the house. All the rooms once inhabited by Madame de Staël we could not +think of as common rooms--they have a classical power over the mind, and +this was much heightened by the strong attachment and respect for her +memory shown in every word and look, and _silence_ by her son and by her +friend, Miss Randall. He is correcting for the press _Les dix Années +d'Exil._ M. de Staël after breakfast took us a delightful walk through +the grounds, which he is improving with good taste and judgment. He told +me that his mother never gave any work to the public in the form in +which she originally composed it; she changed the arrangement and +expression of her thoughts with such facility, and was so little +attached to her own first views of the subject that often a work was +completely remodelled by her while passing through the press. Her father +disliked to see her make any formal preparation for writing when she was +young, so that she used to write often on the corner of the +chimney-piece, or on a pasteboard held in her hand, and always in the +room with others, for her father could not bear her to be out of the +room--and this habit of writing without preparation she preserved ever +afterwards. + +M. de Staël told me of a curious interview he had with Buonaparte when +he was enraged with his mother, who had published remarks on his +government--concluding with "Eh! bien vous avez raison aussi. Je conçois +qu'un fils doit toujours faire la defense de sa mère, mais enfin, si +Monsieur veut écrire des libelles, il faut aller en Angleterre. Ou bien, +s'il cherche la gloire, c'est en Angleterre qu'il faut aller. C'est +l'Angleterre, ou la France--il n'y a que ces deux pays en Europe--dans +le monde." + +Before any one else at Paris, Miss Randall told me, had the _MS. de +Sainte-Hélène_, a copy had been sent to the Duke of Wellington, who lent +it to Madame de Staël; she began to read it eagerly, and when she had +read about half, she stopped and exclaimed, "Where is Benjamin Constant? +we will wait for him." When he came, she began to give him an account of +what they had been reading; he listened with the indifference of a +person who had already seen the book, and when she urged him to read up +to them, he said he would go on where they were. When it was criticised, +he defended it, or writhed under it as if the attack was personal. When +accused of being the author, he denied it with vehemence, and Miss +Randall said to him, "If you had simply denied it I might have believed +you, but when you come to swearing, I am sure that you are the author." + +M. de Staël called his little brother, Alphonse Rocca, to introduce him +to us; he is a pleasing, gentle-looking, ivory-pale boy with dark-blue +eyes, not the least like Madame de Staël. M. de Staël speaks English +perfectly, and with the air of an Englishman of fashion. After our walk +he proposed our going on the lake--and we rowed for about an hour. The +deep, deep blue of the water, and the varying colours as the sun shone +and the shadows of the clouds appeared on it were beautiful. When we +returned and went to rest in M. de Staël's cabinet, Dumont, who had +quoted from Voltaire's "Ode on the Lake of Geneva," read it to us. Read +it and tell me where you think it ought to begin. + +We slept at Morges on Tuesday, and arrived late and tired at Yverdun. +Next morning we went to see Pestalozzi's establishment; he recognised me +and I him; he is, tell my mother, the same wild-looking man he was, with +the addition of seventeen years. The whole superintendence of the school +is now in the hands of his masters; he just shows a visitor into the +room, and reappears as you are going away with a look that pleads +irresistibly for an obole of praise. + +While we were in the school, and while I was stretching my poor little +comprehension to the utmost to follow the master of mathematics, I saw +enter a benevolent-looking man with an open forehead and a clear, kind +eye. He was obviously an Englishman, and from his manner of standing I +thought he was a captain in the navy. My attention was called away, and +I was intent upon an account of a school for deaf and dumb, which I was +interested in on account of William Beaufort, when a lady desired to be +introduced to me; she said she had been talking to Mrs. Moilliet, taking +her for Miss Edgeworth--she