The Diary and Letters of Madame D'Arblay Volume I Part 90

[Footnote 160: The Thrales and f.a.n.n.y were now again in London, whither they returned from Brighton, November 20. Mrs. Thrale had taken a house in Argyle-street,--ED.]

[Footnote 161: Lady Margaret Cavendish Harley, daughter of Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford; married, in 1734, to the second Duke of Portland, She inherited from her father a taste for literature. She was the constant a.s.sociate of Mrs. Delaney, and an old friend of Mr. Crisp. Of Mrs. Delany we shall give some account hereafter--ED.]

[Footnote 162: Mrs. Greville's maiden name was Frances Macartney.--ED.]

[Footnote 163: The miserly guardian of Cecilia, in f.a.n.n.y's novel. Among the "Fragments of the journal of Charlotte Anne Burney," appended to the "Early Diary," occurs the following pa.s.sage, written at the end of 1782.

"f.a.n.n.y's Cecilia came out last summer, and is as much liked and read I believe as any book ever was. She had 250 pounds for it from Payne and Cadell. Most people say she ought to have had a thousand. It is now going into the third edition, though Payne owns that they printed 2,000 at the first edition, and Lowndes told me five hundred was the common number for a novel." ("Early Diary," vol. ii. P. 307.)--ED.]

[Footnote 164: Richard Burke, the only son of the great Edmund. He died in 1794, before his father.--ED.]

[Footnote 165: Sir Joshua Reynolds was then in his sixtieth year; he was born in 1723.--ED.]

[Footnote 166: She copied pictures cleverly and painted portraits.--ED.]

[Footnote 167: Probably the Hon. Thomas Erskine, afterwards Lord Chancellor.--ED.]

[Footnote 168: Richard Owen Cambridge, a gentleman admired for his wit in conversation, and esteemed as an author. "He wrote a burlesque poem called 'The Scribleriad,' and was a princ.i.p.al contributor to the periodical paper called 'The World.'" He died in 1802, at his villa on the banks of the Thames, near Twickenham, aged eighty-five years.--ED.]

[Footnote 169: Mrs. Ord was a famous blue-stocking and giver of literary parties, and a constant friend of f.a.n.n.y's--ED.]

[Footnote 170: The Rev. George Owen Cambridge, second son of Richard Owen Cambridge, whose works he edited, and whose memoir he wrote. He died at Twickenham in 1841.--ED.]

[Footnote 171: John Hoole, the translator of Ta.s.so.--ED.]

[Footnote 172: Frances Reynolds, the miniature painter--Sir Joshua's sister--ED.]

[Footnote 173: Soame Jenyns was one of the most celebrated of the "old wits."

He was born in 1704; was for twenty-five years member of Parliament for Cambridges.h.i.+re; died in 1787. His princ.i.p.al works were "A Free Enquiry into the Origin of Evil," and "A View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion." Boswell writes of him: "Jenyns was possessed of lively talents, and a style eminently pure and 'easy', and could very happily play with a light subject, either in prose or verse; but when he speculated on that most difficult and excruciating question, 'The Origin of Evil,' he ventured far beyond his depth, and, accordingly, was exposed by Johnson [in the 'Literary Magazine'], both with acute argument and brilliant wit."--ED.]

[Footnote 174: "Memoirs of Dr. Burney," vol. iii. p. 169.]

[Footnote 175: Hester Mulso was born in 1727; she married, in 1760, an attorney named Chapone, who died within a year of the marriage. Among the many young ladies who surrounded and corresponded with Samuel Richardson, Hester was a first favourite. The great novelist's letters to his "dear Miss Mulso" are very pleasant to read. Mrs. Chapone enjoyed considerable esteem as an auth.o.r.ess. Her "Letters on the Improvement of the Mind,"

dedicated to Mrs. Montagu, went through several editions. We should like to praise them, but the truth must be owned--they are decidedly commonplace and "goody-goody." Still, they are written in a spirit of tender earnestness, which raises our esteem for the writer, though it fails to reconcile us to the book. Mrs. Chapone died on Christmas-day, 1801.--ED.]

[Footnote 176: Truly said, "my dear Miss Mulso," but if they cannot feel the wonderful charm and reality of "Clarissa" in the very first volume, they may as well leave it alone.--ED.]

[Footnote 177: In a corner of the nave of the quaint little church at Chesington is a large white marble tablet, marking the spot where Mr. Crisp lies buried. The following lines from the pen of f.a.n.n.y's father inscribed on it do not, it must be confessed, exhibit the doctor's poetical talents by any means in a favourable light.

"In memory Of SAMUEL CRISP, Esq., who died April 24, 1783, aged 76.

Reader, this cold and humble spot contains The much lamented, much rever'd remains Of one whose wisdom, learning, taste, and sense, Good-humour'd wit and wide benevolence Cheer'd and enlightened all this hamlet round, Wherever genius, worth, or want was found.

To few it is that bounteous heav'n imparts Such depth of knowledge, and such taste in arts Such penetration, and enchanting pow'rs Of brit'ning social and convivial hours.

Had he, through life, been blest by nature kind With health robust of body as of mind, With skill to serve and charm mankind, so great In arts, in science, letters, church, or state, His name the nation's annals had enroll'd And virtues to remotest ages told."]

