/(^,^./^o tion of Maria. — She makes many New Friends. — Misses Mme. de Stael. — The Party travel through England before they return to Ireland. — Sir James Mackintosh . . . 255 CHAPTER XIII. Return to Ireland. — Maria begins the New Series of " Early Lessons." — A Visit from Miss Elizabeth Hamilton and other Friends. — " Patronage " published. — Lord Dudley. — Mrs. Inchbald. — " "Waverley." — INIaria writes Scott. — A Visit to Dublin. — Ill Health of Mr. Edgeworth. — A Visit from Mr. Ward. — Anecdotes. —Maria at Work on " Har- rington " and " Ormond " 282 CHAPTER XIV. Letter to Mrs. Inchbald, with "Comic Dramas." — Continued Illness of Mr. Edgeworth. — His Death. — Maria's Distress. — No Work done for many Months. — Maria rouses herself to work on her Father's " Memoir." — A Visit to Bowood. — Lord and Lady Lansdowne. — Dumont. — Moore's Diary. — Other Visits. — The Grove. — Hampstead. — The Misses Baillie. — Again at Bowood. — Byrkeley Lodge. — Trentham. — Smethwick. — Lady Elizabeth Whitbread's House. — Ken- sington Gore. — London Friends. — Duchess of Wellington. — Deep Dene. — Home. — "Memoir" 309 CHAPTER XV. A Visit from the Carrs. — Maria reads New Books. —Memoir completed. — A Continental Journey. -England. -Oxford. — Paris. — Old Friends revisited. — Mme. Re'camier. — Mme. de Pastoret. — Cuvier. — Prony. — Other Celebrities. — French Society. — Many Changes. — Politics.— Mme. de Rumford. — Geneva. — Dumont. — The Moillets. — A Visit at Pregny. — Coppet. — Chamouni. — A Town on the Borders of Lake Geneva. —Visit to Mme.de Montolieu. — Again at Coppet. — M. de Stael. — Memories of ^Nlme. de Stael. —Maria writes "Rosamond" at Pregny. — M. Pictct de Rocheinont. — Re- views of the "Memoir."— Painful Experience for Maria. — Paris. — Much Visiting. — A Call upon Mme. de Roche- jaquelin 333 CONTENTS. Xlll CnArTER XVI. PAfiE. Return to England. — Bowood. — Ireland. — Tmprovemcnts in Edgeworthstown. — England in 18'21. —Visits to Snietliwiek Qrove. — Wycombe Abbey. — Mr. Wilberforce. — Gatcond)0 I'ark. — Anecdotes. — Easton Grey. — liowood. — Salisbury Cathedral. — Deepdene. — Sequel to " Frank."— Hamiistead. — "The Pirate" read. — Misses Baillie. — Mrs. Soinerville. — Many Literary Tcople. — Anecdotes. — Mrs. Fry's Reading at Newgate. — Almack's. — Sir Walter Scott invites Maria to Abbotsford. — She accepted for a Few Months Later.— LondonSociety.— Mrs, Siddons's Acting.— Ireland.— "Harry and Lucy." — A visit to Scotland. — The Stuarts. — Edin- burgh, —Mrs. Fletcher's Description of Maria. —Scott , , 3G'2 CHAPTER XVII. Account of the Meeting between ISIaria and Sir Walter Scntt.— An Evening with liiiu. — Edinburgh seen with Sir Walter. — The Lakes and the Highlands. - Abbotsford. — Happy Visit. — Return to Ireland. — Home Affairs. —Visitors. — The Mental Thermometer. — " Take for Granted." —Mr. Constable. —The Visit of Sir Walter Scott to Ireland. — His Stay at Edgeworthstown. — Their Trip to Killarney 388 CHAPTER XVIII. Maria and Sir Walter Scott travel to the Lakes.— Delightful Days. — Return to Dublin. — Parting of the Novelists. — Irish Commercial Difficulties.— Maria meets the Crisis in Money Affairs successfully. — Sir Humphry Davy. — Capt. Hall. —Maria forms Habit of Morning Exercise. — " Take for Granted " announced withotit Permission. — Miss Anna Edgeworth's Bequest. —Maria's Disposition of it. — Fire.— Capt. Hall's Journals. — Scott's Introduction to the Waver- ley Novels. — Many Deaths among Maria's Friends. — ]SIaria at AVork on "Helen." — Distress and Famine in Ireland. — Visit to England.- Sees many Friends. — Lansdowne,— Duchess of Wellington. — Baillies. — Carrs, — Mrs, Wilson. — Mackintoshes. — Herschels. — Ireland. — Enjoyment of London.— Notes for "Helen. " — Death of Scott . . .419 CHAPTER XIX. " Helen." — INIaria still at Work on this Book. — Encouragement from Friends. — "Helen " finished. —Received with Great Interest by the Public. — Remarks on "Helen." — Sir Cul- ling Smith. — Maria's Visit to Connemara.— Letter from Col. xiv CONTENTS. Page. Stewart.— Answers Mrs. Stark. — "Dublin University Maga- zine" 4M CHAPTER XX. Visit of the Ticknors to Edgeworthstown. — Remarks of Maria. —Letter to W. B. O. Peabody.— Mrs. Farrar's Visit to Maria. — Condition of Ireland at this time. — Mr. Sprague's Sketch of his Day with Maria. — Leigh Hunt's "Blue-Stocking Revels." — Sou they.— A Visit to England.— Mrs. Sigourney's Meeting with Miss Edgeworth. — Maria made Honorary Member of the Royal Irish Society. — Hall's Account of Edgeworthstown and the Family. — A Visit to Maria. — Im- pressions of Maria's Home Life 405 CHAPTER XXI. Severe Illness of Miss Edgeworth. — A Visit to Trim. — Frede- rika Bremer. — Lady Lansdowne's Character. — Last Visit to England. — Sydney Smith.— Observations of his on Maria's Conversation. — Pleasant Stay in Loudon. — Trim. — Illness there.— Lady Georgiana Fullerton. — Armagh. — Lever's Tribute to Miss Edgeworth. — Maria's Interest in the Poor on the Estate.— Writes " Orlandino." — Remarks on Tem- perance. — Simpkins & Marshall ask for Prefaces to Maria's CollectedWorks. — Her Reply. — Mr. Prescott . . .501 CHAPTER XXII. Miss Edgeworth's Continued Interest in Literature. — Lady Cecilia Clarendon. — Mrs. Wilson's Death. — Note in Macau- lay's History on Maria. — Maria's Letter about a Severe Illness. —Lines to Ireland. — Maria's Gift to the Irish Porters. — Maria's Sudden Illness. — Death. — Her AYishes. —Her Habits. — Her Disposition. — Her Mental Training. — Intellect. — Notes. — Methods of Work. — Summary. — Character and Influence 518 APPENDIX. The Mental Thermometer 541 A STUDY MARIA EDGEWOETH NOTICES OF HER FATHER AND FRIENDS A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOETH. CHAPTER I. Introiluction. — Settlement of the Edgewortbs in Ireland. — Sketches and Anecdotes of the Family. — Marriage of Richard Edgeworth. — Birth of Richard Lovell Edgeworth. — Early Years. — Schools. — Visits England. — Warwick. — Bath. — Returns to Ireland.— Anecdotes. — Mock ISIarriage. — Years of Idleness. -Dublin Uni- versity. — Enters Oxford. — Acquaintance with the Elers Family. — A Tragic Story. Many causes have combined to prevent any one from writing the life of Maria Edgeworth; and what was not done early has become more and more difficult as years passed on. Hers was not an ordi- nary literary career, made up of the grinding poverty and soaring aspirations and almost insurmountable obstacles which so often, unfortunately, beset the path of genius. She was well born and bred, care- fully educated, and socially surrounded by Great Britain's and Europe's best and finest minds. Her circle of intimate acquaintances, friends, and rela- tions, takes in the very first names in politics, litera- ture, science, and art. While her extensive view of life and society gave her breadth and ease, it in no wise detracted from her originality, her genius, or her industry. , ?^, ,,, ^.^ A, STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH, Maria Edgeworth was Irish only in her sympatliies, not her birth : for on her mother's side she was de- scended from an Enghsh family of long standing; and the Edgeworths, though long settled in Ireland and intermarried there, were of English origin. It is quite impossible to write an adequate sketch of Maria Edgeworth's life, without introducing at every turn her father as a prominent factor in her literary work. He was her " guide, philosopher, and friend ; " and, in order to complete the j)icture of her life, we must introduce some j)reliminary account of the Edgeworths, and give a description of the character and early life of Kichard Lovell Edgeworth. Their lives were so long parallel, as she was born before he was twenty-two years old, that of neces- sity an account of one must constantly mention the other. Mr. Edgeworth, in writing his own memoir, which was finished after his death by Maria, says : — "My family came into Ireland iu the reign of Queen Elizabeth, about the year 1583 : they had been established, as I have been told, at Edgeworth, now called Edgeware, in Middlesex. " Edward Edgeworth, who was the bishop of Down and Connor in Ireland, iu the year 1593, dying without issue, left his fortune to his brother Francis, who was the clerk of the Hanai>er, in 1G19. This gentleman, from whom I am lineally descended, married an Irish lady, Jane Tuite, a daughter of Sir Edmond Tuite, Knight of Sonna, in the county of Westmeath. She was very beautiful, and of an ancient family. It happened, that, being once obliged to give place at church to some lady whom she thought her inferior, she pressed her husband to take out HER ANCESTOKS. 6 a baronet's patent which had been prepared for him. At this time patents were, as he expressed it, ' more oner- ous than honorable ; ' and he refused to comply with his wife's request. The lady, waxing wroth, declared that she would never go again to church. The gentleman un- gallantly replied, that she might stay or go wherever she pleased. In consequence of this permission, which she took in the largest sense, she attached herself to Queen Henrietta Maria, with whom she continued in France dm-ing the remainder of the queen's life. "Upon her husband's refusing the baronet's patent, she obtained it for her brother, Sir Edmond Tuite. She returned to Ireland afterwards, at Queen Henrietta Maria's death ; but she disregarded her husband's family and her own, and laid out a very large fortune iu founding a religious house iu Dublin. "•Her son, Capt. John Edgeworth, married the daughter of Sir Hugh Cullum, of Derbyshire. He brought her to Ireland, to his castle of Cranallagh, in the county of Longford. He had by her one son. Before the Irish rebellion broke out, iu 1641, Capt. Edgeworth, not aware of the immediate danger, left his wife and infant in the castle of Cranallagh, while he was summoned to a dis- tance by some military duty. During his absence, the rebels rose, attacked the castle, set fire to it at night, and dragged the lady out, literally naked. She escaped from their hands, and hid herself iu a furze-bush till they had dispersed. By what means she saved herself from the fury of the rebels, I never heard. She made her way to Dublin, thence to England, and to her father's house in Derbyshire. After the rebels had forced the lady out of the castle, and had set fire to it, they plundered it com- pletely ; but they were persuaded to extinguish the fire from reverence for the picture of Jane Edgeworth. Her 4 A STUDY OF MAKIA EDGEWOETH. portrait was painted on the wainscot, with a cross hang- ing from her neck, and a rosary in her hands. ' ' Being a Catholic, and having founded a religious house, she was considered as a saint. The only son of Capt. Edgeworth was then an infant lying in his cradle. One of the rebels seized the child by the leg, and was in the act of swinging him round to dash his brains out against the corner of the castle-wall, when an Irish ser- vant of the lowest order stopped his hand, claiming the right of killing the little heretic himself, and swearing that a sudden death would be too good for him ; that he would pltinge him up to the throat in a boghole, and leave him for the crows to pick his eyes out. Snatching the child from his comrade, he ran off with it to a neighbor- ing bog, and thrust it into the mud ; but, when the rebels had retired, this man, who had only pretended to join them, went back to the bog for the boy, preserved his life, and, contriving to hide him in a pannier under eggs and chickens, carried him actually through the midst of the rebel camp, safely to Dublin. " This faithful servant's name was Bryan Ferral. His last descendant died within my memory, after having lived, and been supported always, under my father's protection. My father heard this story from Lady Edge- worth, his grandmother, and also from a man of a hun- dred and seven years of age, one Bryan Simpson, who was present when the attack was made on Cranallagh Castle, and by whom the facts were circumstantially detailed. "Mrs. Edgeworth, the daughter of Sir Hugh Cullum, lived but a few years after her return to her father's house in Derbyshire. Her husband, Capt. John Edgeworth, had followed her to England. Some time after he was left a widower, he determined to return to reside in Ireland. A RUNAWAY MATCH. 6 On hif=; waj' thither, he stopped a day at Chester, it being Christmas Day. He went to tlie catliedral ; and there he was struck with the sight of a lady who had a full-blown rose in her bosom. This lady was Mrs. Bridgman, a widow of INIr. Edward Bridgman, brother to Sir Orlando Bridgman, the Lord Keeper. As she was coming out of church, the rose fell at Capt. Edgeworth's feet. The lady was handsome, so was the captain : he took up the rose, and presented it with so much grace to Mrs, Bridg- man, that, in consequence, they became acquainted, and were soon married. They came over to Ireland. Capt. Edgeworth had a son, as I have mentioned, by his former wife ; and the widow Bridgman had a daughter by her former husband. The daughter was heiress to her father's property. These young people fell in love with each other. The mother was averse to the match. To avoid the law against running away with an heiress, the lovers settled that the young lady should take her lover to church behind her on horseback. Their marriage was effected. Their first son, Francis, was born before the joint ages of his father and mother amounted to thirty-one years. "After the death of Captain Edgeworth and his wife, which happened before this young couple had arrived at years of discretion, John Edgeworth took possession of a considerable estate in Ii'eland, and of an estate in J^ng- land, in Lancashire, which came to him in right of his wife ; he had also ten thousand pounds in money, as her fortune. But they were extravagant, and quite ignorant of the management of money. Upon an excursion to England, they moi'tgaged their estate in Lancashire, and carried the money to London in a stocking, which they kept on the top of their bed. To this stocking, both wife and husband had free access ; and, of course, its contents soon began to be very low. The young man 6 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. was handsome, and very fond of dress. At one time, when he had run out all his cash, he actually sold the ground plat of a house in Dublin, to purchase a high- crowned hat and feathers, which was then the mode. He lived in high company in London and at court. Upon some occasion King Charles II. insisted on knighting him. His lady was presented at court, where she was so much taken notice of by the gallant monarch, that she thought it proper to intimate to her husband that she did not wish to go there a second time ; nor did she ever after appear at court, though in the bloom of youth and beauty. She returned to Ireland. This was an instance of prudence, as well as strength of mind, which could hardly have been expected from the improvident temper she had shown at first setting out in life. In this lady's character there was an extraordinary mixture of strength and weakness. She was courageous beyond the habits of her sex in real danger, and yet afraid of imagi- nary beings. According to the superstition of the times, she believed in faii'ies. Opposite to her husband's castle of Lissard, in Ireland, and within view of the windows, there is a mount, which was reputed to be the resort of fairies ; and, when Lady Edgeworth resided alone at Lis- sard, the common people of the neighborhood, either for amusement, or with the intention of frightening her away, sent children by night to this mount, who, by their strange noises, by singing, and the lights the}^ showed from time to time, terrified her exceedingly. But she did not quit tlie place. The mount was called Fairy-mount, since abbreviated to Firmount. ' ' ^ 1 Firniouiit: from which, in after times, the Abbe' Edgeworth (celebrated as attending Louis XVI. on the scaffold, to whose branch of the family this part of the estate descended) called himself M. de Firmout. The abbe was Lady Edgeworth's grandson. Her fifth son, Essex Edgeworth, was the abbe's father. LADY EDGEWORTHS COUKAGE. 7 Of the courage and presence of mind of this I^ady Edgeworth, who was so much afraid of fairies, Mr. Edgeworth gives an instance. " While she was Hving at Lissard, she was, on some sudden alarm, obliged to go at night to a garret at the top of the house for some gunpowder, which was kept there in a barrel. She was followed up-stairs by an igno- rant servant-girl, who carried a bit of caudle without a candle-stick between her fingers. When Lady Edgeworth had taken what guupowder she wanted, had locked the door, and was half-way down-stairs again, she ob- served that the girl had not her candle, and asked her what she had done with it : the girl recollected, and an- swered, that she had left it ' stuck in the barrel of black salt.' Lady Edgeworth bid her stand still, and instantly returned by herself to the room where the gunpowder was, found the caudle as the girl had described, put her hand carefully underneath it, carried it safely out, and, when she got to the bottom of the stairs, dropped on her knees, aud thanked God for their deliverance. This lady, with all her courage aud virtue, had a violent temper, which brought on family quarrels between her and her husband and her many sons : so that the very early marriage which I have mentioned turned out unhappily. She recurred continually to the large fortune which she had brought her husband, and complained of being treated with neglect. Her husband had learned prudence, however, and man- aged to push his fortunes as a courtier and soldier, and to leave to his eight sons a handsome property. Lady Edgeworth lived till she was ninety." Francis Edgeworth, her eldest son, was the grand- father of Richard Lovell Edgeworth. 8 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. " He was a loyal man, a zealous Protestant ; so much so, that he was called Protestant Frank. In his youth he raised a regiment for King William, which, when he had completed, he gave up to his father, Sir John, who required it from him. A memorandum of an intended grant from the crown, of three thousand pounds, on account of the expense of raising this regiment, and as an acknowledgment for the service, still remains (unpaid) among our family papers. My grandfather became colo- nel of the regiment after his father's death. He was a man of great wit and gayety, fond of his profession, quite a soldier, and totally regardless of money. He married successively several wives, one of whom, an English lady, was a widow Bradstone. Her daughter. Miss Brad- stone, my father's half-sister, married Thomas Pakenham, father to the first, and grandfather to the present. Lord Longford. Thus he became connected with the Paken- ham family. Col. Francis Edgeworth, besides being straitened in his circumstances, by having, for many years, a large jointure to pay to his mother, was involved in diflSculties by his own taste for play, — a taste which, from indulgence, became an irresistible passion. One night, after having lost all the money he could command, he staked his wife's diamond earrings, and went into an adjoining room where she was sitting in company, to ask her to lend them to him. She took them from her ears, and gave them to him, sajing, that she knew for what purpose he wanted them, and that he was welcome to them. They were played for. My grandfather won upon this last stake, and gained back all he had lost that night. In the warmth of his gratitude to his wife, he, at her desire, took an oath that he would never more play at any game with cards or dice. Some time afterwards he was found in a hay-j^ard with a friend, drawing straws A LAWSUIT. y out of the hay-rick, and betting upon which should be the longest. As might be expected, he lived in allernate extravagance and distress ; sometimes with a coach and four, and in very want of half a crown." Col. Francis Edgewortli left his affairs in such disorder at his death, " that his son, the father of Richard Lovell Edgeworth, then a child of eight years old," would have lost his whole property, had not JNIr. Pakenhara, his guardian, taken care of hira and of it. Mr. Pakenham, finding his half-nephew to be an " uncommonly steady disposition, advised him to go to the Temple, at eighteen, instead of going to college. This prudent counsel he followed, and there applied himself closely to the study of the law; and by perseverance in his profession, and mak- mg himself" master of his own affairs, he recovered a considerable part of his estate, which had been unjustly detained from him by some of his own family. His son relates "a singular detection of fraud in one of the suits in which he was engaged. A deed was produced against him, which was wit- nessed by a very old man, who was brought into court. His venerable aspect prepossessed the court strongly in favor of his veracity. He said that he was an ancient servant of the Edgeworth family, and had been accustomed to transcribe papers for the gentleman who had executed the deed. He began by declaring, that he had foreseen from the particular circumstances of the deed, which went to disinherit the heir of the family, that the transaction might hereafter be brought into dispute : he had therefore, he said, privately put a sixpence under the seal of 10 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. the deed, which would appear if the seal were bro- ken. The seal was broken in open court, and the sixj^ence was found to be dated five years subsequent to the date of the deed : the deed being thus proved to be a forgery, my father gained his suit." The readers of " Patronage " must remember how much the point of that story depends upon this very anecdote, which Maria has introduced as the evidence on which the fortunes of Mr. Percy turned in the nefarious attempt of Sir Robert Percy to deprive him of the mesne rents, after he had dispos- sessed him of his estates by an earlier suit. The finding of the coin there restores him his entire estate, and the whole passage is one of those genu- ine bits of real life which she depicts with so much truth and vividness. Mr. Edgeworth, after this incident, and gaining other suits, became rich in a few years; and, " in 1732, he married Jane Lovell, daughter of Samuel Lovell, a Welsh judge, who was son of Sir Salathiel Lovell, that recorder of London who, at the trial of the seven bishops, in the reign of James II., proved him- self to be a good man, though he was but an indif- ferent lawj-er. He lived to the age of ninety-four, and had so much lost his memory as to be called the Ohliviscor of London. Of him I have heard my father relate an anecdote," saj'S Richard Lovell Edgeworth, "which has been told of others. A young lawyer pleading before him was so rude as to say, ' Sir, you have forgotten the law.' He replied, 'Young man, I liave forgotten more law than you will ever remember.' " MR. EDGEWORTH'S EARLY YEARS. 11 In Galton's "Hereditary Genius" he mentions the Edgeworths, and classes them as an example of his theory. He also names Sir Salathiel Lovell as an ancestor. In naming Mr. Edgeworth, the father of ^laria, he says, he exhibits " a singular union of sober sense and inexhaustible invention." Samuel Lovell, the Welsh judge, as he was pass- ing the sands near Beaumoris, "going the circuit," was overtaken by the night and the tide : his coach was set fast in a quicksand; the water soon rose into the coach; and his register and some other attendants crept out of the windows, and mounted on the roof and on the coach-box. The judge let the water rise to his very lips, and with becoming gravity replied to all the entreaties of his attend- ants, " I will follow your counsel, if you can quote any precedent for a judge's mounting a coach-box." After Mr. Edgeworth's marriage with Miss Lovell, he abandoned the profession of the law, and resided on his estate in Ireland, with occasional visits to England. He had eight children, four of whom died in their early infancy. Richard Lovell Edge- worth was born in Bath, in the year 1744. When he was six years of age, he became, by the death of his elder brother Thomas, his father's heir. He tells us that as the result of this event, — "The views of my education changed, and my life was now to be preserved with an increased degree of care and precaution. ... I was naturally strong and active ; but I was now obhged to take a course of physic twice a year, every spring and autumn, with a nine days' potions of small-beer and rhuljarb, to fortify my stomach, and 12 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. to kill imaginary worms. I was not suffered to feel the slightest inclemency of the weather ; I was muffled up whenever I was permitted to ride a mile or two on horse- back before the coachman ; my feet never brushed the dew, nor was my head ever exposed to the wind or sun. Fortunately my mother's knowledge of the human mind far exceeded her skill in medicine." This lady, having become a cripple by accident, after the birth of her son Richard, devoted herself to literature for her diversion and relief from ennui ; and to her, probably, he owed the taste for science and literature which he afterwards displayed, and with which he so strongly imbued the opening mind of his daughter Maria. Richard Edgeworth was first sent to school to the clergyman of a neighboring village, the Rev. Patrick Hughes, the early instructor of Goldsmith. After a few months of preparatory study there, combined with a good deal of whipping, he was ready for a higher school, and placed at Dr. Lycliat's at War- wick, in England. He was then about eight years old. He says of this school and the harsh treat- ment he received there from the older boys, — "I had been accustomed to the affection of all my family at home, and was totally unacquainted with that love of power and of tyranny which seems almost innate in certain minds. A full-grown boy, just ready for col- lege, made it his favorite amusement to harass the minds, and torment the bodies, of his younger school-fellows. A little boy with remarkably long flaxen hair, and myself, were the chosen objects of his cruelty. He used to knot our hah- together, and drag us up and dowu the school- SCHOOL LIFE. 13 room stairs, for bis diversion. One evening, when Dr. Lyiliat and all the boys except ray tormentor and myself, bad gone to church, be caught rue, and, confining me with iron grasp between bis knees, be pulled a small black box from his pocket, which, with a terrific voice and coun- tenance, he informed me was filled with dead men's fat, with the fat of a man who had lately been hanged : this he invited me to eat ; and, upon my refusing to do so with manifest signs of horror and disgust, be crammed my mouth till I was nearly suffocated. The box contained, it is true, nothing but spermaceti ; but to me it was dread- ful as poison." Travellino' in England in 1752 was at all seasons difficult, but in winter a great exposure. And as tlie Edgeworth family were living at Bath, the boy- was to spend his Christmas holidays at school. Mrs. Dewes, the sister of Mrs. Delany, so well known to all who have ever read the life of that charming woman, was herself all benevolence and sympathy; and, on a visit to her own sons at the school, saw little Richard, and invited him to Welsbourne, her home, which was about four miles from Warwick. There he went, and passed a very delightful Christ- mas. His mother had known Mrs. Delany ; and he found himself received by the master and mistress of Welsbourne as one of the family, and saw old English hospitality. His description of it all shows what country life in England was at that time. " The tenants of Mr. Dewes were invited to a Christ- mas dmner of excellent cheer, and their wives and daughters passed the evening in mirth and unreproved pleasure. The fiddle and a good supper sent ail the 14 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOETH. young people bappy to their homes, find Mrs. Dewes's cheerful and instructive conversation spread universal satisfaction among the elder part of the company." The four Dewes boys and young Edgeworth passed their time very pleasantly in the usual sports of the season, and read in the evening from the little books then printed by Newberry in St. Paul's Churchyard, or deciphered anagrams which Mrs. Dewes and some young lady visitors gave them. Mrs. Delany, writing Mrs. Dewes from Bulstrode, the home of the Duchess of Portland, Dec. 2, 1753, says, among other things, — "I am delighted with your journal, and that Master Edgeworth is so well-behaved a child : it would have been indeed grievous to have had your great good-nature and humanity hurt and ungratefully returned, as it would have been had he proved a bad boy." After an attack of whooping-cough, which pre- vented his study, he was removed from the school at Warwick. On his way with his father to Bath, he says, — " Our journey lay in some places out of the high road, and across corn-fields. Our vehicle was a two-wheeled carriage, something like a French chaise de ]}oste; and, as we travelled slowly, I had time for observation. I recollect, however, only one thing that caught my atten- tion : when we came on the high road to Cirencester, I saw a man carrying a machine five or six feet in diameter, of an oval form, and composed of slender ribs of steel. I begged my father to inquhe what it was. We were IRELAND. 15 told that it was the skolcton of a \n(\y's hoop. It ^ras furnished with hinges, wliich permitted it to fold together in a small compass, so that more than two persons might sit on one seat of a coaeh ; a feat not easily performed when ladies were encompassed with whaleboue hoops of six feet extent. ' ' On his parents' return to Ireland, he was placed at Drogheda school ; of which Dr. Norris was master, and it was then considered the best in Ireland. While there he profited by the excellent instrnc- tion, and made some lifelong friends. Among them were the two sons of Chief Baron Foster: John, the eldest, became afterwards the celebrated speaker of the Irish House of Commons ; and Wil- liam, who was successively Bishop of Kilmore and Bishop of Clogher. While at this school. Edge- worth became celebrated for feats of strength ; and, during his vacations, he was invited by Baron Foster to visit his sons at Collon, where he hunted "desperately" with the Fosters. Thinking he had some cause of grievance, Richard persuaded his father to remove him when he was about four- teen years old to a school at Longford, kept by a man named Hynes ; and so well did he profit by his studies, that in two years more he was prepared to enter the University of Dublin. About this time (1754) his mother, who had long been an invalid, consulted Lord Trimblestone, " a Roman-Catholic nobleman who had resided many years abroad, and become famous for his skill in medicine and benevolent attentions to persons of all ranks who applied to him." Mr. Edgeworth relates 16 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. the following anecdote of one of this nobleman's remarkable cures. "A very delicate lady of fashion, who had, till her beauty began to decay, been flattered egregiously by one sex, and vehemently envied by the other, began to feel, as years approached, that she was shrinking into nobody. Disappointment produces ennui, and ennui disease : a train of nervous symptoms succeeded each other with alarm- ing rapidity ; and after the advice and the consultations of all the physicians in Ireland, and the correspondence of the most eminent in England, this poor lady had recourse in the last resort to Lord Trimblestone. He declined interfering, he hesitated: but at last, after much inter- cession, he consented to hear the lady's complaints, and to endeavor to effect her cure : this concession was made upon a positive stipulation that the patient should remain three weeks in his house, without any attendants but those of his own family, and that her friends should give her up entirely to his management. The case was desperate, and any terms must be submitted to where there was a prospect of relief. The lady went to Trimblestone, was received with the greatest attention and politeness. Instead of a grave and forbidding physician, her host, she found, was a man of most agreeable manners. Lady Trimblestone did every thing in her power to entertain her guest, and for two or three days the demon of ennui was banished. At length the lady's vapors returned: every thing appeared changed. Melancholy brought on a return of alarming nervous complaints, — convulsions of the limbs, perversion of the understanding, a horror of society : in short, all the complaints that are to be met with in an advertisement enumerating the miseries of a nervous patient. In the midst of one of her most LORD TRIMBLESTONE, 17 violent fits, four mutes, dressed in white, entered her apartment ; slowly approaching, they took her without violence in their arms, and without giving her time to recollect herself, conveyed her into a distant chamber hung with black, and lighted with green tapers. From the ceiling, which was of a considerable height, a swing was suspended, in which she was placed by the mutes, so as to be seated at some distance from the ground. One of the mutes set the swing in motion ; and, as it approached one end of the room, she was opposed by a grim mena- cing figure armed with a huge rod of birch. When she looked behind her, she saw a similar figure at the other end of the room, armed in the same manner. The ter- ror, notwithstanding the strange circumstances which sur- rounded her, was not of that sort which threatens life ; but every instant there was an immediate hazard of bodily pain. After some time the mutes appeared again, with great composure took the lady out of the swing, and con- ducted her to her apartment. When she had reposed some time, a servant came to inform her that tea was ready. Fear of what might be the consequences of a refusal prevented her from declining to appear. No notice was taken of what had happened, and the evening and the next day passed without any attack of her dis- order. On the third day the vapors returned, the mutes re-appeared, the menacing flagellants again affrighted her ; and again she enjoyed a remission of her com- plaints. By degrees the fits of her disorder became less frequent, the ministration of her tormentors less necessary ; and in time the habits of hypochondriacism were so often iuteiTupted, and such a new series of ideas was introduced into her mind, that she recovered perfect health, and preserved to the end of her life sincere grati- tude for her adventurous physician." 18 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. Before young Edgewortli entered the university, his attention was turned from his studies for a time by the festivities attending his eldest sister's wedding. She married Francis Fox, Esq., of Fox Hall, in the county of Longford, a gentleman of good family and fortune, living near Edgeworthstown. All kinds of gayety followed this event, and Richard Edgeworth was among the wildest participants in these jovial scenes. It was at one of the dances given in honor of the wedding that the mock-marriage occurred, which sufficiently alarmed his father, and caused him to institute a suit of jactitatmi of marriage in the ecclesiastical court, to annul these imaginary nuptials. The whole affair was a joke, and hardly worth noticing, any more than other boyish freaks, such as dancing, hunting, and shooting so violently that for three nights successively Richard went from one amusement to another without being in bed; and it was after a raking pot of tea — that Hibernian potation taken to refresh the spirits of those who have sat up all night — that this wedding ceremony was gone through, with a key of a door for a ring, and a " few words of the ceremony gabbled over " by one of the company, with a white cloak round him for a surplice. When " The Quarterly Review," long years after, sent forth that cruel notice of the Memoirs which so hurt INIaria and the Edgeworth family, this incident was commented on in the most severe language by the reviewer. That gentleman actually counted this as a marriage, and added it to Mr. Edgeworth's four marriages as another. The young lady married shortly afterwards. SCIENTIFIC STUDIES. 19 A change for the better in the active boy's tastes was made by the good influence of Lady Longford, wife of the Lord Longford who was nephew of Richard's father. His cousin's wife was the worthy comj)anion of this nobleman, who was a man of "su- perior abilities and politeness." She was a woman gifted by nature with talents, wit, and humor, to which she added a taste for literature not common in the women of her day. She did not try to thwart her young cousin in his passion for field-sports, but gave him the key of the library ; and this hint soon had the desired effect, for he shot till he was tired of it, and then found the library a most attractive place. His taste for field-sports vanished, never to return. His active mind was early roused to an interest in science ; and the electrical machine of the traveller Mr. Deane — whose wife Mrs. Edgeworth interested herself in when her son was seven years old — made a lasting impression on his mind. This philosopher was detained at Edgeworthstown by his wife's illness ; and, grateful for the kindness of Rich- ard's mother to her, he showed him, while he was on a visit to Dublin, his workshop and all his scien- tific instruments. Among other things, he allowed him to see an orrery which he was making. This machine he afterwards bequeathed to the University of Dublin. One feels some doubt as to the wisdom with which Lord Longford allowed young Edgeworth to win a hundred guineas at faro, and then lose it all again, to try his disposition, and see if he were in danger of becoming a gambler. 20 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. The usual career of a young man of property was at that day either idleness, which always has so many dangers, or a profession ; and this latter seems to have been Richard's lot. lie was entered at Duljlin University, 1761 ; and there he passed an extremely idle, misspent period of his life. He himself wishes " to pass over " his residence there. His father removed him in 1761 to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner. He resolved to amend his life, and seems to have thor- oughly regretted the dissipations of Dublin. Another danger awaited him. Mr. Elers, an early friend of Mr. Edgeworth, was requested by him to take an interest in his son while at the university. Mr. Elers frankly told Mr. Edgeworth that he had " several daughters grown and growing up, who, as the world said, were prett}'- girls , but to whom he could not give fortunes that would make them suita- ble matches for Mr. Edgeworth's son." This hon- orable statement did not prevent, but rather hastened and determined, Mr. Edgeworth's resolution; and he took his son with him to Black Bourton, an ancient seat of tlie Hungerford family, whose heiress Mr. Elers had married. As Mr. Edgeworth did the very thing ]\lr. Elers feared (fell in love with and mar- ried one of his pretty daughters who had no fortune), some mention must here be made of the occupants of Black Bourton. Paul Elers was of German descent, and a lawyer by profession. He was requested by Mr. Grosvenor, a friend of his whom Mr. Hungerford had selected as his daughter's huisband, to visit Black Bourton, MR. ELERS. 21 and examine the title-deeds of the estate, and take the necessary steps to secure it to liim. Mr. Grosve- nor was not fascinated by his intended bride, and Bkick Bourton did not seem to yield attractions to compensate. He grew melancholy, and told ]\Ir. Elers " The girl is a sad encumbrance to the estate." His friend felt differently, and spoke so admiringly of Miss Ilungerford, that Mr. Grosvenor replied, "A thouglit has just struck me: suppose you were to take the whole bargain off my hands." After some preliminaries, this strange change was actually ef- fected : Mr. Elers became the husband of the heiress, and Mr. Grosvenor "returned with light heart to London, delighted at his escape " from matrimony ; and his friend became the possessor of an estate of eight hundred a year, and the lady. His prospects as a rising lawyer were, however, spoiled by this marriage ; and ho was, at the time of Mr. Edge- worth's introduction to the home, father of a large family, and poor. "The family at Black Bourtou, at this time," says Mr. Edgeworth, "consisted of Mrs. Elers, her mother INIrs. Hungerford, and four grown-up young ladies, besides several children ; the eldest son, an officer, absent on duty. The young ladies, though far from being beauties, were handsome ; and, though destitute of accomplish- ments, they were, notwithstanding, agreeable, from an air of youth and simplicity, and from an unaffected good- nature and gayety. The person who struck me most at my introduction to this family group was Mrs. Hunger- ford. She was near eighty, tall and majestic, with eyes that still retained uncommon lustre. She was not able 22 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. to rise from her chair without the assistance of one of her grand-daughters ; but when she had risen, and stood leaning on her tortoise-shell cane, she received my father, as the friend of the family, with so much politeness, and with so much grace, as to eclipse all the young people by whom she was surrounded. "Mrs. Hungerford was a Blake, connected with the Norfolk family. She had formerly been the wife of Sir Alexander Kennedy, whom Mr. Hungerford killed in a duel in Blenheim Park. Why she dropped her title in marrying Mr. Hungerford, I know not ; nor can I tell how he persuaded the beautiful widow to marry him, after he had killed her husband. Mr. Hungerford brought her into the retirement of Black Bourton,^ the ancient seat of this family, — an excellent but antiquated house, with case- ment windows, divided by stone frame-work, the princi- pal rooms wainscoted with oak, of which the antiquity might be guessed by the tarnish it had acquired from time. In the large hall were hung spears, and hunting- tackle, and armor, and trophies of war and of the chase, and a portrait — not of exquisite painting — of the gallant Sir Edward Hungerford. This portrait had been removed hither from Farley Castle, the principal seat of the family. "In the history of Mrs. Hungerford, there was some- thing mysterious, which was not, I perceived, known to the younger part of the family. I made no inquiries from Mr. Elers, but I observed that she was for a certain 1 The proper name of Black Bourton is Bourton Abbots. "The old manorial pew belonging to the Dean and Chapter of Christ Chnrcai College formerly belonged to the Ellers, or Elers, family. At the back of it is the old family marble tomb and effigy. Bourton Abbots was a fine old mansion-house, a vestige of which is not now to be found, though relics of the old oak carvings are scattered among neighboring cottages." MRS. IIUNGERFORD. 23 time in the day invisible. Slie liad an apartment to herself above stairs, containing three or four rooms ; when she was below stairs, we used to make a short way from one side of the house to the other, through her rooms, which occupied nearly one side of a quadrangle, of which the house consisted. One day, forgetting she was in her room, and her door by accident not having been locked, I suddenly entered. I saw her kneeling before a crucifix, which was placed upon her toilette, her beautiful eyes streaming with tears, and cast up to heaven with the most fervent devotion; her silver locks flowing down over her shoulders ; the remains of exquisite beauty, grace, and dignity in her whole figure. I had not, till I saw her at these, her private devotions, known that she was a Catholic ; nor had I, till I saw her tears of contri- tion, any reason to suppose that she thought herself a penitent. The scene struck me, young as I was, and more gay than young: her tears seemed to comfort, not to depress her ; and, for the first time since my childhood, I was convinced that the consolations of religion are fully equal to its terrors." The young man found himself unseen by the lady, and quietly withdrew with the lesson he learned from this scene. Richard received an unlimited invitation to the hospitable mansion at Black Bourton, and soon became as one of the family. He "laughed and talked, and sang with the ladies, and read Cicero and Longinus with their father, who, notwithstand- ing my youth," says the narrator, "and my pro- pensity to female society, filled many of my hours with agreeable conversation." His college life was 24 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOETH. passed very mncli the same as the other students spent theirs; and he distinguished himself neither by his levity nor studiousness, though he made good progress under his excellent tutor, Mr. Russell, whose son, some years later, was Master of the Charter House. BATH. 26 CHAPTER II. Visits his Tarents at Bath. — Runaway ]\rarria<:;e. — Receives hi3 Father's Forgiveness. —Visits Ireland with his Wife. —Death of his Mother. —Return to England. — Settles at Hare Hatch.— Occniiations.- His "Wife's Management. — Son born. — Enters the Temple, and studies for the Bar.— Maria born. — Mr. Edge- worth's Visit to Lichfield. — The Lichfield Coterie — Br. Dar- win.— Anna Seward. —The Misses Sneyd.— Thomas Day.— Other Friendships formed with Mr. Keir, Dr. Small, Mr. Watt, ZSIr. Wedgewood, and Mr. Bolton. — Day's Admiration for Miss Honora Sneyd. — Her Rejection. — Transfers his Affections to her Sister Elizabeth.— He adopts Two Girls. — Mr. Edgeworth inherits his Paternal Estates. — He becomes desperately iu Love with Miss Honora Sneyd. During tlie vacations be went to Bath, where his mother and father were living on account of the former's health. Bath, at this period, was the resort of England's most distinguished men and women ; and young Edgeworth became a man of fashion, and at the same time philosophized upon the people he met there. He sa3's be "was particularly struck with the appearance of the then Duke of Devon- shire. He had retired from the court in disgust; and the chagrin visible on his countenance made me early perceive that the smiles or frowns of princes have more power over the happiness of human beings than those who are at a distance from sover- eifrns can conceive." He saw Beau Nash, then at the zenith of his fame, the imperious ruler of fash- 26 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOETH. ion in Bath, at whose command no lady might appear as she chose, no man could be admitted to a public assembly without conforming to the dictates of this petty tyrant, who denounced aprons, and forbade boots in his evening assemblies, and in person ad- dressed those who wilfully or ignorantly disobeyed his rules. There, too, he saw " the celebrated Lord Chesterfield," and "looked in vain for that fire which we expect to find in the eye of a man of wit and genius. He was obviously unhappy, and a mel- ancholy spectacle." Mr. Edgeworth thought his son should marry early, and introduced him among the best families in Bath ; but already he had paid attention to one of the Miss Elers, and he says, " felt myself insensi- bly entangled so completely that I could not find any honorable means of extrication." He did not conceal his change of feeling when he returned to Black Bourton, but found the lady, who was not so changeable, held him to his promise, and so they visited Scotland, in 1703, where minors were married when they contracted an alliance without their par- ents' consent. At the time of this injudicious mar- riage with Miss Anna Maria Elers, Richard Lovell Edgeworth was but nineteen years old ; and his eld- est child, a son, was born before the father was twenty years of age. His father, Mr. Edgeworth senior, was much displeased at this marriage, and at first refused his approbation, but finally gave his consent to what he must have felt a thing he could not remedy, and had the young couple remarried by license with his consent. Richard Edgeworth MK. EDGEWORTH'S MOTHER. 27 took Lis young wife and infiiiit son to revisit Lis parents in Ireland ; but his motlier only survived his arrival at Edgeworthstown a few days, ending her life of suffering with the fortitude and calmness she had displayed throughout her long illness. Iler son bears ample testimony to her many admirable quali- ties and her love of literature ; which she kept in spite of early discouragements, and cherished by con- stant exercise in reading and study, so that, during her twenty years of helpless invalidism, she did not want for objects of interest and thought. "I believe I have mentioned, that, a few hours after my l)irtb, she, by some mismanagemeut, lost the use of one arm, and almost of her left side. ... In a word, her health was most deplorable. Yet, under all these afflic- tions, she was cheerful, and had the full use of her excel- lent understanding. Literature was not the fashion of the times when she was young. My grandmother, as I have been informed, was singularly averse to all learn- ing in a lady, beyond reading the Bible, and being able to cast up a week's household account. By what acci- dent my mother acquired an early and a decided taste for knowledge of all sorts, I never heard ; but her application and perseverance were probably stimulated by the pre- ventive measures that my grandmother took to hinder her from wasting time upon books. The year passed by Mr. Edgeworth at his father's estate in Ireland was extremely distasteful to him. He read " some lav/ and more science." He made himself an orrery with the few tools he had, and began that course of busying himself with such pursuits which engrossed all his thoughts till 28 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOKTH. ]iis cliiklren's education in some measure occupied his time, and Maria's literary tastes gave him another field for that active and restless spirit which was the ruling and motive power of his life. He was unfor- tunate in being an only son and the inheritor of a good estate ; for his temperament was one particularly suited to active life, and the largest scope allowed liim by the life of a country gentleman did not amount to that which a professional career would have afforded him. He endeavored to occupy himself well always, but only succeeded in busying himself with trifling inventions and some writing. These we shall notice later ; for the time we speak of he says, — ' ' I never passed twelve months with less pleasure or profit. ... I felt the inconveniences of an early and hasty marriage ; and, though I heartily repented my folly, I determined to bear with firmness and temper the evil which I had brought on myself." In the autumn of 1765 the young couple returned to England, and on their journey stopped for a few days at Chester, where Mrs. Edge worth's aunts re- sided. There Mr. Edgeworth first heard of Dr. Darwin,^ whose acquaintance he was soon to make, through a congeniality in pursuits which led him to introduce himself to Dr. Darwin. This he did in order to show him a new coach he had invented, on hearing that Dr. Darwin had arranged one to turn in a small compass without the incumbrance of a crane-neck perch. 1 Ei-asmus Darwin, an English physician, known to fame as poet and botanist. Born, 1731; died, 1802. HARE HATCH. 29 Mr. Edgcwortli says, — "From Chester I went to Black Bonrton, wliore I fouutl the family iu great distress. Mr. Elers was, l)y the malice of an euemy, confined for del)t. Meantime Mrs. Elers was left to manage as well as she could at Black Bourton, and to take care of a numl)er of helpless chil- dren, some of whom were but seven or eight years old." They resided several niontlis with Mrs. Elers ; and INIr. Edgeworth endeavored to give his wife's younger brothers and sisters some instruction, and to cheer Mrs. Elers. He at last found it necessary to leave Black Bourton, and establish himself in a home of his own. He took a house at Hare Hatch, between Reading and Maidenhead, in Berkshire, where the young couple began to live by themselves. Mr. Edgeworth made his son an allowance ; and, as he had several terms to keep before he could be called to the bar, economy was necessary. Their modest establishment " was on a very moderate footing. I kept a phaeton with a pair of ponies, a man who took care of them and of the garden, one man and two maid servants. By the good economy of my wife we lived comfortably. She superintended the care of the garden, which, under her management, was always productive." The neighboring people were wealth}'-, and simple in their mode of life and thoughts. Card-playing was the usual evening entertainment, and presently Mr. Edgeworth found himself engaged in mechanical and scientific studies by himself for want of society of the kind he enjoyed. Smiths and carriage-build- 80 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOETH. ei's were, with a workshop of his own, a great re- source; and he visited their shops frequently. It was not till many years later that he became more interested in general literature, and then ventured on authorship. His hobby was scientific and me- chanical studies. When it became necessary for him to keep terms at the Temple, he was obliged to live in London more or less ; and there he became inti- mate with his brother-in-law, Capt. Elers, who lived much with his aunts, the Misses Blake, in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury. In 1767 Mr. Edge worth was making experiments in telegraphing at Hare Hatch, and also trying experiments of various kinds with carriages. He resided at Hare Hatch, with the exception of short visits to friends, till he again went to London to complete his terms at the Temple. While he was experimenting in telegraphing, trying flying carriages, and visiting his friends in London, who found him a very agreeable companion, his second child was born, Jan. 1, 1767. This child was Maeia Edgeworth, whose birth in her grandfather's house at Black Bourton undoubt- edly ]3leased her parents and relations; but they could hardly have realized that before her death her name would be known and respected throughout the world where the English language and literature were understood, and a love of learning and pure morality aj^preciated. The early years of Maria's life were passed largely at Black Bourton with her grandpar- ents, and at Hare Hatch with her mother and father. Mr. Edgeworth was not a bad husband ; but he has MRS. EDGEWORTIT. 