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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth,
+Vol. 2, by Maria Edgeworth
+#8 in our series by Maria Edgeworth
+
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+Title: The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Vol. 2
+
+Author: Maria Edgeworth
+
+Release Date: October, 2005 [EBook #9095]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on September 4, 2003]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARIA EDGEWORTH ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Sandra Brown Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+THE
+
+LIFE AND LETTERS
+
+OF
+
+MARIA EDGEWORTH
+
+
+Edited By
+
+AUGUSTUS J.C. HARE
+
+
+VOL. II
+
+
+
+
+MARIA EDGEWORTH
+
+
+MARIA _to_ MISS WALLER.
+
+COPPET, _Sept. 1, 1820_.
+
+I am sure that you have heard of us, and of all we have done and seen
+from Edgeworthstown as far as Berne: from thence we went to Thun: there
+we took _char-à-bancs_, little low carriages, like half an Irish
+jaunting car, with four wheels, and a square tarpaulin awning over our
+heads. Jolting along on these vehicles, which would go over a house, I
+am sure, without being overturned or without being surprised, we
+went--the Swiss postillion jolting along at the same round rate up and
+down, without ever looking back to see whether the carriages and
+passengers follow, yet now and then turning to point to mountains,
+glaciers, and cascades. The valley of Lauterbrunn is beautiful; a clear,
+rushing cascady stream rushes through it: fine chestnuts, walnuts, and
+sycamores scattered about, the verdure on the mountains between the
+woods fresh and bright. Pointed mountains covered with snow in the midst
+of every sign of flowery summer strike us with a sense of the sublime
+which never grows familiar. The height of the Staubach waterfall, which
+we saw early in the morning, astonished my mind, I think, more than my
+eyes, looking more like thin vapour than water--more like _strings_ of
+water; and I own I was disappointed, after all I had heard of it.
+
+We went on to the valley of Grindelwald, where we saw, as we thought two
+fields off, a glacier to which we wished to go; and accordingly we left
+the _char-à-bancs_, and walked down the sloping field, expecting to
+reach it in a few minutes, but we found it a long walk--about two miles.
+To this sort of deception about distances we are continually subject,
+from the clearness of the air, and from the unusual size of the objects,
+for which we have no points of comparison, and no previous habits of
+estimating. We were repaid for our walk, however, when we came to the
+source of the Lutzen, which springs under an arch of ice in the glacier.
+The river runs clear and sparkling through the valley, while over the
+arch rests a mountain of ice, and beside it a valley of ice; not smooth
+or uniform, but in pyramids, and arches, and blocks of immense size, and
+between them clefts and ravines. The sight and the sound of the waters
+rushing, and the solemn immovability of the ice, formed a sublime
+contrast.
+
+On the grass at the very foot of this glacier were some of the most
+delicious wood-strawberries I ever tasted.
+
+At Interlaken we met Sneyd [Footnote: Her half-brother, son of the third
+Mrs. Edgeworth, and his wife Henrica Broadhurst.] and Henrica in a very
+pleasant situation in that most beautiful country. We parted on the
+banks of the lake of Brienz. On this lake we had an hour's delightful
+sailing, and _put into_ a little bay and climbed up a mountain to see
+the cascade of the Giesbach, by far the most beautiful I ever beheld,
+and beyond all of which painting or poetry had ever given me any idea.
+Indeed it is particularly difficult, if not absolutely impossible, to
+give a representation of cascades which depend for effect upon the
+height from which they fall, the rush of motion, the sparkling and foam
+of the water in motion, and the magnitude of the surrounding objects.
+
+After passing the lake of Brienz, we came to the far-famed valley of
+Meyringen, which had been much cried up to us; but, whether from the
+usual perverseness of human nature, or from being spoiled by the luxury
+of cascades, valleys, and Alps we had previously seen, we were
+disappointed in it, though, to do it justice, it has nine cascades.
+
+We slept at a wooden inn, and rose at three; and, before four, mounted
+on our horses, set off for the Brunig; and after having gone up La
+Flegère at Chamouni, the crossing the Brunig was a small consideration.
+Brava! brava!
+
+But--something happened to me and my horse; the result being that I went
+up the Brunig and down the Brunig on my two legs instead of on the
+horse's four, and was not the least tired with my three hours' scramble
+up and scramble down. At the little town of Sarnen we ate eggs and drank
+sour wine, and Mr. Moilliet, Fanny, and Harriet remounted their horses;
+Mrs. Moilliet, Emily, Susan, and I went in a _char-à-banc_ of a
+different construction; not sitting sideways, but on two phaeton seats,
+one behind the other, facing the horses. Such jolting, such _trimming_
+from side to side; but we were not overturned, and got out at the town
+of Stanzstadt, where, after seeing in the dirtiest inn's dirtiest room a
+girl with a tremendous black eye, besides the two with which nature had
+favoured her, we took boat again about sunset, and had a two hours'
+delicious rowing across the lake of Lucerne, which I prefer to every
+other I have seen--the moon full and placid on the waters, the stars
+bright in the deep blue sky, the town of Lucerne shadowed before us with
+lights here and there in the windows. The air became still, and the sky
+suddenly clouded over; thunder was heard; bright flashes of lightning
+darted from behind the mountains and across the town, making it at
+intervals distinctly visible for a moment. It was dark when we landed,
+and we had to pass through two or three streets, servants, guides, bag,
+and baggage, groping our way; and oh, wretched mortals, went to the
+wrong place, and before we could reach the right one, down poured a
+waterspout of a shower on our devoted heads and backs. In five minutes,
+running as hard as we could, we were wet through; and Fanny, in crossing
+the street and plucking at the guide's bundle for a cloak for me, was
+nearly run over, but stood it; and, all dripping, we reached our inn, Le
+Cheval Blanc. An hour spent in throwing off wet clothes and putting on
+dry--tea, coffee--bed--bugs, and sleep, nevertheless.
+
+We rejoined our landau and _calèche_ at Lucerne, and proceeded in them
+to Zug, where there is a famous convent or _Frauenkloster_, which
+escaped being destroyed during the Revolution, because the abbess and
+nuns established a school for the female children of the neighbourhood,
+where they still continue to teach them to read and work: Madame Gautier
+had desired us to go and see it, and to it we walked: rang at the bell,
+were told that the nuns were all in the refectory, and were asked to
+wait. The nuns' repast was soon finished, and one came with a very
+agreeable, open countenance and fresh, brown complexion, well fed and
+happy-looking, becomingly dressed in snow-white hood and pelerine and
+brown gown. Bowing courteously, she by signs--for she could speak
+neither French nor English--invited us to follow her, and led us through
+cloister and passage to the room of the boarders; not nuns, only there
+for their education. A pretty Italian girl, with corkscrew ringlets of
+dark hair, rose from her pianoforte to receive us, and spoke with much
+grace and self-complacency Italian-French, and accompanied by way of
+interpreter our own conductress, who _motioned_ us to the sitting-room,
+where nuns and pensioners were embroidering, with silk, cotton,
+chenille, and beads, various pretty, ugly, and fantastical, useless
+things. Luckily, none were finished at that moment, and their empty
+basket saved our purses and our taste from danger or disgrace.
+
+I had spied in the corner of the Italian interpreter's apartment a daub
+of a print of the King and Queen of France taking leave of their family,
+with a German inscription; and thinking the Abbé Edgeworth had a good
+right to be in it, and as a kind of German notion of an Abbé appeared in
+the print, and something like Edgewatz in the German words, I put my
+finger on the spot, and bade the interpreter tell the nuns and the
+abbess, who now appeared, that we were nearly related to the Abbé
+Edgeworth, Louis XVI.'s confessor. This with some difficulty was put
+into the Italian's head, and through her into the nuns', and through
+them, in German, into the abbess' superior head. I heard a mistake in
+the first repetition, which ran, no doubt, through all the editions,
+viz. that we were _proches parents_, not to the King's confessor, but to
+the King! The nuns opened the whites of their eyes, and smiled regularly
+in succession as the bright idea reached them and the abbess--a
+good-looking soul, evidently of superior birth and breeding to the rest,
+all gracious and courteous in demeanour to the strangers.
+
+A thought struck me--or, as Mr. Barrett of Navan expressed it, "I took a
+notion, ma'am"--that Fanny would look well in a nun's dress; and boldly
+I went to work with my interpreter, who thought the request at first too
+bold to make; but I forced it through to nun the first, who backed and
+consulted nun the second, who at my instigation referred in the last
+appeal to the abbess, who, in her supreme good-nature, smiled, and
+pointed upstairs; and straight our two nuns carried Fanny and me off
+with them up stairs and stairs, and through passages and passages, to a
+little nun's room--I mean a nun's little room--nice with flowers and
+scraps of relics and religious prints. The nuns ran to a press in the
+wall, and took out ever so many plaited coifs and bands, and examined
+them all carefully as birthnight beauty would have done, to fix upon one
+which was most becoming. Nun the second ran for the rest of the
+habiliments, and I the while disrobed Fanny of her worldly sprigged
+cambric muslin and straw hat, which, by the bye, nun the second eyed
+with a fond admiration which proved she had not quite forgotten this
+world's conveniences. The eagerness with which they dressed Fanny, the
+care with which they adjusted the frontlet, and tucked in the ringlets,
+and placed the coif on her head, and pulled it down to exactly the right
+becoming sit, was exceedingly amusing. No coquette dressing for Almack's
+could have shown more fastidious nicety, or expressed more joy and
+delight at the toilette's triumphant success. They exclaimed in German,
+and lifted up hands and eyes in admiration of Fanny's beautiful
+appearance in nun's attire. The universal language of action and the no
+less universal language of flattery was not lost upon me: I really loved
+these nuns, and thought of my Aunt Ruxton's nuns, who were so good to
+her. Down corridors and stairs we now led our novice, and the nuns
+showed her how to hold her hands tucked into her sleeves, and asked her
+name; and having learned it was Fanny, Frances, Sister Frances, were
+again overjoyed, because one of them was named Frances, the other was
+Agnes. When, between Sister Agnes and Sister Frances the first, Sister
+Frances the second entered the room, where we had left the abbess, Mrs.
+Moilliet, Emily, and Susan, they did not know Fanny in the least, and
+Harriet declared that, at the first moment, even she did not know her.
+Mrs. Moilliet told me she said to herself, "What a very graceful nun is
+coming now!"
+
+After all had gathered round, and laughed, and admired, the abbess
+signified to me, through our interpreter, that we could do no less than
+leave her in the convent with them, and grew so mighty fond of Fanny,
+that I was in as great a hurry to get her nun's dress off as I had been
+to get it on; and when I had disrobed her, I could not think of a single
+thing to give the poor nuns, having no pockets, and my bag left in the
+carriage! At last, feeling all over myself, I twitched my little gold
+earrings out of my ears, and gave one, and Fanny gave the other, to the
+two nuns; and Sister Frances and Sister Agnes fell on their knees to
+pray for and thank us.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+PREGNY, _Sept. 6, 1820_.
+
+The account of the loss of the three guides at Chamouni is, alas! too
+true: three perished by stepping into the new-fallen snow which covered
+the crevasses; one was Joseph Carrier, who was Harriet's guide. Mrs.
+Marcet has just told us that, at a breakfast given by M. Prevost to M.
+Arago, and many scientific and literary people, a few days after the
+accident, parties ran high on this as on all affairs: some said it was
+all M. Hamel's fault; some, that it was all the guides' own fault. One
+said he wished one of the English gentlemen who was of the party was
+present, for then they should know the truth. At this moment the servant
+announced a stranger, "Monsieur Rumford," the name sounded like as the
+man pronounced it, and they thought it was Count Rumford come to life.
+M. Prevost went out and returned with Mr. Dornford, one of the
+Englishmen who had been of Dr. Hamel's party, who came, he said, to beg
+permission to state the plain facts, as he heard they had been told to
+Dr. Hamel's disadvantage. He, Dr. Hamel, Mr. Henderson, and M. Lelleque,
+a French naturalist, set out: the guides had not dissuaded them from
+attempting to go up Mont Blanc--only advised them to wait till a
+threatening cloud had passed. When it was gone, they all set out in high
+spirits; the guides cutting holes in the snow for their feet. This it is
+supposed loosened the snow newly fallen, and a quantity poured down over
+their heads. Mr. Dornford had pushed on before the guides; he shook off
+the snow as it fell, and felt no apprehension: on the contrary, he
+laughed as he _pawed_ it away, and was making his way on, when he heard
+a cry from his companions, and looking back he saw some of them
+struggling in the snow. He helped to extricate them, saw a point moving
+in the snow, went to it, and pulled out Marie Coutay, one of the guides:
+he was quite purple, but recovered in the air. Looked round--two guides
+were missing: looked for them in vain, but saw a deep ravine covered
+with fresh snow, into which they must have fallen.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON. LAUSANNE, _Sept 14, 1820_.
+
+Ages ago I promised myself the pleasure of dating a letter from Lausanne
+to my dear aunt, and now that I am at the place of which I have so often
+heard her speak, which I have so often wished to see, I can hardly
+believe it is not a dream. A fortnight ago we were here, returning from
+our tour through les Petits Cantons; but at that time we could not enjoy
+anything, as we had heard from Sneyd, whom we met at Interlaken, of
+Lucy's [Footnote: Youngest daughter of the fourth Mrs. Edgeworth.]
+terrible illness. What a comfort to my mother to think that she was
+saved by your Sophy's steadiness and presence of mind, and by Lovell's
+decision and Crampton's skill and kindness!
+
+Yesterday we began our tour round the Lake of Geneva--Dumont, Fanny,
+Harriet, and I--in one of the carriages of the country, a mixture of a
+sociable and an Irish jingle, with some resemblance to a hearse, from a
+covered top on iron poles, which keeps off the sun. It was late when we
+arrived here, and so dark, with only a few lamps strung across the
+street here and there, we could scarcely see the forms of the great
+black horses scrambling and struggling up the almost perpendicular
+streets. How could you ever have borne it, my dear aunt? You must have
+been in perpetual fear of your life! Lord Bellamont's description of the
+county of Cavan--all acclivity and declivity, without any intervention
+of horizontality--I am sure applies to Lausanne. I am sure travelled
+horses from all parts of the world say to each other when they meet in
+the stable, "Were you ever at Lausanne? Don't you hate Lausanne? How
+could men build a town in such a place? What asses! And how provoking,
+while we are breaking our backs, to hear them talking of picturesque
+beauty! I should like to see how they would look if we let them slip,
+and roll down these picturesque situations!"
+
+Lausanne is, nevertheless, so full that we could scarcely find room; and
+after Dumont and his servant had gone back and forward to Le Faucon, the
+Lion d'or, Les Balances, etc. etc., all full to the garrets, we were
+thankful at finding ourselves in the worst inn's worst room, where,
+however, the beds were clean and good. We are not grumblers, so we drank
+coffee and were all very happy; and while the rooms were preparing
+Dumont read to us a pretty little French piece, _Le faux Savant!_
+
+
+_Sept. 15_.
+
+Our first object this morning was to see Madame de Montolieu, the author
+of _Caroline de Lichfield_, to whom I had a letter of introduction. She
+was not at Lausanne, we were told, but at her country house, Bussigny,
+about a league and a half from the town. We had a delicious fine
+morning, and through romantic lanes and up and down hills, till we found
+ourselves in the middle of a ploughed field, when the coachman's pride
+of ignorance had to give up, and he had to beg his way to Bussigny, a
+village of scattered Swiss cottages high upon rocks, with far-spreading
+prospects below. In the court of the house which we were told was Madame
+de Montolieu's we saw a lady, of a tall, upright, active-looking figure,
+with much the appearance of a gentlewoman; but we could not think that
+this was Madame de Montolieu, because for the last half-hour Dumont,
+impatient at our losing our way, had been saying she must be too old to
+receive us. She was very old thirty years ago; she must be
+_quatre-vingt_, at least: at last it came to _quatre-vingt-dix_. This
+lady did not look above fifty. She came up to the carriage as it
+stopped, and asked whom we wished to see. The moment I saw her eyes, I
+knew it was Madame de Montolieu, and stooping down from the open
+carriage I put into her hand the note of introduction and our card. She
+never opened the note, but the instant her eye had glanced upon the
+card, she repeated the name with a voice of joyful welcome. I jumped out
+of the carriage, and she embraced me so cordially, and received my
+sisters so kindly, and M. Dumont so politely, that we were all at ease
+and acquainted and delighted before we were half-way upstairs. While she
+went into the ante-chamber for a basket of peaches, I had time to look
+at the prints hung in the little drawing-room: they had struck me the
+moment we came in as scenes from _Caroline de Lichfield_. Indifferent,
+old-fashioned, provoking figures, Caroline and Count Walstein in the
+fashions of thirty years ago.
+
+When Madame de Montolieu returned, she bade me not look at them; "but I
+will tell you how they came to be here." They had been given to her by
+Gibbon: he was the person who published _Caroline de Lichfield_. She had
+written it for the entertainment of an aunt who was ill: a German story
+of three or four pages gave her the first idea of it. "I never could
+invent: give me a hint, and I can go on and supply the details and the
+characters." Just when _Caroline de Lichfield_ was finished, Gibbon
+became acquainted with her aunt, who showed it to him: he seized upon
+the MS., and said it must be published. It ran in a few months through
+several editions; and just when it was in its first vogue, Gibbon
+happened to be in London, saw these prints, and brought them over to
+her, telling her he had brought her a present of prints from London, but
+that he would only give them to her on condition that she would promise
+to hang them, and let them always hang, in her drawing-room. After many
+vain efforts to find out what manner of things they were, Gibbon and
+curiosity prevailed; she promised, and there they hang.
+
+She must have been a beautiful woman: she told me she is seventy: fine
+dark, enthusiastic eyes, a quickly varying countenance, full of life,
+and with all the warmth of heart and imagination which is thought to
+belong only to youth.
+
+We went into a wooden gallery reaching from one side of the house to the
+other, at one end of which was a table, where she had been writing when
+we arrived. We often took leave, but were loth to depart. Dumont luckily
+asked if she could direct us to a fine old chateau in the neighbourhood,
+which we had been told was particularly well worth seeing--Viernon. "It
+is my brother's," she said, and she would go with us and show it. The
+carriage was sent round to the high road, and we went by a walk along a
+river, romantically beautiful. Just as we came to a cascade and a wooden
+bridge, a little pug dog came running down, and the Baron and Madame de
+Polier appeared. Madame de Montolieu ran on to her brother, and
+explained who we were. Madame is an Englishwoman, and, to my surprise, I
+found she was niece to my father's old friend, Mr. Mundy of Markeaton.
+We were all very sorry to part with Madame de Montolieu; however, we
+returned to Lausanne, and Dumont in the evening read out _Le
+Somnambule_--very laughable when so well read.
+
+
+PREGNY, _Sept. 20_.
+
+Next day beautiful drive to Vevay, as you know. After visiting Chillon,
+where Lord Byron's name and _coat of arms_ are cut upon Bonnivar's
+pillar, I read the poem again, and think it most sublime and pathetic.
+How can that man have perverted so much feeling as was originally given
+to him!
+
+Have you been at St. Maurice? If you have not, I cannot give you an idea
+of the surprise and delight we felt at the first sight of the view going
+down through the archway! But what a miserable town! After Fanny had
+sketched from the window of the inn a group of children, we finished our
+evening by hearing Dumont read, incomparably well, _Les Chateaux
+d'Espagne_. In the night we were awakened by the most horrible female
+voice, singing, or rather screeching, in the passage--the voice of a
+person having a _goître_, and either mad or drunk. There had been a
+marriage of country people in the house, and this lady had drunk a
+little too much. We heard Dumont's door open, and he silenced or drove
+her away.
+
+Next morning we went, on part of the Simplon route which Buonaparte
+made, to St. Gingulph, where we spent some hours on the Lake. Dumont
+told us he had been there with Rogers, who was so delighted with its
+beauty, that instead of one he spent six days there.
+
+Not having met the Moilliets as expected at St. Maurice, we became very
+anxious about them; but upon our arrival at Pregny next day, found them
+all very quietly there. Mrs. Moilliet's not being very well kept them at
+home. Nothing can be kinder than they are to us.
+
+We dined two days after our return to Pregny at Coppet: the Duke and
+Duchess de Broglie are now there, and we met M. de Stein, [Footnote:
+Carl, Baron Stein, the Minister of Frederick William IV. of Prussia.] a
+great diplomatist, and M, Pictet Deodati, of whom Madame de Staël said,
+if one could take hold of Pictet Deodati's neckcloth, and give him one
+good shaking, what a number of good things would come out!
+
+
+MALAGNY, DR. MARCET'S, _Sept_.
+
+We came here last Friday, and have spent our time most happily with our
+excellent friend Mrs. Marcet. His children are all so fond of Dr.
+Marcet, we see that he is their companion and friend. They have all been
+happily busy in making a paper fire-balloon, sixteen feet in diameter,
+and thirty feet high. A large company were invited to see it mount. It
+was a fine evening. The balloon was filled on the green before the
+house. The lawn slopes down to the lake, and opposite to it magnificent
+Mont Blanc, the setting sun shining on its summit. After some
+heart-beatings about a hole in the top of the balloon, through which the
+smoke was seen to issue--an evil omen--it went up successfully. The sun
+had set, but we saw its reflection beautifully on one side of the
+balloon, so that it looked like a globe half ice, half fire, or half
+moon, half sun, self-suspended in the air. It went up exactly a mile. I
+say exactly, because Pictet measured the height by an instrument of a
+new invention, which I will describe when we meet. The air here is so
+clear, that at this height we saw it distinctly.
+
+M. Pictet de Rochemont, brother to our old friend, has taken most kind
+pains to translate the best passages from my father's _Memoirs_ for the
+_Bibliothèque Universelle_. We were yesterday at his house with a large
+party, and met Madame Necker de Saussure--much more agreeable than her
+book. Her manner and figure reminded us of our beloved Mrs. Moutray: she
+is deaf, too, and she has the same resignation, free from suspicion, in
+her expression when she is not speaking, and the same gracious attention
+to the person who speaks to her.
+
+
+CHATEAU DE COPPET, _Sept. 28_,
+
+8 A.M.
+
+We came here yesterday, and here we are in the very apartments occupied
+by M. Necker, opening into what is now the library, but what was once
+that theatre on which Madame de Staël used to act her own _Corinne_.
+Yesterday evening, when Madame de Broglie had placed me next the oldest
+friend of the family, M. de Bonstettin, he whispered to me, "You are now
+in the exact spot, in the very chair where Madame de Staël used to sit!"
+Her friends were excessively attached to her. This old man talked of her
+with tears in his eyes, and with all the sudden change of countenance
+and twitchings of the muscles which mark strong, uncontrollable feeling.
+
+There is something inexpressibly melancholy, awful, in this house, in
+these rooms, where the thought continually recurs, Here Genius _was!_
+here _was_ Ambition, Love! all the great struggles of the passions; here
+was Madame de Staël! The respect paid to her memory by her son and
+daughter, and by M. de Broglie, is touching. The little Rocca, seven
+years old, is an odd, cold, prudent, old-man sort of a child, as unlike
+as possible to the son you would have expected from such parents. M.
+Rocca, brother to the boy's father, is here: handsome, but I know no
+more. M. Sismondi and his wife dined here, and three Saladins, father,
+mother, and daughter. M. de Staël has promised to show to me Gibbon's
+love-letters to his grandmother, ending regularly with "Je suis,
+mademoiselle, avec les sentimens qui font le désespoir de ma vie," etc.
+
+M. de Bonstettin--Gray the poet's friend--told me that in Sweden, about
+thirty years ago, he saw potatoes in the corner of a gentleman's garden
+as a curiosity. "They tell me, sir," said the gentleman, "that in some
+countries they eat the roots of this plant!" Now they are cultivated
+there, and the people have become fond of them.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+With M. de Staël and Madame de Broglie Miss Edgeworth was particularly
+happy. It had been reported that Madame de Staël had said of Maria's
+writings "que Miss Edgeworth était digne de l'enthousiasme, mais qu'elle
+s'est perdue dans la triste utilité." "Ma mère n'a jamais dit ça,"
+Madame de Broglie indignantly declared, "elle était incapable!" She saw,
+indeed, the enthusiastic admiration which Maria felt for her mother's
+genius, and she was gratified by the regard and esteem which Maria
+showed for her and her brother, and the sympathy she expressed in their
+affection for each other, and in their kindness to their little Rocca
+brother.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARIA _to_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH.
+
+LYONS, HOTEL DU NORD, _Oct. 22, 1820_.
+
+Lyons! is it possible that I am really at Lyons, of which I have heard
+my father speak so much? Lyons! where his active spirit once reigned,
+and where now scarce a trace, a memory of him remains. The Perraches all
+gone, Carpentiers no more to be heard of, Bons a name unknown; De la
+Verpilliere--one descendant has a fine house here, but he is in the
+country.
+
+The look of the town and the fine facades of the principal buildings,
+and the Place de Bellecour, were the more melancholy to me from knowing
+them so well in the prints in the great portfolio, with such a radiance
+thrown over them by his descriptions. I hear his voice saying, La Place
+de Bellecour and l'Hotel de Ville--these remain after all the horrors of
+the Revolution--but human creatures, the best, the ablest, the most full
+of life and gaiety, all passed away.
+
+It is a relief to my mind to pour out all this to you. I do not repent
+having come to Lyons; I should not have forgiven myself if I had not.
+
+I have been writing to dear Mrs. Moilliet--nothing could exceed her
+kindness and Mr. Moilliet's. Dumont was excessively touched at parting
+with us, and gave Fanny and Harriet _La Fontaine_ and _Gresset_, and to
+me a map of the lake--of the tour we took so happily together.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+PARIS, _Nov. 1820_.
+
+Never lose another night's sleep, or another moment's thought on the
+_Quarterly Review_ [Footnote: An article on Maria Edgeworth's _Memoirs_
+of her Father, full of doubt, ridicule, misrepresentation, and acrimony.
+Miss Edgeworth never read this _Review_ till 1835, when she was induced
+to do so by a letter from Mr. Peabody alluding to it. It was then
+powerless to give her pain, for its anonymous falsehoods had long fallen
+into oblivion.]--I have never read and never will read it.
+
+I write this merely to tell you that I have at last had the pleasure of
+seeing Madame la Comtesse de Vaudreuil, the daughter of your friend; she
+is an exceedingly pleasing woman, of high fashion, with the remains of
+great beauty, courteous and kind to us beyond all expectation. She had
+but a few days in Paris, and she made out two for us; she took us to the
+Conciergerie to see, by lamp-light, the dungeons where the poor Queen
+and Madame Elizabeth were confined, now fitted up as little chapels. In
+the Queen's is an altar inscribed with her letter to the King,
+expressing forgiveness of her enemies. Tears streamed from the eyes of
+the young Countess de Vaudreuil, the daughter-in-law, as she looked at
+this altar, and the place where the Queen's bed was. Who do you think
+accompanied us to this place? Lady Beauchamp, Lady Longford's mother, a
+great friend of Madame de Vaudreuil's, with whom we dined the next day,
+and who had procured for us the Duc de Choiseul's box at the Théâtre
+Français, when the house was to be uncommonly crowded to see
+Mademoiselle Duchenois in _Athalie_ "avec tous les choeurs," and a most
+striking spectacle it was! I had never seen Mademoiselle Duchenois to
+perfection before.
+
+
+MRS. MARCET _to_ MARIA EDGEWORTH.
+
+MALAGNY, _Nov. 15, 1820_.
+
+I cannot make up my mind, my dear friend, to take my departure
+[Footnote: Mrs. Marcet was just setting out for Italy.] for a still more
+distant country without again bidding you adieu. I have hesitated for
+some time past, "Shall I or shall I not write to Miss Edgeworth?" for I
+felt that I could not write without touching on an article in the
+_Quarterly_--a subject which makes my blood boil with indignation, and
+which rouses every feeling of contempt and abhorrence. I might indeed
+refrain from the expression of these sentiments, but how could I
+restrain all those feelings of the warmest interest, the tenderest
+sympathy, and the softest pity for your wounded feelings? I well
+remember the wish you one day so piously expressed to me that your
+father could look down from heaven and see the purity and zeal of your
+intentions in writing his _Memoirs_; I am sure your HEAVENLY FATHER does
+see them. And I feel that this unjust, unchristian, inquisitorial attack
+will not only develop fresh sentiments of the tenderest nature in your
+friends, but also rally every human being of sound sense around you.
+
+
+MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+PARIS, _Nov. 15, 1820_.
+
+You would scarcely believe, my dear friends, the calm of mind and the
+sort of satisfied resignation I feel as to my father's _Life_. I suppose
+the two years of doubt and extreme anxiety that I felt, exhausted all my
+power of doubting. I know that I have done my very best, I know that I
+have done my duty, and I firmly believe that if my dear father could see
+the whole he would be satisfied with what I have done.
+
+We have seen Mademoiselle Mars twice, or thrice rather, in the _Mariage
+de Figaro_ and in the little pieces of _Le Jaloux sans amour_, and _La
+jeunesse de Henri Cinq_, and admire her exceedingly. _En petit comité_
+the other night at the Duchesse d'Escars, a discussion took place
+between the Duchesse de la Force, Marmont, and Pozzo di Borgo, on the
+_bon et mauvais ton_ of different expressions--_bonne société_ is an
+_expression bourgeoise_--you may say _bonne compagnie_ or _la haute
+société_. "Voilà des nuances," as Madame d'Escars said. Such a wonderful
+jabbering as these grandees made about these small matters. It put me in
+mind of a conversation in the _World_ on good company which we all used
+to admire.
+
+We have seen a great deal of our dear Delesserts, and of Madame de
+Rumford, [Footnote: First married to Lavoisier, the celebrated chemist,
+then to Count Rumford, the scientist, from whom she was separated for
+many years. She was now again a widow.] who gave us a splendid and most
+agreeable dinner. And one evening with the Princess Potemkin, who
+is--take notice--only a Princess by courtesy, as she has married a
+Potemkin, who is not a Prince, and though she was born Princess
+Galitzin, she loses her rank by marrying an inferior, according to
+Russian and French custom, and they are, with reason, surprised at our
+superior gallantry, once a lady always a lady. But whether Princess or
+not Princess, our Madame Potemkin is most charming, and you may bless
+your stars that you are not obliged to read a page of panegyric upon
+her. She was as much delighted to see us again, as we were to see her;
+she was alone with Madame de Noisville, that happy mixture of my Aunt
+Fox [Footnote: Mary, wife of Francis Fox, elder sister of Mr. Edgeworth
+and Mrs. Ruxton.] and Mrs. Lataffiere. We went from Madame Potemkin to
+Madame d'Haussonville's, with her we found Madame de Bouillé playing at
+billiards, just in the attitude in which we had left her three months
+ago. Saturday I had a bad headache, but recovered in the evening; and
+Monday we dined at Madame Potemkin's, where we met her aunt, a Princess
+Galitzin, a thin, tall, odd, very clever woman, daughter to that Prince
+Shuvaloff, to whom Voltaire wrote eternally, and she is _imbued_ with
+anecdotes of that period, very well bred, and quick in conversation. She
+is always afraid of catching cold, and always wears a velvet cap, and is
+always wrapped up in shawls and pelisses in going from house to
+house--_à cela près_, a reasonable woman.
+
+After leaving Madame Potemkin's we went to see--whom do you think? Guess
+all round the breakfast-table before you turn over the leaf; if anybody
+guesses right, I guess it will be Aunt Mary.
+
+Madame de la Rochejacquelin [Footnote: Widow of the Vendean hero.]--She
+had just arrived from the country, and we found ourselves in a large
+hotel, in which all the winds of heaven were blowing, and in which, as
+we went upstairs and crossed the ante-chambers, all was darkness, except
+one candle which the servant carried before us. In a small bedroom, well
+furnished, with a fire just lighted, we found Madame de la
+Rochejacquelin lying on a sofa--her two daughters at work--one spinning
+with a distaff, and the other embroidering muslin. Madame is a large fat
+woman, with a broad round fair face, with a most open benevolent
+expression, as benevolent as Molly Bristow's or as Mrs. Brinkley's. Her
+hair cut short, and perfectly gray, as seen under her cap; the rest of
+her face much too young for such gray locks, not at all the hard
+weatherbeaten look that had been described to us; and though her face
+and bundled form and dress, all _squashed_ on a sofa, did not at first
+promise much of gentility, you could not hear her speak or see her for
+three minutes without perceiving that she was well-born and well-bred.
+She had hurt her leg, which was the cause of her lying on the sofa. It
+seemed a grievous penance, as she is of as active a temper as ever. She
+says her health is perfect, but a nervous disease in her eyes has nearly
+deprived her of sight--she could hardly see my face, though I sat as
+close as I could go to the sofa.
+
+"I am always sorry," said she, "when any stranger sees me, parceque je
+sais que je détruis toute illusion. Je sais que je devrais avoir l'air
+d'une héroine, et surtout que je devrais avoir l'air malheureuse ou
+épuisé an moins--rien de tout cela, hélas!"
+
+She is much better than a heroine--she is benevolence and truth itself.
+She begged her daughters to take us into the _salon_ to show us what she
+thought would interest us. She apologised for the cold of these
+rooms--and well she might; when the double doors were opened I really
+thought Eolus himself was puffing in our faces; we shawled ourselves
+well before we ventured in. At one end of the _salon_ is a picture of M.
+de Lescure, and at the other, of Henri de la Rochejacquelin, by Gérard
+and Girardet, presents from the King. Fine military figures. In the
+boudoir is one of M. de la Rochejacquelin, much the finest of all--she
+has never yet looked at this picture. Far from being disappointed, I was
+much gratified by this visit.
+
+
+_To_ MISS LUCY EDGEWORTH.
+
+CALAIS, _Dec. 5, 1820_.
+
+It is a great satisfaction to me, my dear Lucy, to feel that we are now
+so much nearer to you, and that before I finish this little note we
+shall be still nearer to you in the same United Kingdom, so that in
+eight days we can have an answer to questions about you; what a
+difference from the three long weeks we used to wait at Geneva.
+
+And now, my dear Lucy, I must employ you to break to my mother an
+important secret. Choose a proper time for speaking to her on the
+subject, when she is not very busy, when her mind is at ease, that is,
+when you are pretty well. My aunts and Honora may be in the room, if you
+think proper. Begin by saying that I know both my mother and Lovell are
+so kind and have such confidence in me that I am sure they will not
+hastily object to the introduction of a new person into the family,
+though they may perhaps feel a little surprised at hearing of my having
+actually decided upon such a measure without writing first to consult
+them. I have actually brought with me from Paris, and intend, unless I
+am actually forbidden, to bring with me to Edgeworthstown, a French
+washerwoman. I cannot expect that Lovell should build a house for her,
+though I know he has long had it in contemplation to build a laundry;
+but my little French woman does not require a house, she can live in our
+house, if he and my mother, and my aunts please, and I will engage that
+she shall give no sort of trouble, and shall cost nothing. She is a
+_sourde et muette_, an elderly woman with a very good countenance,
+always cheerful, and going on with her own business without minding
+other people's. She was recommended to me by Madame François Delessert,
+and has lived for some time in their family, much liked by all,
+especially by the children, for whom she washed constantly, till one of
+her legs was hurt, so that she cannot work now quite as well as
+formerly. But still she washed so as to give general satisfaction. Fanny
+and Harriet like her washing, and I am sure my aunts will like it and
+her very much; and I think she might, till some other place be found for
+her, sleep in my mother's dressing-room.
+
+And here, my dear Lucy, I beg you will pause and hear what everybody
+says about this washerwoman and this plan.
+
+And after five minutes given to deliberation, go on and say, that if no
+better place can be found for my washerwoman, she may stand on my
+mother's chimney-piece! [Footnote: A pretty little French toy given by
+Madame François Delessert.]
+
+No more nonsense at present.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+CALAIS, DESSIN'S HOTEL, _Dec. 5, 1820_.
+
+Coming back to this place, to the same room where we were seven months
+ago, the whole seems to me and to my companions like a delightful dream,
+but in waking from Alps, and glaciers, and cascades, and _Mont Blanc_,
+and troops of acquaintance in splendid succession and visionary
+confusion, in waking from this wonderful dream, the sober certainty of
+happiness remains and assures us that all which has passed is not a
+dream. All our old friends at Paris are still more our friends than
+ever, and many new ones made. Every expectation, every hope that I had
+formed for this journey has been more than gratified, far surpassed by
+the reality; and we return with thorough satisfaction to our own
+country, looking to our dear home for permanent happiness, without a
+wish unsatisfied or a regret for anything we have left behind, except
+our friends.
+
+
+_To_ MISS RUXTON.
+
+MALI, CLIFTON, _Dec. 17, 1820_.
+
+We have spent a week here with Emmeline, [Footnote: The eldest of Miss
+Edgeworth's own sisters, wife of John King, Esq., of Clifton.] and very
+happy I am that we were able to give her this pleasure. Zoe and Emmeline
+are very nice-looking girls, pleasing in their manners and affectionate
+in their dispositions.
+
+We are not, tell my aunt, likely to be drawn in to talk or take any part
+about the Queen, as we know nothing of her trial. She sent notice to
+Lady Elizabeth Whitbread that she would dine with her if she knew the
+hour. Lady Elizabeth answered that her hour varied from five to nine, as
+it suited her son's convenience. The Queen took it as it was meant, as a
+refusal.
+
+
+_To_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH.
+
+BOWOOD, _Dec. 20, 1820_.
+
+I write to you sitting in the bow (or beau, or bay) window of the room
+with yellow furniture with black stars, into which we were shown by Lady
+Lansdowne. Oh, my dear Honora, how everything here reminds me of you!
+
+Lady Lansdowne's reception of us was most cordial. She had been out
+walking, and came to us only half dressed, with a shawl thrown over her.
+Lord Lansdowne is at Bath, at an agricultural meeting. Mr. and Mrs. Ord
+and their son, an Eton youth, are here; Lady Elizabeth and Captain
+Fielding--he is very gentlemanlike and agreeable; Mr. Hallam; the two
+Mr. Smiths, whom you remember, and Mr. Fazakerley--very clever; and best
+of all, Miss Vernon and Miss Fox: she introduced to Fanny and Harriet
+her niece, Miss Fox, very handsome and agreeable--not come out.
+
+
+EASTON GREY, _Dec. 26_.
+
+I intended this frank for my mother, but Mr. Ricardo turned it into Miss
+instead of Mrs.; and why I asked for a frank at all I cannot tell,
+except for the honour and glory of having one from David Ricardo. He has
+been here one whole day, and is exceedingly agreeable. This house is
+delightful, in a beautiful situation, fine trees, fine valleys, and soft
+verdure, even at this season: the library-drawing-room with low sofas,
+plenty of movable tables, open bookcases, and all that speaks the habits
+and affords the means of agreeable occupation. Easton Grey might be a
+happy model of what an English country gentleman's house should be; and
+Mrs. Smith's kind, well-bred manners, and Mr. Smith's literary and
+sensible conversation, make this house one of the most agreeable I ever
+saw.
+
+At Bowood there was a happy mixture of sense and nonsense. Lord
+Lansdowne was talking to me on the nice little sofa by the fire very
+seriously of Windham's life and death, and of a journal which he wrote
+to cure himself of indecision of character. Enter suddenly, with a great
+burst of noise from the breakfast-room, a tribe of gentlemen neighing
+like horses. You never saw a man look more surprised than Lord
+Lansdowne.
+
+Re-enter the same performers on all-fours, grunting like pigs.
+
+Then a company of ladies and gentlemen in dumb-show, doing a country
+visit, ending with asking for a frank, curtseying, bowing, and
+exit.--"_Neighbour_."
+
+Then enter all the gentlemen, some with their fingers on their eyes,
+some delighted with themselves.--"_I_."
+
+Then re-enter Lord Lansdowne, the two Mr. Smiths, Mr. Hallam, and Mr.
+Fazakerley, each with little dolls made of their pocket handkerchiefs,
+nursing and playing with them.--"_Doll_."
+
+Exit, and re-enter, carrying, and surrounding, and worshipping Mrs. Ord
+in an arm-chair.--"_Idol_."
+
+This does not do for sober reading, but it produced much laughter.
+
+
+_27th_
+
+We have been at Badminton: magnificent: library delightful. Here, as at
+Trentham, a gallery opens into the chapel, also the village church, and
+here is a great curiosity--Raphael's first chalk sketch of the
+Transfiguration; that is, of all the figures in the lower part:
+wonderfully fine, the woman kneeling, and the boy possessed, and the man
+holding him--admirable. Some fine pictures, too, though not a professed
+collection. Saw in the park a fine herd of red deer, the finest, it is
+said, in England. How shall I find room to tell you of the Roman
+pavements and Roman town found near this place, much better worth than
+all I have been penning! For nonsense I always have time and space.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _March 21_.
+
+The Archbishop of Tuam breakfasted here this morning and sat with Lucy
+in her room: he said he thought he should be the better all his life for
+having seen such an example of patience and resignation in so young a
+person. He says he was amused during the Queen's trial by the sight of
+the processions in honour of Her Majesty: the glass manufacturers with
+their brilliant wares, ladies in landaus with feathers, the most
+extraordinary figures; and the Queen complains that her garden has been
+destroyed and all her furniture broken by her polite visitors.
+
+
+_March 29_.
+
+_So_ you like to hear of all our little doings, _so_ I will tell you
+that, about eight o'clock, Fanny being by that time up and dressed, and
+at her little table, Harriet comes and reads to me Madame de Sevigné's
+letters, of which I never tire; and I almost envy Fanny and Harriet the
+pleasure of reading them for the first time. After breakfast I take my
+little table into Lucy's room, and write there for an hour; she likes to
+have me in her room, though she only hears the scribble, scribble: she
+is generally reading at that hour, or doing Margaret's delight--algebra.
+I am doing the _Sequel to Frank_. Walking, reading, and talking fill the
+rest of the day. I do not read much, it tires my eyes, and I have not
+yet finished the _Life of Wesley_: I think it a most curious,
+entertaining, and instructive book. A _Life of Pitt_ by the Bishop of
+Winchester is coming out: he wrote to Murray about it, who asked his
+friends, "Who is George Winton, who writes to me about publishing Pitt's
+_Life_?"
+
+
+_April 21._
+
+Enclosed is a letter from our friend the American Jewess, [Footnote:
+Miss Mordecai of Richmond, on Maria's _Life_ of her father.] written in
+a spirit of Christian charity and kindness which it were to be wished
+that all Christians possessed. It has given me exquisite pleasure; and
+you know I never feel great pleasure without instantly wishing that you
+should share it. Lovell has asked this good Jewess and her _futur_ to
+come here, if she should visit Europe. He is at home now, and kind as
+ever to every creature within reach of his benevolence.
+
+We have been reading Fleury's _Memoirs of Napoleon_. Get it in French:
+it is very interesting, or we never could have got through it in the
+wretched translation to which we were doomed.
+
+Tell Sophy that Peggy Tuite, who turned into Peggy Mulheeran, has had a
+dead child. When my mother said to her brother, "Do not let people crowd
+in and heat her room," "Oh, ma'am, sure I am standing at the door since
+three in the morning, sentinel, to keep them out," the tears dropping
+from his eyes fast on the ground as he spoke. And all the time the old
+_ould_ mother Tuite (who doats on Mrs. Ruxton-dear) was sitting rocking
+herself to and fro, and "crying under the big laurel, that Peggy might
+not hear her."
+
+You may all praise erysipelas as much as you please, but I never desire
+to see or feel it again. Our boy, Mick Duffy, has been ill with it these
+ten days. Honora said to his father, Brian, "How can you be so fond of
+Michael; now that he lives with us, you hardly ever see him!" "Oh, how
+could I but be fond of him, the crater that sends me every guinea he
+gets!"
+
+
+_July 8_.
+
+So Buonaparte is dead! and no change will be made in any country by the
+death of a man who once made such a figure in the world! He who
+commanded empires and sovereigns, a prisoner in an obscure island,
+disputing for a bottle of wine, subject to the petty tyranny of Sir
+Hudson Lowe! I regret that England permitted that trampling upon the
+fallen. What an excellent dialogue of the dead might be written between
+Buonaparte and Themistocles!
+
+Ages ago I sent _Bracebridge Hall_ to Merrion Street for you: have you
+got it? Next week another book will be there for you--an American novel
+Mrs. Griffith sent to me, _The Spy_; quite new scenes and characters,
+humour and pathos, a picture of America in Washington's time; a surgeon
+worthy of Smollett or Moore, and quite different from any of their
+various surgeons; and an Irishwoman, Betty Flanagan, incomparable.
+
+
+_August 3._
+
+What do you think is my employment out of doors, and what it has been
+this week past? My garden? no such elegant thing; but making a gutter! a
+sewer and a pathway in the street of Edgeworthstown; and I do declare I
+am as much interested about it as I ever was in writing anything in my
+life. We have never here yet found it necessary to have recourse to
+public contribution for the poor, but it is necessary to give some
+assistance to the labouring class; and I find that making the said
+gutter and pathway will employ twenty men for three weeks.
+
+Did you ever hear these two excellent _Tory_ lines made by a celebrated
+_Whig?_
+
+  As bees alighting upon flowerets cease to hum,
+  So, settling upon places, Whigs grow dumb.
+
+
+_August 8._
+
+We are all in the joy of Francis' [Footnote: From Charterhouse; eldest
+son of the fourth Mrs. Edgeworth.] arrival: Pakenham at the tea-table
+has been standing beside him feeding him with red currants well sugared,
+and between every currant he told us, as well as he could, the history
+of his journey. "Talbot," Lord Talbot's son, who is his schoolfellow at
+the Charterhouse, was so kind as to go outside, that Francis might have
+an inside place at night. He met with so much good-nature from first to
+last in his journey, he wonders how people can be so good-natured.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Many of Maria Edgeworth's friends in England having invited her to visit
+them, she determined to spend the winter there, and set out in October
+with her former travelling companions, Fanny and Harriet, the two eldest
+daughters of the fourth Mrs. Edgeworth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARIA _to_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+KENIOGE, _Oct. 23, 1821_.
+
+We have had a most delightful day, after sleeping well at Gwindu: we
+were in the carriage and off before the clock had finished striking six.
+In an interval of showers in a bright gleam of sunshine we passed Bangor
+Ferry: breakfasted nobly. Mr. Jackson, the old, old man, who some years
+ago was all pear-shaped stomach, and stupid, has wonderfully shrunk and
+revived, and is walking, alert and civil; and his fishy eyes brightened
+with pleasure on hearing of his friend, Mr. Lovell. Fine old waiter, a
+match in age and civility for the master; and a fine old dog, Twig, a
+match for both, and as saucy as Foster; for Mrs. Twig would not eat
+toast, unless buttered, forsooth!
+
+Then on to Mrs. Worthington: excellent, motherly woman, the Mrs.
+Brinkley of the slate quarries. Her first question about you and William
+won my heart: she seemed so to have seen into you with that penetration
+of the heart, which is full as quick as that of the head, if there be
+any difference. She furnished us each with a pair of Devonshire clogs,
+that fitted each as if made for us; and as young Mr. Worthington was
+disappointed by a sore throat of the pleasure of accompanying us, he
+gave us a note to Mr. Williams at the Quarries; and good, dear Mrs.
+Williams, in her white gown and worked borders, trampoozed with us
+through the splish splash to all the yards, and with her master of the
+works showed us the saw-mills, and the mill for grinding flint, and for
+the china works.
+
+Waiving the description of all this, I will not tell you of the quarries
+and the glaciers of slates, because I wish Harriet to write her own
+fresh account of her first impressions. I feel that she was even more
+pleased than I expected; and I rejoice that this first sight, which I
+had promised myself the pleasure of showing her, is secure.
+
+This day's drive through Wales has been charming: a few showers, but
+always at the best time for us. I have at different times of my life
+seen Wales at all seasons of the year, and after all I prefer the autumn
+view of it. The withering red brown fern is a great addition of beauty
+on the white and gray rocks, and often so resembles the tint of autumn
+on beech trees, that you cannot at a distance tell ferns on the
+mountains from young plantations, touched by autumn colour.
+
+We have just dined at this delightful inn, where you and Fanny slept in
+1818, kept as I am sure you remember by two sisters with sweet,
+good-humoured countenances: most active, obliging people. I think the
+most discontented of travellers--old growling Smollett himself, if he
+could come from the grave in a fit of the gout--could not be
+discontented at this inn. Fanny, Harriet, and I have just determined
+that, if ever we are reduced to earn our bread, we will keep an inn like
+this.
+
+Lest you should think that all the little sense I had is gone to
+nonsense, I must tell you that, during part of this day, we have been
+very wise. When there came ugly bits of the road, Harriet read out
+Humboldt's fifth volume; and I was charmed with it, and enjoyed it the
+more from the reflection that Lucy can share this pleasure with us. She
+has Humboldt, I hope; if not, pray get it for her. The account of the
+venomous flies which _mount guard_ at different hours of the day is most
+curious. Humboldt is the Shakespear of travellers; as much superior to
+other travellers as Shakespear is to other poets. He seems to have at
+once a _vue d'oiseau_ of one half of the world, and a perfect
+recollection of the other half, so as to bring together from all parts
+of the earth, and from all times, observations on the largest scale,
+from which he draws the most ingenious and the most useful conclusions.
+I will write to Madame Gautier to beg Humboldt to send to me portraits
+of the insects which appear on the Orinoco at different hours of the day
+and night, by which the natives mark the hours: it will make a fine
+contrast to the Watch of Flora.
+
+
+_To_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH.
+
+SMETHWICK GROVE, _Oct. 25, 1821_.
+
+Here we are, my dear Honora, once more at the dear, hospitable
+Moilliets'; Emily making tea at the same well-furnished board, with her
+near-sighted, beautiful eyes picking her way among the cups.
+
+We missed, by not arriving last night, a Frenchman who has been
+seventeen years learning to play on the flute, and cannot play, and who
+has been ten years learning to speak English, and yet told Mrs. Moilliet
+that he had a letter to Lord Porcelain, to whom his mother is related,
+meaning the Duke of Portland. He left this, determined to see the
+residence of "Lord Malbrouke." Mrs. Moilliet endeavoured to put him
+right, and to put the song, "Va-t-en Malbrouke" out of his head; but he
+quoted it with the authority of an old legend. "Blenheim," Mr. Moilliet
+told him, was the name of the Duke of Marlborough's place. "Ah, _oui_,
+yes; Blenheim, I know that is the inn." He would have "Malbrouke" as the
+name of the place.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+WYCOMBE ABBEY, _Oct. 30, 1821_.
+
+We spent two days instead of one at Smethwick. Nothing could be kinder
+than the Moilliets were to us; nevertheless, as dearest friends must
+part, we parted from them, and had a delightful drive to Woodstock.
+Fanny and Harriet will tell you of Blenheim; they were pleased, and you
+may be sure I was happy. At Oxford by twelve: found letter from Lord
+Carrington--most punctual of men--appointing the 29th. But no letter
+from Mr. Russell: sent the porter with note to him: "Mr. Russell gone to
+see his brother at the Charter-house." Porter trudged again with two
+notes, one to Tom Beddoes [Footnote: Her nephew]--"not come up this
+term:" another note to Mr. Biddulph--most civil and best of College
+cicerones--arrived almost as soon as the porter returned with his "very
+happy;" and he walked us about to all those halls and gardens which we
+had not seen before. Balliol and University gardens beautiful: at Corpus
+Christi beautiful altar-piece. Rested at Mr. Biddulph's most comfortable
+rooms at Maudlin: we went to Evening Service in the chapel: going in
+from daylight, chapel lighted with many candles: dim light through brown
+saints in the windows: chanting good, anthem very fine: two of the
+finest voices I ever heard, one of a young boy. Good tea at Tetsworth:
+amused ourselves next morning reading like ladies, and watching from our
+gazabo window the arrival and departure of twelve stage-coaches, any one
+of which would have been a study for Wilkie, besides the rubbing down of
+a horse with a besom: at first we thought the horse would have been
+affronted--no, quite agreeable. The dried flakes of yellow mud, first
+besomed and then brushed, raised such a dust, that in the dust, man and
+horse were lost.
+
+Arrived here just at dressing-time. Lord Carrington had asked the
+Lushingtons and Dr. Holland--can't come. Count and Countess Ludolf
+expected to-morrow: he is ambassador from Sicily. Fanny says you and she
+met them at Lady Davy's.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+WYCOMBE ABBEY, _Nov. 2, 1821_.
+
+It is impossible to be kinder than Lord Carrington is to us: he wrote to
+invite everybody that he thought we should like to meet. We have had Mr.
+Wilberforce for several days, and I cannot tell you how glad I am to
+have seen him again, and to have had an opportunity of hearing his
+delightful conversation, and of seeing the extent and variety of his
+abilities. He is not at all anxious to show himself off; he converses,
+he does not merely talk. His thoughts flow in such abundance, and from
+so many sources, that they often cross one another; and sometimes a
+reporter would be quite at a loss. As he literally seems to speak all
+his thoughts as they occur, he produces what strikes him on both sides
+of any question. This often puzzles his hearers, but to me it is a proof
+of candour and sincerity; and it is both amusing and instructive to see
+him thus balancing accounts aloud. He is very lively, and full of odd
+contortions: no matter. His indulgent, benevolent temper strikes me
+particularly: he makes no pretension to superior sanctity or strictness.
+He spoke with much respect and tenderness for my feelings, of my father,
+and of the Life.
+
+We have had, besides, Mr. Manning and his son, very unaffected and
+agreeable; and Mr. Abel Smith, a nephew of Lord Carrington's; and Mr.
+Hales, an old bachelor diplomatist, who told me the name which the Abbé
+de Pradt gave to Buonaparte--Jupiter-Scapin. Does not this name contain
+a volume?
+
+
+_To_ MISS LUCY EDGEWORTH.
+
+WYCOMBE ABBEY, _Nov. 4, 1821_.
+
+God bless Mr. King! My dear Lucy, we have the best hopes now that your
+admirable patience and fortitude will be rewarded, and soon. We
+regretted the three-quarters of an hour Mr. King might have spent with
+you which were wasted at the coach office, but these are among the
+_minnikin_ miseries of human life. You must often wonder how people in
+health, and out of pain, and with the use of their limbs and all their
+locomotive faculties, can complain of anything. But man is a grumbling
+animal, not woman.
+
+We are reading Madame de Staël's _Dix Années d'Exil_ with delight.
+Though there may be too much egotism, yet it is extremely interesting;
+and though she repeats too often, and uses too many words, yet there are
+so many brilliant passages, and things which no one but herself could
+have thought or said, that it will last as long as the memory of
+Buonaparte lasts on earth. Pray get it and read it; not the plays or
+poetry which make up the last volume--why will _friends_ publish all the
+trash they can scrape together of celebrated people?
+
+Mr. Hales, my dry diplomatist, tells me that Madame de Staël, he was
+assured by the Swedish minister, provoked Buonaparte, by intriguing to
+set Bernadotte on the throne of France, and that letters of hers on this
+subject were intercepted. You will not care much about this, but you may
+tell it to some of your visitants, who will be in due time as full of
+Madame de Staël's _Dix Années d'Exil_ as I am at this moment.
+
+Here is an old distich which my dry diplomatist came out with yesterday
+at dinner, on the ancestor of Hampden. The remains of the Hampden estate
+are in this neighbourhood, and as we were speaking of our wish to see
+the place in which the patriot lived, Mr. Hales observed that it is
+curious how the spirit of dislike to kings had run in the blood of the
+Hampdens some centuries before Charles' time: they lost three manors in
+this county, forfeit for a Hampden having struck the Black Prince.
+
+  Tring, Wing, and Ivanhoe,
+  Old Hampden did forego,
+  For striking the Black Prince a blow.
+
+When this is read you will say he deserved to lose three manors for
+striking such a Prince.
+
+Besides two spacious bed-chambers and a dressing-room, munificent Lord
+Carrington would insist upon our having a sitting-room to ourselves, and
+we have one that is delightful: windows down to the ground, and
+prospect--dark woods and river, so pretty that I can scarcely mind what
+I am saying to you.
+
+Yesterday arrived a Mr. Hay, very well informed about mummies and Egypt,
+talks well, and as if he lived with all the learned and all the
+fashionable in London: his account of the unrolling of a mummy which he
+lately saw in London was most entertaining. All the folds of the
+thinnest linen which were unwound were laid more smoothly and
+dextrously, as the best London surgeons declared, than they can now
+apply bandages: they stood in amazement. The skin was quite tough, the
+flesh perfect: the face quite preserved, except the bridge of the nose,
+which had fallen in. Count Ludolf, who has been a fine painter in his
+day, says he has used mummy pitch, or whatever it is in which mummies
+are preserved, as a fine brown paint, like bistre, "only bitter to the
+taste when one sucks one's brush."
+
+Mr. Hay, I find, is private secretary to Lord Melville. It is too much
+to have a Mr. _Hales_ and a Mr. _Hay_.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+GATCOMBE PARK, _Nov. 9, 1821_.
+
+We arrived here on Wednesday evening to tea--beautiful moonlight night.
+At the gate, the first operation was to lock the wheel, and we went
+down, down a hill not knowing where it would end or when the house would
+appear; that it was a beautiful place was clear even by moonlight. Hall
+with lights very cheerful--servants on the steps. Mr. Ricardo very glad
+to see us. Mrs. Ricardo brilliant eyes and such cordial open-hearted
+benevolence of manner, no affectation, no thought about herself.
+[Footnote: David Ricardo (1772-1823), long M.P. for Portarlington, a
+great speaker and writer on Political Economy. He married Catherine,
+daughter of W.T. St. Quentin of Seampston Hall, York.] "My
+daughter-in-law, Mrs. Osman Ricardo," a beautiful tall figure, and fine
+face, fair, and a profusion of light hair. Mr. Ricardo, jun., and two
+young daughters, Mary, about fifteen, handsome, and a child of ten,
+Bertha, beautiful.
+
+I was frightened about Fanny, tired and giddy after the journey;
+however, her first answer in the morning, "much better," set my heart at
+ease. A very fine day, all cheerful, a delightfully pleasant house, with
+uphill and downhill wooded views from every window. Rides and drives
+proposed. I asked to see a cloth manufactory in the neighbourhood. Mrs.
+Osman Ricardo offered her horse to Fanny, and Mr. Osman rode with her.
+Mr. Ricardo drove me in his nice safe and comfortable phaeton; Harriet
+and Mrs. Osman in the seat behind. The horses pretty and strong, and,
+moreover, quiet, so that though we drove up and down hills almost
+perpendicular, and along a sort of _Rodborough Siemplon_, I was not in
+the least alarmed. Mr. Ricardo is laughed at, as they tell me, for his
+driving, but I prefer it to more dashing driving. Sidney Smith, who was
+here lately, said, that "a new surgeon had set up in Minchin Hampton
+since Mr. Ricardo has taken to driving."
+
+We had delightful conversation, both on deep and shallow subjects. Mr.
+Ricardo, with a very composed manner, has a continual life of mind, and
+starts perpetually new game in conversation. I never argued or discussed
+a question with any person who argues more fairly or less for victory
+and more for truth. He gives full weight to every argument brought
+against him, and seems not to be on any side of the question for one
+instant longer than the conviction of his mind on that side. It seems
+quite indifferent to him whether you find the truth, or whether he finds
+it, provided it be found. One gets at something by conversing with him;
+one learns either that one is wrong or that one is right, and the
+understanding is improved without the temper being ever tried in the
+discussion; but I must come to an end of this letter. Harriet has
+written to Pakenham an account of the cloth manufactory which Mr.
+Stephens explained admirably, and we are going out to see Mrs. Ricardo's
+school; she has 130 children there, and takes as much pains as Lovell.
+
+
+_Nov. 10_.
+
+Yesterday evening a Mr. and Miss Strachey dined here: he pleasing, and
+she with a nice pretty-shaped small head like Honora's, very agreeable
+voice. Mr. and Mrs. Smith of Easton Grey had come, and there was a great
+deal of agreeable conversation. An English bull was mentioned: Lord
+Camden put the following advertisement in the papers:--"Owing to the
+distress of the times Lord Camden will not shoot himself or any of his
+tenants before the 4th of October next."
+
+Much conversation about cases of conscience, whether Scott was right to
+deny his novels? Then the Effie Deans question, and much about
+smugglers. Lord Carrington says all ladies are born smugglers. Lady
+Carrington once staying on the coast of Devonshire wrote to Lord
+Carrington that his butler had got from a wreck a pipe of wine for £36,
+and that it was in her cellar. "Now," said Lord Carrington to himself,
+"here am I in the king's service; can I permit such a thing? No." He
+wrote to the proper excise officers and gave them notice, and by the
+same post to Lady Carrington, but he did not know that taking goods from
+a wreck was a felony. As pale as death the butler came to Lady
+Carrington. "I must fly for it, my lady, to America." They were thrown
+into consternation; at last they staved the wine, so that when the
+excise officers came nothing was to be found. Lord Carrington of course
+lost his £36 and saved his honour. Mr. Ricardo said he might have done
+better by writing to apprise the owners of the vessel that he was ready
+to pay a fair price for it, and the duties.
+
+
+_To_ MISS LUCY EDGEWORTH.
+
+GATCOMBE PARK, _Nov. 12_.
+
+We are perfectly happy here; delightful house and place for walking,
+riding, driving. Fanny has a horse always at her command. I a phaeton
+and Mr. Ricardo to converse with. He is altogether one of the most
+agreeable persons, as well as the best informed and most clever, that I
+ever knew. My own pleasure is infinitely increased by seeing that Fanny
+and Harriet are so much liked and so very happy here.
+
+In the evenings, in the intervals of good conversation, we have all
+sorts of merry plays. Why, when and where: our words were--_Jack, Bar,
+Belle, Caste, Plum_, the best.
+
+We acted charades last night. _Pillion_ excellent. Maria, Fanny, and
+Harriet, little dear, pretty Bertha, and Mr. Smith, the best hand and
+head at these diversions imaginable. First we entered swallowing pills
+with great choking: _pill_. Next on all-fours, roaring _lions_; Fanny
+and Harriet's roaring devouring lions much clapped. Next Bertha riding
+on Mr. Smith's back. _Pillion_.
+
+_Coxcomb_.--Mr. Smith, Mr. Ricardo, Fanny, Harriet, and Maria _crowing_.
+Ditto, ditto, _combing_ hair. Mr. Ricardo, solus strutting, a _coxcomb_,
+very droll.
+
+_Sinecure_.--Not a good one.
+
+_Monkey_.--Very good. Mr. Ricardo and Mr. Smith as monks, with coloured
+silk handkerchiefs, as cowls, a laughable solemn procession. Re-enter
+with _keys_. Mr. Ricardo as _monkey_.
+
+_Fortune-tellers_.--The best: Fanny as Fortune; unluckily we forgot to
+blind her, and she had only my leather bag for her purse, but
+nevertheless, she made a beautiful graceful _Fortune_, and scattered her
+riches with an air that charmed the world. 2nd scene: Mr. Smith and
+Harriet _tellers_ of the house--"the ayes have it." Fanny, Maria, and
+Harriet, _fortune-tellers_; much approved.
+
+_Love-sick_.--Bertha, with a bow made by Mr. Smith in an instant, with a
+switch and red tape and a long feathered pen. Bertha was properly blind
+and made an irresistible Cupid; she entered and shot, and all the
+company fell: _Love_. 2nd: Harriet, Mr. Smith, and Maria, all very
+_sick_. 3rd: Fanny, a _love-sick_ young lady. Maria, her duenna,
+scolding, and pitying, and nursing her with a smelling bottle.