"C. BURNEY."]

[Footnote 177: Mr. Gibbon, "in stepping too lightly from, or to a boat of Mr. Cambridge's, had slipt into the Thames; whence, however, he was intrepidly and immediately rescued, with no other mischief than a wet jacket, by one of that fearless, water-proof race, denominated, by Mr. Gibbon, the amphibious family of the Cambridges." ("Memoir of Dr.

Burney," vol. ii. P. 341.)--ED.]

[Footnote 178: The "Ess.e.x Head" club, just founded by Dr. Johnson. The meetings were held thrice a week at the Ess.e.x Head, a tavern in Ess.e.x-street, Strand, kept by Samuel Greaves, an old servant of Mr. Thrale's. Among the rule's of the club, which were drawn up by Dr. Johnson, we find the following: "Every member present at the club shall spend at least sixpence; and every member who stays away shall forfeit threepence."

He ought to have added, "to be spent by the company in punch." (See Goldsmith's delightful essay on the London clubs.)--ED.]

[Footnote 179: The Lockes, of Norbury Park, Surrey, were friends of f.a.n.n.y's sister, Mrs. Phillips, and, subsequently, among the most constant and attached friends of f.a.n.n.y herself.--ED.]

[Footnote 180: It must be borne in mind that the "Diary" is addressed to f.a.n.n.y's sister Susan (Mrs. Phillips),--ED.]

[Footnote 181: Mrs. Locke.--ED.]

[Footnote 182: Mrs. Phillips had lately gone to live at Boulogne for the benefit of her health.--ED.]

[Footnote 183: Mrs. Phillips returned in less than a twelvemonth from Boulogne, much recovered in health, and settled with her husband and family in a house at Micklcham, at the foot of Norbury Park.]

[Footnote 184: f.a.n.n.y had called upon Dr. Johnson the same day, but he was too ill to see her.--ED.]

[Footnote 185: Sunday, December 12.--ED.]

[Footnote 186: Frank Barber, Dr. Johnson's negro servant.---ED.]

[Footnote 187: Mary Bruce Strange, daughter of Sir Robert Strange, the celebrated engraver. She died, as f.a.n.n.y tells us, on the same day with Dr. Johnson, December 13, 1784, aged thirty-five. The Stranges were old and very intimate friends of the Burneys--ED.]

[Footnote 188: Her brother--ED.]

[Footnote 189: "Memoirs of Dr. Burney," vol. iii. p. 87. f.a.n.n.y had, however, to a.s.sist in dressing the queen. See postea, P--345.]

[Footnote 190: The death of the d.u.c.h.ess dowager of Portland.]

[Footnote 191: Miss Planta was English teacher to the two eldest princesses.--ED.]

[Footnote 192: One of the governesses to the princesses.--ED.]

[Footnote 193: Georgina Mary Anne Port, grandniece of Mrs. Delany, by whom she was brought up from the age of seven until Mrs. Delany's death. She was born in 1771, and mairied, in 1789, Mr. Waddington, afterwards Lord Llanover. She was for many years on terms of friends.h.i.+p with f.a.n.n.y, but after Madame D'Arblay's death, Lady Llanover seized the opportunity of publis.h.i.+ng, in her edition of Mrs. Delany's Correspondence, an attack upon her former friend, of which the ill-breeding is only equalled by the inaccuracy. The view which she there takes of f.a.n.n.y is justly characterised by Mr. Shuckburgh as "the lady-in-waiting's lady's-maid's view." (See Macmillan's magazine for February, 1890.)--ED.]

[Footnote 194: Joseph Baretti, author of an Italian and English Dictionary, and other works; the friend Of JOhnson, well known to readers of Boswell.

He had long been acquainted with the Burneys. f.a.n.n.y writes in her "Early Diary" (March, 1773): "Mr. Baretti appears to be very facetious; he amused himself very much with Charlotte, whom he calls Churlotte, and kisses whether she will or no, always calmly saying, 'Kiss a me, Churlotte!'" Charlotte Burney was then about fourteen; she was known after this in the family as Mrs. Baretti.--ED.]

[Footnote 195: A character in "Cecilia."--ED.]

[Footnote 196: Mrs. Phillips (Susan)--ED.]

[Footnote 197: Madame de Genlis had visited England during the spring of 1785, and made the acquaintance of Dr. Burney and his daughter f.a.n.n.y. In July f.a.n.n.y writes of her as "the sweetest as well as the most accomplished Frenchwoman I ever met with," and in the same month Madame de Genlis writes to f.a.n.n.y: "Je vous aime depuis l'instant ou j'ai lu Evelina et Cecilia, et le bonheur de vous entendre et de vous conneitre personellement a rendu ce sentiment aussi tendre qu'il est bien fonde."

The acquaintance, however, was not kept up.--ED.]

[Footnote 198: The famous actress, Kitty Clive. She had quitted the stage in 1760. Genest says of her, "If ever there was a true Comic Genius, Mrs.

Clive was one."---ED.]

[Footnote 199: John Henderson was by many people considered second only to Garrick, especially in Shakspearean parts. He too was lately dead, having made his last appearance on the stage on the 8th of November, 1785, within less than a month of his death.--ED.]