The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume I Part 89

[Footnote 115: The Rev. Henry Bate, afterwards Sir Henry Bate Dudley, editor of the "Morning Post" from its establishment in 1772 till 1780, in which year his connection with that paper came to an end in consequence of a quarrel with his coadjutors. On the 1st of November, 1780, he brought out the "Morning Herald" in opposition to his old paper, the "Post." He a.s.sumed the name of Dudley in 1784, was created a baronet in 1813, and died in 1824. Gainsborough has painted the portrait of this ornament of the Church, who was notorious, in his younger days, for his physical strength, and not less so for the very unclerical use which he made of it. He was popularly known as the "Fighting Parson."--ED.]

[Footnote 116: Mr. Smelt was a friend of Dr. Burney's, and highly esteemed by f.a.n.n.y both for his character and talents. He had been tutor to the Prince of Wales (afterwards George IV.). We shall meet with him later.--ED.]

[Footnote 117: This boy was afterwards the celebrated painter, Sir Thomas Lawrence, President of the Royal Academy.--ED.]

[Footnote 118: Constantine John Phipps, second Baron Mulgrave in the Irish peerage. He was born in 1744; served with distinction in the navy, and made a voyage of discovery towards the North Pole in 1773. His account of this voyage was published in the following year. He became Baron Mulgrave on the death of his father, the first Baron, in 1775; was raised to the English peerage under the t.i.tle of Lord Mulgrave in 1790, and died in 1792.--ED.]

[Footnote 119: Mrs. Byron was the wife of Admiral the Hon. John Byron ("Foul-weather Jack"), and grandmother of the poet. Her daughter Augusta subsequently married Vice-Admiral Parker, and died in 1824.--ED.]

[Footnote 120: Mrs. Dobson was auth.o.r.ess of an abridged translation of "Petrarch's Life," and of the "History of the Troubadours."--ED.]

[Footnote 121: Dr. Harrington was a physician, and a friend of Dr. Burney. His son, "Mr. Henry"--the Rev. Henry Harrington--was the editor of "Nugaae Antiquae."--ED.]

[Footnote 122: The rough-mannered, brutal sea-captain in "Evelina."--ED.]

[Footnote 123: Lady Miller, of Bath Easton--the lady of the Vase. Horace Walpole gives an amusing description of the flummery which was indulged in every week at Bath Easton under her presidency. "You must know, that near Bath is erected a new Parna.s.sus, composed of three laurels, a myrtle-tree, a weeping-willow, and a view of the Avon, which has now been christened Helicon. Ten years ago there lived a Madam [Briggs], an old rough humourist, who pa.s.sed for a wit; her daughter, who pa.s.sed for nothing, married to a captain [Miller], full of good-natured officiousness. These good folks were friends of Miss Rich, who carried me to dine with them at Bath Easton, now Pindus. They caught a little of what was then called taste, built, and planted, and begot children, till the whole caravan were forced to go abroad to retrieve. Alas! Mrs. Miller is returned a beauty, a genius, a Sappho, a tenth muse, as romantic as Mademoiselle Scuderi, and as sophisticated as Mrs. Vesey. The captain's fingers are loaded with cameos, his tongue runs over with virtu; and that both may contribute to the improvement of their own country, they have introduced bouts-rimes as a new discovery. They hold a Parna.s.sus-fair every Thursday, give out rhymes and themes, and all the flux of quality at Bath contend for the prizes. A Roman vase, dressed with pink ribands and myrtles, receives the poetry, which is drawn out every festival: six judges of these Olympic games retire and select the brightest compositions, which the respective successful acknowledge, kneel to Mrs. Calliope (Miller), kiss her fair hand, and are crowned by it with myrtle." Works, vol. v. P. 183--ED.]

[Footnote 124: Not our old acquaintance, Mrs. Cholmondeley, but a lady whom f.a.n.n.y met for the first time during this season at Bath.--ED.]

[Footnote 125: See ante, note 121.--ED.]

[Footnote 126: Beattie's "Essay on Truth," published in 1770, and containing a feeble attack on Hume. Commonplace as the book is, it was received with rapture by the Orthodox, and Reynolds painted a fine picture of Beattie, standing with the "Essay" under his arm, while the angel of Truth beside him, drives away three demonic figures, in whose faces we trace a resemblance to the portraits of Hume, Voltaire, and Gibbon. For this piece of flattery the painter was justly rebuked by Goldsmith, whose sympathies were certainly not on the side of infidelity. "It very ill becomes a mann of your eminence and character," said the poet, "to debase so high a genius as Voltaire before so mean a writer as Beattie.