+
+_Fire-eater_.--1st: Harriet and I acted alarm of _fire_, and alarmed Mr.
+Ricardo so well--he was going to call for assistance, 2nd: I was an
+epicure, and _eating_ always succeeds on the stage. 3rd: Harriet
+devoured lighted spills to admiration, and only burnt her lip a little.
+
+In "conundrum," Mrs. Osman was a beautiful nun; she is a charming
+creature, most winning countenance and manner, very desirous to improve
+herself, and with an understanding the extent and excellence of which I
+did not at first estimate.
+
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+EASTON GREY, _Nov. 22, 1821_.
+
+Lady Catherine Bisset came with her two little nieces to call upon us,
+and Fanny won little Lady Mary-Rose's heart, partly by means of some
+Madeira and Portuguese figures from the chimney-piece, which she ranged
+on the table for her amusement, and partly by a whiz-gig, which Fanny
+plays to admiration.
+
+And what is a whiz-gig? If you do not know, you must wait till I send
+you one.
+
+Lady Catherine, when no one was seeing or looking, laid her hand on my
+arm most affectionately, and looking up in my face, said, "Do you know I
+have been half my life trying to be your good French governess. I love
+her."
+
+We went to see her at her cottage, near her brother, Lord Suffolk's, and
+saw many curiosities from Ceylon, made entertaining to us by the
+comments and anecdotes of Captain Fenwick, who had been years at Ceylon.
+On our return we stopped to see Malmesbury Abbey--beautifully placed;
+the height of the arch sublime.
+
+
+BOWOOD, _Nov. 26_.
+
+We were fortunate enough to find Lord and Lady Lansdowne just returned
+from their tour. They looked at the Pyrenees, but they could not go into
+Spain, for the yellow fever rages there. A cordon of troops prevent any
+travellers who might be disposed to brave the danger of the fever, and
+fire if any attempt is made to pass. Lady Lansdowne would quite satisfy
+you by her love of the Italian women. Here are Miss Vernon, and Miss
+Fox, Lord Holland's sister, and Miss Fox, Lord Holland's daughter, and
+Mr. Ogden, the widower of that beautiful and extraordinary lady whom we
+met here three years ago. He has a great deal of cool, grave,
+gentlemanly humour, and has been amusing us with an account of his visit
+to Bowles, the poet, yesterday, and his musical sheep-bells and his
+susceptibility to criticism and his credulity. He wrote with all the
+simplicity of egotism to Murray to desire him, whenever any one who came
+into his shop was seen to look into the review of his controversy with
+Lord Byron on Pope, to pop into his hand his pamphlet by way of
+antidote.
+
+Miss Vernon and Miss Fox are both very agreeable, and Miss Fox,
+[Footnote: Mary Elizabeth, who married, 1830, the third Lord Lilford.]
+the young lady, beautiful, timid, and charming.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+MALL, CLIFTON, _Dec. 3, 1821_.
+
+Our visit here and its object have been happily accomplished, my dear
+mother, for my sister and Mr. King seem quite pleased and gratified.
+Emmeline looks and is in much better health than when I was here before.
+I must go to breakfast now as the carriage is to be at the door to carry
+us to see Mr. Miles's pictures.
+
+
+CIRENCESTER, _Dec. 5_.
+
+Our picture day at Leigh Court surpassed our expectations. Poussin's
+famous "Land Storm;" "St. John," by Domenichino, the most striking, with
+a divine head of our SAVIOUR, by Leonardo da Vinci, and many others too
+tantalising to mention. Mr. King, Emmeline, Mr. Elton, and ourselves,
+filled the coach. Mr. King in high spirits, talked all the way there and
+back, and was exceedingly entertaining and instructive. He has great
+variety of tastes and acquirements, and we were delighted to hear him.
+
+There was a large party the last night at Clifton, and I heard one new
+thing, a great deal to hear at one party. This new thing I shall keep
+for Pakenham; I wakened this morning with an intention of getting up
+remarkably early to write it for him, and I got up thinking myself a
+miracle of virtue and peep-o'-day woman; but lo! and behold, it was just
+nine o'clock. Good-bye to Pakenham and the Deadman's head, of which my
+own was full two seconds before; all that could be done was to scuffle
+about the room and rummage the imperials for gowns, frills, shoes, and
+gloves; all happily found, and on the right owners, and looking
+charmingly, ma'am, by breakfast time. Fanny and Harriet in their lilac
+and maroon tabinets. I am now writing in a delightful armchair,
+high-backed antiquity, and modern cushions. Company at dinner
+yesterday--Lord and Lady Bathurst, Lord Apsley, Mr. William Bathurst,
+Lady Georgiana, Lady Emily, Lady Georgiana Lennox, Major Colebrook, and
+Mr. Fortescue, whom we met at Paris, very agreeable, "melancholy and
+gentlemanlike." The conversation goes on here remarkably well: Lady
+Bathurst is perfectly well-bred and easy; Lord Apsley and Lady Georgiana
+very agreeable.
+
+The Duchess of Beaufort's French governess published in 1817 a story
+called _Valoe_, which threw all high-bred London into confusion.
+Everybody, who is anybody in it, under feigned names, the picture of all
+the persons, manners, and character of all the young ladies who are
+supposed to file off before the Duke of Devonshire. No wit, but
+tittle-tattle truths. You can't buy the book if you were to give your
+eyes for it: all bought up by the Duchess of Beaufort. [Footnote: It was
+written by a governess whom she had dismissed.] Lord Apsley, who has a
+copy with all the names in it, lent it to me. Fanny had a pleasant ride
+this morning with Lord Bathurst, Mr. Fortescue, Major Colebrook, and Mr.
+Bathurst, who all returned charmed with her manner of riding, and she
+with her ride. Harriet and I had driven out with Lady Bathurst and Lady
+Georgiana--a delightful drive through this magnificent park. The meeting
+of the pine avenues in a star--superb. "Who plants like Bathurst?" etc.
+We saw Pope's seat, and "Cotswold's wild and Saperton's fair dale"--a
+most beautiful dale it is.
+
+News from the best authority; probably it will be in the newspapers
+before you see this: Lord Wellesley is to be lord-lieutenant, and Mr.
+Goulburn, secretary.
+
+
+_To MISS_ HONORA EDGEWORTH.
+
+WINCHESTER, _Dec. 12, 1821_.
+
+Lest you should be staying in Dublin, I write this epitome to tell you
+what we have done. We spent two days at Cirencester, very entertaining.
+Delightful woods.
+
+Friday to Dr. Fowler's, Salisbury, and stayed till today after
+breakfast; our four days deliciously spent. We have seen Salisbury
+Cathedral, and Wilton, pictures, and statues, and Lady Pembroke and her
+children, worth them all.
+
+We were at Longford Castle yesterday; the strangest castle in the world.
+Finest private collection of pictures I have seen, or at least that in
+which there are the fewest indifferent ones.
+
+We have seen Stonehenge! and spend to-morrow with Mrs. Moutray at Mr.
+Coxe's, Twyford.
+
+
+THE DEEPDENE, _Dec. 19_.
+
+We arrived here on Saturday. The first day there were Lady Mary Bennet,
+Miss Burrowes, and Prince Cariati, a banished Neapolitan, in very
+long-skirted coat, which he holds up by tucking one hand inside behind;
+good-humoured, and plays all sorts of _petits jeux_. Mrs. Hope has
+recovered her beauty, and she and Mr. Hope are as kind as ever, and
+asked affectionately after you, and so did Henry.
+
+Mrs. Hogan, excellent Mrs. Hogan, has grown much older, but in all other
+respects the same, and next to our own dear Mrs. Billamore the most
+active and attached person in her station I ever saw. But why waste my
+time on housekeepers, when I should tell you of Lord Burford and his
+sisters, Lady Maria and Lady Caroline Beauclerc, who arrived on Monday,
+and Lady Westmeath and Mr. Smith (_Rejected Addresses_), and Mr. Lock,
+son of Norbury Park Lock: all _come_ to _go_ to a ball at Dorking, of
+which Mr. Hope is one of the stewards.
+
+The Lady Beauclercs are beautiful, in the Vandyke style, and Lord
+Burford very handsome, and so is Mr. Lock, with a curly head.
+
+Fanny danced a great deal, and Harriet two quadrilles and Sir Roger de
+Coverley, which ended at six in the morning. We met at this ball Mr.
+Greenough, and Mr. Angerstein, Sneyd's friend, very agreeable, and Mrs.
+Hibbert, of the beautiful cottage, and Lady Rothes. Mr. Smith
+excessively entertaining; he sings humorous songs of his own composition
+inimitably. Alas! he went away yesterday.
+
+The evening after the ball they played at "the ring," a ring held on a
+string in a circle, and the fool in the middle seeks and challenges any
+suspected hand. This morning, the moment breakfast was over, they went
+into the _hall of the marble table,_ and there played at _petits
+pacquets_ (not time to describe), a great deal of running and laughing
+among pretty men and pretty maids.
+
+As I stood at the window with Mr. Hope looking at a ring of company
+playing French blindman's-buff, we agreed we had never seen more beauty,
+male and female, collected in a circle of fourteen persons.
+
+Mrs. Hogan has just announced the arrival of "Prince Cimitelli, and
+another name, ma'am, which I am ashamed to say I can never _twist out_
+rightly, is to come here to-day."
+
+Mr. Smith told Fanny that he had intended to put me into the _Rejected
+Addresses_, and had written a part in the character of an Irish
+labourer, but it was so flat he threw it aside.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+FROGNEL, HAMPSTEAD, _Dec. 29, 1821_.
+
+We read--I mean we have heard read by Mr. Carr, who reads admirably,
+half the first volume of the _Pirate_, stopped at the chapter ending
+with the description of Norma of the Fitful Head. We were much pleased
+and interested, especially with the beautiful description of Mordaunt's
+education and employments: the sea-monsters, etc., most poetical, in
+Scott's master style: the manner in which, by scarcely perceptible
+touches, he wakens the reader's interest for his hero, admirable,
+unequalled by all but Shakespear. Wonderful genius; who can raise an
+interest even on the barren rocks of Zetland. Aladdin could only raise
+palaces at will, but the mighty master Scott can transport us to the
+most remote desert corner of the earth, ay, and keep us there, and make
+us wish to stay among beings of his own creation. I send a sketch of the
+room, and how we all sat last night as happy as possible listening to
+Mr. Carr reading; show this ground-plan to Honora, who knows the room,
+and she will _insense_ you.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+FROGNEL, HAMPSTEAD, _Jan. 2, 1822_.
+
+We have been enjoying in this family every delight which affection and
+cultivated tastes, and cheerful tempers can bestow. Upon nearer
+acquaintance I find Dr. Lushington worthy of the prize he has obtained
+in a wife, [Footnote: Miss Edgeworth's old friend, Miss Sarah Carr.] and
+I have heard from friends, who differ from him in political opinions,
+such honourable testimony to his integrity and strength of mind that my
+heart is quite at ease about her happiness.
+
+
+_To_ MISS RUXTON.
+
+FROGNEL, _Jan. 3, 1822_.
+
+I believe I left off where I had mentioned the _Pirate_, which I hope
+you are reading to my aunt. The characters of the two sisters are
+beautiful. The idea of Brenda not believing in supernatural agency, and
+yet being afraid, and Minna not being afraid though she believes in
+Norma's power, is new and natural and ingenious. This was Joanna
+Baillie's idea. The picture of the sisters sleeping and the lacing scene
+is excellent, and there are not only passages of beautiful picturesque
+description, but many more deep philosophical reflections upon the human
+mind, and the causes of human happiness, than in any of his other works.
+The satire upon agriculturists imported from one country to another, who
+set to work to improve the land and the habits of the people without
+being acquainted with the circumstances of either, is excellent. I am
+sure my uncle will like and laugh with Magnus Troil. It is wonderful how
+genius can make even barren Zetland fertile in novelty. Both Morton and
+Tom Carr are very amiable and both handsome. Tom dark, like an Italian
+portrait; Morton fair, with light hair and quick-colouring with every
+emotion: a high sense of honour, chivalrous sentiments, and delicacy of
+taste.
+
+New Year's Day was Mr. and Mrs. Carr's wedding day, and it was kept as
+it always is, with family rejoicings; Dr. Holland, as he has done for
+many years, and Joanna Baillie and Miss Mulso, an intimate friend, a
+niece of Mrs. Chapone's, dined here, which, with the whole family and
+ourselves, made a party of twenty. Mr. Carr gave many toasts; some so
+affectionate they made the tears roll down the cheeks of his children.
+In the evening there was a merry dance, in which Joanna and her sister
+joined, and then as agreed upon, at a given signal, we all ran up to our
+rooms and dressed in different characters. We did not know what the
+others were to be, but Fanny was a nun in a white muslin veil and
+drapery over her black gown--dressed in a moment, and I fell to decking
+Harriet, a pert travelled young lady just returned from Paris, in the
+height of the fashion: feathers of all colours, gold diadem, a profusion
+of artificial flowers, a nosegay of vast size, rose-coloured gauze
+dress, darkened eyebrows, and ringlets of dark hair which so completely
+altered her that no creature guessed who she was till Mrs. Carr at last
+knew her by her likeness to her mother; she supported her character with
+great spirit. I was an Irish nurse in a red cloak, come all the way from
+Killogonsawee, "for my two childer that left me last year for foreign
+parts." Little Francis was Triptolemus, in the _Pirate_, an excellent
+figure, and Mrs. Carr his sister Baby. Isabella, an old lady in an
+old-fashioned dress, and Laura as her daughter in a court dress and
+powder; Anna, a French troubadour singing beautifully and speaking
+French perfectly; William, the youngest son, a half-pay officer, king of
+the coffee house; Tom, a famous London black beggar, Billy Waters, with
+a wooden leg; Morton, Meg Merillics; Dr. Lushington, a housemaid; Miss
+Mulso, an English ballad singer; Mr. Burrell (I forgot to mention him,
+an old family friend at dinner) as a Spanish gentleman, Don Pedro
+Velasquez de Tordesillas; very good ruff and feathers, but much wanting
+a sword when the wooden-legged black trod on his toes. In the scuffle of
+dressing, for which only ten minutes were allowed, no sword could be
+found. From the quickness of preparation, and our all being a family
+party, this little masquerade went off remarkably well, and was very
+diverting to the persons concerned.
+
+I heard yesterday from a friend of Lady Lansdowne's that Miss Kitty
+Malone has had the operation performed upon her eye; saw the ring on
+Alexander's finger, and exclaimed, "How happy you must be, sir, who can
+give sight to the blind!"
+
+
+_To_ MISS LUCY EDGEWORTH.
+
+MISS BAILLIE'S, HAMPSTEAD, _Jan. 12, 1822_.
+
+I have been four days resolving to get up half an hour earlier that I
+might have time to tell you, my dear Lucy, the history of a cat of
+Joanna and Agnes Baillie's.
+
+You may, perhaps, have heard the name of a celebrated Mr. Brodie, who
+wrote on Poisons, and whose papers on this subject are to be found in
+the _Transactions of the Royal Society_, and reviewed in the _Edinburgh
+Review_, in 1811. He brought some of the Woorara poison, with which the
+natives poison their arrows and destroy their victims. It was his theory
+that this poison destroys by affecting the nervous system only, and that
+after a certain time its effects on the nerves would cease as the
+effects of intoxicating liquors cease, and that the patient might
+recover, if the lungs could be kept in play, if respiration were not
+suspended during the trance or partial death in which the patient lies.
+To prove the truth of this by experiment he fell to work upon a cat; he
+pricked the cat with the point of a lancet dipped in Woorara. It was
+some minutes before the animal became convulsed, and then it lay, to all
+appearance, dead. Mr. Brodie applied a tube to its mouth, and blew air
+into it from time to time; after lying some hours apparently lifeless it
+recovered, shook itself and went about its own affairs as usual. This
+was tried several times, much to the satisfaction of the philosophical
+spectators, but not quite to the satisfaction of poor puss, who grew
+very thin and looked so wretched that Dr. Baillie's son, then a boy,
+took compassion on this poor subject of experiment, and begged Mr.
+Brodie would let him carry off the cat. With or without consent, he did
+carry her off, and brought her to his aunts, Joanna and Agnes Baillie.
+Then puss's prosperous days began. Agnes made a soft bed for her in her
+own room, and by night and day she was the happiest of cats; she was
+called Woorara, which in time shortened into Woory. I wish I could wind
+up Woory's history by assuring you that she was the most attached and
+grateful of cats, but truth forbids. A few weeks after her arrival at
+Hampstead she marched off and never was heard of more. It is supposed
+that she took to evil courses: tasted the blood and bones of her
+neighbours' chickens, and fell at last a sacrifice to the vengeance of a
+cook-maid.
+
+After this cat's departure Agnes took to heart a kitten, who was very
+fond of her. This kitten, the first night she slept in her room, on
+wakening in the morning looked up from the hearth at Agnes, who was
+lying awake, but with her eyes half-shut, and marked all puss's motions;
+after looking some instants, puss jumped up on the bed, crept softly
+forward and put her paw, with its glove on, upon one of Miss Baillie's
+eyelids and pushed it gently up; Miss Baillie looked at her fixedly, and
+puss, as if satisfied that her eyes were _there_ and safe, went back to
+her station on the hearth and never troubled herself more about the
+matter.
+
+To finish this chapter of cats. I saw yesterday at a lady's house at
+Hampstead, a real Persian cat, brought over by a Navy Captain, her
+brother. It has long hair like a dog, and a tail like a terrier's, only
+with longer hair. It is the most gentle, depressed-looking creature I
+ever saw; it seems to have the _mal du pays_, and moreover, had the
+cholic the morning I saw it, and Agnes Baillie had a spoonful of castor
+oil poured out for it, but it ran away.
+
+Joanna quoted to me the other day an excellent proverb applied to
+health: "Let well alone." If the Italian valetudinarian had done this
+his epitaph would not have arrived at the _sto qui_.
+
+Captain Beaufort tells me that they have found out that the wool under
+the buffalo's long hair is finer than the material of which the Cashmere
+shawls are made, and they are going to manufacture shawls of buffalo's
+wool, which are to shame and silence the looms of Cashmere. Would my
+mother choose to wait for one of these?
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+HAMPSTEAD, _Jan. 14, 1822_.
+
+We are come to our last morning at this hospitable house. Most
+affectionate hospitality has been shown to us by these two excellent
+sisters. I part with Agnes and Joanna Baillie, confirmed in my opinion
+that the one is the most amiable literary woman I ever beheld, and the
+other one of the best informed and most useful. I wish you had seen
+Joanna and Agnes each evening laying Fanny's feet up on the sofa,
+spreading their bright _Stuart_ plaid over her, and a silk handkerchief
+hooded over her head so comfortable and so pretty, as Joanna said, she
+looked like one of Guido's pictures.
+
+An hour after I had read your letter, arrived the gentleman who franks
+this letter, [Footnote: Mr. Abercromby--Lord Dunfermline.] one of the
+most sensible, well-bred conversers I ever heard. He began by giving us
+an account of all Lord Wellesley has been doing in Ireland, and
+entertained us for three hours with anecdotes of Fox and Mrs. Fox, and
+Lord Grenville, with whom he has been staying at Dropmore. He said that
+when he first went there and heard there was no company in the house, he
+was frightened out of his wits at the idea of a _tête-à-tête_ with
+silent Lord Grenville; but to his astonishment, he found him
+_tête-à-tête_ the most communicative and talkative of men; he had only
+to ask him what he pleased to set him off delightfully, like the
+Primate; those who can venture to talk to him freely, please him, and
+conquer his constitutional bashfulness. At breakfast he has three or
+four spaniels jumping upon him, he feeding, and protecting from them the
+newspaper, which he is reading all the time. He is remarkably fond of
+children. Mr. Abercromby saw him with two little boys, sons of a friend,
+and all the morning he was diverting them in the library, hunting for
+entertaining books and pictures for them. Such a new idea of Lord
+Grenville!
+
+
+SIR JOHN SEBRIGHT'S,
+
+BEECHWOOD PARK, _Jan. 16_.
+
+A very fine park it is, with magnificently large beech trees, which well
+deserve to give their name to the place. The house, a fine-looking
+house, was a convent in the days of Edward VI. Library forty feet long;
+books in open shelves, handsome and comfortable. Dr. Wollaston kindly
+recognised Fanny. Mrs. Marcet--we were glad to secure her. Mrs.
+Somerville--little, slightly made; fair hair, pink colour; small gray,
+round, intelligent, smiling eyes; very pleasing countenance; remarkably
+soft voice, strong, but well-bred Scotch accent; timid, not
+disqualifying timid, but naturally modest, yet with a degree of
+self-possession through it, which prevents her being in the least
+awkward, and gives her all the advantage of her understanding; at the
+same time, that it adds a prepossessing charm to her manner, and takes
+off all dread of her superior scientific learning.
+
+
+_To_ MISS RUXTON.
+
+BEECHWOOD PARK, _Jan. 17, 1822_.
+
+I have this moment heard an anecdote, which proves beyond a doubt--if
+any doubt remained--that Walter Scott is the author of the novels. He
+edited _The Memorie of the Somervilles_, and in the MS. copy are his
+marks of what was to be omitted; and among these what suggested to him
+the idea of Lady Margaret and the famous _dis_ jeune which His Majesty
+did her the honour to take with her--continually referred to by an
+ancestor of Lord Somerville's.
+
+We have spent two days pleasantly here with Dr. Wollaston, Dr. and Mrs.
+Somerville, Mr. Giles, and Mr. Franks, besides our own dear friend, Mrs.
+Marcet. Mrs. Somerville is the lady whom La Place mentions as the only
+woman in England who understands his works. She draws beautifully; and
+while her head is among the stars, her feet are firm upon the earth. Sir
+John Sebright himself is very entertaining--quite a new character: he
+amused me incessantly: strong head, and warm heart, and oddity enough
+for ten. He showed us his pigeons, one which he said he would not part
+with for a hundred guineas; he took it up in his hands to show me its
+pretty white head, but I could not see the difference between it and one
+not worth ten shillings. The pouting pigeons, who have _goîtres_, as
+Mrs. Marcet said, are frightful; they put in their heads behind these
+bags of wind, and strut about as if proud of deformity. We saw four
+Antwerp pigeons, one of which went, Sir John told us, from Tower Hill to
+Antwerp in six hours.
+
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+MARDOAKS, _Jan. 19, 1822._
+
+We called at Hatfield on our way here: a fine pile of old house with
+many pictures--Burleigh, Cecil, Leicester, and Elizabeth. Do you
+remember meeting Lady Salisbury [Footnote 1: Amelia, daughter of the
+first Marquis of Downshire, and wife of the first Marquis of Salisbury.
+She was burnt to death in Hatfield House, 27th November 1835.] at Lady
+Darnley's? little, lively, good-humoured, very alert and active. What do
+you think of her fox-hunting, though past seventy? Mr. Franks and Mr.
+Giles, whom we met at Beechwood, and all the young men, declare that she
+is more lively and good-humoured out hunting than any of them. An old
+groom goes out with her on a hunter a little better than her own, always
+a little before her, to show her where she may go, and turns to her
+every now and then, "Come on! why the d---l don't you leap?" or "You
+must not go there! why the d---l do you go there?"
+
+We arrived here in our usual happy time--firelight, an hour before
+dinner: most cordially received both by Sir James and Lady Macintosh:
+house pretty, library comfortable, hall and staircase beautiful: house
+filled with books.
+
+I must tell you an anecdote of Wilberforce and a dream of Dr.
+Wollaston's. Mr. Wilberforce, you know, sold his house at Kensington
+Gore: the purchaser was a Chinaman, or, I should say, the keeper of a
+china-shop in Oxford Street--Mr. Mortlock. When the purchase-money was
+paid, £10,000, and the deeds executed, Mr. Mortlock waited upon Mr.
+Wilberforce, and said, "This house suits you, Mr. Wilberforce, so well
+in every respect, that I am sure your only motive in parting with it is
+to raise the money: therefore permit me to return these title-deeds.
+Accept this testimony of esteem, due to your public character and
+talents."
+
+Wilberforce did not accept this handsome offer.
+
+Dr. Wollaston told us that he was much pleased with his own ingenuity in
+a dream. He wished to weigh himself, but suddenly fell, and was hurried
+forward on the ground till he came to a spot where the power of gravity
+ceased to act. He bethought himself of a spring steelyard, and with the
+joy of successful invention, wakened. Sir John Sebright, however, would
+not allow Wollaston to be proud of this, as it would have occurred to
+him, or any one acquainted with the principle of a steelyard. We argued
+this point for a quarter of an hour, and each went away, as usual, of
+his or her original opinion.
+
+
+HERTFORD COLLEGE, _Jan. 23_.
+
+Do you recollect a Cornish friend of Davy's who supped with him the
+night when Lady Darnley and the Russian Prince and the Sneyds were
+there? and Davy saying that this Cornish friend was a very clever man,
+and that he was anxious to do him honour, and be kind? This Cornish
+friend was Mr., now Dr. Batten, at the head of Hertford College. He had
+with him a rosy-cheeked, happy-looking, open-faced son, of nine years
+old, whom we liked much, and whose countenance and manner gave the best
+evidence possible in favour of father and mother.
+
+Le Bas is as deaf as a post; but that is no matter, as he is professor
+of mathematics, and deals only in demonstration. He has a very
+good-natured, intelligent countenance. He laughed heartily at some
+nonsense of mine which caught his ear, and that broke the mournful
+gravity of his countenance.
+
+Fanny had some rides with little Macintosh while at Mardoaks--Robert, a
+very intelligent boy of fifteen, little for his age; like his father,
+but handsomer, and he listens to his conversation with a delight which
+proves him worthy to be the son of such a father, and promises future
+excellence better than anything he could say at his age. Sir James is
+improved in the art of conversation since we knew him; being engaged in
+great affairs with great men and great women has perfected him in the
+use and management of his wonderful natural powers and vast accumulated
+treasures of knowledge. His memory now appears to work less; his
+eloquence is more easy, his wit more brilliant, his anecdotes more
+happily introduced. Altogether his conversation is even more delightful
+than formerly; superior to Dumont's in imagination, and almost equal in
+wit. In Dumont's mind and conversation, wit and reason are kept
+separate; but in Macintosh they are mixed, and he uses both in argument,
+knowing the full value and force of each: never attempting to pass wit
+for logic, he forges each link of the chain of demonstration, and then
+sends the electric spark of wit through it. The French may well exclaim,
+in speaking of him, "Quelle abondance!"
+
+He told us that, at Berlin, just before a dinner at which were all the
+principal ambassadors of Europe, Madame de Staël, who had been invited
+to meet them, turned to a picture of Buonaparte, then at the height of
+his power, and addressed it with Voltaire's lines to Cupid:
+
+  Qui que ce soit, voici ton maître,
+  Il est, le fut, ou le doit être.
+
+Fanny and Harriet say that Macintosh has far surpassed their
+expectations. The two new persons Fanny wished most to see in England
+were Ricardo and Macintosh: she has seen them in the best possible
+manner, in their own families, at leisure not only to be wise and good,
+but agreeable. Harriet and she have heard more of their conversation
+than they could in a whole season in London. Think how happy I must feel
+in seeing them quite satisfied. Sir James and Lady Macintosh seem to
+like them, and I and they delight in Miss Macintosh: she is one of the
+best-informed and most unaffected girls I ever knew, with a sweet voice
+and agreeable conversation.
+
+
+GROVE HOUSE, KENSINGTON,
+
+_Jan. 27, 1822_.
+
+As if wakening from a long dream, I find myself sitting in exactly the
+same comer, on the same chair, in the same room where Fanny, and Honora,
+and I were three years ago! Lady Elizabeth Whitbread [Footnote: Eldest
+daughter of the first Earl Grey.] looks better than she did when we left
+her, though much thinner: her kindness and the winning dignity of her
+manners the same as ever. She was at breakfast with us at half-past nine
+this morning, when she went to her church and we to Kensington--Mrs.
+Batty's pew--Harriet and I. Fanny stayed at home for the good of her
+body, and Lady Elizabeth left with her, for the good of her soul, that
+wicked _Cain_. [Footnote: Lord Byron's _Cain_, which was preached
+against in Kensington Church by Mr. Rennel.]
+
+Miss Grant will be here on Monday, absent a fortnight nursing Mrs.
+Nesbitt. A new dog, Jubal: Lady Elizabeth heard one of the little Battys
+say, "Lion has _hatched_ a new dog," and the sister correcting her, "Oh,
+my dear! _hatched!_ you mean _laid!_" Jubal is very like Lion, only
+younger and handsomer: milk-white, and shorn poodle fashion.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+GROVE HOUSE, _Feb. 1822_.
+
+I am glad you like the preface to _Frank_: the engineer and the
+scientific part will tire you--skip and go on to the third volume.
+Delightful breakfast to-day at Mr. Ricardo's. We have this last week
+seen all Calcott's principal pictures, and those by Mulready, an Irish
+artist: one of a messenger playing truant; the enraged mistress, and the
+faces of the boys he is playing with, and the little child he had the
+care of asleep, all tell their story well; but none of these come near
+the exquisite humour and ingenuity of Hogarth. I have the face of that
+imbecile, round-eyed, half-drunk friend of ours in the corner of the
+"Election Dinner" now before me, and I can never think of it without
+laughing.
+
+We have seen Sir Thomas Lawrence's magnificent picture of the King in
+his coronation robes, which is to be sent to the Pope. [Footnote: Now in
+the Lateran Palace.] He flatters with great skill, choosing every
+creature's best. An admirable picture of Walter Scott; ditto ditto of
+Lady Jersey and Lady Conyngham. Lord Anglesea came in while we were with
+Sir Thomas: he is no longer handsome, but a model for the "nice conduct"
+of a wooden leg. It was within an inch of running through Walter Scott's
+picture, which was on the floor leaning on the wall; but, by a skilful
+sidelong manoeuvre, he bowed out of its way. His gray hair looks much
+better than His Majesty's flaxen wig--bad taste.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+KENSINGTON GORE, _Feb. 6, 1822_.
+
+A dreadful storm two nights ago, which blew down two fine old trees in
+the park, and a miserable wet day, in which we made our way to the
+dentist's.
+
+Colonel Talbot dined here--cast in the same mould as all the other
+Talbots I have ever seen: his face has been bronzed by hardships, and
+_scorched_ by the reflection from American _snows_: his manner of
+speaking slow--not too slow, only slow enough to be calmly distinct; and
+when relating wonders and dangers, gives you at once the certainty of
+truth, and the belief in his fortitude and intrepid presence of mind. He
+related the visit from his European friend, when he had built his log
+house, and was his own servant-of-all-work; and gave us an account of an
+attack of the Indians upon Fort Talbot. He gives me the idea of the most
+cool courage imaginable. I could not help looking at him, as if he were
+Robinson Crusoe come to life again, and continuing stories from his own
+book. He has now a very good house, or palace I should say; for he is
+not only lord of all he surveys, but actually king.
+
+Do you recollect American Mrs. Griffith writing to tell me that Mr.
+Ralston would come to see us, and my extreme disappointment at his
+finding in Dublin that Miss Edgeworth was not at home, and so not going
+down to Edgeworthstown, and not seeing Lovell's school? He has found us
+out now, and Lady Elizabeth invited him here. He has travelled over half
+Europe and is going to Spain; but upon my giving him a note to
+Macintosh, with a draft upon him for five minutes' conversation, and
+notes to some other celebrated people, he, like a sensible man,
+determined to delay his journey on purpose to see them. Lady Elizabeth
+has been so kind to ask him to dine here to-day, and commissioned me to
+invite whoever I pleased to meet him. First we wrote to your brother,
+but be could not come; and then to Dr. Holland, but he was engaged to
+Holland House. In his note to me he says, "I have seen Mr. Ralston
+several times, and have been greatly pleased with his ingenuousness,
+acquirements, and agreeable manners." His father and mother are
+grand--and what is rather better, most benevolent--people in
+Philadelphia. Meantime I must go and write a letter of introduction for
+him to Count Edouard de la Grange, who is just returned from Spain to
+Paris, and may serve him. But I forgot to finish my sentence about the
+invitations to dinner. My third invitation was to Mr. Calcott, the
+painter, with whom we made acquaintance a few days ago. He has been more
+civil than I can tell you, promising us his ticket for the Exhibition,
+and preparing the way for our seeing pictures at Lord Liverpool's, Sir
+John Swinburne's, etc.; so I was glad to have this opportunity of asking
+him, and he breaks an engagement to the Academy to accept of Lady
+Elizabeth's invitation.
+
+Now I must "put on bonnet" to go to Lady Grey's. She is the most
+touching sight! and Lady Elizabeth's affection and respect for her! She
+has desired to see Fanny and Harriet to-day.
+
+
+_Feb. 9_.
+
+Like a child who keeps the plums of his pudding for the last, but who is
+so tedious in getting through the beginning, that his plate is taken
+away before he gets to his plums, _so_ I often put off what I think the
+plums of my letters till "the post, ma'am," hurries it off without the
+best part.
+
+In my hurried conclusion I forgot to tell you that Mr. Ralston has
+lately become acquainted with Mr. Perkins, the American, who has tried
+experiments on the compressibility of water, the results of which have
+astonished all the scientific world.
+
+Wollaston, as Mr. Ralston affirms, has verified and warrants the truth
+of these experiments, which have not yet been published. The most
+wonderful part appeared to me incredible: under a great degree of
+compression the water, Mr. Ralston said, _turned to gas_!
+
+
+_Feb. 20_.
+
+Lady Lansdowne was here yesterday while I was in town; she heard that
+Fanny and Harriet were at home: got out and sat with them: very
+agreeable. Lady Bathurst has been here, and Lady Georgiana: asked us to
+a select party--Princess Lieven, etc.,--but we declined: could not leave
+Lady Elizabeth. I do not know that there is any truth in the report that
+Lady Georgiana is to marry Lord Liverpool: I should think not; for when
+we were at Cirencester, Lady Bathurst read out of a letter, "So I hear
+Lady Georgiana is to be our Prime Minister," which she would not have
+done if the thing were really going on; and when I went to Lord
+Liverpool's a few days ago, he was in deep mourning, the hatchment still
+up on his house, his note-paper half an inch black border. If he were
+_courting_, surely the black border would diminish, and the hatchment
+would be taken down. I wish it were true, for I like both parties, and
+think it would be remarkably well suited.
+
+
+_Feb. 24_.
+
+Yesterday Captain Beaufort walked here to see us, and then walked with
+Harriet and me to Lady Listowel's, _ci-devant_ Lady Ennismore, looking
+just the same as when we saw her at Kilkenny: excessively civil to us.
+Two curious pictures there done by an Irish boy, or man, of the name of
+Grogan, of Cork: one of these is an Irish wake; there is a great deal of
+original humour and invention in it, of the Wilkie, or, better still, of
+the Hogarth style.
+
+But all this time you would be glad to know whether I am likely to have
+a house over my head or not? it cannot be decided till Tuesday--8, or
+12, Holles Street.
+
+Yesterday we went to see Mrs. Moutray at Mr. Sumner's most comfortable
+and superb house. She had been to see the poor Queen's pictures and
+goods, which are now for sale: a melancholy sight; all her dress, even
+her stays, laid out, and tarnished finery, to be purchased by the lowest
+of the low. There was a full-length picture of her when she was young
+and happy; another, beautiful, by Opie or Lawrence, standing screwing up
+a harp with one hand, and playing with her little daughter with the
+other.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+8 HOLLES STREET, _March 9_.
+
+We are comfortably settled in this good central situation. We were last
+Monday at a select early party at Mrs. Hope's. The new gallery of
+Flemish pictures given to Mr. Hope by his brother is beautifully
+arranged.
+
+I have had the greatest pleasure in Francis Beaufort [Footnote: Brother
+of the fourth Mrs. Edgeworth.] going with us to our delightful
+breakfasts at Mr. Ricardo's--they enjoy each other's conversation so
+much. It has now become high fashion with blue ladies to talk Political
+Economy, and make a great jabbering on the subject, while others who
+have more sense, like Mrs. Marcet, hold their tongues and listen. A
+gentleman answered very well the other day when asked if he would be of
+the famous Political Economy Club, that he would, whenever he could find
+two members of it that agree in any one point. Meantime, fine ladies
+require that their daughters' governesses should teach Political
+Economy. "Do you teach Political Economy?" "No, but I can learn it." "O
+dear, no; if you don't teach it, you won't do for me."
+
+Another style of governess is now the fashion,--the _ultra-French_: a
+lady-governess of this party and one of the Orleans' or _liberaux_ met
+and came to high words, till all was calmed by the timely display of a
+ball-dress, trimmed with roses alternately red and white,--"Garniture
+aux préjugés vaincus." This should have been worn by those who formerly
+invented in the Revolution "Bals aux victimes."
+
+Yesterday we breakfasted at Mrs. Somerville's, and sat in her
+painting-room. Left her at one o'clock, and went by appointment to
+Lansdowne House. Lady Lansdowne quite affectionate to Fanny and Harriet;
+had fire and warm air in the superb new statue saloon on purpose for
+them. Mrs. Kennedy,--Sir Samuel Romilly's daughter,--came in, invited to
+meet us, very pleasing manners. Mrs. Nicholls,--Lady Lansdowne's
+niece,--"I like that you should know all I love."
+
+Then we went with Captain and Mrs. Beaufort to Belzoni's tomb,--the
+model first, and then the tomb as large as life, painted in its proper
+colours,--a very striking spectacle, but I need not describe it; the
+book represents it perfectly.
+
+Next door to the tomb are the Laplanders, the man about my size, at
+work, intently, but stupidly, on making a wooden spoon. The wife was
+more intelligent: a child of five years, very quiet gray eyes. In the
+middle of the apartment is a pen full of reindeer,--very gentle and
+ravenously eager for moss, of which there was a great basket. This moss,
+which they love as well as their own, has been found in great quantities
+on Bagshot Heath.
+
+We went one night to the House of Commons: Mr. Whitbread took us there.
+A garret the whole size of the room--the former chapel--now the House of
+Commons; below, _kitcats_ of Gothic chapel windows stopped up appear on
+each side above the floor: above, roof-beams. One lantern with one
+farthing candle, in a tin candlestick, all the light. In the middle of
+the garret is what seemed like a sentry-box of deal boards and old
+chairs placed round it: on these we got and stood and peeped over the
+top of the boards. Saw the large chandelier with lights blazing,
+immediately below: a grating of iron across veiled the light so that we
+could look down and beyond it: we saw half the table with the mace lying
+on it and papers, and by peeping hard two figures of clerks at the
+further end, but no eye could see the Speaker or his chair,--only his
+feet; his voice and terrible "ORDER" was soon heard. We could see part
+of the Treasury Bench and the Opposition in their places,--the tops of
+their heads, profiles, and gestures perfectly. There was not any
+interesting debate,--the Knightsbridge affair and the Salt Tax,--but it
+was entertaining to us because we were curious to see and hear the
+principal speakers on each side. We heard Lord Londonderry, Mr. Peel,
+and Mr. Vansittart; and on the other side, Denman, Brougham, and
+Bennett, and several hesitating country gentlemen, who seemed to be
+speaking to please their constituents only. Sir John Sebright was as
+much at ease as in his own drawing-room at Beechwood: Mr. Brougham we
+thought the best speaker we heard, Mr. Peel next; Mr. Vansittart the
+best language, and most correct English, though there was little in what
+he said. The Speaker, we were told, had made this observation on Mr.
+Vansittart, that he never makes a mistake in grammar. Lord Londonderry
+makes the most extraordinary blunders and _mal-à-propos_. Mr. Denman
+speaks well. The whole, the speaking and the interest of the scene
+surpassed our expectations, and we felt proud to mark the vast
+difference between the English House of Commons and the French Chambre
+des Députés. _Nevertheless_, there are disturbances in Suffolk, and Lord
+Londonderry had to get up from dinner to order troops to be sent there.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+8 HOLLES STREET, _March, 1822_.
+
+Your brother Francis is kind to us beyond description, and lets us take
+him where we will; he dined with us at Mrs. Weddell's,--this dear old
+lady copied last year in her seventy-second year a beautiful crayon
+picture of Lady Dundas,--and here we met Lady Louisa Stuart, Mr. Stanley
+of Alderley, and many others.
+
+Yesterday we went the moment we had swallowed our breakfast,--N.B.
+superfine green tea given to us by Mrs. Taddy,--by appointment to
+Newgate. The private door opened at sight of our tickets, and the great
+doors and the little doors, and the thick doors, and doors of all sorts,
+were unbolted and unlocked, and on we went through dreary but clean
+passages, till we came to a room where rows of empty benches fronted us.
+A table on which lay a large Bible. Several ladies and gentlemen entered
+and took their seats on benches at either side of the table, in silence.
+
+Enter Mrs. Fry in a drab-coloured silk cloak, and plain borderless
+Quaker cap; a most benevolent countenance,--Guido-Madonna face,--calm,
+benign. "I must make an inquiry,--Is Maria Edgeworth here? and where?" I
+went forward; she bade us come and sit beside her. Her first smile as
+she looked upon me I can never forget.
+
+The prisoners came in, and in an orderly manner ranged themselves on the
+benches. All quite clean, faces, hair, caps, and hands. On a very low
+bench in front, little children were seated and were _settled_ by their
+mothers. Almost all these women, about thirty, were under sentence of
+transportation, some few only were for imprisonment. One who did not
+appear was under sentence of death,--frequently women when sentenced to
+death become ill, and unable to attend Mrs. Fry; the others come
+regularly and voluntarily.
+
+She opened the Bible, and read in the most sweetly solemn, sedate voice
+I ever heard, slowly and distinctly, without anything in the manner that
+could distract attention from the matter. Sometimes she paused to
+explain, which she did with great judgment, addressing the convicts,
+"_we_ have felt; _we_ are convinced." They were very attentive,
+unaffectedly interested I thought in all she said, and touched by her
+manner. There was nothing put on in their countenances, not any
+appearance of hypocrisy. I studied their countenances carefully, but I
+could not see any which, without knowing to whom they belonged, I should
+have decided was bad; yet Mrs. Fry assured me that all those women had
+been of the worst sort. She confirmed what we have read and heard, that
+it was by their love of their children that she first obtained influence
+over these abandoned women. When she first took notice of one or two of
+their fine children, the mothers said that if she could but save their
+children from the misery they had gone through in vice, they would do
+anything she bid them. And when they saw the change made in their
+children by her schooling, they begged to attend themselves. I could not
+have conceived that the love of their children could have remained so
+strong in hearts in which every other feeling of virtue had so long been
+dead. The Vicar of Wakefield's sermon in prison is, it seems, founded on
+a deep and true knowledge of human nature,--"the spark of good is often
+smothered, never wholly extinguished."
+
+Mrs. Fry often says an extempore prayer; but this day she was quite
+silent while she covered her face with her hands for some minutes: the
+women were perfectly silent with their eyes fixed upon her, and when she
+said, "you may go," they went away _slowly_. The children sat quite
+still the whole time,--when one _leaned_, the mother behind set her
+upright.
+
+Mrs. Fry told us that the dividing the women into classes has been of
+the greatest advantage, and putting them under the care of monitors.
+There is some little pecuniary advantage attached to the office of
+monitor which makes them emulous to obtain it.
+
+We went through the female wards with Mrs. Fry, and saw the women at
+various works,--knitting, rug-making, etc. They have done a great deal
+of needlework very neatly, and some very ingenious. When I expressed my
+foolish wonder at this to Mrs. Fry's sister, she replied, "We have to
+do, recollect, ma'am, not with fools, but with rogues."
+
+There is only one being among all those upon whom she has tried to make
+salutary impression, on whom she could make none,--an old Jewess. She is
+so depraved, and so odiously dirty that she cannot be purified, body or
+mind; wash her and put clean clothes on, she tears and dirties them, and
+swarms with vermin again in twenty-four hours. I saw her in the kitchen
+where they were served with broth: a horrible spectacle, which haunted
+me the whole day and night afterwards. One eye had been put out and
+closed up, and the other glared with malignant passion. I asked her if
+she was not happier since Mrs. Fry had come to Newgate. She made no
+direct reply, but said, "It is hard to be happy in a jail; if you tasted
+that _broth_ you'd find it is nothing but dishwater." I did taste it,
+and found it was very good.
+
+Far from being disappointed with the sight of what Mrs. Fry has
+effected, I was delighted. We emerged again from the thick, dark, silent
+walls of Newgate to the bustling city, and thence to the elegant part of
+the town; and before we had time to arrange our ideas, and while the
+mild Quaker face and voice, and wonderful resolution and successful
+exertions of this admirable woman were fresh in our minds, morning
+visitors flowed in, and common life again went on.
+
+Three or four of these visitors were very agreeable, Sir Humphry Davy,
+Major Colebrook, Lord Radstock, and Mrs. Scott,--Mrs. Scott of
+Danesfield, whom and which we saw when at Lord Carrington's. The
+Bellman.
+
+
+_April 3_.
+
+Fanny and Harriet have been with me at that grand exclusive paradise of
+fashion, Almack's. Observe that the present Duchess of Rutland who had
+been a few months away from town, and had offended the Lady Patronesses
+by not visiting them, could not at her utmost need get a ticket from any
+one of them, and was kept out to her amazing mortification. This may
+give you some idea of the importance attached to admission to Almack's.
+Kind Mrs. Hope got tickets for us from Lady Gwydyr and Lady Cowper; the
+Patronesses can only give tickets to those whom they _personally know_;
+on that plea they avoided the Duchess of Rutland's application, she had
+not visited them,--"they really did not know her Grace;" and Lady Cowper
+swallowed a camel for me, because she did not really know me; I had met
+her, but had never been introduced to her till I saw her at Almack's.
+Fanny and Harriet were beautifully dressed: their heads by Lady
+Lansdowne's hairdresser, Trichot: Mrs. Hope lent Harriet a wreath of her
+own French roses. Fanny was said by many to be, if not the prettiest,
+the most elegant looking young woman in the room, and certainly
+"elegance, birth, and fortune were there assembled," as the newspapers
+would truly say.
+
+Towards the close of the evening Captain Waldegrave came to me with Mr.
+Bootle Wilbraham, who has been alternately Wilbraham Bootle and Bootle
+Wilbraham, till nobody knows how to call him: no matter for me, he came
+to say he was at our service and our most devoted humble servant to show
+us the Millbank Penitentiary whenever we pleased. He is a grand man, and
+presently returned with a grander,--the Marquis of Londonderry, who by
+his own account had been dying some time with impatience to be
+introduced to us; talked much of _Castle Rackrent_, etc., and of
+Ireland. Of course I thought his manner and voice very agreeable. He is
+much fatter and much less solemn than when I saw him in the Irish House
+of Commons. He introduced us to jolly fat Lady Londonderry, who was
+vastly gracious, and invited us to one of the four grand parties which
+she gives every season: _and_ it surprised me very much to perceive the
+rapidity with which a minister's having talked to a person spread
+through the room. Everybody I met afterwards that night and the next day
+_observed_ to me that they had seen Lord Londonderry talking to me for a
+great while!
+
+We had a crowded party at Lady Londonderry's, but they had no elbows.
+
+
+_April 4_.
+
+I recollect that I left off yesterday in the midst of a well-bred crowd
+at Lady Londonderry's,--her Marchioness-ship standing at her
+drawing-room door all in scarlet for three hours, receiving the world
+with smiles; and how it happened that her fat legs did not sink under
+her I cannot tell. The chief, I may say the only satisfaction we had at
+Lady Londonderry's, while we won our way from room to room, nodding to
+heads, or touching hands, as we passed,--besides the prodigious
+satisfaction of feeling ourselves at such a height of fashion, etc.--was
+in meeting Mr. Bankes, and Lady Charlotte, and Mr. Lemon behind the door
+of one of the rooms, and proceeding in the tide along with them into an
+inner sanctuary, in which we had cool air and a sight of the great
+Sèvres china vase, which was presented by the King of France to Lord
+Londonderry at the signing of the peace. Much agreeable conversation
+from this travelled Mr. Bankes. We heard from Lady Charlotte that her
+entertaining sister, Lady Harriet Frampton, had just arrived, and when I
+expressed our wish to become acquainted with her, Mr. Bankes exclaimed,
+"She is so eager to know you that she would willingly have come to you
+in worsted stockings, just as she alighted from her travelling carriage,
+with sandwiches in one pocket and letters and gloves stuffing out the
+other."
+
+Enter Mr. and Mrs. Hope. Mr. Hope, characteristically curious in vases,
+turned me round to a famous malachite vase which was given by the
+Emperor of Russia to Lord Londonderry--square, upon a pedestal high as
+my little table; and another, a present of I forget who. So, you see, he
+has a congress of vases, _en desire-t-il mieux_?
+
+Many, many dinners and evening parties have rolled over one another, and
+are swept out of my memory by the tide of the last fortnight: one at
+Lady Lansdowne's, and one at Mrs. Hope's, and I will go on to one at
+Miss White's. Mr. Henry Fox, Lord Holland's son, is lame. I sat between
+him and young Mr. Ord, Fanny between Mr. Milman (the Martyr of Antioch)
+and Sir Humphry Davy (the Martyr of Matrimony), Harriet between Dr.
+Holland and young Ord: Mr. Moore (Canterbury) and old-ish Ord completed
+this select dinner. In the evening the principal personages were Lord
+James Stuart and Mrs. Siddons: she was exceedingly entertaining, told
+anecdotes, repeated some passages from _Jane Shore_ beautifully, and
+invited us to a private evening party at her house.
+
+We have become very intimate with Wollaston and Kater, Mr. Warburton,
+and Dr. and Mrs. Somerville: they and Dr. and Mrs. Marcet form the most
+agreeable as well as scientific society in London. We have been to
+Greenwich Observatory. You remember Mr. and Mrs. Pond? I liked him for
+the candour and modesty with which he spoke of the parallax dispute
+between him and Dr. Brinkley, of whom he and all the scientific world
+here speak with the highest reverence.
+
+We went yesterday with Lord Radstock to the Millbank Penitentiary, where
+by appointment we were met by Mr. Wilbraham Bootle. We had the pleasure
+of taking with us Alicia and Captain Beaufort. Solitary confinement for
+the worst offences: solitary confinement in _darkness_ at first. There
+are many young offenders; the governors say they are horrid plagues, for
+they are not allowed to flog them, and they are little influenced by
+darkness and solitary confinement: oldish men much afraid of it. The
+disease most common in this prison is scrofula; and it is a curious fact
+that those who work with their arms at the mills are free from it, those
+who work with their feet at the tread-mills are subject to it.
+
+Adieu. I must here break off, as Mrs. Primate Stuart has come in, and
+left me no time for more. The Primate has recovered, and has set out
+this day with his son for Winchester, to see some haunts of his youth,
+takes a trip to Bath, and returns in a few days, when I hope we shall
+see him.
+
+_April 6_.
+
+I left off in the Millbank Penitentiary, but what more I was going to
+say I cannot recollect; so, my dear mother, you must go without that
+wisdom. All that I know now is that I saw a woman who is under sentence
+of death for having poisoned her sister. She appeared to me to be
+insane; but it is said that it is a frequent attempt of the prisoners to
+sham madness, in order to get to Bedlam, from which they can get out
+when _cured_. One woman deceived all the medical people, clergyman,
+jailer, and turnkeys, was removed to Bedlam as incurably mad, and from
+Bedlam made her escape. I saw a girl of about eighteen, who had been
+educated at Miss Hesketh's school, and had been put to service in a
+friend's family. She was in love with a footman who was turned away: the
+old housekeeper refused the girl permission to go out the night this man
+was turned away: the girl went straight to a drawer in the housekeeper's
+room, where she had seen a letter with money in it, took it, and put a
+coal into the drawer, to set the house on fire! For this she was
+committed, tried, convicted, and would have been hanged, but for Sir
+Thomas Hesketh's intercession: he had her sent to the Penitentiary for
+ten years. Would you not think that virtue and feeling were extinct in
+this girl? No: the task-mistress took us into the cell, where she was
+working in company with two other women; she has earned by her constant
+good conduct the privilege of working in company. One of the Miss
+Wilbrahams, when all the other visitors except myself had left the cell,
+turned back and said, "I think I saw you once when I was with Miss
+Hesketh at her school." The girl blushed, her face gave way, and she
+burst into an agony of tears, without being able to answer one word.
+
+Yesterday we breakfasted at Mrs. Somerville's, and I put on for her a
+blue crape turban, to show her how Fanny's was put on, with which she
+had fallen in love. We dined at Mrs. Hughan's, [Footnote: Jean, daughter
+of Robert Milligan, Esq., of Cotswold, Gloucestershire.] niece to Joanna
+Baillie: select party for Sir William Pepys, who is eighty-two, a most
+agreeable, lively old gentleman, who tells delightful anecdotes of Mrs.
+Montague, Sir Joshua, Burke, and Dr. Johnson. Mrs. Montague once
+whispered to Sir William, on seeing a very awkward man coming into the
+room, "There is a man who would give one of his hands to know what to do
+with the other." Excellent house of Mrs. Hughan's, full of flowers and
+luxuries. In the evening many people; the Baillies, and a Miss Jardine,
+granddaughter of Bruce, the traveller. We carried Sir William off with
+us at half-past nine to Mrs. Somerville's, and after we had been gone
+half an hour, Mr. Pepys, a _young_ man between forty and fifty, arrived,
+and putting his glass up to his eye, spied about for his uncle,
+discovered that he was gone, and could not tell how or where! Miss
+Milligan, sister to Mrs. Hughan, told him Miss Edgeworth had carried him
+off. His own carriage arrived at eleven, and carried Mr. Pepys, by
+private orders, not knowing where he was going, to Mrs. Somerville's. We
+had brought Sir William there to hear Mrs. Kater sing and play Handel's
+music, of which he is passionately fond. It was worth while to bring him
+to hear her singing, he so exceedengly enjoyed it, and so does
+Wollaston, who sits as mute as a mouse and as still as the statue of a
+philosopher charmed.
+
+I forgot to tell you that Lady Elizabeth Belgrave, [Footnote: Daughter
+of the first Duke of Sutherland] as pretty and winning as ever, came to
+see us with Lady Stafford; and yesterday, the third time of calling at
+her door, I was told by a pimpled, red-blotched door-holder that "her
+ladyship was not at home," but after he had turned the card to another
+form out of livery, he said, "My lady is at home to you, ma'am." So up
+we went, and she was very entertaining, with fresh observations from
+Paris, and much humour. She said she was sure there was some peculiar
+charm in the sound of the clinking of their swords in walking up and
+down the gallery of the Tuileries, which the old stupid ones pace every
+day for hours. She says she has met with much grateful attention from
+the royal family, and many of the French whom she had formerly known,
+but cannot give entertainments, because they have not the means. The
+Count d'Artois apologised; he has no separate dinner--always dined with
+the King, and "_very_ sorry for it." Lady Stafford asked us all to
+dinner, but we were engaged to Mr. Morritt. She is to ask again after
+our return from the Deepdene, where we spend Monday and Tuesday with the
+dear Hopes.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+8 HOLLES STREET, _April 10, 1822._
+
+The great variety of society in London, and the solidity of the sense
+and information to be gathered from conversation, strike me as far
+superior to Parisian society. We know, I think, six different and
+totally independent sets, of scientific, literary, political, travelled,
+artist, and the fine fashionable, of various shades; and the different
+styles of conversation are very entertaining.
+
+Through Lydia White we have become more acquainted with Mrs. Siddons
+than I ever expected to be. She gave us the history of her first acting
+of _Lady Macbeth_, and of her resolving, in the sleep scene, to lay down
+the candlestick, contrary to the precedent of Mrs. Pritchard and all the
+traditions, before she began to wash her hands and say, "Out, vile
+spot!" Sheridan knocked violently at her door during the five minutes
+she had desired to have entirely to herself, to compose her spirits
+before the play began. He burst in, and prophesied that she would ruin
+herself for ever if she persevered in this resolution _to lay down the
+candlestick!_ She persisted, however, in her determination, succeeded,
+was applauded, and Sheridan begged her pardon. She described well the
+awe she felt, and the power of the excitement given to her by the sight
+of Burke, Fox, Sheridan, and Sir Joshua Reynolds in the pit. She invited
+us to a private reading-party at her own house: present only her
+daughter, a very pretty young lady, a Mrs. Wilkinson, Mr. Burney, Dr.
+Holland, Lydia White, Mr. Harness and ourselves. She read one of her
+finest parts, and that best suited to a private room--Queen Katherine.
+She was dressed so as to do well for the two parts she was to perform
+this night, of gentlewoman and queen--black velvet, with black velvet
+cap and feathers. She sat the whole time, and with a large Shakespear
+before her; as she knew the part of Katherine by heart, she seldom
+required the help of glasses, and she recited it incomparably well: the
+changes of her countenance were striking. From her first burst of
+indignation when she objects to the Cardinal as her judge, to her last
+expiring scene, was all so perfectly natural and so touching, we could
+give no applause but tears. Mrs. Siddons is beautiful even at this
+moment. Some who had seen her on the stage in this part assured me that
+it had a much greater effect upon them in a private room, because they
+were near enough to see the changes of her countenance, and to hear the
+pathos of her half-suppressed voice. Some one said that, in the dying
+scene, her very pillow seemed sick.
+
+She spoke afterwards of the different parts which she had liked and
+disliked to act; and when she mentioned the characters and scenes she
+had found easy or difficult, it was curious to observe that the feelings
+of the actress and the sentiments and reasons of the best critics meet.
+Whatever was not natural, or inconsistent with the main part of the
+character, she found she never could act well.
+
+We spent three days at Easter at the Deepdene; the company there were
+Mr. C. Moore, Mr. Philip Henry Hope, Mr. and Miss Burrowes, Mr. Harness,
+Lord Fincastle, Lady Clare, and Lady Isabella Fitzgibbon, and Lord
+Archibald Hamilton. Deepdene is beautiful at this time of the year--the
+hawthorn hedges, the tender green of the larch and the sycamore in full
+leaf.
+
+
+To MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+HOLIES STREET, _April 20._
+
+We are going at two o'clock, and it is now half-past one, to a private
+view of Sir John Swinburne's pictures, and we are to dine nine miles out
+of town, at Flasket House, with Mrs. Fry.
+
+Barry Fox came yesterday to Grove House, and looked much like a
+gentleman, as he is, and seemed pleased with his cousins, as well he
+might be.
+
+I wish, my dearest mother, you would write a note to Dr. Holland in your
+next; he has been so kind and sympathising. [Footnote: On the death of
+Miss Edgeworth's beloved "aunt", Mrs. Charlotte Sneyd of
+Edgeworthstown.] Miss Bessy Holland has come to stay some weeks with her
+brother--good for her, and for us; she is very amiable. I find a card
+from Jeffrey was left here while we were at Grove House.
+
+Just returned from water--colour pictures; some of Prout's of old towns
+abroad, like Chester; met there--not at Chester--Lord Grey, Wilkie,
+Mulready, Lord Radstock, and the Miss Waldegraves, and Lady Stafford,
+who has more ready and good five minutes' conversation than anybody I
+know. She says the French have lost all their national recollections; in
+travelling through France she asked for various places famous in
+history, of which they had lost all memory.
+
+Carriage at the door, and I have not begun to dress!
+
+
+_April 24._
+
+The day before yesterday we saw Mrs. Tuite at Lady Sunderlin's. They
+have an admirable house. Miss Kitty Malone sees, and is most grateful
+for it.
+
+Mrs. Fry's place at Flasket is beautiful, and she is delightful at home
+or at Newgate.
+
+Paid a visit to Lady Derby; full as agreeable as when we saw her, half
+as fat, and twice as old; asked most kindly for you, and received your
+daughters with gracious grace.
+
+Monday, went with Mr. Cohen and Mr. Cockerell to St. Paul's; he showed
+us his renovations done in excellent taste. Dined at Miss White's with
+Mr. Luttrell, Mr. Hallam, Mr. Sharpe, and Mr. and Mrs. Stewart
+Nicholson; she is Lady Davy's half-sister. Most agreeable conversation;
+no dinners more agreeable than Lydia White's. Poor creature! how she can
+go through it I cannot imagine, she is dying. It is dreadful to look at
+her!
+
+In the evening at Miss Stable's, Anna's friend; met there Mrs. Cunliffe,
+who was Miss Crewe, very agreeable and, though not regularly handsome,
+very pleasing in countenance and person.
+
+Tuesday, spent a happy hour at the Museum. We dined at Mrs. Marcet's,
+with only herself and children. Then to an "at home," at Mrs. Ricardo's,
+merely for ten minutes to see the famous Mr. Hume. Don't like him much;
+attacks all things and persons, never listens, has no judgment.
+
+
+_May 3._
+
+Since Harriet last wrote we have been to Harrow to hear the speeches of
+the first class of boys, our future orators. It was a very interesting
+scene, attended by many ladies, as well as gentlemen. Two of the
+speeches were from _Henry IV.,_ one the crown tried on, well repeated.
+The situation of the school is beautiful, the lawn laid out with great
+taste; the master, Dr. Butler, a very well-informed agreeable man, with
+a picturesque head. We had a very elegant collation, and I sat beside a
+very agreeable thin old nobleman of the old school, Lord Clarendon. Upon
+the whole, after hearing the speeches and recitations of these youths, I
+said to myself, how much better my father taught to read and recite than
+any of these masters can.
+
+
+_May 10._
+
+The sudden death of the Primate [Footnote: Hon. William Stuart,
+Archbishop of Armagh, fifth son of the third Earl of Bute; he married
+Sophia, daughter of Thomas Penn of Stoke Poges.] and the horrible
+circumstances attending it have incapacitated me from any more
+home-writing at this moment. Mrs. Stuart gave him the medicine; he had
+twice asked for his draught, and when she saw the servant come in she
+ran down, seized the bottle and poured it out without looking at the
+label, which was most distinct "for external application." When dying,
+and when struggling under the power of the opium, he called for a pencil
+and wrote these words for a comfort to his wife: "I could not have lived
+long, my dear love, at all events."
+
+
+_May 22._
+
+I enclose a note from Lady Louisa Stuart, the Primate's sister; it is
+most touching, especially the account of the feelings of his
+parishioners.
+
+We have been at the Caledonian ball--Harriet has written a description
+of it to Pakenham; and also to a very pleasant dance at Mrs. Shaw
+Lefevre's, [Footnote: Daughter of Lady Elizabeth Whitbread, married to
+Charles Shaw Lefevre, afterwards Viscount Eversley.] where Fanny and
+Harriet had good partners.
+
+I have subscribed £10 to the Irish poor subscription. Spring Rice, whom
+I very much like, tells me he has been touched to the heart by the
+generous eagerness with which the English merchants and city people have
+contributed to this fund. A very large sum is already at his disposal,
+and he has wisely considered that if this money be not judiciously
+applied it will do more harm than good. He has done me the honour to
+consult me about his plan, of which I enclose a copy.
+
+At Captain Kater's breakfast yesterday we met Greenough, Captain
+Beaufort, Warburton, and young Herschel, a man of great
+abilities,[Footnote: Afterwards Sir John Herschel, the famous astronomer
+and philosopher.] to whom Sir Humphry Davy paid an elegant compliment
+the other day in a speech as President to the Royal Society. "His father
+must rejoice in such a son, who secures to him a double immortality."