31 left unequivocal testimony to the fact, that his home WHS most uncongenial to him, both in direct state- ment and in inference from his frequent absences from home. He says, — " My wife was prudent, domestic, and affectionate ; but she was not of a cheerful temper. She lameutod about trifles ; and the lamenting of a female, with whom we live, does not render home delightful." Bnt he thinks he lived at home more than was usual with men of his age and time. He was absent, however, very much ; visiting London often, and occasionally Birmingham. Of his visit to Ireland with his young son and Mr. Day, some account must be given ; as well as that visit made to Lichfield, where he was introduced to that celebrated coterie of which Dr. Darwin was the great man, and ^Nliss Anna Seward 1 the queen. There he met Miss Honora Sneyd, the adopted sister of Miss Seward, who expa- tiates on her growing charms in many a verse, and laments her death with mournful numbers, more filled with genuine feeling than with poetic fire. i\fr. Edgeworth's first visit to Lichfield occurred curiously enough. He had heard of Dr. Darwin's success in constructing a famous phaeton upon a new princi- ple ; namely, " that in turning round, it continued to stand upon four points nearly at equal distances from each other ; whereas in carriages with a crane- neck, when the four wheels are locked under the perch, the fore carriage is very unsteady, being sup- ported upon only three points." 1 Anna Seward. Famous iu her day aa a poetess. The friend aud biographer of Dr, Darwiu. 1717-lSO'J. 32 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. Mr. Edgeworth, acting upon this hint, made him- self a very handsome phaeton ; and, upon its being approved by the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, he told the society whence he derived his plan for making it, and wrote also to Dr. Darwin. The doctor, though he thought him a coachmaker, wrote him a very civil answer, and invited him to visit him at Lichfield. The visit of Mr. Edgeworth to Lichfield was attended with results of vital importance to his future happiness, as we shall see in the course of our narrative. His first introduction to Dr. Darwin was oddly made. He reached his house, to find him out, but was hospitably received by Mrs. Darwin, who invited him to supper. Presently Dr. Darwin ar- rived, bringing with him a drunken man whom he had found nearly suffocated in a ditch, and, when this gentleman was viewed by candle-light, it was found that he was Mrs. ' Darwin's brother. They took it very coolly, but assured Mr. Edgeworth that this was the first time he had ever been intoxicated in his life. " During this scene I had time to survey my new friend, Dr. Darwin," says Mr. Edgeworth. "He was a large man, fat and rather clumsy ; but intelligence and benevo- lence were painted in his countenance. He had a consid- erable impediment in his speech, a defect which is in general painful to others ; but the doctor repaid his audi- tors so well for making them wait for his wit or his knowledge, that he seldom found them impatient." After some conversation, and a little evident sur- prise at finding Mr. Edgeworth at supper with his DR. DARWIN. 33 wife, " Why I I thought " said the doctor, " that you were only a coachniaker ! " — " That was the rea- son," said I, " tliat you looked surprised at finding me at supper with Mrs. Darwin. But you see, doc- tor, how superior in discernment ladies are even to the most learned gentlemen : I assure you that I had not been in the room five minutes before Mrs. Darwin asked me to tea." In Galton's " Hereditary Genius," he says Dr. Dar- win "sprang from a lettered and intellectual race, as his father was one of the earliest members of the Spaulding Club." One listener gives a description of his conversation which will amuse the reader. He was talking about the Calmia flower, which it turned out afterwards he had never seen. "It is a flower of such exquisite beauty that it would make you waste the summer's day in examining it : you would forget the hour of dinner, all 3-our senses would be absorbed in one, — you would be all eye." I smiled, and asked him to describe it. " What, in the first place, was its color?" — " Precisely that of a seraph's plume." "We laughed, as he intended we should, at the accuracy of the description. He told us afterwards that he had heard much of the flower, but as yet had not seen it." The doctor was pleased to find in the maker of the phaeton an intelligent and well-informed gentle- man, and the next day introduced him to some lit- erary people, among whom was Miss Anna Seward. "How much of my future life," he exclaims, "has depended upon this visit to Lichfield ! . . . . Miss 34 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. Seward was at this time in the height of youth and beauty, of an enthusiastic temper, a votary of the Muses, and of the most eloquent and brilliant conversation. Our mutual acquaintance was soon made, and it continued to be for many years of my life a source of never-failing pleasure. " It seems that Mrs. Darwin had a little pique against Miss Seward, who had, in fact, been her rival with the doctor. These ladies lived upon good terms ; but there frequently occurred little competitions, which amused their friends, and enlivened the uniformity that so often renders a country town insipid. The evening after my arrival, Mrs. Darwin invited Miss Seward, and a very large party of her friends, to supper. I was placed beside Miss Seward ; and a number of lively sallies escaped her, that set the table in good-humor. I remem- ber — for we frequently remember the merest trifles which happen at an interesting period of our life — that she repeated some of Prior's ' Henry and Emma,' of which she was always fond ; and, dwelling upon Emma's tender- ness, she cited the care that Emma proposed to take of her lover, if he were wounded : — ' To bind his wounds, my finest lawns I'd tear, Wash them with tears, and wipe them with my hair.' "I acknowledged that tearing her finest lawns, even in a wild forest, would be a real sacrifice from a fine lady ; and that washing wounds with salt water, though a very severe remedy, was thought to be salutary ; but I could not think that wiping them with her hair could be either a salutary or an elegant operation. I represented, that the lady, who must have had by her own account a choice of lawns, might have employed some of the coarse sort for this operation, instead of having recourse to her hair. MISS SEWARD. 35 I pakl Miss Seward, however, some compliments on her own beautiful tresses ; and at that moment the watehful Mrs. Darwin took this opportunity of drinking Mrs. EdgeicortW s health. Miss .Seward's surprise was mani- fest. But the mirth this unexpected discovery made fell but lightly upon its objects ; for Miss Seward, with per- fect good-humor, turned the laugh in her favor. The next evening the same society re-assembled at another house, and for several ensuing evenings I passed my time in different agreeable companies in Lichfield." The following stanzas were written on the window of the George Inn, at Lichfield, by the Rev. W. B. Stevens of Repton, Derbyshire. They were sent by Anna Seward to the ladies of Llangollen. " Fair city ! lift, with conscious glory crowned, The spiry structure of thy Mercian state ; "While History bids her ancient tramp resound How War, in wrath, unbarred thy blood-stained gate. Not that the praise of ancient days alone Is thine, fair city, blest through every age ; War's scythed car, yon miracles of stone, Bow to the splendors of thy lettered page. Here Johnson fashioned his elaborate style; And Truth, well i^leased, the moral work surveyed; Here, on her darling's cradle wont to smile, Thalia with her Garrick fondly played. 36 A STUDY OF IVIARIA EDGEWOKTH. And here the flower of England's virgin train, — Boast of our isle, Lichfield's jieculiar pride, — Here Seward caught the dew-drops for her strain From grief and pity's intermingled tide. Exult, fair city ! and indulge the praise A grateful stranger to thy glory pays." During this visit to Lichfield, Mr. Eclgeworth made many pleasant acquaintances and friends. There and then he met the lady destined to be his second wife, Miss Honora Sneyd. Mr. Seward, who was a canon of Lichfield Cathedral, as well as rector of Eyam in Derbyshire, was a man of learning and taste, fond of society, and very amiable. His many good qualities drew around him a circle of warmly attached friends ; and his residence, tlie bishop's pal- ace at Lichfield, was the resort of the cultivated peo- ple of the neighborhood. INIrs. Seward was a worthy wife to this excellent man, and seconded him in his good works. Under her care INIiss Honora Sneyd, the daughter of Edward Snej^d, Esq., was brought up and educated. Mr. Sneyd became a widower in early life, and his relations and friends were anxious to alleviate his loss by taking charge of his five daughters. Mrs. Seward, with her daughters Anna and Sally, had the care of Honora ; who acquired an ardent love of literature and an elevated taste from the influence and training of Miss Anna Seward. The foibles of Anna Seward were many, but she had a clear head and a warm heart. Early flattery, and the distinction paid her in a coterie like that of Lichfield, were injurious ; and her egotism and vanity MISS SEWARD. 37 were increased to tlie detriment of her finer qualities. Wlien Mr. Edgewortli first met her, Miss Seward was not an acknowledged authoress ; nor was it till 1782 that her first poetical romance of Louisa was published. All her works show a superabundance of language and epithet, and her later writings are almost unreadable from the gushing sentimentalism with which they abound. She was an industrious and scholarly writer : says herself of her habits in a sonnet, — " I love to rise ere breaks the tardy light, Winter's pale day." The verbose and extravagant pen of Miss Seward described the advent of Richard Lovell Edgeworth at Lichfield, in her life of Dr. Darwin, thus : — "About the year 17G5, came to Lichfleld, from the neighborhood of Reading, the young and gay philosopher, Mr. Edgeworth, a man of fortune, and recently married to an Elers of Oxfordshire. The fame of Dr. Darwin's various talents allured Mr. Edgeworth to the city they graced. Then scarcely two and twenty, and with an exterior yet more juvenile, he had mathematic science, mechanic ingenuity, and a competent portion of classi- cal learning, with the possession of the modern languages. His address was gracefully spirited, and his conversation eloquent. He danced, he fenced, and winged his arrows with more than philosophic skill ; yet did not the con- sciousness of those lighter endowments abate his ardor in the pursuit of knowledge." She was once talking about two brilliant spirits of different sexes with Mr. Edgeworth, when he 38 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. exclaimed, " If that man and woman were to marry, they would skim the moon ! " She writes of Mr. Day, — " He was less graceful, less amusing, less brilliant than Mr. Edgeworth, but more highly imaginative, more classi- cal, and a deeper reasoner." To return to Mr. Edgeworth 's life at Hare Hatch : he there made and perfected several machines, for which he received a gold and silver medal from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, etc. At this time (that is, shortly after his return to Hare Hatch from Lichfield, where he met Dr. Darwin and his friends), Mr Edgeworth made the acquaintance of several men who were celebrated for their talents and taste. Among these were Mr. Keir of Birming- ham, Mr. Bolton, Mr. Watt, Mr. Wedgwood, Dr. Small, and last, but not least, must be named Mr. Thomas Day.^ " This mutual intimacy has never been broken but by death, nor have any of the number failed to distinguish themselves in science or literature. Some may think that I ought with due modesty to except myself. " Mr. Keir, with his liuowledge of the world, and good sense ; Dr. Small, with his benevolence and profound sagacity ; Wedgwood, with his unceasing industry, ex- perimental variety, and calm investigation ; Bolton, with his mobilit}^, quick perception, and bold adventure ; Watt, with his strong inventive faculty, undeviating steadiness, and unbounded resource ; Darwin, with his imagination, science, and poetical excellence ; and Day, with his un- 1 Thomas Day, a poet and miscellaneous writer, autlior of tlie well-kuown story of Saudford and Merton. 17i8-89. MR. DAY. 39 wearied research after truth, his integrity and eloquence, — formed altogether such a society as few men have the good fortune to live with : such an assemblage of friends as fewer still have had the happiness to possess, and keep through life." " The Linnsean Society of the INIidland Counties was well known once," says Galton in liis " Heredi- tary Genius." Wall, Bolton, and Darwin were the chief notabilities. There is frequent allusion to a man whose name alone remains, but who appeared to exercise a marked effect on his associates, Dr. Small. The extraordinary man who sought Mr. Edge- worth's friendship, and for twenty-three years was his most intimate and esteemed friend, was at this time a student at Oxford, and lived at B archill, in Berkshire. He was of the same college as Mr. Edgeworth, and had his tutor. Mr. Edgeworth and Mr. Day had many points of common interest ; and " to the day of his death," he writes, " we continued to live in the most intimate and unvarying friend- ship, — a friendship founded upon mutual esteem between persons of tastes, habits, pursuits, manners, and connections totally different. A love of knowl- edge, and a freedom from that admiration of splen- dor which dazzles and enslaves mankind, were the only essential points in which we entirely agreed." This eccentric young gentleman could not have been at all prepossessing in appearance : " he seldom combed his raven locks, though he was remarkably fond of washing them in the stream." Full of con- tradiction, he scorned — or affected to scorn — love. 40 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. and delighted, even in the company of women, to des- cant on the evils brought upon mankind by love : he used, after enumerating a long and dismal catalogue, to exclaim with the satiric poet, — " These, and a thousand more we find : Ah ! fear the thousand yet unnamed behmd." With all his eccentricities, Mr. Day was amiable and virtuous ; and though he affected to scorn beauty in women, and was determined not to marry, yet his life was made up of philosoph}', and most unphilosophical attempts to marry. Mrs. Edgeworth took a strong dislike to Mr. Day, and her husband says this " jealousy was a source of great uneasiness to me." Mr. Day made a visit to Ireland with Mr. Edgeworth after he had known him a year or two, and there wished to marry his sister, Margaret Edge- worth, who listened to his proposal, but seemed not to feel very warmly towards her admirer. He had entered the Temple ; and she was prevailed upon to acknowledge, that if in a year's time he should con- tinue in the same mind, and improve his manners, she might be induced to reward him by her hand. Miss Edgeworth studied metaphysics, which Mr. Day had recommended her ; but she did not find encour- agement in her study, and gave up both her lover and her studies, not long after, to marry Mr. John Ruxton of Black Castle, a gentleman who was in the army, but soon after left it. Mr. Day, who was much chagrined by his rejection, was no wise daunted by it, and then put his extraordinary project into execution of educating himself a wife. He selected DEATH OF MB. EDGEWORTU'S FATHER. 41 for this purpose two orphan girls from the foundling hospital, of the ages of eleven and twelve. One, the first he took, was apprenticed without Mr. Edge- worth's knowledge to liim, as it was necessary that the girl should be thus bound to some married man. His visit to France for the purpose of secluding these girls from all influences but his own became rather monotonous, and he returned in 1769. The second girl, after Mr. Day's return from his visit, was found by him either "invincibly stupid," or perhaps not disposed to follow his eccentric arrange- ments. On ]\Ir. Day's return, after he had parted with the unruly girl, he took a house at Stow Hill, near Lichfield, and began there to devote himself anew to the education of Sabriua Sidney. It was after his settling himself at Stow Hill, that Mr. Edgeworth spent the Christmas of 1770 with him. In the year 1769, while Mr. Edgeworth was still at Hare Hatch, his father's health failing sud- denly, he was called to Ireland ; and he found him m Dublin, suffering under the disease of which he died in his seventieth year. Mr. Richard Edgeworth was a man of excellent character, and highly re- spected by all who knew him. For twenty-five years he sat in the Irish parliament. He was twice offered and declined the baronetage ; to which he had a claim as ancient as James the First, when a patent was prepared for Francis Edgeworth, clerk of the Han- aper. By Richard Edgeworth senior's death a material difference was made in his son's affairs. He suc- ceeded to an estate which was sufficiently large to 42 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. relieve him from the necessity of following a profes- sion , and he was not called to the bar, though he had completed his terms. It was during Mr. Edgeworth's Christmas visit at Lichfield in 1770, that he began to see the " supe- riority of Miss Honora Sneyd's capacity." "Her memory was not copiously stored with poetry, and, though no ways deficient, her knowledge had not been much enlarged by books ; but her sentiments were on all subjects so just, and were delivered with such blushing modesty (though not without an air of conscious worth), as to command attention from every one capable of appre- ciating female excellence. Her person was graceful, her features beautiful, and their expression such as to heighten the eloquence of every thing she said. I was six and twenty ; and now, for the first time in my life, I saw a woman that equalled the picture of perfection which existed in my imagination. I had long suffered from the want of that cheerfulness in a wife, without which marriage could not be agreeable to a man of such a temper as mine. I had borne this evil, I believe, with patience ; but my not being happy at home exposed me to the danger of being too happy elsewhere." In short, Mr. Edgeworth, who certainly was re- markable for his power over all his family and friends in impressing them with his strength of character, had great eccentricities and peculiarities ; and he is reported to have said, " I am not a man of prejudice : I have had four wives ; the second and third were sisters, and I was in love with the second in the lifetime of the first." On this Christmas visit his fate was sealed ; and his home, already distasteful MAJOR ANDEE. 43 to him, became still more unattractive. Miss Honora Sneyd is the lady whose connection with jNIajor Andrd^ is made the subject of a note by INIiss Seward in her "Monody on the Death of INlajor Andrd." In this note Miss Seward asserts that Mr. Andr^, in despair upon Miss Sneyd's rejection, entered the army. He certainly 7oas deeply attached to the lady ; but the parents on both sides discouraged the match from prudential motives, as Mr. Andre had no for- tune. Mr. Edgeworth attempts to disprove the fact that Major Andr^ was engaged to Miss Sneyd, and thinks it very strange that Miss Seward should " in- sinuate " that he was jilted by her ; but the dates he brings to prove that Major Andr^ entered the army two years before Miss Sneyd married him have no special value. Mr. Edgeworth says, — " Mr. Andre appeared to me pleased and dazzled by the lady. Slie admired and estimated highly his talents, but he did not possess the reasoning mind which she required. ' ' George Augustus Sala undoubtedly thought Miss Seward's opinion the true version of the case ; for, in a sketchy article in " Belgravia " some years since, he said of Major Andre, — "He was bred to commercial pursuits; but he aban- doned the pen for the sword, and obtained a commission in the line. He rose to the rank of major, and to fill the high post of adjutant-general to the British army in 1 Andre, Jolin, born in England, 17i9. "Was hung as a spy in America, Oct. 2, 1780. 44 A STUDY OF MAHIA EDGEWOETH. America. He was personally as beautiful as Raphael. He was learned and accomplished, painted admiral)ly, drew caricatures, wrote charming verses ; and his epistles to Honora Sneyd (whom he failed to win, and who mar- ried a kind of madman, and died early) are among the most charming love-letters in our language. ... It is true that he had been jilted by a woman, but time and employment are the best of Roman cements to mend a broken heart withal." Mr. Edgeworth woukl have been annoyed by hear- ing himself described as a "kind of madman." ]\li.ss Seward says of the attachment between Andre and Honora Sneyd, — "All the dark color of Andre's fate took its tint from disappointed and unconquerable attachment to her." In allnding to Honora's feeling, she says it was "a mere componnd of gratitude and esteem." Col. Barr}^ who succeeded Major Andr6 as adjutant- general to the British forces in America, wrote Miss Seward of Honora, that she was " the only woman he had ever seriously loved , that he never beheld a being in whom the blending charms of mind and person could approach the lustre of those which glowed in the air, the look, the smile, the glance, and the eloquence of Honora Sneyd." Miss Seward calls her '''-my Madame de Grignan." She says of this young lady,— " To the varying glories of her countenance, when she was expressing her oh'», or nstening to the effusions of genius, no pencil could do justice." MISS SNEYD. 45 In Miss Seward's poem, written in 1772, called " Time Past," she says, — "Affection, friendship, sympathy, — your throne Is winter's glowing hearth ; and ye were ours. Thy smile, IIonoka, made them all our own : Where are they now ? Alas 1 their choicest flowers Faded at thy retreat ; for thou art gone. And many a dark, long eve I sigh alone, In thrilled remembrance of the vanished hours, When storms were dearer than the balmy gales, And winter's bare, bleak fields, than green luxurious vales." She addressed Sonnet IV. to Honora Sneyd, "whose health was always best in winter," — in May, 1770, — and tells her she prizes less the beauties of spring than " drear winter's naked hedge and plashy field," because these please Honora. Miss Seward tells a story of " an awkward, pedan- tic youth, once resident for a little time at Lichfield. He was asked if he liked Miss Honora Sneyd. ' Al- mighty powers,' replied the oddity, 'I could not have conceived that she had half the face she has ! ' Honora was finely rallied about this imputed pleni- tude of face." The fair Honora probably was the cause of unsettling Major Andre's mind, if noth- ing more ; and she effectually disturbed the equa- nimity of Mr. Day, who also took it into his head to fall in love with her, and wrote her, finally, after several months of courtship, an enormous packet containing a plan of the life he wished to lead, and a proposal of marriage, in which he pointed out to her the folly of living in the world, and wished her to retire fi'om it with him. He intrusted this 46 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. packet to Mr. Edgeworth, who had so far suppressed his own feelings as to visit Lichfield with his family, to try and overcome his secret attachment to Miss Sneyd. Mr. Day, who had combated his apparently hopeless attachment, and written him a letter of good advice, now asked Mr. Edgeworth to be his ambassador to Miss Sneyd. Mr. Edgeworth says, " I delivered it, with real satisfaction, to Honora ; " but whether it was because it would set at rest his friend's pretensions or not, is uncertain. Mr. Day had for Miss Sneyd's sake sent Sabrina Sydney to school. He was destined to a severe disappointment. Miss Sneyd " would not admit the unqualified con- trol of a husband over all her actions : she did not feel that seclusion from society was indispensably necessary to preserve female virtue, or to secure domestic happiness." And she declined leaving her mode of life "for any dark and untried system." This was a blow to Mr. Day, who was really ill for some days, and took to his bed ; where Dr. Darwin bled him, and administered with his philosophical reflections "to that part of him most diseased, — his mind." In a few weeks the lover's mind was di- verted by the appearance of Miss Elizabeth Sneyd at Lichfield. Mr. Edgeworth says of this meeting, — "I had introduced archery as an amusement among the gentlemen in the neighborhood, and had proposed a prize of a silver arrow, to be shot for at a bowling-green, where our butts had been erected. All the ladies who frequented the amusements of Lichfield were assembled ; MISS ELIZABETH SNEYD. 47 and INIiss Seward appeared with her usual sprightliness aud address, aceompauied l)y llonora. "We had music and dancing: some of tlie gentlemen fenced and vaulted and leaped ; and the summer's even- ing was spent with as much innocent clieerfuiness as any evening that I can remember. Miss Elizabetli Sneyd and her father came among us in the middle of our amuse- ments. Just as a country dance was nearly ended, Miss Honora Sneyd inti'oduced me to her sister, desiring me to dance with her, to prevent her being engaged by some stranger, with whom they might afterwards not choose to form an acquaintance. Miss Elizabeth Sneyd was, in the opioiou of half the persons who knew them, the hand- somest of the two sisters : her eyes were uncommonly beautiful and expressive, she was of a clear brown and of a more healthy complexion than Honora. vShe had acquired more literature, had more what is called the manners of a person of fashion, had more wit, more vivacity, and certainly more humor, than her sister. She had, however, less personal grace : she walked heavily, danced indifferently, had much less energy of manner aud of character, and was not endowed with, or had not then acquired, the same powers of reasoning, the same inquiring range of understanding, the same love of science, or, in one word, the same decisive judgment, as her sister. " Notwithstanding something fashionable in this young lady's appearance, Mr. Day observed her with complacent attention. Her dancing but indifferently, and with no symptom of delight, pleased Mr. Day's fancy ; her con- versation was playful, and never disputatious, so that Mr. Day had liberty aud room enough to descant at large and at length upon whatever became the subject of cou- versatiou." 48 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. This lady claims our interest ; for she became Mr. Edgworth's third wife in course of time, in defiance of law and " prejudice." Mr. Sneyd, who had hith- erto lived in London, assembled all liis daughters to live with him at Lichfield ; and Miss Elizabeth, who had till then lived with Mr. and Mrs. Henry Powys (of the Abbey), Shrewsbury, was the next object of Mr. Day's attention. She, on her part, was struck by Mr. Day's eloquence ; and she listened well (a great attraction) while he "descanted at large and at length upon whatever became the subject of con- versation." His educating a young girl for his wife, " his unbounded generosity, his scorn of wealth and titles, his romantic notions of love, — which led him to think, that, when it was mutual and genuine, the rest of the world vanished, and the lovers became all in all to each other, — made a deep impression upon her." In short, his heart was caught at a rebound ; and Elizabeth had made more impression in three weeks upon Mr. Day than her superior sister had in twelve months. ]MR. EDGEWORTH's REGARD FOR MISS SNEYD. 49 CHAPTER III. Mr. Day and Mr. Edgeworth visit France, accompanied by Young Richard.— Richard's Education. — Residence in France. — Eiu- ployiueut tliere. — Mrs. Edgewortli's Death. — Mr. Edgeworth re- turns to England. — Second Marriage. — Maria goes to Ireland with Mr. and Mrs. Edgeworth. — Life there.— Tliey return to England. — Mr. Day's Marriage. —Mr. Edgeworth's Irish Jour- ney. —Mrs. Edgewortli's Illness. — Maria sent to Boarding- School. — Mrs. Edgeworth's Death. — Maria's First Literary Work. — Her Removal to a Loudon Boardiug-School. Mr. Day's regard for Honora Sneyd died with her rejection. Mr. Edgeworth's " former admiration returned with unabated ardor." The more he "com- pared her with other women, the more he was obUged to acknowledge her superiority." Plonora herself " conversed with me with freedom," he says, " and seemed to feel that I was the first person who had seen the full value of her character. Miss Sew- ard shone so brightly, that all objects within her sphere were dimmed by her lustre." She was, how- ever, generous and noble-minded, and showed and felt only gratification at seeing her dear young friend admired so strongly by their new friend. INIr. Day alone knew the intense feeling with which Mr. Edgeworth regarded this charming creature, and he used all his philosophy to represent to him the danger of allowing himself to think of Miss Sneyd at all. Mr. Edgeworth himself knew that there was 50 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. but one certain method of escaping siicli dangers, — " flight ; " and he resolved upon going to France. Mr. Day, who, meanwhile, had been convinced by Elizabeth Sneyd that " he could not with propriety abuse and ridicule talents in which he appeared deficient," such as riding well, dancing gracefully, and the other accomplishments, thought he would go Avith liis friend, and make himself worthy of his new lady-love. She, meantime, put herself through a course of reading, and promised not to go to Lon- don, Bath, or any other public places of amusement, till his return. Mr. Edgeworth, with a mixture of his usual sang- froid and philosophy, endeavored to persuade him- self and all his friends that he felt no more than common esteem for Honora : he took every opportu- nity of declaring his intention of living on his Irish estates on his return, and of persuading her that " young women who had not large fortunes, should not disdain to marry," even if they could not find heroes. "Honora listened, and assented ;" and they left England and the ladies, to try France. They were accompanied by Richard, Mr. Edgeworth's eldest child. This boy Mr. Edgeworth had deter- mined, shortly after his birth at Black Bourton in 1764, to educate according to the system of Rous- seau. He says, — "His ' fimile ' had made a great impression upon my young mind, as it had done upon the imaginations of many far my superiors in age and understanding. His work had then all the power of novelty, as well as all the charms of eloquence; and when I compared the many Rousseau's system of education. 51 plausil)le ideas it contains, with the obvious deficiencies and absurdities that I saw in the treatment of ehiUhen in ahnost every family with which I was acquanited, 1 determined to make a fair trial of Rousseau's system. My wife compUed with my wishes, and the body and mind of my son were to be left as much as possilile to the edu- cation of nature and of accident. I was but twenty-three years old when I formed this resolution : I steadily pur- sued it for several yeai's, notwithstanding the opposition with which I was embarrassed Ity my friends and relations, and the ridicule by which I became immediately assailed on all quarters. "I dressed my son without stockings, with his arms bare, in a jacket and trousers such as are quite common at present, but which at that time were novel and extraor- dinary. I succeeded in making him remarkably hardy ; I also succeeded in making him fearless of danger, and, what is more difficult, capable of bearing privation of every sort. He had all the virtues of a child bred in the hut of a savage, and all the knowledge of things which could well be acquired at an early age by a boy bred in civilized society. I say knowledge of tilings, for of books be had less knowledge at seven or eight years old than most children have at four or five. Of mechanics he had a clearer conception, and, in the application of what he knew, more invention, than any child I had then seen. He was bold, free, fearless, generous : he had a ready and keen use of all his senses and of his judgment. But he was not disposed to obey : his exertions generally arose from his own will ; and though he was what is commonly called good tempered and good natured, though he generally pleased l)y his looks, demeanor, and conversation, he had too little deference for others, and he showed an invinci- ble dislike to control. With me, he was always what I 52 A STUDY OF MAHIA EDGEWOETH. wished ; with others, he was never any thing hut what he wished to be liimself. He was, by all who saw him, whether of the higher or lower classes, taken notice of ; and by all considered as very clever. I speak of a child between seven and eight years old ; and, to prevent inter- ruption in my narrative, I here represent the effects of his education from three to eight years old, during which period I pursued Rousseau's plan." On tlieir journey to France, Mr. Edgeworth took with him the boy, leaving Mrs. Edgeworth and two little girls behind, Maria and Emmeline. Mr. Edge- worth passed nearly two years in France ; most of the time being spent at Lyons, where he exercised his engineering skill in constructing a bridge for wheelbarrows across a ravine, and a kind of ferry- bridge, — both to be used in the work of diverting the Rhone into a new channel in order to enlarge the city. When Mr. Edgeworth found that his work was likely to engage him for some months, he sent for his wife, whom he had left at Black Bourton with her father and sisters. Accompanied by one of her sisters, she accordingly went to Lyons, and spent some months ; but at the beginning of the winter, being tired of French society, and anxious to be in Eng- land, where she had left her children, she returned to Black Bourton under the care of Mr. Day, who went home to claim as the reward of his labors the hand of Elizabeth Sneyd. On Mr. Day's return to England, he found that Miss Sneyd could not feel for him the attachment which he had hoped, could not give him her heart ; MK. day's WAIID. 53 and so for that time he was again disappointed in his matrimonial views. JNliss Sneyd is reported to have said slie preferred " Thomas Day blackguard to Thomas Day gentleman.'''' In the course of the next few years, he found himself strongly interested in his ward Sabrina Syd- ney, and would undoubtedly have married her but for an unfortunate circumstance. She had become an interesting and attractive woman, and was much attached to her benefactor. He had in every way felt satisfied with her conduct, till a trifling occur- ence annoyed him inexpressibly, and he at once abandoned all idea of making her his wife. He had left her at the house of a friend, under strict injunc- tions as to some peculiar fancies of his own : among these were some requests as to her dress. She ivas or was not to wear a certain style of sleeves and handkerchief then in vogue , and he considered her acting negligently in this respect as a mark of her want of attachment to him, and as a proof of her want of strength of mind ; and so he at once and decidedly gave her up. Mr. Day we must leave for a time, but shall find him married at last. ]\Ir. Edgeworth, whom we left in Lyons, was still busied about his plans for the alteration of the bed of the Rhone, when news reached him, in March, that Mrs. Edgeworth, who had returned to England in the fall, had an infant daughter. This child (Anna) was but a few days old, when Mrs. Edge- worth died. Mr. Edgeworth immediately set out for England. The company of Lyons conferred upon him a deed of a lot of ground in the new town they \ 64 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOETH. had "won from the ancient conflux of the Rhone and the Saone ; " and he was also offered the ribbon of the order of St. Michael, but declined it. This property was lost at the revolution. On Mr. Edgeworth's return to England, Mr. Day met him at Woodstock, and told him that Honora Sneyd was more beautiful than ever, and " still her own mistress," though surix)unded by lovers. The magnanimity of Mr. Day was shown here, by his coming several hundred miles to assure his friend that a woman who had refused him was still as fair as, more beautiful in fact than, when she declined to leave the world and its pleasures for him. Mr. Edgeworth at once went to Lichfield, and naturally he was sure that INIiss Sneyd appeared " even more lovely than when we parted." After some time, he found that Honora did reciprocate his feelings ; and they were married by special license, on July 17, 1773, in the cathedral of Lichfield. Miss Seward felt some annoyance about the choice of a brides- maid, but was on the whole glad to see her beloved Honora — whom she is never weary of celebrating in her verses — united to one so well suited to her. Though she never forgave Mr. Edgeworth, Miss Seward retained very touching recollections of Ho- nora all her life. There are constant references to her in her poems and letters. Among the poems are several sonnets in which she refers openly to the broken intimacy between herself and her friend. She speaks in one place of " her tiir, her smile, — spells of the vanished years," — as appearing before her vision, reminding her of "days long fled, in A SONNET. 55 Pleasure's golden reign, the youth of changed Ilono- ra." There are others in which she laments the death of Mrs. Edgeworth, and hints at neglect, with- ont venturhig to name ^Nlr. Edgeworth. In April, 1773, she addressed some verses to her, beginning, — " HoNORA, should that cruel time arise, When 'gainst my truth you should'st my errors prize." In Sonnet XII., written in July, 1773, the month of Honora's marriage. Miss Seward pours forth her unhappiness. Others follow in similar strain. SONNET XII. Chilled by unkind Honora's altered eye, " Why droops my heart with fruitless woes forlorn," Thankless for much of good? What thousands, born To ceaseless toil beneatli this wintry sky. Or to brave deathful ocean's surging high. Or fell disease's fevered rage to mourn, — How blest to them would seem my destiny ! How dear the comforts my rash sorrows scorn ! Affection is repaid by causeless hate ! A plighted love is changed to cold disdain I Yet suffer not thy wrongs to shroud thy fate. But turn, my soul, to blessings which remain ; And let this truth the wise resolve create : The heart estra-Nged no anguish cax regain. JCLT, 1773. Mr. Edgeworth's son Richard entered the navy early under his kinsman Lord Longford. The care of the three girls, ^laria, Emmeline, and Anna, was assumed by Mrs. Honora Edgeworth at the time of her marriage. ]Maria had lived much with her aunts and grandparents at Black Bourton, and passed 66 A STUDY OF JLVEIA EDGEWOETH. months with her great-aunts, the Misses Blake, in London. These old ladies were long remembered by Maria for their stately figures and dignified bearing. She was taken by them to play in the gardens at the rear of the British Museum. They lived in Great Russell Street. Maria dimly recalled her mother's death at this house, and being carried into her room for her last embrace. Whatever may have been the first Mrs. Edgeworth's deficiencies as to " cheerful- ness," she appears to have been a domestic woman, — prudent, kind, and a good mother. After Mr. Edgeworth's second marriage, he imme- diately took his wife to Ireland. Maria accompanied them. The house and grounds at Edgeworthstown were found to be much out of order. The house, which was built early in the eighteenth century, was arranged according to the taste of that time, and it needed modernizing and altering. Mr. Edgeworth says, — " The grounds and gardens were in a style correspond- ing to the arehitectm-e. The people were in a wretched state of idleness and ignorance. "We had brought with us some English servants, who soon put our domestic economy upon a comfortable footing. The axe and the plough were presently at work. The yew hedges and screens of clipped elms and horn-beam were cut down, to let in the air and the view of green fields. Carpenters and masons pulled down and built up," " Few gentry " lived near the town, but those who did were friends and relations. Maria, being very young, remembered little of this visit, "except that she was a mischievous child, amusing herself once at EDGEWORTHSTOWN. 67 her aunt Fox's when the company were unmindful of her, cutting out the squares in a checked sofa- cover, and one da}' trampling through a number of hot-bed frames that had just been glazed, laid on the grass before the door at Edgeworthstown. She rec- ollected her delight at the crashing of the glass, but, immorally, did not remember either cutting her feet, or how she was punished for this performance." After spending three years in Ireland, Mr. and ;Mrs. Edgeworth returned to England, and visited their friends. They took a house at North Church in Hertfordshire, near Great Berkhampstead. Mean- while Mr. Day was at last on the eve of matrimony. He wrote Mr. Edgeworth a long congratulatory letter on the occasion of his approaching marriage in 1773, and kept up a constant correspondence with him. In this letter, in 1773, he says he thinks he is " marked out by fate to be an old bachelor, and an humorist, destined, perhaps, to become very old, because I am very indifferent about the matter ; and to buy hobb3--horses for your grand-children; and perhaps, as an old fi'iend of the family, admitted to mediate for some of the future Miss Edgeworths, when they run away with a tall ensign in the guards, or their dancing-master." A brief account of his occupations during these years may interest the reader. He had purchased chambers in the Temple, and spent there much of his time, varying his severer studies with excursions into the country when the fancy seized him. After the rupture with Sabrina Sydney, Dr. Small proposed to his eccentric friend that he shoidd marry 58 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. a INIiss INIilnes of Yorkshire, a lady whose wealth was only an adjunct to her excellent mental qualities, and whose benevolence and charity were unbounded. Her superiority of understanding was so generally admitted among her acquaintances, that "to dis- tinguish her from another Miss Milnes, a relative of hers, who had been called Venus, she had acquired the name of Minerva." All this Dr. Small reported to Mr. Day, the eccen- tric Coelebs in search of a wife. "But has she white and large arms?" said Mr. Day. " She has," replied Dr. Small. " Does she wear long petticoats ? " " Uncommonly long." " I hope she is tall and strong and healthy." "Remarkabl}^ little, and not robust. My good friend," added Dr. Small, speaking in his leisurely manner, " can you possibly expect that a woman of charming temper, benevolent mind, and cultivated understanding, with a distinguished character, with views of life congenial to your own, with an agreea- ble person, and a large fortune, should be formed exactly according to a picture that exists in your imagination ? " Finally this good friend persuaded the eccentric gentleman to "despise" her fortune, and take the lady, if he could achieve such a pattern of excel- lence ; and, after a courtship of some months, INIr. Day married Miss Milnes. Shortly after their mar- riage he carried Mrs. Day to see the Edgeworths at Northchurch ; and they found her very pleasing, and MRS. DAY. 69 evidently disposed to gratify her husband in all his wishes. Mr. Edgcworth says, " I never saw a woman so entirely intent upon accommodating herself to the sentiments and wishes and will of a husband ; " and this feeling continued. Mr. Day, in a few months, bought a small estate called Stapleford Abbot, near Abridge in Essex. He built at this place that room without windows, which he was too indolent to rise from his chair to arrancre for. He meant to cut win- dows in the walls afterwards, but it was never done. Before he began his work he bought at a stall, " Ware's Architecture," and, after reading it assiduously for three or four weeks, fell to building on his most extraordinary plan. Some years after, he bought another house and estate at Anningsley, near Chert- sey, in Surrey, to which he removed. He thought he did prudently ; because this was one of the most unprofitable estates in England, and he should have a large scope of ground for a small sum of money. Here he tried, upon a large scale, all sorts of doubt- ful and unjjrofitable experiments in farming, from books which he read on the subject, to the great injury of his fortune. Miss Seward stated Miss Milnes's fortune at twenty-three thousand pounds. After his death she wrote the editor of "The General Evening Post," who had made some mistake about Mr. Day's prop- erty, that "it was twelve hundred pounds per annum," adding, — "But let him be spoken of as he was, for truth is better than indiscriminate eulogiuni. Mr. Day, with first- 60 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. rate abilities, was a splenetic, capricious, yet bountiful misanthropist. He bestowed nearly the whole of his ample fortune in relieving the necessities of the poor ; frequently, however, declaring in conversation, that there were few in the large number he fed who would not cut his throat the next hour, if their interest could prompt the act, and their lives be safe in its commission. He took pride in avowing his abhorrence of the luxuries, and disdain even of the decencies, of life ; and in his person he was generally slovenly, even to squaliduess. On being asked by one of his friends why he chose the lonely and unpleasant situation in which he lived, he replied, that the sole reason of that choice was, its being out of the stiuk of human society." He entirely separated Mrs. Day from her rehitions and friends. Mr. Edgeworth, while at Northchnrch, occupied himself with mechanical pursuits ; and Mrs. Edge- worth to please him " became an excellent theoretic mechanic." These pursuits, with the care of Maria and her sisters and two little ones of her own, with frequent visitors from London, kept them quite busy. Mrs. Honora Edgeworth's health began to fail in 1778 ; and the preparations she was making to join Mr. Edgeworth in Ireland, whither he had been called by a lawsuit and other business connected with his estate, were given up. She met him on his return near Daventry ; and, as their house at North- church had been let for a year, they proceeded to Mr. Sneyd's at Lichfield till they could arrange for their future manner of living. BOABDING-SCHOOL. 61 In 1775, in consequence of Mrs. Honora Edge- worth's failing lioalth, Maria was sent to a boarding- school kept by a Mrs. LatifBere, at Derby. She always spoke with gratitude and affectionate remem- brance of this lady. In after-life she used to mention, that she felt great admiration at hearing a child younger than herself, on the day of her admission to this school, repeat the nine parts of speech. She was more impressed by this little child's recitation than she was by any other effort of the mind after- wards. At this school, under the careful instruction of a writing-master, Maria's hand-writing was formed; and she was noted in after-years for her neat and perfect manuscripts. Mrs. Honora Edgeworth made a great impression in Maria's mind. She early showed her sensibility and genius by appreciating that of others. She re- membered always the minutest advice Mrs. Honora Edgeworth gave her. The surpassing beauty of her presence struck Maria, young as she was, at her first acquaintance with her. She remembered standing by her dressing-table, and looking at her with a sudden thought of " How beautiful ! " The beauty of Honora was of that wonderful and gpirituelle style not destined long to adorn an earthly being, and consumption had set its fatal mark of precocious mental and physical beauty on her. In one of Mr. Edgeworth's early letters to Mr. Day, the reader may recollect his concluding with, " You know I am no writer : my ideas do not, like yours, flow to my pen readily." Maria wrote long after, — 62 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOETH. " One little book, however, he and Mrs. Honora Edge- worth wrote, I believe, very early in the year 1778 ; when she, in teaching her first child to read, found the want of something to follow Mrs. Barbauld's Lessons, and felt the difficulty of explaining the language of all the other books for children which were then in use. ' Favete linguis — Virginibus j)uerisque canto,' was the motto of this little volume, which was the first part of ' Harry and Lucy, ' — or of ' Practical Educa- tion,' as I find it called in the titlepage to the few copies which were then printed in large type for the use only of his own children. He intended to have carried on the history of Harry and Lucy through every stage of child- hood ; to have diffused, through natural dialogue or inter- esting story, the first principles of morality, with some of the elements of science and literature, so as to show parents how these may be taught, without wearying the pupil's attention. "At the time to which I refer, the design was new; and scarcely any English writer of eminence, except Dr. Watts and Mrs. Barbauld, had condescended to write for children." The summer was spent by Mr. and Mrs. Edge- worth at Lichfield, to be near Dr. Darwin ; and, in the course of a few months, they visited Mr. Day : thence London was of easy access ; and the cele- brated Dr. Heberden was called by the anxious hus- band, but he gave him no hopes whatever of Mrs. Edgeworth's recovery. He took a small house at Beighterton, near Shiffnal, in Shropshire : so that they were near Lichfield, the Sneyds, and Dr. Darwin. MRS. EDGEWORTIl'S ILLNESS. G3 Though Mrs. Edgcworth suffered much from the consuming progress of her disease, slie found time and thought for Maria, and wrote a letter from there to her, October, 1779, in which, after impressing on her "that it is vain to attempt to please a person who will not tell us what they do and what they do not desire," she continues, — "It is very agreeable to me to think of conversing with you as my equal in every respect but age, and of my making that inequality of use to you, by giving you the advantage of the experience I have had, and the observations I have been al)Ie to make, — as these are parts of knowledge which nothing but time can bestow." In Mrs. Honora Edgeworth's letter, which was written from Beighterton, she shows a most tender and motherly interest in Maria. In spite of evident suffering, the writer seemed to study the happiness of others. She tells Maria of her brother's being in port for a few days on leave, and speaks of other family affairs. At Mrs. Latiffier's, Maria learned to use her needle, and became very accomplished in artistic embroidery. She always enjoyed surprising her friends with little gifts of her own manufacture, and throughout her life was an adept at all womanly work. In April of 1780 a letter from her father contains thanks for an embroidered bag which she had sent her mother, who was then too ill to ac- knowledge her little step-daughter's remembrance. Mr. Edgeworth, in conclusion, says, — " It would be very agreeable to me, my dear Maria, to have a letter from you familiarly. I wish to know what 64 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOETH. you like and dislike. I wish to communicate to you what little knowledge I have acquired, that you may have a tincture of ever}'^ species of literature, and form your taste by choice and not by chance. . . . Your poor mother continues extremely ill." Miss Cliaiiotte Sneyd attended her sister with devoted care. The end was very near ; and in less than a month after the previous letter, Mr. Edge- worth wrote, in May, 1780, of the death of his wife. He wrote Maria a long letter, wishing to impress her with the desire of emulating the virtues of that estimable woman whose loss he was called to mourn. May 2, 1780. My dear Daughter, — At six o'clock on Sunday morning, your excellent mother expired in my arms. She now lies dead beside me ; and I know I am doing what would give her pleasure, if she were capable of feeling any thing, by writing to j^ou at this time, to fix her excellent image on your mind. . . . Continue, my dear daughter, the desire which you feel of becoming amiable, prudent, and of use. The ornamental parts of a charac- ter, with such an understanding as yours, necessarily ensue ; but true judgment and sagacity in the choice of friends, and the regulation of your behavior, can be had only from reflection, and from being thoroughly convinced of what experience teaches in general too late, — that to be happy we must be good. God bless you, and make you ambitious of that valuable praise which the amiable character of your dear mother forces from the virtuous and the wise. My writing to you in my present situation will, my dearest daughter, be remembered by you as the MARIA'S FIRST STORY. 65 strongest proof of the love of your approving and affec- tionate futlier. The desire for her father's approval, and the endeavor to live up to the standard he required, became thus early the guiding and controlling influ- ence of Maria's life. In the same month her father wrote her from Lichfield. He says, — "I also beg that you will send me a little tale, about the length of a ' Spectator,' upon the subject of Gener- osity : it must be taken from history or romance, and must be sent the sennight after you receive this ; and I beg you will take some pains about it." The same subject was given at this time to a young Oxford student, then at Lichfield. Wlien the two stories were done, they were submitted to Mr. William Sneyd, Mr. Edge worth's brother-in-law, who was to decide on their merits. He pronounced Maria's to be very much the best ; saying of it, " An excellent story, and extremely well written : but where's the generosity?" — a saying which became a sort of proverb with Maria afterwards. This was Maria's first story, and unfortunately it was not pre- served. She used to say there "was in it a sen- tence of inextricable confusion between a saddle, a man, and his horse." In 1780 Maria was removed from Mrs. LatifiQere's establishment to the then fashionable boarding-school of Mrs. Davis, in Upper Wimpole Street, London. ]\Irs. Davis treated Maria with kindness and consid- 66 A STUDY OP MAEIA EDGEWOETH. eration, though she was " neither beautiful nor fash- ionable." She went through the course of tortures customary at this period, to improve the figure and carriage, — "backboards, iron collars, and dumb- bells, with the unusual additional process of being swung by the neck, to draw out the muscles and in- crease the growth ; " a singular failure in this case, for she continued very small. The careful instruction Maria received in the French and Italian languages at Mrs. Latiffiere's placed her ahead of her fellow-pupils in London. When she began to write the exercises required there, she found she could prepare those for the whole quarter in advance ; and she kept them strung together on her desk, and, when the teacher called for the lesson of the day, she had only to take one out, and present it. This offers rather a doubtful compliment to the management of the school, where proper instruction was not arranged for more ad- vanced pupils. Here we have a picture of her, seated " under a high ebony cabinet," during play- time, so absorbed in her book that she was "per- fectly deaf" to all around; and tliis remarkable power of concentration and abstraction was of great service to her all through life. She was remembered by her companions at both schools for her entertaining stories ; and she learned to know what tale was most successful with her hearers, by the wakefulness it caused. These stories were told at bedtime. Many of her narrations were taken from her memory, — she devoured books while her friends played, — but very many were original. STOEY-TELLING. 