Beattie and his book will be forgotten in ten years, while Voltaire's fame will last for ever. Take care it does not perpetuate this picture, to the shame of such a man as you."--ED.]

[Footnote 127: Charlotte Lewis.--ED.]

[Footnote 128: Sir Clement Willoughby, a rakish baronet in "Evelina."--ED.]

[Footnote 129: This flirtation came to nothing, as Captain Brisbane proved himself a jilt. The following month Miss Burney wrote to Mrs. Thrale as follows:--"Your account of Miss M--'s being taken in, and taken in by Captain Brisbane, astonishes me! surely not half we have heard either of her adorers, or her talents, can have been true. Mrs. Byron has lost too little to have anything to lament, except, indeed, the time she sacrificed to foolish conversation, and the civilities she threw away upon so worthless a subject. Augusta has nothing to reproach herself with, and riches and wisdom must be rare indeed, if she fares not as well with respect to both, as she would have done with an adventurer whose pocket, it seems, was as empty as his head."--ED.]

[Footnote 130: Sir John Fielding, the magistrate; brother of the novelist.--ED.]

[Footnote 131: Mr. Thrale's brewery in Southwark. His town house in Grosvenor Square was threatened by the mob, but escaped destruction.--ED.]

[Footnote 132: The manager of Mr. Thrale's brewery.--ED.]

[Footnote 133: James Harris, of Salisbury, and his family. Mr. Harris was the author of "Hermes, an Enquiry concerning Universal Grammar," and was characterised by Dr. Johnson as a "sound, solid scholar." He was an enthusiast on the subject of music, and had made Dr. Burney's acquaintance at the opera in 1773.--ED.]

[Footnote 134: f.a.n.n.y's younger sister, some of whose lively and amusing letters and fragments of journal are printed in the "Early Diary." Unlike f.a.n.n.y, she was a bit of a flirt, and she seems to have been altogether a very charming young woman, who fully sustained the Burney reputation for sprightliness and good humour.--ED.]

[Footnote 135: This letter was written in reply to a few words from Mrs. Thrale, in which, alluding to her husband's sudden death, she begs Miss Burney to "write to me--pray for me!" The hurried note from Mrs. Thrale is thus endorsed by Miss Burney:--"Written a few hours after the death of Mr.

Thrale, which happened by a sudden stroke of apoplexy, on the morning of a day on which half the fas.h.i.+on of London had been invited to an intended a.s.sembly at his house in Grosvenor Square." [Mr. Thrale, who had long suffered from ill health, had been contemplating a journey to Spa, and thence to Italy. His physicians, however, were strongly opposed to the scheme, and f.a.n.n.y writes, just before his death, that it was settled that a great meeting of hi friends should take place, and that they should endeavour to prevail with him to give it up; in which she has little doubt of their succeeding.]--ED.]

[Footnote 136: Sir Philip Jennings Clerke.--ED.]

[Footnote 137: Mauritius Lowe, a natural son of Lord Southwell. He sent a large picture of the Deluge to the Royal Academy in 1783, and was so distressed at its rejection, that Johnson compa.s.sionately wrote to Sirjoshua Reynolds in his behalf, entreating that the verdict might be re-considered. His intercession was successful, and the picture was admitted. We know nothing of Mr. Lowe's work.--ED.]

[Footnote 138: Afterwards Sir William P. Weller Pepys. See note 103, ante.--ED.]

[Footnote 139: "The moment he was gone, 'Now,' says Dr. Johnson, 'is Pepys gone home hating me, who love him better than I did before. He spoke in defence of his dead friend; but though I hope I spoke better, who spoke against him, yet all my eloquence will gain me nothing but an honest man for my enemy!'" (Mrs. Piozzi's "Anecdotes of Johnson.")--ED.]

[Footnote 140: The celebrated Georgiana, d.u.c.h.ess of Devons.h.i.+re, equally famous for her personal attractions and her political enthusiasm in the Whig interest. Her canva.s.sing, and, it is said, her kisses, largely contributed to the return of Charles james Fox for Westminster in the election of 1784. She was the daughter of John, first Earl Spencer; was born 1757; married, 1774, to William, fifth Duke of Devons.h.i.+re; and died, 1806. Her portrait was painted by both Reynolds and Gainsborough.