+
+Just received yours of the 17th. Curious that you should have been
+saying to me the same thing I was saying to you about the Irish
+subscriptions. Poor Peggy Mulheeran! her letter is most pathetic. Fanny
+and Harriet are at this moment dining at dear Mrs. Lushington's, and I
+am going alone to a dinner at _Lydia's,_ to meet Sidney Smith--_they_
+come in the evening. We met Lady Byron lately at Mrs. Lushington's.
+Dinner at Lord and Lady Darnley's--all manner of attention. Greenough
+has been most kind; admirable collection of fossils--taking out all his
+thousand drawers for us. Bellman.
+
+
+_May 28._
+
+In the hurried life we have led for some weeks past, and among the great
+variety of illustrious and foolish people we have seen pass in rapid
+panoramas before us, some remain for ever fixed in the memory, and some
+few touch the heart. We have just breakfasted with Spring Rice and Lady
+Theodosia. She has a placid, amiable, and winning countenance--pretty
+curly-haired children, such as you or Sir Joshua would paint.
+
+At this breakfast were Mr. Rice's sister, Lady Hunt, a charming woman.
+Mr. Grant, our late secretary, with sense, goodness, and indolence in
+his countenance, and Mr. Randolph, the American, very tall and thin, as
+if a stick instead of shoulders stretched out his coat; his hair tied
+behind with a black ribbon, but not pigtailed, it flows from the ribbon,
+like old Steele's, with a curl at the end, mixed brown and gray; his
+face wrinkled like a peach-stone, but all pliable, muscles moving with
+every sensation of a feeling soul and lively imagination; quick dark
+eyes, with an indefinable expression of acquired habitual sedateness, in
+despite of nature; his tone of voice mild and repressed, yet in this
+voice he speaks thoughts that breathe and words that burn; he is one of
+the most eloquent men I ever heard speak, and there is a novelty in his
+view of things, and in his new world of allusions, in art and nature,
+which is highly interesting.
+
+Besides the pleasure we should naturally have taken in his conversation,
+we have been doubly pleased by his gratifying attention to ourselves,
+and, my dearest mother, still more by the manner in which he
+distinguished your Francis,[Footnote: Her half-brother, son of Mrs.
+Edgeworth.] who was with us. Spring Rice told us that Mr. Abercromby,
+who had met him at Joanna Baillie's, told him he was one of the finest
+and most promising boys he had ever seen.
+
+Do, for heaven's sake, some good soul or body, write forthwith to Black
+Castle, and learn whether Aunt Ruxton likes the gown I sent her--gray
+cloth. If not, I will get her another.
+
+
+FROGNEL, HAMPSTEAD, _June 3._
+
+A few lines ever so short and hurried are better than none. We gave up
+our house and paid all our bills on Saturday; left London and came to
+Frognel [Footnote: To Mr. Carr's]--delicious Frognel! Hay-making--profusion
+of flowers--rhododendrons as fine as four of mine, flowering down to the
+grass. All our friends with open arms on steps in the verandah to receive
+us.
+
+A large party of Southebys, etc., including Mrs. Tuite, put by for
+future description. Second day: Wollaston, Dr. and Miss Holland. Harriet
+sat beside Wollaston at dinner, and he talked unusually, veiling for her
+the terror of his beak and lightning of his eye. He has indeed been very
+kind and amiable in distinguishing your daughters as worth speaking to.
+
+To-day I came to town with Mrs. Carr, and my sisters, and the Miss
+Carrs, and they went to a Prison Discipline meeting to hear Macintosh
+speak; but I was not able to go, and have done worlds of business since.
+
+We have changed our plans a little: going to Portsmouth first, and to
+Slough on our return; we were to have gone by Slough, but the Prince of
+Denmark and the King going to Ascot took up all horses and beds, so we
+were obliged to go the other road.
+
+
+51 MANCHESTER STREET, LONDON,
+
+_June 10_.
+
+We have accomplished, much to our satisfaction, our long-intended
+journey to Portsmouth. On Tuesday, at nine o'clock in the morning, we
+found ourselves according to appointment, in our own dear carriage, at
+your brother's door, and he and Francis seated themselves on the
+barouche seat. The weather was bronzing and melting hot, but your
+brother would insist on being bronzed and melted there during the heat
+of the day, in a stoical style disdaining a parasol, though why it
+should be more unmanly to use a parasol than a parapluie I cannot, for
+the sense of me, understand.
+
+Lady Grey, wife of the commissioner--he is away--ordered all the works
+and dockyard to be open to us, and the Government boat to attend upon
+us; saw the _Nelson_--just finished; and went over the _Phaeton_, and
+your brother showed us his midshipman's berth and his lieutenant's
+cabin. And now for the Block machinery, you will say, but it is
+impossible to describe this in a letter of moderate or immoderate size.
+I will only say that the ingenuity and successful performance far
+surpassed my expectations. Machinery so perfect appears to act with the
+happy certainty of instinct and the foresight of reason combined.
+
+We took a barge to the Isle of Wight--charming day. You take a sociable,
+and the _Felicity-hunter_ goes in it as far as the horses can take him.
+It was the most gratifying thing to me to see "Uncle Francis" and all of
+them so happy. We slept at Steephill; and in the morning went to see
+Carisbrook Castle. Dined at Portsmouth with Sir James and Lady Lyon.
+
+But oh, my dear mother, at the little pretty flowery-lawned inn where we
+dined on our way to Slough, as your brother was reading the newspaper,
+he came to the death of our dear Mr. Smith, of Easton Grey. At Sir
+Benjamin Hobhouse's, a few months ago, he was the gayest of the gay, and
+she the fondest and happiest of wives.
+
+At Slough we saw the great telescope--never used now. Drove to
+Windsor--building and terrace equal to my expectations. At night the
+clouds were so good as to disperse, and we saw a double star.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Miss Edgeworth's wonderful conversational powers, combined with her
+homely aspect, and perfectly unassuming manners, made a great impression
+upon many of those who met her in London. Ticknor says of Maria
+Edgeworth: "There was a life and spirit about her conversation, she
+threw herself into it with such _abandon_, she retorted with such
+brilliant repartee, and, in short, she talked with such extraordinary
+flow of natural talent, that I don't know whether anything of the kind
+could be finer."
+
+On 27th June Miss Edgeworth returned with her half-sisters to
+Edgeworthstown, taking up the thread of her domestic affairs as if there
+had been no interruption, and she immediately set to work on the sequel
+to _Harry and Lucy_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARIA _to_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _July 23, 1822_.
+
+Honora is staying at Lough Glyn with Mr. and Mrs. Strickland; they are
+making judicious and incessant exertions for the relief of the poor and
+the improvement of the people in their neighbourhood. It is very
+extraordinary that, in the part of the County of Monaghan to which Mr.
+Strickland went last week for flax seed for the poor tenants in his
+neighbourhood, he found that there is plenty of everything--no distress
+felt. The famine seems to have been as capricious as the malaria in
+passing over some places and settling upon others. Here we go on in our
+parish without having recourse to public subscription.
+
+
+
+_August 7_.
+
+We have just returned, all of us, from walking two miles on the
+Mullingar road, in hopes of meeting Francis, who was expected in a
+chaise from Mullingar, as the coach _sleeps_ there. Just as we had
+reached the hall door by moonlight, in despair, we heard a doubtful
+noise, which none but a maternal ear--a very nice ear on some
+occasions--could judge whether of cart or chaise: it was a chaise, with
+Francis in it; and here he is, one of the most agreeable and happy boys
+I ever saw.
+
+I have written to Walter Scott, claiming his promise of coming here; but
+I doubt his being in Ireland: I agree with you that his play is very
+stupid. Joanna Baillie [Footnote: Halidon Hill] suggested the subject,
+and he wrote it as a contribution to a miscellany formed of
+_voluntaries_ from all the poets and wits of the day, to make a fund for
+some widowed friend of hers in great distress. He wrote it with good
+intentions; but, as Madame de Staël says, "Les bons intentions ne sont
+pour rien dans les ouvrages d'esprit."
+
+Never read _The Lollards_ if it falls in your way, unless you like to
+see John Huss burned over again. What pleasure have people in such
+horrid subjects?
+
+You ask me what I am doing besides _Early Lessons_, and if I have made
+any progress in "Travellers." [Footnote: A tale she had thought of
+writing, but she never even made a sketch of it.] Do you think, my
+dearest aunt, that I can write _Early Lessons_ with my left hand and
+"Travellers" with my right? You have too good an opinion of my
+dexterity. I assure you it is all I can do to satisfy myself tolerably
+as I go on with this sequel to _Harry and Lucy_, which engages all my
+attention. I am particularly anxious to finish that _well_, as it was
+my dear father's own and _first_ book. As it must be more scientific
+than the other _Early Lessons_, it is more difficult to me, who have so
+little knowledge on those subjects, and am obliged to go so warily, lest
+I should teach error, or pretend to teach what I do not know. I have
+written about fifty pages. I fear you will not like it as well as you
+were so kind as to like _Frank_. I could never be easy writing anything
+else for my own amusement till I have done this, which I know my father
+wished to have finished. You will see in Dr. Holland's letter some
+admirable hints for "Travellers," and I expect many more, from you, dear
+aunt: we will talk it over in the days of October. How many things we
+have talked over together! _Rackrent_ especially, which you first
+suggested to me, and encouraged me to go on with.
+
+_August 10_.
+
+My dear aunt, I know how you must have been shocked when you heard of
+the manner of Lord Londonderry's death. As Dr. Holland says, "If we were
+to have looked from one end of the British Empire to the other, we could
+not have pitched on an individual that seemed less likely to commit
+suicide."
+
+Whitbread, Sir Samuel Romilly, Lord Londonderry--all to perish in the
+same manner!
+
+_Sept. 10_.
+
+In this frank you will receive a copy of a very interesting letter from
+Fanny Stewart. The post and steam vessels bring the most distant parts
+of the world now so much within our reach that friends cannot be much
+more separated by being at "Nova Zembla, or the LORD knows where," than
+by being in different counties of the same kingdom. There is Fanny
+Stewart dining with Sneyd's friends, the Bishop of Quebec's family; and
+young Mountain was in Switzerland when we were at Interlachen with Sneyd
+and Henrica, and the year before at Ardbraccan and Edgeworthstown.
+Things are odd till they pair off, and so become even. Sneyd and
+Henrica, who were at Geneva, have been invited to the Baron Polier's,
+near Lausanne, the brother of Madame de Montolieu, whom I told you of.
+Madame Polier was the intimate friend of an intimate friend of
+Henrica's, Miss French, of Derby, who has married a Cambridge friend of
+Sneyd's, Mr. Smedley, and they are now on a visit at the said Madame
+Polier's--a Derbyshire party in the heart of Switzerland, and by various
+connections _felted_ together!
+
+When Honora is on the sofa beside you, make her give you an account of
+Francis's play, _Catiline_, which he and Fanny, and Harriet and Sophy,
+and James Moilliet and Pakenham _got up_ without our being in the
+secret, and acted the night before last, as it were impromptu, to our
+inexpressible surprise and pleasure. Francis, during his holidays with
+us in London, used to be often scribbling something; but I never
+inquired or guessed what it was. Fanny and Harriet, in the midst of the
+hurry of London dissipation, and of writing all manner of notes, etc.,
+for me, and letters home innumerable, contrived to copy out fair for him
+all his scraps; and when put together they made a goodly tragedy in two
+acts, wonderfully well written for his age--some parts, for any age,
+excellent.
+
+After tea the library became empty suddenly of all the young people. My
+aunt Mary, my brother Lovell, and I remaining with Quin, who had dined
+here, talking on, never missed them; and the surprise was as great as
+heart could wish when my mother put into our hands the play-bills, and
+invited us to follow her to her dressing-room.
+
+
+  CATILINE,
+
+  A Tragedy, in Two Acts.
+
+  Catiline (in love with Aurelia)    Francis.
+  Cato (father of Aurelia)           Pakenham.
+  Cicero (in love with Aurelia)      Harriet.
+  Caesar                             Moilliet.
+  Aurelia (daughter of Cato)         Sophy.
+  Julia (wife to Cato)               Fanny.
+
+We found Lucy on her sofa, with her feet towards the green-house; a
+half-circle of chairs for the audience, with their backs touching the
+wardrobe--candlestick-footlights, well shaded with square sofa-cushions
+standing on end.
+
+Prologue spoken by Harriet; curtain drew back, and Catiline and Aurelia
+appeared. Fanny had dressed Francis, from Kennet's _Antiquities_, out of
+an old rag-chest, and a more complete little Roman figure I never saw,
+though made up no mortal can tell how, like one of your own doings, dear
+aunt, with a crown of ilex leaves. Aurelia was perfectly draped in my
+French crimson shawl; she looked extremely classical and pretty, and her
+voice was so sweet, and her looks alternately so indignant to Catiline
+and so soft when she spoke of the man she loved, that I do not wonder
+Catiline was so desperately enamoured.
+
+Pakenham was wonderful: he had received no instructions. They had
+determined to leave him to himself, and see what would come of it. He
+had brought down an old wig from the garret, and Catiline and Cato could
+not settle which it became best or worst; so Catiline wore his ilex
+crown, and Pakenham a scarlet cap and black velvet cloak, his eyebrows
+and chin darkened, a most solemn, stern countenance, a roll of white
+paper in his hand, the figure immovable, as if cut in stone: the soul of
+Cato seemed to have got into him. I never heard any actor speak better,
+nor did I ever see a part better sustained; it seemed as if one saw Cato
+through a diminishing glass. In one scene he interrupts Cicero, who is
+going off into a fine simile--"Enough: the tale." He said these three
+words so well, with such severity of tone, and such a piercing look,
+that I see and hear him still. His voice was as firm as a man's, and his
+self-possession absolute. He had his part so perfectly, that he was as
+independent of the prompter as of all the rest of the world.
+
+Moilliet recited and played his part of Caesar wondrous well. You may
+think how well Pakenham and all of them must have acted, when we could
+stand the ridicule of Pakenham's Cato opposite to Moilliet's Caesar. One
+of James Moilliet's eyes would have contained all the eyes of Cato,
+Catiline, and Cicero. Fanny, as Julia, was beautiful.
+
+
+BLACK CASTLE, _Dec. 6, 1822_.
+
+How do you all do, my dear friends, after last night's hurricane?
+[Footnote: Numbers of the finest trees were blown down. The staircase
+skylight was blown away, and the lead which surrounded it rolled up as
+neatly as if just out of the plumber's: roofs were torn off and cabins
+blown down.] Have any trees been blown away? Has the spire stood? Is
+Madgy Woods alive? How many roofs of houses in the town have been blown
+away, and how many hundred slates and panes of glass must be replaced?
+The glass dome over the staircase at Ardbraccan has been blown away; two
+of the saloon windows blown in. The servants in this house sat up all
+night; I slept soundly. My aunt, roused at an unwonted hour from her bed
+this morning, stood at the foot of mine while I was yet dreaming; and
+she avers that when she told me that eight trees and the great green
+gates were blown down, that I sat up in my bed, and, opening one eye,
+answered, "Is it in the newspaper, ma'am?" When I came out to breakfast,
+the first object I beheld was the uprooted elms lying prostrate opposite
+the breakfast-room windows; and Mr. Fitzherbert says more than a hundred
+are blown down in the uplands.
+
+Now I have done with the hurricane, I must tell you a dream of Bess's:
+she thought she went to call upon a lady, and found her reading a pious
+tract called "The Penitent Poodle!"
+
+_To_ MRS. O'BEIRNE.
+
+BLACK CASTLE, _Jan. 15, 1823_.
+
+We are delighted with _Peveril_, though there is too much of the dwarfs
+and the elfie. Scott cannot deny himself one of these spirits in some
+shape or other; I hope that we shall find that this elfin page, who has
+the power of shrinking or expanding, as it seems, to suit the occasion,
+is made really necessary to the story. I think the dwarf more allowable
+and better drawn than the page, true to history, and consistent; but
+Finella is sometimes handsome enough to make duke and king ready to be
+in love with her, and sometimes an odious little fury, clenching her
+hands, and to be lifted up or down stairs out of the hero's way. The
+indistinctness about her is not that indistinctness which belongs to the
+sublime, but that which arises from unsteadiness in the painter's hand
+when he sketched the figure. He touched and retouched at different
+times, without having, as it seems, a determined idea himself of what he
+would make her; nor had he settled whether she should bring with her
+"airs from heaven," or blasts from that place which is never named to
+ears polite.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In May 1823 Miss Edgeworth took her half-sisters Harriet and Sophy to
+Scotland. It was a very happy time to her, chiefly because there she
+made an acquaintance with Sir Walter Scott, which soon ripened into an
+intimate and lasting friendship. He had already admired her stories,
+which he spoke of as "a sort of _essence_ of common sense."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARIA _to_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH.
+
+KINNEIL, _June 2, 1823_.
+
+I wish you were here with us. We arrived between nine and ten last
+night. The sea-shore approaching Kinneil House is exactly the idea I had
+of the road to Glenthorn Castle; the hissing sound of the wheels and
+all, and at last the postillion stopped where one road sloped directly
+down into the Frith of Forth, and another turned abruptly up hill. He
+said, "This is a-going into the water; I ha' come the wrong way." And up
+the narrow road up the hill he went and turned the carriage, and down
+again, and back the road we had come some little distance, and splash
+across to a road on the opposite side, and then by the oddest back way
+that seemed to be leading us into the stables, till at last we saw the
+door of the real house, an old but white-washed castle-mansion. A
+short-faced old butler in black came out of a sort of sentry-box back
+door to receive us, and through odd passages and staircases we reached
+the drawing-room, where we found fire and candles, and Mrs. Stewart and
+a young tall man; Mrs. Stewart, just as you saw her at Bowood, received
+Harriet and Sophy in her arms, spoke of their dear mother and of Honora,
+and seated us on the sofa, and told Sophy to open a letter from Fanny,
+which she put into her hand, and "feel herself at home," which indeed we
+did. The tall young man was no hindrance to this feeling; an intimate
+friend, a Mr. Jackson, who has been staying with Mr. Stewart as his
+companion ever since his illness.
+
+We passed through numerous ante-chambers, nooks, and halls--broad white
+stone corner staircase, winding with low-arched roof. Our two rooms open
+into one another--mine large, with four black doors, one locked and two
+opening into closets, and back stairs, and if you mount to another
+story, all the rooms are waste garrets. Mrs. Stewart told us this
+morning that there were plenty of ghosts at our service belonging to
+Kinneil House. One in particular, Lady Lilyburn, who is often seen all
+in white, as a ghost should be, and with white wings, fluttering on the
+top of the castle, from whence she leaps into the sea--a prodigious leap
+of three or four hundred yards, nothing for a well-bred ghost. At other
+times she wears boots, and stumps up and down stairs in them, and across
+passages, and through bedchambers, frightening ladies' maids and others.
+We have not heard her _yet_.
+
+When we looked out of our windows this morning we saw fine views, and in
+the shrubbery near the house some of the largest lilacs I ever saw in
+rich flower. From another window, half a mile length of avenue with
+gates through which we should by rights have approached the front of the
+house. But all this time I have not said one word of what I had intended
+to be the subject of this: Lanark and Mr. Owen's school. I am called
+down to Lady Anna Maria Elliot; [Footnote: Afterwards Countess Russell.]
+my mother may remember her in former days--she is said to be like Die
+Vernon.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+EDINBURGH, 32 ABERCROMBY PLACE,
+
+_June 8, 1823_.
+
+You have had our history up to Kinneil House. Mr. and Miss Stewart
+accompanied us some miles on our road to show us the palace of
+Linlithgow--very interesting to see, but not to describe. The drive from
+Linlithgow to Edinburgh is nothing extraordinary, but the road
+approaching the city is grand, and the first view of the castle and
+"mine own romantic town" delighted my companions; the day was fine and
+they were sitting outside on the barouche seat--a seat which you, my
+dear aunt, would not have envied them with all their fine prospects. By
+this approach to Edinburgh there are no suburbs; you drive at once
+through magnificent broad streets and fine squares. All the houses are
+of stone, darker than the Ardbraccan stone, and of a kind that is little
+injured by weather or time. Margaret Alison [Footnote: Margaret,
+daughter of Dr. James Gregory, married to William Pulteney Alison,
+Professor of Medicine in the University of Edinburgh.] had taken
+lodgings for us in Abercromby Place--finely built, with hanging
+shrubbery garden, and the house as delightful as the situation. As soon
+as we had unpacked and arranged our things the evening of our arrival,
+we walked, about ten minutes' distance from us, to our dear old friends,
+the Alisons. We found them shawled and bonneted, just coming to see us.
+Mr. Alison and Sir Walter Scott had settled that we should dine the
+first day after our arrival with Mr. Alison, which was just what we
+wished; but on our return home we found a note from Sir Walter:
+
+
+"DEAR MISS EDGEWORTH,
+
+"I have just received your kind note, just when I had persuaded myself
+it was most likely I should see you in person or hear of your arrival.
+Mr. Alison writes to me you are engaged to dine with him to-morrow,
+which puts Roslin out of the question for that day, as it might keep you
+late. On Sunday I hope you will join our family-party at five, and on
+Monday I have asked one or two of the Northern Lights on purpose to meet
+you. I should be engrossing at any time, but we shall be more disposed
+to be so just now, because on the 12th I am under the necessity of going
+to a different kingdom (only the kingdom of _Fife_) for a day or two.
+To-morrow, if it is quite agreeable, I will wait on you about twelve,
+and hope you will permit me to show you some of our improvements.
+
+"I am always,
+
+"Most respectfully yours,
+
+"WALTER SCOTT.
+
+"EDINBURGH, _Friday._
+
+"_Postscript._--Our old family coach is _licensed_ to carry _six_; so
+take no care on that score. I enclose Mr. Alison's note; truly sorry I
+could not accept the invitation it contains.
+
+"_Postscript._--My wife insists I shall add that the Laird of Staffa
+promised to look in on us this evening at eight or nine, for the purpose
+of letting us hear one of his clansmen sing some Highland boat-songs and
+the like, and that if you will come, as the Irish should to the Scotch,
+without any ceremony, you will hear what is perhaps more curious than
+mellifluous. The man returns to the isles to-morrow. There are no
+strangers with us; no party; none but all our own family and two old
+friends. Moreover, all our woman-kind have been calling at Gibbs's
+hotel, so if you are not really tired and late, you have not even pride,
+the ladies' last defence, to oppose to this request. But, above all, do
+not fatigue yourself and the young ladies. No dressing to be thought of."
+
+
+Ten o'clock struck as I read the note; we were tired--we were not fit to
+be seen; but I thought it right to accept "Walter Scott's" cordial
+invitation; sent for a hackney coach, and just as we were, without
+dressing, went. As the coach stopped, we saw the hall lighted, and the
+moment the door opened, heard the joyous sounds of loud singing. Three
+servants--"The Miss Edgeworths" sounded from hall to landing-place, and
+as I paused for a moment in the anteroom, I heard the first sound of
+Walter Scott's voice--"The Miss Edgeworths _come_."
+
+The room was lighted by only one globe lamp. A circle were singing loud
+and beating time--all stopped in an instant, and Walter Scott in the
+most cordial and courteous manner stepped forward to welcome us: "Miss
+Edgeworth, this is so kind of you!"
+
+My first impression was, that he was neither so large, nor so heavy in
+appearance as I had been led to expect by description, prints, bust, and
+picture. He is more lame than I expected, but not unwieldy; his
+countenance, even by the uncertain light in which I first saw it,
+pleased me much, benevolent, and full of genius without the slightest
+effort at expression; delightfully natural, as if he did not know he was
+Walter Scott or the Great Unknown of the North, as if he only thought of
+making others happy. [Footnote: Miss Edgeworth describes Sir Walter
+Scott in her _Helen_: "If you have seen Raeburn's admirable pictures, or
+Chantrey's speaking bust, you have as complete an idea of Sir Walter
+Scott as painting or sculpture can give. The first impression of his
+appearance and manner was surprising to me, I recollect, from its quiet,
+unpretending good-nature; but scarcely had that impression been made,
+before I was struck with something of the chivalrous courtesy of other
+times. In his conversation you would have found all that is most
+delightful in all his works--the combined talents and knowledge of the
+historian, novelist, antiquary, and poet. He recited poetry admirably,
+his whole face and figure kindling as he spoke; but whether talking,
+reading, or reciting, he never tired me, even with admiring. And it is
+curious that, in conversing with him, I frequently found myself
+forgetting that I was speaking with Sir Walter Scott; and, what is even
+more extraordinary, forgetting that Sir Walter Scott was speaking to me,
+till I was awakened to the conviction by his saying something which no
+one else could have said. Altogether, he was certainly the most
+perfectly agreeable and perfectly amiable great man I ever knew."] After
+naming to us "Lady Scott, Staffa, my daughter Lockhart, Sophia, another
+daughter Anne, my son, my son-in-law Lockhart," just in the broken
+circle as they then stood, and showing me that only his family and two
+friends, Mr. Clark and Mr. Sharpe, were present, he sat down for a
+minute beside me on a low sofa, and on my saying, "Do not let us
+interrupt what was going on," he immediately rose and begged Staffa to
+bid his boatman strike up again. "Will you then join in the circle with
+us?" he put the end of a silk handkerchief into my hand, and others into
+my sisters'; they held by these handkerchiefs all in their circle again,
+and the boatman began to roar out a Gaelic song, to which they all
+stamped in time and repeated the chorus which, as far as I could hear,
+sounded like "_At am Vaun! At am Vaun!_" frequently repeated with
+prodigious enthusiasm. In another I could make out no intelligible sound
+but "Bar! bar! bar!" But the boatman's dark eyes were ready to start out
+of his head with rapture as he sung and stamped, and shook the
+handkerchief on each side, and the circle imitated.
+
+Lady Scott is so exactly what I had heard her described, that it seemed
+as if we had seen her before. She must have been very handsome--French
+dark large eyes; civil and good-natured. Supper at a round table, a
+family supper, with attention to us, just sufficient and no more. The
+impression left on my mind this night was, that Walter Scott is one of
+the best-bred men I ever saw, with all the exquisite politeness which he
+knows so well how to describe, which is of no particular school or
+country, but which is of all countries, the politeness which arises from
+good and quick sense and feeling, which seems to know by instinct the
+characters of others, to see what will please, and put all his guests at
+their ease. As I sat beside him at supper, I could not believe he was a
+stranger, and forgot he was a great man. Mr. Lockhart is very handsome,
+quite unlike his picture in _Peter's Letters_.
+
+When we wakened in the morning, the whole scene of the preceding night
+seemed like a dream; however, at twelve came the real Lady Scott, and we
+called for Scott at the Parliament House, who came out of the Courts
+with joyous face as if he had nothing on earth to do or to think of, but
+to show us Edinburgh. Seeming to enjoy it all as much as we could, he
+carried us to Parliament House--Advocates' Library, Castle, and Holyrood
+House. His conversation all the time better than anything we could see,
+full of _à-propos_ anecdote, historic, serious or comic, just as
+occasion called for it, and all with a _bon-homie_, and an ease that
+made us forget it was any trouble even to his lameness to mount flights
+of eternal stairs. Chantrey's statues of Lord Melville and President
+Blair are admirable. There is another by Roubillac, of Duncan Forbes,
+which is excellent. Scott is enthusiastic about the beauties of
+Edinburgh, and well he may be, the most magnificent as well as the most
+romantic of cities.
+
+We dined with the dear good Alisons. Mr. Alison met me at the
+drawing-room door, took me in his arms and gave me a hearty hug. I do
+not think he is much altered, only that his locks are silvered over. At
+this dinner were, besides his two sons and two daughters, and Mrs.
+Alison, Mr. and Mrs. Skene. In one of Scott's introductions to _Marmion_
+you will find this Mr. Skene, Mr. Hope, the Scotch Solicitor-General (it
+is curious the Solicitor-Generals of Scotland and Ireland should be Hope
+and Joy!), Dr. Brewster, and Lord Meadowbank, and Mrs. Maconachie, his
+wife. Mr. Alison wanted me to sit beside everybody, and I wanted to sit
+by him, and this I accomplished; on the other side was Mr. Hope, whose
+head and character you will find in _Peter's Letters:_ he was very
+entertaining. Sophy sat beside Dr. Brewster, and had a great deal of
+conversation with him.
+
+Next day, Sunday, went to hear Mr. Alison; his fine voice but little
+altered. To me he appears the best preacher I have ever heard. Dined at
+Scott's; only his own family, his friend Skene, his wife and daughter,
+and Sir Henry Stewart; I sat beside Scott; I dare not attempt at this
+moment even to think of any of the anecdotes he told, the fragments of
+poetry he repeated, or the observations on national character he made,
+lest I should be tempted to write some of them for you, and should never
+end this letter, which must be ended some time or other. His strong
+affection for his early friends and his country gives a power and a
+charm to his conversation, which cannot be given by the polish of the
+London world and by the habit of literary conversation.
+
+_Quentin Durward_ was lying on the table. Mrs. Skene took it up and
+said, "This is really too barefaced." Scott, when pointing to the
+hospital built by Heriot, said, "That was built by one Heriot, you know,
+the jeweller, in Charles the Second's time."
+
+There was an arch simplicity in his look, at which we could hardly
+forbear laughing.
+
+
+_June 23_.
+
+I remember, my dearest aunt, how fond you used to be of the song of
+Roslin Castle, and how fond my father used to be of it, from having
+heard you sing it when you were young. I think you charged me to see
+Roslin if ever I came to Scotland; this day I have seen it with Walter
+Scott. It is about seven miles from Edinburgh, I wish it had been twice
+as far; Scott was so entertaining and agreeable during the drive there
+and back again. The castle is an ugly old ruin, not picturesque, but the
+chapel is most beautiful, altogether the most beautiful florid Gothic I
+ever saw. There is infinite variety in the details of the ornaments, and
+yet such a unity in the whole design and appearance that we admire at
+once the taste and the ingenuity of the architect. I wished for you, my
+dear aunt, continually during parts of the walk by the river and through
+the woods--not during the whole, for it would have been much too long.
+How Walter Scott can find time to write all he writes I cannot conceive,
+he appears to have nothing to think of but to be amusing, and he never
+tires, though he is so entertaining--he far surpasses my expectation.
+
+Mr. Lockhart is reserved and silent, but he appears to have much
+sensibility under this reserve. Mrs. Lockhart is very pleasing; a slight
+elegant figure and graceful simplicity of manner, perfectly natural.
+There is something most winning in her affectionate manner to her
+father: he dotes upon her.
+
+
+To MISS LUCY EDGEWORTH.
+
+CALLANDER, _June 20, 1823_.
+
+Here we are! I can hardly believe we are really at the place we have so
+long wished to see: we have really been on Loch Katrine. We were
+fortunate in the day; it was neither too hot, nor too cold, nor too
+windy, nor too anything.
+
+The lake was quite as beautiful as I expected, but that is telling you
+nothing, as you cannot know how much I expected. Sophy has made some
+memorandum sketches for home, though we are well aware that neither pen
+nor pencil can bring before you the reality. William [Footnote: William,
+one of Miss Edgeworth's half-brothers, had joined his sisters at
+Edinburgh.] says he does not, however, fear for Killarney, even after
+our having seen this. Here are no arbutus, but plenty of soft birch, and
+twinkling aspen, and dark oak. On one side of the lake the wood has been
+within these few years cut down. Walter Scott sent to offer the
+proprietor £500 for the trees on one spot, if he would spare them; but
+the offer came two days too late; the trees were stripped of their bark
+before his messenger arrived. To us, who never saw this rock covered
+with trees, it appeared grand in its bare boldness and in striking
+contrast to the wooded island opposite. Tell Fanny that, upon the whole,
+I think Farnham lakes as beautiful as Loch Katrine; as to mere beauty,
+perhaps superior: but where is the lake of our own, or any other times,
+that has such delightful power over the imagination by the recollections
+it raises? As we were rowed along, our boatman, happily our only guide,
+named to us the points we most wished to see; quietly named them,
+without being asked, and seemingly with a full belief that he was
+telling us plain facts, without any flowers of speech. "There's the
+place on that rock, see yonder, where the king blew his horn." "And
+there's the place where the Lady of the Lake landed." "And there is the
+Silver Strand, where you see the white pebbles in the little bay
+yonder."
+
+He landed us just at the spot where the lady
+
+  From underneath an aged oak,
+  That slanted from the islet rock,
+
+shot her little skiff to the silver strand on the opposite side. When
+William asked him if the king's dead horse had been found, he smiled,
+and said he only knew that bones had been found near where the king's
+horse died, but he could not be sure that they were the bones of King
+James's good steed. However, he seemed quite as clear of the existence
+of the Lady of the Lake, and of all her adventures, as of the existence
+of Benledi and Benvenue, and the Trossachs. He showed us the place on
+the mountain of Benvenue, where formerly there was no means of ascent
+but by the ladders of broom and hazel twigs, where the king climbed,
+
+           with footing nice,
+  A far-projecting precipice.
+
+At the inn the mistress of the house lent me a copy of the _Lady of the
+Lake_, which I took out with me and read while we were going to the
+lake, and while Sophy was drawing. We saw an eagle hovering, and,
+moreover, Sophy spied some tiny sea-larks flitting close to the shore,
+and making their little, faint cry. Returning, we marked the place where
+the armed Highlanders started up from the furzebrake before King James,
+when Roderic Dhu sounded his horn, and we settled which was the spot at
+
+  Clan Alpine's outmost guard,
+
+where Roderic Dhu's safe conduct ceased, and where the king and he had
+their combat. I forgot to mention a little incident, which, though very
+trifling, struck me at the moment. As I was walking on by myself on the
+road by the river-side leading to the lake, I came up to a Highlander
+who was stretched on the grass under a bush, while two little boys in
+tartan caps were playing beside him. I stopped to talk to the children,
+showed them my watch, and, holding it to their ears, asked if they had
+ever seen the inside of a watch. They did not answer, but they did not
+seem surprised, nor were they in the least shy. I asked the man if they
+were his children.
+
+"Mine! oh no! they are the sons of Glengyle--the Laird of Glengyle, he
+who lives at the upper end of the lake yonder--McGreggor, that is, _the_
+McGreggor, the chief of the McGreggor clan."
+
+Rob Roy and his wife and children rose up before my imagination. Times
+have finely changed. It may be a satisfaction to you, and all who admire
+Rob Roy, to know that his burial-place is in a pretty, peaceful green
+valley, where none will disturb him; and all will remember him for ages,
+thanks to Walter Scott, a man he never kenned of, nor any of his
+second-sighted seers. By the bye, Harriet on our journey read _Rob Roy_
+to me, and I liked it ten times better than at the first reading. My
+eagerness for the story being satisfied, I could stop to admire the
+beauty of the writing: this happens to many, I believe, on a second
+perusal of Scott's works.
+
+
+FINISHED AT TYNDRUM.
+
+Very good inn at Callander, and another at Loch Katrine--both raised by
+the genius of Scott as surely and almost as quickly as the slave of the
+lamp raises the palace of Aladdin. We spent one day and part of another
+at Callander and Loch Katrine, and yesterday went to, and slept at,
+Killin, along a very beautiful, fine, wild, romantic road. At Killin
+took a very pretty walk before tea, of about two miles and a half, and
+back again, to see a waterfall, which fully answered our expectations:
+you see, I am very strong. I had taken another walk in the morning to
+see the Bridge of Brackland, another beautiful waterfall, with a
+six-inch bridge over a chasm of rocks, which looked as if they had been
+built together to imitate nature.
+
+We are reading _Reginald Dalton_, and like it very much, the second
+volume especially, which will be very useful, I think, and is very
+interesting. I am sure Mr. Lockhart describes his own wife's singing
+when he describes Ellen's.
+
+We hope to reach King's House to-night, and at Inverness we hope to find
+letters from home. We are all well and happy, and this I am sure is the
+most agreeable thing I can end with.
+
+
+To MISS RUXTON.
+
+INVERNESS, BENNET'S HOTEL, _July 3, 1823_.
+
+I sent a shabby note to my aunt some days ago, merely to tell her that
+we had seen Roslin; and Sophy wrote from Fort William of our visit to
+Fern Tower: good house, fine place; Sir David Baird a fine old soldier,
+without an arm, but with a heart and a head: warm temper, as eager about
+every object, great or small, as a boy of fifteen. He swallows me,
+though an authoress, wonderful well.
+
+Our Highland tour has afforded me and my companions great pleasure;
+Sophy has enjoyed it thoroughly. William has had a number of objects in
+his own line to interest him. From Fort William, which is close to Ben
+Nevis, the highest mountain in Britain, we went to see a natural or
+artificial curiosity called the Parallel Roads. On each side of a valley
+called Glenroy, through which the river Roy runs, there appear several
+lines of terraces at different heights, corresponding to each other on
+each side of the valley at the same height. These terrace-roads are not
+quite horizontal; they slope a little from the mountains. The learned
+are at this moment fighting, in writing, much about these roads. Some
+will have it that, in the days of Fingal, the Fingalians made them for
+hunting-roads, to lie in ambush and shoot the deer from these long
+lines. Others suppose that the roads were made by the subsiding of a
+lake, which at different periods sank in this valley, and at last made
+its way out. The roads, however made, are well worth seeing. We had a
+most agreeable guide, not a professed guide, but a Highlander of the
+Macintosh clan, an enthusiast for the beauties of his own country, and,
+like the Swiss Chamouni guides, quite a well-informed and, moreover, a
+fine-looking man, with an air of active, graceful independence; of whom
+it might be said or sung, "_He's clever in his walking._" He spoke
+English correctly, but as a foreign language, with _book_ choice of
+expressions; no colloquial or vulgar phrases. He often seemed to take
+time to translate his thoughts from the Gaelic into English. He knew
+Scott's works, _Rob Roy_ especially, and knew all the theories about the
+Parallel Roads, and explained them sensibly; and gave us accounts of the
+old family feuds between his own Macintosh clan and the Macdonalds,
+pointing to places where battles were fought, with a zeal which proved
+the feudal spirit still lives in its ashes. When he found we were Irish,
+he turned to me, and all reserve vanishing from his countenance, with
+brightening eyes he said, as he laid his hand on his breast, "And you
+are Irish! Now I know that, I would do ten times as much for you if I
+could than when I thought you were Southerns or English. We think the
+Irish have, like ourselves, more spirit." He talked of Ossian, and said
+the English could not give the _force_ of the original Gaelic. He sang a
+Gaelic song for us, to a tune like "St. Patrick's Day in the Morning."
+He called St. Patrick Phaedrig, by which name I did not recognise him;
+and our Highlander exclaimed, "Don't you know your own saint?" Sophy
+sang the tune for him, with which he was charmed; and when he heard
+William call her Sophy, he said to himself, "Sophia Western."
+
+The next day we took a beautiful walk to the territory and near the
+residence of Lochiel, through a wood where groups of clansmen and
+clanswomen were barking trees that had been cut down; and the faggoting
+and piling the bark was as picturesque as heart could wish.
+
+This day's journey was through fine wild Highland scenery, where rocks
+and fragments of rocks were tumbled upon each other, as if by giants in
+a passion, and now and then by giants playing at bowls with huge round
+bowls. These roads--some of them for which we "lift up our eyes and
+bless Marshal Wade," and some made by Telford, the vast superiority in
+the laying out of which William has had the pleasure of pointing out to
+his sisters--beautifully wind over hill and through valley, by the sides
+of streams and lakes. We saw the eight locks joining together on the
+Caledonian Canal, called Neptune's Stairs; and at another place on the
+canal William, who had been asleep, _instinctively_ wakened just in time
+to see a dredging machine at work: we stopped the carriage, and walked
+down to look at it: took a boat and rowed round the vessel, and went on
+board and saw the machinery. A steam-engine works an endless chain of
+buckets round and round upon a platform with rollers. The buckets have
+steel mouthpieces, some with quite sharp projecting lips, which cut into
+the sand and gravelly bottom, and scoop up what fills each bucket. At
+the bottom of each are cullender holes, through which the water drains
+off as the buckets go on and pass over the platform and empty themselves
+on an inclined plane, down which the contents fall into a boat, which
+rows away when full, and deposits the contents wherever wanted. If you
+ever looked at a book at Edgeworthstown called _Machines Approuvés_, you
+would have the image of this machine. It brought my father's drawings of
+the Rhone machine before my eyes.
+
+The whole day's drive was delightful--mountains behind mountains as far
+as the eye could reach, in every shade, from darkest to palest
+Indian-ink cloud colour; an ocean of mountains, with perpetually
+changing foreground of rocks, sometimes bare as ever they were born,
+sometimes wooded better than ever the hand of mortal taste clothed a
+mountain in reality or in picture, with oak, aspen, and the beautiful
+pendant birch.
+
+At Fort Augustus the house was painting, and the beds looked wretched;
+but all was made plausible with the help of fires and fair words, and we
+slept as well, or better, than kings and queens. As to any real
+inconvenience at Highland inns, we have met with none; always good fish,
+good eggs, good butter, and good humour.
+
+Next day we had another delightful drive: saw the Fall of Foyers: fine
+scrambling up and down to a rock, and on this rock such huge tumbledown
+stones, like Druids' temples, half-fallen, half-suspended. The breath
+was almost taken away and head dizzy looking at them above and the depth
+below; one could hardly believe we stood safe. Yet here we are safe and
+sound at Inverness, the Capital of the North, as Scott calls it. This
+Bennet's Hotel, where we are lodged, is as good as any in London or
+Edinburgh, and cleaner than almost any I ever was in, with a waiter the
+perfection of intelligence. We are going to see a place called the
+Dream, the name translated from the Gaelic.
+
+I forgot to tell you that, when at Edinburgh, we went to see Sir James
+and Lady Foulis's friends, the Jardines, who were also friends of
+Henry's. They are in a very pretty house, Laverock Bank, a few miles
+from Edinburgh. We "felicity hunters" have found more felicity than such
+hunters usually meet with.
+
+
+_To_ MISS LUCY EDGEWORTH.
+
+KINROSS, _July 23, 1823_.
+
+I left off in my yesterday's letter to my mother just as we were
+changing horses at Dunkeld, at six o'clock in the evening, to go on to
+Perth; but I had in that note arrived prematurely at Dunkeld, and had
+not time to fill up the history of our day. Be pleased, therefore, to go
+back to Moulinan, and see us eat luncheon; for, in spite of Mr. Grant's
+contempt of these _bon-vivant_ details, habit will not allow me to
+depart from my Swiss, Parisian, and English practice of giving the bill
+of fare.
+
+First course, cold: two roast chickens, better never were; a ham, finer
+never seen, even at my mother's luncheons; pickled salmon, and cold
+boiled round.
+
+Second course, hot: a large dish of little trout from the river; new
+potatoes, and, as I had professed to be unable to venture on new
+potatoes, a dish of mashed potatoes for me; fresh greens, with toast
+over, and poached eggs.
+
+Then, a custard pudding, a gooseberry tart, and plenty of Highland
+cream--_highly_ superior to Lowland--and butter, ditto.
+
+And for all this how much did we pay? Six shillings.
+
+Our drive in evening sunshine from Moulinan to Dunkeld was delightful,
+along the banks, no longer of the dear little, sparkling, foaming,
+fretting Garry, but of the broad, majestic, quiet, dark bottle-green
+coloured Tay; the road a perfect gravel walk; the bank, all the way down
+between us and the river, copsewood, with now and then a clump of fine
+tall larch, or a single ash or oak, with spreading branches showing the
+water beneath; the mountain side chiefly oak and alder, a tree which I
+scarcely knew till Sophy _mentioned_ it to me; sometimes the wood broken
+with glades of fern, heath, and young _stubble_ oaks, all the way up to
+white rocks on the summit; the young shoots of these stubble oaks tinted
+with pink, so as to have in the evening sun the appearance of autumn
+rich tints; and between these oaks and the green fern and broom a giant
+race of foxglove, which I verily believe, from the root to the spike,
+would measure four good feet, all rich in bells of brightest crimson, so
+bright that they crimsoned the whole bank.
+
+All these ten miles of wooded road run, I understand, through the
+territory of the Duke of Athol. Now I see his possessions, I am sure I
+do not wonder the lady left her lack-gold lover in the lurch for
+"Athol's duke." Along the whole road he has raised a footpath,
+beautifully gravelled. Oh! how I wish our walks had one inch off the
+surface of this footpath, or that the African magician, or the English
+equally potent magician of steam, could convey to my mother's _elbow_ in
+the Dingle one yard of one bank of the gravel which here wastes its
+pebbles on the mountain side! How in a trice she would summon round her
+her choice spirits, Briny Duffy, Micky Mulheeran, and Mackin, and how
+they would with shovel and loy fall to!
+
+Through the wood at continual openings we saw glimpses of beautiful
+paths or gravelled walks, which this munificent duke has made through
+his woods for the accommodation of the public. I forgive him for being
+like an over-ripe Orleans plum, and for not saying a word, good or bad,
+the day we met him at Mr. Morrit's.
+
+At Dunkeld, alas! we bade adieu to the dear Highlands. I have not time
+now to tell you of Killiecrankie and Dundee's Stone.
+
+Arrived at Perth at nine o'clock: tea, with silver urn and silver
+candlesticks, and all luxurious: cold chicken, ham, and marmalade
+inclusive.
+
+The drive from Perth this morning to Kinross is beautiful, but in a more
+civilised and less romantic way than our Highland scenery. We are now
+within view of Lochleven, Queen Mary's island.
+
+During this morning's drive, Sophy sang "In April, when primroses blow"
+most charmingly. Her singing was much admired in Edinburgh by Sir Walter
+Scott, etc., but still more at Mrs. Macpherson's. One day, she sang
+several of Moore's melodies, and some Scotch songs. Mrs. Macpherson, who
+is excessively fond of music, was so charmed, she told me afterwards she
+never heard a voice she thought so sweet and clear, and unaffected. She
+rejoiced to hear it without music, or any accompaniment that could drown
+it, or spoil its distinct simplicity. She observed what a charm there is
+in her distinct pronunciation of the words, in her just emphasis, and in
+her never forgetting the words, or keeping you in any anxiety for her,
+or requiring to be pressed. "How delightful," said she, "to have such an
+accomplishment, such a power to please always with her, without
+requiring instruments, or music-books, or any preparation." I was afraid
+her singing of Scotch might not suit the Scotch, and she never ventured
+it till we were at Mrs. Macpherson's, who was quite charmed with it.
+Indeed, her soft voice is very different from the screeching some
+songstresses make, with vast execution. I am particularly full of the
+pleasure of Sophy's singing at present, because I felt so much delight
+from it when I was just recovering from my illness. I did not think it
+was in the nature of my body or soul to feel so much pleasure from
+singing or music; but the fact is as I tell you. After three nights of
+pulse at ninety-six and delirium, in which I one night saw the arches of
+Roslin Chapel, with roses of such brilliant light crowning them that I
+shut my eyes to avoid the blaze; and another night was haunted with the
+words "a soldier [Footnote: Miss Edgeworth had been reading Stewart's
+_History of Highland Regiments_ the day before she was taken ill with an
+attack of erysipelas.] of the forty-second has lost his portmanteau,"
+and continual marching and countermarching, and rummaging of Highland
+officers and privates in search of it, and an officer laughing at me and
+saying, "Don't you know this is a common Highland saying, A soldier of
+the forty-second has lost his portmanteau? It means"--but he never could
+or would tell me what it meant, when another officer said, "Madam, there
+is a Lowland saying to match it"; and this also I could never hear.
+Another night the words of a song called the "Banks of Aberfeldy"
+crossed my imagination, and a fat, rubicund man stood before me,
+continually telling me that he was "John Aberfeldy, the happy." I cannot
+tell you how this John Aberfeldy tormented me. After these three
+horrible nights, when I awoke with my tongue so parched I could not
+speak till a spoonful of lemon-juice was inserted, I asked Sophy to
+sing, and she directly sang, "Dear harp of my country." I never shall
+forget the sort of pleasure; it soothed, it "rapt my" _willing_ not my
+"_imprisoned_ soul in elysium," and I was so happy to feel I could again
+follow a rational chain of ideas, and comprehend the words of the
+beautiful poetry, to which music added such a charm and force. She sang,
+"Believe me, if all those endearing young charms," and "Farewell, but
+whenever you welcome the hour," and "Oh, Nanny, wilt thou gang wi' me?"
+and "Vive Henri Quatre!" which I love for the sake of Mrs. Henry
+Hamilton, and for the sake of Lady Longford's saying to me, with a
+mother's pride and joy in her enthusiastic eyes, "My Caroline will sing
+to me at any time, in any inn, or anywhere." I am sure I may say the
+same of my sister Sophy, who will sing for me at an inn by my sick bed,
+and with more power of voice than all the stimulus of company and
+flattery can draw from other young ladies. I never wish to hear a fine
+singer; I always agree with Dr. Johnson in wishing that the difficulties
+had been impossibilities, with all their falsettos and tortures of
+affectation to which they put themselves. How I hate them, and all the
+aimings at true Italian pronunciation and true Italian manner, which
+after all is, nine times out of ten, quite erroneous, and such as the
+Italians themselves would laugh at, or most probably no more comprehend
+than I did De Leuze repeating the "Botanic Garden": I was just going to
+ask what language it was, when my mother, good at need, saved me from
+the irreparable blunder by whispering, "It is English." The words were,
+I believe, all right, but the accents were all thrown wrong. As Lady
+Spencer said, "It is wonderful that foreigners never _by accident_
+throw the accents right." Milton says:
+
+  For eloquence the soul, song moves the sense;
+
+but if he had heard Moore's poetry sung by Sophy, he would have
+acknowledged that song moved not only the sense, but the soul.
+
+I have dilated upon this to you, my dear Lucy, because you have at times
+felt the same about Sophy's singing. During my illness, day and night,
+whenever pain and delirium allowed me rational thought, you and your
+admirable patience recurred to my mind. I said to myself, "How can she
+bear it so well, and in her young days, the spring-time of life? how
+admirable is her resignation and cheerfulness! never a cross word, or
+cross look, or impatient gesture, and for four years; when I, with all
+my strength of experience and added philosophy from education, moan and
+groan aloud, and can scarce bear ten days' illness, with two really
+angel sisters to nurse me, and watch my 'asking eye'!" You have at least
+the reward of my perfect esteem and admiration, after comparison with
+myself, the only true standard by which I can estimate your worth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Miss Edgeworth and her sisters spent a most happy fortnight with Sir
+Walter Scott and his family. "Never," writes his son-in-law, "did I see
+a brighter day at Abbotsford than that on which Miss Edgeworth first
+arrived there: never can I forget her look and accent when she was
+received by him at his archway, and exclaimed: 'Everything about you is
+exactly what one ought to have had wit enough to dream!'"
+
+Sir Walter delighted in Miss Sophy Edgeworth's singing, especially of
+Moore's Irish melodies. "Moore's the man for songs," he said. "Campbell
+can write an ode, and I can make a ballad; but Moore beats us all at a
+song." Sir Walter was then at the height of his fame and "in the glory
+of his prime," surrounded by his family; both his sons were at home, and
+his daughter Anne; and he had then staying with him his nephew, "Little
+Walter." Mr. and Mrs. Lockhart were living at Chiefswood, but they were
+continually at Abbotsford, or some of the party were continually at
+Chiefswood; and Sir Walter's joyous manner and life of mind, his looks
+of fond pride in his children, the pleasantness of his easy manners, the
+gay walks, the evening conversations, and the drives in the sociable,
+enchanted Miss Edgeworth. In these drives the flow of story, poetry,
+wit, and wisdom never ceased; Sir Walter sitting with his dog Spicer on
+his lap, and Lady Scott with her dog Ourisk on her lap.
+
+Lady Scott one day expressed her surprise that Scott and Miss Edgeworth
+had not met when the latter was in Edinburgh in 1803. "Why," said Sir
+Walter, with one of his queer looks, "you forget, my dear, Miss
+Edgeworth was not a lion then, and my mane, you know, was not grown at
+all." [Footnote: _Life of George Ticknor_.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARIA _to_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH.
+
+ABBOTSFORD, _July 31, 1823_.
+
+I take a pen merely to say that I will not write! I have so much to say,
+that I dare not trust myself, as I am still so far from strong, I must
+not venture to play tricks with that health which it cost my dear, kind
+nurses so much to preserve. I am as careful of myself as any creature
+can be without becoming an absolute, selfish egotist. Lady Scott is
+really so watchful and careful of me, that even when my own family
+guardian angels are not on either or both sides of me, I can do no
+wrong, and can come to no harm.
+
+It is quite delightful to see Scott in his family in the country:
+breakfast, dinner, supper, the same flow of kindness, fondness, and
+genius, far, far surpassing his works, his letters, and all my hopes and
+imagination. His castle of Abbotsford is magnificent, but I forget it in
+thinking of him.
+
+
+_To_ MR. RUXTON.
+
+ABBOTSFORD, _Aug. 9, 1823_.
+
+I remember that you requested one of our party to write a few lines from
+Abbotsford. I think I mentioned to my aunt or Sophy the impression which
+I first experienced from Sir Walter Scott's great simplicity of manner,
+joined to his wonderful superiority of intellect. This impression has
+been strengthened by all I have seen of him since. In living with him in
+the country, I have particularly liked his behaviour towards his variety
+of guests, of all ranks, who come to his hospitable castle. Many of
+these are artists, painters, architects, mechanists, antiquarians,
+people who look up to him for patronage--none of them permitted to be
+hangers on or parasites; his manners perfectly kind and courteous, yet
+such as to command respect; and I never heard any one attempt to flatter
+him. I never saw an author less of an author in his habits. This I early
+observed, but have been the more struck with it the longer I have been
+with him. He has, indeed, such variety of occupations, that he has not
+time to think of his own works: how he has time to write them is the
+wonder. You would like him for his love of trees; a great part of his
+time out of doors is taken up in pruning his trees. I have within this
+hour heard a gentleman say to him, "You have had a good deal of
+experience in planting, Sir Walter; do you advise much thinning, or
+not?"--"I should advise much thinning, but little at a time. If you thin
+much at a time, you let in the wind, and hurt your trees."
+
+I hope to show you a sketch of Abbotsford Sophy has made--better than
+any description. Besides the Abbey of Melrose, we have seen many
+interesting places in this neighbourhood. To-day we have been a
+delightful drive through Ettrick Forest, and to the ruins of Newark--the
+hall of Newark, where the ladies bent their necks of snow to hear the
+Lay of the Last Minstrel. Though great part of Ettrick Forest was cut
+down years ago, yet much of it has grown up again to respectable height,
+and many most beautiful oak, ash, and alder trees remain. We had a happy
+walk by the river, and after refreshing ourselves with a luncheon in a
+summer-house beautifully situated, we went to look at the ruins of
+Newark. It was a pity that this fine old building was let to go to ruin,
+which it has done only within the last seventy years. The late Duke and
+Duchess of Buccleuch, to whom it belonged, had in their youth lived
+abroad, and were so ignorant about their own estate in Scotland, that
+when they first came to live here they supposed there were no trees, and
+no wood they thought could be had, and brought with them, among other
+things, a barrel full of skewers for the cook.
+
+It is very agreeable to observe how many friends of long standing Scott
+has in this neighbourhood: they have been here, and we have been at
+their houses: very good houses, and the style of living excellent.
+Except one Prussian prince and one Swiss baron, no grand foreign
+visitors have been here; indeed, this house is in such a state of
+painting and papering, and carpenters finishing new rooms and chasing
+the inhabitants out of the old, that it was impossible to have much
+company.
+
+Sir Walter's eldest son was here for some days--now gone back to
+Sandhurst; he is excessively shy, very handsome, not at all literary,
+but he has sense and honourable principle, and is very grateful to those
+who were kind to him in Ireland. His younger brother, Charles, who is
+now at home, has more easy manners, is more conversible, and has more of
+his father's literary taste. I am sorry to say we are to leave
+Abbotsford the day after to-morrow; but the longer we stay the more
+sorry we shall feel to go. We had intended to have paid a visit to Lady
+Selkirk at St. Mary's Isle, but this would be a hundred miles out of our
+way, and I have no time for it, which I regret, as I liked very much the
+little I saw of Lady Selkirk in London.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+After visits at Glasgow and Dalwharran, Miss Edgeworth and her sisters
+returned to Ireland.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Nov. 20, 1823_.
+
+It is a long time since I have written to you, always waiting a day
+longer for somebody's coming or going, or sailing or landing. You ask
+what I am doing: nothing, but reading and idling, and paving a gutter
+and yard to Honora's pig-stye, and school-house. What have I been
+reading? The "Siege of Valencia," by Mrs. Hemans, which is an hour too
+long, but it contains some of the most beautiful poetry I have read for
+years. I have read Quin's letters from Spain, entertaining; the review
+of it in the _Quarterly_ is by Blanco White. Dr. Holland's letters
+continue to be as full of information and interest as ever, though he is
+a married man. Tell Sophy that the subject of electricity and
+electro-magnetism is every day affording new facts, and all the
+philosophers on the Continent are busy about it. Sir Humphry Davy had a
+narrow escape of breaking his neck by a fall down stairs, but he is not
+hurt, _tout an contraire_. I had a letter, written in very good English,
+the other day from M. de Staël; he is now in London, and tells me the
+French and the Holy Alliance are tyrannising sadly at Geneva, and have
+ordered all the Italian patriots who had taken refuge there to decamp.
+There is one of these, Count Somebody or other, whose name I cannot
+persuade myself to get up to look for, whom M. de Staël wishes I would
+take by the hand in London, and what I am to do with him when I have him
+by the hand I don't know.
+
+I had a letter from Walter Scott, who has been delighted with the
+history of Caraboo, [Footnote: Caraboo is alluded to in _St. Roman's
+Well_, published in the autumn of this year. Sir Walter had never heard
+of her till Miss Edgeworth told her history to him at Abbotsford.] which
+I sent to him: a pamphlet published at the time. He says that nobody
+with a reasonable head could attempt to calculate the extent of popular
+credulity, and observes that she, like all the great cheats who have
+imposed upon mankind, was touched with insanity, half knave, half mad,
+at last the dupe of her own acting of enthusiasm.
+
+Prince Hohenlohe and the pamphlets, pro and con, occupy us much.
+Crampton's second edition of his I think excellent. Some very curious
+facts have been brought out of the effect of the imagination upon the
+bodily health. And while Scott is writing novels to entertain the world,
+and the philosophers in France trying experiments on electro-magnetism,
+Davy tumbling down stairs, and Denham and Co. in Africa looking for the
+Niger, here is all London rushing out to look at the cottage in which a
+swindler lived who murdered another swindler, and buying bits of the
+sack in which the dead body was put! Have your newspapers given what we
+have had in the _Morning Chronicle_? views of Roberts's cottage and the
+pond with Thurtell and Hunt dragging the body out of it? Shakespear
+understood John Bull right well, and always gave him plenty of murders
+and dead bodies. I am glad there are no Irishmen in this base as well as
+savage gang.
+
+
+_To_ MISS RUXTON.
+
+PAKENHAM HALL, _Jan. 21_.
+
+We, my mother, Lovell, Fanny, and I, came here yesterday, glad to see
+Lord Longford surrounded by his friends in old Pakenham Hall hospitable
+style,--he always cordial, unaffected, and agreeable. The house has been
+completely new-modelled, chimneys taken down from top to bottom, rooms
+turned about from lengthways to broad-ways, thrown into one another, and
+out of one another, and the result is that there is a comfortable
+excellent drawing-room, dining-room, and library, and the bedchambers
+are admirable. Mrs. Smyth, of Gaybrook, and her daughter are here, and
+Mr. Knox; and I have been so lucky as to be seated next to him at dinner
+yesterday, and at breakfast this morning; he is very agreeable when he
+speaks, and when he is silent it is "silence that speaks."
+
+Lady Longford [Footnote: Georgiana, daughter of the first Earl
+Beauchamp.] has been very attentive to us. She has the finest and most
+happy open-faced children I ever saw--not the least troublesome, yet
+perfectly free and at their case with the company and with their
+parents.
+
+A box will be left in Dublin for you on Monday morning. There is no
+telling you how happy I have been getting ready and packing and fussing
+about the said box for you, flying about the house from the library to
+the garret. And all for what? When Sophy, whom I beg to be the unpacker,
+opens it, you will see a certain dabbed-up crooked pasteboard tray in
+which are four frills for you: I hemmed every inch of them myself, to
+give them the only value they could have in your eyes.
+
+
+
+_To_ MRS. BANNATYNE.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Feb. 16, 1824_.
+
+My dear Mr. and Mrs. Bannatyne--my dear Mrs. Starke and Miss Bannatyne,
+and Andrew and Dugald, and all of you kind friends, put your heads close
+together to hear a piece of intelligence which will, I know, rejoice
+your kind hearts.
+
+_Our_ dear Sophy and _your_ dear Sophy is going to be married to a
+person whom her mother, and every one of her own family completely
+approve, who has been tenderly attached to her for some time, whose
+principles, understanding, manners, and honourable manly character are
+such as to deserve such a wife as I may proudly say he will have in
+Sophy. His birth, family connections, and fortune are all such as we
+could wish. The gentleman is a cousin of our own Captain Barry Fox; he
+is an officer, but will probably leave the army, and settle in his own
+country; we hope within reach of us. He has been so kind and considerate
+about poor Lucy, so anxious not to deprive her too suddenly of her
+beloved, and best of nurses, that he has endeared himself the more to us
+all.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _March 18, 1824_.
+
+The indissoluble knot is tied! What an awful ceremony it is! What an
+awful deed! How can parents bear to be at the weddings of their children
+where it is not a marriage of their own free choice? and how can a woman
+herself pronounce that solemn vow when she is marrying for money, or for
+grandeur, or from any earthly motive but the pure heart?--a purer heart
+than my sister Sophy's I do believe never approached the altar, nor was
+the hand ever given more entirely with the free heart. There was no one
+at the wedding but our own family, Mr. Fox, Francis Fox, and William
+Beaufort. We six ladies went in the carriage immediately after breakfast
+to the church, where the gentlemen were waiting for us. The churchyard,
+and church of course, crowded with the poor people of the village, but
+as we drove out of our own lawn into Mr. Keating's, there was as little
+annoyance from starers as possible. William Beaufort married them, as
+had been Sophy's particular wish. The sun shone out with a bright
+promise at the moment her marriage was completed. Barry handed her into
+his chaise, the most commodious, prettiest, and plainest carriage I ever
+saw, and away they drove.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. O'BEIRNE. [Footnote: The Bishop of Meath died in 1823; and
+Mrs. O'Beirne and her daughters went to reside in England.]
+
+BLACK CASTLE, _July 6, 1824_.
+
+In the little drawing-room at Black Castle, where we have been so often
+happy together; in the little drawing-room to which you have so often
+brought me to see my dear aunt, I now write to you, my dear friend, to
+tell you how much I miss you. I feel a perpetual want of that part of my
+happiness in this dear place which I owed to its neighbourhood to
+another dear place to which I cannot now bear to go. Once, and but once,
+in the two months I have been here have I been there; when the
+indispensable civility of returning a formal visit required it, and then
+I felt it to be as much, if not more, than I was able to do, with the
+composure I felt to be proper. The sitting in that red drawing-room and
+missing everything I had so loved--the saloon, the lawn--I really could
+not speak, and heartily glad I was when I got away.
+
+My plans of going to England this summer have been all broken up: you
+know how, as you have heard of the death of my dear sister Anna,
+[Footnote: Anna Edgeworth, Maria's whole sister, had married Dr. Beddoes
+in 1794.] at Florence; the account of her loss reached me just when I
+was joyfully expecting an answer to a letter full of projects which she
+never lived to read. GOD'S will be done. We expect my nieces, Anna and
+Mary, at Edgeworthstown as soon as they return from Italy.