67 The spirit of the raconteur was strong, and she had early the fertile brain of the true novelist. One which was much applauded was that of an adventurer who had a mask made of the dried shin of a dead man's face. This he put on when he wished a disguise, and he kept it hidden at the foot of a tree. At school Maria learned to study character. She early learned in that little circle to observe pecul- iarities, and penetrate beneath the surface of actions for the underlying motive. Mr. Edgeworth was essentially a utilitarian. He was a practical illustration of Bentham's theories. When he wrote the letter to his daughter, by Mrs. Honora Edgeworth's death-bed, the stress he lays upon nsefulness will easily be observed. He was a busy man himself, full of projects and plans. He impressed these views on the developing mind of Maria. Mme. de Stael was reported long after to have said Maria was " lost in sad utility ; " and the question naturally comes to the mind, when we see the irrepressible imagination of the young girl, just what her life would have been without her father's peculiar influence. He checked that superabundance of sentiment which would have endangered her clearness of mind ; he kept her stimulated and encouraged to write, by his advice, criticism, and approbation: but it is to be feared that he clipped the wings of fancy, and harnessed Pegasus once again, as the rustics did in an ancient myth. When she failed in her novels to inspire her characters with romantic interest, it was because the paramount influence of her father 68 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. asserted itself. She was certainly gifted -with genius of a high order ; but her nature was most affection- ate, and long habits of respect and devotion to her father made it absolutely impossible for her to free herself from his views. She was always the dutiful daughter, — quite as much so to the last as at the time he wrote her of his desire for the tale on " Generosity." MR. EDGEWORTll's THIRD MARRIAGE. 69 CHAPTER IV. Mr. Edjjeworth's Third Marriase. — Maria's School-Life. — Visits Mr. Day in Vacation. — His Influence over her Mind. — Maria accompanies the Family to Ireland. — Edgeworthstown. — Man- ner of Living at that Time in Ireland. — Maria's Occupations. — Translates " Adele et The'odore." — Writes much, without intend- ing Publication.— Their Social Life. — Death of Mr. Day. — His Writings. —Death of Honora Edgevvorth. — Mrs. Ruxton. — Her Character. JNlRS. Honora Edgeworth, when dying, had urged her husband to marry her sister Elizabeth. This was the young hidy for whose sake Mr. Day had gaUantly undergone a course of gymnastic train- ing, and taken dancing-lessons in France. She had found, on seeing him, that she liked him less as a man of fashion than she did in his natural unpolished condition, and unceremoniously told him so. Mr. Edo-e worth knew less of this sister than he did of the other Miss Sneyds, and was not particularly attracted to her. She, on her part, fancied she had an attachment for a gentleman then abroad. About Mrs. Edgeworth's desire he writes, — ' ' Nothing is more erroneous than the common belief, that a man who has Uved in the greatest happiness with one wife will be the most averse to take another. On the contrary, the loss of happiness which he feels when he loses her necessarily urges him to endeavor to be 70 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. again placed in a situation which had constituted his for- mer felicity. "I felt that Honora had judged wisely and from a thorough knowledge of my character, when she had ad- vised me to marry again as soon as I could meet with a woman who would make a good mother to my children, and an agreeable companion to me. She had formed an idea that her sister Elizabeth was better suited to me than any other woman, and thought that I was equally suited to her. Of all Honora' s sisters, I had seen the least of Elizabeth." "When Mrs. Edgewortli on her death-bed proposed this to her sister, she " expressed the strongest sur- prise at the suggestion, not only because I was her her sister's husband, and because she had another attachment, but independently of these circum- stances: as she distinctly said, I was the last man of her acquaintance that she should have thought of for a husband ; and certainly, notwithstanding her beauty, abilities, and polished manners, I believed she was as little suited to me." After a few months Miss Sneyd and Mr. Edge- worth began to alter their opinions ; and they were married in December, 1780, less than eight months after Mrs. Honora Edgeworth's death. The mar- riage was attended with some disagreeable circum- stances. It was no sooner known that the parties proposed to marry than there was considerable trouble made for them. Prior to the Statutes 5 and 6, William IV., chap. 64, marriages within tlie Levitical degree were voidable, not void, and, if not invalidated in the lifetime of both parties, held good to all intents and purposes. LADY IIOLTE. 71 But such marriages, though not illegal under these circumstances, liad become questional )lc, and in this case many persons interfered ; and in tlie newspapers of the neighborhood the proposed marriage was made the subject of unpleasant remarks, and officious friends made the matter worse by replies which kept up the ill-feeling and excitement. Miss Sneyd went to visit Lady Holte in Cheshire. This lady, who was an old friend of the Sneyds, was " a woman of much knowledge of the world, and of great firmness of character." She had been Miss Elizabeth Sneyd's best friend for many years. When the parties met, early in December, in the parish church of Scar- borough to be married, after being " asked three times in the parish," as was then usual, the clergy- man "received a letter," says Mr. Edgeworth, " which alarmed him so much as to make me think it cruel to press him to perform the ceremony. Lady Holte took Miss Elizabeth Sneyd to Bath. I went to Lon- don with my children, took lodgings in Gray's-Inn Lane, and had our banns published in St. Andrew's Church, Holborn. Miss Elizabeth Sneyd came from Bath, and on Christmas Day, 1780, was married to me in St. Andrew's Church, in the presence of my first wife's brother, Mr. Elers, his lady, and Mr. Day." Mr. and Mrs. Edgeworth went immediately to Northchurch, where they resided for a few months, and then went to London. Sir Joseph Banks, who was at this time president of the Royal Society, invited Mr. Edgeworth to join that bod}-, which he did. He was still a member of the club of which 72 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. John Hunter was president. This club had no formal name. The meetings were first held at Jack's Coffee-House, and later, Young Slaughter's Coffee- House. It numbered among its members many distinguished men, — Banks, Blagden, Capt. Cook, Maskelyne, Lord Mulgrave, and many others. In 1781, shortly after her father's third marriage, ]\Iaria had an alarming and painful inflammation of the eyes. She was taken to one of the first physi- cians in London, who hastily pronounced, " She will lose her eyesight." Happily this opinion of the doctor was not correct. She suffered very much: but after a time the inflammation subsided ; and she was able, for many long years, to use her eyes freely for reading, writing, and all kinds of delicate needle- work and fine embroidery. After Mr. and Mrs. Edgeworth left London, they went for the summer to Davenport Hall, which the}^ hired of the owner. In this retired place they spent some months. At this time they had the younger children of Mr. Edgeworth with them. The magnificent seat of Sir Charles Holte, Brereton Hall, was near this place ; and they passed much time very pleasantly with the Holtes at this fine old Elizabethan mansion. Meantime, Maria was still at the school of Mrs. Davis in London. Some of her holidays were spent at the house of Mr. Day. One can hardly fancy a greater contrast than that be- tween the fashionable establishment in Upper Wim- pole Street and the rigid austerity of Mr. Day's house. He was, however, kind and just ; and Maria received great sympathy and attention from Mr. and MR. DAY. 73 INIrs. Day at tlic time she suffered from the painful inflammation in her eyes. " The lofty nature of Mr. Day's mind, his romantic character, his meta- physical inquiries, and eloquent discussions took Maria into another world. The icy strength of his system came at the right moment for annealing her principles," says one observer. Mr. Day then lived at Anningsly, near Chertsey. " His mixture of speculative misanthropy and real benevolence appeared in all his conduct. Bishop Berke- ley's tar-water was still considered as a specific for all complaints. Mr. Day thought it would be of use to Maria's inflamed eyes, and he used to bring a large tumblerful of it to her every morning. She dreaded his, ' Now, Miss Maria, drink this ! ' but there was, in spite of his stern voice, something of pity and sympathy in his countenance which always induced her to swallow it. His excellent library was open to her, and he directed her studies. His severe reasoning and uncompromising truth of mind awakened all her powers ; and the questions he put to her, and the working out of the answers, the necessity of perfect accuracy in all her words, suited the natural truth of her mind ; and, though such strictness was not always agreeable, she even then perceived its advantage, and in after-life was grateful for it." Years after this, Maria said, in describing Mr. Day's peculiarities, " He ahvays talked like a book, and I do believe he always thought in the same full- dress style." M. Dumont, in writing his friend Romilly, after he had read " Sandford and Merton " for the second time, said he found " a good deal of cleverness, of talent, of the developing ideas, of pre- 74 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. paring them, and of introducing them into the minds of children." Undoubtedly this was just what Mr. Day could do and did for Maria Edgeworth at a certain period of mental growth. By degrees her eyes recovered their strength, and the painful inflammation subsided; but it is not cer- tain whether the tar-water, or the country air of Anningsly, effected the cure. Maria's health was always delicate, and intense headaches often troubled her. She was never equal to protracted bodily ex- ertion, but enjoyed short walks, and in youth rode on horseback, when she had the protection of her father, being rather a timid horsewoman. Mr. Edgeworth left traces of his mechanical inge- nuity during his residence at Brereton, in the steeple clock which he amused himself with making and putting into place. In 1782 Maria was taken from school, and accom- panied her parents and younger brothers and sisters to Edgeworthstown. Her first visit to Ireland was made at an exceedingly early age. This was practi- cally her real introduction to the scenes of her future life, the home of her fathers. She was at the age when one is apt to notice new objects and people with keen interest ; and her new mode of life among the Irish quickened all her thoughts, and roused her eager and animated nature. She was very much struck by the many and extraordinary sights she saw, — the remarkable difference between the Irish and English character. The wit, the melancholy, and gayety of the Irish were all so new and strange to the young girl, accustomed to the stolid and un- RETURN TO IRELAND. 75 varying manners of the English servants, and tlio reserve and silence of the upper classes, that the penetrating genius and powers of observation of the future novelist and delineator of Irish character were vividly impressed with her new surroundings. Mr. Edgeworth wrote of their return, — " In the year 1782 I returned to Ireland with a firm de- termination to dedicate the remainder of my life to the improvement of my estate, and to the education of ray children, and, further, with the sincere hope of contribut- ing to the melioration of the inhabitants of the country from which I drew my subsistence." Of this event Maria wrote in 1819, — " Though such a length of time has elapsed, I have re- tained a clear and strong recollection of our arrival at Edgeworthstowu. ' ' Then she continues, — " Things and persons are so much improved in Ireland of latter days, that only those who can remember how they were some fifty or sixty years ago can conceive the variety of domestic grievances which in those times as- sailed the master of a family, immediately upon his arri- val at his Irish home. Wherever he turned his eyes, in or out of his house, damp, dilapidation, waste, appeared. Painting, glazing, roofing, fencing, finishing, — all were wanting. The back yard, and even the front lawn round the windows of the house, were filled with loungers, fol- lowers, and petitioners : tenants, under-tenants, drivers, sub-agent, and agent were to have audience ; and they all had grievances and secret informations, accusations, reciprocations, and quarrels, each under each, interminable. 76 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. Alternately as landlord and magistrate, the proprietor of an estate bad to listen to perpetual complaints, petty wrauglings and equivocations, in which no human sagacity could discover truth or award justice. Then came widows and orphans with tales of distress, and cases of oppres- sion, such as the ear and heart of uuhardened humanity could not withstand ; and, when some of the supplicants were satisfied, fresh expectants appeared with claims of promises and hopes, beyond what any patience, time, power, or fortune could satisfy. Such and so great the difficulties appeared to me by which my father was en- compassed on our arrival home, that I could not conceive how he could get through them, nor could I imagine how these people had ever gone on during his absence. I was with him constantly ; and I was amused and interested and instructed by seeing how he made his way through these complaints, petitions, and grievances, with decision and despatch : he, all the time, in good humor with the people, and they delighted with him ; though he often ' rated them roundly,' when they stood before him perverse in litigation, helpless in procrastination, detected of cunning, or convicted of falsehood. They saw into his character almost as soon as he understood theirs. The first remark which I heard whispered aside among the people, with congratulatory looks at each other, was, ' His honor, any way, is good pay.' It was said of the celebrated king of Prussia, that ' he scolded like a trooper, and paid like a prince.' Such a man would be liked in Ireland." Modern history has hardly borne out the truth of that saying of Frederick the Great, and we must fancy it of some other royal i-)ersonage ; but here the Italian saying is true, "si non e vero, il e ben trovatoy "HAIRTRIGGER DICK." 77 This long passage shows some of the difficulties felt by a new-comer at that day in Ireland, but I have quoted it more to show the way in which Mr. Edsreworth began at once to initiate Maria into busi- ness and business ways. Where most men would have felt a young girl should not be, the eccentric father felt he was teaching her some valuable lessons. She early began to keep all his accounts, and contin- ued to act as his agent for many years. Another noticeable feature of this introduction into active life is, that it gave her great insight into the characters and ways of the Irish. It is doubtful whether " Castle Rackrent " and her other imitable sketches of Irish life could have been written without this daily observation and study of the peculiarities of the people. They are studies from life, and that makes their merit. Many years after this time, when INIaria was de- scribing some of her methods of working to a gentle- man who asked her how she planned her novels, she spoke of seeing among other strange characters, the " King of Connemara," — first known by that and another cognomen, " Hairtrigger Dick," — Richard Martin, a noted land-owner of Connemara, who fought more duels than any man of his day there- abouts ; and, when he brought a bill into Parliament for preventing cruelty to animals, his nickname was changed to " Humanity Martin." She took some of this man's imperious waj^s and strange eccentricities to build King Corny on, in the story of " Ormond." She says of this man, that he was a contemporary of her father's ; and " too, besides, 78 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOETH. I once saw him, and remember my blood crept slow, and my breath was held, when he first came into the room ; " and, though he was " a pale little insignifi- cant-looking mortal," the strange stories her father had told her of him stirred her fertile imagination. She says in another place, that she saw the original of " Tliady^'' in " Castle Rackrent," when she first came to Ireland ; and later on we shall see how the old man's ways and character struck her, and the story all came into her mind. Mr. Edgeworth began his improvements at home, where they were much needed. Maria says of the house at Edgeworthstown when they arrived there, that, on her father's visit with Mrs. Honora Edge- worth, it " was a tolerably good, old-fashioned man- sion ; but when he returned to it now with seven children, and considered it with a view to its being the residence of a large family, he felt its many in- conveniences. It had been built in my grandfather's time, in a bad situation, for the sake of preserving one chimney that had remained of the former edifice. To this old chimney the new house was sacrificed, — to this, and to the fancy, formerly fashionable, of seeing through a number of doors a suite of apart- ments. To gratify this fancy, it was made a slice of a house, all front, with rooms opening into each other through its whole length, without any inter- vention of passage ; all the rooms small and gloomy, with dark wainscots, heavy cornices, little windows, corner chimneys, and a staircase taking up half the house, to the destruction of the upper story. In short, a more hopeless case for an architect, EDGEWOKTIISTOWN. 79 and for a master of a large family, could scarcely occur." Time and prudence, however, with the mechanical taste of Mr. Edgeworth, made things gradually right ; and in the course of a few j^ears, by doing something each year, Edge worths town house was as commo- dious and pleasant a home as the heart could desire. The grounds and gardens also needed attention ; and "the very day of INIr. Edgeworth's arrival he set to work, and continued perseveringly, fencing, draining, levelling, planting ; though he knew that all he was doing could not show for years." In this careful way of never going on too fast for his income, Mr. Edgeworth gave himself plenty to do, and yet escaped the errors of many of the Irish gentry, who either built superb mansions which in- volved them in debt and distress, or planned a " palace, built offices to suit, then turned stable and coach-house into their dwelling-house," " leaving the rest to fate and to their sons." Mr. Edg^eworth became his own agent, with Maria's help, and had no dealings with middlemen^ always the curse of Ireland. He was a very just landlord, and abolished many oppressive restrictions. He was one of the first Irish landlords to give up the " petty, oppressive claims of duty-work." He always left a year's rent in his tenant's hands ; this being more than the hang- ing gate of six months, which many landlords would not even allow. In his selection of tenants he made no distinction as to religion or nationality, between Catholic or Protestant, or Celt and Saxon. Maria wrote of his management, — 80 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. "As soon as my father returned to Edgeworthstown, he began to receive his rents without the intervention of asent or sub-a^ent. On most Irisli estates there is, or there was, a sort of personage commonly called a driver^ — a person who drives and impounds cattle for rent and arrears. Such persons, being often ill chosen, and of the lowest habits, as well as of the lowest order, misuse their authority ; and frequently, unfaithful to the landlord, as well as harassing to the tenant, sell the interest of their employer for glasses of whiskey ; and finish by running away with money, which they have received on account^ or by extortion from tenants. These drivers are, alas ! from time to time too necessary in collecting Irish rents. My father rendered this petty tyrant's authority as brief as possible. ' Go before Mr. Edgeworth, and you will surely get justice,' was the saying of the neighborhood. Besides relying on his justice, they felt with all the warmth of their warm hearts his eagerness to exert himself in the cause of the injured or oppressed. The Irish ai-e more attached by what touches their hearts than by what concerns their interests ; and those who find their way to their hearts have the best chance — I might say those only have any chance — of so far getting at their heads as to make them understand their true interests, or to cure them of any of their faults or bad habits." Miss Edgeworth herself says of the manner m which she must have acquired much business knowl- edge, besides storing materials, as it has been said, for her studies of Irish life and character, — " Some men live with their families without letting them know their affairs, and, however great may be their affec- tion and esteem for their wives and children, think that they have nothing to do with business. This was not my MARIA TRANSLATES. 81 father's way of thinking. On the contrary, not only his wife, but his children, knew all his affairs. Whatever business he had to do was done in the midst of his family, usually in the common sitting-room : so that we were inti- mately acquainted, not only with his general principles of conduct, but with the minute details of their every-day application. I further enjoyed some peculiar advantages : he kindly wished to give me habits of business ; and for this purpose allowed me, during many years, to assist him in copying his letters of business, and in receiving his rents." This apparently tedious and drudging occupation Maria always declared she enjoyed, as a change from other work, and she showed great acuteness and aptitude for it. Years after, she took upon herself the management of her brother Lovell's affairs during a period of distress for Irish landlords, and under her management brought order out of chaos. In the year 1782 Mr. Edgeworth proposed to Maria, after they were domesticated in their home, to prepare a translation of Mme. de Genlis's " Adele et Theodore." He merely proposed it as a useful occupation for her leisure hours of study. But, after she had made some progress in in it, they thought of publishing it ; and in December, her father wrote her from Dublin, with the corrections of her manuscripts. She had completed one volume when Holcroft's translation appeared. Neither she nor her father regretted the time spent on this vol- ume, as it gave her ready choice of words, and that excellent practice in writing which translation or abstract from others' work always affords the young. 82 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. Mr. Day, who had a horror of female authors and their writings, was highly disgusted at Maria's having even translated a work on education from the French, and wrote to congratulate Mr. Edgeworth when the publication was prevented. It was from the recol- lection of his arguments against women's writing, and of her father's answer, Miss Edgeworth states, that " Letters for Literary Ladies " were written, nearly ten years after. " They were not published, nor was any thing of ours published, till some time after Mr. Day's death (in 1789). Though sensible that there was much prejudice mixed up with his reasons, yet deference for his frieud's judgment prevailed with my father, and made him dread for his daughter the name of authoress." Maria Avrote much during this time. Essays, plays, and little stories occupied her leisure. At this time those who knew Maria best say she " was reserved in manner, and little inclined to con- verse. To those who knew her in after-years, with all her brilliant wit, in the company of the first-rate talkers of French and English society, and her never-failing cheerfulness and flow of conversation at home, this unwillingness to speak seems incredible. She was, however, then in weak health, and felt great powers which were unvalued by the young and gay of ordinary society. She knew that her father appreciated these powers, and she was con- tented with his approbation. She had been taken notice of by his friend Lady Holte, while in England, and thus early learned to admire high-bred manners SOCIETY IN IRELAND. 83 and high principles formed with knowledge of the world." Maria writes of this period of her life, "As to society, we had at this time but little, except with Lord Granard's family at Castle Forbes, and with the Pakenhams at Pakenham Hall, the residence of Lord Longford. The connection and friendship which had long subsisted between the Pakenham family and ours," was mentioned, she says, by Mr. Edgeworth in his narrative. Had he continued that memoir after his return to Ireland, he would have spoken of the strong " regard he felt for Admiral Lord Longford," whose son (the inheritor of the title) was then living at home with his family, after the termination of the French and American war. Lady Longford, the wife of this earl, was a charm- ing woman. And the Dowager Lady Longford was a woman of unusual vigor of mind, " a woman of great wit, and for her day of extraordinary knowl- edge and literature." She was the lady, who, in early years, inspired Mr. Edgeworth with a love of books, and drew his mind from an inordinate love of field-sports. Lord Longford was one of her father's dearest friends, — a man of unusual ability, with a frank- ness and charm of manner which was most attrac- tive. Lady Longford was a woman of romantic, enthusiastic nature ; and among the children of this family was the future Duchess of Wellington, known to all her relatives as "Kitty Pakenham," and "Ad- miral Pakenham, with his inexhaustible wit and generous friendship, who, in his careless dress and 84 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. jovial manners, still looked and was every inch a gentleman, — these were all, not merely figures mov- ing before Maria, as in the raree show of London society, but understood in the intimacy of domestic life : so that, thougli her girlhood was passed with- out ever being in what is called the ' world,' her ideas were gradually expanding, and her insight into character constantly increasing." Pakenham Hall was a delightful home to visit at ; and there she met Mrs. Greville, — the mother of Lady Crewe, and author of the ode to "Lidiffer- ence," — and many people distinguished in the world of politics and literature. Maria writes, — "But Pakenham Hall was twelve miles distant from us, in the adjoining county of Westmeath. There was a vast Serboniau bog between us ; with a bad road, an awkward fence, and a country so frightful, and so over- run with yellow- weeds, that it was aptly called by Mrs. Greville ' the Yellow Dwarf's country.' " Castle Forbes, the residence of the Earl of Granard, was more within our reach than Pakenham Hall. There the society was various and very agreeable, especially when Lady Granard' s mother (the late Lady Moira) was in the country. Lady Moira was a personage of great influence in Ireland : she held somewhat of a court at Moira House, Dublin, which was the resort of the witty and the wise of the day; and this lady, who was the daughter of Lady Huntingdon (the friend of Wesley and "Whitcfield ) , had seen a strange sort of society, and learned much not usual in people of her rank." LADY MOIEA. 86 Maria was so happy as to attract the attention and approval of tliis lady ; and her conversation was very beneficial to her, for she talked with the sliy young girl "as one who could understaiid her." She says of her, — " Lady IMoira's taste for literature, general knowledge, and great conversational talents, drew round her culti- vated and distinguished persons ; but it was her noble, high-spirited character which struck my father still more than her acquirements and abilities. "He was gratified by the manner in wliich she first encouraged and distinguished his daughter, and grateful for the friendship with which Lady Moira honored her ever after." Mr. Edgeworth was very fond of an argument; and once, when he and Lady Moira had had a long argument on genius and education, Lord Granard ended it wittily by saying, " A pig may be made to whistle, but he has a bad mouth for it." Maria says, — " In our more immediate neighborhood, we at this time commenced an acquaintance with a friendly and cultivated family of the name of Brooke. The father, an old, well- informed clergyman, was nearly related to the Mr. Brooke who wrote the celebrated novel of ' The Fool of Quality,' and the tragedy of ' Gustavus Vasa.' . . . " Considering the state of society in Ireland at the time of which I am now writing, my father may be esteemed fortunate in finding in a remote place such acquaintance. In general, formal, large dinners and long sittings were the order of the day and night. The fash- 86 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. ion for literature had not commenced, and people rather shunned than courted the acquaintance of those who were suspected to have literary taste or talents." Mr. Edgeworth was an excellent horseman, and always said "he could think, invent, and compose better on horseback than anywhere else : " and for many years Maria enjoyed her rides with her father; for his perfect control of his own horse gave her ease and confidence, and many pleasant hours were passed in the saddle. In the year 1789 Mr. Day's sudden death deprived Mr. Edgeworth and Maria of a warm friend. He was her father's earliest friend ; and, though full of foibles and eccentricities, he had a fine mind and re- markable powers. " There could be no second Mr. Day " for them. His loss was irreparable, and his place in their regard and esteem was never filled. Mr. Day had left his library and his mathematical instruments to Mr. Edgeworth by his last will ; but at his death this will could not be found, and an earlier one of 1780, which did not name Mr. Edge- worth, was the only one which appeared extant. Mrs. Day, who valued the friendship of Mr. Edge- worth, and said of him, that she considered him " the most purely disinterested and proudly independent of Mr. Day's friends," offered him the opportunity of naming any legacy her husband might have men- tioned to him. He only asked, and received, some old mathematical instruments endeared to him by associations with his friend. Mr. Day, it will perhaps be remembered, lost his life in attempting to train a young colt. As he did MR. day's death. 87 not approve of the usual rough method of '■^hreaJcincj'' horses, he undertook to manage this colt in a differ- ent way. The animal, becoming startled, plunged and threw him. " lie had a concussion of the bruin, never spoke after his fall, and in less than quarter of an hour expired ! " Mrs. Day, who survived her husband onl}^ two years, was so inconsolable that she took to her bed ; where she remained much of the time, in spite of a most philosophical letter from Mr. Edgeworth, who argued out a case from his own standpoint, and naturally fancied others of as an elastic a temperament as his own. Maria said of Mr. Day, — "It is remarkable that Mr. Day's fame with posterity will probably rest solely upon those works which he con- sidered as most perishable. He valued, in preference to his other writings, certain political tracts ; but these, though finely written, full of manly spirit and classic elo- quence, have passed away, and are heard of no more. While his history of ' Sandford and Merton,' and even the tiny story of 'Little Jack,' are still popular. 'For the same reason, because true to nature and to genuine feeling, his poem of "The Dying Negro " will last as long as manly and benevolent hearts exist in England.' " Miss Seward says that " The Dying Negro" was the first article in prose or verse on the wrongs of the negro. She notes this, because Cowper claims in a letter to be the first poet who " publicly stigma- tized our slave-trade." Mr. Day's poem appeared in 1770, years before Cowper published at all ; and it was generally read and admired. In Miss Seward's 88 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. panegyric of Mr. Dewes, she wrote in 1793 to Miss Powys, "lie had the bestowing spirit of Mr. Day, without its acrimony; the politeness of Mr. Edge- worth, without his insincerity." In Leigh Hunt's autobiography he says, — ' ' The pool of mercenary and time-serving ethics was first lilown over by the fresh country breeze of Mr. Day's ' Sandford and Merton,' — a production which I well re- member and shall ever be grateful to." A new blow was approaching Mr. Edgeworth. Mrs. Honora Edgeworth left one daughter, at this time a lovely girl of about fifteen. This young girl inherited her mother's rare beauty, intelligence, and delicacy of constitution. Her health began to fail very rapidly. Her father wrote to Mrs. Day after her husband's death, — "The loss of my best friend must be followed by the loss of my most excellent daughter Honora. Her ripened beauty, her cheerful, serene temper, uncommon under- standing, all the hopes of her family, — by all of whom she is admired and adored, — the expectations of all who have ever seen her, must now be blasted. The hand of heredi- tary disease is upon her, which must soon be inevitably followed by the hand of death. With the same fortitude which her incomparable mother possessed, she bears the present, and prepares for the future." She died in February, 1790. One observer said she was " dazzling " in beauty. Dr. Darwin, in writ- ing Mr. Edgeworth after her death, alludes as fol- lows to Honora : — MRS. RUXTON. 89 " I srccn condole with you on your late loss. I know how to feel for your misfortune. The little tale you sent me is a prodigy, written by so young a pereon, with such elegance of imagination." Tliis tale of which he speaks was " Riviiletta," a fairy story written by Honora ; and the reader will find it printed in " Early Lessons," by Maria. Anna Seward thanks Mrs. Powys for this tale, asks if " it be a translation or no, as it says at the end, ' Extract from Lavater.' " After the death of Honora, Mr. Edgeworth went to Black Castle to visit his sister, Mrs. Ruxton, who was endeared to him by all the associations of early youth, and her own charms of disposition. Mr. Rux- ton had rather a grave and reserved manner, but a warm heart and a keen enjoyment of humor. He delighted in Maria's company. Several of their children died young : Richard, Sophy, and Margaret were Maria's life-long friends. Black Castle was within a few hours' drive of Edgeworthstown, and a visit to her aunt was one of Maria's great pleasures. Mrs. Ruxton was a woman of wit and vivacity and strong affections. Her grace and charm of manner were such that a gentleman once said of her, " If I were to see Mrs. Ruxton sitting in rags on the door- step, I should say ' Madam ' to her." 90 A STUDY OF MAKIA EDGEWOETH. CHAPTER V. Maria's Method of Work. — She joins her Father and Mother in England. — Life at Clifton. — Dr. Darwin. — Mr. Edgeworth meets old Friends. — Maria visits Friends. —Dr. Beddoes. — Return to Ireland. — Disturbances in Ireland. — The "Freeman Family." — " Letters for Literary Ladies." — "Practical Educa- tion." — Continued Disturbances. — "Parent's Assistant." — At Work on "Practical Education." — " Moral Tales." —Death of Mrs. Elizabeth Edgeworth. — Friendship formed with the Beau- fort Family. — Mr. Edgeworth marries Miss Beaufort. In January, 1791, Mr. and Mrs. Edgeworth went to England, leaving Maria in charge of the house and the children. The first story Maria wrote after that on " Gener- osity," was " The Bracelets : " some of the tales now in " Parent's Assistant " followed. " Dog Trusty," and " Tlie Honest Boy and the Thief," were written at this time. She was in the habit of writing them out on a slate, and reading them to her sisters : if they approved, she copied them. At the period we are considering, she was twenty-four years old, but rather timid and doubtful of her powers. Her writ- ing for children was the natural outgrowth of a practical study of their wants and fancies ; and her constant care of the younger children gave her ex- actly the opportunity required to observe the devel- opment of mind incident to the age and capacity of several little brothers and sisters. Maria's writing. 91 She herself says of her manner of writing her stories, — " Whenever I tliought of writing any thing, I always told my father my first rough phms ; and always, with the instinct of a good critic, he used to fix immediately upon that which would best answer the purpose. ' ASletch that and show it to me.' Those words, from the experience of his sagacity, never failed to inspire me with hope of success. It was then sketched. Sometimes, when I was fond of a particular part, I used to dilate on it in the sketch ; but to this he alwaj's objected. ' I don't want any of 3-our painting — none of 3'our drapery : I can imagine all that ; let me see the bare skeleton.' " She says, "Though publication was out of our thouglits, as subjects occurred, many essays and tales were written for private amusement." For several years Maria wrote in this way for the amusement and use of the family. Her father "would some- times advise me," she adds, " to lay by what was done for several months, and turn my mind to some- thing else, that we might look back at it afterwards with fresh eyes." It would be well if all writers could restrain their pen if they did not blot, — which Pope calls "the last and greatest art," — waiting till time should ripen their powers, and not do as so many modern authors are in the habit of doing, — furnish the pub- lic with a book a year. Want has too often kept an over-worked brain grinding out literary produc- tions which constantly lower the author's reputation. We recognize this fact in modern times by the infe- riority of average novelists' later works. A first 92 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOKTH. book is by no means the certain harbinger of a new series. It may be the only story worthy of reading which its writer will produce. The public has ruined many of its story-tellers by urging them to write too much for their own fame and the reader's advantage. Maria made a visit to Black Castle while her father and mother were at Clifton. She left the family in charge of a friend of the Sneyds who was at Edgeworthstown, — Mrs. Mary Powys. Tliis lady was a devoted friend of Mrs. Honora Edge- worth; and to her she addressed the last note she wrote, in which she says Mr. Edge worth — " Like a kind angel whispers peace, And smooths the bed of death." After Maria's return home, her father sent for her to join him at Clifton, bringing the younger children. She travelled with four girls, two boys, and servants from Edgeworthstown to England. This rather large party of little people arrived in safety at Clif- ton. The landlady at one inn on the way, seeing so many nurses and little people get out of the carriage, and the quantity of baggage, exclaimed, " Haven't you brought the kitchen-grate too ? " When they reached their destination, a package of guineas placed in one of the trunks was found to be light, and the friction had left a little heap of gold-dust. In 1787, when Mrs. Elizabeth Edgeworth was recov- ering from an illness, Mr. Edgeworth used to amuse the assembled family, by telling a story of the Free- man family. The next day IMaria wrote down from memory what he had told them the previous night. CLIFTON SPRINGS. 93 At Clifton he continued this story. In the course of time she again worked on this; and, with many- alterations and additions, it became what is known as " Patronage." The health of one of Mr. Edgeworth's sons kept the family at Clifton for quite a time. Tliey lived there nearly two years. Maria says of her father this time, — ' ' This was the first time I had ever been with him away from home. lu what is called the icorkl, he was a most entertaining guide and companion. His observations upon characters, as they revealed themselves by slight cir- cumstances, were amusing and just. He was a good judge of manners, and of all that related to appearance, both in men and women. ... He did not like these two-years' residence at Clifton. The mode of life at a water-drinking place was not suited to him." The eldest son of Mr. Edgeworth, who had left the navy, and settled in North Carolina, where he had married, made his family a visit during their sta}' at Clifton. Maria was very fond of him, though they had never seen much of each other. After his return to America she wrote regretting it. The family renewed their old intimacies, and saw their friends in England easily, as Clifton was access- ible. Maria saw many of her father's old friends during their residence in England. In one letter she writes, with evident pride and pleasure, that Dr. Dar- win " has paid Lovell [her brother] a very handsome compliment in his lines on the Barberini Vase, in the first part of ' The Botanic Garden ' which my father has just got." These are the lines : — 94 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. " The warrior Liberty, with bending sails, Helmed his bold course to fair Ilibernia's vales ; Firm as he steps along the shouting lands, Lo ! Truth and Virtue range their radiant bands ; Sad Superstition wails her empire torn. Art plies his oar, and Commerce pours her horn." In the footnotes to the same work, there is one describincT a,n ingenious little automaton made out of soft fir-wood by Mr. Edgeworth : by means of its contraction and expansion, changes in the weather could be calculated. When " The Botanic Garden " came out, Mr. Edgeworth wrote to Dr. Darwin, — " To have my name in a note to your work is, in my opinion, to have it immortal ; and, as Mrs. Edgeworth says, — * If it's allowed to poets to divine, One-half of round eternity is mine.' " Mr. Edgeworth did not consider Dr. Darwin's idea of poetry a correct one, — that it should be word- painting ; but, when he found that he could not influence him as to his theory of writing, he proposed subjects to him which he thought could be treated by him in the manner he preferred. He urged Dr. Darwin to write a " Cabinet of Gems." Edgeworth wrote him that Maria said, " The manner in which you mention your friends in your poem shows as much generosity as your subjects show genius." Maria admired Dr. Darwin very much. She calls him " the common friend of genius and goodness, which he had the happy talent of discovering, attracting, and attaching." She mentions one of DR. DARWIN. 95 his sayings : " A fool you know, ]\Ir. Edgewortli, is a man who never tried an experiment in his life." Dr. Darwin liad, some years earlier (in 1781), "married a young, rich, and lovely widow,^ who allured him to quit Lichfield, and settle at Derby." Mr. Edge worth visited Dr. Darwin during his stay at Clifton. Maria wrote of one occasion : — "My father has just returned from Dr. Darwin's, where he has been for nearly three weeks. They were extremely kind, and pressed him very much to take a house in or near Derby for the summer. He has been, as Dr. Darwin expresses it, ' breathing the breath of life into the brazen lungs of a clock,' which he had made at Edgeworthstown as a present for him. He saw the first part of Dr. Darwin's ' Botanic Garden : ' nine hundred pounds was what his bookseller gave him for the whole ! On his return from Derby, my father spout a day with Mr. Keir, the great chemist, at Birmingham. He was speaking to him of the late discovery of fulminating sil- ver, with which I suppose your ladyship is well acquainted, though it be new to Henry and me. A lady and gentle- man went into a laboratory where a few grains of fulmi- nating silver were lying in a mortar. The gentleman, as he was talking, happened to stir it with the end of his cane, which was tipped with iron. The fulminating silver exploded instantly, and blew the lady, the gentleman, and the whole laboratory to pieces ! Take care how you go into laboratories with gentlemen, unless they are like Sir Plume, skilled in the ' nice conduct ' of their canes." " Sir Plume, of amber snuff-box justly vain, And the nice conduct of a clouded caue." 1 ilrs. Pole of Eedburn. 96 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. In another letter written about this time, Maria speaks of the " ' Romance of the Forest.' It has been the fashionable novel here, everybody read and talked of it. We were much interested in some parts of it. It is something in the style of the ' Castle of Otranto ; ' and the horrible parts we thought well worked up ; but it is very difficult to keep horror, breathless, with his mouth open, through three volumes." Mr. Edgeworth renewed his early intimacy with Watts, Keir of Birmingham, the biographer of Mr. Day, and Wedgwood of Etruria. Besides seeing his old friends whom he visited, he went often to Lon- don, and saw his scientific friends there. Dr. Dar- win at this time made him acquainted with " the in- genious, indefatigable, and benevolent Mr. William Strutt of Derby," at whose house the family often enjoyed much hospitality when they visited England. While he was making new friends, his attention was called to the sudden illness of Lord Longford ; but, be- fore he could return to Ireland to see him, news came that he was no more. He was a great loss to him. Maria made a very pleasant visit to a former school friend, Mrs. Charles Hoare (Miss Robinson), in October, 1792. She had been a correspondent of hers, and she enjoyed much seeing her again at her pleasant home in Roehampton. Mrs. Hoare had travelled much, and Maria listened with interest to her description of foreign scenes. She wrote to her cousin, Miss Sophy Ruxton, of this visit, that she had notes half rubbed out in her pocket-book, " So- phy, slave-ship ; Sophy, rope-walk ; Sophy, marine DR. BEDDOES. 97 acid ; Sophy, earthquake ; Sophy, glass house," — all these items of information being intended for her cousin's benefit, when next they met. Mrs. Iloare's descriptions of Lisbon and the sands of the Tagus, etc., had furnished Maria with much food for thought. A visit to London was made from Roe- hampton, and thence she went to visit Mrs. Powys. In July, 1793, Anna Edgeworth was engaged to Dr. Thomas Beddoes. Maria was much interested in this engagement. Anna was her youngest own sis- ter. She says, — "While we resided at Clifton we became acquainted with the celebrated Dr. Beddoes,^ and it is remarkable that this acquaintance was in consequence of the doctor's great admiration for the character of Mr. Day. This had induced Dr. Beddoes to seek the acquaintance of Mrs. Day and of her friend Mr. Keir. When Dr. Beddoes came to Clifton, with the view of settling as a physician, Mr. Koir gave him a letter of introduction to my father, who was, I believe, his first acquaintance there. My father admired his al)ilities, was eager to cultivate his society ; and, this intimacy continuing some mouths, he had opportunities of assisting in establishing the doctor at Clifton. In the autumn of 1793 we heard that dis- turbances were beginning to break out in Ireland, and my father thought it his duty to return there immediately. Our preparations for leaving Clifton seemed particularly to grieve and alarm Dr. Beddoes. During the summer's acquaintance with our family, he had become strongly attached to one of my sisters, — Anna. He had permis- sion to follow her in the spring ; and they were mar- ried at Edgeworthstown, on the 17th of April, 1794." 1 Thomas Beddoes, distinguished physician and chemist, 17G0-1808. 98 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. In writing to a friend of her sister Anna's de- parture, Maria tells the following anecdote : — " Anna was extremely sorry that she could not see you again before she left Ireland : but j^ou will soon be in the same kingdom again ; and that is one great point gained, as Mr. Weaver, a travelling astronomical lecturer who carried the universe about in a box, told us. 'Sir,' said he to my father, ' when you look at a map, do j^ou know that the east is always on your right hand, and the west on your left?' — 'Yes,' replied my father, with a very modest look, 'I believe I do.' — 'Well,' said the man of learning, ' that's one great point gained.' " November, 1793, found the Edgeworths again at their home in Ireland ; and Maria wrote about this time, " I am scratching away very hard at the ' Free- man Family '('Patronage ')." The disturbances in Ireland, which hastened Mr. Edge worth's return in 1793, " did not at first appear formidable," says Maria : " though we were occasion- ally alarmed by reports of outrages committed by Heart-of-oak Boys and Defenders in distant counties ; and though in our own there were some nightly marauders, yet, upon the whole, our neighborhood continued tolerably quiet." Rumors of a French invasion continued to stir up disaffection and en- courage these people. But after a time affairs became more settled, and the arts of peace flour- ished at Edgeworthstown ; though the services of ]\Ir. Edgeworth as justice were in active requisition for seeking, apprehending, and convicting these vil- lains and the bands of wretches who wandered round marauding and destroying property and life. LETTERS FOR LITERARY LADIES. 99 At this time Mr. Edge worth offered his system of telegraphing to the goverunieiit. He spent some five hundred pounds upon it at his own expense. Lovell Edgeworth, by the request of Mr. Pelham, brother of the Duke of Newcastle, carried the model to London ; but the government declined to avail itself of this ingenious invention. In January of 1794, William, the last child of Mrs. Elizabeth Edge- worth, was born. Mrs. Edgeworth was in very fee- ble health for some years before her death. Maria was very busy at this period with several literary works. She wrote, about this time, of her " Letters for Literary Ladies," and says she is sorry that " they are not as well as can be expected, nor are they likely to mend at present. They are now disfigured by all manner of crooked marks of papa's critical indignation, besides various abusive marginal notes, which I would not have you see for half a crown sterling." She wrote in the same year to her aunt: "You are very good to wish for 'Toys and Tasks,' but I think it would be most unreasonable to send them to you now." " Toys and Tasks" was the title of one of the chapters in " Practical Edu- cation," which Maria had then begun to work upon. "Practical Education" was suggested to Mr. Edge- worth by Dr. Darwin; for he wrote the doctor, in December, 1794, as follows : — " Edgeworthstown, Dec. 18, 1794. . . . " In one of your letters some time ago, you advised us to read Dugald Stewart,^ and to write upon education. 1 DugaUl Stewart, professor of moral i)liiIosophy iu the Uuiversity of Edinburgh. 175S-1828. 