was "the wife of Captain Hillyar, Captain +Beaufort's friend." What a revolution in all our ideas! We almost ran to +Captain Hillyar, my benevolent--looking Englishman, and most cordially +did he receive us, and insisted upon our all coming to dine with him. +When I presented Fanny and Harriet to him as Captain Beaufort's nieces +he did look so pleased, and all the way home he was praising Captain +Beaufort with such delight to himself. "But I never write to the fellow, +faith! I'll tell you the truth; I can't bring myself to sit down and +write to him, he is such a superior being; I can't do it; what can I +have to say worth his reading? Why, look at his letters, one page of +them contains more sense than I could write in a volume." + +At dinner, turning to Fanny and Harriet, he drank "Uncle Francis's +health;" and when we took leave he shook us by the hand at the carriage +door. "You know we sailors can never take leave without a hearty shake +of the hand. It comes from the heart, and I hope will go to it." + +From Yverdun our evening drive by the lake of Neufchatel was beautiful, +and mounting gradually we came late at night to Paienne, and next day to +Fribourg, at the dirtiest of inns, as if kept by chance, and such a +mixture of smells of onions, grease, dirt, and dunghill! But, never +mind! I would bear all that, and more, to see and hear Père Gèrard. But +this I keep for Lovell, as I shall tell him all about Pestalozzi, +Fellenburg, and Père Gèrard's schools. You shall not even know who Père +Gèrard is. + +So we go on to Berne. The moment we entered this canton we perceived the +superior cultivation of the land, the comfort of the cottagers, and +their fresh-coloured, honest, jolly, independent, hard-working +appearance. Trees of superb growth, beech and fir, beautifully mixed, +grew on the sides of the mountains. On the road here we had the finest +lightning I ever saw flashing from the horizon. Berne is chiefly built +of a whitish stone, like Bath stone, and has flagged walks arched over, +like Chester. A clear rivulet runs through the middle of each street: +there are delightful public walks. On Sunday we saw the peasants in +their holiday costume, very pretty, etc. + +I have kept to the last that M. de Staël and Miss Randall spoke in the +most gratifying terms of praise of my father's life. + + + + +SUMMARY OF VOLUME I + + +1767-1787 + +Childhood of Maria Edgeworth--Death of her mother and marriage of her +father to Miss Honora Sneyd--Death of Mrs. Honora Edgeworth and marriage +of Mr. Edgeworth to Miss Elizabeth Sneyd--Life at Edgeworthstown. + + +1787-1793 + +Letters from Maria Edgeworth from Edgeworthstown, Clifton, and London to +Miss Charlotte Sneyd, Mr. and Mrs. Ruxton, and Miss Sophy Ruxton. + +Journey to Clifton--Dr. Darwin, Mrs. Yearsly, and Hannah More--Visit to +Mrs. Charles Hoare--Dr. Beddoes--Return to Ireland. + + +1793-1795 + +Letters from Edgeworthstown to Miss Sophy Ruxton, Mrs. Ruxton, Mrs. +Elizabeth Edgeworth. + +Literary occupations of Maria Edgeworth: _Letters for Literary Ladies, +Practical Education_--Disturbances in Ireland: Lord Granard, the "White +Tooths," General Crosby's adventure. + + +1795-1798 + +Letters from Edgeworthstown to Mrs. Ruxton, Miss S. Ruxton, Miss +Beaufort. + +Publication of _Letters for Literary Ladies_ and _The Parent's +Assistant_--Mr. Edgeworth's election to the Irish Parliament--Literary +work and study: _Moral Tales, Irish Bulls_--Madame Roland's +Memoirs--Death of Mrs. Edgeworth, and marriage of Mr. Edgeworth to Miss +Beaufort. + + +1798-1799 + +Letters from Edgeworthstown, Longford, and Dublin to Miss Sophy Ruxton, +Mrs. Ruxton, Miss Charlotte Sneyd. + +The Irish Rebellion: Lord Cornwallis, Lady Anne Fox--Flight from +Edgeworthstown to Longford--Return to Edgeworthstown--Publication of +_Practical Education_--Theatricals: _Whim for Whim_--At Dublin. + + +1799-1802 + +Letters from Clifton, Edgeworthstown, and Loughborough to Mrs. Ruxton, +Miss Ruxton. + +At Clifton: Sir Humphry Davy, Dr. Beddoes, Mrs. Barbauld--Death of Dr. +Darwin--Literary work at Edgeworthstown: _Castle Rackrent, Belinda, +Early Lessons, Moral Tales, Essay on Irish Bulls_--Visits of Mr. +Chenevix and Professor Pictet--Journey to London. + + +1802-1803 + +Letters from London, Brussels, Chantilly, Paris, Calais, Edinburgh to +Miss Sneyd, Miss Sophy