+
+
+_To_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _July 17, 1824_.
+
+I hope this will find you at Cheltenham with Barry and Sophy, and Fanny;
+my mother and Margaret set off this fine morning for Black Castle, and
+Lucy is now in the dining-room, her bed aslant across the open middle
+window, the grass plot new-mown, and a sweet smell of fresh hay. They
+are drawing home the hay, and men are driving past the windows on empty
+cars, or leading loaded ones. The roses are still in full blow on the
+trellis. Aunt Bess sitting by Lucy talking of the beautiful thorns in
+the Phoenix Park, and I am sitting on the other side of Lucy's bed by
+the pillar.
+
+Margaret Ruxton when here was eager to pay her compliments to Peggy
+Tuite; her husband has written for her to go to him, and she is now
+"torn almost in two between the wish to go to her husband and her
+lothness to leave her old mother." She gave Margaret and me the history
+of her losing and finding her wedding ring. "Sure I knew my luck would
+change when I found my wedding ring that I lost four years ago--down in
+the quarry. I went across the fields to feed the pig, and looked and
+looked till I was tired, and then concluded I had given it to the pig
+mixed up and that he had swallowed it for ever--it was a real gold ring.
+But the men that was clearing out the _rubbage_ in the quarry found it
+and adjourned to the public house to share the luck of it. My brother
+got scent of it and went directly to inform the man that found it whose
+the ring was, and demanded it; he wouldn't hear of giving it back, and
+sold it to a pensioner there above; my brother set off with himself to
+the priest and told all, and the priest summoned the man and the
+pensioner, and my brother, and in the presence of an honest man, Mr.
+Sweeny, warned the pensioner to restore the wedding ring, since my
+brother could tell the tokens on it. 'It's the woman's wedding ring to
+remind her of her conjugal duties, and it's sacrilege to take it.' But
+the man that sold it was hardened, and the pensioner said he had paid
+for it, and so says the priest to Keegan, that's the master of the
+quarry men, 'Turn this man out of the work, he is a bad man and he will
+corrupt the rest. And, Peggy Tuite, I advise you and your brother to go
+straight to Major Bond and summon these men.'" Then she described the
+trial, when Tuite "swore to the tokens where it had been crushed by a
+stone, and the goldsmith's mark, and the Major held it between him and
+the light and plainly noticed the crush and the battered marks, and
+handing me the ring said, 'Peggy Tuite, this is your ring sure enough.'"
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _August 16, 1824_.
+
+We have heard from Sophy Fox, who tells us that they have been delighted
+with their journey to Aberystwith, especially the devil's bridge. Can
+you tell me why the devil has so many bridges, sublime and beautiful, in
+every country of the habitable world? Ingénieur des Ponts et Chaussées
+to his Satanic majesty would be a place of great business, profit and
+glory, and would require a man of first-rate abilities. Lucy has painted
+a beautiful portrait of her bullfinch, picking at a bunch of white
+currants--the currants would, I am sure, be picked by any live bird.
+
+Tell me how you like _Haji Baba_.
+
+
+_To_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _August 28, 1824_.
+
+I am impatient to set my dear Aunt Mary's [Footnote: After the death of
+her sister Charlotte in 1822, Mrs. Mary Sneyd resided occasionally with
+her brother in England till 1828, when she returned finally to
+Edgeworthstown, where she remained for the rest of her life, deeply
+attached to all the family, but regarding her niece Honora as peculiarly
+her own child.] mind free from the anxiety I am sure she feels about her
+decision to stay in England this winter; whatever disappointment and
+regret I felt was mitigated by her beautifully kind and tender note.
+
+Your entertaining account of the archery meeting at Lord Bagot's came
+yesterday evening. What a magnificent entertainment, and in what good
+taste! It was a delightful house for a _fête champêtre_.
+
+The Roman Catholic Bishop, M'Gaurin, held a confirmation the day before
+yesterday, and dined here on a God-send haunch of venison. Same day Mr.
+Hunter arrived, and Mr. Butler came with young Mr. Hamilton, an
+"admirable Crichton" of eighteen; a real prodigy of talents, who Dr.
+Brinkley says may be a second Newton--quite gentle and simple. Mr. and
+Mrs. Napier arrived on Wednesday, and spent two most agreeable days with
+us; he is an extremely well-informed man, and both are perfectly
+well-bred. Mr. Butler and Mr. Hamilton suited them delightfully. Mr.
+Butler and Mr. Napier found they were both Oxford men, and took to each
+other directly. Mr. Napier's conversation is quite superior and easy.
+Those two days put me in mind of former times. Hunter is very happy here
+in spite of his cockney prejudices; he says _Harry and Lucy_ must be
+ready by October.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+_Jan. 1, 1825_.
+
+A happy new year to you, my dearest aunt,--to you to whom I now look as
+much as I can to any one now living, for the rays of pleasure that I
+expect to gild my bright evening of life. As we advance in life we
+become more curious, more fastidious in gilding and gilders; we find to
+our cost that all that glitters is not gold, and your everyday bungling
+carvers and gilders will not do. Our _evening-gilders_ must be more
+skilful than those who flashed and daubed away in the morning of life,
+and gilt with any tinsel, the weather-cock for the morning sun.
+
+You may perceive, my dear aunt, by my having got so finely to the
+weather-cock, and the rising sun, that I am out of the hands of all my
+dear apothecaries, and playing away again with a superfluity of life.
+(N.B. I am surprisingly prudent.) Honora's cough has almost subsided,
+and Lucy can sit upright the greater part of the day. "GOD bless the
+mark!" as Molly Bristow would say, if she heard me, "don't be bragging."
+
+
+_Jan. 6_.
+
+I have to give you the most cheering accounts of Honora and Lucy. Honora
+is now on the sofa opposite to me, working with her candle beside her on
+a bracket--my new year's gift to the sofas, a mahogany bracket on each
+side of the chimney-piece to fold up or down, and large enough to hold a
+candlestick and a teacup or work-box. Mary Beddoes and I are on the sofa
+next the door; Honora and Anna on the other, and somebody sitting in the
+middle talking by turns to each sofa. Who can that be? Not Harriet, for
+tea is over and she has seceded to Lucy's room--not my mother, nor
+William, nor Mrs. Beaufort, nor Louisa, for the carriage has carried
+them away some hours ago, poor souls, and full-dressed bodies, to dine
+at Ardagh. But who can this Unknown be? A gentleman it must be to
+constitute the happiness of two sofas of ladies.
+
+My nephew, Henry Beddoes! and the joy of ladies he certainly will be,
+not merely of aunts and sisters, but of all who can engage or be engaged
+by prepossessing manners and appearance, and the promise of all that is
+amiable and intelligent. I am delighted with him, and he would charm
+you.
+
+Lady Bathurst has done me another good turn for Fanny Stewart, that is,
+for her husband; there was a charming letter from Fanny Stewart a few
+days ago. I send for your amusement the famous little _Valoe_ in its
+elegantissimo binding, and Lady Bathurst's letter about it,
+elegantissima also. You remember, I hope, the story of its publication,
+written by a governess of the Duchess of Beaufort's, assisted by all the
+conclave of quality young-lady-governesses, with little traits of
+character of their pupils. The authoress sent it to the Duchess of
+Beaufort, asking permission to publish and dedicate it to her Grace. The
+Duchess never read it, and returned it to the Governess with a
+compliment, and, "publish it by all means, and dedicate it to me." Out
+came the publication; and though each young lady was flattered, yet all
+quarrelled with the mode of compliment, and in many there was a little
+touch of blame, which moved their or their mothers' anger, and with one
+accord they attacked the Duchess of Beaufort for her permission to
+publish, and the edition was all bought up in a vast hurry.
+
+In a few days I trust--you know I am a great truster--that you will
+receive a packet franked by Lord Bathurst, containing only a little
+pocket-book--_Friendships Offering, for_ 1825, dizened out; I fear you
+will think it too fine for your taste, but there is in it, as you will
+find, the old "Mental Thermometer," which was once a favourite of yours.
+You will wonder how it came there--simply thus. Last autumn came by the
+coach a parcel containing just such a book as this for last year, and a
+letter from Mr. Lupton Relfe--a foreigner settled in London--and he
+prayed in most polite bookseller strain that I would look over my
+portfolio for some trifle for this book for 1825. I might have looked
+over "my portfolio" till doomsday, as I have not an unpublished scrap,
+except "Take for Granted." [Footnote: "Take for Granted" was an idea
+which Maria never worked out into a story, though she had made many
+notes for it.] But I recollected the "Mental Thermometer," and that it
+had never been _out_, except in the _Irish Farmer's Journal_--not known
+in England. So I routed in the garret under pyramids of old newspapers,
+with my mother's prognostics, that I never should find it, and loud
+prophecies that I should catch my death, which I did not, but dirty and
+dusty, and cobwebby, I came forth after two hours' grovelling with my
+object in my hand! Cut it out, added a few lines of new end to it, and
+packed it off to Lupton Relfe, telling him that it was an old thing
+written when I was sixteen. Weeks elapsed, and I heard no more, when
+there came a letter exuberant in gratitude, and sending a parcel
+containing six copies of the new Memorandum book, and a most beautiful
+twelfth edition of Scott's _Poetical Works_, bound in the most elegant
+manner, and with most beautifully engraved frontispieces and vignettes,
+and a £5 note. I was quite ashamed--but I have done all I could for him
+by giving the _Friendship's Offerings_ to all the fine people I could
+think of. The set of Scott's Works made a nice New Year's gift for
+Harriet; she had seen this edition at Edinburgh and particularly wished
+for it. The £5 I have sent to Harriet Beaufort to be laid out in books
+for Fanny Stewart. Little did I think the poor old "Thermometer" would
+give me so much pleasure.
+
+Here comes the carriage rolling round. I feel guilty; what will my
+mother say to me, so long a letter at this time of night?--Yours
+affectionately in all the haste of guilt, conscience-stricken: that is,
+found out.
+
+No--all safe, all innocent--because _not found out.
+
+Finis._
+
+By the author of _Moral Tales_ and _Practical Education_.
+
+
+Feb. 16_.
+
+I hope my dearest aunt will not disdain the work of my little bungling
+hands. The vandykes of this apron are such as Vandyke would scorn; poor
+little pitiful things they be! and will be in rags in a fortnight no
+doubt. But if you knew the pains I have taken with them, and what
+pleasure I have had in doing them, even all wrong, you would hang them
+round you with satisfaction. By the time it is completely _roved_ away I
+shall be with you and _bind_ it over to its good behaviour, so that it
+shall never rove _again_ me. Love me and laugh at me as you have done
+many is the year.
+
+The crocuses and snowdrops in my garden are beautiful; my
+green-board-edged beds and green trellis make it absolutely a wooden
+paradise.
+
+I forgot to boast that I was up for three mornings at seven _vandyking_.
+
+Henry Beddoes told us that Lord Byron was extremely beloved and highly
+thought of by all whom he heard speak of him at Missolonghi, both Greeks
+and his own country-men. He had regained public esteem by his latter
+conduct. The place in which he died was not the worst inn's worst room,
+but an absolute hovel, without any bed of any kind; he was lying on a
+sack.
+
+
+_March 15_.
+
+You have probably seen in the papers the death of our admirable friend
+Mrs. Barbauld. I have copied for you her last letter to me and some
+beautiful lines written in her eightieth year. There is a melancholy
+elegance and force of thought in both. Elegance and strength--qualities
+rarely uniting without injury to each other, combine most perfectly in
+her style, and this rare combination, added to their classical purity,
+form, perhaps, the distinguishing characteristics of her writings.
+England has lost a great writer, and we a most sincere friend.
+
+
+_To_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH.
+
+BLACK CASTLE, _May 10, 1825_.
+
+Your list of presentation copies of _Harry and Lucy_, and your reasons
+for giving each, diverted me very much. Sophy and Margaret and I laughed
+over it and agreed that every reason was like Mr. Plunket's speech,
+"unanswerable."
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _July 9, 1825_.
+
+With my whole soul I thank you for your most touching letter [Footnote:
+On the death of Mr. Ruxton.] to my mother, so full of true resignation
+to GOD'S will, and of those feelings which He has implanted in the human
+heart for our greatest happiness and our greatest trials. "Fifty-five
+years!" How much is contained in those words of yours! I loved him dearly,
+and well I might, most kind he ever was to me, and I felt all his
+excellent qualities, his manners, his delightful temper. How little did I
+think when last I saw his kind looks bent upon me that it was for the last
+time!
+
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _August 1825_.
+
+Sir Walter Scott, punctual to his promise, arrived on Friday in good
+time for dinner; he brought with him Miss Scott and Mr. Crampton. I am
+glad that kind Crampton had the reward of this journey; though
+frequently hid from each other by clouds of dust in their open carriage,
+they had as they told us never ceased talking. They like each other as
+much as two men of so much genius and so much benevolence should, and we
+rejoice to be the bond of union.
+
+Scarcely had Crampton shaken the dust from his shoes when he said,
+"Before I eat, and what is more, before I wash my hands, I must see
+Lucy." He says that he has now no doubt that, please GOD, and in all the
+humility of hope and gratitude I repeat it, she will perfectly recover.
+
+Captain and Mrs. Scott and Mr. Lockhart were detained in Dublin, and did
+not come till eleven o'clock, and my mother had supper, and fruit, and
+everything refreshing for them. Mrs. Scott is perfectly unaffected and
+rather pretty, with a sweet confiding expression of countenance and fine
+mild most loving eyes.
+
+Sir Walter delights the hearts of every creature who sees, hears, and
+knows him. He is most benignant as well as most entertaining; the
+noblest and the gentlest of lions, and his face, especially the lower
+part of it, is excessively like a lion; he and Mr. Crampton and Mr.
+Jephson were delightful together. The school band, after dinner by
+moonlight, playing Scotch tunes, and the boys at leap-frog delighted Sir
+Walter. Next day we went to the school for a very short time and saw a
+little of everything, and a most favourable impression was left. It
+being Saturday, religious instruction was going on when we went in.
+Catholics, with their priest, in one room; Protestants, with Mr.
+Keating, in the other.
+
+More delightful conversation I have seldom in my life heard than we have
+been blessed with these three days. What a touch of sorrow must mix with
+the pleasures of all who have had great losses! Lovell, my mother, and
+I, at twelve o'clock at night, joined in exclaiming, "How delightful! O!
+that he had lived to see and hear this!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Maria Edgeworth and her sister Harriet accompanied Sir Walter and Miss
+Scott, Mr. Lockhart and Captain and Mrs. Scott to Killarney. They
+travelled in an open caleche of Sir Walter's, and Captain Scott's
+chariot, changing the combination from one carriage to another as the
+weather or accident suggested. When some difficulty occurred about
+horses Sir Walter said, "Swift, in one of his letters, when no horses
+were to be had, says, 'If we had but had a captain of horse to swear for
+us we should have had the horses at once;' now here we have the captain
+of horse, but the landlord is not moved even by him."
+
+The little tour was most enjoyable, and greatly was it enjoyed. Neither
+Sir Walter nor Miss Edgeworth were ever annoyed with the little
+discomforts of travel, and they found amusement in everything, shaming
+all with whom they came in contact. Their boatman on the lake of
+Killarney told Lord Macaulay twenty years afterwards that the pleasure
+of rowing them had made him amends for missing a hanging that day!
+
+Mrs. Edgeworth relates:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The evening of the day they left Killarney, Sir Walter was unwell, and
+Maria was much struck by the tender affectionate attention of his son
+and Mr. Lockhart and their great anxiety. He was quite as usual,
+however, the next day, and on their arrival in Dublin, the whole party
+dined at Captain Scott's house in Stephen's Green; he and Mrs. Scott
+most hospitably inviting, besides Maria and Harriet, my two daughters,
+Fanny and Mrs. Barry Fox, who had just returned from Italy, and my two
+sons, Francis and Pakenham, who were coming home for the holidays. It
+happened to be Sir Walter's birthday, the 15th of August, and his health
+was drunk with more feeling than gaiety. He and Maria that evening bade
+farewell to each other, never to meet again in this world.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Twenty-five years later we find Miss Edgeworth writing to Mr. Ticknor,
+how, in imagination, she could still meet Sir Walter, "with all his
+benign, calm expression of countenance, his eye of genius, and his mouth
+of humour--such as genius loved to see him. His very self I see,
+feeling, thinking, and about to speak."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARIA _to_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+BLACK CASTLE, _August 30, 1825_.
+
+I calculate that there can be no use in my writing to Dr. Holland,
+Killarney, at this time of day, because he must have _departed_ that
+life. However, I write to Mr. Hallam [Footnote: Mr. Hallam was detained
+at Killarney by breaking his leg, and Dr. Holland had been staying with
+him.] this day with a message to Dr. Holland, if there. If you learn
+that Dr. Holland can come to Edgeworthstown, you will of course tell me,
+if it be within the possibility of time and space; I would go home even
+for the chance of spending an hour with him; therefore be prepared for
+the shock of seeing me. I do hope he will in his great kindness--which
+is always beyond what any one ought to hope--I do hope he will contrive
+to go to Edgeworthstown. How delightful to have Lucy sitting up like a
+lady beside you!
+
+The Lords Bective and Darnley, and Sir Marcus Somerville, and LORD knows
+who, are all at this moment broiling in Navan at a Catholic meeting,
+saying and hearing the same things that have been said and heard
+100,000,000 times; one certain good will result from it that I shall
+have a frank for you and save you sevenpence. I will send a number of
+the New Monthly Magazine as old as the hills to Fanny, with a review of
+Tremaine, which will interest her, as she will find me there, like
+Mahomet's coffin, between heaven and earth. My Aunt Sophy and Mag are
+all reading _Harry and Lucy_, and all reading it bit by bit, the only
+way in which it can be fairly judged. My aunt's being really interested
+and entertained by it, as I see she is, quite surpasses my hopes.
+Feelings of gratitude to Honora should have made me write this specially
+to her, only that I was afraid she might think that I _thought_ that she
+_thought_ of nothing but _Harry and Lucy_, which, upon the word of a
+reasonable creature, I do not. My aunt is entertained with Clarke's
+_Life_, though he says that all literary ladies are horse godmothers. In
+the _Evening Mail_ of Monday last there are extracts from some
+speculations of Dr. Barry, an English physician at Paris, on the effect
+of atmospheric pressure in causing the motion of the blood in the veins.
+If you see Dr. Holland, ask him about this and its application in
+preventing the effect of poison.
+
+In Bakewell's _Travels in Switzerland_ there is an account apropos to
+ennui being the cause of suicide, of the death of Berthollet's son, who
+shut himself up in a room with a brasier of charcoal; a paper was found
+on the table with an account of his feelings during the operation of the
+fumes of the charcoal upon him to the last moment that he could make his
+writing intelligible.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. STARK.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Nov. 27, 1825_.
+
+Our two boys were at home in August, and the happiest of the happy with
+two ponies and four sisters. Francis's poem of "Saul" won a medal, and
+Pakenham's "Jacob," a miniature Horace.
+
+You may have seen in the papers the account of the burning of Castle
+Forbes, in the county of Longford. Lord Forbes was wakened by his dog,
+or he would have been suffocated and burned in his bed. He showed great
+presence of mind: carried out, first, a quantity of gunpowder which was
+in a closet into which the flames were entering; and next, the family
+papers and pictures. A valuable collection of prints and books were
+lost: key not to be found in the scuffle, and servants and other
+ignoramuses, conceiving the _biggest_ volumes must be the most valuable,
+wasted their energies upon folios of Irish House of Commons Journals and
+Statutes. The castle was in three hours' time reduced to the bare walls.
+I am forgetting a fact for which I began this story. A gentleman was, by
+the force of motive, endued with such extraordinary strength in the
+midst of that night's danger, that he wrenched from its iron spike and
+pedestal a fine marble bust of Cromwell, carried it downstairs, and
+threw it on the grass. Next morning he could not lift it! and no one man
+who tried could stir it.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Dec. 19, 1825_.
+
+I wish you to have a letter from Dr. Holland before it gets stale:
+therefore you must forgive me for writing on this thin paper, for no
+other would waft it to you free.
+
+Your observations about the difficulties of "Taking for Granted" are
+excellent: I "take for granted" I shall be able to conquer them. If only
+one instance were taken, the whole story must turn upon that, and be
+constructed to bear on one point; and that _pointing_ to the moral would
+not appear natural. As Sir Walter said to me in reply to my observing,
+"It is difficult to introduce the moral without displeasing the reader,"
+"The rats won't go into the trap if they smell the hand of the
+ratcatcher."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+"Taking for Granted" was laid aside by Miss Edgeworth for ten years
+after this. When Mr. Ticknor was at Edgeworthstown in 1835, he says:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Miss Edgeworth was anxious to know what instances I had ever witnessed
+of persons suffering from "taking for granted" what proved false, and
+desired me quite earnestly, and many times, to write to her about it;
+"for," she added, "you would be surprised if you knew how much I pick up
+in this way." "The story," she said, "must begin lightly, and the early
+instances of mistake might be comic, but it must end tragically." I told
+her I was sorry for this. "Well," said she, "I can't help it, it must be
+so. The best I can do for you is, to leave it quite uncertain whether it
+is possible the man who is to be my victim can ever be happy again or
+not."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On her father's death, Miss Edgeworth had resigned the management of his
+estates to their new owner, her half-brother Lovell, but, in the
+universal difficulties which affected the money market in 1826, she was
+induced to resume her post, acting in everything as her brother's agent,
+but taking the entire responsibility. By consummate care and prudence
+she weathered the storm which swamped so many in this financial crisis.
+The great difficulty was paying everybody when rents were not to be had;
+but she undertook the whole, borrowing money in small sums, paying off
+encumbrances, and repaying the borrowed money as the times improved;
+thus enabling her brother to keep the land which so many proprietors
+were then obliged to sell, and yet never distressing the tenants.
+
+The second part of _Harry and Lucy_ was published this year, having been
+written at various intervals since 1813. Like its predecessor, it had as
+its object to induce children to become their own instructors.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARIA _to_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Jan. 27, 1826_.
+
+These last three weeks I have had multitudes of letters to write, but
+not one of them have I written with the least pleasure, except that sort
+of pleasure which we have in doing what we think a duty. Lovell has put
+the management of his affairs into my hands, and the receiving of his
+rents; and this is, except one letter which I wrote to the author of
+_Granby_, as soon as we had finished that delightful book, the only
+letter of pleasure in which I have indulged myself.
+
+
+SONNA, _April 6_.
+
+Most grateful am I, my dearest aunt, for your wonderful preservation
+after such a terrible fall! Often and often as I have gone down those
+three steep stairs have I feared that some accident would occur. Thank
+GOD that you are safe! I really have but this one idea. We have had
+agreeable letters from Harriet E. and Sophy Fox, who are very happy at
+Cloona: the accounts of their little daily employments and pleasures are
+the most cheering thoughts I can call up at this moment. Happy in the
+garden looking at crocuses, contriving new beds, etc.; happy in the
+house, when Harriet reads out, while Sophy works, _Granby_ at night and
+Peel's and Robinson's speeches by day.
+
+
+_May 27_.
+
+You have seen in the papers the death of Lady Scott. In Sir Walter's
+last letter he had described her sufferings from water on the chest, but
+we had no idea the danger was so immediate. She was a most kind-hearted,
+hospitable person, and had much more sense and more knowledge of
+character and discrimination than many of those who ridiculed her. I
+know I never can forget her kindness to me when I was ill at Abbotsford.
+Her last words at parting were, "GOD bless you! we shall never meet
+again." At the time it was much more likely that I should have died, I
+thought, than she. Sir Walter said he had been interrupted in his letter
+by many domestic distresses. The first two pages had been begun two
+months ago, and were in answer to a letter of mine inquiring about the
+truth of his losses, etc. Of these he spoke with cheerful fortitude, but
+with no bravado. He said that his losses had been great, but that he had
+enough left to live on; that he had had many gratifying offers of
+assistance, but that what he had done foolishly he would bear manfully;
+that he would take it all upon his own shoulders, and that he had great
+comfort in knowing that Lady Scott was not a person who cared about
+money, and that "Beatrice," as he calls Anne Scott, bore her altered
+prospects with cheerfulness. "She is of a very generous disposition, and
+poor Janie proffered her whole fortune as if it had been a gooseberry."
+
+After writing this much the letter appeared to have been thrown aside
+and forgotten to be sent, till he was roused again by a letter from me
+about poor Mr. Jephson. The domestic distresses which had interrupted
+the course of his thoughts were, the illness of his dear little grandson
+Lockhart, one of the finest and most engaging children I ever saw; and
+then Lady Scott's illness and death. He says that the letters of Malachy
+Malagrowther cost him but a day apiece.
+
+
+_July 10_.
+
+Sir Humphry Davy has been with us since Thursday, and his visit has been
+delightful; he has always been kind and constant in his friendship to
+us. I had expressed a great wish to see the "Discourses" which he
+annually addressed to the Royal Society, as President, on the
+presentation of the medals. He has been urged to publish them, but to
+this he has never yet consented. I had the courage--indeed, I thought at
+the time the rashness--to ask him to let me see the MS. of one which I
+was particularly anxious to see, as it related to Dr. Brinkley: Sir
+Humphry was so very kind to have a copy made for me of _all_ his
+Discourses. I found them fully equal to my expectations, quite worthy of
+the genius and reputation of Sir Humphry Davy, and becoming the
+President of the Royal Society of England; giving a complete view of the
+discoveries and progress of science in England within the last six
+years, compressed into the smallest compass compatible with clearness,
+written with all the dignity of perfect simplicity and candour, like one
+sensible to national glory, but free from national jealousy; whose great
+object as a philosopher is the general advancement of science over the
+whole world, and whose great pleasure is in conferring well-earned
+praise. His addresses to those to whom he presents the medals are
+NOBLE--always appreciating the past with generous satisfaction, yet
+continually exciting to future exertion. In each new discovery he opens
+views beyond what the discoverer had foreseen, and from each new
+invention shows how fresh combinations present themselves, so that in
+the world of science there must be room enough for the exertions of all:
+the best and truest moral against envy, and all those petty jealousies
+which have disgraced scientific as well as literary men.
+
+Travelling, and his increased acquaintance with the world, has enlarged
+the _range_ without lowering the _pitch_ of Sir Humphry's mind--an
+allusion I have borrowed from an entertaining essay on training hawks
+sent to me by Sir John Sebright. Do you know that there is at this
+moment a gentleman in Ireland, near Belfast, who trains hawks and goes
+a-hawking--a Mr. Sinclair?
+
+Sir Humphry repeated to us a remarkable criticism of Buonaparte's on
+Talma's acting: "You don't play Nero well; you gesticulate too much; you
+speak with too much vehemence. A despot does not need all that; he need
+only _pronounce. Il sait qu'il se suffit_." "And," added Talma, who told
+this to Sir Humphry, "Buonaparte, as he said this, folded his arms in
+his well-known manner, and stood as if his attitude expressed the
+sentiment."
+
+Sir Humphry thinks that, of all of royal race he has seen, legitimate or
+illegitimate, _noble par l'épée_, or noble by "just hereditary sway,"
+the late Emperor of Russia was the most really noble-minded and the
+least ostentatious. A vast number of his munificent gifts to men of
+letters are known only to those by whom they were received. He has
+frequently sent tokens of approbation to scientific men in various
+foreign countries for inventions in arts and sciences which he had found
+useful in his dominions. A _caisse_ arrived from Russia for Sir Humphry,
+which he thought were some mineralogical specimens which had been
+promised to him; but on opening it there appeared a superb piece of
+plate, with a letter from the Emperor of Russia presenting it to him, as
+a mark of gratitude for the safety lamp. The design on the plate, the
+Emperor adds, was his own: it represents the genius of fire, with his
+bow and arrows broken.
+
+Among other good things which Sir Humphry accomplished in his travels
+was the abolition of the _corda_, of ancient use in Naples,--an
+instrument of torture by which the criminal was hung up by a cord tied
+round his joined wrists, and then pulled down and let fall from a
+height, dislocating his wrists to a certainty, and giving a chance of
+breaking his arms and legs. This instrument chanced to be set up near
+the hotel where Sir Humphry and Lady Davy resided: they could not bear
+the sight, and changed their lodgings. The next time Sir Humphry was at
+Court the King asked why he had changed his residence. Sir Humphry
+explained, and expressed himself so strongly, that he awakened dormant
+Royal feeling, and this instrument of torture was abolished. Sir Humphry
+had previously represented to our Queen Caroline, then at Naples, that
+here was an opportunity of doing good, and of rendering herself
+deservedly popular. She was struck with the idea at the time, but forgot
+it; and then Sir Humphry took it up, and with the assistance of the
+public opinion of all the English, it was accomplished.
+
+Yesterday, when I came down to breakfast, I found Sir Humphry with a
+countenance radiant with pleasure, and eager to tell me that Captain
+Parry is to be sent out upon a new Polar expedition.
+
+
+_August 14_.
+
+This day, my dearest aunt, our wishes have been accomplished--the
+sacred, awful vow has been pronounced, and Harriet and Mr. Butler drove
+from the church door to Cloona. [Footnote: Harriet, second daughter of
+the fourth Mrs. Edgeworth, married the Rev. Richard Butler, Rector of
+Trim, and afterwards Dean of Clonmacnoise.]
+
+Lucy bore the trials of the day wonderfully well. She was at the
+wedding, and much agitated when it came to the conclusion and the
+parting; but there was, fortunately, something to be done immediately
+afterwards--Sophy's [Footnote: Mrs. Barry Fox.] child to be christened;
+a very nice, pretty little child it is--Maxwell.
+
+William Beaufort alarmed us by a sudden illness on Saturday: however, he
+was able to appear today and perform both ceremonies, and does not seem
+to have suffered by the double exertion.
+
+
+_To_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH.
+
+BLACK CASTLE, _Sept. 3, 1826_.
+
+Thank you for wishing to be with me, but I am sure it will be better for
+you to be at the sea. Here, though I am obliged to think of actual
+business between-times, I have every motive and means for diversion for
+myself, both on my own account and on my aunt's. We run in and out, and
+laugh and talk nonsense; and every little thing amuses us together: the
+cat, the dog, the hog, Mr. Barry, or a _parachute_ blown from the
+dandelion.
+
+
+_Nov. 19_.
+
+Bess Fitzherbert has written an entertaining letter to Mrs. Barry, in
+which she mentions one of the dishes they had just had at dinner at
+Pozzo, between Modena and Bologna: cold boiled eels, with preserved
+pears, a toothpick or skewer stuck in each to take them up by, instead
+of a fork. My aunt's friend, Madame Boschi, near Bologna, offered to
+send a garden-chair drawn by bullocks for Bess, the road not being
+passable for _common cattle_.
+
+
+_To_ C.S. EDGEWORTH.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Dec. 26, 1826_.
+
+I send your account, and have done my best. I have not read _Boyne
+Water_, but have got Lindley Murray's _Memoir_, and thank you for
+mentioning it. Harriet and Mr. Butler come to-morrow. Sophy Fox and
+Barry, and their beautiful and amiable little Maxwell, are here. How you
+will like that child, and make it see "upper air!" How long since those
+times when you used to show its mother and Harriet upper air! Do you
+remember how you used to do it to frighten me, and how I used to shut my
+eyes when you threw them up, and you used to call to me to look? Ah! _le
+bon temps!_ But we are all very happy now, and it is delightful to hear
+a child's voice cooing, or even crying again in this house. Never did
+infant cry less than Maxwell: in short, it is the most charming little
+animal I ever saw. "Animal yourself, sir!" [Footnote: Mr. Edgeworth,
+admiring a baby in a nurse's arms, called it "a fine little animal." To
+which the nurse indignantly replied, "Animal yourself, sir!"]
+
+Pakenham ornamented the library yesterday with holly, and crowned
+plaster-of-Paris Sappho with laurels, and Mrs. Hope's picture with
+myrtle (i.e. box), and perched a great stuffed owl in an ivy bush on the
+top of a great screen which shades the sofa by the fire from the window
+at its back. I am excessively happy to be at home again, after my four
+months' absence at Black Castle.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Dec. 28, 1826_.
+
+After spending four months with you, it is most delightful to me to
+receive from you such assurances that I have been a pleasure and a
+comfort to you. I often think of William's most just and characteristic
+expression, that you have given him a desire to live to advanced age, by
+showing him how much happiness can be felt and conferred in age, where
+the affections and intellectual faculties are preserved in all their
+vivacity. In you there is a peculiar habit of allowing constantly for
+the _compensating_ good qualities of all connected with you, and never
+unjustly expecting impossible perfections. This, which I have so often
+admired in you, I have often determined to imitate; and in this my
+sixtieth year, to commence in a few days, I will, I am resolved, make
+great progress. "Rosamond at sixty," says Margaret.
+
+We are all a very happy party here, and I wish you could see at this
+moment sitting opposite to me on sofa and in arm-chair the mother and
+daughter and grand-child.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. BANNATYNE.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Feb. 26, 1827_.
+
+By some strange chance I was taken away from home just after the time
+when Colonel Stewart's pamphlet on India, which you were so kind as to
+send me, arrived; in short, I never read it till a few days ago. I am in
+admiration of it; it is beautifully written, with such clearness, lucid
+order, simplicity, dignity, strength, and eloquence--eloquence resulting
+from strong feeling. The views of its vast subject are comprehensive and
+masterly; the policy sound, both theoretically and practically
+considered; the morality as sound as the policy, indeed no policy can be
+sound unless joined with morality. The sensibility and philanthropy that
+not only breathe but live and act in this book are of the true, manly,
+enduring sort--not the affected, sickly, spurious kind, which is
+displayed only for the trick of the poet or orator. It is a book which a
+good and wise man must ever rejoice in having written, and which will be
+satisfactory to him even to the last moment of his life.
+
+Have you seen the _Tales of the O'Hara Family_--the second series? They
+are of unequal value; one called the "Nowlans" is a work of great
+genius. Another book has much amused us, Captain Head's _Rough
+Sketches_, most animated and masterly sketches of his journey across the
+Pampas. There is much information and much good political economy
+condensed in his three chapters on speculators.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _March 4, 1827_.
+
+I went with Pakenham to meet my mother at Castle Pollard, and we had
+such a nice long talk in the carriage coming back, our tongues never
+intermitting one single second, I believe. I am glad you liked my
+graceful gentleman-like bear, and his graceful gentleman-like Italian
+leader. [Footnote: A travelling showman and bear.] We have had a
+succession of actors and actresses, as I may call them, personating
+beggars, all at the last gasp of distress; so perfect, too, was one
+Englishwoman that she set at defiance all the combined ingenuity of the
+Library in cross-questioning her, and after writing a long letter for
+her to a Rev. Mr. Strainer, of Athlone, I was quite at a loss to decide
+whether she was a cheat or not, when one of the Longford police officers
+chanced to dine with us, I mentioned her, and out came the truth; she
+had imposed on him and every one at Longford, and had borrowed a child
+to pass for her own. We sent for our distressed lady, who was very "sick
+and weak with a huge blister on her chest," and low voice and delicate
+motions. Oh! if you had seen her when the police officer came into the
+room and charged her with the borrowed child. Her countenance, voice,
+and motions all at once changed; her voice went up at once to
+_scold-pitch_, and turning round on her chair she faced the chief; but
+words in writing cannot do justice to the scene. I must act it for you.
+
+We are now reading the _Voyage of the "Blonde" to the Sandwich Islands_,
+with the remains of the King and the Queen. [Footnote: King Kamehameha
+II., of the Sandwich Islands, and his Queen, who died of the measles in
+John Street, Adelphi, in 1824.] Pray get this book, it will delight you.
+Of the _Blonde_, you know the present Lord Byron is commander--the name
+strikes the ear continually--new fame, new associations; reverting, too,
+to the old Commodore Byron's sort of fame. How curious, how fleeting
+"this life in other's breath!"
+
+A little box of curiosities from my most amiable American Jewess my
+mother presented to me this morning at the breakfast table: I was in an
+ecstasy, but shortlived was my joy, for I was thunderstruck the next
+instant by my mother's catching my arm and stopping my hand with the
+vehement exclamation, "Stop, stop, child, you don't know what you are
+doing."--"No, indeed, ma'am, I don't--what _am_ I doing?" She took the
+_wreath_ of cotton wool from my passive hand and showed me, wrapped up in
+it, a humming-bird, luckily unhurt, unsquelched. The humming-bird's nest
+is more beautiful than the creature itself. Poor Lord Liverpool--no one
+can wish his existence prolonged.
+
+  The painful family of death
+  More hideous than their queen.
+
+
+_April 8_.
+
+I am quite well and in high good-humour and good spirits in consequence
+of having received the whole of Lovell's half-year's rents in full, with
+pleasure to the tenants, and without the least fatigue or anxiety to
+myself.
+
+We are reading the second part of _Vivian Grey_, which we like better
+than the first. There is a scene of gamesters and swindlers wonderfully
+well done. I know who wrote _Almack's_. Lady de Ros tells me it is by
+Mrs. Purvis, sister to Lady Blessington; this accounts for both the
+knowledge of high, and the habits of low, life which appear in the book.
+"Poor dear Almack's," Lady de Ros says, is not what it was--when people
+were poor in London, and there were few private balls, Almack's was all
+in all. Her sailor son is going to publish a Journal of a Tour,
+including the United States and Niagara.
+
+
+_To_ C.S. EDGEWORTH.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _April 12, 1827_.
+
+Now I have done all my agent business, I will tell you what Mr. Hope, in
+a letter I had from him this morning, says of _Almack's_. "It might have
+been a pretty thing, but I think it but a poor one. Of all slangs, that
+of fashion is easiest overdone. People do not _hold forth_ about what is
+with them a matter of course. Willis, or his waiters, might have
+furnished all the characteristic materials. The author ever and anon
+makes up for want of wit by stringing together common French milliner
+phrases, which have no merit but that of being exotics in England. The
+point consists in his _italics_. Besides, he only describes the
+proceedings, not the spirit of the institution of Almack's. It was
+rather a bold thing in London to put FEASTING out of fashion, and to
+make a seven-shilling ball the thing to which all aspired to be
+admitted, and many without the least hope of succeeding. It was the
+triumph of aristocracy over mere wealth. It put down the Grimes's of
+former days, with their nectarines and peaches at Christmas, and in so
+far it improved society."
+
+All this is very true, but I do not think he does justice to the author.
+I particularly like the dialogue in the third volume, where Lady Anne
+Norbury debits and credits her hopes of happiness with her two admirers:
+no waiting-maid could have written that. In the second volume, also, I
+think there is a scene between Lord and Lady Norbury in their
+dressing-room, about getting rid of their guests and making room for
+others, which is nicely touched: the Lord and Lady are politely
+unfeeling; it is all kept within bounds.
+
+Mr. Hope begs me to read _Truckleborough Hall_. Of late novels he says
+it is that which has amused him most. "Both sides of the political
+question are reviewed most impartially; both quizzed a little, and the
+reader left in doubt to which the author leans. The transition in the
+hero from rank Radicalism to a seat on the Treasury Bench, while
+persuading himself all the time that he remains consistent, is
+exceedingly well managed. Interest in the story there is none, because
+the subject admits not of it. Like the high-finished Dutch pictures,
+mere truth, well and minutely told, makes all its merit."
+
+Then follows a sentence so complimentary to myself that I cannot copy
+it, and perhaps you have had enough. I trust you will give me credit,
+dear Harriet and Sneyd, for copying for you other people's letters, when
+I have nothing in my own but stupid pounds, shillings, and pence.
+
+In a letter from my friend Mr. Ralston, from Philadelphia, he tells me
+that seven volumes of Sir Walter Scott's _Life of Napoleon_ have been
+already printed there, and reviewed in the _North American Review_.
+Scott sends his MS. at the same time to London and to America. I tremble
+for this publication. Anne Scott writes to Harriet that her father is so
+busy writing, that she scarcely sees anything of him, though they are
+alone together at Abbotsford. Lockhart is much admired in London for his
+beauty.
+
+
+_To_ CAPTAIN BASIL HALL [Footnote: Who had lent a volume of his London
+_Journal_ to Miss Edgeworth to read.]
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _April 25, 1827_.
+
+I really cannot express to you how much you have gratified me by the
+proof of confidence you have given me. No degree of praise or admiration
+could flatter me so much: confidence implies something much higher--real
+esteem for the character. I thank you; you shall not find your
+confidence misplaced. I trust you will not think I have gone beyond your
+permission in considering my own family now with me--viz. Mrs.
+Edgeworth, my sisters, and my brother--as myself. The _Journal_ was read
+aloud in our library: not a line or a word of it has been copied; and
+though some passages have, I know, sunk indelibly into the memories of
+those present, you may rest perfectly secure that they will never _go
+out_ beyond ourselves. No vanity will ever tempt any one of us to boast
+of what we have been allowed to read; we shall strictly adhere to your
+terms, and never mention or allude to the book. It is delightful, most
+interesting, and entertaining. You may, perhaps, imagine, by conceiving
+yourself in my place, remote in the middle of Ireland, _how_
+entertaining and interesting it must be to be thus suddenly transported
+into the midst of the best company in London, scientific, political, and
+fashionable; and not merely into the midst of them, but behind the
+scenes with you, and after seeing and hearing and knowing your private
+opinion of all. Considering all this, and further, that numbers of the
+persons you mention in your _Journal_ we were well acquainted with when
+we were in London, you may, perhaps, comprehend how much pleasure, of
+various kinds, we enjoyed while we read on.
+
+The first page I opened upon was the character of Captain Beaufort. Do
+not shrink at the notion of his most intimate friend, or his sister Mrs.
+Edgeworth, or his nieces Fanny and Sophy, having seen this character.
+You need not: we all agree that it does him perfect justice.
+
+Your manner of mentioning Lydia White was quite touching, as well as
+just. She was all you say of her, and her house and society were the
+most agreeable of the sort in London, since the time of Lady Crewe.
+Lydia White, besides being our kind friend, was a near connection of
+ours by the marriage of her nephew to a cousin of ours; and we have had
+means of knowing her solid good qualities, as well as those brilliant
+talents which charmed in society. You may guess, then, how much we were
+pleased by all you said of her. Of all the people who ever sold
+themselves to the world, I never knew one who was so well paid as Lydia
+White, or any one but herself who did not, sooner or later, repent the
+bargain; but she had strength of mind never to expect more than the
+world can give, and the world in return behaved to the last remarkably
+well to her.
+
+All you say of the ill-managed dinner of wits and scientific men I have
+often felt. There must be a mixture of nonsense with sense, or it will
+not amalgamate: all wits and no fools, all actors and no audience, make
+dinners dull things. The same men in their boots, as you say, are quite
+other people. "Two or three ladies, too"--we were delighted with your
+finding them useful as well as agreeable on such occasions.
+
+Your account of Sidney Smith's conversation is excellent, and the manner
+in which you took his criticism showed how well you deserved it. He will
+be your friend in all the future, and I do not know any man whom I
+should wish more to make my friend: supereminent talents and an
+excellent heart, which in my opinion almost always go together. His
+remarks on the views you should take of America, to work out your own
+purpose in softening national animosities, are excellent; also all he
+says of American egotism and nationality. But I should be as ready to
+forgive vanity in a nation as in an individual, and to make it turn to
+good account. I have always remarked that little and envious minds are
+the most acute in detecting vanity in others, and the most intolerant of
+it. Having nothing to be proud or vain of, they cannot endure that
+others should enjoy a self-complacency they cannot have.
+
+There is a sentence in one of Burke's letters, which, as far as England
+is concerned, might do for a motto for your intended travels: "America
+and we are no longer under the same crown; but if we are united by
+mutual goodwill and reciprocal good offices, perhaps it may do almost as
+well."
+
+Will you, my dear sir, trust me with more of your _Journals_? I think
+you must see, by the freedom of this letter, that you have truly pleased
+and obliged me: I have no other plea to offer. It is a common one in
+this country of mine--common, perhaps, to human nature in all places as
+well as Ireland--to expect that, when you have done much, you will do
+more; and you will, won't you? If I could get your little Eliza to say
+this in a coaxing voice for us, we should be sure of your compliance.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _May 10, 1827_.
+
+I get up every morning at seven o'clock, and walk out, and find that
+this does me a vast deal of good. After three-quarters of an hour's
+walk, [Footnote: Miss Edgeworth continued her early walks for many
+years. A lady who lodged in the village used to be roused by her maid in
+the morning with "Miss Edgeworth's walking, ma'am; it's eight o'clock."]
+I come in to the delight of hearing Fanny read the oddest book I ever
+heard--a Chinese novel translated into French; a sort of Chinese
+_Truckleborough Hall_; politicians and courtiers, with mixture of love
+and flowers, and court intrigue, and challenging each other to make
+verses upon all occasions.
+
+My garden is beautiful, and my mother is weeding it for me at this
+moment. A seedswoman of Philadelphia, to whom Mr. Ralston applied to
+purchase some seeds for me, as soon as she heard the name, refused to
+take any payment for a parcel of forty different kinds of seeds. She
+said she knew my father, as she came from Longford: her name was Hughes.
+
+
+_To_ MISS RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Sept. 26_.
+
+The day before yesterday we were amusing ourselves by telling who, among
+literary and scientific people, we should wish to come here next day.
+Francis said Coleridge; I said Herschel. Yesterday morning, as I was
+returning from my morning walk at half-past eight, I saw a bonnet-less
+maid on the walk, with letter in hand, in search of me. When I opened
+the letter, I found it was from Mr. Herschel! and that he was waiting
+for an answer at Mr. Briggs's inn. I have seldom been so agreeably
+surprised; and now that he has spent twenty-four hours here, and that he
+is gone, I am confirmed in my opinion; and if the fairy were to ask me
+the question again, I should more eagerly say, "Mr. Herschel, ma'am, if
+you please." It was really very kind of him to travel all night in the
+mail, as he did, to spend a few hours here. He is not only a man of the
+first scientific genius, but his conversation is full of information on
+all subjects, and he has a taste for humour and playful nonsense, though
+with a melancholy exterior.
+
+His companion, Mr. Babbage, and he, saw the Giant's Causeway on a stormy
+day, when the foamy waves beat high against the rocks, and added to the
+sublimity of the scene. Then he went from the great sublime of Nature to
+the sublime of Art. He arrived at the place where Colonel Colby is
+measuring the base line, just at the time when they had completed the
+repetition of the operation; and he saw, by the instrument, which had
+not been raised from the spot, that the accuracy of the repetition was
+within half a dot--the twelve-thousandth part of an inch.
+
+Mr. Herschel has travelled on the Continent. He was particularly pleased
+with the character of the Tyrolese--their national virtue founded on
+national piety. One morning, wakening in a cottage inn, he rose, and
+called in vain in kitchen and parlour: not a body was to be seen, not a
+creature in yard or stable. At last he heard a distant sound: listening
+more attentively, and following the sound, he came to a room remote from
+that in which he had slept, where he found all the inhabitants joining
+in a hymn, with beautiful voices.
+
+You may remember having seen in the newspapers an account of a
+philosopher in Germany who made caterpillars manufacture for him a veil
+of cobweb. The caterpillars were enclosed in a glass case, and, by
+properly-disposed conveniences and impediments, were induced to work
+their web up the sides of the glass case. When completed it weighed
+four-fifths of a grain. Herschel saw it lying on a table, looking like
+the film of a bubble. When it collapsed a little, and was in that state
+wafted up into the air, it wreathed like fine smoke. Chantrey, who was
+present, after looking at it in silent admiration, exclaimed, "What a
+fool Bernini was to attempt transparent draperies in stone!"
+
+Have you heard of the live camelopard, "twelve foot high, if he is an
+inch, ma'am?" Herschel is well acquainted with him, and was so fortunate
+as to see the first interview between him and a kangaroo: it stood and
+gazed for one instant, and the next leaped at once over the camelopard's
+head, and he and his great friend became hand and glove.
+
+
+_To_ MR. BANNATYNE.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Nov. 14, 1827_.
+
+I send the letter you wished for--not to Clery, who is dead, but to
+Louis Bousset, who was the Abbé Edgeworth's servant, and after his death
+was taken into Louis XVIII.'s household, accompanied the Royal family to
+Hartwell, returned with them to France, and now lives on a pension from
+the French Government and his wife's income; she was widow to the King's
+saddler. They showed much respect, my brother Sneyd says, to our pious
+cousin the Abbé Edgeworth's memory, and he was much edified by their
+manner of living together, Bousset and his wife--he a Catholic, and she
+a German Protestant, "perfect Christian happiness thoroughly existing
+between two persons of different Churches, but of the same faith."
+
+Though I admire the instance and exception to general rules, I should
+not wish a similar experiment to be often repeated, being very much of
+Dr. Johnson's opinion, that there are so many causes naturally of
+disagreement between people yoked together, that there is no occasion to
+add another unnecessarily.
+
+
+_To_ MR. BANNATYNE.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Dec. 4, 1827_.
+
+I am very glad to hear that the author of _Cyril Thornton_ is Mrs.
+Bannatyne's _nephew_. I have just finished reading it, and had made up
+my opinion of it, and so had all my family, before we knew that the
+author was any way connected with you. I am not weary of repeating that
+I think, and that we all think it the most interesting novel we have
+read for years; indeed, we could not believe it to be fiction. We read
+it with all the intense interest which the complete belief in reality
+commands. Officers of our acquaintance all speak to the reality and
+truth of the scenes described. Military men and gentlemen are delighted
+with _Cyril Thornton_, because he is a gentleman, ay, every inch a
+gentleman; and with the cut in his face, and all the hashing and mashing
+he met with in the wars, we are firmly and unanimously of opinion that
+he must be very engaging. We hope that the author is like his hero in
+all saving these scars and the loss of his arm; but were the likeness
+exact even in these, he would be sure of interesting at Edgeworthstown;
+and we hope that, if ever he comes to Ireland, you and Mrs. Bannatyne
+will do us the favour to persuade him to come to see us, and to bring
+his charming wife. We hear she is charming; and, from the good taste and
+good feeling of his writings, we can readily take it for granted that
+his choice must be charming, in the best sense of that hackneyed, but
+still comprehensive word. There is a peculiar delicacy in this book,
+which delights from being accompanied, as it is, with the strongest
+evidence of deep sensibility.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Mary Sneyd, sister of the second and third Mrs. Edgeworths, who had
+partially lived with her brother in Staffordshire after the death of her
+sister Charlotte, returned in 1828 to spend the rest of her life at
+Edgeworthstown. Here the beautiful and venerable old lady was a central
+figure in the family home, where all the family vied in loving
+attentions to her. Mrs. Farrar [Footnote: Author of _The Children's
+Robinson Crusoe_, etc.] describes her there:--
+
+"It was a great pleasure to me to see the sister of two of Mr.
+Edgeworth's wives,--one belonging to the same period, and dressed in the
+same style as the lovely Honora. She did not appear till lunch-time,
+when we found her seated at the table in a wheel-chair, on account of
+her lameness. She reminded me of the pictures of the court beauties of
+Louis XIV. Her dress was very elaborate. Her white hair had the effect
+of powder, and the structure on it defies description. A very white
+throat was set off to advantage by a narrow black velvet ribbon,
+fastened by a jewel. The finest lace ruffles about her neck and elbows,
+with a long-waisted silk dress of rich texture and colour, produced an
+effect that was quite bewitching. She was wonderfully well preserved for
+a lady over eighty years of age, and it was pleasant to see the great
+attention paid her by all the family. She was rather deaf, so I was
+seated by her side and requested to address my conversation to her. When
+lunch was over she was wheeled into the library, and occupied herself in
+making a cotton net to put over the wall-fruit to keep it from the
+birds. It was worth a journey to Edgeworthstown to see this beautiful
+specimen of old age."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _May 13, 1828_.
+
+We had a serious alarm this morning, and serious danger, but it is
+perfectly over now, and no damage done but what a few days' work of
+plasterer and carpenter can repair. At seven o'clock this morning a
+roaring was heard in the servants' hall, and Mulvanny, [Footnote:
+Mulvanny, the knife boy.] who had put on the blower, found the chimney
+on fire, and Anne [Footnote: Anne, ladies'-maid.] saw dreadful smoke
+breaking out in the passage going from the anteroom of my aunt's
+dressing-room. Barney Woods, [Footnote: The steward.] perceiving that
+it was no common affair of a chimney on fire, had the sense to ring the
+workman's bell. I was dressed, heard it, and Anne met me coming from my
+room to inquire what was the matter, and told me--indeed her face told
+me! Lovell was up and ready--most active and judicious. Thirty men were
+assembled; water in abundance. Frank Langan indefatigable and most
+courageous. The long ladder was put up against the house near the pump;
+up the men went, and bucket after bucket poured down, Mulvanny standing
+on the top of the chimney. Meantime the great press, next the maid's
+room, was torn down by men working for life and death, for the smoke was
+bursting through, and the whole wall horribly hot. The water poured
+into the chimney would not, for half an hour, go down to the bottom;
+something stopped it. A terrible smell of burning wood. The water ran
+through all manner of flues and places and flooded the whole ceiling of
+the hall. Holes were made to let it through, or the whole ceiling would
+have come down _en masse_; the water poured through in floods on the
+floor; Margaret [Footnote: The housemaid.] and boys sweeping it out of
+the hall door continually. While the men were at work under Lovell's
+excellent orders, Honora and I were having all papers and valuables
+carried out, for we knew that if the flames reached the garrets nothing
+could save the house. All the title-deed boxes, and lease presses, and
+all Lovell's, and all your papers, and my grandfather's books, and my
+father's picture, were safe on the grass in less than one hour. It took
+three hours before the fire was extinguished, or, I should say, got
+under. The pump was pumped dry, but Lovell had sent long before a cart
+with barrels for water to the river--tons of water were used, pouring,
+pouring incessantly, and this alone could have saved us.
+
+By eleven o'clock all the boxes and papers, and pictures, were in their
+places, and we sent for the chimney-sweepers, not the old ones, who, as
+we rightly guessed, were the cause of the mischief. The chimney has been
+broken open, and a boy has been working incessantly tearing down an
+incrustation of soot--immense pieces of black _tufo_,--in fact, the
+chimney became a volcano--fire, water, and steam all operating together.
+The fire was found still burning inside at five this evening, but is all
+out now, the boy has been up at the top.
+
+The zeal, the sense, the generosity, the courage of the people, is
+beyond anything I can describe, I can only feel it. But what astonished
+me was their steadiness and silence, no advising or pushing in each
+other's way--all working and obeying. Lovell had lines of boys from the
+ladder to the cow's pool handing the buckets passed up by the men on the
+ladder to the frightful top. Thank GOD not a creature was hurt.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Honora Edgeworth adds:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I need add nothing to what Maria has said about others, but I must say
+about herself, that nobody who has seen her in small alarms, such as the
+turning of a carriage, or such things, could believe the composure,
+presence of mind, and courage she showed in our great alarm to-day. I
+hope she has not suffered; as yet she does not appear the worse for her
+exertions.
+
+
+MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Nov. 16. 1828_.
+
+Thank you, thank you for the roses; the yellow Scotch and Knight's dark
+red, and the ever-blowing, came quite fresh, and just at the moment I
+wanted them, when I had taken to my garden, after finishing my gutters.
+Lady Hartland told me that the common people call the _rose des quatre
+saisons_, the quarter session rose.
+
+Have you read the _Recollections of Hyacinth O'Gara_? It is a little
+sixpenny book; I venture to say you would like it; I wish I was reading
+it to you. I am much pleased with Napier's _History of the Peninsular
+War_. The Spanish character and all that influenced it, accidentally and
+permanently, is admirably drawn. There is the evidence of truth in the
+work. Heber is charming, but I haven't read him! People often say
+"charming" of books they have not read; but I have read extracts in two
+reviews, and have the pleasure of the book on the table before me.
+
+I have not a scrap of news for you, except that an ass and a calf walked
+over my flower-beds, and that I did not kill either of them. If the ass
+had not provoked me to this degree, I was in imminent danger of growing
+too fond of him, as I never could meet him drawing loads without
+stopping to pat him, till clouds of dust rose from his thick hide. But
+now, I will take no more notice of him--for a week!
+
+
+_To_ MISS RUXTON
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Jan. 1, 1829_.
+
+Fanny Edgeworth is now Fanny Wilson; [Footnote: Frances Maria, eldest
+daughter of the fourth Mrs. Edgeworth, married Lestock P. Wilson, Esq.,
+of London.] I can hardly believe it! She is gone! I feel it, and long
+must feel it, with anguish, selfish anguish. But she will be happy--of
+that I have the most firm, delightful conviction; and therefore all that
+I cannot help now feeling is, I know, only _surface_ feeling, and will
+soon pass away. The more I have seen and known of Lestock, the more I
+like him and love him, and am convinced I shall always love him, whose
+every word and look bears the stamp and value of sincerity.
+
+Both their voices pronounced the words of the marriage vow with perfect
+clearness and decision. Mr. Butler performed the ceremony with great
+feeling and simplicity. I will tell my dearest aunt and you all the
+little circumstances; at present they are all in confusion, great and
+small, near and distant, and I am sick at heart in the midst of it all
+with the shameful, weak, selfish, uppermost sorrow of parting with this
+darling child.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+BLOOMFIELD, _Jan. 19, 1829_.
+
+An immense concourse of people, cavalcade and carriages innumerable,
+passed by here to-day. We saw it, and you will see it all in the
+newspapers. Banners with _Constitutional Agitation_ printed in black,
+_M_obility and Nobility in black, crape hatbands, etc. Lord Anglesea's
+two little sons riding between two officers, in the midst of the
+hurricane mob, struck me most. One of the boys, a little midge, seemed
+to stick on the horse by accident, or by mere dint of fearlessness: the
+officer put his arm round him once, and set him up, the boy's head
+looking another way, and the horse keeping on his way, through such
+noise, and struggling, and waves multitudinous of mob.
+
+There is an entertaining article in the _Quarterly Review_ on _The
+Subaltern_. I do not like that on Madame de Genlis--coarse, and
+over-doing the object by prejudice and virulence. The review of Scott's
+Prefaces is ungrounded and confused--how different from his own writing!
+But there is an article worth all the rest put together, on Scientific
+Institutions, written in such a mild, really philosophical spirit, such
+a pure, GREAT MAN'S desire to do good; I cannot but wish and hope it
+might prove to be Captain Beaufort's. If you have not read it, never
+rest till you do.
+
+
+_To_ CAPTAIN BASIL HALL.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _March 12, 1829_.
+
+... If I could, as you say, flatter myself that Sir Walter Scott was in
+any degree influenced to write and publish his novels from seeing my
+sketches of Irish character, I should indeed triumph in the "thought of
+having been the proximate cause of such happiness to millions."
+
+In what admirable taste Sir Walter Scott's introduction [Footnote: To
+the new edition of _Waverley_.] is written! No man ever contrived to
+speak so delightfully of himself, so as to gratify public curiosity, and
+yet to avoid all appearance of egotism,--to let the public into his
+mind, into all that is most interesting and most useful to posterity to
+know of his history, and yet to avoid all improper, all impertinent, all
+superfluous disclosures.
+
+Children's questions are often simply _sublime_: the question your
+three-years-old asked was of these--"Who sanded the seashore?"
+
+
+_To_ MISS RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _May 29, 1829_.
+
+I cannot forbear writing specially to you, as I know you will feel so
+much about Captain Beaufort's appointment to the Hydrographership; I
+wish poor William had been permitted the pleasure of hearing of it.
+[Footnote: William Edgeworth had died of consumption on 7th May after a
+two months' illness.] It would have given him pleasure even on his dying
+bed, noble, generous creature as he was; he would have rejoiced for his
+friend, and have felt that merit is sometimes rewarded in this world.
+This appointment is, in every respect, all that Captain Beaufort wished
+for himself, and all that his friends can desire for him. As one of the
+first people in the Admiralty said, "Beaufort is the only man in England
+fit for the place."
+
+Very touching letters have come to us from people whom we scarcely knew,
+whom William had attached so much; and many whom he had employed speak
+of him as the kindest of masters, and as a benefactor whose memory will
+be ever revered.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Sept. 27, 1829_.
+
+I am now able, with the consent of all my dear guardians, to write with
+my own hand to assure you that I am quite well.
+
+I enjoyed the snatches I was able to have of Wordsworth's conversation,
+and I think I had quite as much as was good for me. He has a good
+philosophical bust, a long, thin, gaunt face, much wrinkled and
+weatherbeaten: of the Curwen style of figure and face, but with a more
+cheerful and benevolent expression.
+
+While confined to my sofa and forbidden my pen, I have been reading a
+good deal: 1st, _Cinq Mars_, a French novel, with which I think you
+would be charmed, because I am; 2nd, _The Collegians_, in which there is
+much genius and strong drawing of human nature, but not elegant:
+terrible pictures of the passions, and horrible, breathless interest,
+especially in the third volume, which never flags till the last huddled
+twenty pages. My guardians turn their eyes reproachfully upon me. Mr.
+William Hamilton has been with us since the day before Wordsworth came,
+and we continue to like him.
+
+
+_May 3, 1830_.
+
+It is very happy for your little niece that you have so much the habit
+of expressing to her your kind feelings; I really think that if my
+thoughts and feelings were shut up completely within me, I should burst
+in a week, like a steam-engine without a snifting-clack, now called by
+the grander name of a safety-valve.
+
+You want to know what I am doing and thinking of: of ditches, drains,
+and sewers; of dragging quicks from one hedge and sticking them down
+into another, at the imminent peril of their green lives; of two houses
+to let, one tenant promised from the Isle of Man, and another from the
+Irish Survey; of two bull-finches, each in his cage on the table--one
+who would sing if he could, and the other who could sing, I am told, if
+he would. Then I am thinking for three hours a day of _Helen_, to what
+purpose I dare not say. At night we read Dr. Madden's _Travels to
+Constantinople_ and elsewhere, in which there are most curious facts:
+admirable letter about the plague; a new mode of treatment, curing
+seventy-five in a hundred; and a family living in a mummy vault, and
+selling mummies. You must read it.
+
+My peony tree is the most beautiful thing on earth. Poor dear Lord Oriel
+gave it me. His own is dead, and he is dead; but love for him lives in
+me still.
+
+Sir Stamford Raffles is one of the finest characters I ever read of, and
+_did_ more than is almost credible. I have been amused with _The
+Armenians_, [Footnote: A novel by Macfarlane.]--amused with its pictures
+of Greek, Armenian, and Turkish life, and interested in its very
+romantic story.
+
+
+_July 19_.
+
+If there should not be any insuperable objection to it on your part, I
+will do myself the pleasure of being in your arms the first week in
+August, that I may be some time with you before I take my departure for
+England for the winter.
+
+The people about us are now in great distress, having neither work nor
+food; and we are going to buy meal to distribute at half-price. Meal was
+twenty-three shillings a hundred, and potatoes sevenpence a stone, last
+market-day at Granard. Three weeks longer must the people be supported
+till new food comes from the earth.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+This is the last letter Maria Edgeworth addressed to her aunt. She paid
+her intended visit to her in August, but had left her before her last
+illness began. Mrs. Ruxton died on the 1st of November, while Maria was
+in London with her sister Fanny--Mrs. Lestock Wilson. The loss of her
+aunt was the greatest Miss Edgeworth had sustained since the death of
+her father. She had ever been the object of exceeding love, one with
+whom every thought and feeling was shared, one of her greatest sources
+of happiness.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARIA _to_ MISS RUXTON.