100 A STUDY or MARIA EDGE WORTH. Stewart we have read with great profit and pleasure, and we are writing upon education. Maria recurs frequently to your authority in a chapter on ' Attention,' and has, I think (pardon my paternal partialit}') , managed your gigantic weapons with as much adroitness as could be expected from a dwarf. Your new terms in Zoonomia require to be mouthed frequentl}' to make them famil- iar ; and in conversation we sometimes forget our gram- mar. She would write to ask you some questions if she dared." . . . Maria wrote about this time of the occupations of the family : — " There is a balloon hanging up, and another going to be put upon the stocks ; there is soap made and making from a receipt in Nicholson's Chemistry ; there is excel- lent ink made and to be made by the same book ; there is a cake of roses just squeezed in a vise by my father, ac- cording to the advice of Mme. de Lagaraye, the woman in black cloak and ruffles, who weighs with unwearied scales, in the frontispiece of a book, which perhaps my aunt re- members, entitled ' Chemie de Gout, et de I'Odorat.' " A truly extraordinary catalogue of employments, and i\Iaria miglit have well put some of the books in preparation into her list. There were rumors of trouble now and then from the Defenders, and a good deal of anxiety was felt about the property in the neighborhood. Lord Granard's carriage was pelted ; ^ peojjle were robbed, 1 During the recent agitations in Ireland, the present Lord Gra- nard, grandson of Maria's friend, Lady Moira, was compelled to seek the aid of dragoons and constabulary. He is the head of the Catholic Union of Ireland, a resident landlord, and a patriotic Irish- man. His first wife, a great heiress, was descended from one of the victims of 1798 ; but all this has not shielded him from anuoyauce. LETTERS FOR LITERARY LADIESi 101 roasted, and murdered soiuetiiues. The Whitc-Tooihs, Maria explains, were men who stuck ''tivo pieces of broken tobacco-pipes at each corner of the moutli to disguise the face and voice." These White- Tooths are often mentioned in letters of the time. She speaks of the time as "a Avliirlwiud in our county." One of the events of the year 1795, at Edge- worthstown, was the arrival of jNIiss IMary and Miss Charlotte Sneyd, who made it their home after this time. Another pleasant occasion was the return of Richard Edge worth, who made his family and liome a visit in this year. He returned to America, where he died in 1796. He left several children. In April, 1795, Maria wrote of finishing " Toys and Tasks." In the year 1795, "Letters for Literary Ladies" appeared. It was published by Joseph Johnson of St. Paul's Churchyard. This was jMaria's first pub- lication. The " Letters " contained " Letter from a Gentleman to his Friend on the Birth of a Daughter," with the answer ; " Letters of Julia to Caroline ; " and an essay on the "Noble Art of Self-Justifica- tion." The l30ok was very popular, and went through several editions before 1814, and then appeared in the collected works. These essays are admirably written ; and the style is clear and forcible, though perhaps a little anti- quated. The ideas and opinions are sound and well considered, and they will well repay the thoughtful reader. Their influence was very great, and for many years they were widely read and often quoted. In 1796 Maria mentions her father doing her " the honor to let me copy his election letters," when he ;i0'2 "A STUDY OF MARIA EDGE WORTH. failed of election as member of Parliament for Long- ford. In the same year, encouraged by the pleasant success of the letters, Maria published the collection of tales now known as the "Parent's Assistant." Years before, she had written many of these little stories, which are full of wit, pathos, and life. Her father named it " Parent's Friend," but Mr. Johnson has degraded it into the " Parent's Assistant; " which I dislike particularly, from associations with an old book of arithmetic, called " The Tutor's Assistant." This small volume contained " The Purple Jar," which was afterwards added to "Rosamond." The other stories were "Little Dog Trusty," "The Orange Man," "Tarlton," "Lazy Lawrence," "The False Key," "The Bracelet," "Mademoiselle Panache," " The Birthday Present," " Old Poz," " The Mimic." " Simple Susan " was not written until after this edition was printed. In February, 1799, a little theatre was put up for the children ; and in it they acted Justice Poz, from this book. Sneyd Edge worth played the justice, " Old Poz," with great spirit. At this time the post town of Edgeworthstown was Mullingar, fourteen miles ; and the mail only went three times a week. That and high postage rates made letters very scarce and a great treat. The franking privilege was then in full vogue. At this time Maria read and was entertained with " Nature and Art " by Mrs. Inchbald, whose acquaintance she made some years after. In 1797 Mr. Johnson wished to publish some copies of " Parent's Assistant," and make the edition "tarent's assistant." 103 suitable for gifts. He used fine paper, and illustrated it. Miss Beaufort, daughter of Dr. Beaufort, rector of Navan, was making a visit at Edgeworthstown ; and she made some designs which were used for the book, and are still to be found in some copies of this delightful little volume. Maria alludes to continu- ing her work on " Practical Education," in 1797, and says her father has written a chapter on " Grammar " and one on "Mechanics." She says she has been " up early for three mornings," under the pressure of work this brought. She began at this time to write some of the stories which afterwards appear among her " Moral Tales." She designed them as a sequel to the " Parent's Assistant." She was thinking on the subject of " Irish Bulls ; " though she wrote that she was not nearly ready to write the essay, and was going directly to "Parent's Assistant," meaning, probably, the tales intended as a sequel. She asked one cor- respondent for "any good anecdotes from the age of five to fifteen years, good latitude and longitude will suit me ; and, if you can tell me any pleas- ing misfortunes of emigrants, so much the better. I have a great desire to draw a picture of an anti- Mademoiselle Panache, a well-informed, well-bred French governess, an emigrant." — "I am going to write a story for boys, which will, I believe, make a volume to follow ' The Good French Gov- erness.' " In November of 1797, Mrs. Elizabeth Edgeworth died, leaving a number of young children. Maria says, — 104 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOETH. ' ' During the fifteen preceding years of which I have been giving an account, the variety of my father's em- ployments never prevented him from attending to his great object, — the education of his children. ' ' He explained and described clearly. He knew so exactly the habits, powers, and knowledge of his pupils, that he seldom failed in estimating what each could com- prehend or accomplish. He saw at once where their diffi- culty lay, and knew how far to assist, how far to urge, the mind, and where to leave it entirely to its own exer- tions. His patience in teaching was peculiarly' meritori- ous, I may say surprising, in a man of his vivacity. "The reward of his praise was delightful, it was so warmly, so fondly given. The cool by-stander might have thought that it would inspire vanity ; but against this danger there was a preservative : there was mixed with the praise so much affectionate sympathy, so much parental triumph in his children's success, that affection for him was excited more than vanity for themselves ; and they insensibly drew the conclusion, that affection is better worth than admiration. "In the succeeding j-ear my father's pursuits were all interrupted by domestic calamity. Mrs. Edgeworth's health, which had long been precarious, rapidly declined. She died in the year 1797. "I have heard my father say, that during the seven- teen years of his marriage with this lady, he never once saw her out of temper, and never received from her an unkind word or an angry look. Her solicitude and atten- tion in the education of a large family of children were unremitting, greater than her health could bear, and such as even maternal affection would have found difficult, perhaps impossible, to sustain, unless they had been sup- ported by attachment to a husband of superior mind. MISS BEAUFORT. 105 " IMy father was past fift}' when ho was loft a tliird time a widoAvor, with a nunu'roiis family, four sons and five daughters living with him, some of tlioni grown up, and some very young. Besides liis eliildren, two sisters of the late Mrs. Edgeworth resided with us. They had friends and counections in England, for Avhom they had high esteem and affection ; yet they remained in Ireland after their sister's death, continuing to form part of a family attached to them, not only by the ties of kindred, but by the strongest feelings of love and gratitude. . . . "This was an auspicious omen to the common people in our neighborhood, by whom they were universally beloved : it spoke well, they said, for the new lady." " Among the acquaintance and friends whose society he cultivated at intervals when he emerged from his domestic circle, was Dr. Beaufort, whose name is well known to the British public as author of one of the best maps of Ireland, with a valuable memoir of its topography. He was still better known in his own country as an excellent clergyman, pious and liberal, with most conciliating manners. "My father first met him at Mr. Foster's (afterwards Lord Oriel) at Collon, of which place Dr. Beaufort was vicar ; and afterwards saw him frequently at Black Castle, the residence of my father's favorite sister, Mrs. Ruxton. "Dr. Beaufort's literary tastes and delightful conver- sation were peculiarly attractive to my father, who soon became intimate with him and with his amiable family. The eldest daughter possessed uncommon talents foi* drawing; and, at the request of my aunt (Mrs. Ruxton), Miss Beaufort sketched designs for some of my stories. These were shown to my father ; and he criticised them as freely as if they had not been the work of a lady, and made for his daughter. He was charmed by the temper 106 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. and good sense with which his criticisms were received, and, in a visit which she and her family paid at Edge- worthstown, had an opportunity of seeing that she pos- sessed exactly the temper, abilities, and disposition which would insure the happiness of his family, as well as his own, if he could hope to win her affections." Maria writes of this event : — "When I first knew of this attachment, and before I was well acquainted with Miss Beaufort, I own that I did not wish for the marriage. I had not my father's quick penetration into character. I did not at first discover the superior abilities and qualities which he saw : consequently I did not anticipate any of the happy consequences from this union which he foresaw. All that I thought, I told him. With the most kind patience he bore with me, and, instead of withdrawing his affection, honored me the more with his confidence. He took me with him to Collon, threw open his whole mind to me, let me see all the changes and workings of his heart. I remember his once saying to me, ' I believe that no human creature ever saw the heart of another more completely without disguise than you have seen mine.' I can never, without the strongest emotions of affection and gratitude, recollect the infinite kindness he showed me at this time, the solici- tude he felt for my happiness at the moment when all his own was at stake, and while all his feelings were in the agony of suspense : the consequence was, that no daugh- ter ever felt more sympathy with a father than I felt for him ; and assuredly the pains he took to make me fully acquainted with the character of the woman he loved, and to make mine known to her, were not thrown away. Both her inclination and judgment decided in his favor." LETTER TO 2VnSS BEAUFOET. 107 Til the letter of IMay 16, 1708, which Maria wrote to Miss Beaufort, on the occasion of lier father's announcement of his intended marriage, she says, — "Among the many kindnesses my father has shown me, the greatest, I think, has been his permitting me to see his heart Ct decouvert ; and I have seen, by your kind sincerity and his, that in good and cultivated minds love is no idle passion, but one that inspires useful and gen- erous cnerg}'. I have been convinced by your example of what I was always inclined to believe, that the power of feeling affection is increased hy tlie cultivation of the understanding. Tlie wife of an Indian Yogii (if a Yogii be permitted to have a wife) might be a very affectionate woman, but her sj'mpathy with her husband could not have a very extensive sphere. As his eyes are to be continually fixed upon the point of his nose, hers, in duteous sympathy, must squint in like manner ; and if the perfection of his virtue be to sit so still that tlie birds {vide Sacontala) may unmolested build nests in his hair, his wife cannot better show her affection than by yielding her tresses to them with similar patient stupidit}-. Are there not European Yogiis, or men whose ideas do not go much farther than le bout du nezf And how delightful it must be to be chained, for better, for worse, to one of this species ! I should guess — for I know nothing of the matter — that the courtship of an ignorant lover must be almost as insipid as a marriage with him ; for ' My jewel,' continually repeated, without new setting, must surely fatigue a little." Both witty and wise. In continuing the letter, she makes some very good observations apropos of domestic life : — 108 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOBTH. " I flatter mj^self that j^oii will find me gratefully exact en helle-Jille. I think there is a great deal of difference between that species of ceremony which exists with acquaintance, and that which should always exist with the best of friends. The one prevents the growth of affec- tion, the other preserves it in youth and age. Many fool- ish people make fine plantations, and forget to fence them : so that the young trees are destroyed by the young cattle, and the bark of the forest trees is sometimes in- jured. You need not, my dear Miss Beaufort, fence yourself round with stony palings in this family, where all have been early accustomed to mind their lioundaries. As for me, you see my intentions, or at least my theories, are good enough. If my practice be but half as good, you will be content, will you not? But theory was born in Brobdignag, and practice iu Lilliput. So much the better for me." This allusion was in reference to her own diminu- tive figure. Some very harsh comments were made by the reviewer of Mr. Edgeworth's memoirs on Maria's conduct in accepting gracefully successive step- mothers. He characterized her action as "indeli- cate." It is difficult to understand just what the gentleman would have had a young lady do under like circumstances; and, after reading the extract from the letter she wrote Miss Beaufort, one is more inclined to admire her womanly and judicious feel- ing than to cavil at her cheerful acquiescence in the inevitable. She gracefully took a second place where she had been first. She was somewhat older than Miss Beaufort. MR. EDGEWORTH'S FOURTH MARRIAGE. 109 Mr. Edgeworth wrote Dr. Darwiii as follows : — [To Dr. Darwin. 1 " 1798. . . . "And now for my piece of news, which I have kept for the last. I am going to be married to a young lady of small fortune and large accomplishments, — com- pared with my age, much youth (not quite thirty), and more prudence, — some beauty, more sense, — uncommon talents, more uncommon temper, — liked in my family, loved by me. If I can say all this three years hence, shall not I have been a fortunate, not to say a wise man?" While travelling to Dublin in the stage-coach, to marry Miss Beaufort, Mr. Edgeworth had a conver- sation with a friend, who made the following remark to him : — "'No man, you know,' said he, 'but a fool, would venture to make a first speech in Parliament, or to marry, after he was fifty.' "My father laughed, and, surrendering all title to wis- dom, declared that, though he was past fifty, he was actually going, in a few days as he hoped, to be married, and in a few months would probably make his ' first speech in Parliament.' " Mr. Edgeworth was married in Dublin, May 31, 1798, to Miss Beaufort ; and they returned immedi- ately to Edgeworthstown, through a part of the country which was in actual insurrection, as there were threats of a French invasion. They arrived there in safety. Mrs. Edgeworth long afterwards wrote of her reception : — 110 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. "All agreed in making me feel at once at home, and part of the family. All received me with the most un- affected cordiality, but with Maria it was something more. She more than fulfilled the promise of her letter : she made me at once her most intimate friend ; and in all the serious concerns of life, and in every trifle of the day, treated me with the most generous confidence." Maria, in writing of the disturbances at a distance, after describing the pleasure of the family in wel- coming Mrs. Edgeworth, says, — "I am going on in the old way, — writing stories. I cannot be a captain of dragoons, and sitting with my hands before me would not make any of us one degree safer. I know nothing of 'Practical Education.' It is advertised to be published. I have a volume of wee-wee stories, about the size of 'The Purple Jar,' all about Rosamond. ' Simple Susan ' went to Fox Hall a few days ago, for Lady Auue (Fox) to carry to England." FRENCH INVASION. Ill CHAPTER VI. Internal Dissensions. — French Invasion. — The Edgeworths' Alarm. — Their Flight. — Thej' return to Eilgeworthstown. — Defeat of the French. — Quiet restored. — " Practical Education " pub- lished.— The Plan of this Work. Maria writes of this time and its unsettled condi- tion : — " Tlie summer of 179S passed without any interruption of our domestic tranquillity. Though disturbances in dif- ferent parts of Ireland had broken out, yet now, as in former trials, the county of Longford remained quiet, — free at least from open insurrection, and, as far as ap- peared, the people well disposed. " Towards the autumn of the year 179-*^, this country became in such a state, that the necessity for resorting to the sword seemed imminent. Even in the county of Longford, which had so long remained quiet, alarming symptoms appeared ; not immediately in our neighl^or- hood, but within six or seven miles of us, near Granard. In the adjacent counties military law had been proclaimed, and our village was within a mile of the bounds of the dis- turbed county of Westmeath. Though his own tenantry, and all in whom he had put trust, were quiet, and, as far us he could judge, well disposed ; 5'et my father was aware, from information of too good authority to be doubted, that numbers of disaffected persons throughout Ireland were leagued in secret rebellion, and waited only for the arrival of the French to break out. 112 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOKTH. "Previous to this time, the principal gentry in the county had raised corps of yeomanry ; but my father, wlio had held for some months the commission of captain of yeoman cavalry, had delayed doing so, because as long as the civil authority had been sufficient he was unwilling to resort to military interference, or to the ultimate law of force, of the abuse of which he had seen too many recent examples. However, it now became necessary, even for the sake of justice to his own tenantry, that they should be put upon a footing with others, have equal security of protection, and an opportunity of evincing their loyal dis- positions. He therefore determined to raise a corps of infantry, which would accommodate a poorer class of the people, and to admit Catholics as well as Protestants. This was so unusual, and thought to be so hazardous a degree of liberality, that by some of an opposite party it was attributed to the worst motives. Many who wished him well came privately to let him know of the odium to which he exposed himself. The timid hinted fears and suspicions that he was going to put arms into the hands of men who would desert or betray him in the hour of trial, who might find themselves easily absolved from holding any faith with a Protestant, and with one of a family, of whom the head, in former times, had been dis- tinguished by the appellation of Protestant Frank. He thanked his secret advisers, but openly and steadily abided by his purpose. . . . On his own part, my father knew the risk he ran ; but he braved it." About this time Maria, in a letter describing the distressing uncertainties of the time, says, — " My father has made our little rooms so nice for us : they are all fresh painted and papered. O Rebels! O FKENCH INVASION. 113 French ! Spare them ! "We have never injured you, "and all wo wish is to see everybody as happy as ourselves." Continuing her description of affairs, she says, — " The corps of Edgeworthstown iufauti7 was raised ; and my father's nephew Mr. Fox, who had been lieuten- ant-colonel of the Longford militia, was appointed one of the lieutenants. But the arms were, by some mistake of the ordnance-office, delayed. The anxiety for their arri- val was extreme, for every day and every hour the French were expected to laud. " At the first appearance of disturbance in Ireland, he had offered to carry his sisters-in-law, the Misses Sneyd, to their friends in England ; but this offer they refused. Of the domestics, three men were English and Protestant, two Irish aud Catholic ; the women were all Irish and Catholic, excepting the housekeeper, an Englishwoman, who had lived with us many years. There were no dis- sensions or suspicions between the Catholics and Protest- ants in the family, and the English servants did not de- sire to quit us at this crisis. " At last came the dreaded news. The French, who landed at Killala, were, as we learned, on then- march to- wards Longford. The touch of Ithm-iel's spear could not have been more sudden or effectual, than the arrival of this intelligence, in showing people in their real forms. In some faces joy struggled for a moment with feigned sorrow, and then, encouraged ])y sympathy, yielded to the natural expression. Still my father had no reason to dis- trust those in whom he had placed confidence : his tenants were steady ; he saw no change in any of the men of his corps, though they were in the most perilous situation, having rendered themselves obnoxious to the rebels and invaders by becoming yeomen, and yet standing without 114 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. means of resistance or defence, their arms not having arrived. "The evening of the day when the news of the suc- cess and approach of the Frencli came to Edgeworthstown, all seemed quiet ; but early the next morning, Sept. 4, a report reached us, that the rebels were up in arms within a mile of the village, pouring in from the county of West- meath hundreds strong. Such had been the tranquillity of the preceding night, that we could not at first believe their report. An hour afterwards it was contradicted. An English servant, who was sent out to ascertain the truth, brought back word that he had ridden three miles from the village on the road described, and that he had seen only twenty or thirty men with green boughs in their hats and pikes in their hands, who said '■'■that they ivere standing there to protect themselves against the Orange- men, of tvhom they tvere in dread, and tcho, as they heard, were coming doion to cut them to jjieces/' This was all nonsense, but no better sense could be obtained. Report upon report, equally foolish, was heard, or at least uttered. But this much being certain, that men armed with pikes were assembled, my father sent off an express to the next garrison-town (Longford), requesting the command- ing officer to send him assistance for the defence of this place. He desired us to be prepared to set out at a moment's warning. We were under this uncertainty, when an escort with an ammunition-cart passed through the village on its way to Longford. It contained several barrels of powder, intended to blow up the bridges, and to stop the progress of the enemy. One of the officers of the party rode up to our house, and offered to let us have the advantage of his escort. But, after a few min- utes deliberation, this friendly proposal was declined. My father determined that he would not stir till he knew EXPLOSION OF AMMUNITION-CART. 115 whether he could have assistance ; and, as it did not appear as yet absolutely necessary that we should go, we staid — fortunately for us ! "About a quarter of an hour after the officer and the escort had departed, we, who were all assembled in the portico of the house, heard a report like a loud clap of thunder. The doors and windows shook with some vio- lent concussion : a few minutes afterwards the officer gal- loped into the yard, and threw himself into my father's arms almost senseless. The ammunition-cart had blown up : one of the officers had been severely wounded, and the horses and the man leading them killed ; the wounded officer was at a farmhouse on the Longford road, at about two miles distance. The fear of the rebels was now sus- pended in concern for this accident. Mrs. Edgeworth went immediately to give her assistance : she left her carriage for the use of the wounded gentleman, and rode back. At the entrance of the village she was stopped by a gentleman in great terror, who, taking hold of the bridle of her horse, begged her not to attempt to go farther, assuring her that the rebels were coming into the town. But she answered that she must and would return to her family. She rode on, and found us waiting anxiously for her. No assistance could be afforded from Longford ; the rebels were re-assembling, and advancing towards the village ; and there was no alternative but to leave our home as fast as possible. One of our carriages having been left with the wounded officer, we had but one other at this moment for our whole family, eleven in number. No mode of conveyance could be had for some of the female servants : our faithful English housekeeper offered to stay till the return of the carriage which had been left with the officer ; and, as we could not carry her, we were obliged, most reluctantly, to leave her behind, to follow, 116 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. as we hoped, immediately. As we passed through the village, we heard nothing but the entreaties, lamentations, and objurgations of those who could not procure the means of can-ying off their goods or their families : most painful when we could give no assistance. "Next to the safety of his own family, my father's greatest anxiety was for his defenceless corps. No men could behave better than they did at this first moment of trial. Not one absented himself ; though many, living at a distance, might, if they had been so inclined, have found plausible excuses for non-appearance. The bugle was not sounded to call them together ; but they were in then* ranks in the street the moment they had their cap- tain's orders, declaring that whatever he commanded they would do. He ordered them to march to Longford. The idea of going to Longford could not be agreeable to many of them, who were Catholics, because that town was full of those who called themselves, — I would avoid using party-names if I could, but I can no otherwise make the facts intelligible, — who called themselves Orangemen, and who were not supposed to have favorable opinions of any of another religious persuasion. There was no re- luctance shown, however, by the Catholics of this corps to go among them. The moment the word ' march ' was uttered by their captain, they marched with alacrity. One of my brothers, a youth of fifteen, was in their ranks : another, twelve years old, marched with them. "We expected every instant to hear the shout of the rebels entering Edgeworthstown. When we had got about half a mile out of the village, my father suddenly recollected that he had left on his table a paper contain- ing a list of his corps, and that, if this should come into the hands of the rebels, it might be of dangerous conse- quence to his men : it would serve to point out their FLIGHT TO LONGFORD. 117 houses for pillage, and thoir families for destruction. He turned his horse instantly, and galloi)ed back. The time of his absence appeared immeasurably long ; but he re- turned safelj', after having destroyed the dangerous paper. ••' Al)out two miles from the village was the spot where the ammunition-cart had been blown up. The dead horses, swollen to an unnatural ])ulk, were lying across the road. As we approached, we saw two men in an ad- joining field looking at the I'emains of one of the soldiers, who had been literally blown to pieces. They ran toward us ; and we feared that they were rebels, going to stop us. They jumped over the ditch, and seized our bridles, but with friendly intent. With no small difficulty they dragged us past the dead horses, saying, ' God speed you ! and make haste anyway ! ' We were very ready to take their advice. After this, on the six long miles of the road from Edgeworthstowu to Longford, we did not meet a human being. It was all silent and desert, as if every creature had fled from the cabins by the roadside. " Longford was crowded with yeomanry of various corps, and with the inhabitants of the neighborhood, who had flocked thither for protection. With great difficulty the poor Edgeworthstown mfantry found lodgings. We were cordially received by the landlady of a good iun. Though her house was, as she said, ' fuller than it could hold ; ' yet she, being an old friend of my father's, did contrive to give us two rooms, in which we eleven were thankful to find ourselves. " AH our concern now was for those we had left behind. We heard nothing of our housekeeper all night, and were exceedingly alarmed ; but early the next morning, to our great joy, she arrived. She told us, that, after we had left her, she waited hour after hour for the carriage. She 118 A STUDY OF MAKIA EDGEWOETH. could hear nothing of it, as it had gone to Longford with the wounded officer. Towards evening a large body of rebels entered the village. She heard them at the gate, and expected that they would have broken in the next instant. But one, who seemed to be a leader, with a pike in his hand, set his back against the gate, and swore that, if he was to die for it the next minute, he would have the life of the first man who should open that gate, or set enemy's foot within side of that place. He said the housekeeper, who was left in it, was a good gentlewoman, and had done him a service, though she did not know him, nor he her. He had never seen her face ; but she had, the year before, lent his wife, when in distress, sixteen shillings, the rent of flax-ground, and he would stand her friend now. ' ' He kept back the mob : they agreed to send him to the house with a deputation of six, to knoio the truth, and to ask for arms. The six men went to the back-door, and summoned the housekeeper. One of them pointed his blunderbuss at her, and told her that she must fetch all the arms in the house. She said she had none. Her champion asked her to saj' if she remembered him. ' No : to her knowledge, she had never seen his face.' He asked if she remembered having lent a woman money to pay her rent of flax-ground the year before. 'Yes,' she re- membered that ; and named the woman, the time, and the sum. His companions were thus satisfied of the truth of what he had asserted. He bid her not to be frighted, for that no harm should happen to her nor any belonging to her : not a soul should get leave to go into her master's house ; not a twig should be touched, nor a leaf harmed. His companions huzzaed, and went off. Afterwards, as she was told, he mounted guard at the gate during the whole time the rebels were in town. "ORANGE," OR "YELLOW." 119 " "\\nien the carriage at last returned, it was stopped by the rebels, who filled the street. They held their i)ikes to the horses, and to the coachman's breast, accushig him of being an Orangeman, because, as they said, he wore the Orange colors (our livery being yellow and brown). A painter, a friend of ours, who had been that day at our house copying some old family portraits, hap- pened to be in the street at that instant, and called out to the mob, ' Gentlemen^ it is yelloiv! Gentlemen^ it is not orange!^ Inconsequence of this happy distinction they let go the coachman ; and the same man, who had mounted guard at the gate, came up with his friends, rescued the carriage, and, surrounding the coachman with their pikes, brought him safely into the yard. The pole of the car- riage having been broken in the first onset, the house- keeper could not leave Edgeworthstown till morning. She passed the night in walking up and down, listening and watching ; but the rebels returned no more, and thus our house was saved by the gratitude of a single indi- vidual. " We had scarcely time to rejoice in the escape of our housekeeper, and safety of our house, when we found that new dangers arose even from this escape. Even from the house being spared, jealousy and suspicion arose in the minds of many, who at this time saw every thing through the midst of party prejudice. The dislike to my father's corps appeared every hour more strong. He saw the consequences that might arise from the slightest breaking-out of quarrel. It was not possible for him to send his men, unarmed as they still were, to their homes, lest they should be destroyed by the rebels : yet the officers of the other corps wished to have them ordered out of the town, and to this effect joined in a memorial to government. . . . 120 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. "These petty dissensions were, however, at one mo- ment suspended and forgotten in a general sense of danger. An express arrived late one night, with the news that the French, who were rapidly advancing, were within a few miles of the town of Longford. A panic seized the people. There were in the town eighty of the carabineers and two corps of yeomanry, but it was pro- posed to evacuate the garrison. My father strongly op- posed this measure ; and undertook, with fifty men, if arms and ammunition were supplied, to defend the jail of Longford, where there was a strong pass, at which the enemy might be stopped. He urged that a stand might be made there till the king's army should come up. The offer was gladly accepted : men, arms, ammunition, all he could want or desire, were placed at his disposal. He slept that night in the jail, with every thing prepared for its defence. But the next morning fresh news came, that the French had turned off from the Longford road, and were going towards Granard : of this, however, there was no certainty. My father, by the desire of the commaud- ino- officer, rode out to reconnoitre ; and my brother went to the top of the court-house with a telescope, for the same purpose. We (Mrs. Edgeworth, my aunts, my sis- ters, and myself) were waiting to hear the result in one of the upper sitting-rooms of the inn, which fronted the street. We heard a loud shout ; and, going to the win- dow, we saw the people throwing up their hats, and heard huzzas. An express had arrived, with news that the French and the rebels had been beaten ; that Gen. Lake had come up with them, at a place called Ballynamuck, near Granard; that fifteen hundred rebels and French were killed, and that the French generals and officers were prisoners. "We were impatient for my father, when we heard LONGFORD. 121 this joyful news. IIo had not yet returned, and wc looked out of the windows in hopes of seeino; him ; but we could see only a great number of the people of the town, shaking hands with each other. This lasted a few min- utes ; and then the crowd gathered in silence round one man, who spoke with angry vehemence and gesticulation, stamping, and frequently wiping his forehead. We thought he was a mountebank haranguing the populace, till we saw that he wore a uniform. Listening with curi- osity, to make out wliat he was saying, we observed that he looked up towards us ; and we thought we hoard him pronounce the names of my father and brother in tones of insult. We could scarcely believe what we heard him say. Pointing up to the top of the court-house, he ex- claimed, — " ' Tliat young Edgeworth ought to be dragged down from the top of that house.' Our housekeeper burst into the room, so much terrified she could hardly speak. "'My master, ma'am! it is all against my master! The mob say they will tear him to pieces if they catch hold of him. They say he's a traitor, — that he illumi- nated the jail to deliver it up to the French.' " No words can give an idea of our astonishment. Illu- minated ! AYhat could be meant by the jail being illumi- nated? My father had literally but two farthing candles, by the light of which he had been reading the newspaper late the preceding night. These, however, were said to be signals for the enemy ! The absurdity of the whole was so glaring that we could scarcely conceive the danger to be real : but our pale landlady's fears were urgent ; she dreaded that her house should be pulled down. We found that the danger was not the less because the accusation was false. On the contrary, it was great in proportion to its absurdity ; for the people who could at once be under 122 A STUDY OF MAHIA EDGEWORTH. such a perversion of intellects, and such an illusion of their senses, must indeed be in a state of frenzy. ' ' The crowd had by this time removed from before the windows, but we heard that they were gone to that end of the town through which they expected Mr. Edgeworth to return. ' ' We sent immediately to the commanding officer, in- forming him of what we had heard, and requesting his advice and assistance. He came to us, and recommended that we should despatch a messenger to warn IVIr. Edge- worth of his danger, and to request that he would not return to Longford this day. The officer added, that, in consequence of the rejoicings for the victory, his men would probably be all drunk in a few hours, and that he could not answer for them. This officer, a captain of yeomanry, was a good-natured but inefficient man, who spoke under considerable nervous agitation, and seemed desirous to do all he could, but not to be able to do any thing. We wrote instantly, and with difficulty found a man who undertook to convey the note. It was to be carried to meet him on one road, and Mrs. Edgeworth and I determined to drive out to meet him on the other. We made our way down to the inn-yard, where the carriage was ready. Several gentlemen spoke to us as we got into the carriage, begging us not to be alarmed. Mrs. Edge- worth replied that she was more surprised than alarmed. The commanding officer and the sovereign of Longford walked by the side of the carriage through the town ; and, as the mob believed that we were going away not to return, we got through without molestation. We went a few miles on the road towards Edgeworthstown, till, at a tenant's house, we heard that my father had passed by half an hour ago ; that he was riding in company with an officer, supposed to be of Lord Cornwallis's or Gen. FRENCH rniSONERS. 123 Lake's army ; that they had taken a short ait, wlilch led into Longford by another entrance, — most fortunately, not that at which an armed mob had assembled, expecting the object of their fury. Seeing him return to the inn with an officer of the king's army, they imagined, as we were afterwards told, that he was brought back a pris- oner ; and they were satisfied. " The moment we saw him safe, we laughed at our own fears, and again doubted the reality of the danger ; more especially, as he treated the idea with the utmost incredu- lity and scorn. "Major (now Gen.) Eustace was the officer who re- turned with him. He dined with us. Everj' thing appeared quiet : the persons who had taken refuge at the inn were now gone to their homes ; and it was supposed, that, what- ever dispositions to riot had existed, the news of the approach of some of Lord Cornwallis's suite, or of troops who were to bring in the French prisoners, would prevent all probability of disturbance. In the evening the pris- oners arrived at the inn. A crowd followed them, but quietly. A sun-burnt, coarse-looking man, in a huge cocked hat, with a quantity of gold lace on his clothes, seemed to fix all attention. He was pointed out as the French general, Homburg, or Sarrazin. As he dis- mounted from his horse, he threw the bridle over its neck, and looked at the animal as if he felt that he was his only friend. "We heard my father in the evening ask Major Eus- tace to walk with him through the town to the barrack- yard to evening parade ; and we saw them go out to- gether, without our feeling the slightest apprehension. We remained at the inn. By this time Col. Handfield, Major Cannon, and some other officers had arrived, and were at dinner in a parlor on the ground floor, under our 124 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. room. It l)eing hot weather, the windows were open. Nothing now seemed to be thought of but rejoicings for the victory. Candles were preparing for an illumination : waiters, chambermaids, landlady, all hands were 1)usy scooping turnips and potatoes for candlesticks, to stand in every pane of every loyal window. " In the midst of this preparation, about half an hour after my father had left us, we heard a great uproar in the street. At first we thought the shouts were only re- joicings for victory : but, as they came nearer, we heard screechings and yellings, indescribably horrible. A mob had gathered at the gates of the barrack-yard, and, joined by many soldiers of the yeomanry on leaving parade, had followed Major Eustace and my father from the barracks. The major being this evening in colored clothes, the peo- ple no longer knew him to be an officer, nor conceived, as tliey had done before, that Mr. Edgeworth was his prisoner. The mob had not contented themselves with the horrid yells that we had heard, but had been pelting them with hard turf, stones, and brickbats. From one of these my father received a blow on the side of his head, coming with such force as to stagger and almost to stun him ; but he kept himself up, knowing that if once he fell he should be trampled under foot. He walked on steadily till he came within a few yards of the inn, when one of the mob seized hold of Major Eustace by the collar. My father, seeing the windows of the inn open, called with a loud voice, ' Major Eustace is in danger ! ' "The oflficers, who were at dinner, and who till that moment had supposed the noise in the street to be only drunken rejoicings, immediately ran out. At the sight of British officers and drawn swords, the populace gave way, and dispersed in different directions. "The preparation for the illuminations then went on, RETURN HOME. 125 as if notliing had intorv(MiC(l. All the panes of our win- dows in the front room were in a blaze of li.iiht by the time the mol) returned through the street. The night passed without furtlior disturbance. ''As early as we could the next morning we left Long- ford, and returned homewards ; all danger from rebels be- \\vj: now over, the rebellion having been terminated by the late battle. " When we came near Edgeworthstown, we saw many well-known faces at the cabin-doors, looking out to wel- come us. One man, who was sitting on the bank of a ditch by the roadside, when he looked up as our horses passed, and saw my father, clasped his hands, and blessed our return ; his face, as the morning sun shone upon it, was the strongest picture of joy I ever saw. The village was a melancholy spectacle, — windows shattered, and doors broken. But though the mischief done was great, there had been little pillage. Within our gates we found all property safe ; literally ' not a twig touched, nor a leaf harmed.' Within the house every thing was as we had left it : a map that we had been consulting was still open upon the library-table, with pencils, and slips of paper containing the lessons in arithmetic, in which some of the young people had been engaged the morning we had been driven from home ; a pansy, in a glass of "water, which one of the children had been drawing, was still on the chimney-piece. These trivial circumstances, marking re- pose and tranquillity, struck us at this moment with an unreasonable sort of surprise, and all that had passed seemed like an incoherent dream. The joy of having my father in safety remained, and gratitude to Heaven for his preservation. These feelings spread inexpressible pleas- ure over what seemed to be a new sense of existence. Even the most common things appeared delightful : the 126 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. green lawn, the still groves, the birds singing, the fresh air, all external nature, and all the goods and conveniences of life, seemed to have wonderfully increased in value, from the fear into which we had been put of losing them irrecoverably. " The first thing my father did, the day we came home, was to draw up a memorial to the lord-lieutenant, desir- ing to have a court-martial held on the sergeant, who, by haranguing the populace, had raised the mob at Longford ; his next care was to walk through the village, to examine what damage had been done by the rebels, and to order that repairs of all his tenants' houses should be made at his expense. A few days after our return, government ordered that the arms of the Edgeworthstowu infantry should be forwarded by the commanding officer at Long- ford. Through the whole of their hard week's trial, the corps had, without any exception, behaved perfectly well. It was perhaps more difficult to honest and brave men passively to bear such a trial than to encounter any to which they could have been exposed in action. "When the arms for the corps arrived, my father, in delivering them to the men, thanked them publicly for their conduct, assuring them that he would remember it when- ever he should have opportunities of serving them, collect- ively or individually. In long after years, as occasions arose, each, who continued to deserve it, found in him a friend, and felt that he more than fulfilled his promise." Maria, with her father and mother, visited the scene of the battle at Bally nam iick ; and she found some difficulty in managing her saddle-horse "Dap- ple," v^^ho did not like all the sights of the camp as w^ell as she did. There was another alarm of a rising of the rebels at Granard, which occasioned QUIET RESTORED. 127 a barricading of the house, and watches being set all day and night in the town and houses at Edge- worthstown and tlie neighborhood; but the rising was suppressed, and the tide of insurrection and war passed. We hear no more of this, except the trials of the insurgents. In speaking of the after events, Maria writes : — " Some few, very few indeed, of his tenantiy on a remote estate — alas ! too near Ballynamuek — did join the rebels. These persons were never re-admitted on my father's estate. But it was difficult, in certain cases, to know what ought to be done ; for instance, with regard to the man who had saved our house from pillage, but who had certainly been joined with the rebels. It was the wise policy of government to pardon those who had not been ringleaders in this rebellion, and who, repenting of their folly, were desirous to return to their allegiance and to their peaceable duties. My father sent for this man, and said he would apply to government for a pardon for him. The man smiled, and clapping his pocket said, ' I have my Corny here safe already, I thank your honor, else sure I would not have been such a fool as to be showing myself without I had ii purtection^' — a pardon signed by the lord-lieutenant, Lord CornwaUis, in their witty spirit of abbreviation, they called a Corny. "When my father said, that, however much we were obliged to him for saving the house, we could not reioard him for being a rebel, he answered, ' Oh, I know that I could not expect it, nor look for any thing at all, but what I got, — thanJcs.' With these words he went away, satis- fied, that, though my father gave him nothing at this time, his honor would never forget him. "A considerable time afterward, my father, finding 128 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGE WORTH. that the man conducted himself well, took an opportunity of serving him. . . . "Before we quit this subject, it may be useful to record, that the French generals who headed this invasion declared they had been completely deceived as to the state of Ireland. They had expected to fiud the people in open rebellion, or at least, in their own phrase, organ- ized for insui'rection ; but, to their dismay, they found only ragamuffins, — canaille^ as they called them, — who, in joining their standard, did them infinitely more harm than good." The year 1797 found the family quietly enjoying Edgewortlistown. Maria and her father arranged in January for acting a comedy called " Whim for Whim." It was acted twice, with much applause, in the theatre built over the study. It was later offered to Sheridan, but rejected by him, as he did not consider it suited for the general public. " Practical Education " was published in 1798. It was well praised and abused by the critics, and made its authors famous. It appeared in a quarto form in two volumes, and went to a third edition in 1815. This work, from the hands of Maria Edge- worth and her father, contains many valuable origi- nal thoughts on education. It shows a wide and exhaustive range of study and experience in the care and development of the moral, mental, and physical nature of childhood and early youth. The titlepage bears the names of both father and daugh- ter ; but hers justly has the first place, for to her the public owed the best part of the conception and execution of this admirable book. It is true, she "PRACTICAL EDUCATION." 129 did avail herself of her father's assistance, and per- haps she relied too much on his views and theories for her plan ; yet t)ne can easily see where she thinks for herself, and writes from her own ideas. In the immense family of Mr. Edgeworth, it was easy to lind all the anecdotes, all the details and facts, necessary for a careful study of a practical system of education : but this work shows a vast amount of reading ; a patient accumulation of others' views on instruction ; a careful and thorough weigh- ing of methods, systems, and theories, wdiich make it quite an exhaustive history of education up to the time it was written. All this we owe to the clear mind and the methodical arrangement of JNIaria. She quotes, from a great number of writers, very pertinent and timely observations on the subject. Liberality and breadth mark both the plan and the execution of the treatise. Many have had the care of 3'oung children ; but few, very few people have drawn from that labor, which involves so much anxiety, fatigue, and daily worry, such a store of useful and judicious impres- sions and hints for future educators. Those wdio w'rite for and about children, and their wants and amusements, are usually visionary and unpractical, because, as a rule, they have not been in constant, or even infrequent, attendance on them. And those who are with children much ordinarily have neither the time, ability, nor the inclination to do what Maria Edgeworth did in preparing this treatise on "Practical Education," all the while being in con- stant practice of its rules. 130 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOKTH. Rousseau, Mrae. cle Genlis, and others have offered to the public flowery and fanciful schemes of edu- cation, beneficial neither to the individual nor the community. The father who put his own offspring into a foundling-asylum was hardly a fit exponent of theories of education ; though unquestionably he had originality of thought, and many hints may be gained from his writings. The views of Mme. de Genlis also lose something when taken in con- nection with the incidents of her life ; and one cannot on this, as some other subjects, quite sepa- rate the author from the book. The reader cannot take, without limitations and painful doubts, the theories, however grand, beautiful, and original, of such writers as these, and some others who have written upon this subject. An immoral life does not add either dignity to the theme or confidence in the writer, when works of moralit}^ are to be considered. Sound morality, and practical study of the young and their development, must go hand in hand with the clearest perception and the most brilliant theo- ries for their future education. This book was severely criticised by some, who found no chapter on religion in it. What the pre- face says should have disarmed these cavillers. There is a sound and pure morality inculated in every part of the book : it breathes only the highest aspiration for human good and elevation. In the opening pages, where the authors explain their views, they say, — " On religion and politics we have been silent ; because we have no ambition to gain partisans, or to make prose- MRS. BARBAULD'S REMARKS ON EDUCATION. LTl l3'tcs, and because we do not address ourselves exclusively to any sect or to any party." Mrs. BarbaiikU made some objections to the plan of Mr. Edgcworth, which was designed to exclude children from the society and example of servants. Gentlemen's " gentlemeii " and ladies' maids, with the usual large number of house and stable retain- ers of a well-appointed household in Great Britain, are too often the earliest instructors of children of good families. We have only to look at the way in which a large family is regulated even at the present day in England, to see that servants play too important a part in the first years of little chil- dren's lives. In his establishment this system was compara- tively easy. He had the Misses Sneyd with him, a wife, and some grown-up daughters. He himself was always at home, with the exception of short journeys or visits. His method of education was so well understood by his family, that an occasional absence made no material difference in the working of the system. His children were all intelligent and clever. Those who lived to grow up certainly exem- plified the advantages of his manner of instruction in his own family. Maria says, — "With respect to what is commonly called the educa- tion of the heart, we have endeavored to suggest the easiest means of inducing useful and agreeable habits, well-regulated sympathy, and benevolent affections. A 1 Anne Letitia Barbauld, 1743-1825. 132 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. witty writer says, ' II est permis d'ennuyer en moralitcs d'ici jusqu'a Coustantinople.' Unwilling to avail our- selves of this permission, we have sedulously avoided declamation ; and whenever we have been obliged to re- peat ancient maxims and common truths, we have at least thought it becoming to present them in a new dress." They think they have reduced education to an "experimental science," having studied it in their own family. The preface says of the preparation and composition of the book, — "The first hint of the chapter on ' To3's ' was re- ceived from Dr. Beddoes ; the sketch of an introduction to chemistry for children was given to us by Mr. Lovell Edgeworth ; and the rest of the work was resumed from a design formed and begun twenty years ago." When a book appears under the name of two authors, it is natural to inquire what share belongs to each of them. All that relates to the art of teaching to read, in the chapter on " Tasks," the chapters on " Grammar and Classical Literature," " Geography," " Chronology," "Arithmetic," " Ge- ometry," and " Mechanics " was written by Mr. Edgeworth: the rest of the work was written by Maria. The chapter on " Obedience " was written from the notes of Mrs. Elizabeth Edgeworth, who liad remarkable success in managing her family. The manuscript was submitted to her, and she re- vised parts of it "in the last stage of a fatal dis- ease." The plan of the book is quite extensive and com- "PRACTICAL EDUCATION." 