Mary Isabella, d.u.c.h.ess of Rutland, was the youngest daughter of the Duke of Beaufort, and was married, in 1775, to Charles Mariners, fourth Duke of Rutland. She died, 1831.--ED.]

[Footnote 141: Susan and Sophy were younger daughters of Mrs. Thrale--ED.]

[Footnote 142: The manager of Mr. Thrale's brewery.--ED.]

[Footnote 143: i.e. To Streatham: f.a.n.n.y had been home in the interval.--ED.]

[Footnote 144: Of Bath Easton: husband of the lady of the "Vase." See note [123], ante, P. 174.--ED.]

[Footnote 145: Captain Molesworth Phillips, who had recently married Susan Burney.--ED.]

[Footnote 146: Gasparo Pacchierotti, a celebrated Italian singer, and a very intimate friend of the Burney family.--ED.]

[Footnote 147: "Variety," a comedy, was produced at Drury Lane, Feb. 25, 1782, and ran nine nights. Genest calls it a dull play, with little or no plot. The author is unknown.--ED.]

[Footnote 148: Dr. Jonathan s.h.i.+pley.--ED.]

[Footnote 149: The husband of f.a.n.n.y Burney's sister, Susan.--ED.]

[Footnote 150: Poor Lady Di was throughout unfortunate in her marriages. Her first husband, Lord Bolingbroke, to whom she was married in 1757, brutally used her, and drove her to seek elsewhere the affection which he failed to bestow. She was divorced from him in 1768, and married, immediately afterwards, to Topham Beauclerk, who, in his turn, ill-treated her. Mr. Beauclerk died in March, 1780. He was greatly esteemed by Johnson, but his good qualities appear to have been rather of the head than of the heart.--ED.]

[Footnote 151: Her cousin Edward Burney, the painter. A reproduction of his portrait of f.a.n.n.y forms the frontispiece to the present volume.--ED.]

[Footnote 152: Pasquale Paoli, the famous Corsican general and patriot. He maintained the independence of his country against the Genoese for nearly ten years. In 1769, upon the submission of Corsica to France, to which the Genoese had ceded it, Paoli settled in England, where he enjoyed a pension of 1200 pounds a year from the English Government.

More details respecting this delightful interview between f.a.n.n.y and the General are given in the "Memoirs of Dr. Burney" (vol. ii. p. 255), from which we select the following extracts:--

"He is a very pleasing man; tall and genteel in his person, remarkably attentive, obliging, and polite; and as soft and mild in his speech, as if he came from feeding sheep in Corsica, like a shepherd; rather than as if he had left the warlike field where he had led his armies to battle.

"When Mrs. Thrale named me, he started back, though smilingly, and said; 'I am very glad enough to see you in the face, Miss Evelina, which I have wished for long enough. O charming book! I give it you my word I have read it often enough. It is my favourite studioso for apprehending the English language; which is difficult often. I pray you, Miss Evelina, write some more little volumes of the quickest.'

"I disclaimed the name, and was walking away; but he followed me with an apology. 'I pray your pardon, Mademoiselle. My ideas got in a blunder often. It is Miss Borni what name I meant to accentuate, I pray your pardon, Miss Evelina.'"--ED.]

[Footnote 153: "Memoirs of Dr. Burney," vol. ii. p. 110.]

[Footnote 154: The physician, afterwards Sir Lucas Pepys.--ED.]

[Footnote 155: A character in "Cecilia."--ED.]

[Footnote 156: The master of the ceremonies.]

[Footnote 157: Philip Metcalf, elected member of Parliament for Horsham, together with Mr. Crutchley, in 1784.--ED.]

[Footnote 158: Miss Burney had seen this gentleman a few days previously and thus speaks of him in her "Diary."--"Mr. Kaye of the Dragoons,--a baronet's son, and a very tall, handsome, and agreeable-looking young man; and, is the folks say, it is he for whom all the belles here are sighing. I was glad to see he seemed quite free from the nonchalance, impertinence of the times."--ED.]

[Footnote 159: Afterwards Countess of Cork and Orrery.]