+
+69 WELBECK STREET, LONDON.
+
+_Dec. 8, 1830_.
+
+All my friends have been kind in writing to me accounts of you, my dear
+Sophy. You and Margaret are quite right to spend the winter at Black
+Castle; and the pain you must endure in breaking through all the old
+associations and deep remembrances will, I trust, be repaid, both in the
+sense of doing right and in the affection of numbers attached to you.
+
+I spent a fortnight with Sneyd very happily, in spite of mobs and
+incendiaries. Brandfold is a very pretty place, and to me a very
+pleasant house. The library, the principal room, has a trellis along the
+whole front, with 'spagnolette windows opening into it, and a pretty
+conservatory at the end, with another glass door opening into it. The
+views seen between the arches of the trellis beautiful; flower-knots in
+the grass, with stocks, hydrangeas, and crimson and pale China roses in
+profuse blow. Sneyd enjoys everything about him so much, it is quite
+delightful to see him in his home. You have heard from Honora of the
+sense and steadiness with which he resisted the mob at Goudhurst.
+
+I spent a morning and an evening very pleasantly at Lansdowne House.
+They had begged me to come and drink tea with them in private, and to
+come early: I went at nine: I had been expected at eight. All Lady
+Lansdowne's own family, and as she politely said, "All my old friends at
+Bowood" now living: Miss Fox, Lord John Russell, Lord Auckland, the
+young Romillys, Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy, Mr. Wishaw, Mr. Turner,--whom I
+must do myself the justice to say I recollected immediately, who showed
+us the Bank seventeen years ago,--and Conversation Sharpe.
+
+They say that Charles X. is quite at his ease, amusing himself, and not
+troubling himself about the fate of Polignac, or any of his ministers:
+there is great danger for them, but still I hope the French will not
+disgrace this revolution by spilling their blood. Lord Lansdowne
+mentioned an instance of the present King Louis Philippe's _présence
+d'esprit_: a mob in Paris surrounded him--"Que desirez-vous, messieurs?"
+"Nous désirons Napoléon." "Eh bien, allez donc le trouver." The mob
+laughed, cheered, and dispersed.
+
+I have seen dear good Joanna Baillie several times, and the Carrs. It
+has been a great pleasure to me to feel myself so kindly received by
+those I liked best in London years ago. It is always gratifying to find
+old friends the same after long absence, but it has been particularly so
+to me now, when not only the leaves of the pleasures of life fall
+naturally in its winter, but when the great branches on whom happiness
+depended are gone.
+
+Dr. Holland's children are very fine, happy-looking children, and he
+does seem so to enjoy them. His little boy, in reply to the commonplace,
+aggravating question of
+
+"Who loves you? Nobody in this world loves you!"
+
+"Yes, there is somebody: papa loves me, I know--I am sure!" and throwing
+himself on his back on his Aunt Mary's lap, he looked up at his father
+with such a sweet, confident smile. The father was standing between Sir
+Edward Alderson and Southey, the one sure he had him by the ear, and the
+other by the imagination; but the child had him by the heart. He smiled
+and nodded at his boy, and with an emphasis in which the whole soul
+spoke low, but strong, said, "Yes, I _do_ love you." Neither the lawyer
+nor the poet heard him.
+
+All my friends understand that I keep out of all fine company and great
+parties, and see only my friends.
+
+Here the carriage came to the door, and we have been to see Mrs.
+Calcott, who was Mrs. Graham, who was very glad to see me, and
+entertaining; and Lady Elizabeth Whitbread as kind and affectionate as
+ever. She is struggling between her natural pride on her brother's
+ministerial appointment, and her natural affection which fears for his
+health.
+
+Joanna Baillie tells me that Lord Dudley wrote to Sir Walter, offering
+to take upon himself the whole debt, and be paid by instalments. Sir
+Walter wrote a charming note of refusal.
+
+
+_Thursday_.
+
+I saw Talleyrand at Lansdowne House--like a corpse, with his hair
+dressed "_aîles de pigeon" bien poudré_. As Lord Lansdowne drolly said,
+"How much those _aîles de pigeon_ have gone through unchanged! How many
+revolutions have they seen! how many changes of their master's mind!"
+Talleyrand has less countenance than any man of talents I ever saw. He
+seems to think not only that _la parole était donné à l'homme pour
+déguiser sa pensée_, but that expression of countenance was given to him
+as a curse, to betray his emotions: therefore he has exerted all his
+abilities to conquer all expression, and to throw into his face that "no
+meaning" which puzzles more than wit; but I heard none. His niece, the
+Duchesse de Dino, was there: little, and ugly--plain, I should
+say--nobody is ugly now but myself.
+
+
+_To_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH.
+
+1 NORTH AUDLEY STREET,
+
+_Jan. 8, 1831_.
+
+Now I will tell you of my delightful young Christmas party at Mrs.
+Lockhart's. After dinner she arranged a round table in the corner of the
+room, on which stood a magnificent iced plum cake. There were to be
+twelve children: impossible to have room for chairs all round the table:
+it was settled that the king and queen alone should be invited to the
+honours of the sitting; but Mr. Lockhart, in a low voice, said, "Johnny!
+there must, my dear Sophia, you know, be a chair for Johnny here--all's
+right now."
+
+Enter first, Miss Binning, a young lady of fifteen, Johnny's particular
+friend, who had been invited to make crowns for the king and queen--a
+very nice elegant-looking girl with a slight figure.
+
+Then came from the top of the stairs peals of merry laughter, and in
+came the revel rout; the king and queen with their gilt paper admirable
+crowns on their heads, and little coronation robes; the queen was Mrs.
+Lockhart's youngest child, like a dear little fairy; and the king to
+match. All the others in various ways pleasing and prettily simply
+dressed in muslins of a variety of colours; plenty of ringlets of glossy
+hair, fair or brown, none black, with laughing blue eyes. And now they
+look at the tickets they have drawn for their twelfth-night characters,
+and read them out. After eating as much as well could be compassed, the
+revel rout ran upstairs again to the drawing-room, where open space and
+verge enough had been made for hunt the slipper; and down they all
+popped in the circle, of which you may see the likeness in the
+_Pleasures of Memory_. Then came dancing; and as the little and large
+dancers were all Scotch, I need not say how good it was. Mrs. Lockhart
+is really a delightful creature, the more lovable the closer one comes
+to her and in _London_. How very, very kind of her to invite me to this
+quite family party; if she had invented for ever, she could not have
+found what would please me more.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+LONDON, _January 20_.
+
+I write this "certificate of existence," and moreover, an affidavit of
+my being a-foot [Footnote: Miss Edgeworth had twisted her foot a few
+nights before in getting out of the carriage, and was unable to use it
+for some days.] again, and can go downstairs with one foot foremost like
+a child, and wore a black satin shoe like another last night at Mrs.
+Elliot's.
+
+Now sign, seal, and deliver for the bare life--of Mrs. Hope and the
+Duchess of Wellington in my next.
+
+
+_January 22_.
+
+I left off at the Duchess of Wellington. I heard she was ill and
+determined to write and ask if she wished to see me; a hundred of the
+little London _remoras_ delayed and stopped me and fortunately--I almost
+always find cause to rejoice instead of deploring when I have delayed to
+execute an intention, so that I must conclude that my fault is
+precipitation not procrastination. The very day I had my pen in my hand
+to write to her and was called away to write some other letter, much to
+my annoyance; much to my delight a few hours afterwards came a little
+pencil note, begging me to come to Apsley House if I wished to please an
+early friend who could never forget the kindness she had received at
+Edgeworthstown. I had not been able to put my foot to the ground, but I
+found it easy with motive to trample on impossibilities, and there is no
+going upstairs at Apsley House, for the Duke has had apartments on the
+ground floor, a whole suite, appropriated to the Duchess now that she is
+so ill, and I had only to go leaning on Fanny's arm, through a long
+passage to a magnificent room--not magnificent from its size, height,
+length, or breadth, but from its contents: the presents of Cities,
+Kingdoms, and Sovereigns. In the midst, on a high, narrow, mattressed
+sofa like Lucy's, all white and paler than ever Lucy was, paler than
+marble, lay as if laid out a corpse, the Duchess of Wellington. Always
+little and delicate-looking, she now looked a miniature figure of
+herself in wax-work. As I entered I heard her voice before I saw her,
+before I could distinguish her features among the borders of her cap;
+only saw the place where her head lay on the huge raised pillow; the
+head moved, the head only, and the sweet voice of Kitty Pakenham
+exclaimed, "O! Miss Edgeworth, you are the truest of the true--the
+kindest of the kind." And a little, delicate, death-like white hand
+stretched itself out to me before I could reach the couch, and when I
+got there I could not speak--not a syllable, but she, with most perfect
+composure, more than composure, cheerfulness of tone, went on speaking;
+as she spoke, all the Kitty Pakenham expression appeared in that little
+shrunk face, and the very faint colour rose, and the smile of former
+times. She raised herself more and more, and spoke with more and more
+animation in charming language and with all her peculiar grace and
+elegance of kindness recollected so much of past times and of my father
+particularly, whose affection she convinced me had touched her deeply.
+
+Opposite her couch hung the gold shield in imitation of the shield of
+Achilles with all the Duke's victories embossed on the margin, the Duke
+and his staff in the centre, surrounded with blazing rays, given by the
+city of London. On either side the great candelabras belonging to the
+massive plateau given by Portugal, which cannot be lifted without
+machinery. At either end, in deep and tall glass cases, from top to
+bottom ranged the services of Dresden and German china, presented by the
+Emperor of Austria and the King of Prussia. While I looked at these, the
+Duchess raising herself quite up, exclaimed with weak-voiced,
+strong-souled enthusiasm, "All tributes to merit! there's the value, all
+pure, no corruption ever suspected even. Even of the Duke of Marlborough
+that could not be said so truly."
+
+The fresh, untired enthusiasm she feels for his character, for her own
+still youthful imagination of her hero, after all she has gone through,
+is most touching. There she is, fading away, still feeding when she can
+feed on nothing else, on his glories, on the perfume of his incense. She
+had heard of my being in London from Lord Downes, who had seen me at the
+Countess de Salis's, where we met him and Lady Downes; when I met her
+again two days after we had been at Apsley House she said the Duchess
+was not so ill as I supposed, that her physicians do not allow that they
+despair. But notwithstanding what friends and physicians say, my own
+impression is, that she cannot be much longer for this world.
+
+
+_To_ MISS HONORA EDGEWORTH.
+
+NORTH AUDLEY STREET,
+
+_Feb. 10, 1831_.
+
+I am just come home from breakfasting with Sir James Macintosh. Fanny
+was with me, double, double pleasure, but we both feel as we suppose
+dramdrinkers do after their "mornings." My hand and my mind are both
+unsteadied and unfitted for business after this intoxicating draught. O
+what it is to "come within the radiance of genius," [Footnote: Quoted
+from a letter of her sister Anna after the death of Dr. Beddoes.] not
+only every object appears so radiant, but I feel myself so much
+increased in powers, in range of mind, a _vue d'oiseau_ of all things
+raised above the dun dim fog of commonplace life. How can any one like
+to live with their inferiors and prefer it to the delight of being
+raised up by a superior to the bright regions of genius? The inward
+sense of having even this perception of excellence is a pleasure far
+beyond what flattery _can_ give. Flattery is like a bad perfume,
+nauseous and overpowering after the first waft, and hurtful as well as
+nauseous. But as luncheon is coming and we must go directly to the
+Admiralty to see Captain Beaufort, and then to the Carrs'--no more
+rhodomontading to-day.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+NORTH AUDLEY STREET, _Feb. 11, 1831_.
+
+You must have seen in the papers the death of Mr. Hope, and I am sure it
+shocked you. But it was scarcely possible that it could strike you so much
+as it did me. I, who had seen him but a few days before, and who had been
+rallying him upon his being hypochondriac. I, who had been laughing at him
+along with Mrs. Hope, for being, I thought, merely in the cold fit after
+having been in the hot fit of enthusiasm while finishing his book. He knew
+too well, poor man, what we did not know. I believe that I never had time
+to describe to you the impression that visit to him made upon me. I had
+actually forced Mrs. Hope to go up and say he must see me; that such an
+old friend, and one who had such a regard for him, and for whom I knew he
+had a sincere regard, must be admitted to see him even in his bed-chamber.
+He sent me word that if I could bear to see a poor sick man in his
+night-cap, I might come up.
+
+So I did, and followed Mrs. Hope through all the magnificent apartments,
+and then up to the attics, and through and through room after room till
+we came to his retreat, and then a feeble voice from an arm-chair--
+
+"O! my dear Miss Edgeworth, my kind friend to the last."
+
+And I saw a figure sunk in his chair like La Harpe, in figured silk
+_robe de chambre_ and night-cap; death in his paled, sunk, shrunk face;
+a gleam of affectionate pleasure lighted it up for an instant, and
+straight it sunk again. He asked most kindly for my two sisters--"tell
+them I am glad they are happy."
+
+The half-finished picture of his second son was in the corner, beside
+his arm-chair, as if to cheer his eyes.
+
+"By an Irish artist," he politely said to me, "of great talent."
+
+When I rallied him at parting on his low spirits, and said, "How much
+younger you are than I am!"
+
+"No, no; not in mind, not in the powers of life. GOD bless you;
+good-bye."
+
+I told him I would only say _au revoir_, and that never came; it was
+only the next day but one after this that Fanny read to me his death in
+the paper. It was dreadfully sudden to us; what must it have been to
+Mrs. Hope? I am sure she had no idea of its coming so soon. I forgot to
+say that as I got up to go away, I told him laughing, that he was only
+ill of a plethora of happiness, that he had everything this world could
+give, and only wanted a little adversity.
+
+"Yes," said he, "I am happy, blessed with such a wife and such a son!"
+
+He looked with most touching gratitude up to her, and she drew back
+without speaking.
+
+Oh! I cannot tell you the impression the whole scene left on my mind.
+
+
+_March 14_.
+
+I hope your mother is better, and now inhaling spring life. Tell her,
+with my love, that I have exhibited her work [Footnote: A scarf
+embroidered with flowers, worked for Miss Edgeworth by Mrs. Beaufort,
+when she was ninety-two.] at various places to the admiration and almost
+incredulity of all beholders--such beautiful flowers at ninety-two!
+
+At last we were fortunately at home when Lady Wellesley and Miss Caton
+called, and, thanks to my impudence in having written to him the moment
+he landed, and thanks to his good nature, Sir John Malcolm came at the
+same moment, and Lady Wellesley and he talked most agreeably over former
+times in India and later times in Ireland. Lady Wellesley is not nearly
+so tall or magnificent a person as I expected. Her face beautiful, her
+manner rather too diplomatically studied. People say "she has a
+remarkably good manner;" perfectly good manners are never "remarkable,"
+felt, not seen. Sir John is as entertaining and delightful as his
+Persian sketches, and as instructive as his _Central India_.
+
+
+_To_ HER SISTER HARRIET--MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+1 NORTH AUDLEY STREET,
+
+_March 16, 1831_.
+
+The days are hardly long enough to read all men's speeches in
+Parliament. I get the result into me from Fanny, and read only the
+notables. Mr. North's speech was, as you say, the best and plainest he
+ever made, and was so esteemed. Macaulay's reads better than it was
+spoken, quite marred in the delivery, and he does not look the orator;
+but no matter, in spite of his outside, his inside will get him on: he
+has far more power in him than Mr. North.
+
+Get the eleventh volume of the new edition of Sir Walter's poems,
+containing a new Introduction and Essay on Ballads and ballad writing,
+all entertaining, and a model for egotists which very few will be able
+to follow, though many will strive and be laughed at for their pains.
+
+
+_March 29_.
+
+Old as I am and imaginative as I am thought to be, I have really always
+found that the pleasures I have expected would be great have actually
+been greater in the enjoyment than in the anticipation. This is written
+in my sixty-fourth year. The pleasure of being with Fanny [Footnote:
+Lestock Wilson.] has been far, far greater than I had expected. The
+pleasures here altogether, including the kindness of old friends and the
+civilities of acquaintances, are still more enhanced than I had
+calculated upon by the home and the quiet library, and easy-chair
+morning retreat I enjoy. Our long-expected visit to Herschel above all
+has far surpassed my expectations, raised as they were and warm from the
+fresh enthusiasm kindled by his last work.
+
+Mrs. Herschel, who by the bye is very pretty, which does no harm, is
+such a delightful person, with so much simplicity and so much sense, so
+fit to sympathise with him in all things intellectual and moral, and
+making all her guests comfortable and happy without any apparent effort;
+she was extremely kind to Fanny, and Mr. Herschel to Lestock.
+
+Thursday I went down to Slough alone in Fanny's carriage, as Lestock was
+not well, and she would not leave him. There was no company, and the
+evening was delightfully spent in hearing and talking. I had made
+various pencil notes in my copy of his book to ask for explanations, and
+so patient and kind and clear they were.
+
+On Saturday I began to grow very anxious about six o'clock, and Mrs.
+Herschel good-naturedly sympathised with me, and we stood at the window
+that looks out on a distant turn of the London road, and at last I saw a
+carriage glass flash and then an outline of a well-known coachman's
+form, and then the green chaise, and all right.
+
+There were at dinner the Provost of Eton in his wig, a large fine
+presence of a Provost--Dr. Goodall; Mrs. Hervey, very pretty, and gave
+me a gardenia like a Cape jessamine, white, sweet smelling--much talking
+of it and smelling and handing it about; Mrs. Gwatkin, one of Sir Joshua
+Reynold's nieces, has been very pretty, and though deaf is very
+agreeable--enthusiastically and affectionately fond of her
+uncle--indignant at the idea of his not having himself written the
+_Discourses_; "Burke or Johnson indeed! no such thing--he wrote them
+himself. I am evidence, he used to employ me as his secretary: often I
+have been in the room when he has been composing, walking up and down
+the room, stopping sometimes to write a sentence," etc.
+
+On Sunday to Windsor Chapel; saw the King and the Queen, and little
+Prince George of Cambridge, seen each through the separate compartments
+of their bay window up aloft. The service lasted three hours, and then
+we went, by particular desire, to Eton College, to see the Provost and
+Mrs. Goodall, and the pictures of all the celebrated men. Some of these
+portraits taken when very young are interesting; some from being like,
+some from being quite unlike what one would expect from their after
+characters. We saw the books of themes and poems that had been judged
+worth preserving. Canning's and Lord Wellesley's much esteemed. Drawers
+full of prints; many rare books; the original unique copy of _Reynard
+the Fox_--the table of contents of which is so exceedingly diverting I
+would fain have copied it on the spot, but the Provost told me a copy
+could be had at every stall for one penny.
+
+Got home to Herschel's while the sun yet shone, and I having the day
+before begged the favour of him to repeat for Fanny and Lestock the
+experiments and explanations on polarised light and periodical colours,
+he had everything ready, and very kindly went over it all again, and
+afterwards said to Mrs. Herschel, "It is delightful to explain these
+things to Mrs. Wilson; she can understand anything with the least
+possible explanation."
+
+It was a fine moonlight night, and he took us out to see Saturn and his
+rings, and the Moon and her volcanoes. Saturn, I thought, looked very
+much as he used to do; but the Moon did surprise and charm me--very
+different from anything I had seen or imagined of the moon. A large
+portion of a seemingly immense globe of something like rough ice,
+resplendent with light and all over protuberances like those on the
+outside of an oyster shell, supposing it immensely magnified in a
+Brobdingnag microscope, a lustrous-mica look all over the protuberances,
+and a distinctly marked mountain-in-a-map in the middle shaded
+delicately off.
+
+I must remark to you that all the time we were seeing we were eighteen
+feet aloft, on a little stage about eight feet by three, with a slight
+iron rod rail on three sides, but quite open to fall in front, and
+Lestock repeatedly warned me not to forget and step forwards.
+
+Monday, our visit, alas! was to come to an end. Mr. Herschel offered to
+take Lestock to town in his gig, which he accepted with pleasure, and
+Fanny and I went with Mrs. Herschel to see Sir Joshua's pictures at Mrs.
+Gwatkin's. There is one of Charles Fox done when he was eighteen: the
+face so faded that it looks like an unfinished sketch, not the least
+like any other picture I have ever seen of the jolly, moon-faced Charles
+Fox, but some resemblance to the boy of thirteen in the print I begged
+from Lord Buchan. The original "Girl with a muff" is here; the original
+also of "Simplicity," who has now flowers in her lap in consequence of
+the observation of a foolish woman who, looking at the picture as it was
+originally painted, with the child's hands interlaced, with the backs of
+the hands turned up, "How beautiful! How natural the dish of prawns the
+dear little thing has in her lap!"
+
+Sir Joshua threw the flowers over the prawns.
+
+There appeared in this collection many sad results of Sir Joshua's
+experiments on colours; a very fine copy of his from Rembrandt's picture
+of himself, all but the face so black as to be unintelligible. There was
+the first Sir Joshua ever drew of himself--and his last; this invaluable
+last is going--black cracks and masses of bladdery paint. He painted
+Mrs. Gwatkin seven times. "But don't be vain, my dear, I only use your
+head as I would that of any beggar--as a good practice."
+
+Her husband is a true Roast Beef of Old England King and Constitution
+man, who most good-naturedly hunted out from his archives a letter of
+Hannah More's, which happened to be particularly interesting to me, on
+Garrick in the character of Hamlet; it was good, giving a decided view
+of what Garrick at least thought the unity of the character.
+
+From metaphysics to physics, we finished with a noble slice of the roast
+beef of Old England, "fed, ma'am," said Mr. Gwatkin, "by his present
+Majesty, GOD bless him."
+
+Arrived at No. 1 in good time, and dined yesterday at Lady Davy's.
+Rogers, Gally Knight, Lord Mahon, and Lord Ashburner, who was very
+agreeable. He has been eleven years roaming the world, and is not
+foreign-fangled. Mrs. Marcet, who came in the evening, was the happiness
+of it to me.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+1 NORTH AUDLEY STREET,
+
+_April 1831_.
+
+Such a day as yesterday! sun shining--neither too hot nor too cold. This
+was just the time of year, I think, that you saw Knowle, and I never did
+see a place and house which pleased me more; exceedingly entertained
+with the portraits, endless to particularise. Several of Grammont's
+beauties, not so good in colours as in black and white. Sir Walter's
+black and white portrait of James I. made the full length of his
+unkingly Majesty a hundred times more interesting to me than it could
+otherwise have been,--mean, odd, strange-looking mortal. And then the
+silver room, as it is called, how it was gilt to me by the genius of
+romance, all Heriot's masterpieces there, would have been but cups and
+boxes ranged on toilette table and India cabinet but for the master
+magician touch. But we had to leave Knowle as we had engaged the day
+before at Brandfold to go to Mr. Jones (on the Distribution of Wealth)
+at Brasted. Such crowds of ideas as he poured forth, uttering so rapidly
+as to keep one quite on the stretch not to miss any of the good things.
+Half of them, I am sure, I have forgotten, but note for futurity;
+specially a fair-haired heiress now living, shut up in an old place
+called the Moate, old as King John's time. Mr. Jones had invited Dr. and
+Mrs. Felton, and had a luncheon _comme il y en a peu_ and wines of every
+degree: hock from Bremen, brought over by our mutual friend Mr. Jacob,
+and far too valuable for an ignoramus like me to swallow.
+
+Chevening? You are afraid we shall not have time to see Chantrey's
+monument. "O! but you must see it," said Mr. Jones, and so he and Dr.
+Felton ordered gig and pony carriage to let our horses rest, and follow
+and meet us, and away we went. Mr. Jones driving me in his gig to a
+beautiful parky place where Dr. Felton flourishes for the summer, and
+saw his children, who had wished to see the mother of Frank and
+Rosamond. Then through Mr. Manning's beautiful place--never travelling a
+high road or a by-road all the way to Chevening churchyard. The white
+marble monument of Lady Frederica Stanhope is in the church; plain
+though she was in life, she is beautiful in death, something of
+exquisite tenderness in the expression of her countenance, maternal
+tenderness, and repose, matronly repose, and yet the freshness of youth
+in the rounded arm and delicate hand that lightly, affectionately
+presses the infant--she dies, if dying it can be called, so placid, so
+happy; the head half-turned sinks into the pillow, which, without
+touching, one can hardly believe to be marble. I am sure Harriet
+recollects Lady Frederica at Paris, just before she was married.
+
+We left Chevening, and can never forget it, and drove through the wealds
+and the charts, called, as Mr. Jones tells me, from the charters, and
+see a chapel built by Porteus to civilise some of the wicked ones of the
+wealds or wilds, and Ireton's house, [Footnote: Groombridge Place.]
+where some say Cromwell lived, now belonging to Perkins the brewer. Then
+"see to the right that rich green field, where King Henry VIII. used to
+stop and wind his horn, that people might gather and drag himself and
+suite through the slough," and it was near eight before we got to town,
+and Lestock waiting dinner with the patience of Job. He, Lestock, not
+Job, is a delightful person to live with, never annoyed about hours or
+trifles of that kind.
+
+
+1 NORTH AUDLEY STREET,
+
+_April 30, 1831_.
+
+On Monday last I drove to Apsley House, without the slightest suspicion
+that the Duchess had been worse than when I had last seen her. When I
+saw the gate only just opened enough to let out the porter's head, and
+saw Smith parleying with him, nothing occurred to me but that the man
+doubted whether I was a person who ought to be admitted; so I put out my
+card, when Smith, returning, said, "Ma'am, the _Duchess of Wellington
+died on Saturday morning!_"
+
+The good-natured porter, seeing that I was "really a friend," as he
+said, went into the house at my request, to ask if I could see her maid;
+and after a few minutes the gates opened softly, and I went into that
+melancholy house, into that great, silent hall: window-shutters closed:
+not a creature to be seen or heard.
+
+At last a man-servant appeared, and as I moved towards the side of the
+house where I had formerly been--"Not that way, ma'am; walk in here, if
+you please."
+
+Then came, in black, that maid, of whose attachment the Duchess had, the
+last time I saw her, spoken so highly and truly, as I now saw by the
+first look and words. "Too true, ma'am--_she_ is gone from us! her Grace
+died on Saturday."
+
+"Was the Duke in town?"
+
+"Yes, ma'am, BESIDE HER."
+
+Not a word more, but I was glad to have that certain. Lord Charles had
+arrived in time; not Lord Douro. The Duchess had remained much as I last
+saw her on the sofa for a fortnight; then confined to her bed some days,
+but then seemed much better; had been up again, and out in that room and
+on that sofa, as when we heard her conversing so charmingly. They had no
+apprehension of her danger, nor had she herself till Friday, when she
+was seized with violent pain, and died on Saturday morning, "calm and
+resigned."
+
+The poor maid could hardly speak. She went in and brought me a lock of
+her mistress's hair, silver gray, all but a few light brown, that just
+recalled the beautiful Kitty Pakenham!
+
+So ended that sweet, innocent--shall we say happy, or unhappy life?
+Happy, I should think, _through all_; happy in her good feelings and
+good conscience, and warm affections, still LOVING on! Happy in her
+faith, her hope, and her charity!
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+LONDON, _May 6, 1831_.
+
+One of our farewell visits yesterday was to Mrs. Lushington; and when we
+had talked our fill about our brother Pakenham, we went to politics, of
+which every head in London is fuller than it can hold. Lord Suffield
+described the scene in the House of Lords [Footnote: On the opening of
+Parliament, when the King was to propose the bringing in of the Reform
+Bill.] as more extraordinary than could have been imagined or believed.
+One lord held down by force, and one bawling at the top of his voice,
+even when the door opened, and the King appeared as his lordship
+pronounced the word "RUIN!"
+
+Ruin did not seize the King, however, nor was he in the least affected
+by the uproar. He walked calmly on.
+
+"I kept my eye upon him," Lord Suffield said; "I looked at his knees,
+they did not tremble in the least. I am sure I could not have walked so
+firmly; I do not believe another man present could have been so calm."
+
+The King quietly took out his paper, felt for his spectacles, put them
+on composedly, and read with a firm voice. They say nothing was ever
+like the confusion and violence since the time of Charles I. and
+Cromwell.
+
+The day before yesterday we did a prodigious deal. Mr. Drummond came at
+ten o'clock, by appointment, to take us to the Mint, to see the double
+printing press; and we saw everything, from the casting the types to the
+drying the sheet; and then to the India House. There was some little
+stop while Pakenham's card, with a pencil message to Dr. Wilkins, was
+sent up. While this was doing, a superb mock-majesty man, in scarlet
+cloak and cocked hat, bedizened with gold, motioned us away. "Coachman,
+drive on; no carriage can stand before the India House--that's the
+rule."
+
+Dr. Wilkins came out of his comfortable den to receive us, laid down his
+book and spectacles, and showed us everything. The strangest thing we
+saw was a toy of Tippoo Sahib's, worthy of a despot--an English soldier,
+as large as life, in his uniform, hat, and everything, painted and
+varnished, lying at full length, and a furious tiger over him; a handle,
+invisible at a distance, in his ribs, which, when turned by the slave,
+produced sounds like the growling of the tiger and the groans of the
+man!
+
+We had a very pleasant day at Epping. Mrs. Napier went with us; I inside
+with her, Fanny on the barouche-seat with Pakenham, and Lestock behind
+with Sneyd. The place is so much improved! I saw Fanny's horse Baronet:
+very pretty.
+
+
+_2 o'clock, Luncheon._
+
+Pakenham is eating his last bit of gooseberry pie: enter Sneyd:
+boxes--hammering--dreadful notes of preparation. Pakenham yesterday wore
+the trefoil pin with his aunt's hair, and the sleeve-buttons with his
+mother's and sister's hair; and I have added a locket to hang to his
+watch-chain, with a bit, very scarce, of my own hair. The wind is fair:
+we shall hear from him from Deal.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+NORTH AUDLEY STREET,
+
+_May 7, 1831_.
+
+I wrote to Harriet yesterday all about Pakenham to the moment he left
+this house with Sneyd to join Lestock in the City, and go on to
+Gravesend.
+
+Half an hour after we had parted from Pakenham, and before we had
+recovered sense, came a great rap at the door. "Will you see anybody,
+ma'am?" I was going to say, "No, nobody," but I bid Smith ask the name,
+when behind him, as I spoke, enter Mrs. Lushington. "I have forced my
+way up--forgive me, it is for Pakenham; I hope I am not too late; I've
+brought him _good_ letters from Mrs. Charles Lushington."
+
+Comprehending instantly the value of the letters, and our carriage being
+most luckily at the door, into it Fanny and I got, and drove as hard as
+we could down to the dock, to the very place where they were to take the
+Gravesend boat. You may imagine the anxiety we were in to be in time,
+boat waiting for no one; and then the stoppages of odious carts and
+hackney coaches in the City: I do not believe we spoke three words to
+each other all that long way. At last, when within a few minutes of the
+end of our time, we were encompassed with carts, drays, and omnibuses,
+in an impenetrable line seemingly before us. Fanny sent Smith on foot
+with the letters and a pencil note. We got on wonderfully, our coachman
+being really an angel. We reached the wharf. "Is the Gravesend boat
+gone?" "No, ma'am, not this half-hour; half after four, instead of four,
+to-day."
+
+We took breath, but were still anxious, watching each with head out on
+our own side; for Smith had not appeared, and Lestock, Sneyd, and
+Pakenham had not arrived: great fear of missing them and the letters in
+the hurly-burly of packages, and packers, and passengers, and sailors,
+and _orderers_, and hackney coaches, and coachmen, and boatmen, men,
+women, and children swarming and bawling.
+
+But at last Smith and Lestock appeared together, and the letters got
+into Pakenham's hand: he and Sneyd had gone into the boat, so we saw no
+more of them; but Lestock sent us off on a new hurry-skurry for pistols,
+ordered but not brought. To the Minerva counting-house we drove, to send
+the pistols by some boatswain there: got to counting-house: "Boatswain
+gone?" "No, ma'am, not yet," said the dear, smiling clerk. So all was
+right, and Pakenham had his pistols.
+
+
+SALDEN HOUSE, MRS. CARR'S,
+
+_June 6, 1831_.
+
+My last days in London crowned the whole in all that was entertaining,
+curious, gratifying, and delightful to head and heart. I am writing
+while Isabella Carr is reading out _Destiny_, and very well she reads
+the Scotch; so you may think I cannot enter into details of the past at
+present, but I must just note--
+
+Lady Elizabeth Whitbread and four Lady Harleys.
+
+Opera with Lady Guilford and two daughters: _Medea_, Pasta: thrilling
+shiver, gliding sideways to her children, and sudden retreat.
+
+French play: Leontine Fay in _Une Faute_--the most admirable actress I
+ever saw, and in the most touching piece. Three young men--Mr.
+Whitbread, Major Keppel, and Lord Mahon--separately told me the
+impression made on them by this actress was such that they could not
+sleep afterwards! I had no trial how this would be with me, because we
+went off from the playhouse to Sir James South's, to see the occultation
+of Jupiter's satellites: that was indeed a sublime reality, and no
+wonder we were broad awake till three o'clock.
+
+Next morning St. Paul's: moral sublime. I sat next Rammohun Roy, and
+heard all he said. One curious inquiry he made; "Why are the boys set
+_above_ the girls?" Sermon by the Bishop of Nova Scotia: Judge
+Haliburton sat between Fanny and me. Luncheon at the Bishop of
+Llandaff's: forty people. Came home: packed up. Mr. Creed at dinner, and
+this last day delightful.
+
+
+_To_ CAPTAIN BASIL HALL.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _August 14, 1831_.
+
+My last visit to universal London confirms to my own feelings your
+eulogium. I never was so happy there in my life, because I had besides
+all the external pleasures, the solid satisfaction of a home there, and
+domestic pleasures, without which I should soon grow a-weary of the
+world, and wish the business of the town were done. I should be very
+sorry if I were told this minute that I was never to see London again,
+and yet I am wondrous contented and happy at home. I hope you will come
+and see some time whether I am only making believe or telling true.
+
+You say I must never say a discouraging word to you, because you are so
+easily discouraged: for shame! What is that but saying, "Flatter me"?
+Now flattery can never do good; twice cursed in the giving and the
+receiving, it ought to be. Instead of flattering I will give you this
+wholesome caution: in your new volumes do not weaken the effect by
+giving too much of a good thing; do not be lengthy; cut well before you
+go to press, and then the rest will live all the better. With your
+facility, this cannot cost you much.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+ROSTREVOR, [Footnote: Where the Miss Ruxtons were now living.]
+
+_Oct. 2, 1831_.
+
+Lestock was gratified by my joining him at Armagh. Mr. Allott was most
+hospitable. We walked to the cathedral, and saw views of great extent
+and beauty, and heard learned disquisitions about architecture, and a
+curious anecdote in support of a favourite theory of his, that small
+stones _grouted_ together, with lime and water put in hot, defies old
+Time. Great alarm was excited some time ago at Winchester Cathedral: the
+principal pillars seemed to be giving way, out of the perpendicular, and
+_bulged_. They fell to work _shoring_ and propping; but, in spite of
+all, the pillars still seemed to be giving way more and more, and they
+feared the whole would come down. Rennie was sent for, but Rennie was
+ill, and died. At last an architect looked at the pillars, picked at
+them, took off a facing of stone, and found, what he had suspected, that
+it was only this facing that had given way and bulged, and that the
+inside was a solid pillar of masonry,--small stones grouted together so
+firmly that the cement was as hard as the stone.
+
+Dr. and Mrs. Robinson came in the evening: his conversation is
+admirable; such an affluence of ideas, so full of genius and master
+thoughts. He gave me an excellent disquisition on the effect which
+transcendental mathematics produces on the mind, and traced up the
+history of mathematics from Euclid, appealing to diagrams and resting on
+images, to that higher sort where they are put out of the question,
+where we reason by symbols as in algebra, and work on in the dark till
+they get to the light, or till the light comes out of the dark--sure
+that it will come out. He went over Newton, and on through the history
+of modern times--Brinkley, Lagrange, Hamilton--just giving to me,
+ignorant, a notion of what each had done.
+
+Mrs. O'Beirne--dear, kind soul!--would accompany me on the jaunting-car
+all the way from Newry to Rostrevor, and I am very glad she did; and as
+the day was fine and the tide in, I thought it would be pleasant on that
+beautiful road; and so it would have been, but for the droves of
+cows--Oh, those weary cows with the longest horns!--and if ever I
+laughed at you for being afraid of cows, you may have your revenge now.
+Every quarter of a mile, at least, came a tangled mass of these brutes,
+and their fright made them more terrible, for they knew no more what
+they were doing than I did myself; and there I was sitting at their
+mercy, and the horn of one or t'other continually within an inch of my
+eye, my mouth, or my breast, and no retreat; and they might any moment
+stick me on the top of one of these horns, and toss me with one jerk
+into the sea! Mrs. O'Beirne kept telling me she was used to it, and that
+nothing ever happened; but by the time I reached Rostrevor I was as poor
+a worn-out rag as ever you saw.
+
+
+_To_ MISS RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Dec. 22, 1831._
+
+Francis was married on the 19th to Rosa Florentina Eroles; Sneyd, Fanny,
+and Lestock were present. The bride was dressed in a plain white muslin,
+with a mantilla lace veil of her own work on her head, without any hat,
+after the fashion of her own country, with a small wreath of silver
+flowers in her dark hair. Her sister was dressed English fashion, in a
+bonnet. Both Sneyd and Fanny say that nothing could appear more
+gentlemanlike, gentle, amiable, and happy than the bridegroom.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _April 20, 1832_.
+
+Can you conceive yourself to be an old lamp at the point of extinction,
+and dreading the smell you would make at going out, and the execrations
+which in your dying flickerings you might hear? And then you can
+conceive the sudden starting up again of the flame, when fresh oil is
+poured into the lamp. And can you conceive what that poor lamp would
+feel returning to light and life? So felt I when I had read your letter
+on reading what I sent to you of _Helen_. You have given me new life and
+spirit to go on with her. I would have gone on from principle, and the
+desire to do what my father advised--to finish whatever I began; but now
+I feel all the difference between working for a dead or a live horse.
+
+My auriculas are superb, and my peony tree has eighteen full-swelled
+buds: it will be in glory by the time Sophy and Mag arrive.
+
+
+_To_ HER SISTER HARRIET--MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN. _Aug. 1, 1832_.
+
+It is impossible to tell you how much I miss you. Never, except at my
+Aunt Ruxton's, did I ever pass my time away from home so entirely to my
+own enjoyment. Not a cloud obscured the cheerful sky.
+
+We are reading _Eugene Aram_; and almost all I have heard I think
+affected as to language, and not natural as to character. I am sure the
+real story and trial are much more interesting.
+
+
+_Aug. 21_.
+
+Perhaps you think I am at Lady Hartland's at this moment, poor
+ignorants, as you are! You must know that I was so unwell on Friday, the
+morning of the day we were to have gone there, that my poor mother was
+obliged to send James in the rain (poor James!) to put off till Monday;
+so Lord and Lady Hartland were very sorry and very glad, and sent us
+divine peaches.
+
+Sir James Calendar Campbell's _Memoirs_ are ill-written--all
+higgledy-piggledy, facts and anecdotes, some without heads, and some
+without tails; great cry and little wool, still, some of the wool is
+good; and curious facts thrown out, of which he does not know the value,
+and other things he values that have no value in nature.
+
+
+_To_ MISS RUXTON.
+
+PAKENHAM HALL, _Sept. 19, 1832_.
+
+We came here yesterday to meet Caroline Hamilton--dear Caroline
+Hamilton, and her sensible, agreeable husband. She is always the same,
+and the sight of her affectionate, open, lively countenance does one's
+heart good. Lord Longford quite well, and Lord Longford for ever: the
+children beautiful.
+
+
+FIVE P.M.
+
+We have been walking and driving all morning, and seeing all that Lady
+Longford has done in beautifying the place and employing the people. I
+never saw, in England or Ireland, such beautiful gardens--the most
+beautiful American garden my eyes ever beheld. She took advantage of a
+group of superb old chestnut-trees, with oak and ash for a background,
+which had never been noticed in that _terra incognita_; now it is a
+fairy land, embowered round with evergreens.
+
+To-morrow Hercules and Mrs. Pakenham come, with all their children--a
+party of thirteen!
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Oct. 9, 1832_.
+
+I send you one dozen out of two dozen ranunculus roots, which good,
+kind, dying Lady Pakenham sent to me, with a note as fresh in feeling as
+youth could dictate.
+
+
+_To_ MR. BANNATYNE.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Nov. 12, 1832_.
+
+The death of Sir Walter Scott has filled us all, as his private friends
+and admirers, with sorrow. I do not mean that we could have wished the
+prolongation of his life such as it had been for the last months; quite
+the contrary: but we feel poignant anguish from the thought that such a
+life as his was prematurely shortened--that such faculties, such a
+genius, such as is granted but once in an age, once in many ages, should
+have been extinguished of its light, of its power to enlighten and
+vivify the world, long before its natural term for setting! Whatever the
+errors may have been, oh, what have been the unremitted, generous, alas!
+overstrained exertions of that noble nature!
+
+
+_To_ MISS RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Nov. 15, 1832_.
+
+Thank you, I am quite well. My only _complaint_ is that I never can do
+any day as much as I intended, and am always as much hurried by the
+dressing-bell as I am at this instant.
+
+Lord Longford and Lord Silchester called here to-day on their way back
+from Longford and Castle Forbes; they sat till late; very agreeable.
+When I congratulated Lord Longford on having done so much at Pakenham
+Hall, and upon having still something to do, he answered, "Oh yes, I
+never was intended for a finished gentleman!"
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Dec. 28, 1832_.
+
+I send Mr. Lockhart's letter on the subscription for Abbotsford; it does
+him honour. I combated, however, his feelings with all the feelings and
+reasons I have on the opposite side--that it is a national tribute,
+honourable, not degrading. I refused to give him Scott's letters for
+publication, and very painful it was to me to refuse him, at present,
+anything he asked; but principle and consistency, painful or not,
+required it, besides my own feelings. I could not bear to publish Sir
+Walter's praises of myself, and affectionate expressions and private
+sentiments. I did send one letter to Mr. Lockhart, exemplifying what I
+mean--the beautiful letter on his changing fortunes. As to the
+subscription, all depends on whether the quantity of good produced will
+balance the pain to the family. It would gratify me to give the £100 I
+set apart for the purpose, but then comes the question, with or without
+my name? If with, there is staring me in the face OSTENTATION. If
+without--set down as from an "Unknown Friend"--AFFECTATION.
+
+Crampton said my name would be useful, and so I suppose I should do what
+would best serve the cause, and put out of the question all
+consideration of what may be thought of myself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Miss Edge worth's novel of _Helen_, begun in 1830, was finished in the
+summer of 1833, and read for family criticism, before being sent to the
+press.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+C.S. EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. C.S. EDGEWORTH.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _May 27, 1833_.
+
+After breakfast yesterday I had a stroll with Mrs. Edgeworth through
+Maria's flower-garden. I wish you could see her peony tree: it is in the
+very perfection of bloom, as indeed everything is here. After luncheon
+dinner, the pony-carriage came round, but was refused by all: however,
+as I was putting in execution my long-formed project of getting a ladder
+and making the ladies go up into the sycamore-tree with me, we drove
+that far. I fixed the ladder: I went up, and Fanny, Harriet, and Honora,
+with a little hesitation, followed. They were all delighted with this
+airy parlour, lined with the softest, thickest moss; natural seats with
+backs, a delightful peep of the house, gay parterres and groves. It was
+amusing, Mrs. Edgeworth's and Maria's surprise when called to from
+above, as they passed in the carriage. Then we drove round Francis's new
+walk through the Horse Park fields: beautiful. Then the ladies flocked
+to their flower-beds, and I was accompanied by one or two in my rambles,
+speaking to old workmen, and bribing new to banish the sparrows. After
+tea much talking, and a little reading; Harriet read out a new story by
+Mr. Brittain, who wrote _Hyacinth O'Gara_, and whom I knew at college.
+
+This morning was everything that was exquisite, and I have since
+breakfast had the gardener and heaps of workmen, and have been sawing
+beech-branches, to my great satisfaction and the approval of others; and
+in criticism I have found all agree with me, for _Helen_ is begun, and
+at eleven we meet in the library; and Harriet has read aloud four
+chapters. It is altogether in Maria's best style; and I think the public
+will like it as hers, the return to an old friend.
+
+
+_31st_.
+
+I am sure you would like the cheerful fusion of this home party: each
+star is worthy of separate observation for its serenity, brilliancy, or
+magnitude; but it is as a constellation they claim most regard, linked
+together by strong attachment, and moving in harmony through their
+useful course. The herons sail about and multiply, the rookery is
+banished, the reign of tulips now almost o'er, and peonies of many bells
+are taking their place.
+
+I am a stranger to any book but _Helen_, scarcely looking at the
+newspaper, which Mr. Butler devours. Harriet has gone in the
+pony-carriage for Molly, and she is to be driven by Francis's walk and
+Maria's garden.
+
+
+_June 1_.
+
+Aunt Mary's [Footnote: Mrs. Mary Sneyd.] interest in _Helen_ is
+delightful. Never did the whole family appear to more advantage; the
+accordance of opinion, yet cheerfulness of discussion, is charming.
+
+When the evening reading of _Helen_ was finished, Harriet and I walked
+round the lawn; the owls shrieking and flitting by in pursuit of bats:
+clouds in endless varieties in the unsettled heavens. The library, as we
+looked in at it through the windows, with all its walls and pictures
+lighted up by the lamps, looked beautiful. I thought how my father would
+have been touched to look in as we did on his assembled family.
+
+
+MARIA _to_ M. PAKENHAM EDGEWORTH, ESQ.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN,
+
+_Valentine's Day, 1834_.
+
+The herons this day (according to their custom as Sophy tells me) sat
+all in a row in the horse park in solemn deliberation upon their own
+affairs: the opening of their budget I suppose. They have much upon
+their hands this session, and there must be a battle soon, on which the
+fate of the empire must depend; magpies and scarecrows abound, and such
+clouds of starlings darkened the air for many minutes opposite the
+library window, settling at last upon the three great beech trees, that
+Sophy and I would have given a crown imperial you had been by, dear
+Pakenham, to see them.
+
+You ended your Journal and the announcement of your appointment to
+Amballa with exulting in the new kingdoms of flowers you would have to
+subdue, and with the hope that your mother would write to Lady Pakenham
+for her delightful letter to her son. You will have heard long before
+this reaches you, my dear, that Lady Pakenham is no more; she died last
+autumn. I wish that this news could have reached that kind heart of
+hers. Honora and I went the very day we received your journal to
+Coolure, to thank Admiral Pakenham; he met us on the steps in a tapestry
+nightcap. He has grown very old, and has had several strokes of palsy,
+but none have touched his heart. When Honora read to him the whole
+passage out of your journal and your own warm expressions of pleasure
+and gratitude, life and joy lighted in his dear old eyes. Honora only
+changed the words, "dear Lady Pakenham" into the "dear Pakenhams of
+Coolure." He asked, "Who wrote?" and looked very earnestly in my eyes. I
+was afraid to say Lady Pakenham, and I answered, "You know," and pressed
+his hand. He did know, passed his hand over his eyes and said, "Like
+her: she was a good woman."
+
+
+_February 19_.
+
+I yesterday found in my writing-desk a copy I had made of the letter
+Lord Carrington wrote to me in answer to mine announcing your former
+Futtehgur appointment; and now that it can go free I enclose it. I like
+an expression of Lord Mahon's about him in a note I lately received from
+him. "My grandfather is in excellent health, and I cannot offer you a
+better wish than that you may at eighty-one possess the same activity,
+the same quickness of intellect, the same gushing, warm-hearted
+benevolence which distinguishes him." Gushing benevolence: I like that
+expression.
+
+Sophy despatched a letter for you last week, in which I am sure she told
+you all domestic occurrences. Barry has bought Annaghmore in the King's
+County: an excellent house; and Sophy and Barry and all the children are
+to stay with us till Sophy's health--very delicate--is strengthened, and
+till they have furnished what rooms they mean to inhabit at Annamore;
+this looks better than with the _gh_, but Sophy stickles for the old
+Irish spelling.
+
+Molly and Hetty, and Crofton and child, are all flourishing; poor old
+George is declining as gently and comfortably as can be. When we go to
+see him, his eyes light up and his mouth crinkles into smiles, and he,
+as well as Molly, never fails to ask for Master Pakenham. Though _Helen_
+cannot reach you for a year, Fanny has desired Bentley to send you a
+copy before it is published. I should tell you beforehand that there is
+no humour in it, and no Irish character. It is impossible to draw
+Ireland as she now is in a book of fiction--realities are too strong,
+party passions too violent to bear to see, or care to look at their
+faces in the looking-glass. The people would only break the glass, and
+curse the fool who held the mirror up to nature--distorted nature, in a
+fever. We are in too perilous a case to laugh, humour would be out of
+season, worse than bad taste. Whenever the danger is past, as the man in
+the sonnet says,
+
+  We may look back on the hardest part and laugh.
+
+Then I shall be ready to join in the laugh. Sir Walter Scott once said
+to me, "Do explain to the public why Pat, who gets forward so well in
+other countries, is so miserable in his own." A very difficult question:
+I fear above my power. But I shall think of it continually, and listen,
+and look, and read.
+
+Thank you, my dear brother, for your excellent and to me particularly
+interesting last letter, in which you copied for me the good
+observations on the state of your part of India, and the collection of
+the revenue, rents, etc. Many of the observations on India apply to
+Ireland; similarity of certain general causes operating on human nature
+even in countries most different and with many other circumstances
+dissimilar, produce a remarkable resemblance in human character and
+conduct. I admire your generous indignation against oppression and
+wringing by "any indirection from the poor peasant his vile trash." Some
+of the disputes that you have to settle at Cucherry, and some of the
+viewings that you record of boundaries, etc., about which there are
+quarrels, put me in mind of what I am called upon to do here continually
+in a little way. I hope Honora and Sophy have given you satisfaction
+about the exact place of the new walks; as I cannot draw I can do
+nothing in that way, but I can tell you that I have been planting
+rhododendrons and arbutus in front of the euonymus tree. I hope you will
+have a good garden in your new residence, and that you will not be too
+hot in it. How you could find that your having more to do, made you more
+able to endure the horrid heat you describe, passes my comprehension.
+Heat always makes me so indolent, imbecile, and irritable. I remember
+all this in the only heat _to call heat_, that I was ever exposed to in
+Paris and Switzerland; I could not even speak, much less write. If I had
+been under your 107 degrees I should have melted away to the very bone,
+and never, never, never could have penned that _dropping_ letter as you
+did to Honora, and with that _puddle_ ink too. Well! we are very, very,
+very much obliged to you, dear Pakenham, for all the labour you go
+through for us, and we hope that under the shade of the Himalaya
+mountains you will be able to write, at your ease and without all manner
+of _stodge_ in your ink.
+
+
+_21st_.
+
+This morning brought through Harriet, Margaret Craig's joy at your
+promotion, and--Honora says I must go out this delightful sunshine
+morning, and look at all the full-blown crocuses, violets, heath, and
+pyrus japonica. I have a standard pyrus now--vulgar things compared with
+your _Indian Prides_.
+
+Oh! my dear Pakenham, I am sure you are shocked at the death of Sir John
+Malcolm! both he and Sir James Macintosh, the two whose genius you so
+admired, and whose conversation you so enjoyed just before you left
+England--both gone!
+
+
+_March 8_.
+
+Ever since I finished my last to you I have had my head so immersed in
+accounts that I have never been able till this moment to fulfil my
+intention of giving you my travels in Connemara.
+
+I travelled with Sir Culling and Lady Smith (Isabella Carr). Sir
+Culling, of old family, large fortune and great philanthropy, extending
+to poor little Ireland and her bogs, and her Connemara, and her
+penultimate barony of Erris and her ultimate Giants' Causeway, and her
+beautiful lake of Killarney. And all these things he determined to see.
+Infant and nurse, and lady's-maid, and gentleman's gentleman, and Sir
+Culling and the fair Isabella all came over to Ireland last September,
+just as Fanny had left us, and she meeting them in Dublin, and
+conceiving that nurse and baby would not do for Connemara, wrote
+confidentially to beg us to invite them to stay at Edgeworthstown, while
+father and mother, and maid, and man, were to proceed on their travels.
+They spent a pleasant week, I hope, at Edgeworthstown. I am sure Honora
+did everything that was possible to make it pleasant to them, and we
+regretted a million of times that your mother was not at home. Sir
+Culling expected to have had all manner of information as to roads,
+distances, and time, but Mrs. Edgeworth not being at home, and Miss
+Edgeworth's local knowledge being such as you know, you may guess how he
+was disappointed. Mr. Shaw and the Dean of Ardagh, who dined with him
+here, gave him directions as far as Ballinasloe and a letter to the
+clergyman there. The fair of Ballinasloe was just beginning, and Sir
+Culling was determined to see that, and from thence, after studying the
+map of Ireland and roadbooks one evening, he thought he should get
+easily to Connemara, Westport, and the Barony of Erris, see all that in
+a week, and come back to Edgeworthstown, take up Bambino and proceed on
+a northern or a southern tour.
+
+You will be surprised that I should--seeing they knew so little what
+they were about--have chosen to travel with them; and I confess it was
+imprudent and very unlike my usual dislike to leave home without any of
+my own people with me. But upon this occasion I fancied I should see all
+I wanted to see of the wonderful ways of going on and manners of the
+natives better for not being with any of my own family, and especially
+for its not being suspected that I was an authoress and might put them
+in a book. In short, I thought it was the best opportunity I could ever
+have of seeing a part of Ireland which, from time immemorial, I had been
+curious to see. My curiosity had been raised even when I first came to
+Ireland fifty years ago, by hearing my father talk of the King of
+Connemara, and his immense territory, and his ways of ruling over his
+people with almost absolute power, with laws of his own, and setting all
+other laws at defiance. Smugglers and caves, and murders and mermaids,
+and duels, and banshees, and fairies, were all mingled together in my
+early associations with Connemara and Dick Martin,--"Hair-trigger Dick,"
+who cared so little for his own life or the life of man, and so much for
+the life of animals, who fought more duels than any man of even his
+"Blue-blaze-devil" day, and who brought the bill into Parliament for
+preventing cruelty to animals; thenceforward changing his cognomen from
+"Hair-trigger Dick" to "Humanity Martin." He was my father's
+contemporary, and he knew a number of anecdotes of him. _Too besides_, I
+once saw him, and remember that my blood crept slow and my breath was
+held when he first came into the room, a pale, little insignificant-
+looking mortal he was, but he still kept hold of my imagination, and his
+land of Connemara was always a land I longed to visit. Long afterwards,
+a book which I believe you read, _Letters from the Irish Highlands_,
+written by the family of Blakes of Renvyle, raised my curiosity still
+further, and wakened it for new reasons, in a new direction. Further and
+further and higher, Nimmo and William deepened my interest in that
+country, and, in short, and at length all these motives worked together.
+Add to them a book called _Wild Sports of the West_, of which Harriet
+read to me all the readable parts till I rolled with laughing. Add also
+that I had lately heard Mr. Rothwell give a most entertaining account of
+a tour he had taken in Erris, and to the house of a certain Major
+Bingham who must be the most diverting and extraordinary original upon
+earth--and shall I die without seeing him? thought I--now or never.
+
+At the first suggestion I uttered that I should like to see him and
+Erris, and the wonders of Connemara, Lady Culling Smith and Sir Culling
+burst into delight at the thought of having me as their travelling
+companion, so it was all settled in a moment. Honora approved, Aunt Mary
+hoped it would all turn out to my satisfaction, and off we set with four
+horses mighty grand in their travelling carriage, which was a summer
+friend, open or half-open. A half head stuck up immovable with a window
+at each ear, an apron of wood, varnished to look like japanned leather
+hinged at bottom, and having at top where it shuts a sort of fairy-board
+window which lets down in desperately bad weather.
+
+Our first day was all prosperous and sunshine, and what Captain Beaufort
+would call plain sailing. To Ballymahon the first stage. Do you remember
+Ballymahon, and the first sight of the gossamer in the hedges sparkling
+with dew, going there packed into the chaise with your four sisters and
+me to see the museum of a Mr. Smith, who had a Cellini cup and a Raphael
+plate, and miniatures of Madame de Maintenon, and wonders
+innumerable--but Sophy at this moment tells me that I am insisting upon
+your remembering things that happened before you were born, and that
+even Francis was only one year old at the time of this breakfast, and it
+was she herself who was so delighted with that first view of the
+gossamer in the glittering sunshine.
+
+But I shall never get on to Athlone, much less to Connemara. Of Athlone
+I have nothing to say but what you may learn from the _Gazetteer_,
+except that, while we were waiting in the antiquated inn there, while
+horses were changing, I espied a print hanging smoked over the
+chimney-piece, which to my _connoisseur_ eyes seemed marvellously good,
+and upon my own judgment I proposed for it to the landlady, and bought
+it for five shillings (frame excepted); and when I had it out of the
+frame, and turned it round, I found my taste and judgment gloriously
+justified. It was from a picture of Vandyke's--the death of Belisarius;
+and here it is now hanging up in the library, framed in satin wood, the
+admiration of all beholders, Barry Fox above all.
+
+But to proceed. It was no easy matter to get out of Athlone, for at the
+entrance to the old-fashioned, narrowest of narrow bridges we found
+ourselves wedged and blocked by drays and sheep, reaching at least a
+mile; men cursing and swearing in Irish and English; sheep baaing, and
+so terrified, that the shepherds were in transports of fear brandishing
+their crooks at our postillions, and the postillions in turn brandishing
+their whips on the impassive backs of the sheep. The cocked gold-edged
+hat of an officer appeared on horseback in the midst, and there was
+silence from all but the baaing sheep. He bowed to us ladies, or to our
+carriage and four, and assured us that he would see us safe out, but
+that it would be a work of time. While this work of time was going on,
+one pushed his way from behind, between sheep and the wheel on my side
+of the carriage, and putting in his head called out to me, "Miss
+Edgeworth, if you are in it, my master's in town, and will be with you
+directly almost, with his best compliments. He learned from the landlady
+your name. He was in the inn that minute, receiving rents he is, if you
+will be kind enough to wait a minute, and not stir _out of that_."
+
+Kind enough I was, for I could not help myself, if I had been ever so
+unkindly disposed towards my unknown friend. Up came, breathless, a
+well-known friend, Mr. Strickland. Introduced amidst the baaing of the
+sheep to my travelling companions, and, as well as I could make myself
+heard in the din, I made him understand where we were going next, and
+found, to my great satisfaction, that he would overtake us next day at
+Ballinasloe, if we could stay there next day; and we could and must, for
+it was Sunday. I cannot tell you--and if I could you would think I
+exaggerated--how many hours we were in getting through the next ten
+miles; the road being continually covered with sheep, thick as wool
+could pack, all _coming from_ the sheep-fair of Ballinasloe, which, to
+Sir Culling's infinite mortification, we now found had taken place the
+previous day. I am sure we could not have had a better opportunity and
+more leisure to form a sublime and just notion of the thousands and tens
+of thousands which must have been on the field of sale. This retreat of
+the ten thousand never could have been effected without the generalship
+of these wonderfully skilled shepherds, who, in case of any disorder
+among their troops, know how dexterously to take the offender by the
+left leg or the right leg with their crooks, pulling them back without
+ever breaking a limb, and keeping them continually in their ranks on the
+weary, long march.
+
+We did not reach Ballinasloe till it was almost dark. There goes a
+story, you know, that no woman must ever appear at Ballinasloe Fair;
+that she would be in imminent peril of her life from the mob. The
+daughters of Lord Clancarty, it was said, "had tried it once, and scarce
+were saved by fate." Be this as it may, we were suffered to drive very
+quietly through the town; and we went quite through it to the outskirts
+of scattered houses, and stopped at the door of the Vicarage. And well
+for us that we had a letter from the Dean of Ardagh to the Rev. Mr.
+Pounden, else we might have spent the night in the streets, or have paid
+guineas apiece for our beds, all five of us, for three nights. Mr. and
+Mrs. Pounden were the most hospitable of people, and they were put to a
+great trial--dinner just over, and that day had arrived unexpectedly one
+family of relations, and expectedly another, with children without end.
+And how they did stow them and us, to this hour I cannot conceive: they
+had, to be sure, one bed-chamber in a house next door, which, luckily,
+Lord and Lady Somebody had not arrived to occupy. Be it how it might,
+here we stayed till Monday; and on Sunday there was to be a charity
+sermon for the benefit of the schools, under the patronage of Lord and
+Lady Clancarty, and the sermon was preached by Archdeacon Pakenham; and
+after the sermon--an excellent sermon on the appropriate text of the
+good Samaritan--an immense crowd before the windows filled the fair
+green, and we went out to see. The crowd of good, very good-natured
+Irishmen, gentle and simple mixed, opened to let the ladies and English
+stranger in to see: and fine horses and fine leaping we saw, over a
+loose wall built up for the purpose in the middle of the fair green; and
+such shouting, and such laughing, and such hurraing for those that
+cleared and for those that missed. As for the rest of the cattle-fair,
+we _lift_ on Monday morning before the thick of it came on.
+
+I forgot to tell you that on Sunday arrived Mr. Strickland, and he with
+maps and road-books explained to Sir Culling where he should go, and how
+he was to accomplish his objects. It was settled that we were to go to
+Loughrea, and to see certain ruins by going a few miles out of our way;
+and this we accomplished, and actually did see, by an uncommonly fine
+sunset, the beautiful ruins of Clonmacnoise; and we slept this night at
+Loughrea, where we had been assured there was a capital inn, and may be
+it was, but the rats or the mice ran about my room so, and made such a
+noise in the holes of the floor, that I could not sleep, but was
+thankful they did not get on or into my bed.
+
+Next day to Galway, and still it was fine weather, and bright for the
+open carriage, and we thought it would always be so. Galway, wet or dry,
+and it was dry when I saw it, is the dirtiest town I ever saw, and the
+most desolate and idle-looking. As I had heard much from Captain
+Beaufort and Louisa of the curious Spanish buildings in Galway, I was
+determined not to go through the town without seeing these; so, as soon
+as we got to the inn, I summoned landlord and landlady, and begged to
+know the names of the principal families in the town. I thought I might
+chance to light upon somebody who could help us. In an old history of
+Galway which Mr. Strickland picked up from a stall at Ballinasloe, I
+found prints of some of the old buildings and names of the old families;
+and the landlord having presented me with a list as long as an
+alderman's bill of fare of the names of the gentlemen and ladies of
+Galway, I pitched upon the name of a physician, a Dr. Veitch, of whom I
+had found a fine character in my book. He had been very good to the poor
+during a year of famine and fever. To him I wrote, and just as I had
+finished reading his panegyric to Lady Smith, in he walked; and he
+proved to be an old acquaintance. He was formerly a surgeon in the army,
+and was quartered at Longford at the time of the rebellion: remembered
+our all taking shelter there, how near my father was being killed by the
+mob, and how courageously he behaved. Dr. Veitch had received some
+kindness from him, and now he seemed anxious, thirty-five years
+afterwards, to return that kindness to me and my companions. He walked
+with us all over Galway, and showed us all that was worth seeing, from
+the new quay _projecting_, and the new green Connemara marble-cutters'
+workshop, to the old Spanish houses with projecting roofs and piazza
+walks beneath; and, wading through seas of yellow mud thick as
+stirabout, we went to see archways that had stood centuries, and above
+all to the old mayoralty house of that mayor of Galway who hung his own
+son; and we had the satisfaction of seeing the very window from which
+the father with his own hands hung his own son, and the black marble
+marrowbones and death's head, and inscription and date, 1493. I daresay
+you know the story; it formed the groundwork very lately of a tragedy.