133 prehensive. Besides the chapters already mentioned, those by Maria may be briefly named. They are the best part of the work ; being original, witty, clever, and valuable: "Toys," "Tasks," "On Attention," "Servants," "Acquaintance," "On Temper," "On Truth," " On Obedience," " On Rewards and Pun- ishments," " On Sympathy and Sensibility," " On Vanity, Pride, and Ambition." In vol. ii., " On Public and Private Education," " On Female Ac- complishments," " Memory and Invention," " Taste and Imagination," " Wit and Judgment," " Pru- dence and Economy," and a summary of the whole. There are twenty-five chapters in all, and an appen- dix. Mr. Edgeworth's part contains good resumes of the departments of study he names. They are such as any teacher of average ability could have prepared. ]\Iaria's work is evidently that of the thinker ; and she shows plainly in this — her first large work — the master hand which drew the never- to-be-forgotten characters of her novels and tales. One sees here the rules on which she built her social fabric. American and modern English systems of educa- tion differ, of course, widely from the style in vogue at the time the Edgeworths wrote. We draw for our methods of instruction all the best of the many plans and theories of education heretofore presented to the world. One may yet learn much from the work of the Edgeworths ; and in an article on " The Pedigree of the Quincy Pedagogy, of Quincy, Mass.," Mr. Horace Bumstead, of Atlanta Univer- sity, Georgia, says in 1880, — 134 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. "Its lineage is made briglit with the names of Edge- worth in England, Rousseau and Jacotot in France, Pestalozzi in Switzerland, Froebel and Diesterweg in Germany, and oui' own Horace Maun in America." He says in the same article, — " The word-method has even an earlier history, both in Europe and m this country, than is here indicated. Near the beginning of the present century it was advocated by Maria Edgeworth in England, and practised by the cele- brated Jacotot in France." No one who has studied education in theory, or for the purpose of utilizing his information in teach- ing, should fail to read this book of the Edgeworths. There is a sincerity of purpose, and a direct, clear, and vivacious style, in "Practical Education," which will attract and interest all who are engaged in in- struction. Several of the chapters are admirable and brilliant treatises on the subjects they profess to explain. Among those which are to be especially commended are those on " Memory and Invention," "Taste and Imagination," and "The Summary." Maria says near the end of the book, — " The general principle, that we should associate pleas- ure with whatever we wish our pupils should pursue, and pain with whatever we wish that they should avoid, forms, our readers will perceive, the basis of our plan of educa- tion." VISIT TO ENGLAND. 135 CHAPTER VII. Maria visits England. — "Writes "Forgive and Forget," and "To- morrow."— Mr Edgeworth and Maria meet Old Friends.— Mrs. Barbauld. — Society at Clifton. — Visit to London. —John- son.— Return to Ireland. — " Castle Rackrent." — Maria prints more " Moral Tales."— " Belinda." — " Essay on Irish Bulls." — Professor Pictet's Visit to Edgeworthstown. — A Journey to Paris proposed. — Dr. Darwin's Death. In January, 1799, Mr. Edgeworth, who had been elected to the last Parliament held in Ireland, by the borough of St. John's-town, County Longford, visited Dublin with his wife. In the spring they went to England, accompanied by Maria. In this year Maria wrote a little story on a hint from Miss Charlotte Sneyd, "that the early lessons for the poor should speak with detestation of the spirit of revenge." She adds, — "I have just finished a little story called 'Forgive and Forget,' upon this idea. I am now writing one on a subject recommended to me by Dr. Beaufort, on the evils of procrastination : the title of it is ' By and By ' (afterwards 'To-morrow'). I am much obliged to the whole committee of education and criticism at Edge- worthstown for their corrections, criticism, and copjiug." Maria has something to say of the friends they met in England : — 136 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. " My father visited his old friends Mr. Keir, Mr. "Watt, Dr. Darwin, and Mr. William Strutt of Derby. ... He paid his respects to his friend Sir Josejih Banks, attended the meetings of the Royal Society, and met various old acquaintance, whom he had formerly known abroad. "Among the friends he formed during this summer in England, and in consequence of the publication of his sentiments on education, was Mrs. Barbauld. Her writ- ings he had long admired for their classical strength and elegance, for their high and true tone of moral and reli- gious feeling, and for their practically useful tendency. She gratified him liy accepting an invitation to pass some time with us at Clifton ; and ever afterwards, though at a great distance from each other, her constant friendship for him was a source of great pleasure and just pride." Mrs. Edgeworth says, — " We met at Clifton Mr. and Mrs. Barbauld. He was an amiable and benevolent man, so eager against the slave-trade that when he drank tea with us he alwa3'S brought some East-India sugar, that he might not share our wickedness in eating that made by the negro slave. Mrs. Barbauld, whose ' Evenings at Home ' had so much delighted Maria and her father, was very pretty, and con- versed with great ability in admirable language." That was a spicy argument, we can fancy, between Mr. Edgeworth and his new friend, Mrs. Barbankl, where she objected to the chapter on " Servants " in "Practical Education." On this chapter Mrs. Bar- bauld very truly remarked, that it was impracticable : in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, morally and physically impossible. She was willing to allow that in his own family he might have been able to MRS. BARBAULD. 137 carry this method into practice, but in an ordinary family it could not be done. Mr. Edge worth was forced to acknowledge that Mrs. Barbauld was right in her criticism, and he modified his views on this subject. Mrs. Barbauld considered, too, that this manner of separating children entirely from servants tended "to foster pride and perhaps ingratitude." " The one and twenty other good reasons " she said could be given, Mr, Edgeworth spared her. The fact must be admitted, that in the clear and spright- ly wit and strong mind of the essayist, poet, and accomplished school-mistress of Palgrave, — Mrs. Barbauld, — the Irish inventor, author, and man of the world met his match. He had probably never seen a finer mind, joined with a more brilliant wit, than that of Mrs. Barbauld. He had met men of science, and women of letters and fashion ; but in Mrs. Barbauld he met an antagonist of mettle. Early training and classic studies had added keen weapons to a naturally strong mind, and thorough acquaintance with practical methods of educating and developing young intellects made her an author- ity on such matters. Mrs. Barbauld's reputation rests as much on the names of such pupils as Lord Den- man, William Taylor of Norwich, Sir William Gell, Basil, Lord Daer, and other well-known men, as on her essays, poems, and books for the young. Her books for children are still unrivalled, and will do honor to her name as long as the English language lasts. No better work has been done for the little ones. While Mr. and Mrs. Edgeworth were at Clifton, where her first child, Fannj-, was born, they were 138 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. visited by her brothers, the Rev. William Beaufort, and Capt. Francis Beaufort, afterwards admiral and hydrographer to the navy. Maria wrote of him in 1828 to Capt. Basil Hall, "He is so true, and so really friendly and able." M. Arago told her at Chamouni that Capt. Beaufort's "Karamania," then a celebrated and new book, "was, of all the books of travel he had seen, that which he admired the most: it must remain a standard book." He became more nearly connected with the Edgeworths later; for when his first wife, daughter of Capt. Le Stock Wilson, died, he presently married for his second wife a daughter of Mr. Edgeworth by his third wife. Maria says that her father became very much attached to Capt. Beaufort, as much so "as he had ever been to Lord Longford or Mr. Day." In a letter of Mrs. Edgeworth, dated May, 1799, from Clifton, she mentions a future philosopher in the assistant of Dr. Beddoes, "a young man, a Mr. Davy," ^ and his discovery of nitrous-oxide gas, and describes the sensations produced by inhaling it. Dr. and Mrs. Beddoes made the Edgeworths' stay at Clifton very agreeable. Mrs. Edgeworth says, — "Her grace, genius, vivacity, and kindness, and Ms great abilities, knowledge, and benevolence, rendered their house extremely pleasant." Sir Humphry Davy said of Dr. Beddoes, — "He is one of the most original men I ever saw, — uncommonly short and fat, with little elegance of manners, 1 Sir Humphry Davy, distinguished chemist and philosopher. Born at Penzance in 1778; died at Geneva, 1829, THE PNEUMATIC INSTITUTION. 139 and nothinp; clinracteristic externally of genius or science ; cxtrenicl}' silent, and, in a few woixls, a bad companion. Mrs. Beddoes is the reverse of Dr. Beddoes, — extremely cheerful, gay, and witty. She is one of the most pleas- ant women I ever met with." The Pneumatic Institution must have been an amusing place, with its experiments on gases, and the new hobbies in which Dr. Beddoes indulged himself. One was of carrying cows into invalids' bedrooms, that they might inhale the breath of the animal. One family were turned out of their lodgings be- cause " the people of the house would not admit the cows. They said they had not built and furnished their rooms for the hoofs of cattle ! " Well might Sir Humphry Davy, in considering the character of Dr. Beddoes, call him " a truly remarkable man, but more admirably fitted to promote inquiry than to conduct it." Robert Southey, in alluding to his own intimacy with Davy at Bristol, "then in the flower and fresh- ness of his youth," speaks of his visits to him at tlie Pneumatic Institution, and his discovery of nitrous- oxide gas. He "was a first-rate man," and "has actually invented a new pleasure " in this gas, " for which language has no name." He said Dr. Beddoes " advertised, at least six weeks ago, certain cases of consumption treated in cow-houses; and the press has been standing still now in expectation of — what think you ? Only waiting till the patients be cured." After leaving Clifton, the Edgeworths went to London for a few weeks. At this time Maria's publisher, Johnson the bookseller, was in prison 140 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. for a publication which was considered treasonable. Mr. Edgeworth and Maria went to see him in tlie King's Bench (prison). She "had a great regard for Johnson, though his procrastination tried her patience in all the business of printing and publish- ing her works. She thought him a generous, able, kind-hearted man, and an excellent critic." Joseph Johnson, of St. Paul's Churchyard, was a man of considerable ability. He was the person who first saw the merits of Cowper's poems, and accepted them, after several other publishers had rejected them with something like scorn. " His own taste was excellent, and his own disposition quiet and peaceable : but he became too much connected with Godwin and Holcroft; and it was afterwards a dis- advantage to ' Maria ' that her works were published by the printer of what was considered seditious and sectarian books." During this stay in England, Maria met Dr. Dar- win. She thought him "not only a first-rate genius, but one of the most benevolent, as well as the witti- est, of men. He stuttered, but far from lessening the charm of conversation." She used to say that " the hesitation and slowness with which his words came forth added to the effect of his humor, and showed good sense." They returned to Ireland in Septem- ber of 1799, after a successful visit in England. Mr. Edgeworth, in writing to Dr. Darwin, says, " JNIaria continues writing for children, under the persuasion that she cannot be employed more serviceably." In a letter of 1800 from Maria to her aunt, Mrs. Ruxton, she mentions " Castle Rackrent," which was "BELINDA." 141 published in this year, and begs lier aunt not to "toll any one that it is ours." Maria attempted about this time to make a visit to her father's friend, Mr. Foster, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons, at CoUon. She had visited Castle Saunderson ; and arriving at Allenstown, where Mr. Waller, an uncle of Mrs. Edgeworth's, lived, they found that Mrs. Foster, widow of Bishop Foster, feared infection, as they had left fever in Edgeworthstown : they " per- formed quarantine for a week " in Allenstown, and gave up the visit to Collon. An octavo edition of " Practical Education " came out at Christmas of this year. These were busy years for Maria. A new edition of the "Moral Tales " came out shortly after this. Maria says two of the frontispieces were designed by Mrs. Edge- worth for this edition, and two by Charlotte Edge- worth. In this edition there were three new stories, — "The Knapsack," "The Prussian Vase," and " Angelina." " Belinda " appeared first in 1801. Maria was at Black Castle when the first copy reached her. It is easy to fancy that the wit and humor displayed in her writings were not confined to her books. She dearly enjoyed a joke, and contrived, before her aunt knew it, to tear out the title-pages of the three volumes ; and her aunt read it without any suspicion as to the authorship, and, excessively entertained and delighted, she insisted on Maria's listening to passage after passage as she went on. Maria affected to be deeply interested in some book she held in her hand ; and when Mrs. Ruxton exclaimed, " Is not that 142 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. admirably written ? " Maria coldly replied, " Admira- bly read^ I think ; " and then her aunt, as if she had said too much, added, " It may not be so very good, but it shows just the sort of knowledge of high life which people have who live in the world." Then, again and again, she called upon Maria for her sym- pathy, till, quite provoked by her faint acquiescence, she at last accused her of being envious. " I am sorry to see my little Maria unable to bear the praise of a rival author." This was too much for poor Maria, who burst into tears, and, showing her aunt the titlepages, she declared herself the author. But Mrs. Ruxton was not pleased : she never liked " Be- linda" afterwards; and Maria, too, had a painful recollection of her aunt's suspecting her of being envious. " Castle Rackrent " and " Belinda " made a great impression on the reading public. " Castle Rack- rent" had soon a Continental reputation, and was translated into several foreign languages. Its wit, humor, and pathos, its Irish characters, its evident vraisembla7ice, the entire novelty of the scenes and the customs, the life in Ireland, — all made it a marked book. It was safe to predict that the hand which drew the character of Thady, and the adventures of " Castle Rackrent," would do the best of work for many years. "Belinda" was a clever book, full of fine pictures of English life of that period, and gen- uine bits of character. The heroine, Belinda, is well contrasted with Lady Delacour; and Clarence Hervey is a bright and sparkling wit. "Belinda" lacks the humor of " Castle Rackrent," and has not " BELINDA." 143 the brilliancy of "Ennui," or some of the shorter tales ; bnt it has a charm quite its own, and will often be quoted, and may well be read by every young woman for its many admirable hints as to social affairs. In the autobiography of Mrs. Fletcher of Edin- burgh, we have a mention of " Belinda : " — "I well remember, after the fatigues of sight-seeing, the pleasure and refreshmeut I had at our lodging in reading Miss Edgeworth's admirable novel, ' Belinda.' Some of tlie hours so spent were among the pleasantest of our London visit." In 1801 a second edition of "Castle Rackrent" was published, and the name of Maria Edgeworth appeared on its titlepage. "Its success was so triumphant that some one — I heard his name at the time, but do not now remember it, and it is better forgotten — not only insisted that he was the author, but actually took the trouble to copy out sev- eral pages with corrections and erasures, as if it was his original manuscript." This is not an unusual experience with successful authors. Miss Edgeworth, acknowledging some communi- cation from Ann Taylor ^ (afterwards Mrs. Gilbert), who was the author of many excellent and valuable poems and pieces in prose for little children, writes her : — ""Whenever I have an opportunity of adding to ' Par- 1 Ann and Jane Taylor of Ongar, authors of Origiual Poems and Nursery Rhymes, Hymns for Infant Minds, etc. 144 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. ent's Assistant,' or to ' Early Lessons,' 1 will avail my- self of your suggestions, and endeavor, as you judiciously recommend, to ridicule the garrulity, without checking the open-heartedness, of childhood. My ' Little Rosa- mond,' who perhaps has not the honor of being known to you, is sufficiently garrulous ; but she is rather what the French call ' une petite raisonneuse' than what you call a 'chatter-box.' Miss Larolles, in 'Cecilia,' is a perfect picture of a chatter-box arriced at years of discretion. I wish I could draw Miss Larolles in her childhood. "In a book called 'Original Poems for Children,' there is a pretty little poem, 'The Chatter-box,' which one of my little sisters, on hearing your letter, recollected. It is signed Ann T . Perhaps, madam, it may be written by you ; and it will give you pleasure to hear that it is a favorite with four good talkers of nine, six, live, and four years old." In 1802 appeared the "Essay on Irish Bulls," which excited much interest: it was the joint pro- duction of Maria and her father. A curious story is tokl of a gentleman who was much interested in improving the breed of Irish cattle. He sent, on seeing the advertisement, for this work on "Irish Bulls." He was surprised by the appearance of the classical bull at the top of the first page, which had been designed by Mrs. Edgeworth from a gem ; and when he began to read the book, he threw it away in utter disgust : he had purchased it in good faith, as secretary of the Irish Agricultural Society. " Among the foreigners who came to England about this time was Professor Picteti of Geneva" 1 Marc Auguste Pictet, naturalist and philosopher, president of the Society for the Advancement of the Arts, at Geneva. 1752-1825. M. PICTET. 145 says jNIaria. This gentleman was a "brother of tlie editor of the ' Journal Britannique,' wlio translated 'Practical Education,' and with whom my father had had some correspondence on the subject. Pro- fessor Pictet visited Ireland, and came to Edgeworths- town." He was accompanied by his friend M. Chd- nier, and they visited INIr. Tuite of Sonna. They went from Sonna to the Edgeworths; and, after their return to Geneva, Professor Pictet wrote a description of his days there. " The Bibliotheque Britannique " contains much the same account of the family, with translated extracts from Maria's works : these ex- tracts were of such a nature as to greatly interest Continental readers. iNI. Pictet's ^ " Voyage de Trois Mois en Angleterre " was published at Geneva in 1802. I have translated the portion concerning the Edgeworths, as it will interest the reader : — "At last we arrived. Mr. Edgeworth was found on his doorstep, and received us on alighting, and called us each by name. Farewell, then, to my little ruse ; and I am unaware of my betrayer. We are instantly on the footing of old friends. I saw, on entering the room, a large party about the table at tea, which, however, was only the famil}", who made a place for us ; and I tried to make out which of the assemblage was the celebrated Maria. Mr. Edgeworth saw what I was about, and re- marked, ' I see very well that it is not on my account alone that you have come here. Perhaps even Maria has the precedence of her father in 3'our estimation. I will not dispute it. But to punish you, you must learn that she is thirty miles away from here, and that you cannot 1 A three-mouths' journey in England, Scotland, and Ireland dur- ing the summer of year IX. (1801), by Marc Auguste Pictet. 146 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. see her to-day. But remain with us until to-morrow. I will send a messenger to her immediately. She can take the coach to-night, and arrive here before to-morrow noon.' — 'Impossible. We are engaged to return to Sonna to a large dinner.' — 'Oh, well! promise me to return again to-morrow, and I promise you shall see her then.' We did not hesitate to accept the compromise : the messenger departed, and three too rapid hours for us passed in the company of this interesting family. Mr. Edgeworth is, I believe, about sixty years old, and appears to be yet in the prime of life. He is extremely active in body and mind. He has had seventeen children by four wives, the last of which is some years younger than his well-beloved daughter Maria. Ten of his chil- dren are living, and an eleventh is expected in a few months. One sees in the hall the portraits of these four wives ; and an appearance of perfect union, friendship, and mtelligence seems to reign among their children : which is pleasing, and is a proof in favor of Mr. Edgeworth's principles of education, and shows his talent for conduct- ing his household. A characteristic of this family made itself known immediately. This was reasonable curiosity, which allowed one at a time to listen to and examine with interest all that which gave an occasion to acquire new ideas. 1 had brought that little sextant which 1 have spoken to you about, with the intention of showing it to Mr. Edgeworth. He had no sooner examined it than he explained very fully the structure and use to Mme. Edgeworth. She showed it to the oldest child, this one to a younger brother, who was not the least intelligent of the family, etc. I was not free from uneasiness in seeing so delicate an instrument pass from hand to hand, but it returned without accident. ' ' We spoke of Maria, who appeared to me to be ap- M. riCTET's VISIT. 147 preciated in the family. In this same room was the little table on which she wrote her charming works, in the midst of the conversation and noise of her brothers and sisters. She has ah-eady published the pretty romance of 'Belinda.' A little volume will soon be translated, entitled 'The Castle Rackrent,' in which she made a point principally of painting the manners, habits, and also the idiom of the Irish, by making an old steward of W a certain castle relate the history of four families who had successively occupied it. The bright and inimitable naivete of the language which she makes this man use, the mistakes and absurdities which he makes without suspecting it, his species of pleasantries, — all these go to make a whole, which, though hardly capable of being translated, is still full of wit and gayety. ' Do you wish to see the original of this good Thady that has made you laugh ? ' said Mr. Edgeworth to us. ' I will make him known to you.' He called a head servant, who over- looked the haymakers in the fields, and asked him in our presence several questions upon the objects of his stor}', to which we had the pleasure of listening. ' Have we not still in the house,' said he to him, ' that workman who has sometimes seen the fairies dance on the bowlino-- green?' — 'Yes, sir.' — 'Let him come here.' The workman appeared. ' Tell us, John, what you saw the other day.' — ' Sir, saving your presence, I was upon the roof, mending the tiles, when I saw them come one after the other. — ' Who, the tiles ? ' — ' No, sir, the fairies ; and they danced in a circle upon the turf. ' — ' But are you not mistaken ? ' — ' Mistaken ! I saw them as plainly as I now see j'ou, sir, and this honorable company.' — ' And of what height were the fairies ? ' — ' They were a little shorter than my leg, sir.' — 'Ah! very well ; and how were they dressed ? ' — 'In truth, sir, I did not 148 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. look much at their dress, but I noticed that they had on boots.' — ' Ah ! l)oots? ' — ' Yes, sir ; but they were little boots, inasmuch as I lost sight of them in the whirlwind of dust.' — ' You see, gentlemen,' said Mr. Edgeworth to us, ' that Maria has invented nothing in her " Castle Eackrent." ' " One of his sous, between the age of seven and eight, had struck us by his reflective air. ' I give you that for a good head,' said he (Mr. Edgeworth) to us: 'he w^ill be a geometrician ; he is always occupied with calcula- tions.' We then took a walk in the park. "We came across a bench, which had but three of the four legs belonging to it. ' There, William,' said the father, 'you see this bench which has only three legs : how would you trace a line on its surface, on one side of which one could sit with safety ? ' " The little man stopped in front of the bench, while we continued our walk ; and, on returning, we found him still there, but with his problem solved. He showed us the diagonal between the two feet which were farthest apart, which was the line in question. Two or three robin red-breasts flew near at our approach, jumping from branch to branch, as if they wished to follow us. ' You see these little birds,' said Mr. Edgeworth to us: 'they prove to you that our children do not torment them.' "We returned to the house ; and Mr. Edgeworth, who has the taste and intelligence of a mechanic, made it Very interesting to us by showing the interior, which is full of ornamental and useful inventions. Here we saw a clock with an escapement of his own invention, and which wound itself by the opening of the doort)f a neighboring passage, the one which was used most frequently in the house. There were some pullies, of simple and ingenious construction, for the spontaneous shutting of the doors. M. nCTET's VISIT. 149 Near by, a door, in opening, donbled itself and fornicd a screen, by which one passage closed itself while anotlier opened. The posts of the beds shut down on each other, for facility in moving. The drawers of large bureaus ordinarily are, as one knows, dilticult to shut properly : these had under tlie middle of the l)ack a groove, which necessitated perpendicular action in the front, and made the drawer shut quietly and uniformly. One knows also that the English windows, if the sashes are joined too closely, are ditlicult to open, and that, on the other hand, they allow the air to enter if they are not closed suffi- ciently. Here the uprights of the windows and their grooves are made a little in an angle, which is highest at the back. A wedge in the middle fastens closely when the window is shut, and when it is slightly opened. When the window is wide open, it does not tighten it, and disagreeable friction is prevented. " Here is a little social theatre with turning side-scenes, very ingeniously arranged ; there, a rolling-mill for draw- ing the lead proper for setting their glass windows. In all the shutters are military arrangements ready to make cross-fire upon the brigands in case of an attack. I should never finish if I were to tell you all of them. Mme. Edgeworth has also her portion of talents. She draws and paints with great taste and ease. Her father, Mr. Beaufort, is a distinguished man. He has made, among other things, an excellent map of Ireland, the most recent and correct which has been made. Mr. Edgeworth, remarking that I examined it with attention and interest, forced me to accept it. I put great value on this gift, as this map is not to be bought." They then returned to Sonua for the next day's dinner, and — 150 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGE WORTH. ' ' The following morning we went to our rendezvous at Eclgeworthstown. (I have omitted to tell you that the castle is close to this little city, which sends a member to Parliament, who is, without doubt, always an Edge- worth.) They were breakfasting, as before; but Maria and Mr. Lovell Edgeworth, the oldest sou of Mr. Edge- worth, were this time at the table taking tea. I had, on entering, no eyes for any one but her. I had persuaded myself that the author of the work on education, and of other productions, useful as well as ornamental, would betray herself by a remarkable exterior. I was mistaken. A small figure, eyes nearly always lowered, a profoundly modest and reserved air, little exp4'ession in the features when not speaking : such was the result of my first sur- vey. But when she spoke, which was much too rarely for my taste, nothing could have been better thought, and nothing better said, though always tunidly expressed, than that which fell from her mouth. " What do you imagine was the first subject of con- versation started by Mr. Edgeworth ? "'To what degree do you presume,' said he to me, ' that a gasometer can determine the pressure exercised on an elastic fluid ? ' I will not trouble you with the answer, nor with the chemical conversation which began and ended happily with the breakfast. We passed into the parlor. In the middle was a large table covered with papers, drawings, and cards. Some one took occasion to show me an apparatus, extremely ingenious and simple, thought of and made by the children of the house, to illustrate perspective, and which is described in the 'Treatise on Practical Education.' I admired it. 'It is yours,' said Mr. Edgeworth immediately: 'will j^ou accept it as a remembrance of a family who are sincerely attached to you?' I accepted it with gratitude. We A CONVERSATION. 161 spoke of the little quarrel with my brother, who had reproached him with the omission of the subject of reli- gion in a work where it seemed natural to introduce it. He justified himself, first, inasmuch as he had showed in his reply the diflieulty of treating this subject in a coun- try where religion is not uniform ; and he made me read the most of a very explicit declaration of his opinion upon the propriety of applying religious ideas to other objects of education, which he had inserted in the pref- ace of the second edition of their work. We passed on to various moral subjects, in which I felt genuine pleas- ' ure in finding myself in perfect accord with the ideas of Maria, who followed and listened to me. She and her father regarded each other with an air of the most extreme surprise, that a stranger, coming three hundred leagues, seemed to have, so to speak, thoughts in com- mon with them. There were many questions about hap- piness, and particularly that of the lower classes of society. Maria told me that she had written upon this subject, the most interesting that one could treat of prac- tically. I gave them part of one of those little specifics for happiness with which I have sometimes entertained my friends, and which I have reason to believe are good, after my experience. I spoke to them of that serpentine curve with which I have always surrounded my life. Its axis is a horizontal line which represents sleep : above this, is the region of happiness ; below, that of misfor- tune. At the end of each day, in asking myself whether I would have liked better to have slept than watched, the reply that I make myself determines on which side of the curve shall be traced the order of the day ; and this order is made so much the longer as the remembrance of the means of pleasure or pain which remains to me of the day is more or less exalted. If any one will amuse 152 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. himself by representing his life in this way, he will find that happiness will oscillate about the line with sufficient regularity to compensate him ; especially when one takes a rather long limit, — one year, for instance. " AVhile the ladies were making their toilets, we tried some chemical experiments with a small portable labora- tory which I had brought with me on my journey. We took a walk in the park, and then sat down to dinner. What a contrast to the dinner in the city! (Sonna.) I invited Maria to take up the pen upon this subject, and to strike with the sword of ridicule — which she wields with so much talent — the absurd so-called social consti- tution of the high classes*; by which, far from employing in these re-unions the faculties of each for the common advantage, and in particular to increase in each one the susceptibility of moral enjoyments, they place a damper on that noble flame of the spirit which distinguishes the intelligent being from the brute, and reduce one to the ignoble pleasure of simply eating and drinking, — to such enjoyment of self-love, almost always balanced by equal mortification, and to a little gossip, for compensation. The result of which is, that one compares that which can be produced by all the human faculties directed towards the highest sum of happiness with that which he pro- cures in return. But it must be, that in order to procure and keep such a maximum, society shall be recon- structed upon its base by education. It would make a sort of revolution to overturn that ancient and Gothic structure that is honored in certain countries by the name of civilization. Perhaps some spirits, wise and coura- geous, will arouse themselves, and, working together, bring al)0ut a gradual reform ; but it will not be that gen- ei-ation which will cull the fruit of their own labors." DR. dauwin's death. 153 M. rietet concluded his account of Maria and the family with some words about Charlotte I^ldge- worth and the eldest son. lie returned to Sonna, and on his arrival in Geneva wrote this description of the Edgeworths. lie had urged Mr. Edgeworth to go to the Contment, promismg him letters of intro- duction to scientific friends in Paris. His advice de- cided Mr. Edgeworth to make a Continental journey, and they started in the autumn of 1802. They found the account of M. Pictet very useful to them on this journey, for " The Journal Britannique " was taken at every public library and in all the " ecole ccntrale;'" and they received many attentions in con- sequence of its pleasant reference to them and their literary labors. Dr. Darwin's death, which occurred April 17, 1802, came as a severe blow to the Edgeworths. His benevolent disposition, long friendship, and clever mind, all endeared him to them. He wrote Mr. Edgeworth April 17, and dating his letter " Priory, near Derby," describes their removal from Derby to the lovely spot called the Priory. He says, — "Allot us like our change of situation. We have a pleasant house, a good garden, ponds full of fish, and a pleasing valley somewhat like Sheustone's, — deep, um- brageous, and with a talkative stream running down it. Our house is near the top of the valley, well screened by hills from the east and north, and open to the south, where at four miles distance we see Derby tower. . . . Pray tell tlie authoress that the water-nymphs of our val- ley will be happy to assist her next novel. "... 154 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. A few more words about the printing of "The Temple of Nature," by Mr. Johnson follow ; and then a sudden faint attack seized Dr. Darwin, who had risen early, and was writing, in ajoparently per- fect health. He died in about an hour after the at- tack. The letter so j^layfully written was concluded by the hand of a frieud, and sent to Ireland. A JOUENEY 155 CHAPTER VIII. The Etlscworths' Departure for England. — Places of Interest Tisiteil. — Maria visits Miss Watts. — France. — The Low Countries. — Arrival at Paris. — Mr. Watt. — The Edgeworths make many Pleasant Acquaintances and Friends. — French Sci- entific Men.— Dumont. —Lord Henry Petty. —The Delesserts. — Mme. de Pastoret. — French Society. — Madame d'Ouditot. — Literary Men. —Noted Women. —Maria's Works translated into French, German, and Spanish. — Police Surveillance.— Maria meets M. Edelcrautz. — An Offer of Marriage. — Her Decision. In the autumn of 1802 the Edgeworths' party, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Edgeworth, Maria, and Charlotte, set out for Enghand, on their way to the Continent. They were accompanied by Emmeline, who left them at Conway, and proceeded to the house of Mrs. Beddoes, at Bristol, where she was married to John King, a surgeon, afterwards quite distinguished. This gentleman, whose name was more properly Konig, was a native of Berne, Switz- erland. He was a very intimate friend of Dr. Bed- does, and associated with him in his experiments at Clifton. Southey, in writing John May in 1827, when Dr. King removed to Bristol, says, — " I would have you know King, the surgeon, also, with whom I have lived in terms of great hitimacy, and for whom I have a great and sincere regard. His wife is sister of Miss Edgeworth. A more remarkable man is not 156 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. easily to be found, and his professional skill is very great." Southey wrote a Dr. King a letter in French, which is rather a curious production. It is addressed to -John King, Esq., Pneumatic Institution, Hot Wells, Bristol. " Ce matin-la pour le premiere fois, 1' invitation de M. Edgeworth a son chateau m'a trouve, c'est a dire, verbale- ment, par un jeune Irlandois, homme d'esprit et qu'est meilleur, bon democrat. Je vous prie faites mcs remcreie- meuts a Mme. Beddoes pour sa pere. Je suis verita- blement oblige et j'espere profiter par sa politesse desor- mais, peut-etre, mon ami, nous voyageons ensemble en Ireland. Des montagnes, des rochers, des sauvages, faut il plus a faire un Voyage Pittoresque meilleur que celle de votre ami M. Bourret qui a ecrit sur votre terre. [Signed] Je suis veritablemeut au fausse grammaire votre ami, Robert Southey." Maria says, — " Charlotte, who was then, according to the description of a celebrated foreigner, ^ jeune 2i<^i'sonne de seize cms, jolie, fi'atcJie comme la rose,' accompanied us to Paris. " In passing through England, we went to Derb}' and to the Priory, to which we had been so kindly invited by him who was now no more. The Priory was all still- ness, melancholy, and mourning. It was a painful visit, yet not without satisfaction ; for my father's affectionate manner seemed to soothe the widow and daughters of his friend, who were deeply sensijjle of the respect and zeal- ous regard he showed for Dr. Darwin's memory." They found " the servants in deep mourning, Mrs. Darwin and her three beautiful daughters in deep ENGLAND. 157 mourning, and deeply afllictcd." Tlie daughters of Dr. Darwin were celebrated for their beauty, which was an inheritance from their lovely mother. Fran- ces Waddington, afterwards Baroness Bunsen, in her recollections of her childhood, remarks on these ladies, "whose appearance is still distinct in my memory ; " and she adds that they " adorned in life the families into which they married, by merit equal to their beauty." On their way towards London the party saw Lord Penrthyn's slate-quarries at Bangor, the copper-works at Holywell, and visited the very interesting estab- lishment of Josiah Wedgwood at Etruria. Thomas Wedgwood, the son of Josiah Wedgwood, the founder of the celebrated pottery-works, was a friend of Dr. Beddoes, and assisted him pecuniarily, that the Pneumatic Institution might aid more poor patients. He also passed some time at the institution, in the vain hopes of relief from the inhalation of the various gases used by Dr. Beddoes in pulmonary diseases. Mr. Edgeworth called on Lord Moira at Downing- ton Castle, and was very cordially received by the son of his old friend Lady Moira. He gave him a letter to the Princess Joseph de Monaco, who was formerly Mrs. Doyle. Maria, in a letter to Miss Mary Sneyd, tells an interesting story of a visit made to a sister authoress. At Leicester, the party having heard of Miss Watts, a poetess who had 2)ublished a volume of poems and translated parts of " Tasso," went to visit her, ushered in by the enthusiastic bookseller whom they had visited, and who told them of her abode. 158 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOKTH. " "When we had dined, we set out with our enthusiastic bookseller. We were shown by the light of a lantern along a very narrow passage between high walls, to the door of a decent-looking house. A maid-servant, candle in hand, received us. ' Be pleased, ladies, to walk up- stairs.' A neatish room, nothing extraordinary in it ex- cept the inhabitants, — Mrs. Watts, a tall, black-eyed, prim, dragon-looking woman in the background ; Miss Watts, a tall young lady in white, fresh color, fair, thin oval face, rather pretty. The moment Mrs. Edgeworth entered. Miss Watts, mistaking her for the authoress, darted forward, with arms — long, thin arms — out- stretched to their utmost swing. ' On, what an honor THIS IS ! ' each word and syllable rising in tone till the last reached a scream. Instead of embracing my mother, as her fii'st action threatened, she started back to the far- thest end of the room ; which was not light enough to show her attitude distinctly, but it seemed intended to express the receding of awe-struck admiration, stopped by the wall. Charlotte and I passed by unnoticed, and seated ourselves by the old lady's desire ; she, after mak- ing twistings of her wrists, elbows, and neck, all of which appeai'cd to be dislocated, fixed herself in her arm- chair, resting her hands on the black mahogany splayed elbows. Her person was no sooner at rest, than her eyes and all her features began to move in all directions. She looked like a nervous and suspicious person electrified. She seemed to be the acting partner in this house, to watch over her treasure of a daughter, to supply her with worldly wisdom, to look upon her as a phoenix, and — scold her. Miss Watts was all ecstasy, and lifting up of hands and eyes, speaking always in that loud, shrill, theatrical tone with which a puppet-master supplies his puppets. I, all the time, sat like a mouse. My father MISS WATTS. 159 asked, '"Which of those ladies, madam, do you think is your sister autliorcss? ' — 'I am no physiognomist [in a scree ih] but I do imagine that to be the lad}',' bowing as she sat, almost to the ground, and pointing to Mrs. Edge^^orth. ' No : guess again.' — ' Then, that must be s/te,' Mowing to Charlotte. 'No.' — 'Then this lady,' looking- forward to see what sort of an animal I was, for she hat\ never seen me till this instant. To make me some amends, she now drew her chair close to me, and began to pour forth praises. ' Lady Delaeour, oh ! " Let- ters for Literary Ladies," oh ! ' "Now for the pathetic part. This poor girl sold a novel, in four volumes, for ten guineas to Lane." On their arrival in London, Mr. Edgeworth bouglit a large, comfortable travelling-carriage for their Con- tinental journey. They left England for Calais, where they landed the 4th of October, after a very rough and disagreeable passage. This is a picture given by Maria of their depar- ture from Gravelines for Brussels. They went from Calais to Gravelines, and there took Flemish horses for their carriage. ' ' An equipage at which Sobriety herself could not have forborne to laugh. To our London coach were fas- tened by long rope-traces six Flemish horses of different heights, but each large and clumsy enough to draw an English wagon. The nose of the foremost horse was thirty-five feet from the body of the coach, their hoofs all shaggy, theh manes all uncombed, and their tails long enough to please Sir Charles Grandison himself. These beasts were totally disencumbered of every sort of har- ness except one strap, which fastened the saddle on their 160 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. backs ; and high, high upon their backs sat perfectly perpendicular long-waisted postilions in jack-boots, with pipes in their mouths." To break the monotony of the road between Gravelines and Brussels, Maria had a book called " Un Voyage dans les Pays Bas, par M. Breton," and the story of Mile, de Clermont, in Mme. de Genlis's " Petits Romans," to read. She says she "never read a more pathetic and finely written tale " than the latter. Maria was always an admirer of the romantic and sentimental in literature, though accused by the critics of wanting those qualities in her own writings. In all her remarks about the works of others, this is noticeable, that she had a strong and just appreciation of pathos and imagination. At Bruges the Edgeworths met the librarian of the Ecole Centrale, while visiting that institution, and also a Mr. Edwards, an Englishman from Ja- maica. He was a friend of Mr. Brian Edwards, and well acquainted with Johnson the bookseller, and had met Dr. Aikin and Mr. and Mrs. Barbauld at his house. M. Lenet found them to be the Edge- worths described by Pictet in the paper in " The Bi- bliotheque Britannique," and was very attentive and courteous. They reached Paris after a pleasant journey, somewhat marred by the annoyance of a courier, who was very necessary at that day in Con- tinental travelling. Maria wrote that he might find something needed by them " if he is not drunk ; " which was, apparently, not an unusual coudition with him. ARRIVAL IN PARIS. 161 On tlicir arrival in Paris, they took lodgings in the Rue de Lille. IMaria says of their Parisian life, — " Aftor a delightful tour through the Low Countries, we arrived at Paris, where we were to spend the winter. In the Hotel, Place de Louis Quinze, to which we drove on entering Paris, my father was fortunate in meeting his illustrious friend, Mr. "Watt. To him he owed an intro- duction to many foreigners of celebrity. Pictet had, as we found, in the most friendly manner, prepared the way for us at Paris ; and there he more than kept all his prom- ises of assistance, and of introduction to his numerous literary acquaintance and to highly cultivated and agree- able society. He was not in Paris on our arrival ; but we had, among other kind friends, in particular, the venerable Abbe Morellet.i . . . " M. de Prony,^ who was then at the head of Les Fonts et Chaus6es, showed him, in the best manner, all that to a well-informed engineer was most worthy of notice in the repository of that celebrated school, put him in the way of seeing every other invention, object, and person in the mechanical and engineering department ; but, above all, he felt grateful for M. de Prony's giving him so much of his own conversation, and for various indubitable proofs of private esteem and confidence. " Berthollet, Montgolfier, and Breguet gratified him by bestowing that gift, of which philosophers and men of science, occupied upon great objects, and independent of common society, best know the value, — their time. It 1 Morellet, Andre. A celebrated abbe', born at Lyons in 1727. He wrote some works on i^olitical economy and statistics. Died ia 1819. 2 Prony, Gaspard-Clair-Frani;ois-Marie-Riche de. Baron de Pro- ny. A distinguished Frencli mathematician. 1755-1839. 162 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOKTH. was fit this period tliat we first became acquainted with our excellent friend, M. Dumont. "This gentleman, so well known by his conversational talents and his exquisite critical acumen, has entitled him- self to the gratitude of the literary and political world in general, and of Englishmen in particular, by the success- ful pains be has bestowed in arranging, elucidating, and making known to the Continent of Europe several valu- able English works, ^ — works which, notwithstanding their depth of thought and extent of views, would never have acquired popularity, if they had not been re-written in M. Dumont's clear and forcible style. "From the commencement of their friendship in 1802, my father continued to correspond with M. Dumont ; and we owe much to his critical advice and sagacity in all our literary pursuits and publications." M. Dumont, of whom the reader will hear much from Miss Edgeworth, was travelling with his pupil and friend, Lord Henry Petty. Miss Edgeworth met them at the house of Mme. Gautier at Passy. Pictet had described M. Delessert to the Edgeworths as a kind of " French Rumford." They found Mme. Delessert intelligent and agreeable, and their daugh- ter, Mme. Gautier, very charming. Rousseau wrote his "Letters on Botany" for this lady. He was a friend of the family. Francois Delessert, the second son, was educated chiefly by his sister, Mme. Gautier. Maria describes Passy as a "French Richmond." Mme. Gautier had " fine eyes, was very intelligent, and well dressed." 1 Bentliam's Traite's sur la Legislation, and Theorie des Peines et des Recompenses, etc. LORD LANSDOWNE. 163 Lord Henry Petty was to play a prominent part in the life of Miss Edgewortli, as a good friend for many years. The present generation of readers will remember him better as the INIarquis of Lansdowne, the amicus curicc of politics, and the very type of a mild and venerable Whig. He lived to be the Nestor of his party. This nobleman was the son of the first Marquis of Lansdowne by his second wife, a daughter of Lord Ossory. He succeeded his elder brother in the title in 1809. Lord Henry Petty was educated at the Westmin- ster School ; and, after passing there five years, he was sent to the University of Edinburgh. Lord Ash- burton and he passed much of their leisure at the house of the celebrated Dugald Stewart, then pro- fessor in the University. He also joined what was known as the " Speculative Society," and exercised his powers of debate at these weekly meetings. On leaving Edinburgh, Lord Henry was entered at Trin- ity College, Cambridge ; where he staid till 1801, when he took his degree of Master of Arts. By his father's desire he then started with M. Dumont to make a tour of the Continent ; but the peace of Amiens was too brief to allow time for this journey, and he returned to England that year. He was almost immediately nominated and elected to the family borough of Calne. After a year's silence he first spoke on the subject of Ireland. He showed a remarkable degree of information on political econo- my, and he was welcomed by the opposition as a valuable adherent. In 1803, when Lord Melville was charged with retaining sums of money in his 164 A STUDY OF JVIARIA EDGEWORTH. hands as treasurer of the navy, and a violent party struggle ensued, Lord Henry distinguished himself by an exceedingly able speech, which made many consider him a rival of Pitt in oratory. At the death of Pitt, in 1806, Lord Henry was offered, and accepted, office as chancellor of the exchequer; and he was also elected by a very large majority to the representation of the University of Cambridge, over his opponents Lords Althorpe and Palmerston. On the death of Fox " the ministry of all the tal- ents " soon fell ; and Lord Henry lost his office, and also his seat in Parliament, by his consistent advocacy of the Catholic claim. The university elected Sir Vickary Gibbs by only two votes over Lord Palm- erston ; and Lord Henry was at the foot of the poll. He was, however, provided with a seat by the influence of the Duke of Bedford, and returned for Camelford, a borough so small that it figured in Schedule A of the Reform Bill. In 1808 he mar- ried his cousin, Lady Louisa Strangeways, daughter of the Earl of Ilchester. In 1809, on the death of the second marquis, his half-brother, he took his seat in the House of Peers. Lord Lansdowne con- tinued in the opposition till 1827, when he joined the administration of Mr. Canning, as secretary for the Home Department. The death of Mr. Canning, and the change which brought in the Liverpool cabinet and the Duke of Wellington, made Lord Lansdowne the leader of the opposition. His name is asso- ciated with many reform measures during the half- century in which he took active part in political affairs. The abolition of slavery, and the Catholic LOKD LANSDOWNE. 166 emancipation acts, had his heartfelt support. Tlis lubanity and courtesy to his political opponents won for him a large measure of esteem and regard. Under Earl Grey's administration Lord Lansdowne held the olTice of president of the council for nearly ten years, with a brief exception, — the period of the Duke of Wellington's short administration. On the formation of the Russell cabinet, in 184G, Lord Lansdowne returned to office as president of tlie council, and ably advocated the cause of national education. On the retirement of the ministers from office, in 1852, Lord Lansdowne took a dignified leave of official life, in a heartfelt address to the House announcing the dissolution of the Lord John Russell cabinet. He was often consulted by the queen, who was the fourth sovereign under whom he had held office. One cannot fail to )iotice the consistency of Lord Lansdowne's official life. Liberal views were his first and last care during a long political career ; reform measures had his earliest attention; and he ■ lived long enough to see the successful result of his labors. Lansdowne House, in Berkeley Square, was one of the houses adorned alike by the domestic virtues and social graces. Its master was early thrown among men of distinction in literature, politics, and art ; and he soon became the liberal friend and patron of art and literature. Of Lady Lansdowne there are many charming mentions in contemporaneous literature, which will be noticed later. Dumont, the remarkable tutor of the brilliant young Englishman, was to become the intimate friend 166 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. and valued critic of Miss Edgeworth ; and the Gene- van pasteur himself became so prominent a man in literature that a little sketch of his life must be given here. Pierre Etienne Louis Dumont was born in Geneva in 1759. He studied theology; and, after preaching a while in his native place, he went to St. Petersburg, in 1783, where he took charge of the French Protestant Church. In 1785 he left Russia for England, where he became tutor to the sons of Lord Shelburne. He became very intimate with many of the Whig party, and with Sir Samuel Romilly he formed a close friendship. He had known Romilly early in life at Geneva, wlio spoke of Dumont in his account of his own early life as follows : — " His vigorous understanding, his extensive knowledge, and his splendid eloquence fitted him to have acted the noblest part in public life ; while the brilliancy of his wit, the cheerfulness of his humor, and the charms of his conversation, have made him the delight of every private society in which he has lived. But his most valuable qualities are, his strict integrity, his zeal to serve those whom he is attached to, and his most affectionate dispo- sition." During the early years of the French Revolution, Dumont was in Paris, where he saw much of Mira- beau; and he has given the world much valuable information about that period, in his " Souvenirs sur Mirabeau et sur les deux Premiers Assemblees Legislatives," published in 1832, seven years after M. DUMONT. 