Ruxton, Mrs. Mary Sneyd, Mrs. Ruxton, C.S. +Edgeworth. + +A visit to Miss Watts at Leicester--Journey to Paris: Calais, Dunkirk, +Bruges, Ghent--Madame Talma in _Andromaque_ at Brussels--Palace of +Chantilly--Paris: Madame Delessert, Madame Gautier, Madame de Pastoret, +M. Dumont, Abbé Morellet, M. Suard, Marquis of Lansdowne, M. Degerando, +M. Camille Jordan, Madame Campan, Madame Recamier, Baron de Prony, +Rogers, M. Pictet, Kosciusko--Monsieur Edelcrantz proposes to Maria +Edgeworth; her feelings towards him--Buonaparte--Madame d'Ouditot and +Rousseau--Rumours of war--The Edgeworths return to England--Account of a +visit to Madame de Genlis. + + +1803-1809 + +Letters from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Black Castle, Edgeworthstown, +Rosstrevor, Allenstown, Pakenham Hall to Mrs. Ruxton, Miss Honora +Edgeworth, Miss Charlotte Sneyd, Miss Ruxton, Henry Edgeworth, C. Sneyd +Edgeworth, Mrs. Edgeworth. + +Visit to Lindley Murray at Newcastle--Dugald Stewart at +Edinburgh--Return to Edgeworthstown--Literary work: _Popular Tales, +Leonora, Griselda_--Marriage of Miss Pakenham to Sir Arthur Wellesley +(Duke of Wellington)--Death of Dr. Beddoes. + + +1809-1813 + +Letters from Edgeworthstown, Black Castle, Bangor Ferry, Liverpool, +Derby, Cambridge, London to Miss Ruxton, Miss Honora Edgeworth, Mrs. +Ruxton, C. Sneyd Edgeworth, Miss Sneyd, Mrs. Edgeworth. + +Publication of _Tales of Fashionable Life_: Madame de Staël, Lord +Dudley, Lord Jeffrey upon--Life at Edgeworthstown: Mr. Chenevix, Miss +Lydia White, Sir Henry Holland, Mrs. Inchbald, Mrs. Barbauld, Hannah +More, Lady Wellington--Marriage of Sir Humphry Davy--Literary pursuits: +Byron's _English Bards_, Scott's _Lady of the Lake_ and _Rokeby_, +Campbell: _Patronage, Tales of Fashionable Life_ (second series), _The +Absentee_--Balloon ascent of Sadler--Journey to London: Roscoe, Dr. +Ferrier, Sir Henry Holland--Visit to Cambridge and to Dr. Clarke at +Trumpington. + + +1813-1817 + +Letters from London, Malvern Links, Ross, Edgeworthstown, Dublin, Black +Castle to Miss Ruxton, Mrs. Ruxton, Sir Walter Scott, C.S. Edgeworth. + +Visit to London: Madame de Staël, Davy, Byron, Miss Berry's, Lord +Lansdowne, Lady Wellington, Mrs. Siddons, the Prince Regent, Lady +Elizabeth Monk, Dukes of Kent and Sussex, Sir James Macintosh, Dumont, +Sir Samuel Romilly, Dr. Parr, Malthus, Madame d'Arblay, Rogers--Return +to, and life at Edgeworthstown: _Early Lessons, Popular Plays, +Harrington, Ormond--Waverley_--Illness and Death of Mr. Edgeworth. + + +1817-1820 + +Letters from Edgeworthstown, Mount Kennedy, Bowood, Epping, Hampstead, +Byrkely Lodge, Tetsworth, London, Dublin, Heathfield, Canterbury to Mrs. +Ruxton, Mrs. Stark, Mrs. Edgeworth, Miss Ruxton, Miss Waller, Miss Lucy +Edgeworth, Miss Honora Edgeworth. + +Literary pursuits at Edgeworthstown: Miss Austen--Visits to Bowood: Lord +Lansdowne, Dumont, Lord Grenville, Mr. Hare, Dugald Stewart--Death of +Sir Samuel Romilly--Joanna Baillie, Watt, Campbell--London: Mill, +Wilberforce, Duke and Duchess of Wellington, Lord Palmerston--Visit to +Ireland--Journey to Paris. + + +1820 + +Letters from Paris, La Celle, Passy, Geneva, Pregny, Berne to Mrs. +Edgeworth, Mrs. Ruxton, Miss Ruxton, Miss Lucy Edgeworth, Miss Honora +Edgeworth. + +Paris: Duchesse de Broglie, Madame Recamier, Camille Jordan, +Cuvier--Prony's anecdotes of Buonaparte--Visit to M. de Vindé's +country-house--A visit to the Duke of Orleans at Neuilly--Duchesse +d'Angoulême, Casimir Périer, Duchesse d'Uzès, Humboldt, Malthus--Journey +through Switzerland: Dumont, M. de Staël. + + +END OF VOL. I + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARIA EDGEWORTH, VOL. 1 *** + +This file should be named 8825-8.txt or 8825-8.zip + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +We are now trying to release all our eBooks one year in advance +of the official release dates, leaving time for better editing. +Please be encouraged to tell us about any error or corrections, +even years after the official publication date. + +Please note neither this listing nor its contents are final til +midnight of the last day of the month of any such announcement. +The official release date of all Project Gutenberg eBooks is at +Midnight, Central Time, of the last day of the stated month. 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