+The son had--from jealousy as the tragedy has it, from avarice according
+to the vulgar version--killed a Spanish friend; and the father, a modern
+Brutus, condemns him, and then goes to comfort him. I really thought it
+worth while to wade through mud to see these awful old relics of other
+times and other manners. But, coming back again, at every turn it was
+rather disagreeable to have "fish" bawled into one's ears, and "fine
+flat fish" flapped in one's face. The fish-market was fresh supplied,
+and Galway is famous for _John Dorees_. "A John Doree, ma'am, for
+eighteen-pence--a shilling--sixpence!" A John Doree could not be had for
+guineas in London. Quin, the famous actor, wished he was all throat when
+he was eating a John Doree. But still it was not pleasant, at every turn
+and every crossing, to have ever so fine John Dorees flapped in one's
+face. Sir Culling bought one for sixpence, and it was put into the
+carriage; and we took leave of Dr. Veitch, and left Galway.
+
+From Galway Sir Culling was obliged to take job horses, as he was warned
+that we were entering a country where post horses were not to be found,
+and were never even heard of. Dr. Veitch bid us not think of entering
+Connemara this night. "You will have to send after me soon, if you don't
+take care. You have no idea of the places you are going into, and that
+you may have to sleep in."
+
+The next place we were to go to, and where Dr. Veitch advised us to
+sleep, was Outerard, a small town or village, where he told us was an
+inn, or an hotel, as even in these out-of-the-world regions it is now
+called. It was but fifteen miles, and this with four horses was not two
+hours' drive; and Sir Culling thought it would be sad waste of daylight
+to sleep at Outerard, for still he measured his expected rate of
+travelling by his Bath Road standard. Though we left Galway at three, we
+were not at Outerard till past seven, with our fine, fresh horses; and
+excellent horses they really were, and well harnessed too, with
+well-accoutred postillions in dark blue jackets and good hats and boots,
+all proper, and an ugly little dog running joyously along with the
+horses. Outerard, as well as we could see it, was a pretty
+mountain-scattered village, with a pond and trees, and a sort of
+terrace-road, with houses and gardens on one side, and a lower road with
+pond and houses on the other. There is a spa at Outerard to which
+bettermost sort of people come in the season; but this was not the
+season, and the place had that kind of desolate look, mixed with
+_pretensions_ too, which a watering-place out of season always has.
+
+When we came to the hotel, our hearts sank within us. Dusk as it was,
+there was light enough to guess, at first sight, that it would never do
+for sleeping--half covered with overgrown ivy, damp, forlorn, windows
+broken, shattered look all about it. With difficulty we got at the
+broken gate into the very small and dirty courtyard, where the four
+horses could hardly stand with the carriage. Out came such a master and
+such a maid! and such fumes of whiskey-punch and tobacco. Sir Culling
+got down from his barouche-seat, to look if the house was practicable;
+but soon returned, shaking his head, and telling us in French that it
+was quite impossible; and the master of the inn, with half threats, half
+laughter, assured us we should find no other place in Outerard. I
+inquired for the Priest's house. I was on the point of asking, "Has the
+Priest any family?" but recollected myself in time, and asked whether
+the Priest's house was large enough to hold us. "Not an atom of room to
+spare in it, ma'am." Then I inquired for the Chief of the Police, the
+Clergyman, or the Magistrate? "Not in it, neither, none; but the Chief
+of the Police's house is there on the top of the hill; but you will not
+get in."
+
+We went there, however, and up the hill toiled, and to the door of a
+sort of spruce-looking lanthorn of a house, without tree or shrub near
+it. But still it might be good to sleep in; and, nothing daunted by the
+maid's prophecies and ominous voice, we determined to try our fate. Sir
+Culling got down and rubbed his hands; while, after his man's knocking
+at the door several times, no one came to open it, though through the
+large drawing-room window we saw figures gliding about. At last the door
+half opened by hands unseen, and Sir Culling, pushing it wholly open,
+went in; and we sat in the carriage, waiting as patiently as we could.
+The figures in black and white came to the window, and each had
+pocket-handkerchiefs in their hands or at their eyes. Sir Culling
+reappeared, ordered the horses to be turned about again; and when he had
+remounted his barouche-seat, which he did with all convenient speed, he
+informed us that a lady had died in this house a few days before, of
+cholera; that she had this day been buried; that under any other
+circumstances the master and mistress would have been happy to receive
+us, but now it was quite impossible, for our sake and their own. The
+damp, broken-windowed hole was preferable; so back we went. But as we
+went along the _high_ road, down in the _low_ road on the other side of
+the pond, through the duskiness we saw lights in several houses; and in
+front of one long house which looked whiter than the rest, we stopped at
+an opening in the road where was a path which led to the valley beneath,
+and Sir Culling, who proved in this our need an active knight, sallied
+down to adventure another trial; and in a few minutes after _im_merging
+into this mud castle, and emerging from it, he waved his arm over his
+head in sign of triumph, and made a sign to the postillions to turn down
+into the valley, which they did without overturning us; and to our
+satisfaction we found ourselves housed at Mrs. O'Flaherty's, who did not
+keep an inn, observe; her admitting us, observe, depended upon our
+clearly understanding that she did not so demean herself. But she in the
+season let her house as a boarding-house to the quality, who came to
+Outerard to drink the waters or to bathe. So, to oblige us poor
+travellers, without disgrace to the blood and high descent of the
+O'Flaherties, she took us in, as we were quality, and she turned her two
+sons out of their rooms and their beds for us; and most comfortably we
+were lodged. And we ate the John Doree we had brought with us, and I
+thought it not worth all the talking about it I had heard; and, for the
+first time in my days or nights, I this night tasted a _toombler_ of
+anti-Parliament whiskey, _alias_ poteen, and water; and of all the
+detestable tastes that ever went into my mouth, or smells that ever went
+under my nose, I think this was the worst--literally smoke and fire
+spirit. Isabella observed that she had often drank Innishowon and water
+with dear Agnes and Joanna Baillie. There's no disputing about tastes;
+therefore I did not dispute, only set down the tumbler, and sip took
+never more; for I could as soon have drank the chimney smoking. The
+doors, just opening with a latch, received us into our bed-rooms, with
+good turf fires on the hearth, coved ceilings, and presses, and all like
+bed-rooms in an English farm-house more than an Irish: wonderful
+comfortable for Outerard, after fear of the cholera and the dead woman
+especially.
+
+Next day, sun shining and a good breakfast, our spirit of travelling
+adventure up within us, we determined that, before proceeding on our
+main adventure into Connemara, we would make a little episode to see a
+wonderful cave in the neighbourhood. Our curiosity to see it had been
+excited by the story of the lady and the white trout in _Lover's
+Legends_. It is called the Pigeon-hole; not the least like a
+pigeon-hole, but it is a subterraneous passage, where a stream flows
+which joins the waters of Lough Corrib and Lough Mask. Outerard is on
+the borders of Lough Corrib, and we devoted this day to boating across
+Lough Corrib, to see this famous cavern, which is on the opposite side
+of the lake, and also to see a certain ruined monastery. We passed over
+the lake, admiring its beauty and its many islands--little bits of
+islands, of which the boatmen tell there are three hundred and
+sixty-five; be the same more or less, one for every day in the year at
+least. We saw the ruins, which are very fine; but I have not time to say
+more about them. We crossed the churchyard and a field or two, and all
+was as flat, and bare, and stony as can be imagined; and as we were
+going and going farther from the shore of the lake, I wondered how and
+when we were to come to this cavern. The guide called me to stop, and I
+stopped; and well I did: I was on the brink of the Pigeon-hole--just
+like an unfenced entrance to a deep deep well. The guide went down
+before us, and was very welcome! Down and down and down steps almost
+perpendicular, and as much as my little legs could do to reach from one
+to the other; darker and darker, and there were forty of them I am sure,
+well counted--though certainly I never counted them, but was right glad
+when I felt my feet at the bottom, on _terra firma_ again, even in
+darkness, and was told to look up, and that I had come down sixty feet
+and more. I looked up and saw glimmering light at the top, and as my
+eyes recovered, more and more light through the large fern leaves which
+hung over the opening at top, and the whole height above looked like the
+inside of a limekiln, magnified to gigantic dimensions, with
+lady-fern--it must be lady-fern, because of the fairies--and lichens,
+names unknown, hanging from its sides. The light of the sun now
+streaming in I saw plainly, and felt why the guide held me fast by the
+arm--I was on the brink of the very narrow dark stream of water, which
+flowed quite silently from one side of the cavern to the other! To that
+other side, my eye following the stream as it flowed, I now looked, and
+saw that the cavern opened under a high archway in the rock. How high
+that was, or how spacious, I had not yet light enough to discern. But
+now there appeared from the steps down which we had descended an old
+woman with a light in her hand. Our boy-guide hailed her by the name of
+Madgy Burke. She scrambled on a high jut of rock in the cavern; she had
+a bundle of straw under one arm, and a light flickering in the other
+hand, her grizzled locks streaming, her garments loose and tattered, all
+which became suddenly visible as she set fire to a great wisp of straw,
+and another and another she plucked from her bundle and lighted, and
+waved the light above and underneath. It was like a scene in a melodrama
+of Cavern and Witch--the best cavern scene I ever beheld. As she
+continued to throw down, from the height where she stood, the lighted
+bundles of straw, they fell on the surface of the dark stream below, and
+sailed down the current, under the arch of the cavern, lighting its roof
+at the vast opening, and looking like tiny fire-ships, one after another
+sailing on, and disappearing. We could not help watching each as it
+blazed, till it vanished. We looked till we were tired, then turned and
+clambered up the steps we had scrambled down, and found ourselves again
+in broad daylight, in upper air and on the flat field; and the illusion
+was over, and there stood, turned into a regular old Irish beggar-woman,
+the Witch of Outerard, and Madgy Burke stood confessed, and began to
+higgle with Sir Culling and to flatter the English quality for a
+sixpence more.
+
+Meanwhile we were to cross Lough Corrib; and well for us that we had the
+prudence to declare, early in the morning, that we would not take a
+sail-boat, for a sail-boat is dangerous in the sudden squalls which rise
+in these mountain regions and on these lakes, very like the Swiss lakes
+for that matter. For instance, on the Lake de Lucerne, I have seen
+sunshine and glassy surface change in five minutes to storm and cloud so
+black and thick, that Mont Pilate himself could not be discerned through
+it more than if he never stood there in all his sublimity.
+
+Our day had changed, and very rough was the lake; and the boatmen, to
+comfort us and no doubt amuse themselves, as we rose up and down on the
+billows, told us stories of boats that had been lost in these storms,
+and of young Mr. Brown last year, that was drowned in a boat within view
+of his brother standing on that island, which we were just then to pass.
+"And when so near he could almost have reached him, you'd have thought."
+
+"And why didn't he, then?" said I.
+
+"Oh, bless you, ma'am, he couldn't; for," said the boatman, dropping his
+oar, which I did not like at all, "for, mind you, ma'am, it was all done
+in the clap of one's hand," and he clapped his hands.
+
+"Well, take up your oar," cried I; which he did, and rowed amain, and we
+cleared Brown's Island, and I have no more dangers, fancied or other, to
+tell you; and after two hours' hard rowing, which may give you the
+measure of the width of Lough Corrib at this place, we landed, and were
+right glad to eat Mrs. O'Flaherty's ready dinner, Lough Corrib
+trout--not the White Lady trout.
+
+Sir Culling had intended to pursue his road this evening and reach Lough
+Corrib Lodge to sleep, but before we got the first mouthful of dinner
+into our mouths it was stone-dark, whatever kind of darkness that is,
+and we agreed on old George's excellent principle to leave it till
+"morning, ma'am, if you please."
+
+So the morning came, and a fine morning still it was; and we set out,
+leaving Mrs. O'Flaherty curtseying and satisfied. I cannot make out any
+wonders, or anything like an adventure between Outerard and Corrib
+Lodge; only the road was rough and the country like the Isle of
+Anglesea, as if stones and fragments of rock had showered down on the
+earth and tracts of bog-heath such as England never saw and Scotland
+seldom sees, except in the Highlands. We were only about twice the time
+that Sir Culling had calculated on getting over this part of the road
+with our powerful Galway horses and steady drivers, and reaching Corrib
+Lodge Sir Culling said: "These roads are not so very bad, we shall get
+on, Miss Edgeworth, very well, you will see."
+
+Corrib Lodge is a neat bleak-looking house, which Mr. Nimmo built for
+his own residence when he was overseer of the roads, now turned into an
+inn, kept by his Scotch servant, who used to come with him to
+Edgeworthstown, and he gave us bread and butter and milk, and moreover,
+hare-soup, such as the best London tavern might have envied. For
+observe, that hares abound in these parts, and there is no sin in
+killing them, and how the cook came to be so good I cannot tell you, but
+so it certainly was. Invigorated and sanguine, we were ready to get into
+the carriage again, purposing to reach Clifden this evening--it was now
+three o'clock; we had got through half our thirty-six miles; no doubt we
+could easily, Sir Culling argued, manage the other half before dark. But
+our wary Scotch host shook his head and observed, that if his late
+master Mr. Nimmo's road was but open so we might readily, but Mr.
+Nimmo's new road was not opened, and why, because it was not finished.
+Only one mile or so remained unfinished, and as that one mile of unmade
+unfinished road was impassable by man, boy, or Connemara pony, what
+availed the new road for our heavy carriage and four horses? There was
+no possibility of _going round_, as I proposed; we must go the old road,
+if road it could be called, all bog and bog-holes, as our host explained
+to us: "It would be wonderful if we could get over it, for no carriage
+had ever passed, nor ever thought of attempting to pass, nothing but a
+common car these two years at least, except the Marquis of Anglesea and
+suite, _and_ his Excellency was on horseback." As for such a carriage as
+Sir Culling's, the like, as men and boys at the door told us, had never
+been seen in these parts.
+
+Sir Culling stood a little daunted. We inquired--I particularly, how far
+it was to Ballinahinch Castle, where the Martins live, and which I knew
+was some miles on this side of Clifden. I went into Corrib Lodge and
+wrote with ink on a visiting ticket with "Miss Edgeworth" on it, my
+compliments, and Sir Culling and Lady Smith's, a petition for a night's
+hospitality, to use in case of our utmost need.
+
+The Scotchman could not describe exactly how many _bad steps_ there
+were, but he forewarned us that they were bad enough, and as he
+sometimes changed the words _bad steps_ into _sloughs_, our Galway
+postillions looked graver and graver, hoped they should get their horses
+over, but did not know; they had never been this road, never farther
+than Outerard, but they would do all that men and beasts could do.
+
+The first bad step we came to was indeed a slough, but only a couple of
+yards wide across the road. The horses, the moment they set their feet
+upon it, sank up to their knees, and were whipped and spurred, and they
+struggled and floundered, and the carriage, as we inside passengers
+felt, sank and sank. Sir Culling was very brave and got down to help.
+The postillions leaped off, and bridles in hand gained the _shore_, and
+by dint of tugging, and whipping, and hallooing, and dragging of men and
+boys, who followed from Corrib Lodge, we were got out and were on the
+other side.
+
+Farther on we might fare worse from what we could learn, so in some
+commotion we got out and said we would rather walk. And when we came to
+the next bad step, the horses, seeing it was a slough like the first,
+put back their ears and absolutely refused to set foot upon it, and they
+were, the postillions agreed, quite right; so they were taken off and
+left to look on, while by force of arms the carriage was to be got over
+by men and boys, who shouting, gathered from all sides, from mountain
+paths down which they poured, and from fields where they had been at
+work or loitering; at the sight of the strangers they flocked to
+help--such a carriage had never been seen before--to help common cars,
+or jaunting cars over these bad steps they had been used. "This heavy
+carriage! sure it was impossible, but sure they might do it." And they
+talked and screamed together in English and Irish equally unintelligible
+to us, and in spite of all remonstrance about breaking the pole--pole,
+and wheels, and axle, and body, they seized of the carriage, and
+standing and jumping from stone to stone, or any tuft of bog that could
+bear them, as their practised eyes saw; they, I cannot tell you how,
+dragged, pushed, and _screamed_ the carriage over. And Sir Culling got
+over his way, and Lady Smith would not be carried, but leaping and
+assisted by men's arms and shouts, she got to the other side. And a
+great giant, of the name of Ulick Burke, took me up in his arms as he
+might a child or a doll, and proceeded to carry me over--while I,
+exceedingly frightened and exceedingly civil, and (as even in the moment
+of most danger I could not help thinking and laughing within me at the
+thought) very like Rory in his dream on the eagle's back, in his journey
+to the moon, I kept alternately flattering my giant, and praying--"Sir,
+sir, pray set me down; do let me down now, sir, pray."
+
+"Be asy; be _quite_, can't you, dear, and I'll carry you over to the
+other side safely, all in good time," floundering as he went.
+
+"Thank you, sir, thank you. Now, sir, now set me down, if you will be so
+very good, on the bank."
+
+Just as we reached the bank he stumbled and sank knee-deep, but threw
+me, as he would a sack, to shore, and the moment I felt myself on _terra
+firma_, I got up and ran off, and never looked back, trusting that my
+giant knew his own business; and so he did, and all dirt and bog water,
+was beside me again in a trice. "Did not I carry you over well, my lady?
+Oh, it's I am used to it, and helped the Lord Anglesea when he was in
+it."
+
+So as we walked on, while the horses were coming over, I don't know how,
+Ulick and a tribe of wild Connemara men and boys followed us, all
+talking at once, and telling us there were twenty or thirty such bad
+steps, one worse than another, farther and farther on. It was clear that
+we could not walk all the twelve miles, and the men and Sir Culling
+assuring us that they would get us safe over, and that we had better get
+into the carriage again, and in short that we _must_ get in, we
+submitted.
+
+I confess, Pakenham, I was frightened nearly out of my wits. At the next
+trial Lady Culling Smith was wonderfully brave, and laughed when the
+carriage was hauled from side to side, so nearly upset, that how each
+time it escaped I could not tell; but at last, when down it sank, and
+all the men shouted and screamed, her courage fell, and she confessed
+afterwards she thought it was all over with us, and that we should never
+be got out of this bog-hole. Yet out we were got; but how? what with the
+noise, and what with the fright, far be it from me to tell you. But I
+know I was very angry with a boy for laughing in the midst of it: a
+little dare-devil of a fellow, as my giant Ulick called him; I could
+with pleasure have seen him ducked in bog water! but forgot my anger in
+the pleasure of safe landing, and now I vowed I could and would walk the
+whole ten miles farther, and would a thousand times rather.
+
+My scattered senses and common sense returning, it now occurred to me
+that it would be desirable to avail myself of the card I had in my bag,
+and beg a night's lodging at our utmost need. It was still broad
+daylight, to be sure, and Sir Culling still hoped we should get on to
+Clifden before dark. But I did request he would despatch one of these
+gossoons to Ballinahinch Castle with my card immediately. It could do no
+harm I argued, and Lady Smith seconded me with, "Yes, dear Culling,
+_do_," and my dear giant Ulick backed me with, "Troth, you're right
+enough, ma'am. Troth, sir, it will be dark enough soon, and long enough
+before you're clean over them sloughs, farthest on beyant where we can
+engage to see you over. Sure, here's my own boy will run with the speed
+of light with the lady's card."
+
+I put it into his hand with the promise of half a crown, and how he did
+take to his heels!
+
+We walked on, and Ulick, who was a professional wit as well as a giant,
+told us the long-ago tale of Lord Anglesea's visit to Connemara, and how
+as he walked beside his horse this gentleman-lord, as he was, had axed
+him which of his legs he liked best.
+
+Now Ulick knew right well that one was a cork leg, but he never let on,
+as he told us, and pretended the one leg was just the same as t'other,
+and he saw no differ in life, "which pleased my lord-liftenant greatly,
+and then his lordship fell to explaining to me why it was cork, and how
+he lost it in battle, which I knew before as well as he did, for I had
+larned all about it from our Mr. Martin, who was expecting him at the
+castle, but still I never let on, and handled the legs one side of the
+horse and t'other and asy found out, and tould him, touching the cork,
+'sure this is the more _honourable_.'"
+
+Which observation surely deserved, and I hope obtained half a crown. Our
+way thus beguiled by Ulick's Irish wit, we did not for some time feel
+that we could not walk for ever. Lady Culling Smith complained of being
+stiff and tired, and we were compelled to the carriage again, and
+presently heavy dews of evening falling, we were advised to let down
+those fairy-board shutters I described to you, which was done with care
+and cost of nails. I did it at last, and oh! how I wished it up again
+when we were boxed up, and caged in without the power of seeing more
+than glimpses of our danger--glimpses heightening imagination, and, if
+we were to be overturned, all this glass to be broken into our eyes and
+ears.
+
+Well! well! I will not wear your sympathy and patience eighteen times
+out, with the history of the eighteen sloughs we went, or were got,
+through at the imminent peril of our lives. Why the carriage was not
+broken to pieces I cannot tell, but an excellent strong carriage it was,
+thank Heaven, and the builder whoever he was.
+
+I should have observed to you that while we yet could look about us, we
+had continually seen, to increase our sense of vexation, Nimmo's new
+road looking like a gravel walk running often parallel to our path of
+danger, and yet for want of being finished there it was, useless and
+most tantalising.
+
+Before it grew quite dark, Sir Culling tapped at our dungeon window, and
+bid us look out at a beautiful place, a paradise in the wilds. "Look
+out? How?"--"Open the little window at your ear, and this just before
+you--push the bolt back."--"But I can't."
+
+With the help of an ivory cutter lever, however, I did accomplish it,
+and saw indeed a beautiful place belonging, our giant guide told us, to
+Dean Mahon, well wooded and most striking in this desert.
+
+It grew dark, and Sir Culling, very brave, walking beside the carriage,
+when we came to the next bad step, sank above his knees; how they
+dragged him out I could not see, and there were we in the carriage stuck
+fast in a slough, which, we were told, was the last but one before
+Ballinahinch Castle, when my eyes were blessed with a twinkling light in
+the distance--a boy with a lantern. And when, breathless, he panted up
+to the side of the carriage and thrust up lantern and note (we still in
+the slough), how glad I was to see him and it! and to hear him say,
+"Then Mr. Martin's very unaasy about yees--so he is."
+
+"I am very glad of it--very glad indeed," said I. The note in a nice
+lady's hand from Mrs. Martin greeted us with the assurance that Miss
+Edgeworth and her English friends should be welcome at Ballinahinch
+Castle.
+
+Then from our mob another shout! another heave! another drag, and
+another lift by the spokes of the wheels. Oh! if they had broken!----but
+they did not, and we were absolutely out of this slough. I spare you the
+next and last, and then we wound round the _Lake-road_ in the dark, on
+the edge of Ballinahinch lake on Mr. Martin's new road, as our dear
+giant told us, and I thought we should never get to the house, but at
+last we saw a chimney on fire, at least myriads of sparks and spouts of
+flame, but before we reached it, it abated, and we came to the door
+without seeing what manner of house or castle it might be, till the hall
+door opened and a butler--half an angel he appeared to us--appeared at
+the door. But then in the midst of our impatience I was to let down and
+buckle up these fairy boards--at last swinging and slipping it was
+accomplished, and out we got, but with my foot still on the step we all
+called out to tell the butler we were afraid some chimney was on fire.
+Without deigning even to look up at the chimney, he smiled and motioned
+us the way we should go. He was as we saw at first view, and found
+afterwards, the most imperturbable of men.
+
+And now that we are safely housed, and housed in a castle too, I will
+leave you, my dear Pakenham, for the present.
+
+
+_March 12_.
+
+What became of the chimney on fire, I cannot tell--the Imperturbable was
+probably right in never minding it; he was used to its ways of burning
+out, and being no more thought of.
+
+He showed us into a drawing-room, where we saw by firelight a lady
+alone--Mrs. Martin, tall and thin, in deep mourning. Though by that
+light, but dimly visible, and by our eyes _dazed_ as they were just
+coming out of the dark, but imperfectly seen, yet we could not doubt at
+first sight that she was a lady in the highest sense of the word,
+perfectly a gentlewoman. And her whole manner of receiving us, and the
+ease of her motions, and of her conversation, in a few moments convinced
+me that she must at some time of her life have been accustomed to live
+in the best society--the best society in Ireland; for it was evident
+from her accent that she was a _native_--high-life Dublin tone of about
+forty years ago. The curls on her forehead, mixed with gray, prematurely
+gray, like your mother's, much older than the rest of her person.
+
+She put us at ease at once, by beginning to talk to us, as if she was
+well acquainted with my family--and so she was from William, who had
+prepossessed her in our favour, yet she did not then allude to him,
+though I could not but understand what she meant to convey--I liked her.
+
+Then came in, still by firelight, from a door at the farther end of the
+room, a young lady, elegantly dressed in deep mourning. "My
+daughter--Lady Culling Smith--Miss Edgeworth:" slight figure, head held
+up and thrown back. She had the resolution to come to the very middle of
+the room and make a deliberate and profound curtsey, which a
+dancing-master of Paris would have approved; seated herself upon the
+sofa, and seemed as if she never intended to speak. Mrs. Martin showed
+us up to our rooms, begging us not to dress unless we liked it before
+dinner; and we did not like it, for we were very much tired, and it was
+now between eight and nine o'clock. Bedchambers spacious. Dinner, we
+were told, was ready whenever we pleased, and, well pleased, down we
+went: found Mr. Martin in the drawing-room--a large Connemara gentleman,
+white, massive face; a stoop forward in his neck, the consequence of a
+shot in the Peninsular War.
+
+"Well! will you come to dinner? dinner's ready. Lady Culling Smith, take
+my arm; Sir Culling, Miss Edgeworth."
+
+A fine large dining-room, and standing at the end of the table an
+odd-looking person, below the middle height, youngish, but the top and
+back of his head perfectly bald, like a bird's skull, and at each temple
+a thick bunch of carroty red curly hair, thick red whiskers and light
+blue eyes, very fair skin and carnation colour. He wore a long green
+coat, and some abominable coloured thing round his throat, and a look as
+if he could not look at you, and would. I wondered what was to become of
+this man, and he looked as if he wondered too. But Mr. Martin, turning
+abruptly, said, "M'Hugh! where are you, man? M'Hugh, sit down man,
+here!"
+
+And M'Hugh sat down. I afterwards found he was an essential person in
+the family: M'Hugh here, M'Hugh there; very active, acute, and ready,
+and bashful, a daredevil kind of man, that would ride, and boat, and
+shoot in any weather, and would at any moment hazard his life to save a
+fellow-creature's. Miss Martin sat opposite to me, and with the light of
+branches of wax candles full upon her, I saw that she was very young,
+about seventeen, very fair, hair which might be called red by rivals and
+auburn by friends, her eyes blue-gray, prominent, like pictures I have
+seen by Leonardo da Vinci.
+
+But Miss Martin must not make me forget the dinner, and such a dinner!
+London _bon vivants_ might have blessed themselves! Venison such as Sir
+Culling declared could not be found in England, except from one or two
+immense parks of noblemen favoured above their peers; salmon, lobsters,
+oysters, game, all well cooked and well served, and well placed upon the
+table: nothing loaded, all _in_ good taste, as well as _to_ the taste;
+wines, such as I was not worthy of, but Sir Culling knew how to praise
+them; champagne, and all manner of French wines.
+
+In spite of a very windy night, I slept admirably well, and wakened with
+great curiosity to see what manner of place we were in. From the front
+windows of my room, which was over the drawing-room, I looked down a
+sudden slope to the only trees that could be seen, far or near, and only
+on the tops of them. From the side window a magnificent but desolate
+prospect of an immense lake and bare mountains.
+
+When I went down, and to the hall door at which we had entered the night
+before, I was surprised to see neither mountains, lake, nor river--all
+flat as a pancake--a wild, boundless sort of common, with showers of
+stones; no avenue or regular approach, no human habitation within view:
+and when I walked up the road and turned to look at the castle, nothing
+could be less like a castle. From the drawing I send you (who it was
+done by I will tell you by and by), you would imagine it a real castle,
+bosomed high in trees. Such flatterers as those portrait-painters of
+places are! And yet it is all true enough, if you see it from the right
+point of view. Much I wished to see more of the inhabitants of this
+castle, but we were to pursue our way to Clifden this day; and with
+these thoughts balancing in my mind of _wish_ to stay, and _ought_ to
+go, I went to breakfast--coffee, tea, hot rolls, ham, all luxuries.
+
+Isabella did not make her appearance, but this I accounted for by her
+having been much tired. She had complained of rheumatic pains, but I had
+thought no more about them. Little was I aware of all that was to be.
+"L'homme propose: Dieu dispose." Lady Culling Smith at last appeared,
+hobbling, looking in torture, leaning on her husband's arm, and trying
+to smile on our hospitable hosts, all standing up to receive her. Never
+did I see a human creature in the course of one night so changed. When
+she was to sit down, it was impossible: she could not bend her knees,
+and fell back in Sir Culling's arms. He was excessively frightened. His
+large powerful host carried her upstairs, and she was put to bed by her
+thin, scared-looking, but excellent and helpful maid; and this was the
+beginning of an illness which lasted above three weeks. Little did we
+think, however, at the beginning how bad it would be. We thought it only
+rheumatism, and I wrote to Honora that we should be detained a few days
+longer--from day to day put off. Lady Culling Smith grew alarmingly ill.
+There was only one half-fledged doctor at Clifden: the Martins disliked
+him, but he was sent for, and a puppy he proved, thinking of nothing but
+his own shirt-buttons and fine curled hair. Isabella grew worse and
+worse--fainting-fits; and Mrs. and Miss Martin, both accustomed to
+prescribe for the country-people in want of all medical advice in these
+lone regions, went to their pharmacopoeias and medicine-chest, and
+prescribed various strong remedies, and ran up and down stairs, but
+could not settle what the patient's disease was, whether gout or
+rheumatism; and these required quite different treatment: hands and lips
+were swelled and inflamed, but not enough to say it was positively gout,
+then there was fear of drawing the gout to the stomach, and if it was
+not gout!--All was terror and confusion; and poor Sir Culling,
+excessively fond of Isabella, stood in tears beside her bed. He had sat
+up two nights with her, and was now seized with asthmatic spasms himself
+in his chest. It was one of the worst nights you can imagine, blowing a
+storm and raining cats and dogs. Mr. and Mrs. Martin and Sir Culling
+thought Lady Smith so dangerously ill that it was necessary to send a
+man on horseback thirty miles to Outerard for a physician: and who could
+be sent such a night? one of the Galway postillions on one of the
+post-horses (you will understand that we were obliged to keep these
+horses and postillions at Ballinahinch, as no other horses could be
+procured). The postillion was to be _knocked up_, and Sir Culling and
+Mr. Martin went to some den to waken him.
+
+Meanwhile I was standing alone, very sorrowful, on the hearth in the
+great drawing-room, waiting to hear how it could be managed, when in
+came Mr. M'Hugh, and coming quite close up to me, said, "Them Galway
+boys will not know the way across the bogs as I should: I'd be at
+Outerard in half the time. I'll go, if they'll let me, and with all the
+pleasure in life."
+
+"Such a night as this! Oh no, Mr. M'Hugh!"
+
+"Oh yes; why not?" said he. And this good-hearted, wild creature would
+have gone that instant, if we would have let him!
+
+However, we would not, and he gave instructions to the Galway boy how to
+keep clear of the sloughs and bog-holes; observing to me that "them
+stranger horses are good for little in Connemara--nothing like a
+Connemara pony for that!" As Ulick Burke said, "The ponies are such
+knowing little creatures, when they come to a slough they know they'd
+sink in, and their legs of no use to them, they lie down till the men
+that can stand drag them over with their legs kneeling under them."
+
+The Galway boy got safe to Outerard, and next morning brought back Dr.
+Davis, a very clever, agreeable man, who had had a great deal of
+experience, having begun life as an army surgeon: at any rate, he was
+not thinking of himself, but of his patient. He thought Isabella
+dangerously ill--unsettled gout. I will not tire you with all the
+history of her illness, and all our terrors; but never would I have left
+home on this odd journey if I could have foreseen this illness. I cannot
+give you an idea of my loneliness of feeling, my utter helplessness,
+from the impossibility of having the advantage of the sympathy and sense
+of any of my own family. We had not, for one whole week, the comfort of
+even any one letter from any of our distant friends. We had expected to
+be by this time at Castlebar, and we had desired Honora to direct our
+letters there. Sir Culling with great spirit sent a Connemara messenger
+fifty miles to Castlebar for the letters, and when he came back he
+brought but one!
+
+No mail-coach road comes near here: no man on horseback could undertake
+to carry the letters regularly. They are carried three times a week from
+Outerard to Clifden, thirty-six miles, by three gossoons, or more
+properly bog-trotters, and very hard work it is for them. One runs a day
+and a night, and then sleeps a day and a night, and then another takes
+his turn; and each of these boys has £15 a year. I remember seeing one
+of these postboys leaving Ballinahinch Castle, with his leather bag on
+his back, across the heath and across the bog, leaping every now and
+then, and running so fast! his bare, white legs thrown up among the
+brown heath. These postboys were persons of the greatest consequence to
+us: they brought us news from home, and to poor Lady Culling Smith
+accounts of her baby, and of her friends in England. We began to think
+we should never see any of them again.
+
+I cannot with sufficient gratitude describe to you the hospitality and
+unvaried kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Martin during all these trials. Mr.
+Martin, rough man as he seemed outside, was all soft and tender within,
+and so very considerate for the English servants. Mrs. Martin told me
+that he said to her, "I am afraid that English man and maid must be very
+uncomfortable here--so many things to which they have been used, which
+we have not for them! Now we have no beer, you know, my dear, and
+English servants are always used to beer." So Mr. Martin gave them cider
+instead, and every day he took to each of them himself a glass of
+excellent port wine; and to Isabella, as gout-cordial, he gave Bronte,
+the finest, Sir Culling said, he ever tasted. And never all the time did
+Mr. and Mrs. Martin omit anything it was in their power to do to make us
+comfortable, and to relieve us from the dreadful feeling of being
+burthensome and horrible intruders! They did succeed in putting me
+completely at ease, as far as they were concerned. I do not think I
+could have got through all the anxiety I felt during Lady Culling
+Smith's illness, and away from all my own people, and waiting so
+shockingly long for letters, if it had not been for the kindness of Mrs.
+Martin, and the great fondness I soon felt for her. She is not literary;
+she is very religious--what would be called VERY GOOD, and yet she
+suited me, and I grew very fond of her, and she of me. Little things
+that I could feel better than describe inclined me to her, and our minds
+were open to one another from the first day. Once, towards the end, I
+believe, of the first week, when I began some sentence with an apology
+for some liberty I was taking, she put her hand upon my arm, and with a
+kind, reproachful look exclaimed, "Liberty! I thought we were past that
+long since: are not we?"
+
+She told me that she had actually been brought up with a feeling of
+reverence for my father, and particularly for me, by a near relation of
+hers, old Mr. Kirwan, the President of the Royal Irish Academy, who was
+a great friend of my father's and puffer of me in early days. Then her
+acquaintance afterwards with Mr. Nimmo carried on the connection. She
+told me he showed her that copy of _Harry and Lucy_ which you had in
+making the index, and showed her the bridge which he helped me over when
+Harry was building it. But what touched and won me first and most in
+Mrs. Martin was the manner in which she spoke of William--her true
+feeling for his character. "Whenever he could get me alone," she said,
+"he would talk to me of Honora or Mrs. Edgeworth and his aunt Mary and
+you."
+
+Some of the expressions she repeated I could not but feel sure were his,
+and they were so affectionate towards me, I was much touched. _Too
+besides_ Mrs. Martin made herself very agreeable by her quantity of
+anecdotes, and her knowledge of the people with whom she had lived in
+her youth, of whom she could, with great ability and admirable composed
+drollery, give the most characteristic traits.
+
+Miss Martin--though few books beyond an _Edinburgh_ or _Quarterly
+Review_ or two appeared in the sitting-room--has books in quantities in
+a closet in her own room, which is within her mother's; and "every
+morning," said Mrs. Martin, "she comes in to me while I am dressing, and
+pours out upon me an inundation of learning, fresh and fresh, all she
+has been reading for hours before I am up. Mary has read prodigiously."
+
+I found Mary one of the most extraordinary persons I ever saw. Her
+acquirements are indeed prodigious: she has more knowledge of books,
+both scientific and learned, than any female creature I ever saw or
+heard of at her age--heraldry, metaphysics, painting and painters'
+lives, and tactics; she had a course of fortification from a French
+officer, and of engineering from Mr. Nimmo. She understands Latin,
+Greek, and Hebrew, and I don't know how many modern languages. French
+she speaks perfectly, learned from the French officer who taught her
+fortification, M. Du Bois, who was one of Buonaparte's legion of honour,
+and when the Emperor was _ousted_, fled from France, and earned his
+bread at Ballinahinch by teaching French, which Miss Martin talks as if
+she had been a native, but not as if she had been in good Parisian
+society; with an odd mixture of a _ton de garnison_ which might be
+expected from a pupil of one of Buonaparte's officers. She imbibed from
+him such an admiration, such an enthusiasm for Buonaparte, that she
+cannot bear a word said to his disparagement; and when Sir Culling
+sometimes offended in that way, Miss Martin's face and neck grew
+carnation colour, and down to the tips of her fingers she blushed with
+indignation.
+
+Her father the while smiled and winked at me. The father as well as the
+mother dote upon her; and he has a softened way of always calling her
+"my child" that interested me for both. "My child, never mind; what
+signifies about Buonaparte?"
+
+One morning we went with Miss Martin to see the fine green Connemara
+marble-quarries. Several of the common people gathered round while we
+were looking at the huge blocks: these people Miss Martin called her
+TAIL. Sir Culling wished to obtain an answer to a question from some of
+these people, which he desired Miss Martin to ask for him, being
+conscious that, in his English tone, it would be unintelligible. When
+the question had been put and answered, Sir Culling objected: "But, Miss
+Martin, you did not put the question exactly as I requested you to state
+it."
+
+"No," said she, with colour raised and head thrown back, "No, because I
+knew how to put it so that people could understand it. _Je sais mon
+métier de reine."
+
+This trait gives you an idea of her character and manner, and of the
+astonishment of Sir Culling at her want of sympathy with his really
+liberal and philanthropic views for Ireland, while she is full of her
+tail, her father's fifty-miles-long avenue, and Aeschylus and Euripides,
+in which she is admirably well read. Do think of a girl of seventeen, in
+the wilds of Connemara, intimately acquainted with all the beauties of
+Aeschylus and Euripides, and having them as part of her daily thoughts!
+
+There are immense caves on this coast which were the _free-traders'_
+resort, and would have been worth any money to Sir Walter. "Quite a
+scene and a country for him," as Miss Martin one day observed to me;
+"don't you think your friend Sir Walter Scott would have liked our
+people and our country?"
+
+It is not exactly a feudal state, but the _tail_ of a feudal state. Dick
+Martin, father of the present man, was not only lord of all he surveyed,
+but lord of all the lives of the people: now the laws of the land have
+come in, and rival proprietors have sprung up in rival castles. Hundreds
+would still, I am sure, start out of their bogs for Mr. Martin, but he
+is called _Mister_, and the prestige is over. The people in Connemara
+were all very quiet and submissive till some _refugee Terry-alts_ took
+asylum in these bog and mountain fastnesses. They spread their
+principles, and soon the clan combined against their chief, and formed a
+plan of seizing Ballinahinch Castle, and driving him and all the
+Protestant gentry out of the country. Mr. Martin is a man of desperate
+courage, some skill as an officer, and _prodigious_ bodily strength,
+which altogether stood him in stead in time of great danger. I cannot
+tell you the whole long story, but I will mention one anecdote which
+will show you how like the stories in Walter Scott are the scenes that
+have been lately passing in Connemara. Mr. Martin summoned one of his
+own followers, who had he knew joined the Terry-alts, to give up a gun
+lent to him in days of trust and favour: no answer to the summons. A
+second, a third summons: no effect. Mr. Martin then warned the man that
+if he did not produce the gun at the next sessions he would come and
+seize it. The man appeared at the house where Mr. Martin holds his
+sessions--about the size of Lovell's schoolroom, and always fuller than
+it can hold: Mr. Martin espied from his end of the room his friend with
+the gun, a powerfully strong man, who held his way on, and stood full
+before him.
+
+"You sent for my gun, your honour, did you?"
+
+"I did--three times; it is well you have brought it at last; give it to
+me."
+
+The man kneeled down on one knee, and putting the gun across the other
+knee, broke it asunder, and throwing the pieces to Mr. Martin, cried,
+"There it is for you. I swore that was the only way you should ever have
+it, dead or alive. You have warned me, and now I warn you; take care of
+yourself."
+
+He strode out of the crowd. But he was afterwards convicted of Terry-alt
+practices and transported. Now all is perfectly quiet, and Mr. Martin
+goes on doing justice in his own peculiar fashion every week. When the
+noise, heat, and crowd in his sessions court become beyond all bearing,
+he roars with his stentorian voice to clear the court; and if that be
+not done forthwith, he with his own two Herculean arms seizes the
+loudest two disputants, knocks their heads together, thrusts them
+bawling as they go out of the door and flings them asunder.
+
+In his own house there never was a more gentle, hospitable, good-natured
+man, I must say again and again, or else I should be a very ungrateful
+woman.
+
+Miss Martin has three ponies, which she has brought every day to the
+great Wyatt window of the library, where she feeds them with potatoes.
+One of them is very passionate; and once the potato being withheld a
+moment too long at the hall door he fell into a rage, pushed in at the
+door after her, and she ran for her life, got upstairs and was safe.
+
+I asked what he would have done if he had come up to her?
+
+"Set his two feet on my shoulders, thrown me down, and trampled upon
+me."
+
+The other day the smith hurt his foot in shoeing him, and up he reared,
+and up jumped the smith on the raised part of his forge--the pony jumped
+after him, and if the smith had not scrambled behind his bellows, "would
+have killed him to be sure."
+
+After hearing this I declined riding this pony, though Miss Martin
+pressed me much, and assured me he was as quiet as a lamb--provided I
+would never strike him or look cross. Once she got me up on his back,
+but I looked so miserable, she took me down again. She described to me
+her nursing of one of these ponies; "he used to stand with his head over
+my shoulder while I rubbed his nose for an hour together; but I suppose
+I must throw off these Bedouin habits before I go to London."
+
+They are now spending the season in town. I had an opportunity of seeing
+her perfect freedom from coquetry in company with a Mr. Smith--no
+relation of Sir Culling's--a very handsome fine gentleman who came here
+unexpectedly.
+
+All this time poor Isabella has been left by me in torture in her bed.
+At the end of three weeks she was pronounced out of danger, and in spite
+of the kind remonstrances of our hospitable hosts, not tired of the sick
+or the well, on a very wet odious day away we went. As there are no inns
+or place where an invalid could pass the night, I wrote to beg a night's
+lodging at Renvyle, Mr. Blake's. He and Mrs. Blake, who wrote _Letters
+from the Irish Highlands_, were not at home, in Galway on a visit, but
+they answered most politely that they begged me to consider their house
+as my own, and wrote to their agent who was at Renvyle to receive us.
+
+Captain Bushby, of the Water Guard--married to a niece of Joanna
+Baillie's--was very kind in accompanying us on our first day's journey.
+"I must see you _safe out_," said he. "Safe out" is the common elision
+for safe out of Connemara. And really it was no easy matter to get us
+safe out; but I spare you a repetition of sloughs; we safely reached
+Renvyle, where the agent received us in a most comfortable
+well-furnished, well-carpeted, well-lighted library, filled with
+books--excellent dining-room beyond, and here Lady Smith had a day's
+rest, without which she could not have proceeded, and well for her she
+had such a comfortable resting-place.
+
+Next day we got into _Joyce's Country_, and had hot potatoes and cold
+milk, and Renvyle cold fowl at The Lodge, as it is styled, of Big Jacky
+Joyce--one of the descendants of the ancient proprietors, and quite an
+original Irish character. He had heard my name often, he said, from Mr.
+Nimmo, and knew I was a writing lady, and a friend to Ireland, and he
+was civil to me, and I was civil to him, and after eyeing Sir Culling
+and Lady Smith, and thinking, I saw, that she was affecting to be
+languishing, and then perceiving that she was really weak and ill, he
+became cordial to the whole party, and entertained us for two hours,
+which we were obliged to wait for the going out of the tide before we
+could cross the sands. Here was an arm of the sea, across which Mr.
+Nimmo had been employed to build a bridge, and against Big Jack Joyce's
+advice, he would build it where Jack prophesied it would be swept away
+in the winter, and twice the bridge was built, and twice it was swept
+away, and still Nimmo said it was the fault of the masons; the
+embankment and his theory could not be wrong, and a third time he built
+the bridge, and there we saw the ruins of it on the sands--all the
+embankments swept away and all we had for it was to be dragged over the
+sand by men--the horses taken off. We were pushed down into a gully-hole
+five feet deep, and thence pulled up again; how it was I cannot tell
+you, for I shut my eyes and resigned myself, gave up my soul and was
+much surprised to find it in my body at the end of the operation: Big
+Jacky Joyce and his merry men having somehow managed it.
+
+There was an end of our perils by gullies, sloughs, and bog-holes. We
+now got on Mr. Nimmo's and Mr. Killalla's really good roads, and now our
+four horses began to tell, and that night we reached Westport, and in
+consequence of Mrs. Martin's introduction to her friend Lord Sligo were
+received by him and Lady Sligo most courteously.
+
+Westport is a beautiful place, with a town, a port, industrious people
+all happy, and made so by the sense and energy of a good landlord and a
+good agent. We regretted that we could stay only this night and the next
+morning to breakfast; it was so delightful and extraordinary to us again
+to see trees and shrubberies, and to find ourselves again in the midst
+of flowers from green-house and conservatory. Isabella said she was so
+delighted, she could hardly forbear, with her crippled, gouty hands,
+embracing every tree she met. Lord Sligo, himself a martyr to the gout,
+and with a son at Eton just then attacked with gout, had great
+compassion for her: he and all his family high-bred and cordial.
+
+The next morning we pursued our journey, and at the next stage came upon
+a real mail-coach road, where we had post-horses again, and dismissed
+our Galway horses. This night brought us to Lough Glyn, where Mr.
+Strickland received us very kindly, and we had the joy of finding
+letters waiting for us from home; but we found that the cholera had been
+for the last ten days killing the poor people at Edgeworthstown--Condy
+Keegan's son-in-law, M'Glaughlin the carpenter, and a great many more.
+How dreadfully anxious Honora must have been with the charge of baby,
+and this cholera close to our gates!
+
+The last day's journey was the longest of all, from the suspense, though
+all was smooth upon the road. When we saw the lights in the windows at
+home, you may guess how our hearts went pit-a-pat. We found all WELL;
+and glad we all were to meet again, and to have Isabella safe with her
+child: not in her arms, poor crippled creature--it was not possible for
+her to hold the infant; she could but just hobble about, and was a
+quarter of an hour going upstairs. Aunt Mary and Honora, after all the
+warnings my letters had given, were surprised and shocked at the first
+sight of her. For ten days after her arrival she was unable to travel,
+impatient as they both were to be at home again. They did reach it, baby
+and all, safely at last, and you may imagine how relieved we were when
+we heard of her being safe with her own family again, and with London
+physicians: five months since then and she is not yet quite
+re-established. We feel now how very serious her illness was.
+
+But now that it is all over, and I can balance pains and pleasures, I
+declare that, upon the whole, I had more pleasure than pain from this
+journey; the perils of the road were far overbalanced by the diversion
+of seeing the people, and the seeing so many to me perfectly new
+characters and modes of living. The anxiety of Isabella's illness,
+terrible as it was, and the fear of being ill myself and a burthen upon
+their hands, and even the horrid sense of remoteness and impossibility
+of communication with my own friends, were altogether overbalanced by
+the extraordinary kindness, and tenderness, and generous hospitality of
+the Martins. It will do my heart good all the days of my life to have
+experienced such kindness, and to have seen so much good in human nature
+as I saw with them--red M'Hugh included. I am sure I have a friend in
+Mrs. Martin: it is an extraordinary odd feeling to have made a friend at
+sixty-six years of age! You, my dear young Pakenham, can't understand
+this; but you will live, I hope, to understand it, and perhaps to say,
+"Now I begin to comprehend what Maria, poor old soul! meant by that
+_odd_ feeling at the end of her Connemara journey."
+
+When we were regretting to Lord Sligo that we had missed seeing so many
+persons and places on our tour whom we had at first setting out made it
+our object to see--Clifden, the Barony of Erris, and the wonderful Major
+Bingham--Lord Sligo comforted us by saying, "Depend upon it, you have
+seen more really of Connemara than any strangers who have ever travelled
+through it, exactly because you remained in one place and in one family,
+where you had time to see the habits of the people, and to see them
+nearly and familiarly, and without their being shown off, or thinking of
+showing themselves off to you."
+
+
+_March 29_.
+
+I have been so busy at rents and odious accounts, that I have never been
+able to go on to you. Your mother returned home a few days ago, after
+seven months' absence! You may guess how happy we were to have her
+again, and how we have been talking and hearing. Lucy bore the parting
+with her wonderfully well; indeed, she was anxious that her mother
+should return to us.
+
+Young Walter--now Sir Walter--Scott has been quartered at Longford, and
+is now going to Dublin: he dined here on Saturday, and was just the same
+as when we saw him in 1825. Sophy and her three children round her must
+have surprised him not a little. [Footnote: Mrs. Fox, as Sophy
+Edgeworth, had been with her sister at Abbotsford in 1823.] It is a pity
+Maxwell was not in the group. Little fair-haired Willy, nothing daunted
+by the nearly seven-feet-high major in full uniform, marched up to him
+and patted his knee, and in return the major patted his head. His soft
+Scotch voice, and often the kind and playful turns in his conversation,
+reminded me both pleasurably and painfully of his father. Sophy wished
+that her children should hear the band of the regiment, and he promised
+that he would halt at Tuite's gate, as a _select_ party with the band
+were to go by Castle Pollard; and this morning, when I opened my eyes, I
+saw it was snowing so bitterly, I gave up all hopes of our being able to
+take the children to hear the band; but between seven, when I wakened,
+and half after nine, the appointed hour, many changes of the sky took
+place, and at the right moment the sun shone out, the clouds blew over
+the beech-trees, and Sophy was drawn in Willy Waller's little carriage,
+with him in her lap; Honora, Mary Anne, Charlotte, and I accompanying.
+We had to wait some time, and went into what you would call Tuite's
+house, but it is now Jem Newman's; and there was his nice little wife,
+with her mouth full of the last potato she had eaten for breakfast; and
+she put away the half-full potato basket, and the boy with his can of
+milk retreated from the stool by the fire, and she welcomed us with
+Irish heart's welcome in lip and eye; and the children were delighted
+watching the pig and the chickens feeding at the door.
+
+At last the music was heard, and very pretty it was, and mother and
+children were happy; and Sir Walter stopped on his fine gray horse, and
+said, "You see, I have kept my word," and then galloped off. A sergeant
+then came up to me with a slip of paper in his hand, saying, "Can you
+read _write?_" I said, I believed I could, and made out for him the
+route to Castle Pollard: the sound of the music died away, and we
+returned to breakfast. "Sire, il n'y a de circonstance où on ne prend
+pas de déjeuner," as the man said to Buonaparte.
+
+You will have seen in the newspapers the court-martial about Lord
+Brudenell and the 15th Hussars: Lord Forbes, in giving me an account of
+the matter, said, "Walter Scott, by his conduct, and the way in which he
+gave his testimony, covered himself with glory,"--told the truth like a
+man and a gentleman.
+
+You may have also seen mentioned the murder of Captain Skyring, of the
+_Aetna_, of which Henry Beddoes was second lieutenant, off the coast of
+Africa. He wrote a few lines to Fanny after the catastrophe; happily for
+him he was kept by some duty on board. It was imprudent of Captain
+Skyring to attempt to land, and take observations, without having his
+ship near enough to defend him. The natives, all with arms, came round
+him, and began by stealing everything they could lay their hands on.
+Captain Skyring drew a circle round his circle, forbidding the thieves
+to pass it; but they passed it, and one was seizing the instrument in
+his hand, when the captain fired and killed the man; and then they all
+fell upon him, stabbed him with their pikes and knives, stripped the
+body, and left it with seventeen wounds. Our people afterwards got it
+back. We know no more as yet, but that Captain Beaufort was extremely
+shocked and grieved.
+
+I have no domestic occurrence to tell you, except that a robin, who for
+several seasons has frequented this house, and Lucy's room particularly,
+has this spring grown so familiar, that he began to build his nest in
+Lucy's old bonnet, laid a great heap of leaves in it, which we used to
+see him bringing in his bill, the leaves often as large as his body.
+Yesterday morning Betty the housemaid said to your mother, "Ma'am, when
+I opened the hall door this morning, the robin flew in over my head, and
+knowing his way wherever he wanted to go through the doors, just as if
+he was master of the house, ma'am! And he sits down before a door, and
+_looks_ to have it opened for him." Dear little, impudent fellow! This
+packet concludes my chronicle of Connemara.
+
+
+_To_ C.S. EDGEWORTH.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _March 14, 1834_.
+
+Having now done with business I may turn to a little pleasure; a great
+deal you have given me, my dear Sneyd, by your friend Mr. Smedley's
+approbation of _Helen_. His polite playful allusion to the names of the
+horses, which names at this moment I forget, reminds me of a similar
+touch of the Duchess of Wellington in describing one of the Duke's
+battles, she quoted from the _Knapsack_, "Let the sugar basin be my
+master."
+
+I have written to Fanny about Lady Charlotte Fitzgerald's death. I was
+very much shocked at it: I loved her; she was one of my earliest
+friends--"Leaf by leaf drops away."
+
+
+_To_ MISS RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _March 22, 1834_.
+
+With all my heart I congratulate you on being in possession of your
+cottage. [Footnote: Dunmoe Cottage, at the end of the Black Castle
+demesne, about two miles from the house.] Harriet Butler told us how
+happy the people of Black Castle and Navan were, when they heard you
+were coming to live amongst them again. You are now as busy as possible
+arranging your things and considering how all and each of your friends
+will like what you do, and I am--very conceited--sure that you often
+think of Maria among the number, and that you have even already thought
+of a footstool for her. Emmeline has, by the bye, invented and executed,
+and given to my mother, the most ingenious footstool I ever saw, which
+folds up and can be put into a work-bag. She has also sent the nicest
+most agreeable presents to the little Foxes--a kaleidoscope, a little
+watering-pot, and a pair of little tin scales with weights; they set
+about directly weighing everything that could be put into them, ending
+with sugar-plums and sugar-candy.
+
+We have been much amused with _The Kuzzilbash_ and by _Bubbles from the
+Brunnen_, by Captain Head.
+
+
+_To_ MISS RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _July 29, 1834_.
+
+I cannot, my dear Lady of Dunmoe, tell when I can be with you; go I will
+before autumn runs away with all your leaves, but I am afraid I must let
+autumn turn them of a sober hue, though I will not let it go to the sear
+and yellow. In plain prose I am tied down now by rents and business.
+
+We have been dining at Mrs. Blackall's, and there met her pretty sister,
+Mrs. Johnstone, and very intelligent Captain Johnstone, a Berkshire man
+from near Hare Hatch, and had a very agreeable day, and much
+conversation on books and authors, and found that the _Diary of an
+Ennuyée_ and _Female Characters of Shakespeare_, both very clever books,
+are by a lady who was governess to Mrs. Blackall and her sisters. Mrs.
+Rolle, her mother, read the _Diary of an Ennuyée_, and wondered when she
+saw "Mr. and Mrs. R.," and all the places and people they had seen
+abroad, till she came to the name of Laura, and some lines to her by
+which she discovered that the author must be their former governess,
+Miss Murphy, now married to a very clever lawyer. [Footnote: Mrs.
+Jameson.] All the woes and heart-breakings are mere fable in the
+_Diary_. Her last book, _Visits and Sketches at Home and Abroad_, I
+like; there is a great deal of thought and feeling in it.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Miss Edgeworth's _Helen_ would never have been finished but for the
+encouragement shown by her sister Harriet, and her interest in the
+story. It is more of a "novel" than any of its predecessors, has more
+imagination, and its interest centres more around one person. Its object
+is to show how many of the troubles of social life arise from want of
+absolute truthfulness. Its principle is depicted in the explanation of
+one of its characters: "I wish that the word _fib_ was out of the
+English language, and _white lie_ drummed after it. Things by their
+right names, and we should all do much better. Truth must be told,
+whether agreeable or not."
+
+_Helen_ was well received by the public, but Miss Edgeworth had great
+diffidence about it. To Dr. Holland she wrote:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+I am very glad that you have been pleased with _Helen_--far above my
+expectations! and I thank you for that warmth of kindness with which you
+enter into all the details of the characters and plan of the story.
+Nothing but regard for the author could have made you give so much
+importance to my tale. It has always been my fault to let the moral I
+had in view appear too soon and too clearly, and I am not surprised that
+my old fault, notwithstanding some pains which I certainly _thought_ I
+took to correct it, should still abide by me.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. STARK. [Footnote 1: Who had sent Miss Edgeworth a long
+criticism from her cousin, Colonel Matthew Stewart (son of Dugald
+Stewart), on her _Helen_.]
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Sept. 6, 1834_.
+
+Some of my friends, knowing the timidity, not to say cowardice, of my
+nature, have feared that I should be _daunted_ by Colonel Stewart's most
+just observations upon the defects and deficiencies of my past manner
+and principles of novel-writing; but, on the contrary, I, who know
+myself better, feel that, _in spite_ of my timidity, I am, instead of
+being daunted, encouraged by such criticism. Such a writer and such a
+noble mind as Colonel Stewart's having bestowed so much thought and time
+upon me and my fictions, raises both them and myself in my own opinion
+far more than could the largest "draught of unqualified praise"
+[Footnote: Quoted from Mr. Croker, who said that nothing ever satisfied
+an author, but _large draughts of unqualified praise_.] from any common
+critic. From feeling that he does justice in many points to the past, I
+rely upon his prophecies as to the future, and I feel my ambition
+strongly excited by his belief that I CAN, and his prognostic that I
+shall do better hereafter. Boileau says, "Trust a critic who puts his
+finger at once upon what you know to be your infirm part." I had often
+thought and said to myself some of those things which Colonel Stewart
+has written, but never so strongly expressed, so fully brought home: my
+own rod of feathers did not do my business. I had often and often a
+suspicion that my manner was too Dutch, too minute; and very, very
+often, and warmly, admired the bold, grand style of the master hand and
+master genius. I _know_ I feel how much _more is to be done, ought to
+be_ done, by suggestion than by delineation, by creative fancy than by
+facsimile copying,--how much more by skilful selection and fresh and
+consistent combination--than can be effected by the most acute
+observation of individuals, or diligent accumulation of particulars.
+
+But where I have erred or fallen short of what it is thought I might
+have done, it has not been from "drawing from the life, or from
+individuals, or from putting together actions or sayings noted in
+commonplace books from observation or hearsay in society." I have seldom
+or ever drawn any one character--certainly not any ridiculous or faulty
+character, from any individual. Wherever, in writing, a real character
+rose to my view, from memory or resemblance, it has always been hurtful
+to me, because, to avoid that resemblance, I was tempted by cowardice or
+compelled by conscience to throw in differences, which often ended in
+making my character inconsistent, unreal.
+
+At the hazard of talking too much of myself, which people usually do
+when once they begin, I must tell my penetrating critic exactly the
+facts, as far as I know them, about my _habits of composition_. He will
+at least see, by my throwing open my mind thus, that he has not made me
+afraid of him, but has won my confidence, and made me look for his
+future sympathy and assistance. I have no "vast magazine of a
+commonplace book." In my whole life, since I began to write, which is
+now, I am concerned to state, upwards of forty years, I have had only
+about half a dozen little note-books, strangely and irregularly kept,
+sometimes with only words of reference to some book, or fact I could not
+bring accurately to mind. At first I was much urged by my father to note
+down remarkable traits of character or incidents, which he thought might
+be introduced in stories; and he often blamed that idleness or laziness,
+as he thought it in me, which resisted his urgency. But I was averse to
+noting down, because I was conscious that it did better for me to keep
+the things in my head, if they suited my purpose; and if they did not,
+they would only encumber me. I knew that, when I wrote down, I put the
+thing out of my care, out of my head; and that, though it might be put
+by very safe, I should not know where to look for it; that the labour of
+looking over a note-book would never do when I was in the warmth and
+pleasure of inventing; that I should never recollect the facts or ideas
+at the right time, if I did not put them up in my own way in my own
+head: that is, if I felt with hope or pleasure "that thought or that
+fact will be useful to me in such a character or story, of which I have
+now a first idea, the same fact or thought would recur, I knew, when I
+wanted it, in right order for invention." In short, as Colonel Stewart
+guessed, the process of combination, generalisation, invention, was
+carried on always in my head best. Wherever I brought in _bodily_
+unaltered, as I have sometimes done, facts from real life, or sayings,
+or recorded observations of my own, I have almost always found them
+objected to by good critics as unsuited to the character, or in some way
+_de trop_. Sometimes, when the first idea of a character was taken from
+life from some ORIGINAL, and the characteristic facts noted down, or
+even noted only in my head, I have found it necessary entirely to alter
+these, not only from propriety, to avoid individual resemblance, but
+from the sense that the character would be only an EXCEPTION to general
+feeling and experience, not a rule. In short, exactly what Colonel
+Stewart says about "the conical hills" being the worst subjects for
+painters. As an instance I may mention King Corny, who is, I believe,
+considered more of a fancy piece, more as a _romantic_ character than my
+usual common-life Dutch figures: the _first idea_ of him was taken from
+the facts I heard of an oddity, a man, I believe, like no other, who
+lived in a remote part of Ireland, an ingenious despot in his own
+family, who blasted out of the rock on which his house was built half a
+kitchen, while he and family and guests were living in the house; who
+was so passionate, that children, grown-up sons, servants and all, ran
+out of the house at once when he fell into a passion with his own
+tangled hair; a man who used, in his impatience and rages, to call at
+the head of the kitchen stairs to his servants, "Drop whatever you have
+in your hand, and come here and be d----d!" He was generous and
+kind-hearted, but despotic, and conceited to the most ludicrous degree:
+for instance, he thought he could work gobelin tapestry and play on the
+harp or mandolin better than any one living.
+
+One after another, in working out King Corny, from the first wrong hint
+I was obliged to give up every fact, except that he propped up the roof
+of his house and built downwards, and to generalise all; to make him a
+man of expedients, of ingenious substitutes, such as any clever Irishman
+in middle life is used to. I was obliged to retain, but soften, the
+despotism, and exalt the generosity, to make it a character that would
+interest. Not one word I ever heard said by the living man, or had ever
+heard repeated of his saying, except "Drop what you have," etc., went
+into my King Corny's mouth--would not have suited him. I was obliged to
+make him according to the general standard of wit and acuteness, shrewd
+humour and sarcasm, of that class of _unread_ natural geniuses, an
+overmatch for Sir Ulick, who is of a more cultivated class of acute and
+roguish Irish gentlemen. Colonel Stewart sees from this how far he has
+guessed rightly as to several points, but I think I have always aimed
+more at making my characters representatives of classes than he
+conceives. It is plain that I have not attained my aim.