167 the writer's death. In 1791 Dumont returned to Enghind, and Ibrnicd an intimacy with Jeremy Ben- tham. Bentham gave him his mannscripts, and he hibored long and patiently to elucidate and make available the immense material which the philosopher had prepared. The results were the various works of Bentham on legislation. Macaulay says of his indus- trious and unselfish work, in an eloquent eulogiura of him, in reviewing his " Souvenirs de Mirabeau," " Possessed of talents and acquirements which made him great, he wished only to be useful.'^ Hazlitt wittily says of this, Bentham's "works have been translated into French. They ought to be translated first into English." Sydney Smith also commented on Dumont's share in this; saying to Moore, that Dumont had brought out the obscurity of Bentham, and made it " clear and understandable." In 1814 Dumont returned to Geneva, and became a member of the representative council. He died in 1825 at Milan. The Delesserts were visited intimately by the Edge worths, who found them most kind and friend- ly. Madame Delessert was the benefactress of Rous- seau. It was said he was never so good or happy as when in her society. To her generosity he owed his retreat in Switzerland. She was a woman of high character, and her salon was closed to those of whose conduct she could not approve ; though her acts of benevolence were many and wise. It is said that Berquin's " Ami des Enfans " records one of her charitable deeds ; but her own children could not tell 168 A STUDY or MARIA EDGEWOETH. Miss Edgeworth whicli story contained this episode, as she concealed it. Among the many friends they made in Paris may be named INlme. de Pastoret. This Lady, who was the original of " Mme. de Fleury," in Maria's story of that name, was preceptress to the princess in the ancient regime^ being appointed to that post in oppo- sition to the wife of Condorcet ; while M. de Pastoret was chosen preceptor to the dauphin. M. Pastoret was president of the First Assembly, and at the head of the king's council before the revolution. He alone was saved from the guillotine : the other four members perished in the reign of terror; he escaped by his courage and decision. The Marquis de Chastellux's speech best describes Mme. de Pas- toret, says Maria : " Elle Tia point d' expression sans (/race, et point de grdce sans expression.'''' Louis XVIII. made Count Pastoret a marquis, and he Avas afterwards chancellor of France. Mr. Ticknor says in 1818, — " She has natural talent, and lias cultivated herself highly. I have seldom seen a better balanced mind, or feehngs more justlv regulated." Mr. Ticknor again mentions meeting Mme. de Pastoret in 1837 : — " The Mme. de Fleury of Miss Edgeworth, This tale was founded on incidents in Mme. Pastoret's life related by her to Miss Edgeworth, to whom she was much at- tached. . . . De Fleury was not an invented name, but the name of an estate belonging to her, and taken as MME. DE PASTORET. 169 such by Miss Edgevrortb, whom she knows personally extremely well." In February of 1803, Maria made a skctcli for the story of "Mme. de Fleury," but did not finish it till long afterwards. The incident of the locked-up child was told her by Mme. Pastoret, to whom it had happened. The period of the Revolution was a frightful one for the Pastorets, but they learned much from this time of suffering and distress. Mme. Pastoret was a noble character, and she did much for the cause of education. She first estab- lished infant-schools in France. The Edgeworths visited much, and made many acquaintances among the various circles which gath- ered again in Paris after the return of the nobles. At the house of M. and Mme. Suard they met many eminent men and charming women. M. Suard w^as editor of the " Publiciste." Mme. Suard " Mr. Day paid his court to thirty years ago." At the house of the venerable Abbe Morellet, Maria met an old lady of note. This was " Mme. d'Ouditot, an old lady of seventy-two, — the 'Julie' of Ilousseau." She describes her as " shockingly ugly, and squints," but adds, — " I wish I could be such a woman at seventy-two. She told us that Rousseau, whilst he was writinp; so finely on education, and leaving his own children in the foundling hospital, defended himself with so much eloquence that even those who blamed him in their hearts could not find tongues to answer him. "Once at dinner at Mme. d'Ouditot's there was a 170 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. fine pyramid of fruit. Rousseau, in helping himself, took the peach which formed the base of the pyramid, and the rest fell immediately. ' O Eousseau ! ' said she, ' that is what you always do with all our systems : you pull down with a single touch, but who will build up what you pull down ? ' I asked if he was grateful for all the kindness shown him. ' No, he was ungrateful : he had a thousand bad qualities ; but I turned my attention from them to his genius, and the good he had done mankind.' ' ' I felt in her company the delightful influence of a cheerful temper, and soft, attractive manners ; enthusiasm which does not extinguish, and which spends, but does not waste, itself on small but not trifling objects." The Abb^ Morellet, at whose breakfast this con- versation took place, was a man of marked charac- ter. His high moral courage and consistent conduct throughout the trying period of the revolution gave him a place in the esteem and regard of his friends, which his learning and fine literary taste increased. He had a deservedly high influence in Paris. Mr. Edgewortli had made his acquaintance in 1772-73, when he was in France with Mr. Day. Maria was much interested in the abbd. She says that he seemed to enjoy his position among the younger people, whose society he frequented. " I hear peo- ple complaining of growing old," said he ; " but for my part, I enjoy the privileges and comforts, in short, the convenience, of old age (les commoditSs de la vieillesse).'''' This amiable, respectable, and respected old man, in some playful lines he wrote on his own birthday, declares, that if the gods were to permit him to return again on earth, in whatever form he FRENCH NOTABILITIES. 171 miglit choose, he should make, perhaps, the whhn- sical choice of returning to this workl as an okl man. They met Camille Jordan,^ and M. Degerando.^ Jordan had, just before this, pubhshed a pampldet on the choice of Bonaparte as First Consul for life. This was at first condemned ; but, as the time was not ripe for Napoleon to declare himself as a complete despot, he alloAved the address to go unpunislied. At the home of Mme. Campan they met Mme. Re- camier, "the beautiful lady who had nearly been squeezed to death in Paris." JNIme. Campan pro- fessed to follow the principles of " Professional Edu- cation " in her great boarding-school, and later at the institution at Ecoueu, where the daughters of the ofiicers of the legion of honor were educated. Mme. Campan paid the Edgeworths "many compliments." Mr. Edgeworth was not greatly impressed with ]\Ime. Rccamier. He says, " She certainly is hand- some, but there is nothing noble in her appear- ance. — She was very civil," he adds. They attended one of Mme. Recamier's salons, and found there "a strange melange of merchants and poets, philoso- phers, and parvenues, English, French, Portuguese, and Brazilian." Says Maria, " They also went to the opera with her." Among other notabilities they met Mme. Lavoi- sier; Gen. Kosciusko,^ "simple in his manners, like all truly great men," says Maria ; the Prince and 1 Camille Jordan, French orator and statesman. 1771-1821. 2 Marie Joseph de Gerando, French writer on education and philosophy. 1772-1842. 3 Kosciusko, Polish patriot and leader. 1756-1817. 172 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. Princess Joseph de Monaco ; and the Abbe Sicard.^ Maria visited the famous institution of the abbe for the instruction of the deaf and dumb, with the Pic- tets. At one of Mme. Suard's assembhiges of friends, they met the celebrated Lall3^-Tollendal, and the Due de Crillon. The Marquis Lally-Tollendal emi- grated to England with Mme. de Stael, and figures much in ]\Iiss Burney's account of the life at Juni- per Hall. Mme. de Stael called him " Le plus gras des Itommes se^isibles,'' but he was usually known in France, by his eloquence, as the French Cicero. Miss Edgeworth's pretty novel of " Belinda " was translated into the French by the Comte de Segur about this time. " Castle llackrent " was translated into the German. Maria saw an extract from "Castle Rackrent" in a French book. This gave the wake, the confinement of Lady Cathcart to her own house for many years, and the sweeping the stairs by Thady with his wig, as common and usual occur- rences in Ireland. While at a grand review in the Place de Carrousel, a gentleman came in " Avho had passed many years in Spain." Says Maria, "He began to talk to me about Madrid ; and, when he heard my name, he said a Spanish lady is translating ' Practical Education ' from the French. She under- stands English ; and he gave me her address, that we may send a copy of the book to her." In a letter of Maria's dated " Steele reparateur^'' as Monge has christened this century 1803, she men- tions the fact that " Early Lessons " is being trans- 1 Sicarrl, Roch-Aiubrose Cucurron, an emiueut teacher of the deaf aud dumb. 1742-1822. IWRISIAN SOCIETY. 173 latcd into French on one side of the page, and English on the other. Oi" this translation she says, that "Didot has undertaken to publish 'The Na- tional Primer,' whii-h is much approved of here for teaching the true English pronunciation." This last was Mr. Edgeworth's book, written to explain and illustrate his method of teaching children to read. Maria, in describing the social life in Paris at this period, says that the soirSes begin at nine o'clock ; and cards, with all kinds of conversation, and a light supper, make up the evening's entertainment. ' ' I have never heard an}' person talk of dress or fash- ion since we came to Paris, and very little scandal. A scandal-monger would be starved here. The conversa- tion frequently turns on the new petites pieces, and little novels which come out every day, and are talked of for a few days with as much eagerness as a new fashion in other places." She did not yet realize, after quite a stay in Paris, why gossip was suppressed, and the whole style of conversation was so carefully guarded. The '■'-patte de velours " of Napoleon was felt by the Parisians ; and, though sheathed temporarily, his talons were too evident to permit of any real freedom of thought or language. Before the close of these very pleasant months in Paris, she could have better explained the absence of any thing like a personal element in the conversation. Many of Miss Edgeworth's critics have thought her wanting in tenderness, and in the delineation of the power and influence of love on the human heart, 174 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOETH. iind its share in the events of life. It is not usually known that she was a person of the most affection- ate, warm-hearted, and tender nature. Her tears and smiles rose easily at any tale of distress or mirth, but she was not lightly or easily influenced by fictitious suffering. Her clear mind and culti- vated intellect gave her a strong control over her own feelings; but she was human, and vulnerable, as every true woman should be, to the influence of love. In Paris she met ofteii a Swedish gentleman, M. Edelcrantz ; and it was an offer from him which caused her to write as follows : — "Here, my dear aunt [Mrs. Ruxton], I was inter- rupted iu a manner that will surprise you as much as it surprised me, by the coming iu of M. Edelcrantz, a Swed- ish gentleman, whom we have mentioned to you, of supe- rior understanding and mild manners : he came to offer me his hand and heart ! " My heart, you may suppose, cannot return his attach- ment ; for I have seen but little of him, and have not had time to have formed any judgment, except that I think nothing could tempt me to leave my own dear friends and my own country to live in Sweden." To another relation she wrote, — "I take it for granted, my dear friend, that you have by this time seen a letter which I wrote a few days ago to my aunt. Vo you, as to her, every thought of my mind is open. I persist in refusing to leave my country and my friends to live at the court of Stockholm ; and he tells me (of course) that there is nothing he would not sacrifice for me, except his duty. lie has been all his life M. EDELCRANTZ. 175 in the servioo of the king of Sweden, has places under him, and is actually employed in coUectiug information for a large political establishment. lie thinks himself bound in honor to finish what he has begun. He saj's he should not fear the ridicule or blame that would be thrown upon him by his countrymen, for quitting his country at his age, but that he should despise himself if he abandoned his duty for any passion. This is all very reasonable, but reasonable for him only, not for me ; and I have never felt any thing for him but esteem and gratitude." Mrs. Edgeworth wrote of this event, — "Maria was mistaken as to her own feelings. She refused M. Edelcrautz, but she felt much more for him than esteem and admiration : she was exceedingl}' in love with him. Mr. Edgeworth left her to decide for herself ; but she saw too plainly what it would be to us to lose her, and what she would feel at parting from us. She decided rightly for her own futui'e happiness and for that of her family ; but she suffered much at the time, and long afterwards. While we were at Paris, I remember that in a shop, where Charlotte and I were making some purchases, Maria sat apart absorbed in thought, and so deep in revery that when her father came in and stood opposite to her she did not see him till he spoke to her, when she started, and burst into tears. She was grieved by his look of tender anxiety : and she afterwards exerted herself to join in society, and to take advantage of all that was agreeable during our stay in France, and on our journey home ; but it was often a most painful effort to her. And even after her return to Edgeworthstown, it was long before she recovered the elasticity of her mind. She exerted all her powers of self-connnaud, and turned 176 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. her attention to every thing her father suggested for her to write. But 'Leonora,' which she began immediately after our return home, was written with the hope of pleasing the Chevalier Edelcrautz : it was written in a style he liked ; and the idea of what he would think of it was, I believe, present to her in every page she wrote. She never heard that he had even read it. From the time they parted at Paris, there was no sort of com- munication between them ; and, beyond the chance which brought us sometimes into company with travellers who had been in Sweden, or the casual mention of M. Edel- crautz in the newspapers or scientific journals, we never heard more of one who had been of such supreme interest to her, and to us all, at Paris, and of whom Maria contin- ued to have, all her life, the most romantic recollection. I do not think she ever repented of her refusal or regret- ted her decision : she was well aware that she could not have made him happy, that she would not have suited his position at the court of Stockholm, and that her want of beauty might have diminished his attachment. It was better, perhaps, that she should think so, as it calmed her mind; but, from what I saw of M. Edelcrantz, I think he was a man capable of deeply valuing her. I believe that he was much attached to her, and deeply mortified at her refusal. He continued to reside in Sweden after the abdication of his master, and was always distinguished for his high character and great abilities. He never married. He was, except very fine eyes, remarkably plain. Her father rallied Maria about her preference of so ugly a man ; but she liked the ex- pression of his countenance, the spirit and strength of his character, and his very able conversation. The unex- pected mention of his name, or even that of Sweden, in a book or newspaper, always moved her so much that M. EDELCRANTZ. 177 the words and lines in the page boeame a mass of con- fusion hc'foie her eyes, and her voice lost all power. "1 think it right to mention these facts, because I know that the lessons of self-command which she incul- cated in her novels were really acted upon in her own life, and that the resolution with which she devoted her- self to her father and her family, and the industry with which she labored at the writings which she thought were for the advantage of her fellow-creatures, were from the exertion of the highest principle. Her precepts were not the maxims of cold-hearted prudence, but the result of her own experience in strong and romantic feeling. By what accident it happened that she had, long before she ever saw the Chevalier Edelcrantz, chosen Sweden for the scene of ' The Knapsack, ' I do not know ; but I remember his expressing his admiration of that beautiful little piece, and his pleasure in the line characters of the Swedish gentlemen and peasants." This is an exceedingly interesting passage ; because it does show clearly, as ]\Irs. Edgeworth says, that Maria was capable of the deepest feelings. Many critics have accused her of being cold, prudent, and calculating. Cold, the writer of " Patronage," with \^ the beautiful womanly character of Caroline Percy, could never have been. She was denied the happi- ness of the sweetest relations of domestic life : the tender joys of wife and mother were not to be hers, but it did cost her many struggles to give up bravely the possibility of such happiness. She showed so plainly by her lifelong devotion to a living father, and regard for his memory when gone ; by sympa- thetic interest in her own brothers and sisters, the 178 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. many other children and the wives of her father, — what she was capable of feeling, that one cannot doubt her capacity for loving. She drew too many portraits of lovely women in all the relations of life, as maid, wife, and widow, to leave a shadow of uncer- tainty as to her genuine belief in marriage. It is hard " to look into happiness through another man's eyes," says Shakspeare. Maria did this all her life , and the wonder is, that she depicted so delicately, yet charmingly, the effect of love on so many char- acters. She does it admirably in " Patronage," where she contrasts the volatile Rosamond, under the influ- ence of the tender passion, with her high-spirited yet tender sister Caroline. Both love, and are wooed and won ; but how different the wooing ! how character- istic the sentiments of the lively Rosamond, with her vivacity and redoubled life, and the calm, deep hap- piness of the well-balanced mind and the sympa- thetic yet self-contained nature of Caroline ! While Rosamond is steadied and improved by her love for Mr. Henry, the noble nature of Caroline finds its perfect finish in the happiness of loving and being loved by Count Altenburg. When Maria painted Caroline Percy struggling to control what she supposed was a hopeless passion for Count Altenburg, she probably drew these pages from her own experience. The fate of her heroine was happier, however, than her own. Her lover did not return to her, and they never met again. LA HARPE. 179 CHAPTER IX. Maria visits La ITarpe. — Mr. Eclpeworth ordered to leave Paris. — Maria goes with him to PassJ^ — He receives Permission to return. — A Visit to Mme. de Genlis. — Rumors of War. — Departure from Paris. — London. — York. — Edinburgh. — Soci- ety there. — Dugald Stewart. — Dr. Alison. — Dr. Gregory. — Professor Playfair. — Elizabeth Hamilton — Maria's Enjoyment of Edinburgh. — A Visit to Glasgow on their Way to Ireland. Among other visits to notable people, Maria went to the house of La Harpe, the poet, with Mme. Rdcamier and the Russian Pnncess Dalgourski, to hear him repeat some of his own poetry. " He lives in a wretched house ; and we went up dirty stairs, through dirty passages, where I wondered how fine ladies' trains and noses could go, and were received in a dark, small den by the philosopher, or rather deoot, for he spurns the philosopher. He was in a dirty reddish night-gown, and very dirty night-cap bound round the forehead by a superlatively dirty chocolate-colored ribbon. Mme. R^^camier, the beautiful, the elegant, robed in white satin trimmed with white fur, seated herself on the elbow of his armchair, and besought him to repeat his verses." In another place she speaks of Mme. Recaraier as, " a graceful and decent beauty of excellent char- acter." Wlien, long after this time, her brother wrote her that he made Mme. Recamier laugh, by some remark of his, Maria replied, — 180 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. "In my observation she never went beyond the smile prescribed by Lord Chesterfield as graceful in beaut}'." When Mr. Edgcworth was arranging in London for his Parisian life, he asked for, and obtained, a letter from Lord Essex, then lord chamberlain, and applied to Lord Whitworth, then English ambassa- dor at Paris, to present him to Napoleon. After a stay in Paris, he was convinced by various signs that Gen. Bonaparte, then First Consul, was carefully preparing his course for the usurpation of supreme power in France. This altered Mr. Edgeworth's feelings : he did not care to go to the court of the usurper. Though he was prudent in conversation, and in the friendships he formed and the houses he frequented, there was a system of espiojinage in Paris which kept Napoleon acquainted with the thoughts and speech of strangers as well as resi- dents. Mr. Edgeworth " could scarcely be brought to believe " in the existence of such a police-system, till lie was convinced by "well-attested facts pro- duced to him, and till he perceived the suspicion and excessive caution and constraint which the sys- tem spread over general society." This was the rea- son for the peculiar tone of conversation in the salo7is. INIaria did not fully comprehend the situa- tion of affairs in Paris, until seen in the light of after events. Mr. Edgeworth had no apprehensions whatever of attracting the police spies by either action or word ; but " he was one morning surprised by an order to quit Paris in twenty-four hours, and the MR. EDGEWORTH's ARREST. 181 French territories in fifteen days." Accompanied by Maria, he went to Passy. The following extract from a letter to Miss Charlotte Sneyd will tell tlie story of the mistake which caused his arrest. He described in detail all the particulars of his arrest, and the kindness of his friends, the Delesserts, Mme. Gautier, and others. It was true kindness, for it exposed them to the censure of the police for aiding a suspected person. Refusing all offers of help, fearing to compromise these good friends, Mr. Edge- worth went into lodgings at Passy. [To Mrs. Charlotte Sneyd.] Paris, Jan. 27, 1803. . . . We arrived at Passy about ten o'clock at night ; and, though a deport^, I slept tolerabl}^ well. Before I was up, my friend M. de P was with me, breakfasted with us in our little oven of a parlor, con- versed two hours most agreeably. Our other friend, F. D., came also before we had breakfasted; and just as I had mounted on a table to paste some paper over certain deficiencies in the window, enter M. P , and Le B n. '' Mou ami, ce n'est pas la peine ! " cried they both at once, their faces rayonnant de joie. " You need not give yourself so much trouble, you will not stay here long. We have seen the grand juge, and your detention arises from a mistake. It was supposed that you are a brother to the Abbe Edgeworth. We are to deliver a petition from j'ou. stating what j'our relationship to the abbe really is. This shall be backed by an address signed by all your friends at Paris, and you will then be at liberty to return." 182 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. I objected to writing any petition ; and at all events, I determined to consult my ambassador, who had con- ducted himself well towards me. I wrote to Lord Whit- worth, stating the facts, and declaring that nothing could ever make me deny the honor of being related to the Abb6 Edgeworth. Lord Whitworth advised me, however, to state the fact that I was not the abba's brother. Maria says, — "In the evening of the second day of my father's hanishment from Paris, our friends informing Mrs. Edge- worth of the permission granted him to return, she came to Passy for us at seven o'clock in the evening. Late as it was when we got to Paris, he stopped at the English ambassador's hotel to tell him the result of the business. " At a public court dinner, at which Regnier, the grand juge, was present, some days after this affair, one of our friends spoke of it, and questioned him as to his real reasons. He declared he had none, but excused himself by saying that Paris was too full of strangers, and that he had general orders to clear it of la lie du peiq^le etran- ger; to which our friend replied that, ' M. le Grand Juge should, however, distinguish between la lie and V elite du jyeiq^le.' . . . - " The memorial which our Parisian friends drew up to present to the grand juge, stated ' that my father was a man of letters, that we were authors of a work on edu- cation well known in France, that he had lived, ever since he came to Paris, with literary society, totally uncon- nected with politics.' Some kind and highly gratifying expressions were added : several celebrated names of the highest respectability were subscribed. After the business was over, the memorial was put into my father's hand, and has been, and will be, carefully preserved by JIME. DE GENLIS. 183 Ills family, as a testimony of the steadiness of our Pari- sian friends." The last important events of interest in tlic stay of the Edgeworths at Paris, after the arrest and release of Mr. Edgeworth, were a visit to the estab- lishment of Mme. Campan, where they saw many distinguished people, among them Hortense Beau- harnais, and Mme. Louis Bonaparte, the unfortunate queen of Holland, who was an 4leve of INIme. Cam- pan's. Racine's " Esther," and Mme. de Genlis's beautiful " Rosiere de Salency," were admirably performed by the pupils. " Full of the pleasure " received from seeing her play, ]\Iiss Edgeworth, though evidently strongly prejudiced against Mme. de Genlis,^ "was impatient" to pay her a visit before leaving. When in England Maria did not visit her, as the feeling against her manner of life was such, that, when Mr. Edgeworth took Maria's translation of " Adele et Theodore " to her at Bath, he meant to present its translator, Maria, also to her, but found " that she is not visited by demoiselles in England," writes Maria, in 1791, from Clifton to Mrs. Ruxton. But Maria was older now than she was then ; and, besides, she probably thought that at Paris she could do as the Parisians do ; and they went by special invitation one evening. And here is her own description of the difficulties and the 1 Genlis, Stephanie Folicite, Comtesse de, born in Biirgnndj', 1746; died in 1830. Notorious for her connection Avith Philippe !]6galite'. She educated Louis Philippe. She published numerous books on many subjects. 184 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. final result, and her impressions of this notorious woman : — " She was living where Sully used to live, at the Arse- nal. Bonaparte has given her apartments there. Now, I do not know what you imagined in reading Sully's Memoirs : but I always imagined that the Arsenal was one large building, with a facade to it like a very large hotel or a palace ; and I fancied it was somewhere in the middle of Paris. Ou the contrary, it was quite in the suburbs. We drove on and on ; and at last we came to a heavy archway, like what you see at the entrance of a fortified town. We drove under it for the length of three or four yards in total darkness ; and then we found ourselves, as well as we could see by the light of some dim lamps, in a large square court, surrounded by buildings : here we thought we were to alight. No such thing : the coachman drove under another thick archway, lighted at the en- trance by a single lamp. We found ourselves in another court ; and still we went on, archway after archway, court after court, in all which reigned desolate silence. I thought the archways and the courts and the desolate silence would never end. At last the coachman stopped, and asked, for the tenth time, where the lady lived. It is excessively difficult to find people in Paris. We thought the name of Mme. de Genlis and the Arsenal would have been sufficient ; but the whole of this congregation of courts and gateways and houses is called the Arsenal, and hundreds and hundreds of people inhal^it it who are probably perfect strangers to Mme. de Genlis. At the doors where our coachman inquired, some answered that they knew nothing of her, some that she lived in the Faubourg St. Germain, others believed that she might be at Passy, others had heard that she had apartments given MME. DE GENLIS. 185 her 1">y frovcrnmcnt soniowhere in the Arsenal, but could not toll wlioiv. "While the coachman thus begged his way, we, anxiously looking out at him from the middle of the great square where we were left, listened for the answers that were given, and which often, from the distance, escaped our ears. At last a door pretty near to us opened, and our coachman's head and hat were illumin- ated by the candle held by the person who opened the door ; and, as the two figures parted with each other, we could distinctly see the expression of their countenances, and their lips move : the result of this parley was success- ful. AVe were directed to the house where Mme. de Genlis lived, and thought all difficulties ended. No such thmg : her apartments were still to be sought for. "We saw be- fore us a large, crooked, ruinous stone staircase, lighted by a single bit of candle, hanging in a vile tin lantern, in an angle of the bare wall at the turn of the staircase, — only just light enough to see that the walls were bare and old, and the stairs immoderately dirty. There were no signs of the place being inhabited, except this lamp, which could not have been lighted without hands. I stood still in melancholy astonishment, while my father groped his way into a kind of porter's lodge, or den, at the foot of the stairs, where he found a man who was porter to various people who inhabited this house. You know, the Parisian houses are inhabited by hordes of dif- ferent people ; and the stall's are in fact streets, and dirty streets, to their dwellings. The porter, who was neither obliging nor intelligent, carelessly said that ' Mme. de Genlis logecdt au seconde ct gauche, qiCil foudrait tirer sa sonnette." He believed she was at home, if she was not gone out. Up we went by ourselves; for this porter, though we were strangers, and pleaded that we were so, never offered to stir a step to guide or to light us. "When 186 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. we got to the second stage, we faintly saw, by the light from the one candle at the first landing-place, two large dirty folding-doors, one set on the right and the other on the left, and hanging on each a bell, no larger than what you see in the small parlor of a small English inn. My fa- ther pulled one bell, and waited some minutes ; no answer : pulled the other bell and waited ; no answer : thumped at the left door ; no answer : pushed and pulled at it, — could not open it ; pushed open one of the right-hand folding-doors, — utter darkness ; went in, as well as we could feel ; there was no furniture. After we had been there a few seconds, we could discern the bare walls, and some strange lumber in one corner. The room was of a prodigious height, like an old playhouse. We retreated, and, in despair, went down again to the stupid or surly porter. He came up-stairs very unwillingly, and pointed to a deep recess between the stairs and folding-doors. ^ AUez, voila la j)07'te et tirer la sonnette.' He and his candle went down ; and my father had but just time to seize the handle of the bell, when we were again in dark- ness. After ringing this feeble bell, we presently heard doors open, and little footsteps approaching nigh. The door was opened by a girl of about Honora's size, holding an ill-set waning candle in her hand, the light of which fell full upon her face and figure ; her face was remark- ably intelligent, — dark sparkling eyes ; dark hair, curled in the most fashionable long cork-screw ringlets over her eyes and cheeks. She parted the ringlets to take a full view of us, and we were equally impatient to take a full view of her. The dress of her figure by no means suited the head and the elegance of her attitude. What her ' nether weeds ' might be, we could not distinctly see : but they seemed to be a coarse, short petticoat, like what Molly Bristow's children would wear, not on Sundays ; lOIE. DE GENLIS. 187 a woollen gray spencer above, pinned with a single pin l)y the lapels tight across the neck under the chin, and open all below. After surveying us, and hearing that our name was Edgeworth, she smiled graciously, and bid us follow her, saying, ' Mamam est chez elle.' She led the way, with the grace of a young lady who has been taught to dance, across two ante-chambers, miserable looking, but, miserable or no, no house in Paris can be without them. The girl, or young lady, for we were still in doubt which to think her, led us into a small room, in which the candles were so well screened by a green tin screen, that we could scarcely distinguish the tall form of a lady in black, who rose from her armchair by the fireside as the door opened. A great puff of smoke came from the huge fireplace at the same moment. She came forward ; and we made our way towards her as well as we could through a confusion of tables, chairs, and work-baskets, china, writing-desks and ink-stands and bird-cages and a harp. She did not speak ; and, as her back was now turned to both fire and candle, I could not see her face, or any thing but the outline of her form, and her attitude : her form was the remains of a fine form, and her attitude that of a woman used to a better drawing-room. I being foremost, and she silent, was compelled to speak to the figure in darkness: ' Mme. de Genlis nous a fait I'hon- neur de nous mander qu'elle voulait bien nous permettre de lui rendre visite, et de lui offrir nos respects,' said I, or words to that effect ; to which she replied by taking my hand, and saying something in which '-''cliannee ' was the most intelligible word. Whilst she spoke, she looked over my shoulder at my father, whose bow, I presume, told her he was a gentleman ; for she spoke to him immediately, as if she wished to please, and seated us iu fauteuils near the fire. 188 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. "I then bad a good view of her face and figure: she looked like the full-length picture of my great-great- grandmother Edgeworth you may have seen in the garret, A'ery thin and melancholy, l)ut her face not so handsome as my great-grandmother's ; dark eyes, long sallow cheeks, compressed thin lips, two or three black ringlets on a high forehead, a cap that Mrs. Suier might wear, — altogether an appearance of fallen fortunes, worn-out health, and excessive but guarded irritability. To me there was nothing of that engaging, captivating manner which I had been taught to expect by many, even of her enemies : she seemed to me to be alive only to literary quarrels and jealousies ; the muscles of her face as she spoke, or as my father spoke to her, quickly and too easily expressed hatred and anger whenever any not of her own party were mentioned. " She is now j^our devote acharnement. When I men- tioned with some enthusiasm the good Abl)e Morellet, who has written so courageously in favor of the French exiled nobility and their children, she answered in a sharp voice, ' Oui, c'est un homme de beaucoup d'esprit, a ce qu'on dit, a ce qui je crois meme, mais il faut vous apprendre qu'il n'est pas des notres.'' "My father spoke of Pamela,^ Lady Edward Fitzger- ald, and explained how he had defended her in the Irish House of Commons. Instead of being touched or pleased, her mind instantly diverged into an elaborate and artifi- cial exculpation of Lady Edward and herself ; proving, or attempting to prove, that she never knew any of her hus- band's plans, that she utterly disapproved of them, at least of all she suspected of them. This defence was quite lost upon us, who never thought of attacking ; but Mme. de Geulis seems to have been so much used to be ' Her daugliter. MME. DE GENLIS. 189 fittaekod that slio has defonoos and apologies, ready pre- pared, suited to all possible occasions. '• She spoke of Mnie. de Staiil's ' Delpliine ' with de- testation, of another new and fasliionaltle novel ' Amelie ' with ahhorrenee, and kissed m}' forehead twice because I hale mansion, the favorite al>ode of the Muses, the rendezvous of the wise and good. Papists and Prot- estants agree. Miss Edgeworth joined in the conversa- tion ; and, as may well be supposed, the author of ' Castle Rackreut,' ' Irish Bulls,' 'The Absentee,' etc., served nuich to enliven and inform it. I had heard much of Miss Edgeworth, and knew that she antl her father had taken an extensive view of the vast editice of human knowledge, but fouud that not one-half of her numerous amiable ac- complishments had been told me. Of her it may be said : ' Omue quod tetigit ornavit.' "When I mentioned, that having orreries, armillary spheres, globes, and the apparatus necessary for giving some idea of the various branches of experimental philos- ophy, various persons are employed in giving lessons on these subjects at ladies' boarding-schools. Miss Edge- worth seemed not displeased, as she and her father, in their ' Letters on Education,' had recommended something of the kind. "As Mr. Edgeworth's children are all instnicted at home, the system of education recommended to others is prac- tised in his own famil3\ I observed three of his daughters, fine little girls, busily employed in sewing a covering of 262 A STUDY OF MAKIA EDGEWORTH. patches of various colors for a poor family in the vicinity, who had once been servants in the house. As soon as the work should be finished, the girls were themselves to make the present ; and to this period I found them looking forward with more than ordinary pleasure. "The children are never long confined at one time, their hours being spent alternately in diligence and play. In- deed, children should seldom be idle, but constantly em- ployed in exercising either the mind or body. "Whatever be the result of the system of education which Mr. Edgeworth and his daughter have recommended, I must say I never saw such marks of filial regard, parental affection, and domestic happiness as at this house. To reside at it, is to see almost realized such scenes of hap- piness as nowhere exist, but are sometimes presented in the descriptions of enchanted castles. Miss Edgeworth is none of those, as some would make us believe, who write merely for bread ; she having an independent fortune, be- sides what she must now make by the rapid sale of her works. By such books as those of Miss Edgeworth, booksellers fatten, and men are made wiser and better. It is needless to mention that Mrs. Edgeworth is also a successful author, haviug published the novel, or what 3^ou choose to call it, ' The Good Wife.' " The marriage of Mr. Davy to the celebrated Mrs. Apreece, in 1812, brought forth many hon mots in society. One of these was quoted by Maria : — " To the famed widow vainly bow Church, army, bar, and navy. Says she, ' I dare not take a vow, But I will take my Davy.' " Another good one she mentioned : — ANECDOTES. 263 " For inaiiy nioii liave ofton seen 'J'linir tali'iits underrated ; But Davy owns tliat his have been Duly Ajipreeciated." " The Absentee " was finished in July of 1812, and Maria at once resumed " Patronage." In the autumn of this year Mr. Edgeworth made an addition of a bow-window to the little bedroom always used by Maria ; and she enjoyed this very much, as it gave her a better view of her garden. iSIaria made some visits during this year to her friends at Black Castle and Pakenham Hall. Lord Longford had a good story from Col. Hercules Pakenham, which is worth repeating as he told it to Maria : — "At the siege of Badajos, as he was walking with an engineer, a boml) whizzed over their heads, and fell among the soldiers ; and as they were carr3ung off the wounded, when the colonel expressed some regret, the engineer said, ' I wonder you have not steeled your mind to these things. These men are carried to the hospital, and others come in their place. Let us go to the depot.' ' ' Here the engineer had his wheelbarrows all laid out in nice order, and his pickaxes arranged in stars and various shapes ; but, just as they were leaving the depot, a bomb burst in the midst of them. 'Oh, heavenly powers, my picks ! ' cried the engineer in despah. ' ' [To Mrs. Inclibald.] Edgewortustowx, Sept. 16, 1812. The best thanks to you, my dear Mrs. Inchbald, for your letter would be to have seen how ranch pleasure that letter gave to this whole family, — father, mother, 264 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. lirotlior, sister, author! The strength and originality of your thouglits and expressions distinguish your letters from all we receive ; and when we compared it with one from Walter Scott, received nearly at the same time, and read both letters again to determine which we liked best, upon the whole the preference was given, I think, by the whole breakfast-table (a full jury) to Mrs. Inchbald's. Now, I must assure you, that, as to quantity of praise, I believe Scott far exceeded you ; and as to qualit}^, in elegance none can exceed him ; but still, in Mrs. Inch- bald's letter there was an indefinable originalit}^, and a carelessness about her own authorship, and such warm sympathy', both for the fictitious characters of which she had been reading, and for that Maria Edgeworth to whom she was writing, as carried away all suffrages. "We particularly like the frankness with which you find fault and say such and such a stale trick was unworthy of us. None but a writer who has herself excelled could, as you did, feel and allow for the difficulties in composition ; nor could any other so well judge where I was wrong or right in dilating or suppressing. I am glad you trembled lest I should have produced old Reynolds again. Most of those who have mentioned him to me have regretted that they did not see more of him, and have longed to have heard of his meeting with his daughter. It is of great use as well as delight to us to see any thing we write tried upon such a person as j^ou, who will and can do what so few have either the power or cour- age to attempt, — tell the impression really made upon their feelings, and point out the causes of those impressions. I do not know what you mean by saying that every sensible mother is like Lady Mary Vivian : you are re- quested to explain. I wish I could find any excuse for begging another letter from you. LETTER TO MRS. INC FI BALD. 265 Perliopfi we shall, as we at present intend, l)e in Lon- don next sprinp;. Last niy;lit my father and I were nnndn'rini;- the people we should wish to see. Our list is not very numerous, but INIrs. Inchbald is one of the first persons we at the same momeut eagerly named. Believe me to be, my dear madam, Your obliged and grateful Maria Edgewokth. Maria had an excursion in October of this year to Dublin, with some of the family, where they wit- nessed with interest a balloon ascension. [To Mrs. luclibald.] ]\rY DEAR Mrs. Inxiibald, — Your letters, like your books, are so original, so interesting, and give me so much the idea of truth and reality, that I am the more desirous to l)e personally acquainted with you ; and in this wish I am most heartily joined by Mrs. Edgeworth, a person whom, though you have not seen in print, you would, I'll answer for it, like better than any one author or authoress of your acquaintance, as I do, my father only excepted: for further particulars, inquire of S. E. We rejoice most exceedingly that you like him, and are sure that the deeper you go into his character, the better it will suit you. I wish you would try what Edgeworths- town could do to excite agreealjle emotions in your mind. Upon your own principle, the sea would be as good for you as a free or a high wind. Danger there is none, — except in the imagination, — not even to create a sensa- tion. Sea-sickness is over in a few hours ; and my father, who is more sea-sick than most people, bid me tell you just now, as he got ou horseback, that you are a 266 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. goose if you don't come to us. How dare I write such a word ? But I wish you to know my father and all of ns just as we are. If you will oblige us, consult Sneyd, and he will show you how very easily the journey and voyage could be arranged. There are some authors whose books make so much the best part of them, that one can think of uothiug else in writing to them ; but in writing to Mrs. Inchbald, I can at this moment think of nothing but the wish to see her, and to enjoy her society. Yours sincerely, Maria EDGEwoRxn. I remember once, when I had gone on a wiLo-goose chase to a friencVs house, who turned out to be a fine lady instead of a friend, I was just in the solitary, melancholy state you describe ; and I used to feel relieved and glad when the tea-urn came into the silent room, to give me a sensation by the sound of its boiling. " Patronage " was all ready for publication early in 1813 ; but, as Mr. Edgeworth had planned a visit to England in the spring, it was decided to delay its appearance till after they had returned to Ireland. Maria was charmed with " Rokeby," and, after reading it with interest, made the following com- ment on it : — " ' Rokeby ' is, in my opinion, — and let every soul speak for themselves, — most beautiful poetry. I like it better, think it more universal style of poetry than he has yet produced, though not altogether perfect of its kind." This criticism does more credit to Maria's inde- pendence of judgment than to her poetical taste. A VISIT TO ENGLAND. 267 The last of March, 1813, Mr. and Mrs. Edgewortli and Maria left their home for England. I'hey did not hurry to London, but made several little visits on their way thither. They saw Mr. Roscoe at his home near Liverpool, Allerton Ilall. " lie is a benevolent, cheerful, gentlemanlike old man [wrote Maria of the historian of the De Medicis], tall, neither thin nor fat, thick gray hair. lie made what seemed to me a new and just observation, that writers of secondary powers, when tliey are to represeut either ob- jects of nature, or feelings of the human mind, always begin by a simile. They tell you what it is like, not what it is." They visited the Hollands at Kentsford, and saw Dr. Ferrier and his daughter at Manchester. Maria tells a good story of Dr. Holland when he was a little boy. He wrote a letter, when he was six years old, to the king. " His father found him going with it to the post. This letter was an offer from Master Holland to raise a regi- ment. He and some of his little comrades had got a drum and flag, and used to go through the manual exer- cises. It was a pity the letter did not reach the king : he would have been delighted with it. They made a delightful visit at the Strutts of Derby, the great cotton manufacturers, who enter- tained much. Tom iVIoore just missed them : he writes, they " were our predecessors at this house." They also went to Byrkeley Lodge, the home of Mr. 268 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. Sneyd, near Derby, and visited the Priory, and Mrs. Darwin and her daughters. Tlien they went to Cam- bridge, and saw the college-buildings and some of the professors, enjoying the fine architecture and the scholarly repose of tlie place. On the way Maria, as was her custom in the course of a long journey, read ; and Miss Austen's " Pride and Prejudice " was her book. She had the capacity of receiving great pleas- ure from the writings of others ; rather an unusual one for one who wrote so much. She names reading as her greatest pleasure always, and has a kindly word for each new aspirant for literary hon- ors. They reached London early in the "season," and found themselves most cordially welcomed by tlic fashion and culture of the London world. London society was then more centred and concentrated. The great metropolis had not swallowed its suburbs ; and as yet there was a unity, a centralization, of the social forces of the best literary and aristocratic elements. Now London is too vast, too full of sets, to afford to any one observer the possibility of enjoy- ing more than a passing view of the panorama of its social life. When the Edgeworths visited it in 1813, the attractions of London were not so diffused, so broken up ; and they found themselves for a few weeks the very centre of attention and interest. This love of London people, like that of the Athenians, for a new thing has long been noticed by literary people. Sir Walter Scott said of this pecul- iar passion for novelty in 1806, — LONDON. 269 " Wliat a good name was in Jorusalcni, a Vnoxon nanio secins to bo in London. If you are celebrated for writ- ing verses or for slicing cucnnibers, for being two feet taller or two feet less than other bipeds, for acting plays when you should be whipped at school,^ or for attending schools and institutions when you should be preparing for your grave, — your name not only becomes a talisman — an 'Open Sesame' — before which every tiling gives way, till you are voted a bore, and discarded for a new plaything." Years after this Scott remarked, " Who cares for the whipped cream of London society?" after a dinner at Lady Davy's to meet " Lord and Lady Lansdowne and several other fine folks." The position of Miss Edgeworth could not be that of a discarded plaything : she was to take and keep a permanent place in the hearts of many friends made on this visit. She made many visits in Lon- don, and the same good friends were ever ready to welcome her. Macaulay had a word for the "lion-hunters" when he says, — " There is nothing more pitiable than the ex-lion or ex-lioness. London, I have often thought, is like the sorceress in the ' Arabian Nights,' who, by some mysteri- ous law, can love the same object only forty days. Dur- ing forty days she is all fondness : as soon as they are all over, she not only discards the poor favorite, but turns him into some wretched shape, — a mangy dog or spavined horse. How many hundreds of victims have undergone this fate since I was born ! ' ' 1 Master Betty. 270 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. There is a great deal of truth in this observation of Macaula}- ; forty days being about the extent of time which would be allowed the lion of one London season. Maria had the solid attractions which gave her superiority over the transient stars of this firma- ment ; and then, too, she was modest and unexacting. London society has, however, made and kept many favorites. The name of Samuel Rogers is an exam- ple of this. One observer said of his reputation, — "This comes of being in the best society in London. What Lady Jane Granville ^ called the ' patronage of fashion ' can do as much for a middling poet as for a plain girl like Arabella Falconer." Miss Edgeworth has been accused, by some critics, of an undue partiality to the pleasures of fasiiiona- ble life : why, it is hard to imagine. She naturally saw much of the gay world during her various visits to the cities of Paris and London ; but then, too, her interest was as much excited by scientific and literary people, and she availed herself of every opportunity for study and examination of new scien- tific discoveries. Maria found herself famous, but bore all the atten- tions she received with great modesty. Her great- est pleasure appears to have been — amid all the gayety and the brilliancy of London — the sight of her father honored and respected by England's great- est minds. One judges, from all accounts, that the worthy gentleman shone with the reflected brilliancy 1 Miss Edgeworth's Patronage. LONDON. 271 borrowed from the fame of his daughter's genius. Talents he had of no mean order ; but the trutli is more than ever impressed upon the mind, that Mr. Edee worth was somewhat of a lore. After they left London she wrote, — " The brilliaut panorama of London is over ; and I have enjoyed more pleasure, and have had more amuse- ment, infinitely more, than I expected, and received more attention, more kindness, than I could have thought it possible would be shown to me. I have enjoyed the delight of seeing my father esteemed and honored by the best judges in P^ngland. I have felt the pleasure of seeing my true friend and mother — for she has been a mother to me — appreciated in the best society ; and now, with the fulness of content, I return home, loving my own friends and my own mode of life preferably to all others, after comparison with all that is fine and gay, and rich and rare. ' ' Among the many new and pleasant acquaintance made by ^Liria in the delightful visit may be men- tioned some very distinguished people. She met, for the first time, her correspondent, Mrs. Lichbald, and enjoyed the pleasure of an evening at the great Mrs. Siddons's. She met the Miss Berrys of Horace Wal- pole, Lady Crewe, "who still has the remains of much beauty." INliss Catherhie Fanshawe she " par- ticularly " liked, — " she has delightful talents." Of Lord Byron she said, " I can tell you only this, that his appearance is nothing that you would remark." Lady Byron she mentioned as "the charming, well- informed daughter of Lady Milbanke." She always 272 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. was interested in her, and Mr. Harness considered her a good friend of Lady Byron. The kindness of Sir Hum23hry and Lady Davy was very agreeable to Miss Edgeworth. One great woman she desired much to meet, but it was not to be. " I fear Mme. de Stael's arrival may be put off till after we leave town. The Edinburgh review of her book has well prepared all the world for her," she wrote. These very distinguished women were never to meet. Apropos of this, there is a good story Moore tells : — ' ' In talking of getting into awkward scrapes at din- ner-tables, Lady Dimmore mentioned a circumstance of the kind, in which Rogers was concerned. It was at the time when Mme. de Stael was expected in Loudon, and somebody at table (there being a large party) asked when she was likely to arrive. ' Not till Miss Edgeworth is gone,' replied Rogers : ' Mme. de Stael would not like two stars shining at the same time.' The words were hardly out of his mouth, when he saw a gentleman rise at the other end of the table, and say in a solemn tone, ' Mme. la Baronne de Stael est incapable d'une telle bas- sesse.' It was Auguste de Stael, her son, whom Rogers had never before seen." Lady Elizabeth Whitbread became a devoted friend of Miss Edgeworth ; and she often visited her in her own home, when she was in London, in after-years. The names of Miss Fox, Mrs. Hope (Lady Beres- ford). Lady Spencer, Lady Charlotte Lindsay, the Countess of Charleville, Mrs. Siddons, may be num- bered as those wlio paid Maria distinguished courte- sy, and the acquaintance was long continued. LONDON. 