+
+I never could use notes in writing Dialogues; it would have been as
+impossible to me to get in the prepared good things at the right moment
+in the warmth of writing conversation, as it would be to lug them in in
+real conversation, perhaps more so--for I could not write dialogues at
+all without being at the time fully impressed with the characters,
+imagining myself each speaker, and that too fully engrosses the
+imagination to leave time for consulting note-books; the whole fairy
+vision would melt away, and the warmth and the pleasure of invention be
+gone. I might often, while writing, recollect from books or life what
+would suit, and often from note-book, but then I could not stop to look,
+and often quoted therefore inaccurately. I have a quick recollective
+memory and retentive for the sort of things I particularly want; they
+will recur to me at the moment I want them years and years after they
+have lain dormant, but alas! my memory is inaccurate, has hold of the
+object only by one side--the side or face that struck my imagination,
+and if I want more afterwards I do not know even where to look for it. I
+mention this because Dugald Stewart once was curious to know what sort
+of memory I had, whether recollective or retentive.
+
+I understand what Colonel Stewart so admirably says about parable,
+apologue, and fables being general truths and morals which cannot be
+conveyed or depended upon equally when we come to modern novels, where
+Lady B. or Lord D. are not universal characters like Fox or Goose. I
+acknowledge that even a perfectly true character absolutely taken as a
+fac-simile from real life would not be interesting in a fiction, might
+not be believed, and could not be useful. The value of these odd
+characters depends, I acknowledge, upon their being actually known to be
+true. In history, extraordinary characters always interest us with all
+their inconsistencies, feeling we thus add to our actual knowledge of
+human nature. In fiction we have not this _conviction_, and therefore
+not this sort or source of pleasure even if ever so well done; if it be
+quite a new inconsistency we feel doubtful and averse; but we submit
+when we know _it is_ true: we say, "don't therefore tell me it is not in
+human nature."
+
+I am not sure that I agree with Colonel Stewart about particular morals
+to stories, but this point might lead to long and intricate discussion.
+
+I feel and admire all he says so eloquently, I am sure from his own
+heart, touching the advantage of raising the standard of our moral
+ambition; and the higher this standard can be raised by works of fiction
+the better. I feel and understand how many poets and novelists have
+raised in the mind that sort of enthusiasm which exalts and purifies the
+soul. Happy and gifted with heaven's best gift must be the poet, the
+inventor of any sort of fiction that can raise this enthusiasm. I
+recollect Mrs. Barbauld's lines describing--
+
+           Generous youth that feeds
+  On pictured tales of vast heroic deeds.
+
+How I wish I could furnish, as Scott has, some of those pictured tales
+coloured to the life; but I fear I have not that power, therefore it is
+perhaps that I strive to console myself for my deficiencies by
+flattering myself that there is much, though not such glorious use, in
+my own lesser manner and department. The great virtues, the great vices
+excite strong enthusiasm, vehement horror, but after all it is not so
+necessary to warn the generality of mankind against these, either by
+precept or example, as against the lesser faults; we are all
+sufficiently aware that we must not break the commandments, and the
+reasons against all vices all feel even to the force of demonstration,
+but demonstration does not need and cannot receive additional force from
+fiction. The Old Bailey trials, _Les Causes Célèbres_, come with more
+force, as with the force of actual truth, than can any of the finest
+fictions producing what Colonel Stewart calls "momentary belief in the
+reality of a fictitious character or event." Few readers do or can put
+themselves in the places of great criminals, or fear to yield to such
+and such temptations; they know that they cannot fall to the depth of
+evil at once, and they have no sympathy, no fear; their spirits are not
+"put in the act of falling." But show them the steep path, the little
+declivity at first, the step by step downwards, and they tremble. Show
+them the postern gates or little breaches in their citadel of virtue,
+and they fly to guard these; in short, show to them their own little
+faults which may lead on to the greatest, and they shudder; that is, if
+this be done with truth and brought home to their consciousness. This is
+all, which by reflection on my own mind and comparison with others and
+with records in books full as much as observations on living subjects, I
+feel or fancy I have sometimes done or can do.
+
+But while I am thus _ladling_ out praise to myself in this way, I do not
+flatter myself that I deserve the quantity of praise which Colonel
+Stewart gives me for laborious observation, or for steadiness and nicety
+of dissection. My father, to whose judgment I habitually refer to help
+out my own judgment of myself, and who certainly must from long
+acquaintance, to say no more, have known my character better than any
+other person can, always reproached me for trusting too much to my hasty
+glances, _aperçus_, as he called them, of character or truths; and often
+have I had, and have still (past my grand climacteric) to repent every
+day my mistaken conclusions and hasty jumps to conclusions. Perhaps you
+wish I should jump to conclusion now, and so I will.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+DUNMOE COTTAGE, _Nov. 8, 1834_.
+
+I hope, my dear mother, that you have been wondering every day, and
+wondering _greatly_ that you have never yet heard from Maria. I like
+that you should wonder and be provoked at not hearing from me, because
+when a letter comes it is opened with much more appetite than if you had
+not been kept famishing.
+
+I have not told you how very nice and comfortable Sophy and Margaret
+Ruxton have made this cottage, and the situation is charming, and the
+view beautiful. I am reading Hannah More's _Letters_, and am entertained
+with them. I found at Black Castle four volumes of _Madame d'Abrantès_,
+which I had never read: the eleventh volume begins with her going to
+Portugal, and though half may be lies _well dressed_, yet almost all are
+entertaining.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+DUNMOE COTTAGE, _Nov. 28, 1834_.
+
+I have got the cushions, and am sitting on one of them, and Sophy and
+Margaret like them, and think how happy I am, though it is pouring rain,
+which affects my happiness very little, except for the boy's sake who is
+to carry this. I have some boy-anity.
+
+  The glorious orb the day refines,
+  The gossoon warms his shins and dines.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Jan. 27, 1835_.
+
+We have been amusing ourselves with Lady Morgan's _Princess_,
+exceedingly amusing, both by its merits and its absurdities,--that
+harlequin princess in her blouse is wonderfully clever and
+preposterous,--a Belgian Corinna. Mr. Butler has detected various errors
+in her historical remarks and allusions, but that it is excessively
+entertaining nobody can deny. The hero is like one of the seven sleepers
+not quite awakened, or how could he avoid finding out who this woman is
+who pursues him in so many forms? But we must grant a romance writer a
+few impossibilities.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Edgeworth adds:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Maria was always so much interested in a story that she would not stop
+to reason upon it. I remember when Lady Morgan's _O'Donnell_ was being
+read out in the year 1815, at the scene of M'Rory's appearance in the
+billiard room, when Mr. Edgeworth said, "This is quite improbable;"
+Maria exclaimed, "Never mind the improbability, let us go on with the
+entertainment."
+
+
+MARIA _to_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Jan. 28, 1835_.
+
+The other night Harriet stood beside my bed before tea-time, and when I
+started up and said, "Tea is ready, I suppose," she told me that Mr. and
+Mrs. Danvers Butler and Miss Taylor were coming to tea. I thought it was
+a dream, but she explained,--they had come to Briggs's inn on their way
+to the County of Cavan, and could get no beds. Luckily we had two
+unoccupied rooms. Honora managed it all exceedingly well, and Barry took
+Mr. Danvers Butler in hand while he had dinner; the ladies preferred tea
+and coffee. They seemed much pleased by their reception. Mrs. Danvers
+Butler was a Miss Freemantle, and when I mentioned Lady Culling Smith
+and our Connemara adventures, she said she knew her very well and the
+Carrs, "all musical, highly accomplished, and such a united family." How
+oddly these little _feltings_ of society go on in this way, working into
+one another little fibres of connection so strangely!
+
+In the morning Briggs's four horses were put to their heavy chaise, and
+with main difficulty it was got through the yard and to the door, but
+not all the power of all the servants and four or five people besides
+could prevail upon these half-flayed-alive beasts to stir from the
+door--they would only _back_. So at last Barry was so kind as to send
+his man Philip with our black horses with them to Granard. We had as
+many thanks as well-bred people could give, and a cordial invitation to
+Leicestershire, if that could do us any good. Mr. Danvers Butler is
+handsome and gentleman-like, and she is charming: she had with her a
+favourite little Italian greyhound, with a collar of little gilt bells
+round her neck, which delighted the children, and she in return admired
+the children, Willy especially.
+
+Lady Stafford--or the Countess-Duchess of Sutherland's magnificent
+memoir of her Duke, bound in morocco, with a beautiful engraving of him,
+reached me yesterday, but I have been in such a bother of tenants and
+business, I have had time only to look at the engraving and the kind
+inscription to myself.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. Edgeworth writes:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At the time of the general election in 1835, Maria was placed in a
+painful position as her brother's agent. The tenants were forced by the
+priests to vote against their landlord, and in his absence my
+son-in-law, Captain Fox, who had been much interested for the defeated
+candidate, wished to punish the refractory tenants by forcing them to
+pay up what is called the _hanging gale_ of rent. Maria was grieved at
+any proceeding which would interrupt the long-continued friendship
+between these tenants and their landlord, and she was also anxious that
+there should be no misunderstanding between her brother and her
+brother-in-law. Captain Fox wrote to Sneyd to explain his views, and
+upon receiving Sneyd's letter in reply Maria writes to him of her
+sentiments on the occasion.
+
+
+MARIA _to_ C. SNEYD EDGEWORTH, ESQ.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Feb. 12, 1835_.
+
+I feel your kindness now most particularly in giving me your full
+opinion, and desiring mine without one word of reproach on not having
+heard from me. I had written a long letter, but thinking it better Barry
+should write to you himself, I determined to burn and burnt what I had
+written to you, and scribbled a page in its stead of I know not
+what--nonsense I believe. And now what remains to do? My sense, if I
+have any, is quite as much at your service as my nonsense has been. And
+first for _General Principles_, to those independently of the particular
+case we should recur. I quite agree with you, as you do with my father,
+in the general principle that according to the British Constitution the
+voters at elections should be free, that the landlords should not
+_force_ their tenants to vote. But a landlord must and should and ever
+will have _influence_, and this is one way in which property is
+represented and the real balance of the constitution preserved. My
+father in fact always did use the influence of being a good kind
+landlord, as well as the favour of leaving a hanging half-year in their
+hands. I never knew him in any instance _revenge_ a tenant's voting
+against him, but I have heard him say, and I know it was his principle,
+that he was not bound to show favour or affection to any tenant who
+voted what is called against his landlord. The calling for the
+_hanging-gale_ may, in this point of view, come under his principles, as
+it is only the withdrawing of a favour--the resumption of a landlord's
+right; it may be said not to be the infliction of an injury or the going
+one tittle beyond the law; nor even putting yourself in the power of
+Parliament to notice it as unconstitutional. This is literally true--so
+far--and further I admit, for I say candidly the whole on both sides
+that occurs to me--I admit, that I believe if my father were at this
+moment living, and knew how shamefully the priests have conducted
+themselves at the last election, how they had _forced_ his tenants and
+all others whom they could _bully_ to vote against their own will, full
+as much as against their landlord, he might himself be inclined to
+depart from his principle and to use force over his tenants to balance
+the brutal force and violence on the other side.
+
+I say, my father might be so inclined, and his first warmth of temper
+and indignation doubtless would so urge him, but still,
+
+  The golden curb discretion sets on bravery,
+
+would act and rein in his temper in the first instance, and his reason
+would rally and represent that it is never either morally lawful or
+politically wise to do evil that good may come of it. Because the
+priests have used force and intimidation, such as their situation and
+means put in their power, are landlords to do likewise? and are the poor
+tenants in this world and the next to be ruined and excommunicated
+between them? Are we to recriminate and revenge because the priests and
+the people have done so? beaten or beating as brutal force decides?
+
+The honest constitutional means of resisting the horrible wrong the
+priests have been guilty of in the last election is by publishing the
+facts, bringing them as they now must be brought in all their enormity
+before Parliament. As far as every private individual can assist in
+bringing these truths to light and in influencing public opinion by the
+eloquence of tongue or pen he does right, as a man and as a gentleman,
+and a good member of society, and wisely in the present times, to stop,
+if possible, the power of democracy. And this, I am sure, my dear
+brother, is what you have done, and I do not wish you to do more or
+less.
+
+With respect to Charles Fox, I think he will certainly stand the first
+opportunity. I am not sure that it will be for his happiness to be in
+Parliament; but I think he will make an honest and moderate member and
+will do well in Committees, and I think you may support him fairly; he
+will not be bitter Orange; he has good sense and temper. I hate the term
+I have just used--Orange, and I would avoid saying Whig or Tory if I
+could, and consider only what is right and best to be done in our time.
+I think the late Ultra-Reform Liberalists went too far, and had they
+continued in power, would have overturned everything, both in England
+and Ireland, would have let in upon us the ragamuffin democracy, cried
+havoc, etc.
+
+I think that nothing less than the decided, perhaps despotic hand of the
+Duke of Wellington, could prevent this catastrophe, and the sense of Mr.
+Peel will aid, I trust. The Duke has been a stander-by and has had
+leisure to repent the error which turned him out before, viz. of
+declaring that he would have no reform. Mr. Peel has well guarded
+against this in his address on his return. What we must pray for is,
+that the hands of the present Government may be strengthened
+sufficiently to enable them to prevent the mischiefs prepared by the
+last Administration, and that, having seen the error, they may be wise
+in time.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Innumerable were the improvements which were effected by Mrs. and Miss
+Edgeworth for the advantage of their poorer neighbours in the immediate
+vicinity of their home. Cottagers' houses were rebuilt or made
+comfortable, schools built, and roads improved. A legacy of diamonds
+from a relation was sold by Miss Edgeworth that she might build a market
+house in the village, with a room over it for the magistrates' Petty
+Sessions. She endeavoured to be on the best terms with the Catholic
+priests, to whom she showed constant kindness and hospitality. Her
+poorer neighbours were made sharers in all her interests or pleasures,
+and all those she employed were treated as friends rather than servants.
+All her sympathies were in behalf of Ireland. Yet she met with no return
+of affection or sympathy. In 1836 we find Mrs. Farrar writing of
+Edgeworthstown:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+It was market-day: so the main street was full of the lower order of
+Irish, with their horses and carts, asses and panniers, tables and
+stands full of eatables and articles of clothing. Sometimes the cart or
+car served as a counter on which to display their goods. The women, in
+bright-coloured cotton gowns and white caps with full double borders,
+made a very gay appearance. But as we passed through the crowd to the
+schoolhouse the enmity of the Papists to Protestant landholders was but
+too evident.
+
+Though Mrs. Edgeworth had been the Lady Bountiful of the village for
+many years, there were no bows for her or her friends, no making way
+before her, no touching of hats, no pleasant looks. A sullen expression
+and a dogged immovability were on every side of us.
+
+
+MARIA _to_ PAKENHAM EDGEWORTH.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN,
+
+ST. PATRICK'S DAY IN THE MORNING, 1835.
+
+How provoking, how chilling a feeling it gives of the distance between
+us, my dear Pakenham, that we must wait twelve months for an answer to
+any question the most important or the most trivial! But, thank heaven,
+letters and journals--bating this year between--do bring us happily
+together, almost face to face and smile to smile. I have often admired
+the poor Irishman's oratorical bull when he exclaimed, as he looked
+through a telescope for the first time and saw the people at a cottage
+door, miles off, brought near, "Then I heard 'em speak quite plain, I
+think." I think I sometimes hear you speaking and hear the people call
+you Sahib.
+
+You have seen in the papers the death of our amiable friend, Mr.
+Malthus. How well he loved you! His lectureship on Political Economy has
+been filled up by a very able and deserving friend of mine, Mr. Jones,
+whose book on Rents you have just been reading, and whose book and self
+I had the pleasure of first introducing to Lord Lansdowne, under whose
+Administration this appointment was made. The pupils at Haileybury must
+now learn from Jones's lectures the objections he made to Malthus's
+system! I remember once hearing the answer of a sceptic in Political
+Economy, when reproached with not being of some Political Economy Club.
+"Whenever I see any two of you gentlemen agree, I shall be happy to
+agree with you."
+
+I hope your box of seeds will come safe and will grow. I daresay Harriet
+will have told you of the Cornish gentleman she met at Black Castle, who
+told of the blue hydrangea fifteen feet high, and bearing such a
+profusion of flowers that they were counted, 2352 bunches, each bunch as
+large as his head! We endeavoured to correct, and said florets for
+bunches, presuming he so meant, but he distinctly said bunches--so make
+what you can of it.
+
+
+_March 19_.
+
+Yesterday I am sure you recollected and honoured as Barry and Sophy's
+wedding day. Honora had the breakfast table covered with flowers,
+primroses, violets, polyanthus, and laurustinus, and some of Sophy's own
+snowdrops, double and single, which obligingly lingered on purpose to
+celebrate the day.
+
+Did you see how Lord Darnley cut his foot with an axe while he was
+hewing the root of a tree, and died in consequence of lock-jaw! Harriet,
+who knew him and all the good he did in their neighbourhood, is very
+sorry for him.
+
+I have not, I believe, mentioned to you any books except my own; but we
+have been amused with the _Invisible Gentleman_. You must swallow one
+monstrous magical absurdity at the beginning, and the rest will go down
+glibly--that is, _amusing_.
+
+_Instructive and entertaining_: Burne's _Mission to Lahore and Bokhara_.
+
+_Instructive, interesting, and entertaining_: Roget on _Physiology, with
+reference to Theology_--one of the Bridgewater Treatises, full of facts
+the most curious, arranged in the most beautifully luminous manner. The
+infinitely large, and the infinitely small in creation, admirably
+displayed.
+
+Hannah More's _Letters_: many of them entertaining--many admirable for
+manner and matter, altogether too much; two volumes would have been
+better than four.
+
+Inglis's _Ireland_: I think he is an honest writer, a man of great
+observation and ability, and a true admirer of the beauties of nature.
+He exaggerates and makes some mistakes, as all travellers do.
+
+  Still drops from life some withering joy away.
+
+Year after year, we must witness these sad losses. Aunt Alicia gone! and
+Aunt Bess Waller, of whom you were so fond. What an amiable and highly
+cultivated mind she had, and so hospitable and kind.
+
+
+_To_ MISS RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _March 31, 1835_.
+
+Harriet told me, my dear Sophy, that she found you in bed, reading
+_Popular Tales_, or some of my old things--thank you, thank you, my
+dear, for loving them. I hope that this will find you better, and that
+your Black Castle walks, leaning on that kind Isabella's arm, will have
+quite restored you.
+
+I have been reading Roget's most admirable Bridgewater
+Treatise--admirable in every way, scientific, moral, and religious, in
+the most deep and exalted manner--religious, raising the mind through
+nature's works up to nature's GOD, which must increase and exalt piety
+where it exists, and create and confirm the devotional feelings where
+they have lain dormant. All his facts are most curious, and the
+exclamation, "how fearfully and wonderfully we are made," may be
+extended to the ugliest tadpole that _wabbles_ in a ditch till he is a
+frog, and the microscope invented by that creature man endowed with--
+
+Luckily a hair in my pen stopped me, or I might have gone on to another
+page, in my hot fit of enthusiasm.
+
+
+_To MISS RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Sept. 1835_.
+
+Have you seen in the papers reports about the marriage of Lord John
+Russell to Lady R.? All true--Lady Ribblesdale, _ci-devant_ Adelaide
+Lister, Aunt Mary's niece, a young widow with a charming little boy;
+this morning Aunt Mary had a letter from Lady Ribblesdale herself. If
+she was to marry again she could not have made a more suitable match. He
+is a very domestic man, and, save his party violence and folly, very
+amiable and sensible.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mr. George Ticknor [Footnote: The well-known Professor of Modern
+Literature at Harvard University, author of the _History of Spanish
+Literature_, etc. Born 1791, died 1871.] and his family visited
+Edgeworthstown in August 1835, and remained there several days, which
+were a very interesting and happy time to Miss Edgeworth. Mr. Ticknor
+describes his visit at great length in his journals, and the first
+appearance of Miss Edgeworth:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A small, short, spare lady of about sixty-seven, with extremely frank
+and kind manners, and who always looks straight into your face with a
+pair of mild deep gray eyes whenever she speaks to you. Her
+conversation, always ready, is as full of vivacity and variety as I can
+imagine. It is also no less full of good-nature. She is disposed to
+defend everybody, as far as she can, though never so far as to be
+unreasonable. And in her intercourse with her family she is quite
+delightful, referring constantly to Mrs. Edgeworth, who seems to be the
+authority for all matters of fact, and most kindly repeating jokes to
+her infirm aunt, Miss Sneyd, who cannot hear them, and who seems to have
+for her the most unbounded affection and admiration.
+
+About herself as an author she seems to have no reserve or secrets....
+But, though she talks freely about herself and her works, she never
+introduces the subject, and never seems glad to continue it. She talks
+quite as well, and with quite as much interest, on everything else.
+
+It is plain that the family make a harmonious whole, and by those who
+visited Edgeworthstown when it was much larger, and were proud of the
+children of all the wives of Mr. Edgeworth, with their connections
+produced by marriage, so as to prove the most heterogeneous
+relationships, I am told there was always the same striking union and
+agreeable intercourse among them all, to the number of sometimes fifteen
+or twenty.
+
+...The house, and many of its arrangements--the bells, the doors,
+etc.--bear witness to that love of mechanical trifling of which Mr.
+Edgeworth was so often accused. But things in general are very
+convenient and comfortable through the house, though, as elsewhere in
+Ireland, there is a want of English exactness and finish. However, all
+such matters, even if carried much farther than they are, would be mere
+trifles in the midst of so much kindness, hospitality, and intellectual
+pleasures of the highest order as we enjoyed under their roof, where
+hospitality is so abundant that they have often had twenty or thirty
+friends come upon them unexpectedly, when the family was much larger
+than it is now.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Maria Edgeworth was now the real owner of Edgeworthstown. Her
+half-brother Lovell's embarrassments had obliged him to sell his
+paternal inheritance, and Miss Edgeworth gladly expended the fortune
+which had come to her through literature in preserving it from falling
+into the hands of strangers. She only stipulated that she herself should
+remain as much "a background figure" as before. Lovell Edgeworth was
+still the apparent owner of Edgeworthstown. Mrs. Edgeworth was still the
+mistress of the house, consulted and deferred to in everything. In her
+note of invitation to Mr. and Mrs. Ticknor she says: "The sooner you can
+come to us the better, because Mrs. Edgeworth is now at home with us ...
+as you would find this house much more agreeable when she is at home;
+and in truth you never could see it to advantage, or see things as they
+really are in this family, unless when she makes part of it, and when
+she is at the head of it." [Footnote: _Life of George Ticknor_.] Maria
+Edgeworth unconsciously depicted herself when describing Miss Emma
+Granby, "The Modern Griselda."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+All her thoughts were intent upon making her friends happy. She seemed
+to live in them more than in herself, and from sympathy rose the
+greatest pleasure and pain of her existence. Her sympathy was not of
+that useless kind which is called forth only by the elegant fictitious
+sorrows of a heroine of romance; hers was ready for all the occasions of
+real life; nor was it to be easily checked by the imperfections of those
+to whom she could be of service.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Amongst those who visited Edgeworthstown about this time was the
+American authoress, Mrs. Farrar, who writes:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+When shown to our bedroom we found such an extraordinary lock to the
+door [Footnote: One of Mr. Edgeworth's inventions.] that we dared not
+shut it for fear of not being able to open it again. That room, too, was
+unlike any I ever saw. It was very large, with three huge windows, two
+of them heavily curtained, and the third converted into a small
+wardrobe, with doors of pink cotton on a wooden frame. It had two very
+large four-post bedsteads, with full suits of curtains, and an immense
+folding-screen that divided the room in two, making each occupant as
+private as if in a separate room, with a dressing-table and ample
+washing conveniences on each side. A large grate filled with turf, and
+all ready for lighting, with a peat basket lined with tin, and also
+filled with the same fuel, reminded us strongly that we were in Ireland.
+Large wax candles were on the mantelpiece, and every convenience
+necessary to our comfort.
+
+Miss Edgeworth was very short, and carried herself very upright, with a
+dapper figure and quick movements. She was the remains of a blonde, with
+light eyes and hair; she was now gray, but wore a dark frisette, whilst
+the gray hair showed through her cap behind. In conversation we found
+her delightful. She was full of anecdotes about remarkable people, and
+often spoke from her personal knowledge of them. Her memory, too, was
+stored with valuable information, and her manner of narrating was so
+animated that it was difficult to realise her age. In telling an
+anecdote of Mirabeau, she stepped out before us, and, extending her
+arms, spoke a sentence of his in the impassioned manner of a French
+orator, and did it so admirably that it was quite thrilling.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Another American visitor, in the same year of 1836, the Rev. William B.
+Sprogue, writes: [Footnote: _European Celebrities_, 1855.]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Edgeworth house is a fine spacious old mansion, with a splendid lawn
+stretching before it, and everything to indicate opulence and hereditary
+distinction.... Miss Edgeworth was the first person to meet me; and she
+immediately introduced me to her mother, Mrs. Edgeworth, her father's
+fourth wife, and her sister, Miss Honora Edgeworth. Miss Edgeworth, in
+her personal appearance, was below middle size; her face was exceedingly
+plain, though strongly indicative of intellect; and though she seemed to
+possess great vigour of body as well as of mind, it was, after all, the
+vigour of old age. I supposed her to be about sixty-five, but I believe
+she was actually on the wrong side of seventy. Her stepmother, Mrs.
+Edgeworth, must have been, I think, rather younger than Maria, and was
+not only a lady of high intelligence, but of great personal attractions,
+and withal of a very serious turn of mind. As Miss Edgeworth knew that
+my visit was to be limited to a single day, she told me almost
+immediately that she wished to know in what way she could contribute
+most to my gratification,--whether by remaining in the house or walking
+over the grounds. She talked upon a great variety of subjects, but there
+was nothing about her that had ever any affinity to showing off or
+trying to talk well: she evidently did not know how to talk otherwise.
+Circumstances led her to speak of her experience with some of her
+publishers. She mentioned that one of them had repeatedly requested her
+to abate from the amount which he had engaged to pay her, and that she
+had done so; but at length, after she had told him explicitly to make
+proposals he would abide by, he wrote her a letter, saying that he
+wished another abatement, and that he found that on the whole he had
+lost by her works; and she then wrote him in reply, that in consequence
+of the loss he had sustained, she would transfer her publications to
+other hands. He afterwards earnestly requested that she would excuse him
+for having thus written, and desired to retain the works; but _she_ was
+inflexible, and _he_ very angry. Her former publisher, she said, when he
+found himself dying, called for a letter to her which was then
+unfinished, and requested that there should be inserted a promise of ten
+or twelve hundred pounds more than he had engaged to give her for one of
+her works; for it had been so much more profitable to him than he
+expected, that he could not die in peace till he had done justly by her.
+And his heirs executed his will in accordance with this dying
+suggestion.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Home interests, home cares, and home sorrows were henceforth
+increasingly to occupy Miss Edgeworth's life.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARIA _to_ MISS RUXTON.
+
+LOUGH GLYN, _Sept. 16, 1836_.
+
+You may suppose how I felt the kindness of your note. You are now my
+friend of longest standing and dearest parentage in this world; and in
+this world, in which I have lived nearly three quarters of a century, I
+have found nothing one quarter so well worth living for as old friends.
+
+We go to Moore Hall to-morrow. We had here yesterday a party at dinner,
+all exquisite in their way; Lord and Lady Dillon and Miss Dillon, Lord
+Oranmore and his son, Mr. Brown, and two Miss Stricklands and their
+brothers; and coloured fireworks in the evening: of all of which you
+shall hear more when we meet. Breakfast-bell ringing in my ears.
+
+
+_March 5, 1837_.
+
+The last accounts will have prepared you--more prepared, perhaps, than I
+was, for hope had lived in spite of reason when life was gone--your
+beloved and most amiable, angelic-tempered goddaughter [Footnote: Her
+sister Sophy. Mrs. Barry Fox, who died March 1.] is gone. She preserved
+her charming mind quite clear all through, and had her mother with her,
+and the comfort of knowing that her children were in the care of Mr.
+Butler and Harriet.
+
+_To_ MISS MARGARET RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Dec. 17, 1837_.
+
+We are very anxious indeed to hear of Sophy: [Footnote: Miss Ruxton,
+Miss Edgeworth's cousin and dearest friend, died at Black Castle,
+December 30.] the last account Harriet gave was quite alarming. I see
+Richard going about the house with his watch in his hand to feel Sophy's
+pulse, and looking so anxious. How glad he must be that he had returned
+home, and to Sophy what a comfort it must be, to have the certainty of
+his affection, and to have the earliest companion of her childhood and
+her manly friend beside her now! I will go to her instantly if she
+desires it.
+
+I long to hear that you have had, and that you like, the _Memoirs of Mr.
+Smedley_. I am sure that, when Sophy is well enough to hear or to read
+anything, that book will be the very thing for her.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+TRIM, _July 25, 1838_.
+
+Mrs. Lazarus's [Footnote: Formerly Miss Mordecai.] death did indeed
+shock and grieve me. But it is, as you say, the condition, the doom of
+advancing, advanced age, to see friend after friend go; but in
+proportion as it detaches one from life, it still more makes us value
+the friends we have left. And continually, at every fresh blow, I really
+_wonder_, and am thankful, most truly thankful, that I have so many, so
+much left.
+
+
+_To_ MISS MARGARET RUXTON.
+
+_Oct. 10, 1838_.
+
+I am sure, my dear Margaret, you were pleased at Honora's communication:
+you wrote a most kind and pleasant letter of congratulation.[Footnote:
+On the engagement of her sister Honora to Captain Beaufort, her
+stepmother's brother.] She has hitherto been most fortunate in pleasing
+all her friends, both as to the fact and as to the time and manner of
+telling. Do you remember a conversation we had standing upon the hearth
+in my room one night, between eleven and twelve, the witching hour, and
+what you asked me about Captain Beaufort? The secret had then been
+confided to me; and I hope you will do me the justice to acknowledge
+that, open-hearted and open-mouthed as I am, I can keep a secret
+WONDERFUL well.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_To_ MR. AND MRS. TICKNOR.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Nov. 1, 1838_.
+
+. . . My sister Honora is going to be married to a person every way
+suited to her, and that is saying a great deal, as you, who most kindly
+and justly appreciated her, will readily join with me in thinking. The
+gentleman's name, Captain Beaufort, R.N., perhaps you may be acquainted
+with, as he is in a public situation, and not unknown to literary and
+scientific fame. He is a naval officer (I hope you like this officer's
+name?). He made some years ago a survey of the coast of Karamania, and
+wrote a small volume on that survey, which has obtained for him a good
+reputation. He has been for some years Hydrographer-Royal ... in one
+word, he is a person publicly esteemed, and privately he is beloved and
+esteemed by all who know him, most by those who love him best. He is and
+has been well known to us ever since the present Mrs. Edgeworth's
+marriage with my father; Captain Beaufort is Mrs. Edgeworth's youngest
+brother. As Mrs. E. is Honora's _step_mother, you see that he is no
+relation whatever to Honora. But the nearness of the connection has
+given us all the best means of knowing him thoroughly. He was my dear
+father's most beloved pupil and friend; by pupil I mean that being so
+much younger made him look up to my father with reverence, and learn
+from him in science and literature with delight. Thus he has been long
+connected with all I love. He has been a widower two years. He has three
+sons and four daughters.... The youngest daughter, Emily, is a
+delightful child. Captain Beaufort lives in London, 11 Gloucester Place:
+has a very comfortable house and sufficient fortune for all their
+moderate wishes. Honora's fortune, which is ample, will give them
+affluence.
+
+My dear Mrs. Ticknor, I know you particularly liked Honora, and that you
+will be interested in hearing all these particulars, though it seems
+impertinent to detail them across the Atlantic to one who will, I fear,
+never see any one of the persons I have mentioned. Yet affections such
+as yours keep warm very long and at a great distance.
+
+I feel that I have got into a snug little corner in both your hearts,
+and that you will excuse a great deal from me, therefore I go on without
+scruple drawing upon your sympathy, and you will not protest my draft.
+
+You saw how devoted Honora was to her aunt, Mrs. Mary Sneyd, whom you
+liked so much; and you will easily imagine what a struggle there has
+been in Honora's mind before she would consent to a marriage with even
+such a man as Captain Beaufort, when it must separate her from her aunt.
+Captain Beaufort himself felt this so much that he would never have
+pressed it. He once thought that she might be prevailed upon to
+accompany them to London, and to live with them. But Mrs. Mary Sneyd
+could not bear to leave Mrs. Edgeworth, and this place which she has
+made her heart's home. She decided Captain Beaufort and her niece to
+make her happy by completing their union, and letting her feel that she
+did not prevent the felicity of the two persons she loves best now in
+the world. She remains with us.
+
+The marriage is to take place next Tuesday or Thursday, and my Aunt Mary
+will go to church with her niece and give her away. I must tell you a
+little characteristic trait of this aunt, the least selfish of all human
+beings. She has been practising getting up early in the morning, which
+she has not done for two years--has never got up for breakfast. But she
+has trained herself to rising at the hour at which she must rise on the
+wedding day, and has walked up and down her own room the distance she
+must walk up and down the aisle of the church, to ensure her being
+accustomed to the exertion, and able to accomplish it easily. This she
+did for a long time without our knowing it, till Honora found it out.
+Mrs. Mary Sneyd is quite well and in excellent spirits.
+
+A younger sister of mine, Lucy, of whom you have heard us speak as an
+invalid, who was at Clifton with that dear Sophy whom we have lost, is
+now recovered, and has returned home to take Honora's place with her
+Aunt Mary; and Aunt Mary likes to have her, and Lucy feels this a great
+motive to her to overcome a number of nervous feelings which formed part
+of her illness. A regular course of occupations and duties, and feeling
+herself essential to the happiness and the holding together of a family
+she so loves, will be the best strengthening medicine for her. She
+arrived at home last night. My sister Fanny and her husband, Lestock
+Wilson, are with us. My sister has much improved in health: she is now
+able to walk without pain, and bore her long journey and voyage here
+wonderfully. I have always regretted, and always shall regret, that this
+sister Fanny of mine had not the pleasure of becoming acquainted with
+you. You really must revisit England. My sister Harriet Butler, and Mr.
+Butler, and the three dear little Foxes, are all round me at this
+instant. Barry Fox, their father, will be with us in a few days, and
+Captain Beaufort returns from London on Monday. You see what a large and
+happy family we are!
+
+Mr. Butler will perform the happy, awful ceremony. How people who do not
+love can even dare to marry, to approach the altar to pronounce that
+solemn vow, I cannot conceive.
+
+My thoughts are so engrossed by this subject that I absolutely cannot
+tell you of anything else. You must tell me of everything that interests
+you, else I shall not forgive myself for my egotism.
+
+
+_To_ MISS MARGARET RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Nov. 8, 1838_.
+
+You are the first person I write to upon returning from church after the
+accomplishment of Honora and Captain Beaufort's marriage. Captain
+Beaufort was affected more than any man I ever saw in the same
+circumstances, yet in the most manly manner. Aunt Mary went to church,
+as she had intended: they had both received her blessing, kneeling as to
+a mother, the evening before in her own room. Lestock and Barry were at
+the church door, to hand her up the aisle. Old Mr. Keating was there,
+excellent, warm-hearted man; and Mr. Butler performed the ceremony. The
+bride and bridegroom went off from the church door, and are, I suppose,
+by this time, five o'clock, at Trim.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH, IN LONDON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Aug. 25, 1839_.
+
+You will, I am sure, give me credit for having so well and pleasantly
+performed our visits--Rosa, Lucy, and Francis with me--to the Pakenhams
+and Pollards. Francis found Mr. Pollard very agreeable, and was charmed
+with Mrs. Pollard's manners and conversation. We called on Mrs. Dease on
+our return, and walked in her garden, in which, in all my seventy years,
+I never walked before, and saw huge bunches of crimson Indian pinks,
+some of which are now in my garden, and well doing there.
+
+In the morning, before we went to Kinturk, came a note from a gentleman
+at the _White Hart_, Edgeworthstown, waiting for an answer: an American
+medical professor, Dr. Gibson. It was very unlucky that I was engaged to
+go out--irrevocably settled: however, I sat two hours and a half with
+Dr. Gibson, and very clever and agreeable I found him.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+TRIM, _Nov. 1, 1840_.
+
+I am _perfect_, dearest mother, so no more about it, and thank you from
+my heart and every component part of my precious self for all the care
+and successful care you have taken of me, your old petted nursling.
+Thank you and Mrs. Mitchell for the potted meat luncheon, and Mr. Tuite
+for his grapes,--Mary Anne and Charlotte had some. I was less tired than
+I could have expected when I reached Trim, and there was Mr. Butler on
+the steps ready to welcome us, and candles and firelight in the
+drawing-room so cheerful. I slept like a sleeping top. Harriet read out
+_Ferdinand and Isabella_, which, with all its chivalresque interest, I
+do like very much. I am sure Rosa's [Footnote: Mrs. Francis Edgeworth.]
+Spanish interest in the book will grow by that it feeds upon, and I am
+very glad that she who has such fresh genuine pleasure in literature
+should have this book, which is so beautifully written, because it is so
+well felt by the author. Poor kind man. I will write to Mr. Ticknor as
+soon as I come to Finis.
+
+The birds got home well; but travelling, Harriet tells me, does not
+agree with them, because they cannot stick upon their perch, and it is a
+perpetual struggle between cling and jolt.
+
+_Nov. 10_.
+
+I enclose a note of Miss Crampton's and two notes of Lady Normanby's. I
+never read more unaffected, affectionate, wife-like letters. How
+gratifying they must be to Crampton, and it raises one's opinion of Lord
+Normanby himself to find he can so attach a woman and a wife.
+
+The _History of a Flirt_, which Harriet is reading to me, is rather
+entertaining but not interesting--a new and ingenious idea of a flirt,
+who is not looking for establishment or match-making, and therefore her
+disinterestedness charms all the lords and gentlemen who have been used
+to match-making mothers and young-lady-hunters for titles, and under
+favour of this disinterestedness her insolence and faithlessness is
+passed over, while all the time she is in love with a captain with "soft
+Venetian eyes," as Mrs. Thrale used to say of Piozzi.
+
+_Nov. 16_.
+
+The ear-comforter or earwig is beautiful and comfortable, and is, I
+hear, as becoming to me as was the Chancellor's wig to Francis Forbes
+when he acted _Of Age To-morrow_. I am acting of age to-day, and very
+gay, and perhaps may arrive at years of discretion at eighty, if I live
+so long. I certainly wish to live till next month that I may see you all
+at home again. You know the classic distich, which my father pointed out
+and translated for me, which was over the entrance door of the Cross
+Keys inn, near Beighterton:
+
+  If you are told you will die to-morrow you smile:
+  If you are told you will die a month hence you will sigh.
+
+I do not know where this may be in a book, but I know it is in human
+nature.
+
+
+_To_ MR. TICKNOR.
+
+TRIM, _Nov. 19, 1840_.
+
+... I am afraid to invite you to come and see us again, lest you should
+be disenchanted, and we should lose the delightful gratification we
+enjoy in your glamour of friendship. Aunt Mary, however, is really all
+you think and saw her; and in her good years still a proof, as you
+describe her--and a remarkable proof--of the power of mind over time,
+suffering, and infirmities, and an example of Christian virtues, making
+old age lovely and interesting.
+
+Your prayer, that she might have health and strength to enjoy the
+gathering of friends round her has been granted. Honora and her husband,
+and Fanny and her husband, have been with us all this summer for months;
+and we have enjoyed ourselves as much as your kind heart could wish.
+Especially "that beautiful specimen of a highly cultivated gentlewoman,"
+as you so well called Mrs. Edgeworth, has been blest with the sight of
+all her children round her, all her living daughters and their husbands,
+and her grandchildren. Francis will settle at home, and be a good
+country gentleman and his own agent, to Mrs. Edgeworth's and all our
+inexpressible comfort and support, also for the good of the county, as a
+resident landlord and magistrate _much_ needed. As _he_ is at home I can
+be spared from the rent-receiving business, etc., and leaving him with
+his mother, Aunt Mary, and Lucy, I can indulge myself by accepting an
+often-urged invitation from my two sisters, Fanny and Honora, to spend
+some months with them in London. I have chosen to go at this quiet time
+of year, as I particularly wish not to encounter the bustle and
+dissipation and lionising of London. For though I am such a minnikin
+lion now, and so old, literally without teeth or claws, still there be,
+that might rattle at the grate to make me get up and come out, and stand
+up to play tricks for them, and this I am not able or inclined to do. I
+am afraid I should growl; I never could be as good-natured as Sir Walter
+Scott used to be, when rattled for and made to "come out and stand on
+his hind legs," as he used to describe it, and then go quietly to sleep
+again.
+
+I shall use my privilege of seventy-two--rising seventy-three--and shall
+keep in my comfortable den; I will not go out. "Nobody asked you,
+ma'am," to play lion, may perhaps be said or sung to me, and I shall not
+be sorry nor mortified by not being asked to exhibit, but heartily happy
+to be with my sisters and their family and family friends--_all_ for
+which I go--knowing my own mind very well I speak the plain truth. I
+shall return to Edgeworthstown before the London _season_, as it is
+called, commences, i.e. by the end of March, or at the very beginning of
+April.
+
+This is all I have, for the present, to tell you of my dear self, or of
+our family doings or plannings.
+
+... I do not know whether I was most interested, dear Mrs. Ticknor, in
+your picture of your domestic life and happy house and home, or in the
+view you gave me of your public festivity and celebration of your
+American day of days--your national festival in honour of your
+Declaration of Independence. It was never, I suppose, more joyously,
+innocently, and advantageously held than on the day you describe so
+delightfully with the accuracy of an eye-witness. I think I too have
+seen all this, and thank you for showing it to me. It is a picture that
+will never leave the memory of my heart. I only wish that we could ever
+hope to have in Ireland any occasion or possibility of such happy and
+peaceable meetings, with united sympathy and for the keeping alive a
+feeling of national patriotism. No such point of union can be found,
+alas! in Ireland; no subject upon which sects and parties could coalesce
+for an hour, or join in rejoicing or feeling for their country! Father
+Matthews, one might have hoped, considering the good he has effected for
+all Ireland, and considering his own unimpeachable character and his
+great liberality, admitting all sects and all parties to take his pledge
+and share his benevolent efforts, _might_ have formed a central point
+round which all might gather. But no such hope! for I am just now
+assured his very Christian charity and liberality are complained of by
+his Catholic brethren, priests and laity, who now begin to abuse him for
+giving the pledge to _Protestants_, and say, "What good our fastings,
+our temperance, our being of the true faith, if Father Matthews treat
+_heretics all as one_, as Catholics themselves! and would have them
+saved in this world and the next too! Then I would not doubt but at the
+last he'd _turn tail_! aye, turn Protestant himself _entirely_."
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+1 NORTH AUDLEY STREET, _Dec. 26_.
+
+While Francis is _pro_-ing and con-ing with Fanny about alterations in
+his house at Clewer, I may go on with my scribbling, and tell you that
+Honora luncheoned here, and then off we went to Mrs. Debrizey's, Mrs.
+Darwin's, Mrs. Hensleigh Wedgewood, Mrs. Guillemard, and Mrs. Marcet--at
+Mrs. Edward Romilly's.
+
+Mrs. Darwin is the youngest daughter of Jos. Wedgewood, and is worthy of
+both father and mother; affectionate, and unaffected, and--young as she
+is, full of old times, she has her mother's radiantly cheerful
+countenance, even now, debarred from all London gaieties and all gaiety
+but that of her own mind by close attendance on her sick husband.
+
+Mrs. Marcet was ill in bed, but Mr. and Mrs. Edward Romilly were
+pleasing and willing to be pleased, and he talked over his father's
+_Memoirs_ candidly and sensibly, and like a good son and a man of sense.
+
+"I had like to have forgotten "--strange expression! can Mr. Butler
+explain it? _I had like to have_ forgotten and must tell Aunt Mary about
+Mrs. Lister calling.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+_January 2, 1841_.
+
+Thank you for your birthday good wishes. How many birthdays have brought
+me the same never-failing kindness.
+
+A very pleasant meeting we had yesterday at your brother's. [Footnote:
+Recently married to Honora Edgeworth.] Honora, dear Honora, was so nice
+and kind, nobody but ourselves. At second course appeared the essential
+trifle, [Footnote: A trifle always appeared on Maria Edgeworth's
+birthday, because once on New Year's Day when a trifle had been ordered
+and the dish was placed on the table there was found under the flowers,
+not cake and cream, but a little story Maria had written, "A Trifle."
+The young folk had a real trifle afterwards.] and, trifle as it was, it
+was quite delightful to me with Honora's smile.
+
+Did you ever taste figs stuffed with almonds? I hope you never may taste
+them! very bad, I assure you, but how the almonds got in puzzled me; all
+tight and closed as the outer skin looks without ridge or joining.
+
+Did you ever taste Imperial Tokay? Your brother gave me some of the best
+ever tasted, I am told; and what do you think I said?
+
+"Why, this cannot be Tokay!"
+
+"Did you ever taste Tokay before?" said he.
+
+"O yes, very often; but this is not Tokay."
+
+"Be pleased to tell us what it is then," quoth Lestock.
+
+"I don't know; but not Tokay, or a different sort from what I ever
+tasted, for that was sour and always drunk in green glasses."
+
+Suddenly I recollected that I meant _Hock_!
+
+Do you recollect the history of the Irishman, who declared that he had
+seen anchovies growing on the walls at Gibraltar? Challenged a gentleman
+for doubting him, met, and fired, and hit his man, and when the man who
+was hit, sprang up as he received the shot, and the second
+observed--"How he capers!"
+
+"By the powers! It was capers I meant 'stead of anchovies."
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+1 NORTH AUDLEY STREET, _Jan. 10, 1841_.
+
+_À propos du pluie, à propos du beau temps_--I think of you and ten
+thousand times a week. ("I hate exaggeration.") I wish for you when I am
+in want of some unremembered or _disremembered_ name. I do love that
+Irish verb disremember, and I conjugate it daily from the infinitive to
+the preterpluperfect. Last week I preterpluperfectly disremembered when
+talking to Morris of Fortunio's gifted men, whether the legs of him who
+outrunneth the hare were tied with green or red? Parties run high for
+green and for red--please to settle the question.
+
+Fanny has been reading to me Darwin's _Voyage_; delightful it is.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+1 NORTH AUDLEY STREET, _Jan. 13, 1841_.
+
+Most agreeable dinner here yesterday; the _convives_ were: Dr.
+Lushington, Mr. Andrews; Mrs. Andrews at the last sent a regret--ill in
+bed with a headache. Honora came in her stead. Mr. Macintosh and Miss
+Carr; Dr. Lushington beside Fanny, and carving remarkably well and most
+entertaining and agreeable; he raised the heart's laugh frequently, and
+the head's by fresh, not old-faded-London-diner-out bon-mots, anecdotes,
+and facts worth knowing, all with the assistance of Mr. Andrews, so
+remarkably agreeable and gentlemanly a gentleman; they played into each
+other's hands and mine delightfully, and Fanny's, and Honora's, and the
+ball came to everybody pat, in turn. The ball did I say? Boomerang I
+should have said, for it came back always nicely to the thrower.
+
+I must tell you an anecdote I heard yesterday from Mr. Kenyon, brother
+of Lord Kenyon's, a saying of Mrs. Brooke, sister of Baron Garrow, who,
+notwithstanding his bullying manner in court, was a man easily swayed in
+private, always influenced by the last thing said by the last person in
+his company--all which was compressed by Mrs. Brooke into: "With my
+brother _presence is power_."
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+1 NORTH AUDLEY STREET, _Feb. 24, 1841_.
+
+My ultimate intention and best hope for my own selfish satisfaction is
+to go with you and Mr. Butler to that poor _uncentred_ [Footnote: Mrs.
+Mary Sneyd died at the age of ninety, on the 10th of February 1841.]
+desolate home at Edgeworthstown.
+
+What an inexpressible comfort that you were with your mother, Lucy, and
+Honora, and my dear lost aunt to the last.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+_March 14, 1841_.
+
+Here I am, like a Sybarite, but with luxuries such as a Sybarite or
+Sybaritess never dreamed of: a cup of good coffee and some dry toast and
+butter, a good coal fire on my right, a light window on my left,
+dressing-table opposite, with large looking-glass, which reflects, not
+my face, which for good reasons of my own I never wish to see, but a
+beautiful green lawn and cedars of Lebanon; and on my mantelpiece stand
+jars of Nankin china, and shells from--Ocean knows where. And where do
+you think I am? At Heathfield Lodge, Croydon, the seat of Gerard
+Ralstone, Esq.; and met here at a large dinner yesterday Mr. Napier, and
+he comes for me to-morrow, and takes me to Forest Hill. At this dinner
+were two celebrated American gentlemen--Mr. Sparkes, who wrote
+Washington's _Life_; and Mr. Clisson, a man of fortune, and benevolently
+enthusiastic about colonisation in Liberia.
+
+After luncheon I saw march by to church a whole regiment of youths from
+Addiscombe, which is near here.
+
+But now I must retrograde to tell you, as I have a few minutes more than
+I expected, of a visit I had an hour before I set out, from a man fresh
+from Africa--a Scotchman by birth, a missionary by vocation, who had
+been twenty years abroad, almost all that time in Africa: sent to the
+Hottentots in the first place, and he converted many. They were taught
+to sow and to reap, and the women to _sew_ in the other way, all by this
+indefatigable Mr. Moffatt; and they taught him on their part how to do
+the CLUCK, and Mr. Moffatt did it for me. It is indescribable and
+inimitable. It is not so loud as a hen's cluck to her chickens, but more
+quick and abrupt.
+
+He said that when he was ordered to return home, he felt it as a
+sentence of banishment. "I had lived so long in Africa, I felt it my
+home, and I had almost forgotten how to speak English. I almost dreaded
+to be among white faces again."
+
+
+1 NORTH AUDLEY STREET.
+
+Mr. Napier brought me here by half after twelve.
+
+I had a delightful drive with him in his little pony phaeton from
+Croydon to Forest Hill. Mr. and Mrs. Napier are more and more
+delightful to me in conversation and manners the more I see of them. A
+brother, Captain Napier, very conversable, and full of humour; he has a
+charming daughter, and has been in all parts of the world, and loves
+Ireland and the Irish.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+1 NORTH AUDLEY STREET, _April 1841_.
+
+I must tell you now of my visit to Warfield Lodge. Henrietta and Wren
+met me at the station, and all the way, when they spoke, it seemed as if
+I had parted from them but yesterday. When I saw Miss O'Beirne, there
+was, opposite to me, that fine, full-coloured, full of life, speaking
+picture of Mrs. O'Beirne. The place is as pretty as ever, and it was
+impossible for the most hospitable luxury to do more for me, and with
+the most minute recollective attention to all my olden-times habits and
+ways. I would not for anything that could be given or done for me, not
+have paid this visit.
+
+One evening Miss O'Beirne invited some friends I was particularly glad
+to see--three daughters of my dear Sir John Malcolm, all very fine young
+women, with fine souls, and vast energy and benevolence, worthy of him.
+
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Sept. 27_.
+
+I send you some Spanish books which I bought, with one eye upon you and
+one upon Rosa. I sat up till past one o'clock a few nights ago, and
+caught cold, looking through the whole of _Hudibras_, for what at last
+could not be found in it, though I still am confident it is there--
+
+  Murder is lawful made by the excess.
+
+In the middle of my hunt my mind misgave me that it was in the _Fable of
+the Bees_, and I went through it line by line, and for my pains can
+swear it is not there. It is wonderful that, at seventy-four, I can be
+so ardent in the chase, certainly not for the worth of the game, nor yet
+for the triumph of finding; for I care not whether I am the person to
+find it or not, so it is found. Pray find it for me.
+
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _March 10, 1842_.
+
+We have been much entertained and interested in Macaulay's "Life of
+Hastings," in the _Edinburgh_; but some of it is too gaudily written,
+and mean gaudiness, unsuited to the subject--such as the dresses of the
+people at Westminster Hall; and I think Macaulay's indignation against
+Gleig for his adulation of Hastings, and his not feeling indignation
+against his crimes, is sometimes noble, and sometimes mean and
+vituperative.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. BEAUFORT.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _March 12_.
+
+Mr. Creed, my dear good Mr. Creed, has been most kind in taking into his
+employment one of the young Gerrards who behaved so gallantly in
+recovering their father's arms from robbers. The poor people are seldom
+rewarded when they do right, yet surely, in the government of human
+creatures, Hope and Reward are strong and elevating powers, while Fear
+and Punishment can at best only restrain from crime. Hope can produce
+the finest and most permanent springs of action.
+
+We have not been able to go on with our reading for some days. The more
+I live I see more and more the misery of uncultivated minds, and the
+happiness of the cultivated, when they can keep themselves free from
+literary and scientific jealousies and party spirit.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _March 1842_.
+
+I am surprised to find how much more history interests me now than when
+I was young, and how much more I am now interested in the same events
+recorded, and their causes and consequences shown, in this History of
+the French Revolution, and in all the History of Europe during the last
+quarter of a century, than I was when the news came fresh and fresh in
+the newspapers. I do not think I had sense enough to take in the
+relations and proportions of the events. It was like moving a magnifying
+glass over the parts of a beetle, and not taking in the whole.
+
+
+_To_ MISS MARGARET RUXTON, _then residing at_ HYÈRES.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _April 16, 1842_.
+
+It seems such an immense time since I have heard from you, so now I sit
+down to earn a letter.
+
+And first I have to tell you that, on the 14th, between the hours of
+eleven and twelve, a new cousin of yours was brought into this world, a
+monstrous large boy: Rosa doing well: house very full, [Footnote: All
+the family had assembled to meet Pakenham Edgeworth on his return, on
+leave, from India.] but all as quiet as mice. We breakfast in the study,
+to keep all noise from Rosa in the plume room.
+
+It is time to tell you that Pakenham is here, and Fanny, and Honora, and
+Harriet, and Mary Anne, and Charlotte; and we are as happy as ever we can
+be. Pakenham's tastes are all domestic, yet he has the most perfect
+knowledge of business, great penetration of eye, and cool, self-possessed
+manners, like one used to judgment and command, yet not proud of doing
+either. He has brought with him such proofs of his industry as are quite
+astonishing; such collections of drawings, both botanical and sketches of
+country. How he found time to do all this, and spend six hours per day at
+Cucherry--all as one as sessions--and to write his journal of every day
+for eleven years, I really cannot comprehend; but so it is.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _June 17, 1842_.
+
+It is now five o'clock, and Mr. and Mrs. S. C. Hall have not come. It is
+Lestock's last day, and he and Fanny and Lucy are so busy and so happy
+putting the transit instrument to rights, and setting black spotted and
+yellow backed spinning spiders at work to spin for the meridian lines. I
+have just succeeded in catching the right sort by descending to the
+infernal regions, and setting kitchenmaid and housemaid at work. I was
+glad Mr. and Mrs. Hall did not arrive just at the crisis of the
+operation--all completed now.
+
+Ask Mr. Butler if there is any subscription necessary or expected from
+me, now that I have been so honourably made an honorary member of the
+Royal Irish Academy? I would not for the world omit anything that ought
+to be done now that I am M.R.I.A.
+
+_July 8_.
+
+I am going literally to beg my bread and lodging at your door on my way
+to Dublin, and I do so _sans phrase_. I remember that, when I used to
+write to offer myself to Aunt Ruxton, I regularly added, "You know, my
+dear aunt, I can sleep in a drawer;" and she used to answer, "I know you
+can, my dear, and you are welcome; but write a day beforehand, that I
+may have the drawer ready."
+
+
+_To_ MRS. FRANCIS BEAUFORT.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Oct. 27, 1842_.
+
+Most kind and most judiciously kind Honora, you have written the very
+thing I had been thinking as I lay awake last night, I would write to
+you, but scrupled. I certainly will take your advice, and spend my
+Christmas at home with Pakenham, although I cannot, nor do I wish to,
+fill up his feeling of the blanks in this house. There is something
+mournful, yet pleasingly painful, in the sense of the ideal presence of
+the long-loved dead. Those images people and fill the mind with
+unselfish thoughts, and with the salutary feeling of responsibility and
+constant desire to be and to act in this world as the superior friend
+would have wished and approved.
+
+There is such difficulty this season for the poor tenants to make up
+their rents; cattle, oats, butter, potatoes, all things have so sunk in
+price. In these circumstances it is not only humane, but absolutely
+necessary, that landlords should give more time than usual. Some cannot
+pay till after certain fairs in the beginning of November--that I must
+have stayed for, at all events. Indeed, they have shown so much
+consideration for me, and striven so to make up the money that they
+might not _detain_ me, that I should be a brute and a tyrant if I did
+not do all I could on my part to accommodate them.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Dec. 1842_.
+
+Mrs. Hall has sent to me her last number, in which she gives
+Edgeworthstown. All the world here are pleased with it, and so am I. I
+like the way in which she has mentioned my father particularly. There is
+an evident kindness of heart, and care to avoid everything that could
+hurt any of our feelings, and at the same time a warmth of affectionate
+feeling unaffectedly expressed, that we all like it, in spite of our
+dislike to "that sort of thing."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Mrs. S.C. Hall's is perhaps the best picture extant of the family life
+at Edgeworthstown. She says:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Our principal object, in Longford County, was to visit Edgeworthstown,
+and to spend some time in the society of Miss Edgeworth. We entered the
+neat, nice, and pretty town at evening; all around us bore--as we had
+anticipated--the aspect of comfort, cheerfulness, good order,
+prosperity, and their concomitant, contentment. There was no mistaking
+the fact that we were in the neighbourhood of a resident Irish family,
+with minds to devise, and hands to effect improvement everywhere within
+reach of their control.
+
+Edgeworthstown may almost be regarded as public property. From this
+mansion has emanated so much practical good to Ireland, and not alone to
+Ireland, but the civilised world.... The demesne is judiciously and
+abundantly planted, and the dwelling-house of Edgeworthstown is large
+and commodious. We drove up the avenue at evening. It was cheerful to
+see the lights sparkle through the windows, and to feel the cold nose of
+the house-dog thrust into our hands as an earnest of welcome; it was
+pleasant to receive the warm greeting of Mrs. Edgeworth, and it was a
+high privilege to meet Miss Edgeworth in the library, the very room in
+which had been written the works that redeemed a character for Ireland,
+and have so largely promoted the truest welfare of human-kind. We had
+not seen her for some years--except for a few brief moments--and
+rejoiced to find her in nothing changed; her voice as light and happy,
+her laughter as full of gentle mirth, her eyes as bright and truthful,
+and her countenance as expressive of goodness and loving-kindness, as
+they have ever been.
+
+Edgeworthstown was, and is, a large country mansion, to which additions
+have been from time to time made, but made judiciously. An avenue of
+venerable trees leads to it from the public road. It is distant about
+seven miles from the town of Longford. The only room I need specially
+refer to is the library; it belonged more peculiarly to Maria, although
+the general sitting-room of the family. It was the room in which she did
+nearly all her work; not only that which was to gratify and instruct the
+world, but that which, in a measure, regulated the household--the
+domestic duties that were subjects of her continual thought: for the
+desk at which she usually sat was never without memoranda of matters
+from which she might have pleaded a right to be held exempt. It is by no
+means a stately, solitary room, but large, spacious, and lofty, well
+stored with books, and furnished with suggestive engravings. Seen
+through the window is the lawn, embellished by groups of trees. If you
+look at the oblong table in the centre, you will see the rallying-point
+of the family, who are usually around it, reading, writing, or working;
+while Miss Edgeworth, only anxious that the inmates of the house shall
+each do exactly as he or she pleases, sits in her own peculiar corner on
+the sofa; a pen, given her by Sir Walter Scott while a guest at
+Edgeworthstown (in 1825), is placed before her on a little, quaint,
+unassuming table, constructed, and added to, for convenience. She had a
+singular power of abstraction, apparently hearing all that was said, and
+occasionally taking part in the conversation, while pursuing her own
+occupation, and seemingly attending only to it. In that corner, and on
+that table, she had written nearly all her works. Now and then she would
+rise and leave the room, perhaps to procure a toy for one of the
+children, to mount the ladder and bring down a book that could explain
+or illustrate some topic on which some one was conversing; immediately
+she would resume her pen, and continue to write as if the thought had
+been unbroken for an instant. I expressed to Mrs. Edgeworth surprise at
+this faculty, so opposed to my own habit. "Maria," she said, "was always
+the same; her mind was so rightly balanced, everything so honestly
+weighed, that she suffered no inconvenience from what would disturb and
+distract an ordinary writer."
+
+She was an early riser, and had much work done before breakfast. Every
+morning during our stay at Edgeworthstown she had gathered a bouquet of
+roses, which she placed beside my plate on the table, while she was
+always careful to refresh the vase that stood in our chamber; and she
+invariably examined my feet after a walk, to see that damp had not
+induced danger; popping in and out of our room with some kind inquiry,
+some thoughtful suggestion, or to show some object that she knew would
+give pleasure. Maria Edgeworth never seemed weary of thought that could
+make those about her happy.
+
+A wet day was a "god-send" to us. She would enter our sitting-room and
+converse freely of persons whose names are histories; and once she
+brought us a large box full of letters--her correspondence with many
+great men and women, extending over more than fifty years, authors,
+artists, men of science, social reformers, statesmen, of all the
+countries of Europe, and especially of America, a country of which she
+spoke and wrote in terms of the highest respect and affection.
+
+Although we had known Miss Edgeworth in London, it will be readily
+understood how much more to advantage she was seen in her own house; she
+was the very gentlest of lions, the most unexacting, apparently the
+least conscious of her right to prominence. In London she did not
+reject, yet she seemed averse to the homage accorded her. At home she
+was emphatically at home!
+
+In person she was very small--she was "lost in a crowd!" Her face was
+pale and thin, her features irregular; they may have been considered
+plain, even in youth, but her expression was so benevolent, her manners
+were so perfectly well-bred, partaking of English dignity and Irish
+frankness, that one never thought of her with reference either to beauty
+or plainness. She ever occupied, without claiming attention, charming
+continually by her singularly pleasant voice, while the earnestness and
+truth that beamed from her bright blue--very blue--eyes increased the
+value of every word she uttered. She knew how to _listen_ as well as to
+_talk_, and gathered information in a manner highly complimentary to
+those from whom she sought it; her attention seemed far more the effect
+of respect than of curiosity. Her sentences were frequently
+epigrammatic; she more than once suggested to me the story of the good
+fairy from whose lips dropped diamonds and pearls whenever they were
+opened. She was ever neat and particular in her dress, her feet and
+hands were so delicate and small as to be almost childlike. In a word,
+Maria Edgeworth was one of those women who do not seem to require
+beauty.
+
+Miss Edgeworth has been called "cold"; but those who have so deemed her
+have never seen, as I have, the tears gather in her eyes at a tale of
+suffering or sorrow, nor heard the genuine, hearty laugh that followed
+the relation of a pleasant story. Never, so long as I live, can I forget
+the evenings spent in her library in the midst of a family highly
+educated and self-thinking, in conversation unrestrained, yet pregnant
+with instructive thought.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In January 1843 Miss Edgeworth was dangerously ill with a fever.
+Afterwards she wrote to a friend:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+And, now that it is over, I thank God not only for my recovery, but for
+my illness. In very truth, and without the least exaggeration or
+affectation or sentiment, I declare that, on the whole, my illness was a
+source of more pleasure than pain to me, and that I would willingly go
+through all the fever and weakness to have the delight of the feelings
+of warm affection, and the consequent unspeakable sensations of
+gratitude. When I felt that it was more than probable that I should not
+recover, with a pulse above a hundred and twenty, and at the entrance of
+my seventy-sixth year, I was not alarmed. I felt ready to rise tranquil
+from the banquet of life, where I had been a happy guest; I confidently
+relied on the goodness of my Creator.
+
+
+MARIA _to_ MISS MARGARET RUXTON _at_ HYÈRES.
+
+TRIM, _March 20, 1843_.
+
+Thank you, thank you, my dear Margaret, for all your anxiety about me.
+[Footnote: In her severe illness during January.] I am strengthening. We
+have no news or events; we live very happily here. On Friday last, being
+St. Patrick's Day, there were great doings here, and not drunken doings,
+not drowning the shamrock in whisky, but honouring the shamrock with
+temperance rejoicings and music, that maketh the heart glad without
+making the head giddy or raising the hand against law or
+fellow-creatures. Leave was asked by the Temperance Band and company to
+come into Mr. Butler's lawn to play a tune or two, as they were pleased
+to express it, for Miss Edgeworth. The gates were thrown open, and in
+came the band, a brass band, with glittering horns, etc., preceded by
+Priest Halligan, whom you may recollect, in a blue and white scarf
+floating graceful, and a standard flag in his hand. A numerous crowd of
+men, women, and children came flocking after, kept in order by some
+Temperance Society staff officers with blue ensigns.
+
+I, an invalid, was not permitted to go out to welcome them, but I stood
+at my own window, which I threw open, and thanked them as loud as I
+could, and curtseyed as low as my littleness and my weakness would
+allow, and was bowed to as low as saddle-bow by priests on horseback and
+musicians and audience on foot: Harriet on the steps welcoming and
+sympathising with these poor people; and delightful it was to see Mr.
+Butler bareheaded shaking hands with the priest, who almost threw
+himself from his horse to give him his hand.
+
+Mr. Tuite, that dear good old gentleman, died a few days ago at Sonna,
+in his ninety-seventh year; his good son, in his note to my mother
+announcing the event, says, "It is a comfort to think that to the very
+last he had all the comfort, spiritual and earthly, that he could need
+or desire."
+
+Miss Bremer, of Stockholm, has published a novel, translated by Mary
+Howitt, which is one of the most interesting, new, and truly original
+books I have seen this quarter-century. Its title does not do it
+justice. _Our Neighbours_: which might lead you to expect a gossiping
+book, or at best something like _Annals of my Parish--tout au
+contraire_; it is sketches of family life, a romantic family, admirably
+drawn--some characters perhaps a little overstrained, but in the
+convulsions of the overstraining giving evidence of great strength--beg,
+buy, or borrow it, if you can, and if not, envy us who have it.
+
+Envy us, also, _La Vie du Grand Condé_, written in French, by Lord
+Mahon, not published, only a hundred copies struck off, and he has
+honoured me with a present of a copy. Of the style and correctness of
+the French I am not so presumptuous as to pretend to be a competent
+judge, but I can say that in reading it I quite forgot it was by an
+Englishman, and never stopped to consider this or that expression, and I
+wish, dear Margaret, that you had the satisfaction of reading this most
+interesting, entertaining book.
+
+Dickens's _America_ is a failure; never trouble yourself to read it;
+nevertheless, though the book is good for little, it gives me the
+conviction that the man is good for much more than I gave him credit
+for; a real desire for the improvement of the lower classes, and this
+reality of _feeling_ is, I take it, the secret, joined to his great
+power of humour, of his ascendant popularity.
+
+
+_To_ MISS BANNATYNE.
+
+TRIM, _April 1843_.
+
+I am eager, with my own hand, to assure you that I am quite recovered. I
+have been so nursed and tended by all my friends that I really can think
+of nothing but myself; nevertheless, I am sometimes able to think of
+other things and persons. During my convalescence Harriet has read to me
+many entertaining and interesting books: none to me so interesting, so
+charming, as the Life and Letters of your countryman, that honour to
+your country and to all Britain, and to human nature--Francis Horner: a
+more noble, disinterested character could not be; in the midst of
+temptations with such firm integrity, in the midst of party spirit as
+much superior to its influence as mortal man could be! and if sympathy
+with his friends, and the sense that public men must pull together to
+effect any purpose may, as Lord Webb Seymour asserts, have swayed
+Horner, or biased him a little from his original theoretic course, still
+it never was from any selfish or in the slightest degree corrupt or
+unworthy motive. I much admire Lord Webb Seymour's letter to Horner, and
+not less Horner's candid, honest, and temperate answer. What friends he
+made for himself of the best and most able of the land, not only admired
+but trusted and consulted by them all, and not only trusted and
+consulted, but beloved. This book really makes one think better of human
+nature. Of all his friends I think more highly than I ever thought or
+knew before I read his letters to them and theirs to him. There never
+was such a unanimous tribute to integrity in a statesman as was paid to
+Horner by the British Senate at his death: I remember it at the time,
+and I am glad to see it recorded in this book. It will waken or keep
+alive the spirit of public and private virtue in many a youthful mind. I
+see with pleasure your father's name in the book, and the names and
+characters of many of our dear Scotch friends. My head and heart are so
+full of it that I really know not how to stop in speaking of it.
+
+I am just going to write to Lady Lansdowne how much I was delighted by
+seeing her and Lord Henry Petty, but especially herself, mentioned
+exactly in the manner in which I thought of her and of him, when we
+first became acquainted with them, which was just at the very time of
+which Mr. Horner speaks. Lady Lansdowne gave me a drawing of Little
+Bounds, which is now hanging up in our library unfaded. It is a
+gratification to me to feel that I appreciated both her talents and her
+character as Horner did, before all the world found out that she was a
+SUPERIOR person.
+
+My brother Pakenham was delighted with his tour in Scotland, and with
+his renewal of personal intercourse with his dear Scotch friends: all
+steady as Scotch friends ever are and kind and warm--the warmth once
+raised in them never cooling--anthracite coal--layer after layer, hot to
+the very inside kernel. Pakenham is now in London with my sisters Fanny
+and Honora--Fanny has wonderfully recovered her health. She has several
+Scotch friends in London, of whom she is very fond, from Joanna Baillie
+to her young friends, Mrs. Andrews and her sisters. Mr. Andrews is a
+very agreeable, sensible, conversable man; I saw something of him when I
+was last in London, and hope to see more when I return there. If I
+continue as well as I am now I intend, please God, to make my promised
+visit to London some time this autumn, when the hurly-burly of the
+fashionable season is over.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+While at Trim, Maria received the announcement of her youngest sister
+Lucy's engagement to Dr. Robinson, which gave her exquisite pleasure:
+"never," as she wrote at the time, "never was a marriage hailed with
+more family acclaim of universal joy." The marriage took place on June
+8.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARIA _to_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _August 1, 1843_.
+
+I have just wakened and risen from the sofa rejoicing, like a dwarf, "to
+run my course." I was put to sleep, not by magnetism, but by the
+agreeable buzz of dear Pakenham's voice reading out a man's
+peregrinations from Egypt to Australia--"the way was long, the road was
+dark," and the reader declares I was asleep before we got to Egypt.
+
+Mr. Maltby _is_ wondrous tall, and Pakenham has had the diversion
+long-looked-for of seeing "Maltby hand Maria in to dinner." Mr. Maltby
+is a very gentlemanlike man, every inch of him, many as they are, and
+very conversable--really conversable, he both hears and talks, and
+follows and leads.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. BEAUFORT.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Sept. 14, 1843._ "_Choisissez, mon enfant, mais prenez
+du veau." Choose, my dear Honora, whichever pattern you please, but take
+this which I enclose. We have had a very pleasant visit to Newcastle,
+where we met Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton Gray, and I liked both very much. I
+thought her perfectly unpretending and unaffected; slight figure, a
+delicate woman, pretty dark hair and dark eyes, and pleasing expression
+of countenance. I never should have suspected her of being so learned or
+so laborious and persevering as she is.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In November 1843 Miss Edgeworth went to London, and spent the winter
+with her sister Harriet, Mrs. Wilson.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARIA _to_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+NORTH AUDLEY STREET, _Dec. 3, 1843_.
+
+We dined at Dr. Lushington's last Thursday--the dinner was very merry
+and good-humoured. Mr. Richardson was there, and delighted I was to see
+him, and he talked so affectionately of Sir Walter and auld lang syne
+times; and Mr. Bentham, the botanist, too, was there, Pakenham's friend,
+a very agreeable man. After dinner too was to me very entertaining, for
+I found that a lady, introduced to me as Mrs. Hawse, was daughter to
+Brunel, and she told me all the truth of her brother and the half-guinea
+in his throat, and the incision in his windpipe, and his coughing it up
+at last, and Brodie seeing and snatching it from between his teeth, and
+driving over all London to show it.
+
+And now we are going to tea at Dr. Holland's.
+
+
+_Monday morning._
+
+That we had a very pleasant evening I need scarcely say, but to Boswell
+Sydney Smith would out-Boswell Boswell. He talked of course of Ireland
+and the Priests, and I gave good, and I trust true testimony to their
+being, before they took to politics--excellent parish priests, and he
+talked of Bishop Higgins and Repeal agitations, and I told him of "Don't
+be anticipating," and laughing at brogue (how easy!) led him to tell me
+of a conversation of his with Bishop Doyle in former days--beginning
+with "My lord," propitiously and propitiatingly, "My lord, don't you
+think it would be a good plan to have your clergy paid by the State?"
+
+Bishop Doyle assured him it would never be accepted. "But, suppose every
+one of your clergy found, £150 lodged in the bank for them, and at 5 per
+cent for arrears?"
+
+"Ah! Mr. Smith, you have a way of putting things!"
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Sydney Smith, on his side, was enchanted with Maria Edgeworth--"Miss
+Edgeworth was delightful, so clever and sensible. She does not say witty
+things, but there is such a perfume of wit runs through all her
+conversation as makes it very brilliant."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MISS EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+_Christmas Day._
+
+A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
+
+With the addition which Lestock has just been telling to Waller--
+
+With your pockets full of money and your cellars full of beer.
+
+Yesterday, Sunday, your kind friends, the Andrews', took Waller with us
+to the Temple church--it has been, you know, all new painted and dressed
+since I saw it last, and the knights in dark bronze-coloured marble
+repaired. The tiled floor is too new, not like Mr. Butler's most
+respectable reverend old tiles. Mr. Andrews took us all over the church
+after service, and in particular pointed out one old window of painted
+glass, in which the bright red colour is so bright in such full
+freshness as is inimitable in modern art.
+
+We went from church to luncheon at Mrs. Andrews', and such a luncheon; I
+refrain from a whole page which might be spent on it. Then Mrs. Andrews
+took Waller and me a drive three times round the park, a most pleasant
+drive in such a bright sunshiny day. So many happy little children under
+the trees and on the pathways.
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+1 NORTH AUDLEY STREET, _Jan. 1844_.
+
+Thank you, and pray do you thank for me all the dear kind brothers,
+sisters, nephews, and nieces, all round you, their centre and spring of
+good, for all the pleasure they, on my seventy-seventh birthday, from
+Barry's to dear little Mary's, all gave me--pleasure such as cannot be
+bought for money. Who would not like to live to be old if they could be
+so happy in friends as I am? I cannot help enclosing to you Lucy's and
+Dr. Robinson's greeting, as you will feel with me the pleasure both gave
+me.
+
+Dumb Francis was here on that happy first of January and assured me on
+his slate that he was very happy and grateful. I never see him without
+my Francis's sonnet repeating itself, "The soul of honour," etc.
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+1 NORTH AUDLEY STREET, _Jan. 5, 1844_.
+
+I have been reading and am reading Bentham's _Memoirs_; he could write
+plain English before he invented his strange lingo, and the account of
+his childhood and youth is exceedingly entertaining. Fanny reads to us
+at night, much to Waller's interest and entertainment, Lieutenant Eyre's
+account of that horrid Cabul expedition--what a disgrace to the British
+arms and name in India. Mr. Pakenham and his nice wife came in while I
+was writing this, and when I asked him if the prestige of British
+superiority would be destroyed in India, he said, "No: we have redeemed
+ourselves so nobly."
+
+Waller is occupied every spare moment perfecting a Leyden phial, coated
+and chained properly, and giving quite large and grand sparks and pretty
+sharp shocks.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+1 NORTH AUDLEY STREET, _Jan. 1844_.
+
+The day before yesterday Fanny and I walked to see Mrs. Napier, all in
+black for Lady Clare--the suddenness of whose death, scarcely a moment's
+interval between the bright flash of life and the dark silence of death,
+was most striking and awful.
+
+Yesterday we went to see dear Lady Elizabeth Whitbread, all as it used
+to be, beautiful camellias, but she herself so sad--Miss Grant is dying.
+Nothing can surpass her true tenderness to this faithful, gentle,
+sincere old friend. All these illnesses and deaths are the more striking
+I think in a bustling capital city, than they would be in the country
+surrounded by one's family. There is something shocking in seeing the
+bustling, struggling crowd who care nothing for one another dead or
+alive: and they may say, so much the better, we are spared unavailing
+thought and anguish, and yet I would rather have the thought and even
+the anguish--for without pain there is no pleasure for the heart no
+prayer for Indifference for me! Every _memento mori_ comes with some
+force to me at seventy-seven, and I do pray most earnestly and devoutly
+to God, as my father did before me, that my body may not survive my
+mind, and that I may leave a tender not unpleasing recollection in their
+hearts.
+
+Though I have written this, my dear mother, and feel it truly, I am not
+the least melancholy, or apprehensive or afraid of dying, and as to the
+rest I am truly resigned, and trust to the goodness of my Creator living
+or dying.
+
+_Jan. 13_.
+
+Thursday evening at Rogers's--the party was made for us and as small as
+possible, Lady Charlotte Lindsay, Lady Davy, Mr. and Mrs. Empson, and
+Mr. Compton and Lord Northampton. Mr. Empson is very little altered in
+twelve years: the same affectionate heart and the same excellent head.
+Lord Northampton is very conversable; and Mr. Compton brought me sugared
+words from troops of children.
+
+
+HALF-PAST SIX P.M.
+
+Just returned from Mrs. Drummond's--beautiful house and two pretty
+children--and we went to see Anna Carr's beautiful drawings of Ceylon,
+and no time for more.
+
+
+_Feb. 1_.
+
+Miss Fox's illness detained Lord and Lady Lansdowne at Bowood--she is
+rather better. We went to Lansdowne House yesterday, and saw Lady
+Shelburne for the first time, handsome, and very amiable in countenance.
+Lady Louisa was most charming in her attention to me, and she has a most
+sensible, deep-thinking face.
+
+
+_Feb. 2_.
+
+Snowing and fogging, as white and as dark and disagreeable as ever it
+can be. Thank heaven, to-day was not yesterday, which was dry, bright
+sunshine, on purpose to grace the Queen, and to pleasure us three in
+particular. Fanny ended yesterday by telling you how fortunate, or
+rather how kind, people had been in working out three tickets for me, at
+the last hour, at the last moment; for Lord Lovelace came himself
+between eleven and twelve at night with a ticket, which he gave me, at
+Lady Byron's request. You may guess how happy I was to have the third
+ticket for Honora, and we were all full dressed, punctual to the minute,
+in Fanny's carriage, and with my new-dressed opossum cloak covering our
+knees, as warm as young toasts.
+
+I spare you all that you will see in the newspapers. The first view of
+the House did not strike me as so grand as the old House, but my mouth
+was stopped by "_Pro tempore_ only, you know." We went up an
+ignominiously small staircase, and the man at the bottom, piteously
+perspiring, cried out, "On, on, ladies! don't stop the way! room enough
+above!" But there was one objection to going on, that there were no
+seats above: however, we made ourselves small--no great difficulty--and,
+taking to the wall, we left a scarcely practicable pass for those who,
+less wary and more obedient than ourselves, went up one by one to the
+highmost void. Fanny feared for me that I should never be able to
+_stand_ it, when somehow or another my name was pronounced and heard by
+one of the Miss Southebys, who stretched her cordial hand.
+"Glad--proud--glad--we'll squeeze--we'll make room for you between me
+and my friend Miss Fitzhugh;" and so I was bodkin, but never touched the
+bench till long after. I cast a lingering look at my deserted sisters
+twain. "No, no, we can't do that!" so, that hope killed off, I took to
+make the best of my own selfish position, and surveyed all beneath me,
+from the black heads of the reporter gentlemen, with their pencils and
+papers before them in the form and desk immediately below me, to the
+depths of the hall, in all its long extent; and sprawling and stretching
+in the midst--with the feathered and lappeted and jewelled peeresses on
+their right, and their foreign excellencies on the left--were the
+long-robed, ermined judges, laying their wigs together and shaking
+hands, their wigs' many-curled tails shaking on their backs. And the
+wigs jointly and severally looked like so many vast white and gray
+birds'-nests from Brobdingnag, with a black hole at the top of each, for
+the birds to creep out or in. More and more scarlet-ermined dignitaries
+and nobles swarmed into the hall, and then, in at the scarlet door,
+came, with white ribbon shoulder-knots and streamers flying in all
+directions, a broad scarlet five-row-ermined figure, with high, bald
+forehead, facetious face, and jovial, hail-fellow-well-met countenance,
+princely withal, H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge, and the sidelong peeress
+benches stretched their fair hands, and he his ungloved royal hand
+hastily here and there and everywhere, and chattering so loud and long,
+that even the remote gallery could hear the "Ha, ha, haw!" which
+followed ever and anon; and we blessed ourselves, and thought we should
+never hear the Queen; but I was told he would be silent when the Queen
+came, and so it proved.
+
+The guns were heard: once, twice, and at the second all were silent:
+even His Royal Highness of Cambridge ceased to rustle and flutter, and
+stood nobly still.
+
+Enter the crown and cushion and sword of state and mace--the Queen,
+leaning on Prince Albert's arm. She did not go up the steps to the
+throne well--caught her foot and stumbled against the edge of the
+footstool, which was too high. She did not seat herself in a decided,
+queenlike manner, and after sitting down pottered too much with her
+drapery, arranging her petticoats. That footstool was much too high! her
+knees were crumpled up, and her figure, short enough already, was
+foreshortened as she sat, and her drapery did not come to the edge of
+the stool: as my neighbour Miss Fitzhugh whispered, "Bad effect."
+However and nevertheless, the better half of her looked perfectly
+ladylike and queenlike; her head finely shaped, and well held on her
+shoulders with her likeness of a kingly crown, that diadem of diamonds.
+Beautifully fair the neck and arms; and the arms moved gracefully, and
+never too much. I could not at that distance judge of her countenance,
+but I heard people on the bench near me saying that she looked "divinely
+gracious."
+
+Dead silence: more of majesty implied in that silence than in all the
+magnificence around. She spoke, low and well: "My lords and gentlemen,
+be seated." Then she received from the lord-in-waiting her speech, and
+read: her voice, perfectly distinct and clear, was heard by us ultimate
+auditors; it was not quite so fine a voice as I had been taught to
+expect; it had not the full rich tones nor the varied powers and
+inflections of a perfect voice. She read with good sense, as if she
+perfectly understood, but did not fully or warmly feel, what she was
+reading. It was more a girl's well-read lesson than a Queen pronouncing
+her speech. She did not lay emphasis sufficient to mark the gradations
+of importance in the subjects, and she did not make pauses enough. The
+best-pronounced paragraphs were those about France and Ireland, her firm
+determination to preserve inviolate the legislative union; and "I am
+resolved to act in strict conformity with this declaration" she
+pronounced strongly and well. She showed less confidence in reading
+about the suspension of the elective franchise, and in the conclusion,
+emphasis and soul were wanting, when they were called for, when she
+said, "In full confidence of your loyalty and wisdom, and with an
+earnest prayer to Almighty GOD," etc.
+
+Her Majesty's exit I was much pleased to look at, it was so graceful and
+so gracious. She took time enough for all her motions, noticing all
+properly, from "my dear uncle"--words I distinctly heard as she passed
+the Duke of Cambridge--to the last expectant fair one at the doorway.
+The Queen vanished: buzz, noise, the clatter rose, and all were in
+commotion, and the tide of scarlet and ermine flowed and ebbed; and
+after an immense time the throngs of people bonneted and shawled, came
+forth from all the side niches and windows, and down from the upper
+galleries, and then places unknown gave up their occupants, and all the
+outward halls were filled with the living mass: as we looked down upon
+them from the back antechamber, one sea of heads. We sat down on a side
+seat with Mrs. Hamilton Grey and her sister, and we made ourselves happy
+criticising or eulogising all that passed down the centre aisle: not the
+least chance of getting to our carriage, for an hour to come. One of the
+blue and silver officials of the House, at a turn in one of the
+passages, had loudly pronounced, pointing, rod in hand, to an outer
+vestibule and steps, "All who are not waiting for carriages, this way,
+be pleased;" and vast numbers, ill pleased, were forced to make their
+exit. We went farther and fared worse. While we were waiting in
+purgatory, several angelic wigs passed that way who noticed me, most
+solemnly, albeit cordially: my Lord Chief Justice Tindal, Baron
+Alderson, Mr. Justice Erskine, the Bishop of London--very warm indeed;
+had never cooled since I had met him the night before at Sir Robert
+Inglis's.
+
+Harriet de Salis, very well dressed and very unaffected and
+warm-hearted, actually left her chaperon, and sat down on the steps, and
+talked and laughed the heart's laugh. Honora and Fanny had gone on a
+voyage of discovery through the sea of heads, and had found that most
+excellent and sensible John stuck close to the door; but as to getting
+the carriage up, impracticable. We had only to wait and be ready
+instantly, as it would have to drive off as soon as called. Workmen,
+bawling to one another, were hauling and hoisting out all the peeresses'
+benches, stripped of their scarlet; and the short and the very long of
+it is that we did at last hear "Mrs. Wilson's carriage," and in we ran,
+and took Mrs. Hamilton Grey in too: Fanny sat on Honora's lap, and all
+was right and happy; and even little I not at all tired.
+
+When I had got thus far, Sir Thomas Acland came in; I had met him at Sir
+Robert Inglis's. He was full of Edgeworthstown and your kindness to him,
+my dear mother. He repeated to me all the good advice he received from
+you forty years ago, and says that you made him see Ireland, and have
+common-sense. You put him in the way, and he has made his way. He is
+very good, very enthusiastic, and wonderfully fond of me and of _Castle
+Rackrent_.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+WARFIELD LODGE, _April 3, 1844_.
+
+I am so glad I came here, and I am so glad I have my own dear Fanny with
+me; and she was rewarded for coming by Miss O'Beirne's most cordial
+reception of her; so kindly well-bred. Dear Miss Wren! for dear she has
+always been to me for her own merits, which are great, and from her
+perfect love for Mrs. O'Beirne, in which I sympathise.
+
+I am as well as I am happy, and not the least tired, thank you, my dear
+ma'am, after having seen and heard and done enough yesterday morning to
+have tired a young body of seventeen, instead of one in her
+seventy-eighth year.
+
+We went a charming drive through this smiling, well-wooded,
+well-cottaged country, to the Malcolms: met Colonel Malcolm and his
+eldest sister Olympia on horseback at the door, just returned from their
+ride, and straight Fanny fell in love with Olympia's horse--"such a
+beautiful animal!" But I care much more for the Colonel! charming
+indeed, unaffected, polite, and kind. Never had I so kind a reception!
+and if I were to give you a _catalogue raisonnée_ of all we saw in their
+rich and rare, as well as happy home, it would reach from this to Trim.
+
+_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.
+
+COLLINGWOOD, _April 8, 1844_.
+
+Fine sunshiny day, and from my window I see a beautiful lawn, and two
+children rolling on the grass, and I hear their happy voices and their
+father's with them. I should have told you that on Friday Lestock took
+me and Emmeline, and Emmeline Gibbons and her little girl, to the
+Zoological Gardens, and we all were mightily delighted; but of the
+beasts and birds when I return.
+
+Here are Lord and Lady Adair--she is grateful to Sophy Palmer for her
+kindness when she was ill at Oxford--and Sir Edward Ryan, and one whom I
+was right glad to meet, "Jones on Rent;" and I have attacked, plagued,
+and gratified him by urging him to write a new volume. Jones and
+Herschel are very fond of one another, often differing, but always
+agreeing to differ, like Malthus and Ricardo, who hunted together in
+search of Truth, and huzzaed when they found her, without caring who
+found her first: indeed, I have seen them both put their able hands to
+the windlass to drag her up from the bottom of that well in which she so
+strangely delights to dwell.
+
+I must go back to the 23rd, which was a full and well-filled day. In the
+morning Rogers kindly determined to catch us: came before luncheon-time,
+and was very agreeable and very good-natured about a drawing I showed to
+him by a niece of Mrs. Holland's, a young girl of fifteen, who has
+really an inventive genius. I suggested to her, among the poems it is
+now the fashion to illustrate, Parnell's fairy tale: she has sketched
+the first scene--the old castle, lighted up: fairies dancing in the
+hall: Edwin crouching in the corner. Rogers praised it so warmly, that I
+regretted the girl could not hear him; it would so encourage her. He got
+up, dear, good-natured old man, from his chair as I spoke, and went
+immediately to Lower Brook Street with the drawing to the young lady.
+
+Luncheon over, we drove to the city, to see an old gentleman of
+ninety-three, Mr. Vaughan, whom I am sure you remember so kindly showing
+the London Docks to us in 1813, with his understanding and all his
+faculties as clear and as fresh now as they were then; and after
+returning from Mr. Vaughan's, we went to the bazaar, where I wanted to
+buy a churn, and other toys that shall be nameless, for the children;
+and after all this I lay down and slept for three-quarters of an hour,
+before time to dress for dinner. This dinner was at Lambeth: arrived
+exactly in time: found Mrs. Howley ready in her beautiful drawing-room,
+and I had the pleasure of five minutes' conversation alone with her.
+Oddly, it came out that she had a fine picture in the room, given to her
+by Mr. Legge, who inherited Aston Hall, which Mr. Legge I used to hear
+of continually ages ago as a sort of bugbear, being the heir-at-law to
+Sir Thomas Holte and Lady Holte's property. "Very natural they could
+never bear the name of Legge," said Mrs. Howley, "but he was my relative
+and excellent friend;" and she pointed to an inscription in grateful
+honour of him under the picture. How oddly connections come out, and
+between people one should never have thought had heard of each other,
+and at such distant times.
+
+This dinner and evening at Lambeth proved very agreeable to me. At the
+dinner were Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton Grey, Dean Milman, the Bishop of
+Lichfield, Sir Thomas Sinclair, and some others whose names I do not
+remember--fourteen altogether. I was on the Archbishop's right hand,
+Mrs. Hamilton Grey on his left. Dear, simple, dignified, yet playful
+Archbishop, who talked well of all things, from nursery rhymes to deep
+metaphysics and physics. Apropos to dreams and acting in character in
+the strangest circumstances, I mentioned Dr. Holland's _Medical Notes_,
+and the admirable chapter on Reverie and Dreaming. He had not seen the
+book, but seemed interested, and said he would read it directly--a great
+pleasure to me (goose!). I must not go further into the conversation
+with Milman, and the Archbishop's remarks upon Coleridge; it was all
+very agreeable, and--early hours being the order of the day and night
+there--I came away at ten; and as I drew up the glass, and was about to
+draw up Steele's opossum cloak, I felt a slight resistance--Fanny! dear,
+kind Fanny, so unexpected, come in the carriage for me; and a most
+delightful drive we had home.
+
+
+1 NORTH AUDLEY STREET, _April 15_.
+
+"Slip on, for Time's Time!" said a man, coming forth with a pipe in his
+mouth from an inn door, exhorting men and horses of railroad omnibus.
+"Slip on, Time's Time!" I have been saying to myself continually; and
+now I am coming to the last gasp, and Time slips so fast, that Time is
+not Time--in fact, there's no Time.
+
+Rosa's note to Fanny about glass shall be attended to, and I shall paste
+on the outside, "GLASS--NOT TO BE THROWN DOWN;" for Lord Adair had a bag
+thrown down the other day by reckless railway porters, in which was a
+bottle of sulphuric acid, which, breaking and spilling, stained,
+spoiled, and burned his Lordship's best pantaloons. I have packed up my
+bottles with such elastic skill, that I trust my petticoats will not
+share that sad fate.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Miss Edgeworth now left London for the last time. This was her last
+visit to her happy London home in North Audley Street, and in this last
+visit she had enjoyed much with all the freshness of youth, though the
+health of her sister and hostess often caused her anxiety. Mrs. L.H.
+Sigourney, who had been a frequent visitor, writes: [Footnote: _Pleasant
+Memories of Pleasant Lands_, by Mrs. L.H. Sigourney (1791-1865).]
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+To have repeatedly met and listened to Miss Edgeworth, seated familiarly
+with her by the fireside, may seem to her admirers in America a
+sufficient payment for the hazards of crossing the Atlantic. Her
+conversation, like her writings, is varied, vivacious, and delightful.
+Her forgetfulness of self and happiness in making others happy are
+marked traits in her character. Her person is small and delicately
+proportioned, and her movements full of animation. The ill-health of the
+lovely sister, much younger than herself, at whose house in London she
+was passing the winter, called forth such deep anxiety, untiring
+attention, and fervent gratitude for every favourable symptom, as seemed
+to blend features of maternal tenderness with sisterly affection.
+
+
+MARIA _to_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _May 2, 1844_.
+
+Not the least tired with my journey. Francis read to me indefatigably
+through _Australia_. [Footnote: Hood's _Letters from Australia_.] There
+is an excellent anecdote of an old Scotch servant meeting his master
+unexpectedly in Australia after many years' absence: "I was quite dung
+down donnerit when I saw the laird, I canna' conceit what dooned me--I
+was raal glad to see him, but I dinna ken hoo I couldna' speak it."
+
+If anybody can conceive anything much more absurd than my copying this
+out of a printed book of your own which you will have back in seven
+days,--let them call aloud.
+
+"I canna' speak it" how happy I was yesterday, at the tender, warm
+reception I had from your dear mother, and all young and old.
+
+
+_To_ MISS MARGARET RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Aug. 21, 1844_.
+
+I am right glad to look forward to the hope of seeing you again and
+talking all manner of nonsense and sense, and laughing myself and making
+you laugh, as I used to do, though I am six years beyond the allotted
+age and have had so many attacks of illness within the last two years;
+but I am, as Bess Fitzherbert and poor dear Sophy used to say, like one
+of those pith puppets that you knock down in vain, they always start up
+the same as ever. I was particularly fortunate in my last attack of
+erysipelas in all the circumstances, just having reached Harriet and
+Louisa's comfortable home, and happy in having Harriet Butler coming to
+me the very day she heard I was in this condition. Crampton had set out
+for Italy the day before, but Sir Henry Marsh managed me with skill, and
+let me recover slowly, as nature requires at advanced age. I am obliged
+to repeat to myself, "advanced age," because really and truly neither my
+spirits nor my powers of locomotion and facility of running up and down
+stairs would put me in mind of it. I do not find either my love for my
+friends or my love of literature in the least failing. I enjoyed even
+when flattest in my bed hearing Harriet Butler reading to me till eleven
+o'clock at night. Sir Henry Marsh prescribed some book that would
+entertain and interest me without straining my attention or
+over-exciting me, and Harriet chose Madame de Sevigné's _Letters_, which
+perfectly answered all the conditions, and was as delightful at the
+twentieth reading as at the first. Such lively pictures of the times and
+modes of living in country, town, and court, so interesting from their
+truth, simplicity, and elegance; the language so polished, and not the
+least antiquated even at this day. Madame de Sevigné's reply to Madame
+de Grignan, having called Les Rochers _"humide"--"Humide! humide
+vous-même!"_ I should not have thought it French; I did not know they
+had that turn of colloquial drollery. But she has every good turn and
+power of expression, and is such an amiable, affectionate, good
+creature, loving the world too and the court, and all its sense and
+nonsense mixed delightfully. Harriet often stopped to say, "How like my
+mother! how like Aunt Ruxton!" At Trim, during the two delightfully
+happy months I was there, during my convalescence and perfect recovery,
+she read to me many other books, and often I wished that you had been as
+you used to be with us, and Mr. Butler, who is very fond of you and
+appreciates you, joined in the wish. One book was the _Journal of the
+Nemesis_,--of breathless interest, from the great danger they were in
+from the splitting of the iron vessel, and all the exertions and
+ingenuity of the officers; and Prescott's _Mexico_ I found extremely
+interesting. After these true, or warranted true histories, we read a
+novel not half so romantic or entertaining, the _Widow Barnaby in
+America_, and then we tried a Swedish story,--not by Miss Bremer,--of
+smugglers and murderers, and a self-devoted lady, and an idiot boy, the
+best drawn and most consistent character in the book. After--no, I
+believe it was before--the _Rose of Tisleton_, we read _Ellen
+Middleton_, by Lady Georgiana Fullerton, grand-daughter of the famous
+Duchess-Beauty of Devonshire, and whatever faults that Duchess had she
+certainly had genius. Do you recollect her lines on _William Tell_? or
+do you know Coleridge's lines to her, beginning with
+
+  O lady nursed in pomp and pleasure,
+  Where learned you that heroic measure?
+
+Look for them, and get _Ellen Middleton_, it is well worth your reading.
+Lady Georgiana certainly inherits her grandmother's genius, and there is
+a high-toned morality and religious principle through the book (where
+got she "that heroic measure"?) without any cant or ostentation: it is
+the same moral I intended in _Helen_, but exemplified in much deeper and
+stronger colours. This is--but you must read it yourself.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+OBSERVATORY, ARMAGH, _Sept. 15, 1844_.
+
+As well and as happy as the day is short--too short here for all that is
+to be seen, felt, heard, and understood. It is more delightful to me
+than I can express, but you can understand how delightful it is to see
+Lucy so happy and to see her mother see it all. I sleep in the same room
+with her, and fine talking we have, and we care not who hears us, we say
+no harm of anybody, we have none to say.
+
+Lucy has certainly made good use of her time and so improved the house I
+should hardly have known it. In the dining-room is a fine picture of Dr.
+Robinson when a boy, full of genius and romance, seated on a rock. It is
+admirable and delicious to see how well and how completely Lucy has
+turned her mind to all that can make her house and _houseband_, and all
+belonging to him, happy and comfortable--omitting none of those smaller
+creature comforts which, if not essential, are very desirable for all
+human creatures learned or unlearned.
+
+Robinson at home is not less wonderful and more agreeable even than
+Robinson abroad,--his _abondance_ in literature equal to Macintosh,--in
+science you know out of sight superior to anybody. In home life his
+amiable qualities and amicable temper appear to the greatest advantage,
+and I cannot say too much about the young people's kind and affectionate
+manner to Lucy.
+
+The Primate [Footnote: Lord John George Beresford, Archbishop of
+Armagh.] and the Lady Beresfords were so kind and gracious as to come to
+see us; and I have enjoyed a very agreeable luncheon-dinner at Caledon.
+Lady Caledon is a _real_ person, doing a great deal of good sensibly.
+Lord Caledon [Footnote: James Du Pre, third Earl of Caledon, was then
+unmarried. His mother, Catherine, daughter of the third Earl of
+Hardwicke, lived with him when he was in Ireland.] gave me a history of
+his life in the backwoods of America, and gave me a piece of pemmican,
+and I enclose a bit, and I hope it will not have greased everything! and
+when I said that after a youth in the backwoods it was well to have such
+a place as Caledon to fall back upon, there was a glance at his mother
+that spoke volumes.
+
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Aug. 7, 1845_.
+
+How characteristic Joanna Baillie's letter is, so perfectly simple,
+dignified, and touching.
+
+
+_To_ MISS MARGARET RUXTON.
+
+_August 7, 1845._
+
+No pen or hand but my own shall answer your most affectionate letter, my
+dear own Margaret, or welcome you again to your native country--damp as
+it is--warm and comfortable with good old,--and young, friends--and
+young, for your young friends Mary Anne and Charlotte were heartily glad
+to see you. As to the old, I will yield to no mortal living. In the
+first place is the plain immovable fact that I am the OLDEST friend you
+have living, and as to actual knowledge of you I defy any one to match
+me, ever since you were an infant at Foxhall, and through the Black
+Castle cottage times with dear Sophy and all. What changes and chances,
+and ups and downs, we have seen together!
+
+
+_To_ MISS MARGARET RUXTON.
+
+TRIM, _March 1, 1846_.
+
+Pakenham and Christina [Footnote: In February, Pakenham Edgeworth had
+married Christina, daughter of Dr. Hugh Macpherson of Aberdeen.] arrived
+here in excellent time, charmed with their kind reception at Black
+Castle. From the first moment I set eyes and ears upon Christina I liked
+her,--it seemed to me as if she was not a new bride coming a stranger
+amongst us, but one of the family fitting at once into her place as a
+part of a joining map that had been wanting and is now happily found.
+
+
+_To_ LADY BEAUFORT.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _May 31, 1846_.
+
+I hope, dear Honora, that the rhododendrons will not exhaust themselves;
+at this moment yours opposite the library window are in the most
+beautiful profuse blow you can conceive, and at the end of my garden
+indescribably beautiful, and scarlet thorn beside. The peony tree has
+happily survived its removal, and is covered with flowers.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _June 24, 1846_.
+
+I must try your patience a bit more in a most _thorny_ affair----How
+"thorny"?
+
+You will never know till a box arrives by the coach, Edward being under
+orders to convey it to Granard in the gig. Why Edward? Why in the gig?
+Because the box is too heavy for Mick Dolan or any other gossoon to
+carry. "And what can be in it?" Wait till you see,--and I hope you may
+only see and not feel. _Citoyenne, n'y touchez pas_. Vegetable, animal,
+or mineral? Four-and-twenty questions might be spent upon it, and you
+would be none the wiser.
+
+Now to be plain, the box contains "the old man's head;" now you know.
+Cacti sent to me by Sir William Hooker; your mother has not room for
+more than two, which she kept. Thunderstorm and hail-shower, half-past
+eleven.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The death of Maria Edgeworth's half-brother Francis on 12th October 1846
+was a great grief to the family. The same autumn saw the beginning of
+the Irish famine.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARIA _to_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+_February 9, 1847_.
+
+Mr. Powell instigated me to beg some relief for the poor from the Quaker
+Association in Dublin--so, much against the grain, I penned a letter to
+Mr. Harvey, the only person whose name I know on the committee, and
+prayed some assistance for Mr. Powell, our vicar, to get us over the
+next two months, and your mother represented to me that men and boys who
+can get employment in draining especially, cannot _stand_ the work in
+the wet for want of strong shoes; so, in for a penny, in for a pound;
+ask for a lamb, ask for a sheep. I made _bould_ to axe my FRIENDS for as
+many pairs of brogues as they could afford, or as much leather and
+soles, which would be better still, as this would enable us to set
+sundry starving shoemakers to work. By return of post came a letter to
+"Most respected Friend," or something better, I forget what, and I have
+sent the letter to Fanny--granting £30 for food--offering a soup boiler
+for eighty gallons, if we had not one large enough, and sending £10 for
+women's work: and telling me they would lay my shoe petition before the
+Clothing Committee. [Footnote: Leather was sent by these benevolent
+gentlemen, and brogues were made for men and boys, and proved to be of
+the first service.]
+
+
+_February 22_.
+
+The people are now beginning to sow, and I hope they will accordingly
+reap in due course. Mr. Hinds has laid down a good rule, not to give
+seed to any tenants but those who can produce the receipt for the last
+half-year's rent. Barry has been exceedingly kind in staying with us,
+doing your mother all manner of good, looking after blunders in
+draining, etc.
+
+
+_March 13_.
+
+I have been working as hard as an ass to get the pleasure of writing to
+you, and have not been able to accomplish it. I have only time to say, a
+gentleman from the Birmingham Relief Committee has sent me £5 for the
+starving Irish. How good people are! I send Mrs. Cruger's letter, and
+have written to the ladies of America, specially, as she desires, to
+those of New York, and your mother approved, and I asked for barley
+seed, which, as Mr. Powell and Gahan and your mother say, to be of any
+use must come before May--but I asked for money as well as seed.--Sturdy
+beggars.
+
+
+_March 22_.
+
+You will see how good the Irish Americans [Footnote: The Irish porters
+who carried the seed corn sent from Philadelphia to the shore for
+embarkation refused to be paid.] have been, and are; I wish the rich
+Argosie was come.
+
+
+_April 9_.
+
+"Où peut-on être mieux qu'au sein de sa famille?" I found it, my dear,
+exactly where I knew it was, in Alison's _History_. On Buonaparte's
+return from Egypt, the Old Guard surrounding him and the band playing
+this. I know Mary Anne and Charlotte have the music. I have seen it with
+my eyes and heard it with my ears; I have it in the memory of my
+heart--I have made all the use I want of it now in the new story I am
+writing, and mean to publish in Chambers's _Miscellany_, and to give the
+proceeds to the Poor Relief Fund.
+
+
+_April 26_.
+
+Having seen in the newspapers that the Australians had sent a
+considerable sum for the relief of the distressed Irish, and that they
+had directed it to the care of "His Grace the Archbishop of Dublin,"
+meaning Dr. Murray, I wrote to our Archbishop Whately, playing upon this
+graceless proceeding towards him, and to the best of my capacity,
+without flattery. I did what I could to make my letter honestly pleasing
+to His Grace, and I received the most prompt, polite, and to the point
+reply, assuring me that the Australians were not so graceless in their
+doings as in their words, that they had made a remittance of a
+considerable sum to him, and that if I apply to the Central Relief
+Committee, in whose hands he placed it, he has no doubt my application
+will be attended to.
+
+This was nuts and apples to me, or, better at present, rice and oatmeal,
+and I have accordingly written to "My Lords and Gentlemen." The
+Archbishop, civilly, to show how valuable he deemed my approbation! has
+sent me a corrected copy of his speech, with good new notes and protest
+and preface. He says it is impossible to conceive how ignorant the
+English still are of Ireland, and how positive in their ignorance.
+
+
+_April 28_.
+
+Mr. Powell has received from Government £105 on his sending up the list
+of subscriptions here for a hundred guineas, according to their promise,
+to give as much as any parish subscribed towards its own relief. This he
+means to lay out in bread and rice and meal--not all in soup; that he
+may encourage them to cook at home and not be mere craving beggars.
+
+
+_To_ LADY BEAUFORT.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _May 8, 1847_.
+
+Most heartily do I rejoice that we may hope that you may be able to
+come; I do not say come with Fanny, for that might hurry and hazard you,
+but in the days of harvest home, if harvest home does ever come again to
+our poor country, and you will rejoice with us in the brightened day.
+
+I cannot answer your Admiral's question as to the number of deaths
+caused by the famine. I believe that no one can form a just estimate. In
+different districts the estimates and assertions are widely different,
+and the priests keep no registry. Mr. Tuite, who was here yesterday,
+told us that in the House of Commons the contradictory statements of the
+Irish members astonished and grieved him, as he knew the bad effect it
+would have in diminishing their credit with the English. Two hundred and
+fifty thousand is the report of the Police up to April. Mr. Tuite
+thought a third more deaths than usual had been in his neighbourhood. My
+mother and Mr. Powell say that the increase of deaths above ordinary
+times has not in this parish been as much as one-third.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _May 19, 1847_.
+
+The fever, or whatever it is, has been, Lucy says, dreadful about
+Armagh; many gentlemen have it; one who exerted himself much for the
+poor--was distributing meal, saw a poor girl so weak, she could not hold
+her apron stretched out for it; he went and held it for her--she was in
+the fever; he went home, felt ill, had the fever, and died.
+
+
+_June 7_.
+
+What magnificent convolvulus! we had not one blown for Fanny's birthday.
+Do not trouble yourself about my cough or cold, for I am doing, and
+shall do, very well; and I would have had twenty times the cough for the
+really exquisite pleasure I have received from Sir Henry Marsh's letter:
+no such generous offer was ever made with more politeness and good
+taste. In the midst of all that may go wrong in the world there is
+really _much good_, and so much that is honourable to our human nature.
+
+When Margaret is with you, if she likes to see _Orlandino_ in his
+present _déshabillé_, she is welcome. [Footnote: This story was the
+first of a series edited by William Chambers. It was practically "a
+temperance story." Speaking in it of the influence of Father Matthews,
+Miss Edgeworth says: "Since the time of the Crusades, never has one
+single voice awakened such moral energies; never was the call of one man
+so universally, so promptly, so long obeyed. Never, since the world
+began, were countless multitudes so influenced and so successfully
+diverted by one mind to one peaceful purpose. Never were nobler ends by
+nobler means attained."]
+
+_June 11_.
+
+I am quite well, and half-eaten by midges, which proves that I have been
+out, standing over Mackin, cutting away dead branches of laurestinus. He
+could not stand it--took off hat, and rubbed with both hands all over
+head and face. I wish we could put back the profuse blow of the
+rhododendrons, peonies, and Himalayan poppies till Honora and Fanny
+come. Have you any Himalayan poppies? If not, remember to supply
+yourself when you are here--splendid!
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Of the publication of _Orlandino_, written for the benefit of the Irish
+Poor Relief Fund, Miss Edgeworth wrote to Mrs. S.C. Hall:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Chambers, as you always told me, acts very liberally. As this was to
+earn a little money for our parish poor, in the last year's distress, he
+most considerately gave prompt payment. Even before publication, when
+the proof-sheets were under correction, came the ready order in the Bank
+of Ireland. Blessings on him! and I hope he will not be the worse for
+me. I am surely the better for him, and so are numbers now working and
+eating; for Mrs. Edgeworth's principle and mine is to excite the people
+to work for good wages, and not, by gratis feeding, to make beggars of
+them, and ungrateful beggars, as the case might be.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A most touching reward for her exertions in behalf of the Irish poor,
+reached Miss Edgeworth from America. The children of Boston, who had
+known and loved her through her books, raised a subscription for her,
+and sent her a hundred and fifty pounds of flour and rice. They were
+simply inscribed--"To Miss Edgeworth, for her poor." Nothing, in her
+long life, ever pleased or gratified her more.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MISS MARGARET RUXTON.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Oct. 27, 1847_.
+
+I have heard it said that no one should begin a letter with _I_, but
+methinks this must be the dictum of some hypocritical body, or of
+somebody who thinks more of themselves than they dare let appear. I am
+so full of my own little self, that I am confident you, my dear
+Margaret, will not think the worse of me for beginning with "I am very
+well;" and I am a miracle of prudence and a model of virtue to sick and
+well--with good looking-after understood. So I stayed in bed yesterday
+morning, and roses and myrtles and white satin ribbon covered my bed, to
+tie up a bouquet for a bride, very well wrapped up in my labada. You
+don't know what a labada is: Harriet will tell you. This nosegay was to
+be presented to the bride by little Mary, as Rosa was asked to the
+wedding, and was to take Mary with her. But who is the bride? you will
+ask, and ask you may; but you will not be a bit the wiser when I tell
+you--Miss Thompson. Now your heads go to Clonfin, or to Thompsons near
+Dublin, or in the County of Meath. This is one you never heard of--at
+Mr. Armstrong's, of Moydow; and she was married yesterday to the eldest
+son of Baron Greene.
+
+At the breakfast, when Mr. Armstrong was to reply to the speech of the
+bridegroom, who had expressed his gratitude to him as the uncle who had
+brought her up, the old man attempted to speak; but when he rose he
+could only pronounce the words, "My child."
+
+Mary, after the breakfast, walked gracefully up to the bride and said,
+"My Aunt Maria begged me to present this to you. The rose is called
+Maria Leonida, her own name is Maria; and she hopes you will be very
+happy." I was delighted.
+
+
+_To_ MRS. R. BUTLER.
+
+EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _Oct. 30, 1847_.
+
+I hope the hyacinths "Maria Edgeworth" and "Apollo," and all the blues,
+will not be destroyed in their journey to you. I spent an hour yesterday
+doing up dahlias for Rosa, who wrote to me from Dublin that she was
+heart-sick for flowers.
+
+I advise and earnestly recommend you to read _Grantley Manor_. It does
+not, Mr. Butler, end ill, and from beginning to end it is good, and not
+stupidly good. It is not controversial either in dialogue or story, and
+in word and deed it does justice to both Churches, in the distribution
+of the qualities of the _dramatis personae_ and the action of the story.
+It is beautifully written; pathetic, without the least exaggeration of
+feeling or affectation. The characters are well contrasted; some nobly
+high-minded, generous, and firm to principle, religious and moral
+without any cant; and there are no monsters of wickedness. I never read
+a more interesting story, new, and well developed.
+
+
+_Nov. 13_.
+
+Yesterday morning I received the enclosed note from that most conceited
+and not over well-bred Mons. de Lamartine. I desired my friend Madame
+Belloc to use her own discretion in repeating my criticisms on his
+_Histoire des Girondins_, but requested that she would convey to him the
+thanks and admiration of our family for the manner in which he has
+mentioned the Abbé Edgeworth, and our admiration of the beauty of the
+writing of that whole passage in the work. At the same time I regretted
+that he had omitted "Fils de St. Louis," and also that he has not
+mentioned the circumstance of the crowd opening and letting the Abbé
+pass in safety immediately from the scaffold after the execution. This
+it seems to me necessary to note, as part of the picture of the times: a
+few days afterwards a price was set upon his head, and hundreds were
+ready for the reward to pursue and give him up. I copied this from
+Sneyd's _Memoir_, and the anecdote of the Abbé, when asked at a dinner
+(Ministerial) in London whether he said the words "Fils de St. Louis,"
+etc., and his answer that he could not recollect, his mind had been so
+taken up with the event. I think Lamartine, in his note to me, turns
+this unfairly; and I feel, and I am sure so will you and Mr. Butler,
+"What an egotist and what a puppy it is!" But ovation has turned his
+head.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the 4th of February 1848, after a very short illness, Mrs. Lestock
+Wilson--Fanny Edgeworth--died. Maria survived her little more than a
+year. She bore the shock without apparent injury to her health, and she
+continued to employ herself with her usual benevolent interest and
+sympathy in all the business and pleasures of her family and friends;
+but strongly as she was attached to all her brothers and sisters, Fanny
+had been the dearest object of her love and admiration. To her friend
+Mrs. S.C. Hall, who wrote to her as usual on 1st January (1849), which
+was her birthday, she answered, "You must not delay long in finding your
+way to Edgeworthstown if you mean to see me again. Remember, you have
+just congratulated me on my eighty-second birthday." In the spring she
+spent some weeks at Trim, where her sister Lucy and Dr. Robinson were
+with her. She seemed unusually agitated and depressed in taking leave of
+her sister Harriet and Mr. Butler, but said as she went away, "At
+Whitsuntide I shall return."
+
+Only a few weeks before her death Miss Edgeworth wrote:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Our pleasures in literature do not, I think, decline with age; last 1st
+of January was my eighty-second birthday, and I think that I had as much
+enjoyment from books as I ever had in my life.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In her last letter to her sister, Honora Beaufort, she enclosed the
+lines:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Ireland, with all thy faults, thy follies too,
+  I love thee still: still with a candid eye must view
+  Thy wit, too quick, still blundering into sense
+  Thy reckless humour: sad improvidence,
+  And even what sober judges follies call,
+  I, looking at the Heart, forget them all!
+
+MARIA E. _May 1849_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the morning of the 22nd of May Miss Edgeworth drove out, apparently
+in her usual health. On her return she was suddenly seized with pain of
+the heart, and in a few hours breathed her last in the arms of her
+devoted stepmother and friend.[Footnote: Mrs. Edgeworth herself lived
+till 1865, greatly honoured and beloved.]
+
+Mrs. Edgeworth writes:
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Maria had always wished that her friends should be spared the anguish of
+seeing her suffer in protracted illness; she had always wished to die at
+home, and that I should be with her--both her wishes were fulfilled.
+
+Extremely small of stature, her figure continued slight, and all her
+movements singularly alert to the last. No one ever conversed with her
+for five minutes without forgetting the plainness of her features in the
+vivacity, benevolence, and genius expressed in her countenance.[Footnote:
+In her old age Miss Edgeworth used to say, "Nobody is anything worse than
+'plain' now; no one is ugly now but myself,"--but no one thought her so.]
+
+Particularly neat in her dress and in all her ways, she had everything
+belonging to her arranged in the most perfect order--habits of order
+early impressed upon her mind by Mrs. Honora Edgeworth, which, with her
+methodical way of doing business, enabled her to get through a
+surprising amount of multifarious work in the course of every day.
+
+She wrote almost always in the library, undisturbed by the noise of the
+large family about her, and for many years on a little desk her father
+had made for her, and on which two years before his death he inscribed
+the following words:
+
+"On this humble desk were written all the numerous works of my daughter,
+Maria Edgeworth, in the common sitting-room of my family. In these
+works, which were chiefly written to please me, she has never attacked
+the personal character of any human being or interfered with the
+opinions of any sect or party, religious or political; while
+endeavouring to inform and instruct others, she improved and amused her
+own mind and gratified her heart, which I do believe is better than her
+head.
+
+"R.L.E."
+
+She used afterwards a writing-desk which had been her father's, but when
+at home it was always placed on a little table of his construction,
+which is in my possession, and to which she had attached many ingenious
+contrivances--a bracket for her candlestick, a fire-screen, and places
+for her papers. This little table being on castors, she could move it
+from the sofa by the fire to the window, or into a recess behind the
+pillars of the library, where she generally sat in summer time. She
+wrote on folio sheets of paper, which she sewed together in chapters.
+
+To facilitate the calculation of the MS. for printing, and to secure
+each page containing nearly the same amount of writing, she used to
+prick the margin of her paper at equal distances, and her father made a
+little machine set with points by which she could pierce several sheets
+at once. A full sketch of the story she was about to write was always
+required by her father before she began it, and though often much
+changed in its progress, the foundation and purpose remained as
+originally planned. She rose, as I have said, early, and after taking a
+cup of coffee and reading her letters, walked out till breakfast-time, a
+meal she always enjoyed especially (though she scarcely ate anything);
+she delighted to read out and talk over her letters of the day, and
+listened a little to the newspapers, but she was no politician. She came
+into the breakfast-room in summer time with her hands full of roses, and
+always had some work or knitting to do while others ate. She generally
+sat down at her desk soon after breakfast and wrote till
+luncheon-time,--her chief meal in the day,--after which she did some
+needlework, often unwillingly, when eager about her letters or MSS., but
+obediently, as she had found writing directly after eating bad for her.
+Sometimes in the afternoon she drove out, always sitting with her back
+to the horses, and when quite at ease about them exceedingly enjoyed a
+short drive in an open carriage, not caring and often not knowing which
+road she went, talking and laughing all the time. She usually wrote all
+the rest of her afternoon, and in her latter years lay down and slept
+for an hour after dinner, coming down to tea and afterwards reading out
+herself, or working and listening to the reading out of some of the
+family. Her extreme enjoyment of a book made these evening hours
+delightful to her and to all her family. If her attention was turned to
+anything else, she always desired the reader to stop till she was able
+to attend, and even from the most apparently dull compositions she
+extracted knowledge or amusement. She often lingered after the usual
+bed-time to talk over what she had heard, full of bright or deep and
+solid observations, and gay anecdotes _à propos_ to the work or its
+author.
+
+She had amazing power of control over her feelings when occasion
+demanded, but in general her tears or her smiles were called forth by
+every turn of joy and sorrow among those she lived with. When she met in
+a stranger a kindred mind, her conversation upon every subject poured
+forth, was brilliant with wit and eloquence and a gaiety of heart which
+gave life to all she thought and said. But the charms of society never
+altered her taste for domestic life; she was consistent from the
+beginning to the end. Though so exceedingly enjoying the intercourse of
+all the great minds she had known, she more enjoyed her domestic life
+with her nearest relations, when her spirits never flagged, and her wit
+and wisdom, which were never for show, were called forth by every little
+incident of the day. When my daughters were with Maria at Paris, they
+described to me the readiness with which she would return from the
+company of the greatest philosophers and wits of the day to superintend
+her young sisters' dress, or arrange some party of pleasure for them.
+"We often wonder what her admirers would say, after all the profound
+remarks and brilliant witticisms they have listened to, if they heard
+all her delightful nonsense with us." Much as she was gratified by her
+"success" in the society of her celebrated contemporaries, she never
+varied in her love for Home.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Her whole life, of eighty-three years, had been an aspiration after
+good.
+
+
+
+
+SUMMARY OF VOLUME II
+
+
+1820-1821
+
+Letters from Maria Edgeworth from Coppet, Pregny, Lausanne, Lyons,
+Paris, Calais, Clifton, Bowood, Easton Grey, Edgeworthstown to Miss
+Waller, Mrs. Edgeworth, Mrs. Ruxton, Miss Honora Edgeworth, Miss Lucy
+Edgeworth, Miss Ruxton.
+
+Journey through Switzerland: Madame de Montolieu, Dumont, Duke de
+Broglie, M. de Stein, Pictet, Madame Necker, M. de Staël--Return to
+England through France: Madame de Rumford, the Delesserts, Madame de la
+Rochejacquelin--Attack of the _Quarterly Review_ on the
+_Memoirs_--Visits to Bowood and Easton Grey: Lord Lansdowne, Hallam,
+David Ricardo--Return to Edgeworthstown--Reading and home life.
+
+
+1821-1822
+
+Letters from Kenioge, Smethwick Grove, Wycombe Abbey, Gatcombe Park,
+Easton Grey, Bowood, Clifton, Winchester, The Deepdene, Frognel,
+Hampstead, Beechwood Park, Mardoaks to Mrs. Edgeworth, Miss Honora
+Edgeworth, Miss Lucy Edgeworth, Mrs. Ruxton, Miss Ruxton.
+
+Visits in England--Wycombe Abbey: Lord Carrington, Madame de Staël, and
+Buonaparte--David Ricardo--Bowood: Lord Lansdowne, Bowles--Miss Joanna
+Baillie's: Brodie, Dr. Holland, Lord Grenville--Anecdotes of Lady
+Salisbury and Wilberforce--Le Bas, Sir James Macintosh, Dumont.
+
+
+1822
+
+Letters from London to Mrs. Edgeworth, Mrs. Ruxton.
+
+Life in London--_Frank_--Lady Lansdowne, Lady Elizabeth Whitbread,
+Calcott, Mrs. Somerville--Visit to the House of Commons: Peel, Brougham,
+Vansittart--Mrs. Fry--Almack's--Dinners and parties: Sir Humphry Davy,
+Dr. Holland, Miss Lydia White--Mrs. Siddons and Sheridan--Jeffrey, Hume,
+Herschel, Lady Byron, Randolph--Ticknor on Maria Edgeworth's
+conversation.
+
+
+1822-1823
+
+Letters from Edgeworthstown, Black Castle, Kinneil, Edinburgh,
+Callander, Inverness, Kinross, Abbotsford to Mrs. Ruxton, Mrs. O'Beirne,
+Miss Honora Edgeworth, Miss Lucy Edgeworth, Miss Ruxton, Mrs. Ruxton.
+
+Return to Edgeworthstown--Literary work and reading: _Early Lessons,
+Harry and Lucy_--Walter Scott and Joanna Baillie--Death of Lord
+Londonderry--Visit to Scotland--Edinburgh: Evening at Sir Walter
+Scott's--Sir Walter Scott, Lady Scott, and Lockhart--A fortnight at
+Abbotsford.
+
+
+1823-1830
+
+Letters from Edgeworthstown, Pakenham Hall, Black Castle, Bloomfield to
+Mrs. and Miss Ruxton, Mrs. Bannatyne, Mrs. O'Beirne, Miss Honora
+Edgeworth, Mrs. Edgeworth, C.S. Edgeworth, Captain Basil Hall, Mr.
+Bannatyne.
+
+Return to Ireland--Reading and letters: Mrs. Hemans, Blanco White, Dr.
+Holland, Walter Scott--Death of Anna Edgeworth--Death of Mrs.
+Barbauld--Visit of Sir Walter Scott to Edgeworthstown--Visit to
+Killarney with Scott and Lockhart--_Harry and Lucy_--Management of the
+estate--Death of Lady Scott--Visit from Sir Humphry Davy--_Vivian Grey_
+and Almack's--Sydney Smith's conversation--Visit from Herschel--Mrs.
+Mary Sneyd settles at Edgeworthstown--Illness and recovery--General
+interests and life at Edgeworthstown.
+
+
+1830-1831
+
+Letters from London to Miss Ruxton, Miss Honora Edgeworth, Mrs.
+Edgeworth, Mrs. R. Butler.
+
+Death of Mrs. Ruxton--Visit to London: Lord Lansdowne, Joanna Baillie,
+Sir Henry Holland, Southey--Talleyrand--Duchess of Wellington, Sir James
+Macintosh--Death of Mr. Hope--Macaulay--Visit to the Herschels: Sir
+Joshua Reynolds's work--Rogers, Lord Mahon--Death of the Duchess of
+Wellington--Scene in the House of Lords--Opera and plays.
+
+
+1831-1840
+
+Letters from Edgeworthstown, Rostrevor, Pakenham Hall, Dunmoe Cottage,
+Lough Glyn, Trim to Captain Basil Hall, Mrs. L. Edgeworth, Miss Ruxton,
+Mrs. R. Butler, Mr. Bannatyne, C.S. Edgeworth, Mr. Pakenham Edgeworth,
+Mrs. Stark, Miss Margaret Ruxton, Mr. and Mrs. Ticknor.
+
+Return to Ireland--Visits in Ireland--Lockhart's _Life--Helen_--Tour in
+Ireland--Young Sir Walter Scott--Principles of novel-writing--General
+election and relations with tenants--Views on Politics--Visit of Mr.
+Ticknor to Edgeworthstown, and of Rev. William Sprogue--Maria becomes
+real owner of Edgeworthstown--Home interests--Marriage of Honora
+Edgeworth.
+
+
+1840-1843
+
+Letters from London, Edgeworthstown, Trim to Mrs. R. Butler, Mrs.
+Edgeworth, Mrs. Beaufort, Miss Margaret Ruxton, Miss Bannatyne, Mrs.
+Beaufort.
+
+Visit to London: Darwin, Dr. Lushington, Macaulay--Return to
+Edgeworthstown: Distress in Ireland--Mrs. Hall's description of the
+family life at Edgeworthstown--Dangerous illness of Maria
+Edgeworth--Reading and literary interests: Dickens, Francis
+Horner--Marriage of Miss Lucy Edgeworth to Dr. Robinson.
+
+
+1843-1849
+
+Letters from London, Warfield Lodge, Collingwood, Edgeworthstown, Armagh
+to Mrs. R. Butler, Mrs. Edgeworth, Miss Margaret Ruxton, Lady Beaufort,
+Mrs. S.C. Hall.
+
+Visit to London--Sydney Smith, Sir Henry Holland, Rogers, Mrs.
+Drummond--Opening of the new Houses of Parliament--Visits in
+England--Dean Milman, Herschel--Return to Edgeworthstown--Reading and
+home interests--The Irish Famine--_Orlandino_--Death of Maria Edgeworth.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life and Letters of Maria
+Edgeworth, Vol. 2, by Maria Edgeworth
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARIA EDGEWORTH ***
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