273 "While in London the Princess of Wales wished Maria to visit her. She did not like to do so ; and Lady Wellington referred the matter to Lady Liverpool, then considered the best anthority on snch matters. She ruled that she niiglit decline the invitation by the simple form of, ' Sorry she can't — previous engagement.' " Of one of the new friends made on this occasion, JNIaria says, — "Lady Lansdowne, taking in beauty, character, con- versation, talents, and manners, I think superior to any woman I have seen ; perfectly natural, daring to be her- self, gentle, sprightly, amiable, and engaging." Slie says they saw "Lydia White, who has been very kind to us, and eager to bring together people who would suit and please us ; very agreeable dinner at her house ; she conducts these bel esprit parties well: her vivacity breaks through the constraints of those who stand upon great reputations, and are afraid of committing themselves." There was a dinner at Mr. Horner's, where the Edgeworths had quite an adventure with Dr. Parr. He was exceedingly angry with the party for delay- ing the dinner, and then interrupting it ; and finally he ended by giving Maria his blessing. They spent a day at Hampstead with the Carrs, old friends of Mrs. Barbauld. They also saw Mrs. Barbauld her- self, in her own quiet home at Stoke Newington. In Henry Crabbe Robinson's diary, he tells the fol- lowing anecdote. He went to Mrs. Barbauld's, and "had a pleasant chat with her about Mme. de Stael, the Edgeworths, etc. The latter are staying in Lon- 274 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. don, and the daughter gains the good-will of every one ; not so the father. They dined at Sotheby's. After dinner Mr. Edgeworth was sitting next Mrs. Siddons, Sam Rogers being on the other side of her. ' Madam,' said he, ' I think I saw you perform " Millamont " thirty-five years ago.' — ' Pardon me, sir.' — ' Oh ! then it was forty years ago : I dis- tinctly recollect it.' — 'You will excuse me, sir, I never played "Millamont."' — 'Oh, yes! madam, I recollect.' — 'I think,' she said, turning to Mr. Rogers, 'it is time for me to change my place;' and she rose with her own peculiar dignity." Maria was happy in seeing an old friend and rela- tion, and says, — "Charming, amiable Lady Wellington ! As she truly said of herself, she is always 'Kitty Pakenham to her friends.' After comparison with crowds of others, beaux esjmts, fine ladies, and fashionable scramblers for noto- riety, her dignified simplicity rises in one's opinion ; and we feel it with more conviction of its superiority. She showed us her delightful children." One of the parties which Miss Edgeworth at- tended was a "rout," in the parlance of the day, given by Mr. and INIrs. Morris. There she met Mrs. Inchbald, who was an intimate friend of the family. Mr. Morris was a talented man, fellow of Peter House, Cambridge, member of Parliament for New- port, and master in chancery. He wrote two come- dies, which were successfully acted at Drury Lane Theatre, — " False Colors " and " The Secret." Mrs. Inchbald was very anxious to meet Miss Edgeworth, MRS. INCHBALD. 275 which she did on this occasion. A little later " the same friends gave her a dinner with the future and ex lord chancellors, Lord Erskine and Mr. Brougham; and in the evening the unrivalled painter of Irish manners again." In a letter which Mrs. Inchbald wrote to her par- ticular friend Mrs. Phillips, of her introduction to the two great literary visitors in London during this year, she says, — "She (Mme. de Stael) talked to me the whole time; so (lid Miss Edgeworth whenever I met her in company. These authoresses suppose me dead, and seem to pay a tribute to my memory ; but with Mme. de Staiil it seemed no passing compliment." Boaden thinks Mrs. Inchbald's complacency re- ceived a severe shock by the kind of attention these ladies paid her. He speaks of it thus: "The last sigh of expiring complacency seems to have heaved above the pen," which wrote of her meeting her sis- ter authoresses. Miss Edgeworth was very much gratified on her part by making the personal acquaintance of one whom she had long admired and respected. Her pleasure is shown by the long letter she Avrote after her return to Ireland. She highly appreciated the opportunity of paying her respects to one of Mrs. Inchbald's talents. An observer says of the morning they spent at Westminster Abbey with Sir James ^Mackintosh, — " Only one morning : daj's might have been spent witli- out exhaustmg the information he so easily, and with such 276 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. enjoyment to himself as well as to his hearers, poured forth with quotations, appropriate anecdotes, and allusions, historical, poetical, and biographical, as we went along." Mackintosh himself wrote from London to his daughters in the East, May 11, 1813: — "Mr., Mrs., and Miss Edgeworth are just come over from Ireland, and are the general objects of curiosity and attention. I passed some liours with them yesterday forenoon, under pretence of visiting the new mint ; which was a great object to them, as they are all proficients in mechanics. Miss Edgeworth is a most agreeable person, very natural, clever, and well-informed, without the least pretensions of autliorship. She had never been in a large society before ; and she was followed and courted by all the persons of distinction in London, with an avidity almost without example. The court paid to her gave her an opportunity of showing her excellent understanding and character. She took every advantage of her situation, either for enjojnnent or observation ; but she remained perfectly unspoiled by the homage of the great. Mr. Edgeworth is like his daughter, with considerable talents and knowledge ; Mrs. Edgeworth, very sensible and agree- able. Upon the whole, the party make a great acquisi- tion to London, where they propose to stay a month." The party attended a grand ball at Mrs. Hope's, where there were nine hundred guests, " all of beauty, rank, and fashion that London can assem- ble." Mr. Edgeworth attended a meeting of the Lancastrian schools, at Freemason's Tavern. The Duke of Bedford, after speaking of the fourteenth report of the Irish Board of Education, pronounced a eulogium on the excellent letter which is appended MME. d'arblay. 277 to that report, full of liberality and good sense, on Avliich, indeed, the best part of the report seems founded ; adding, " I mean the letter by Mr. Edge- worth, to whom this country, as well as Ireland, is so much indebted." They missed Mme. d'Arblay, as well as Mme. de Stael, by their departure from London; but Maria tells as " an extraordinary evidence of the ignorance in which Napoleon I. kept the French people, that when Mme. d'Arblay landed at Portsmouth a few months ago, and saw on a plate at Admiral Foley's a head of Lord Nelson, and the word Trafalgar, she asked what Trafalgar meant. She actually, as Lady Spencer told me, who had the anecdote from Dr. Charles Burney, did not know the English had been victorious, or that Lord Nelson was dead ! " The following bon mot of the wits of the day was related by Lord Carrington to her : — " Pretty, pretty, pretty fly, If I were you, and you were I — But out upon it. That cannot be : I must remain Lord Salisbury." She was much impressed with the journal of Lord Carrington's little grandchild, and says, — "We have just seen a journal, by a little boy of eight years old, of a journey from England to Sicily : the boy is Lord Mahon's son. Lord Carrington's grandson. It is one of the best journals I ever read, full of facts ; ex- actly the writing of a child, but a very clever child." This "clever child" became the historian, Lord Stanhope. 278 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. The following extract from a diary of Lord Byron (1821), written at Ravenna, is of interest to the reader as describing Maria during this London visit. "In 1813 I recollect to have met them in the fashion- able world of London (of which I then formed an item, a fraction, the segment of a circle, the unit of a million, the nothiog of something) , in the assemblies of the hour, and at a breakfast of Sir Humphry and Lady Davy's to which I was invited for the nonce. . . . "I thought Edgeworth a fine old fellow, of a clarety, elderly, red complexion, but active, brisk, and endless. He was seventy, but did not look fifty, — no, nor forty- eight even. I had seen poor Fitzpatrick not very long before, — a man of pleasure, wit, eloquence, all things. He tottered, but still talked like a gentleman, though feebly. Edgeworth bounced about, and talked loud and long ; but he seemed neither weakly nor decrepit, and hardly old. "He began by telling 'that he had given Dr. Parr a dressing, who had taken him for an Irish bog-trotter,' etc. Now I, who know Dr. Parr, and who know {not by expe- rience, — for I never should have presumed so far to contend with him, — but by hearing him ivith others, and of others) that it is not so easy a matter to dress him, thought Mr. Edgeworth an asserter of what was not true. He could not have stood before Parr an instant. For the rest, he seemed intelligent, vehement, vivacious, and full of life. He bids fair for a hundred years. "He was not much admired in London ; and I remember a ' ryght merrie ' and conceited jest which was rife among the gallants of the day; viz., a paper had been presented for the recall of Mrs. Siddons to the stage (she having lately taken leave, to the loss of ages ; for nothing ever BYKON's EECOLLECTION of MrSS EDGEWORTH. 279 was, or can be, like her) , to which all men had been called to subscribe. Whereupon Thomas Moore, of profane and poetical memory, did propose that a similar paper should be st R T H DEATH OF ISrR. EDGEWORTH. 313 on his views on the education of children, and his wislics for tlie future of liis grandchildren. He wrote once, jocosely, an epitaph on himself, ending, " There's an edge to his wit, and there's worth iu his heart." The long strain removed, by the death of her father, ]Maria was completely unnerved ; and for months she was very wretched. Her great efforts to cheer her dying father, and the excessive ai)plica- tion on " Ormond," had quite injured her eyes ; and she was obliged to give up reading, letter-writing, and all kinds of needlework. She learned at this time to knit, and found it an interesting employment as she began to take up the daily duties of life. Sir Walter Scott was alwa3*s quoting Miss Edge- worth, or alluding to some of her characters. In a letter of 1817, written to Jeffrey, he compares him- self at Abbotsford to "one of Miss Edgeworth's heroines: master of all things in miniature, — a little hill and a little glen, and a little horse-pond of a loch, and — a little river I was going to call it — the Tweed ; but I remember the minister was mobbed by his parishioners for terming it in his statistical re- port an inconsiderable stream." And he then de- scribes himself as being in the "mortar-tub," and busy building. In the last weeks of this sad 5'ear Maria made a visit at Black Castle, and went thence to Collon to join jNIrs. Edgeworth, who had been with her chil- dren at her father's house. The JMisses Sneyd left Edgeworthstown for their brother's home, Byrkeley Lodge, Staffordshire, in consequence of an agree- 314 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOETH. ment made to tliat effect before the deatli of Mr. Edgeworth. They took with them Honora, who now returned to Ireland after this visit to England, and found Maria and her step-mother at CoUon in Janu- ary. Shortly after they all went back to Edgeworths- town. Lovell Edgeworth wished his step-mother to make it her home, as in his father's lifetime. This was a very sad return, for the loss of the husband and father was made more evident to them in the home they had enjoyed together. Two wet seasons had brought a famine, typhus-fever, and much suffering and death among their poor tenantry. A painful duty lay before Maria, and one she found it difficult to perform to her own satisfaction. Mr. Edgeworth had enjoined on Maria the task of completing his memoir, written by himself up to the year 1782. In the introduction to liis early memoir, he says, — "My beloved daughter Maria, at my earnest request, has promised to revise, complete, and publish her father's life." Her sisters copied many letters, and also wrote from dictation, to save Maria's eyes, which were still far from strong ; and she began to work as much as possible at what she considered as a sacred duty. She bitterly realized the loss of her father's encour- aging words and sympathetic yet impartial advice in her very difficult undertaking. In the spring of 1818 Lord Carrington offered Mrs. Edgeworth an appointment in the East-India Civil Service; and this was accepted for her son ENGLAND. 315 Pakenliam, who left home soon after for India, where he lived many years. The illness of Wil- liam Edge worth called Mrs. Edge worth to England during this season. Lady Lansdi)wne wrote ^laria at this time, press- ingly inviting her to Bowood, and telling that " M. Dumont is expected in May or June, and oh that you would meet him at Bowood ! few things in this world could give me more pleasure." Maria thought favorably of this kind invitation, and accepted it later in the year. Maria had a correspondent in Philadelphia, wh3 wi'ote her of the intense interest felt in America about the Waverley novels, saying, — " ' Waverley,' ' Guy Mannering,' etc., have excited as much enthusiasm iu America as iu Europe. Boats are now actually on the lookout for ' Rob Roy,' all here are so impatient to get the first sight of it." As Maria was very anxious to meet ]M. Dumont, and have his opinion of her life of her father, she accepted the cordial invitation of Lady Lansdowne, and went, accompanied by her sister Ilonora, to Bowood, where they arrived the Ttli of September, 1818. On her way there she made visits to her sisters, Mrs. Beddoes and Mrs. King. Previous to this journey she was at her brother Sneyd's in Wicklow County, and in speaking of the " Memoir," and her share in it, to Mrs. Stark of Glasgow, said, — "I am, and have been ever since I could command my attention, intent upon finishing these memoirs of 316 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. himself which my feather left me to finish, and charged me to publish. I am now within two months' work of finishing all I mean to write ; but the work of revision and consideration — oh! most anxious consideration." M. Dumont was "very much pleased with my father's manuscript," Maria wrote: "he has read a good deal of mine, and likes it. He hates Mr. Day in spite of all his good qualities : he says he knows he could not bear that sort of a man, who has such pride and misanthropies about trifles, raising a great theory of morals upon an amour propre hlessey Slie describes the life at Bo wood as delightful, sajdng in one letter, — " Now I will tell you how we pass our day. At seven I get up, — this morning half-past six, to have the pleas- ure of writing to you ; breakfast at half after nine, very pleasant ; afterwards we all stray into the library for a few minutes, and settle when we shall meet again for walking, etc. ; then Lady Lansdowne goes to her dear dressing-room, and dear children, Dumont to his attic. Lord Lansdowne to his out-of-door work, and we to our elegant dressing-room, and Miss Carnegy to hers. Be- tween one and two, luncheon : happy time ! Lady Lans- downe is so cheerful, polite, and easy, just as she was in her walks at Edgeworthstown ; but very different walks are the walks we take here, most various and delightful : ■from dressed knots, shrubbery, and park walks, to fields with inviting paths, wide downs, shady, winding lanes, happy cottages, not dressed, but naturally well placed, and with evidence in every part of their being well suited to the inhabitants. After wnlk, dress and make haste for dinner. Dinner always pleasant, because Lord and BOWOOD. 317 Lady Lansdownc converse so agreoalily — Dumont also towards the dessert. After dinner we lind the children in the drawing-room. I like them In'ttcr and better the more I see of them. When there is company, a whist- table for the gentlemen. Dumont read out one evening one of Corneille's plays, ' Le Florentin,' beautiful, and beautifully read. We asked for one of Moliere ; Init he said to Lord Lansdowne that it was impossible to read out Moliere without a quicker eye than he had pour de certains j)ropos. They went to the library, and brought out at last as odd a choice as could well be made, with Mr. Thomas Grenville as auditor, — ' Le Vieux Ccin)ataire,' an excellent play, interesting and lively throughout, and the old bachelor himself a charming character. Dumont read it as well as Tessier could have read it ; but there ■were things which seemed as if they were written on pur- pose for the c^libataire who was listening and the c61i- bataire who was reading. "Lord Lansdowne, when I asked him to describe Eocca ^ to me, said he heard him give an answer to Lord Byron which marked the indignant frankness of his mind. Lord Byron at Coppet had been going on abus- ing the stupidity of the good people of Geneva : Eocca at last turned short upon him, ' Eh ! Milord, pourquoi done venez-vous \o\\^ fonrrer parmi ces hounetes gens? ' " Mme. de Stael, — I fumble anecdotes together as I recollect them, — Mme. de Stael had a great wish to see Mr. Bowles the poet, or, as Lord Byron calls him, ' tlie sonneteer.' She admired his sonnets, and his spirit of maritime discovery, and ranked him high as an English genius. In riding to Bowood he fell, and sprained his shoulder, but still came on. Lord Lansdowne alluded to this in presenting him to Mme. de Stael before dinner, 1 Secoud liii.sbauel of Mme. ilc Staiil. 318 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. in the midst of the listening cii'cle. She began to com- pliment him and herself upon the exertion he had made to come and see her. ' Oh, ma'am ! say no more, for I would have done a great deal more to see so great a curi- osity ! ' " Lord Lansdowne says it is impossible to describe the sliock in Mme. de Stael's face, — the breathless astonish- ment, and the total change produced in her opinion of the man. She said afterwards to Lord Lansdowne, who had told her he was a simple country clergyman, ' Je vols bien que ce n'est qu'un simple cure qui n'a pas le sens com- mun, quoi que grand po6te.' " Lady Lansdowne, just as I was writing this, came to my room and paid me half an hour's visit. She brought back my father's manuscript, which I had lent to her to read. She was exceeding interested in it : she says, ' It is not only entertaining, but interesting, as showing how such a character was formed. When he was settled at Hare Hatch, after his first marriage, he seemed as much out of fortune's way as possible ; and yet he found occu- pations which led to distinction, and he formed that friendship for Mr. Day which was so honorable to both.' She admires and loves Mr. Day as much as Dumont dis- likes him." On the occasion of this visit at Bowood, there were, by turns, several sets of people, — Mr. Gren- ville, Lord and Lady Grenville, Lord and Lady Bathurst, and others. In concluding her visit, Maria wrote, — "This visit to Bowood has surpassed my expectation in every respect. I much enjoy the sight of Lady Lans- downe's happiness with her husband and her childi'eu, — LORD LANSDOWNE. 319 beauty, fortune, cultivated society, in short, every thing that the most reasonable or unreasonable could wish. She is so amiable, and so desirous to make others happy, that it is impossible not to love her ; and the most envi- ous of mortals, I think, would have the heart opened to sympathy with her. They are so fond of each other, and show it, and don't shoio it, in the most agreeable manner. His conversation is very varied and natural, full of infor- mation given for the sake of those to whom he speaks, never for display. What he says lets us into his feelings and character always, and therefore interests me." Of Lord Lansdowne's conversation, Maria gives some examples : — " I observed one day at dinner at Bowood, that chil- dren have very early a desire to produce an effect, a sensation in company. ' Yes,' said Lord Lansdowue, ' I remember distinctly having that feeling, and acting upon it once in a large and august company, when I was a young boy, at the time of the French Revolution, when the Duke and Duchcsse de Polignac came to Bowood, and my father was anxious to receive these illustrious guests with all due honor. One Saturday evening, when they were all sitting in state in the drawing-room, my father introduced me ; and I was asked to give the company a sermon. The text I chose was, quite undesignedly, ' Put not your trust in princes.' The moment I had pronounced the words, I saw my father's countenance change ; and I saw changes in the countenances of the duke and duch- ess, and of every face in the circle. I saw I was the cause of this ; and, though I knew my father wanted to stop me, I would go on, to see what would be the effect. I repeated my text, and preached upon it, and as I went on made out what it was that affected the congregation.' 320 A STUDY OF MAKIA EDGEWOETH. "Afterwards Lord Shelburno desired him to go round the circle and wish the company good-night ; but, when he came to the Duchesse de Polignac, he could not resolve to kiss her: he so detested tlie patch of rouge on her cheek, he started back. Lord Shelburne whispered a bribe in his ear : no, he would not ; and they were obliged to laugh it off. But his father was very much vexed. "Another day we were talking of ' Glenarvou ; ' and I said we thought the Princess of Madagascar, Lady Holland, so good, that we fancied it had been inserted by a better hand ; but Lord Lausdowue said it was certainly written by Lady Caroline Lamb herself : she was pro- voked to it by a note of good advice from Lady Holland. I said I thought the book so stupid I could hardly get through it ; and Lord Lansdowne said, that but for curi- osity to see what would be said of particular people, he could not have got to the end of it. ' And, besides the natural curiosity about my friends and acquaintances,' he added, ' I expected to find myself abused.' " In Moore's diary for 1818, he mentioned this visit at Bo wood, near which phace he lived, and where he was a constant visitor : — "Dined at Bowood : the company, two Miss Edge- worths and Dumont ; Mr. Grenville, to my regret, was gone. I wanted to uncork (to me an old joke) whatever remains of Old Sherry he might have in him. Lady Lansdowne said he had mentioned the subject of Sheri- dan's letters to her, etc. Talked with Dumont before dinner ; told me Miss Edgeworth was preparing her father's memoirs for the press ; said that the details of a life passed usefully in that middling class of society must always be interesting. In the evening Miss Edgeworth delightful, not from display, but from repose and uuaflect- BOWOOD. 321 edncss, — the least prctendinp; person of the companj'. She asked uie if I had seen a poem in ' The Edinliur.uh Annual Register,' called ' Solynian ' (I think) : the hero's fate depends upon getting a happy man to give him the shirt from his back ; his experiments in different countries she represented as very livelily described. At last, in Ireland, he meets with a happy man, and in his impa- tience proceeds to tear the shirt from his back, but finds he has none. In the same pleasant talk Miss Edgeworth praised the eulogy upon Mme. de StaiJl, in the notes in the fourth canto of 'Childe Harold,' as a beautiful specimen of Lord Byron's prose-writing. I told her it was Hob- house. Lord Lausdowne read it aloud, and they all seemed to like it." Byron, in the fourth canto, stanza LIV. of "Childe Harold," has some fine lines beginning, — " In Santa Croce's holy precincts lie Ashes which make it holier, dust which is Even in itself an immortality." The note is a glowing tribute to the memory of Mme. de Stael. In it he says, — " ' Corinne ' is no more ; and with her should expire the fear, the flattery, and the envy which threw too daz- zling or too dark a cloud round the march of genius, and forbade the steady gaze of disinterested criticism." Lord and Lady Lansdowne made charming hosts. Some years after this time, Sydney Smith said of him, — ""Why don't they talk on the virtues and excellences of Lansdowne? There is no man who performs the 322 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. duties of life better, or fills a high station in a more becoming manner. He is full of knowledge, and eager for its acquisition. His remarkaljle politeness is the result of good-nature, regulated by good sense. He looks for talents and qualities among all ranks of men, and adds them to his stock of society, as a botanist does his plants ; and, while other aristocrats are yawning among Stars and Garters, Lansdowne is refreshing his soul with the fancy and genius which he has found in odd places, and gathered to the marbles and pictures of his palace. Then he is an honest politician, a wise states- man, and has a philosophic mind : he is very agreeable in conversation, and is a man of unblemished life." In Mr. Harness's remarks on the society, when he came upon the stage, — "a society which, taken for all in all, has never been surpassed," — he mentions, among its members. Lord Lansdowne, as " unwear- ied in his kindness and liberality to men of genius." Brougham said of him, that " there never was a more amiable and virtuous man in any party or any politi- cal station than Lord Lansdowne." Lady Lansdowne was the fitting wife of such a man. Lord John Russell, in his preface to Moore's " Diaries," says, — ' ' I cannot properly expatiate upon the character of one whose virtues loved to retire even from the praise of loving retirement ; who sought in works of charity and benevolence among her poorer neighbors a compensation for the worldly advantage which excited the envy of oth- ers : but, among the good influences which surroundec Moore, and led him to revere a woman ' unspotted from the world,' I could not omit to allude to his intercourse BOWOOD. 323 with her who diffuscMl an air of lioliness and peace and purity over the ht)use of liowood, whicli neitlicr rieli nor poor can ever forget." Moore himself said of her, — "Had a long conversation with her, and came away (as I alwaj's do) more and more impressed with the excellent qualities of her mind and heart : even her faults are but the sehxige of line and sound virtues." The place of Bowood anciently constituted part of the royal forest of Pevisham, which extended from Chippenham to Devizes : the Avon bounds it on two sides. It was bought by John, Earl of Shel- burne. The present mansion was then standing, but was improved and added to in 1763. The grounds were laid out by the Earl of Shelburne, Lord Lans- downe's father, under the advice of " Capability Brown," and Mr. Hamilton of Pain's Hill. While in retirement, and his enemies were blackening his character. Lord Shelburne was buying his splendid collection of MSS., entertaining his friends, and making a lake at Bowood. From the hospitable and elegant seat of Lord Lansdowne, Miss Edgeworth and her sister went to the Grove, Epping, the residence of Capt. Wilson, who was father-in-law to Capt. Francis Beaufort. While at Epping, Maria made a kind of pious pil- grimage to the house her friend Mr. Day had lived in : she found only a wall left of it, but that the memory of the eccentric man was cherished by his poor neighbors, to whom he had shown much kind- ness in his peculiar way. 324 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. From Epping the sisters went over Hampstead Heath to the village, where they were expected by Joanna and Agnes Baillie ; who, " most kind, cordial, and warm-hearted, came running down their little flasrsred walk to welcome us. Mrs. Hunter, widow of John Hunter, dined here yesterday. She wrote 'The Son of Alnomac shall never complain,' and she entertained me exceedingly; and both Joanna and her sister have such agreeable and new conver- sation, — not old, trumpery literature over again, and reviews, but new circumstances, with telling apropos to every subject that is touched upon ; frank observations on character, without either ill-nature or the fear of committing themselves : no blue-stock- ing tittle-tattle, or habits of worshipping or being worshipped ; domestic, affectionate, good to live with, and, without fussing continually, doing what is most obliging, and whatever makes us feel most at home. Breakfast is very pleasant in this house, the two good sisters look so neat and cheerful." While on this visit they went to see IMrs. Barbauld, at her home in Stoke Newington. This was a painful visit, for it brought up old memories. ' ' We waited some time before she appeared ; and I had the leisure to recollect every thing that could make me melancholy, — the very sofa that you recollect, where you and my father sat. I was quite undone before she came in, but was forced to get tln-ough it. She was gratified by our visit, and very kind and agreeable." After this pleasant stay at the Misses Baillie, they went to Lady Spencer's at Wimbledon. Among the BO WOOD. 325 distinguished guests there during their visit were Lady Jones, widow of Sir William Jones, the great Orientalist, " a thin, dried old lady, nut-cracker chin, penetrating, benevolent, often-smiling black eyes , and her nephew, young Mr. Hare, author of ' Guesses on Truth,' and Mr. Brunei." i After tills round of visits, the sisters returned to Bowood in November. While there they were shocked by the news of Romilly's death. There was a delightful company assembled again, Mr. and Mrs. Dugald Stewart being among the number. Moore, in speaking of a day at Bowood, says he had a talk -with Lady Lansdowne, " who had read Edge- worth's ' ^Memoirs,' in manuscript ; was much inter- ested by them, particularly by his account of ]Mr. Day, the person of whom there is so much in Miss Seward's 'Memoir of Darwin.'" He was again at Bowood in November. "Walked to Bowood a little after five. Company to dinner, — Dugald Stewart, his wife and daughters, the Misses Edgeworths and Bowleses. Very pleasant day. Sat between Ladj' Lansdowne and Miss Edgeworth at dinner : both in different ways very delightful. Talked with Miss Edgeworth of the Dublin Mrs. Lefanu,^ whom she seemed to have a higher notion of altogether than I had. I asked her whether the play Mrs. Lefanu had written was not pretty good. 'Oh, no! pretty bad,' she answered. She had, however, derived her opinion of 1 Sir Mark Isainl)ard Brunei, born in France, 1769; died in Eng- land, 18i9; distinguished engineer, — Thames Tunnel, Woolwich Arsenal, Chatham dock-yard, among his many undertakings. 2 Wife of Eev. Joseph Lefanu; sister of Sheridan. 326 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. Mrs. Lefanu's talents from a common friend of theirs, who loved her very much. " This friend told her that Mrs. Lefanu had seen a letter to Sheridan from one of the persons high in the American government, during the latter end of the war, expressing great admiration of his talents and political opinions, and telling him that twenty thousand pounds were deposited with a certain banker, ready for him to draw, as a mark of their value for his services in the cause of liberty. She had also seen Sheridan's answer, in which, with many gratified acknowledgments of their high opinion, he begged leave to decline a gift commu- nicated under such circumstances. Hope this is true. Said she would get the particulars. Reminded me of the night she saw me as ' Mungo ' at a masquerade at Lady Besborough's. Told her this was the last folly I had been guilty of in the masquerading way. Brought to my mind a pun I had made in her hearing that night. Lady Clare said, ' I am always found out at masquer- ade.' — ' That shows,' answered I, ' you are not the clair obscure.^ Did very well from Mungo. " Same night I sang in the evening. Stewart, I was happy to see, much delighted. When I met him at Lord Moira's, I watched him while I sang, and saw him, when I had finished, give a sort of decisive blow to the sofa which he was reclining against. This gesticulation puz- zled me, and I could not tell whether it was approbation or condemnation ; but I am satisfied now. I never saw any man that seemed to feel my singing more deeply : the tears frequently stood in his eyes. Miss Edgeworth, too, was much affected. This is a delightful triumph to touch these higher spirits ! " VISITS. 327 After delightful days spent at Bo\yood, they left it for Byrkeley Lodge, and there enjoyed a stay with the Sne3'ds ; being "happy in the quiet of Byrkeley Lodge," after this succession of visits. In January they went to Trentham, the seat of Lord Stafford ; Fanny joining them at Lichfield. They returned to Byrkeley Lodge after this, and again started from there in jNTarch to visit the Moil- liets, at Smethwick, near Birmingliam. Mrs. Moil- liet was a daughter of Mr. Edgeworth's old friend Mr. Keir. "Mr. MoiUiet told us an anecdote of Mmc. la Com- tesse de Rumford and her charming count : he, one day in a fit of ill-humor, went to the porter, and forbade him to let into his house any of the friends of Mme. la Com- tesse or of M. Lavoisier's, — all the society which you and I saw at her house : they had been invited to supper. The old porter, all disconsolate, went to tell the couutess the order he had received. ' Well, you must obey your master : you must not let them into the house ; but I will go down to your lodge, and, as each carriage comes, j'ou will let them know what has happened, and that I am there to receive them.' They all came, and, by two and three at a time, went into the porter's lodge and spent the evening with her ; their carriages lining the street all night, to the count's iufluite mortification." Maria, while at Mrs. Moilliet's, visited " dear, old Mr. Watt, — eighty-four, and in perfect possession of eyes, ears, and all his comprehensive understanding, and warm heart. . . . Watt is at this moment the best encyclopedia extant." 328 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. The sisters went next to the home of Lady Elizabeth Whitbread, Grove House, at Kensington Gore. Maria found Lady Elizabeth most devoted in her attentions. " Her house, her servantiS, her carriage, her horses, are not only entirely at my disposal, but she had the good- natured pohteness to go down to the door to desire the coachman to have George Bristoio always with liim on the box, as the shaking would be too much for him behind the carriage." This old man was the servant IMr. Day had at Epping, who ploughed a sandy field under his orders sixteen times to enrich it ; Mr. Day having decided that was the way to cultivate poor soil. After he left Mr. Day, he went over to ]\Ir. Edgeworth in Ireland. While Maria was at Lady Whitbread's, she was engaged in making the business arrangements for publishing her father's memoir. Mr. Johnson was succeeded by his nephews, Messrs. Miles and Hun- ter : Mr. Miles soon withdrew from the firm. They were very polite and honorable in all business mat- ters ; but the whole affair was trying to Miss Edge- worth, who had always been spared any business details by her father, who arranged all the matters relating to publication for her. During this visit at Lady Whitbread's, she met many of the friends made in her London visit of ' 1813. She had a breakfast at Miss Catherine Fan- shawe's, and at Mrs. IVLarcet's. At the latter house she met INlr. Mill, the historian, and father of John Stuart Mill. She said of Mr. Mill, " He was the chief THE DUCHESS OF WELLINGTON. 329 figurante ; not the least of a figurante though, excel- lent in sense and benevolence." They were entertained by the Wilberforces, Hopes, and Lady Lansdowne ; and on St. Patrick's Day tliey went, "by apxDoiutment, to the Duchess of Wellington." " Nothing could be more like Kitty Pakenhcam : a plate of shamrocks on the table ; and, as she came forward to meet me, she gave a bunch to me, pressing my band, and saying in a low voice with her sweet smile, ' Vous en etes digne.' She asked individually for all her Irish friends. I showed her what was said in my father's life, and by me, of Lord Longford, and the drawing of his likeness, and asked if his family would be pleased. She spoke very kindly : ' Would do her father's memory honor ; could not but please every Pakenham.' " She was obliging in directing her conversation to my sisters as well as myself. She said she had purposely avoided Mme. de Stael in England, not knowing how she might be received by the Bourbons, to whom the duchess was to be ambassadress. She found Mme. de Stael was well received at the Bourbon Court, and consequently she must be received at the Duke of Wellington's. She ar- rived, and w^alking up in full assembly to the duchess, with the fire of indignation flashing in her eyes : ' Eh ! Mme. la Duchesse, vous ne me voulez pas done faire ma connaissance en Angleterre ? ' " ' Non, madame, je ne le voulais pas.' " ' Eh ! comment, madame? Pourquoi done ? ' " ' C'est que je vous craignerais, madame.' " 'Vous me craignez, Mme. la Duchesse?' " ' Non, madame, je ne vous crains plus.' "Mme. de Stael threw her arms round her: 'Ah, je vous adore ! ' " 830 A STUDY OP MARIA EDGEWOETH. At tlie Hopes, Maria met the " Iron Duke " him- self, but curiously enough did not recognize him. After he left she was told who he was. "He was announced in such an unintelligible manner, that I did not know what duke it was ; nor did I know, till we got iuto the carriage, who it was, — he looks so old and wrinkled. I never should have known him from likeness to bust or picture. His manner was very agreea- ble, perfectly simple and dignified. He said only a few words, but listened to some literary conversation that was going on, as if he was amused, laughing once very heartily." He was taken by her " for some old family — Uncle Duke." Mme. de Stael said of him, ambig- uously, that " there never was so great a man made out of such small material." Ten delightful days were spent by the INIisses Edgeworth at the Hopes' country-seat of Deepdene. "The valley of Dorking is so beautiful that Easselas would not have desired to escape from that happy valley." At this time they visited Norbury Park, the home of Mme. d'Arblay's friends Mr. and Mrs. Locke, and also saw Evelyn's country-seat, " Wootton," so well known to the readers of his Diary. After this country visit they again made a stay at Lady Elizabeth Whitbread's, and also visited the Carrs at Hampstead. There was a good story told Maria "of Lady Breadlebane's having been left in her carriage fast asleep, and rolled into tlie coach-house of a hotel in Florence, and nobody noJiE. 331 missing her for some time ; and how they went to look for licr, and ever so many carriages had been rolled in after hers, and how she awakened," — all of which amused her very much. Maria and her sisters, after another little visit to the Snc3'ds', crossed over to Ireland ; arriving at Edgeworthstown early in the summer of 1819. After her return home Miss Edgeworth continued to revise and re-write the memoir of her father, and in tliis work she was constantly assisted by her sis- ters. Fanny Edgeworth copied it for her; and by September she was able to tell a correspondent that she had two hundred and fifty pages of it in perfect order, and was not certain whether Hunter and they would manage to have it ready for Christmas or the next spring. The " Popular Tales " were widely read on the Continent ; and translated by Mme. de Roissey and another person, whose name jNliss Edgeworth did not know, into the French, they had a wide circle of readers. An Italian lady, Mme. Bianca ]Milesi-Mo- jon, translated Mrs. Barbauld's " Hj'mns," and some of Miss Edgeworth's " Tales," into the Italian. jNIr. George Ticknor names this lady, whom he met in Paris in 1837. A sketch of her life was published by Emile Souvestre in 1854. In July Miss Edgeworth received the following friendly letter from one whom she greatly admired and loved, — Sir Walter Scott. Abbotsford, July 21, 1819. My dear Miss Edgeworth, — AVlien this shall happen to reach your hands, it will be accompanied by a second 332 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOE.TH. edition of Walter Scott ; a tall copy, as collectors say, and bound in Turkey leather, garnished with all sorts of fur and fripper}^, not quite so well lettered^ however, as the old and vamped original edition. In other and more intelli- gible phrase, the tall cornet of Hussars, whom this will introduce to you, is my eldest son, who is now just leaving me to join his regiment in Ireland. I have charged him, and he is himself sufficiently anxious, to avoid no oppor- tunity of making your acquaintance ; as to be known to the good and the wise is by far the best privilege he can derive from my connection with literature. I have always felt the value of having access to persons of talent and genius to be the best part of a literary man's prerogative ; and you will not wonder, I am sure, that I should be desir- ous this youngster should have a share of the same benefit. I have had dreadful bad health for many months past, anil have endured more pain than I thought was consistent with life. But the thread, though frail in some respects, is tough in others ; and here am I with renewed health, and a fair prospect of regaining my strength, much ex- hausted by such a train of suffering. I do not know when this will reach j'ou, my son's mo- tions being uncertain. But find you wdiere or when it will, it comes, dear Miss Edgeworth, from the sincere admirer of your genius, and of the patriotic and excellent manner in which it has always been exerted. In which character I subscribe myself, Ever yours truly, Walter Scott. VISITS FROM FRIENDS. 333 CHAPTER XV. A Visit from the Carrs. — Maria reads New Books. — Memoir com- pleted. — A Continental Journey. — England. — Oxford. — Paris. — Old Friends re-Aisited. — Mme. Recamier. — Mrae. de Pasto- ret. — Cuvier. — Prouy. — Other Celebrities. — French Society. — Many Changes. — Politics. — Mme. de Rnmford. — Geneva. — Du- mont. — The Moilliets. — A Visit at Pregny. — Coppet. — Cha- monni. — A Town on the Borders of Lake Geneva. — Visit to Mme. de Montolien. — Again at Coppet. — M. de Stael. — Memo- ries of Mme. de Staiil. — Maria writes " Rosamond " at Pregny. — M. Pictet deRochemont. — Reviews of the "Memoir." — Pain- ful Experience for Maria. — Paris. — Much Visiting. — A Call ujiou Mme. de Rochejacjuelin. In September the family had a visit from their friends the Carrs. jNIaria was very fond of them. Miss Carr was an intimate friend of Lady Byron, and all the Pakenhams were very much attached to her; "though she had the misfortune to refuse Sir Edward " (Pakenham), Maria wrote, when mention- ing this lady. The long and complete rest which Miss Edgeworth gave her eyes was attended with excellent results. She found she had " eyes to read again ; " and the pleasure was very great, in proportion to the depri- vation she had suffered in abstaining from all writing, even corresponding with her friends, which all her life was a source of great interest to her. When she first began to use them, she said, — 334 A STUDY OF MAKIA EDGEWORTH. "I have a voracious appetite, and a relish for food, — good, bad, and indifferent, I am afraid, — like a half- famished, shipwrecked wretch." Miss Edgewortli read "The Life of Mme. de Stael," which was written soon after her death by her cousin, Mme. Necker de Saussure, " of whom Mme. de Stael said, when some one asked, 'What sort of a woman is she ? ' — ' Elle a tons les talents qu'on me suj)pose, et tons les virtues qui me manquent.' " Miss Edgeworth thought this a "touching and beautiful " description. Miss Berry's work, as editor of Lady Russell's "Life and Letters," which appeared at this time, pleased Maria very much ; and she thought it well done. Early in the spring of 1820, when Maria had fin- ished her father's " Memoir," and the continuation of it, and made all necessary arrangements for its pub- lication, she decided to take a Continental journey, with hev sisters Fanny and Harriet, re-visiting Paris, and perhaps going farther south. She visited Black Castle on her way to Dublin, and left Ireland earl}^ in April. On this journey Miss Edgeworth first trav- elled in a steamboat ; the new line having been started just before this time to ply between Dublin and Holyhead. Her description of the '■'■ jigging^' motion, which she disliked very much, she said "was like the shake felt in a carriage when a pig is scratching himself against the hind-wheel, while waiting at an Irish inn-door." Certainly onl}^ a constant traveller in Ireland could have more aptly described the motion of a small steamboat. ENGLAND. 335 On their way through Enghmd, they visited the Watts. Old Mr. Watt had recently died. Some one told her the following epitaph, which she considered worth copying : — " As So lived, so did So die. So, so ! Did he so? So let him die." This was caused by the premium offered by a citi- zen of London, of the name of *S'a, who desu-ed an epitaph on his odd name. The party stopped at Oxford, and saw the colleges and town. There some one told Maria an anecdote of the visit of the prince regent, and the emperor of Russia. When the royal persons entered the theatre at Oxford, it was " filled in every part ; but such was the hush you could have heard a pin drop, till the prince put his foot upon the threshold, when the whole assembly rose with a tremendous shout of applause. The prince was supremely gratified, and said to the emperor of Russia, ' You heard the Lon- don mob hoot me, but you see how I am received by the young gentlemen of England.' " The party arrived at Paris the last week in April, and found many old friends delighted to welcome them. Maria found Mme. de Pastoret just the same in her cordial greeting, and "little changed" by the years that had passed since they last met. She met Humboldt, dined at Cuvier's, and went often to the Delesserts. They also renewed their acquaintance with Mme. Recamier. They went to her "at her convent, L'Abbaye aux Bois, up seventy-eight steps, — all came in with the asthma ; elegant room, and 336 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. she as elegant as ever," thongli "no longer rich and prosperous." — "She is still beautiful," she wrote later, "still dresses herself and her little room with elegant simplicity, and lives in a convent only because it is cheap and respectable. M. Recamier is still living: they have not been separated by any thing but misfortune." This sounds curiously enough to English-speaking people, who think " mis- fortune " should unite a husband and wife more closely; but there was no love between Mme. Reca- mier and her husband. At the house of Cuvier, Maria met many old friends, and made many new ones among the scientific men of France. Among the good friends who recalled the days of their earlier visit, she met M. Prony ; " as like an honest water-dog as ever." She describes Cuvier and Prony in a graphic manner, and the good talk they had. "Cuvier and Prony talking, — Prony, with his hair nearly in my plate, was telling me most entertaining anecdotes of Bonaparte ; and Cuvier, with his head nearly meeting him, talking as hard as he could, not striving to show learumg or wit, quite the contrary, — frank, open- hearted genius, delighted to be together at home. "Both Cuvier and Prony agreed that Bonaparte never could bear to have any answer hut a decided one. ' One day,' said Cuvier, ' I nearly ruined myself by consider- ing before I answered. He asked me, " Faut-il introduire le Sucre de betterave en France?" — " D'abord, sn-e, il f aut songer si vos colonies " — " Faut-il avoir le sucre de betterave en France?" — "Mais, sire, il faut exam- iner " — " Bah ! je le demauderai a Berthollet. " ' TARTS. 337 " Tliis (loi=:potio, Inoonie niodo of insisting on Icai'ning every thing in two words luul its inconvenience. One day he asked tlie master of the woods at Fontainebleau, ' How many acres of wood here?' The master, an honest man, stojiped to recollect. ' Bah ! ' and the under-master came forward, and said any number that came into his head. Bonaparte immediately took the mastership from the first, and gave it to the second. ' Qu'arrivait-il? ' continued Prony. ' The rogue who gave the guess-answer was soon found out cutting down and selling quantities of trees ; and Bonaparte had to take the raugership from him, and re-instate the honest hesitater.' "Prony is, you kuow, one of the most absent men alive. ' Once,' he told me, ' I was in a carriage with Bonaparte and Gen. Caffarelli : it was at the time he was going to Egypt. He asked me to go. I said I could not ; that is, I would not. And, when I had said these words, I fell into a reverie, collecting in my own head all the reasons I could for not going to Egypt. All this time Bonaparte was going on with some confidential com- munication to me of his secret intentions and views ; and when it was ended, le seul mot, Arable, m'avait frappe Vorcille. Alors je voudrais m'avoir arrachee les cheverix; making the motion so to do, jwr«- p)ouvoir me raj^joeler ce qu'il venait vie dire. But I never could recall one single word or idea.' — ' AVhy did you not ask Caffarelli after- wards ? ' — 'I dared not, because I should have betrayed myself to him.' " Prony told Miss Edgeworth, that during Bona- parte's Spanish war he emjJo^-ed him to make logarithms, astronomical, and nautical tables, on a magnificent scale. Prony found that to execute what was required of him would take him aud all 338 A STUDY OP MARIA EDGEWORTH. the philosophers of France a hundred and fifty years. He was very unhappy, having to do with a despot who ivould have his will executed. When the first volume of Smith's "Wealth of Nations" fell into his hands, he opened on the division of labor, our favorite pin-making : " Ha, ha ! voila mon affaire : je feral mes calcules comme on fait les epingles ! " And he divided the labor among two hundred men, who knew no more than the simple rules of arith- metic, whom he assembled in one large building; and these men-machines worked on, and the tables were made. Miss Edgeworth spoke French with as much ease and fluency as English ; and one evening she made herself very entertaining by some remarks on pecul- iarities of the French language, and the use of masculine and feminine words, when a lady rather rudely exclaimed, " Elle fait des calembourgs dans notre langue." The following remarks about the conversation at the Duchesse d'Escars's will give one an idea of the small-talk of Parisian fashionable society : — "We have seen Mile. 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. In petit comite the other night at the Duchesse d'Escars's, a discussion took pLace between the Duchesse de la Force, Marmont, and Pozzo di Borgo, on the hon et mcmvais ton of different expres- sions : bonne societe is an expression boiirgeoise; you may say bonne comjKignie or la haute society. ' VoilCi des nuances,' as Mme. d'Escars said. Such a wonderful FRENCH SOCIETY. 339 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 ad- mu-e." Maria met INIme. Swetcliinc, the celebrated writer. She yays of her, " Mme. Swetchine, a Russian, is one of tlie cleverest women I ever heard converse." Of another Russian, Rostopchin, .she said, he declared ''he would represent Russian civilization by a naked man looking at himself in a gilt-framed mirror," ]\Iaria met Benjamin Constant at a friend's house. She said, — "I do not like him at all: his countenance, voice, manner, and conversation are all disagreeable to me. He is a fair, ichithlii/Aook'wg, man {sic), very near- sighted, with spectacles which seem to pinch his nose. . . . He has been well called the heros des brochures. AVe sat beside one another, and I think we felt a mutual antipathy. Ou the other side of me was Roj'cr-Collard, suffering with toothache and swelled face ; but, notwith- standing the distortion of the swelling, the natural expres- sion of his countenance, and the strength and sincerity of his soul, made their wa}' ; and the frankness of his char- acter, and the plain superiority of his talents, were mani- fest in five minutes' conversation." Mme. Le Brun, who was then painting the por- trait of the Princess Potemkin, pleased ]\Iaria very much by her vivacity, and animated talk about her varied experiences. "jNlme. Le Brun is sixty-six, with great vivacity as well as genius, and better worth seeing than her pictures ; for, though they are speaking, she speaks, and speaks uncommonly well." 340 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. INIiss Edgewortli was very anxious as to the man- ner in which the memoir of her father would be received by her friends and tlie public. She was much gratified by an appreciative letter from Mrs. Rnxton, who told her how much she liked the book. She replied, — "You can scarcely conceive the pleasure which the letter I have just received from you has given me, as I was so anxious to know what 3-ou and Sophy thought of the ^)?^6//>s7ied memoirs : the irremedial)le words once past the press, I knew the happiness of my Ufe was at stake. Even if all the rest of the world had praised it, and you had been dissatisfied, how miserable I should have been ! Everybody, of every degree of rank and talent, who has read the ' Memoirs,' speaks of them in the most gratifying and delightful manner. Those who have fixed on individual circumstances have always fixed on those which we should have considered as most curi- ous. Mr. Malthus, this morning, spoke most highly of it, and of its useful tendency, both in a public and private light. Much as I have dreaded having it spoken of, all I have yet heard has been what best compensated for all the anxiety I have felt." While Miss Edgewortli was visiting at the coun- try-house of M. de Vind^, La Celle, she worked in the early morning hours at " Rosamond ; " and Mr. Hunter began at once to print it in July. "All had so changed from what it had been when Mr. Edgewortli was banished from Paris because Bonaparte supposed him to be the Abb6 Edge worth's brother, that now being considered connections of the Abbe de Fir- PARIS. 341 mount was a passport for IMaria and her sisters to many of the houses of the ancieinie noble.s.se ; and they were specially invited to see a picture at Mme. de Caumont's of the Duchesse d' Angoulenie attending the Abbe Edge- worth's death-bed. "They always spoke of the Abbe Edgcworth as the Abbe de Firniount, which name he had taken because of the dilliculty the French found in the to and (h; Edge- rate being the usual attempt at the name. At one house a valet, after Maria had several times repeated to him 'Edgcworth,' exclaimed, 'Ah! je renonce a (;^a,' and throwing open the door of the salon announced 3fme. Maria et mademoiselles ses soeurs." Man}' were the changes observed by Maria in the society of Paris. She wrote, — "A great change has taken place [in French society]. The men huddle together now in France as tliey used to do in England, talking politics, with their backs to the women, in a corner or even in the middle of the room, without minding them in the least : and the ladies com- plain and look disconsolate, and many ask ' if this be Paris ; ' and others scream Ultra nonsense or Liberal non- sense, to make themselves of consequence, and to attract the attention of the gentlemen." When Miss Edgeworth visited Paris, in 1803, with her father, she especially remarked on the absence of scandal, and the freedom from political questions, which distinguished the tone of conversa- tion. This was before she was aware of the entire suppression of thought and the espionage of the government. On her return to Paris, in 1820, she 342 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOBTH. was greatly struck with the change in social affairs. Party spirit ran high ; and the verb politiquer, " to talk politics," had been coined to meet the needs of the day. In 1803 all were glad to find themselves safely among their friends and in their old homes. The recent horrors of the Revolution had subdued and softened the natural levity of the people. The aristocratic dwellers in the Faubourg St. Germain had learned that they were human, and could meet on terms of comparative civility the new nobles of Napoleon, raised from the very dregs of the people, — from common soldiers perhaps, who each carried, as Napier said not long after, " a marshal's baton in his knapsack." The autocratic rule of Napoleon subdued the spirits and sui:)pressed the tongues of the opponents of his government. This gave litera- ture and science the greater opportunity to assert their sway and manifest their charms. Now all was different. The Liberal or Constitutional party was divided from the Ultras by a strong line of demarka- tion: the society of the two parties was almost entirely distinct. There were a few favored indi- viduals whom one met at the salons of both the returned Emigres^ and in the houses of the Constitu- tionals. These inventors of imaginary constitutions delighted to call themselves by this name, but the Bourbons contemptuously named them the "Lib- erals." Maria was often much interested in hearing in the same evening the very opposite opinions expressed by the adherents of these parties ; as she frequently visited a salon of some lady of the ancien regime, PARIS. 343 and then went among tlie " Liberals " for a while before returning home. Her sympathies were not enlisted on either side ; but she found much to attract and please her in the variety of thought, the interchange of experience, and the novelty of the views she heard. The old aristocracy were charmed with the culture of Miss Edgeworth, and her knowl- edge of old French classical literature ; and this opened the way for long and agreeable conversa- tions on the earlier days of their lives. Many a strange and romantic adventure, many of the terri- ble events of the early days of the French Revolu- tion, were told her by those who had actually played a part in those dreadful scenes. The ready sympathy and genuine interest which Miss Edgeworth always showed in conversation, her excellent powers as a good listener, made one of the special charms of her friendship. Those who were struck at first by her wit, ready humor, and genius, were always impressed with the fact that she was as good a listener as a talker. Among the scientific men who had been employed and patronized by Napoleon I., Maria found many friends ; for she had a strong admiration for the genius of the emperor, and had hardly seen enough of the corruption of his government to realize the state of affairs which his usurpation had entailed on France. She expressed herself si netfement, as one of his adherents said, that the men who still clung to his memory and admired his capacity for rule enjoyed telling her of their affairs, as Prony did in describing his method of making calculations to order. 344 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. Miss Edgeworth saw all sides of the social life of Paris, and many years after she referred to her own experiences in writing her story of "Helen." She alludes thus to the sad changes then existing in the society of Paris : — "'Lady Davenant,' turning to a French gentleman, spoke of the alterations she bad observed wben sbe was last at Paris, from the overwhelming violence of party spirit on all sides. ' Dreadfully true,' the French gentle- man replied : ' party spirit, taking every Protean form, calling itself by a hundred names, and with a thousand devices and watchwords, which would be too ridiculous if they were not too terrible ; domestic happiness dis- placed ; all society disordered, disorganized ; literature not able to support herself, scarcely appearing in com- pany, — all precluded, superseded, by the politics of the day. "Lady Davenant joined with him in his regrets, and added that she feared society in England would soon be brought to the same condition. "'No,' said the French gentleman, ' English ladies will never be so vehement as my countrywomen : they will never become, I hope, like some of our lady politi- cians, "qui hurlent comme les demons." ' "Lady Cecilia said, that, from what she had seen at Paris, she was persuaded, that, if the ladies did bawl too loud, it was because the gentlemen did not listen to them ; that above half the party-violence which appeared in the Parisian belles was merely dramatic, to produce a sensa- tion, and draw the gentlemen from the black '■'■j)elotons'' in which they gathered, back to their proper positions round VnQ fauteuils oi the fair ladies." MME. DE KUMFOKD. 345 Tlie Emigrants spoke of the Liberals with the bit- terest detestation, as revolutionary monsters. The Liberals spoke of Ultras as bigoted idiots ; as one of them said of a lady, celebrated in 1803 as a wit and brilliant converser, " Autrefois elle avait de I'esprit, — mais elle est dcvenu Ultra, dtjvote et bete." Before leaving Paris the sisters paid one visit which amused them. They " received a note from Mme. Lavoisier, — Mme. de Rumford I mean, — tell- ing us that she had just arrived in Paris, and warndy begging to see us. Rejoiced was I that my sisters should have this glimpse of her, and off we drove to her ; but I must own that we were disappointed in this visit, for there was a sort of chuffiness, and a sawdust kind of unconnected cut-shortness, in her manner, which we could not like. She was almost in the dark, with one ballooned lamp, and a semi-circle of black men round her sofa, on which she sat cush- ioned up for conversation ; and a very odd course she gave to it, — on some wife's separation from her husband, and she took the wife's part, and went on for a long time in a shrill voice, proving that where a husband and wife detested each other, they should separate, and asserting that it must always be the man's fault when it comes to this pass. She ordered another lamp, that the gentle- men might, as she said, see my sisters' pretty faces ; and the light came in time to see the smiles of the gentlemen at her matrimonial maxims." They went again, and found her " very agreeable " on that occasion. Among other friends whom they met in Paris was 346 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. Tom Moore, who was living in the Champs Elysiens. He received a note from Miss Eclgeworth, asking him to call upon her ; and a few days later she invited him to join a party to the Marquis d' Osmonds at Chate- ray. He tells a story of the husband of one of Maria's sisters. He wanted to ask for "pump- water," and looked in the dictionary for "pump," and, finding " escarpin " (which means a light shoe), asked for " escarpin eau." Miss Edgeworth had long promised herself and the Moilliets that she would visit them at Geneva, and therefore the sisters left Paris late in July for Switz- erland. Maria's first impressions of Mont Blanc, she said, " will remain an era in my life, — a new idea, a new feeling standing alone in my mind." They made an excursion to Chamouni, in company with several friends. Dumont was with them con- stantly during their stay in Switzerland ; and M. Pic- tet, INIaria found " as kind, as active, and as warm- hearted as ever." At Chamouni they met Arago, the noted astronomer. At a delightful dinner at Mrs. Marcet's, INIiss Edgeworth met M, Dumont, M. and Mme. Prevost, M. de la Rive, M. Bonstetten, M. de Candolle, the noted botanist, " a particularly agree- able man." Miss Edgeworth enjoyed much the renewal of her intimacy with M. Dumont. She found him " very kind and cordial : he seems to enjoy universal con- sideration here ; and he loves Mont Blanc, next to Bentham, above all created things." GENEVA. 347 " TTe speaks in the kindest, most tender and affcot ion- ate miinner of our ' Memoirs : ' he says he hcai's from EngUxnd, and from all who have read them, that they have produced the effect we wished and hoped. The manuscript had interested him, he said, so deeply, tliat with all his efforts he could not put himself in the place of the indifferent public." This period of social life in Geneva has l)een called the " Augustan age " of that city by those who knew its attractions well. An unnsual number of eminent scientific and literary people formed its society, and a generous and unostentatious hospi- tality was characteristic of its inhabitants. There were charming re-unions in the summer evenings, by moonlight, on lawns sloping to the banks of the lake ; and other entertainments in the old city itself gave a constant variety to the days passed there. The drives also were charming ; and after an early morning excursion from Pregny, the home of the Moilliets, they found themselves for the first time at Coppet, made classic ground by the memory of Mme. de Stael, then, alas ! no more. Maria wrote, — "All the rooms inhabited by Mme. de Stael, we could not think of as common rooms : they have a classical power over the mind ; and this was heightened by the strong attachment and respect for her memory shown in every word and look, and silence, by her son, and her friend Miss Randall. He is correcting for the press ' Les Dix Annees d'Exil.' M. de Stael, after breakfast, took us a delightful walk through the grounds, which he is improving with good taste and judgment. He told me 348 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. that his mother never gave any work to the public in the form in which she originally composed it: she changed the arrangement and expression of her thoughts with such facility, and was so little attached to her own first views of the subject, that often a work was completely remodelled by her while passing through the press. Her father disliked to see her make any formal preparations for writing when she was young ; so that she used often to write on the corner of the chimney-piece, or on a pasteboard held in her hand, and always in the room with others, for her father could not bear her to be out of the room : and this habit of writing without prepara- tion she preserved ever afterwards. M. de Stael told me of a curious interview he had with Bonaparte when he was enraged with his mother, who had published remarks on his government, concluding with ' Eh bien ! vous avez raison ainsi je consols, qu'un fils doit toujours faire la defense de sa mdre ; mais enfin, si monsieur veut ecrire dcs libcUes, il faut aller en Angleterre. Ou bien, s'il chcrche la gloire, c'est en Angleterre qu'il faut aller. C'est Angleterre ou la France — il n'y a que ces deux pa3^s en Europe — dans le monde ! ' . . . "M. de Stael called his little brother, Alphonse Eoeca, to introduce him to us : he is a pleasing, gentle-looking, ivory-pale boy, with dark-blue eyes, not the least like Mme. de Stael. M. de Stael speaks English perfectly, and with the air of an English man of fashion." After the delightful trip to Chamoiun, a tour round the Lake of Geneva was proposed and made by the sisters, accompanied by M. Dumont. They travelled "in one of the carriages of the country, a mixture of a sociable and an Irish jingle, with some resemblance to a hearse." While at Lausanne MME. DE MONTOLIEU. 349 the party made a visit, Sept. 15, to the author of a once famous novel. Maria described their difficul- ties ill an amusing letter : — " Our first ol)ject this morning was to see Mme. de Montolieu, the author of 'Caroline de Licbfeld,' to whom I had a letter of introduction. She was not at Lausanne, we were told, but at her country-house, Bus- signy, 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 midst 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 prospect below. In the court of the house which we were told was Mme. de Montolicu's, we saw a lady, of a tall, upright, active- looking figure, with much the appearance of a gentle- woman ; but we could not think that this was Mme. de Montolieu, because for the last half-hour Dumout, impa- tient 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 to the carriage as it stopped, and asked whom we wished to see. The moment I saw her eyes, I knew it was Mme. de Montolieu ; and, stooping down from the open carriage, I put into her hand the letter of introduc- tion 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. Dumout so politely, that we were all at ease and acquainted and delighted 350 A STUDY OP MARIA EDGEWORTH. before we were half-way up-stairs. 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 Lichfeld ; ' indifferent, old-fashioned, pro- voking figures, — Caroline and Count Walstein in the fashions of thirty years ago. "When Mme. de Montolieu returned, she bade me not to 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 Lichfeld.' 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 charac- ters.' Just when 'Caroline de Lichfeld' was finished, Gibbon became acquainted with her aunt, who showed it to him : he seized upon the manuscript, and said it must be published. It ran in four months through several editions ; and just when it was in its first vogue. Gibbon happened to be in London, saw those prints, and brought them over to her, telling her that 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. Very sorry to part with her." COPPET. 351 Tins lady had an immense reputation at one time in England : Miss Anna Seward wrote to Miss Powys of the Abbey in 1786 : — " The ingenious French lady to whom we are indebted for ' Caroline de Licbfeld ' has found a competency and a husband through its pages. A rich widower of lifty-three, on the confines of Germany, respectable in rank and character, whose children are married, and settled at a distance from him, read that novel and felt its exact sense. Personally unknown to the author, he inquired into her situation, and found her merits acknowledged, and her reputation spotless. He has married her. The instance is rare: Hymen passing by the fane of Cytherea and Plutus' shrine to light his torch at the altar of Genius." She also described the book to another friend: " The most charming novel I have read these many years, 'Caroline de Lichfeld,' formed part of our amusement at Calwich. It is unique of its kind, resembling no other novel." A pleasant visit was made to the Marcets at Ma- ligny; and then Maria wrote from the 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 Mme. de Stael used to act her own ' Corinne.' Yesterday evening, when Mme. de Broglie had placed me next the oldest friend of the family, M. de Bonstettin, he whis- pered to me ' You are now in the exact spot, in the very chair, where Mme. de Stael used to sit.' Her friends were excessively attached to her. This old man talked of her 352 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. with tears in his eyes, and with all the sudden changes of countenance, and twitchings of the muscles, which mark strong uncontrollable feelings. "There is something inexpressibly melancholy, awful, in this house, in these rooms, where the thought continually recurs: here Genius teas; here was Ambition, Love! all the great struggles of tlie passions, — here was Mme. de Staiil ! 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 child, as unlike as possible to the son 3^ou 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, etc. " M. de Stael has promised to show to me Gibbon's letters to his grandmother, ending regularly with, ' Je suis, mademoiselle, avec les seutimens qui font le des- espoir de ma vie.' " With M. de Stael and Mme. de Broglie, Maria was particularly happy. It had been reported that Mme. de Stael had said of Maria's writings " Que Miss Edgeworth etait digne de I'enthousiasme, mais qu'elle s'est perdue dans la triste utility." — "Ma mere n'a jamais dit 9a." Mme. de Broglie indignantly de- clared, " elle etait incapable I " She saw the enthu- siastic admiration Maria expressed for her mother's genius, and felt it was not true that Maria wanted enthusiasm. Yet it is likely Mme. de Stael did say this : it sounds like her rhetorical declamation when, excited in conversation, she often generalized in a sweeping manner. Maria heard with pleasure "the most gratifying MNE. DE STAiiL. 363 terms of praii?G of" her father's life from M. de Stael and Miss Randall. M. Dumont had many anocdotes of Umc. de Stacl's early life to tell Maria. He told her that " one day U. Suard, as he entered the salon of the Hotel Necker, saw Mme. Necker going out of the room, and ^lUe. Necker standing in a melancholy attitude with tears in her eyes. Guess- ing that Mme. Necker had been lecturing her, Suard went towards her to comfort her, and whispered ' Une caresse du papa dddommagera bien de tout ^a.' She immediatel}^ wiping the tears from her eyes, answered 'Eh! oui, monsieur, mon pere songe a mon bonheur present, mamma songe a mon avenir.' There was more than presence of mind, there was heart and soul, and greatness of mind, m this answer," says Miss Edgeworth in conclusion. While " Rosamond " was being printed, Mr. Hun- ter found that there was not enough manuscript to complete two volumes: so Maria instantly set to work while at Pregny, in October; and though in the midst of distractions, social and friendly, of her friends the Moilliets' house, she completed the vol- ume by writing, with her usual ease and spirit, " The Bracelet of INIemory " and " Blind Kate." " Pregny was a beautiful place, commanding su- perb views of the lake and Mont Blanc." It was as interesting in its history as it was beautiful : it had been the property of the Empress Josephine. It was a fine, large house; and here Maria and her sisters enjoyed all the advantages of a second home. They had three large rooms, besides another joining the drawing-room, where Maria usually wrote in the mornin2:s. 354 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. M. Pictet de Rochemont, brother of the Edge- worths' old friend Marc Auguste Pictet, took much interest in Miss Edgeworth's "• Life of her Father," and with great care translated the best passages from it, for the " Biblotheque Universelle." They visited him at his house, and were there introduced to Mme. Necker de Saussure, the author of a work on "Progressive Education." Miss Edgeworth, who thought this book dull and tedious, found the author of it much more agreeable than her writings. M. Dumont once, in speaking of this lady, who wrote the life of her gifted cousin, Mme. de Stael, said, — " She never comprehended her cousin : after the most glorious burst of Mme. de Stael's enthusiasm, Mme. Necker de Saussure would come with her com- passes, and she would go so far, and so far, and no farther," — opening his fingers, suiting the action to the words, and moving liis finger and thumb like a pair of compasses as he spoke. M. Dumont, who was proud of his country, and loved its beautiful and magnificent scenery, always *' cheerful, witty, and wise," made a charming com- panion ; and they enjoj^ed his society extremely. The last of October the sisters left the hospitable house of the Moilliets, and made their way towards Paris. On their journey they stopped at Lyons, associated in their minds with the scenes of their father's early life, and the months he passed there in arranging the work on the river. They arrived at Paris the 27th of October, and took lodgings in the Rue Ste. Honore. "THE LONDON QUARTERLY." 365 A painful experience awaited Miss Edgeworth. "The Quarterly Review" made a most offensive attack upon the "Memoir" of Mr. Edgeworth. It ridiculed the anecdotes, questioned the facts, and, in fact, showed the acrimonious spirit of personal spite, instead of the dispassionate survey of a literary work, which is usually supposed to be the proper mission of a review. Hazlitt said once, sarcastically, of this "Review," — "Mr. Croker is understood to contribute the St. He- lena articles and the liberality ; Mr. Canning, the practical good sense ; Mr. D'Israeli, the good nature ; Mr. Jacob, the modesty; Mr. Southey, the consistency; and the editor himself (Gifford), the chivalrous spirit, and the attacks on Lady Morgan." Miss Edgeworth herself did not feel this ungene- rous attack as strongly as her friends felt it for her. She wrote to her aunt, "Never lose another night's sleep, or another moment's thought, on ' The Quar- terly Review.' I have never read, and never will read it." Some days after this she wrote again : — "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. 1 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 1 have done." The article in "The Quarterly" was the most abusive and ill-natured piece of personality imagin- 356 A STUDY OF HIAKIA EDGEWOETH. able. After impugning tlie most simple motives of jNIr. Edgewortli's account of himself; stating that many of his anecdotes are false ; criticising his rela- tions with his family, his four marriages, to which the reviewer tries to add a fifth, — in short, making out of the bonhomie and the harmless egotisms of Mr. Edgeworth the most frightful insinuations against his moral character, — the article lays great stress on the fact, that Mr. Edgeworth was not a Christian, and considers his daughter as sadly wanting in refine- ment, and in appreciation of her father's shortcom- ings as a man and a Christian. It is hard to say what the reviewer considered Christianity ; for Mr. Edgeworth was a regular attendant at the Episcopal Church in Edgeworthstown, took a friendly interest in its clergymen, and made himself agreeable to the ministers of other denominations who might be there for religious purposes ; often entertaining them, as well as the Roman-Catholic parish priest, at his own table. He married, with the full consent and appro- bation of her father, the daughter of one clergyman of the Church of England, and the sister of another as liis fourth wife. Miss Beaufort. He counted among his intimate friends several dignitaries of the Church, including the Primate of Ireland and Bishop Foster. In concluding the article, the re- viewer says, — ""We have now done our painful task; and, ou the whole, GUV greatest o1)jcction to the work is, that it must lower Mr. Edgewortli's reputation, and not raise that of his dauohter. There is much to blame, and little to MEMOIIl OF Mil. EDGEWORTH. 357 praise, in what they, with a mistaken and self-deceptive partiality, record of him. His own share of the work is silly, trivial, vain, :iiid inaccurate ; hers, by its own pompous claims to approbation, fails of what a more modest exposition would have obtained, and miglit have been entitled to. Mr. Edgeworth had some ingenuity, great liveliness, great activity, a large share of good sense (particularly when he wrote), of good nature, and of good temper. He was a prudent and just landlord, a kind liusl)and (except to his second wife), an affection- ate parent ; but he was superficial, not well founded in any branch of knowledge, yet dabbling in all. As a mechanic, he showed no originality, but some powers of application ; as a public man, he was hasty, injudi- cious, inconsistent, and onhj not mischievous ; in society we must, notwithstanding Miss Edgeworth's dutiful par- tiality, venture to say that he was as disagreeable as loquacity, egotism, and a little tinge now and then of indelicacy, could make him ; but, with all these draw- backs, his life was, as far as we have heard or seen, on the whole, more useful, more respectable, than the repre- sentation which is here given of it. For his reputation, these two volumes of biography ought to be forgotten." She received the following kindly and sympathetic words from two Geneva friends at this time : — Geneve, Nov. 7, 1820. " Je ne sais, mon amiable ami, si je devais vous ^crire au moment ou j'ai le coeur bless6 de cette attaque calom- nieuse de 'Quarterly Review.' J'ai en regret de n'etre pas aupr^s de vous lorsqu'il a paru. Je vous aurai aid6 peut-etre a envisager avec plus de fermet^ une agression qui doit faire plus de tort a ses auteurs qu'a vous, et je ne 358 A STUDY OP MARIA EDGEWOETH. crains qu'apr^s la premiere expression de chagrin, d&s que vous aurez le loisirde la reflexion, vous sentirez que tons ce qui respecte I'honneur, la deceuce, le sentiment filial, par- tageront votre indignation. Si par hazard vous n'avez pas lu cette infame article je vous conseillerais de ne pas le lire, et de I'abandonner au mepris public." This letter shows the generous sympathy of Du- mont on this occasion. Mrs. Marcet, who was just setting out for Italy, wrote to Miss Edge worth : — "I cannot make up my mind, my dear friend, to take my departure 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 feel- ing 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 ten- derest 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 inten- tions in writing his memoirs. I am sure your heavenly Father does see them ; and I feel that this unjust, un- christian, 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." " The Edinburgh Review," in commenting on the "Memoir" of Mr. Edgeworth, said that the most PARIS. 359 remarkable th'mg; about the work was, that the first was, on the whole, better than the second. "It is very lively, rapid, and various, enlivened with a great number of anecdotes and cliaractcrs ; and if not indicating any extraordinary reach of thought, or lofti- ness of feeling, exhibiting, in rather a pleasing and can- did way, tlie history of a very active and cultivated mind, and scattering about everywhere the indications of a good-humored complacency, and a light-hearted and in- dulgent gayety. The otber is too solemn and didactic ; and, though there are many passages full of interest and instruction, it overflows so much with praise and gratitude, and duty and self-denial, as to go near being dull and tedious." " The North American Review," in summing up a notice of the book, said Mr. Edgeworth's "Memoir" belonged neither to the style of the Confessions of St. Augustine nor those of Rousseau. The sisters visited much during their second stay in Paris, and saw their friends the Delesserts, and others, constantly. They had a " splendid and most agreeable dinner," given them by Mme. de Rumford. This lady, who was the widow of the celebrated chemist, Lavoisier, was again a widow, after years of separation from her second husband, the eccen- tric man of science. Count Rumford, with whom she lived most unhappily. They visited the celebrated Mme.^ de la Roche- jaquelin. 1 Widow of Henri de la Rochejaquelin, famous for his actions in La Vendee. 360 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. "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 up-stairs 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 Mme. de Rochejaqueliu lying on a sofa, her two daugliters at work, one spinning with a distaff, and the other embroidering muslin. Madame is a large, fat wo- man, with a broad, 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, weather-beaten 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 per- ceiving 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 very sorry,' said she, ' when any stranger sees me, parce-que je sais que je detruis toute illusion. Je sais que je devrais avoir I'air d'une h(^u'oine, et surtout que je devrais avoir Fair malheureuse, ou epuise au moins — rein de tout cela, helas ! ' "She is much better than a heroine, — she is benevo- lence and truth itself. She begged her daughters to take us into the salon, to show us what she thought would interest us. She apologized for the cold of these rooms, MME. DE LA ROCHEJAQUELIN. 361 and well she might: when tho doul tic-doors were opened, I really tiiought Eolus himself was puffing in our faces ; we sliawled ourselves well before we ventured in. At one end of the salox is a picture of M. de Lescure, and at the other of Henri de la Rochejaquclin, bj' Gerard and Girodet, presents from the king. Fine military figures. In the boudoir is one of M. de la Rochejaquclin, much the finest of all : she has never yet looked at this picture. Far from being disappomted, I was much gratified with this visit." jNIiss Edgewortli was much dii^appointed in seeing Talleyrand, and heard notliing bnt tlie merest com- monplaces from him. He appeared determined to avoid her, though they met Irequenth* in large as- semblages. During these two visits in Paris, Miss Edgcworth met several persons who desired the privilege of translating her works. Among these was a Mile. Swinton, afterwards Mme. Belloc, an IrishAvoman by descent, but Parisian by birth and education. At this time she was a very young lad}*, and she in- terested Miss Edgeworth very much. They cor- responded for many years after this. She made excellent translations of Miss Edgeworth's books, and was her life-long friend and admirer. 362 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOBTH. CHAPTER XVI. Return to England. — Bowood. — Ireland. — Improvements in Edge- worthstown. — England in 1821. — Visits to Smetliwick Grove. — Wycombe Abbey. — Mr. Wilberforce. — Gatcombe Park. — Anec- dotes. — Easton Grey. — Bowood. — Salisbury Cathedral. — Deej)- dene. — Sequel to " Frank." — Hampstead. — " The Pirate " read. — Misses Baillie. — Mrs. Somerville. — Many Literarj' People. — Anecdotes. — Mrs. Fry's Reading at Newgate. — Almacks. — Sir Walter Scott invites Maria to Abbotsford. — She accepted for a Few Months Later. — London Society. — Mrs. Siddons's Acting. — Ireland. — " Harry and Lucy." — A Visit to Scotland. — The Stu- arts. — Edinburgh. — Mrs. Fletcher's Description of Maria.— Scott. After several months on the Continent, passed very agreeably among friends and in the gay salons of Paris, the scientific and hospitable homes of Switzerland, and surrounded by its magnificent scenery, the Misses Edgeworth returned to England in December, 1820, by the way of Calais. They made no stay in London , simply waiting long enough to see Mr. Hunter about the printing of " Rosa- mond," then in the press, and to arrange about the second edition of the " Memoirs," which had been corrected, and was also being printed at this time. They went for a little visit to Bowood, after a week at Clifton with Mrs. Beddoes. Miss Edge- worth gave a glimpse of the life at the pleasant home of the Lansdownes, saying, — BOWOOD. 363 " AtBowood there was a happy mixture of sense and nouseuse. Lord Laiisdowne was talking to me on tlie nice little sofa by the lire, seriously, of Windham's life and death, and of a journal which he wrote to cure him- self of indecision of character. Enter suddenly, with a great burst of noise, from the breakfast- room, a troop 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, courtesying, bowing and exit, — neighbor. "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 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, — idol. This does not do for sober reading, but it produced much laughter." They left Bowood, and proceeded to Ireland. On their arrival in Dublin, Miss Edgewortli had a severe illness, and was detained by it for a while. After her recovery she visited her aunt, Mrs. Ruxton, at Black Castle. The Jewish lady, Miss Mordecai of Richmond, Va., wrote Miss Edgeworth a letter about the memoir , which Maria said was " written in a spirit of Christian charit}' and kindness which it were to be wished that all Christians possessed," and the letter pleased her very much. 364 A STUDY OF MAKIA EDGEWORTH. Miss Edgeworth wrote when slie heard of the death of Napoleon I. : — " So Bouaparte 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 on the fallen. What an excellent dialogue of the dead might be written between Bonaparte and Themis- tocles!" She read "The Spy" during the summer, and speaks of the "new scenes and characters, humor and pathos; a picture of America in Washington's time, a surgeon worthy of Smollett or jNIoore, quite different from any of their various surgeons ; and an Irishwoman, Betty Flanagan, incomparable." Miss Edgeworth was always much interested in the pf)or of Edgeworthstown, and in endeavoring to ameliorate their condition. She asked a friend in writing of her summer's work, — " What do you think is my employment out of doors, and what it has been this week past ? My garden ? No such elegant thing : l)ut making a gutter, a sewer, and a pathway, in the street of Edgeworthstown ; and I do de- clare I am as much interested about it as I ever was in writing any thing in my life. We have never here yet found- it necessary to have recourse to public contribu- tions for the poor ; but it is necessary to give some as- sistance to the laboring class, and I find that making the said gutter and pathway will employ twenty men for three A VISIT TO ENGLAND. 365 weeks. . . . Did j'ou ever liear these two excellent Tory Hues made by a celebrated AVliig — * As bees alighting upon flowerets cease to hum, So, settling upon places, Whigs grow dumb'? " Many of Miss Edgewortli's friends in England had urged her to revisit tliem during tliis year, and she determined to pass the Avinter of 1821-22 there. She started in October, accompanied by her two half-sis- ters, Fanny and Harriet, who had been with her on the Continent. Their first visit was at Smethwick Grove, the home of the Moilliets. There they "missed by not arriving last night," ]\Iaria wrote, " a Frenchman who has been seventeen years learn- ing to play on the flute, and cannot play ; and who has been ten years learning to speak English, and yet told IMrs. Moilliet that he had a letter to Lord Porcelain, to whom his mother is related, meaning the Duke of Portland. Pie left this, determined to see the residence of ' Lord Malbrouke,' and would not be persuaded that the Duke of Marlborough was not called ' Va-t-en JNIalbrouke.' " After some days with the Moilliets, they went to Wycombe Abbey, the home of Lord Carrington. Among other distinguished and agreeable people Miss Edgeworth met there, she renewed her ac- quaintance with Mr. Wilberforce. She wrote : — "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 366 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. 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 hear- ers, but to me it is a proof of candor and sincerity ; and it is both amusing and instructive to see him thus bal- ancing accounts aloud. He is very lively and full of odd contortions : no matter. His indulgent, benevolent tem- per strikes me particularly : he makes no pretension to superior sanctity or strictness. He spoke with much re- spect and tenderness for my feelings, of my father, and of the 'Life.'" " We are reading Mme. de Stael's ' Dix Annies d'Exil ' with delight. With its faults there are so many brilliant passages, and things which no one but her- self could have thought or said ; and it will last as long as the memory of Bonaparte lasts on earth." She was told in connection with some conversation in this book, that the Swedish ambassador said Mme. de Stael's letters were intercepted, and it was found she was intriguing to set Bernadotte on the throne of France. This, alleged as the cause of Napoleon's enmity to her, Miss Edgeworth was not willing to believe. Their stay at Lord Carrington's was delightful. He gave them a lovely suite of rooms, including a private sitting-room for Miss Edgewortli's own use. After their very agreeable stay at Wycombe Abbey, they went to Gatcombe Park, the residence of Mr. MR. RICARDO. 367 David Ricardo, the eminent writer on political econ- omy and kindred snbjects. In tins charming family they enjoyed some days, which were pleasantly varied by the beautiful drives, and interesting talks with ^Ir. Ricardo of whom Maria wrote : — "Mr. Ricardo, with a very composed manner, has a coutimial Hfe of mind, and starts perpetually new game iu conversation. I never argued or discussed a question with an}' person who argues more fairly, or less for victory, and more for truth. lie gives full weight to every argu- ment brought against him, and seems not to be on any side of the question for one instant longer than the con- viction of his mind on that side. It seems quite indif- ferent to him whether you find the truth, or whether he finds it, provided it be found." They met a Miss Strackey here at dinner. She told Maria she was at school witli the young ladies who wrote to her about the wedding-dresses in the " Contrast," and well remembered their delight at her entertaining answer. At this same dinner an English bull was men- tioned. Lord Camden put the following advertise- ment 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. ' ' "Writing from Easton Grey, where they went after leaving Gatcombe Park, ]\Iiss Edgeworth said. Lady Catlierine Bisset, " when no one was seeing or hear- ing, laid her hand on my arm most affectionately, 368 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. 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." They went next to Bo wood, where they had the pleasure of hearing Lord and Lady Lansdowne's account of their foreign tour, from which they had just returned. After a visit to the Kings at Clifton, they went to Cirencester, the seat of Lord Bathurst, of whom Pope wrote, " Who plants like Bathurst ? " Maria admired the beautiful and celebrated woods, and noticed " the meeting of the pine avenues in a star " as " superb." At Cirencester, Lord Apsley lent her "Valoe," a book published in 1817, by a French governess dismissed by the Duchess of Beau- fort. This book "threw all high-bred London into confusion " when it appeared. There was " no wit, but tittle-tattle truths " in it. "You can't buy the book if you were to give your eyes for it : all bought up " by the Duchess of Beaufort. Among other places of interest visited as they passed from one hospitable mansion to another, they saw Salisbury and its lovely cathedral, Stonehenge ; Wilton House, with its magnificent collections of antiquities, and its priceless Vandykes ; and " Long- lord Castle, the strongest castle in the world." They went to Deepdene, to their friends the Hopes. Among the party gathered there, they met one of the authors of " Rejected Addresses," Mr. Smith ; wno told Fanny Edgeworth that he intended to put her sister "into the 'Rejected Addresses' in the character of an Irish laborer, but it was so flat he threw it aside." While at Deepdene Miss Edge- "THE riRATE" EEAD. 369 worth wrote the preface to the sequel of " Frank," which was soon to be published. While at the Carrs' house at ITampstead, tlioy "read 'The Pirate,' or rather heard it read by JMr. Carr, who read admirably." " Wouderful genuis ! 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 trans- port us to the remote desert corner of the earth, ay, and keep us there, and make us wish to sta}^, among beings of his own creation." Maria enjoyed meeting Dr. Lushington there. Of " The Pirate," on finishing it, she writes : — " 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 ingen- ious. This Avas 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 de- scription, but many more deep, philosophical reflections upon the human mind, and the causes of human happi- ness, 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 habits of the people without being acquainted with the circumstances of either, is excellent." They visited the INIiss Baillies again. Maria en- joyed them very much, saying, — "Most affectionate hospitality has been shown to us by these two excellent sisters. I part with Agnes and 370 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. Joanna Baillie confirmed in my opinion, that the one is the most amiable literaiy woman I ever beheld, and the other, one of the best informed and most useful." She "rejoiced at Mr. Bushe's promotion," saying, "Mrs. Bushe sent to me, tlirougli Anne Nangle, a most kind message, alluding to our 'Patronage' chief justice by second-sight.'''' She was supposed to have drawn Mr. Bushe as the chief justice in " Patronage," and the character seemed so like him that it was recognized by those who knew him best. This was the meaning of Mrs. Bushe's message about his appointment by " second- sight : " for " Patronage " was published years before Mr. Bushe was made chief justice. During this win- ter, Miss Edgeworth met at Sir John Sebright's, Beechwood Park, — "Mrs. Somerville, — little, slightly made; fair hair; pink color ; 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 throughout 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 prepos- sessing charm to her manner, and takes off all dread of her superior scientific learning. "Mrs. Somerville is the lady who La Place says is 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. I have this moment heard an anecdote which proves beyond a doubt — if any doubt remained — that Walter Scott is the author of the SIR JAMKS MACKINTOSH. 371 novels. He edited ' The Memoir of the Somervilles,' and in the manuscript copy are his marks of what was to be omitted ; and among these are what suggested to liim the idea of Lady JNIargaret, and the dis jeune which his Majesty did her the honor to take witli her, — continually referred to by an ancestor of Dr. Somerville." The Misses Edgeworth went thenco to Mardoaks, on a visit to Sir James and Lady Mackintosh. Of Sir James she writes, — "He 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 in imagination, and almost equal in wit. In Dumont's mien and conversation, wit and reason are kept separate ; but in Mackintosh 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 abon dance ! ' "He told us that at Berlin, just before a dinner at which were all the princes and ambassadors of Europe, Mme. de Stael, who had been invited to meet them, turn- ing to a picture of Bonaparte, then at the height of his power, addressed it with Voltaire's lines to Cupid : — ' Qui que ce soit, vnici ton maltre ! II est, le flit, ou le doit etre ! ' " 372 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. Her sisters thought Sir James far surpassed their expectations. The two persons Fanny Edgeworth most wished to see in England were Ricardo and Mackintosh, and they saw both in their own houses to great advantage. They met Lord Anglesey at Sir Thomas Law- rence's, where they went while with Lad}^ Elizabeth Whitbread, at Grove House, Kensington, to whom they went from Sir James Mackintosh's. She says of Lord Anglesey, — " He is no longer handsome, but a model for the ' nice conduct of a wooden leg.' It was within an inch of run- nuig through Walter Scott's picture, which was on the floor leaning on the wall ; but, by a skilful, sidelong ma- uffiuvre, he bowed out of its way. His gray hair looks better than his Majesty's flaxen wig — bad taste. " Saw at Sir Thomas Lawrence's studio his picture of the king in his coronation robes, the Pope, Walter Scott's too, etc." Miss Edgeworth met Mr. Ralston of Philadelphia. " His father and mother are grand, and, what is rather better, most benevolent people in Philadelphia. Intro- duced him to Dr. Holland, Mackintosh, and others. . . . I have had the greatest pleasure in Francis Beaufort's going with us to our delightful breakfasts at Mr. Ricar- do's : they enjoy each other's conversation so much. It has now become high fashion, with blue ladies, to talk political economy, and to make a great jabbering on the suljject ; while others who have more sense, like Mrs. Marcet, hold their tongues, and listen. A gentleman an- swered \ery well the other day, wlien asked if he would A VISIT TO NEWGATE. 373 be of the famous Political-Economy Club, that he would whenever he could find two members of it that agree in any one point. IMeantime fine ladies require that their daughters' governesses sliould teach political economy. ' Do you teach political economy ? ' — ' No ; but I can learn it.' — 'Oh, dear, no! If you don't teach it, you wont 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 Liheraux 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, — ' garni- ture aux prejuges vaincus.' This should have been worn by those who formerly invented in the Revolution ' Bals aux victmies.' " During the months of March and February they were constantly in society: they had a charming breakfast at Mrs. Somerville's, and were often at Lansdowne House. They visited the House of Commons; and, as a change, Maria noted that she went to Newgate to hear Mrs. Fry, by appointment. ' ' The private door opened at the sight of our tickets ; and the great doors, and the little doors, and the church 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 then- seats on benches at either side of the table, in silence. "Enter Mrs. Fry in a drab-colored silk cloak, and plain, borderless Quaker cap ; a most benevolent coun- tenance, a Guido-Madonna face, calm, benign. ' I must 374 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. make an inquiry, Is Maria Edgeworth here? and where? ' I went forward. She made us come and sit by her. Her first smile as she looked upon me, I can never forget. After the prisoners came in, — about thirty women, some under sentence of transportation for life, others for imprisonment, — she opened the Bible, and read in the most sweetly solemn, sedate voice I ever heard, slowly and distinctly, without any thing in the manner that would detract attention from the matter. Some- times she paused to explain, which she did with great judgment, addressing the convicts, ' ive have felt, ice are convinced.' They were very attentive, unaffectedly inter- ested, I thought, in all she said, and touched by her manner. 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 New- gate to the bustling city." They visited Almack's. "Kind Mrs. Hope got tickets for us from Lady Gwydir and Lady Cowper. Observe that the present Duchess of Rutland, who had been a few months absent 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 a ticket to Almack's. The lady patronesses can only give tickets to those whom they personally knoiv. On that plea they avoided the Duchess of Rutland's application, — she had not visited them : they really did not know her Grace, etc. [Maria met] there many celebrated people, — the Mar- quis of Londonderry, who, by his own account, has been dying some time with impatience to be introduced to us ; A BALL. 375 talked much of ' Castle Kackrent,' etc., and Ireland. Of cours-c I thought his manner and voice very agreeable. He is much fatter, nnd much less solemn, than when I saw him in the Irish House of Commons. He intro- duced 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 rapidit}' with which a minister's family talks to a person spread through the room. Everybody I met afterward that night and the next day observed to me that they had seen Lord Londonderry talk- ing to me for a great while ! "We had a crowded party at Lady Londonderry's, but they had no elbows." She met at other parties the celebrities of the day, — her old friend Sir Humphry Davy (whom she calls the martyr of matrimony), jMrs. Siddons, Lydia White, all the scientific set of the Somer- villes. One amusing mention is made : — "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." Sir Walter Scott anticipated a visit from INIiss Edgeworth with great delight. He wrote to Miss Joanna Baillie, in February : — . . . " I am delighted with the prospect of seeing Miss Edgeworth, and making her personal acquaintance. I expect her to be just what you describe, — a being totally void of affectation, and who, like one other of ray ac- quaintance, carries her literary reputation as freely and easily as the milkmaid in my country does the leglen, 376 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. whicli she carries on her head, and walks as gracefully with it as a duchess. Some of the fair sex, and some of the foul sex too, carry their renown in London fashion, — on a yoke and a pair of pitchers. Tiie consequence is, that, besides poking frightfully, they are hitting every one on the shins with their buckets. Now this is all non- sense, too fantastic to be written to anybod}' but a person of good sense." Miss Edgeworth met old Sir William Pepys, who was a contemporary of Johnson, Reynolds, and Burke. He was then eighty-two years old, and had many things to tell her of that interesting set of men and women who formed the fashionable and literary society of London many years before. Mrs. Montague, who was an intimate friend of his, once whispered to him 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." Miss Edgeworth said of the brilliancy, repartee, and social badinage of London, in her "Helen," "London wit is like gas, which lights at a touch, and at a touch can be extinguished ; " and she en- joyed the good talk, the easy manners, and the high- bred culture of the friends she found among the many sets which made ujd the great world of May- fair of her day. She remarked on this in a letter written during this visit : — "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. LONDON SOCIETY. 377 We know, I think, six different and totally independent sets, of seientific, literary, political, travelled, artist, and the fine fashionable of various shades ; and the different styles of conversation are very entertaining. Through Lvdia 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 re- solving 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 l)urst in, and prophesied that she would ruin herself forever if she persevered in this resolution to lay cloicn 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 excite- ment 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 Katlierlne. She was dressed so as to do well for the two parts she was to perform this night, of gentle- woman and queen, — black velvet, with black velvet cap and feathers. She sat the whole tmie, and with a large Shakspeare before her ; as she knew the part of Kather- ine by heart, she seldom required the help of glasses, and she recited it incomparably well. The changes of her countenance we-re striking. From her first burst of indig- 378 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. nation, 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 change in her counte- nance, 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 cui-ious 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." After spending a very pleasant Easter at Deepdene with a delightful party at the Hopes, the sisters hear- ing of the death of their old friend. Miss Charlotte Sneyd, at Edgeworthstown, left Deepdene, feeling the gayety oppressive under these circumstances. They went for more quiet to their friend Lady Eliza- beth Whitbread's, at Kensington Gore. They then returned to their pleasant London lodgings in Hollis Street. On their return they found London very gay, and met many distinguished people. "Among the great variety of illustrious and foolish people we have seen pass in rapid panoramas before us, some remain forever fixed in the memory, and some few touch the heart. MR. RANDOLPH. 379 " INIr. Randolph, the American, very tall and thin, as if a stick, instead of shoulders, stretched out his coat ; his hair tied behind witli a black ribbon, but not pig-tailed, — 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 world of illusioua in art and nature, which is highly interesting." Visits at Frognel, Hampstead, Slough, Portsmouth, and Windsor followed. The following letter from Sir Walter Scott wilL explain itself. Miss Edgeworth was obliged to de- cline a pressing invitation from Scott to visit Scot- land and his family this year, but the next year we shall see her there. [To Miss Edgeworth, Edgeworthstown.] Abbotsford, 24th April, 1822. My dear Miss Edgeworth, — I am extremely sorry indeed that you cannot fulfil j^our kind intentions to be at Abbotsford this year. It is a great disappointment, and I am grieved to think it should have arisen from the loss of a valued relation. That is the worst part of life, when its earlier path is trod. If my limbs get stiff, my walks are made shorter, and my rides slower ; if my eyes fail me, I can use glasses and a large print ; if I get a little deaf, I comfort myself, that, except in a few in- 380 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. stances, I shall be no great loser bj^ missing one full half of what is spoken : but I feel the loneliness of age when my companions and friends are taken from me. The sud- den death of both the Boswells, and the bloody end of the last, have given me great pain. You have never got half the praise "Vivian" ought to have procured 3'ou. The reason is, that the class from which the excellent portrait was drawn feel the resemblance too painfully to thank the author for it ; and I do not believe the common readers understand it in the least. I who, thank God ! am neither great man nor politician, have lived enough among them to recognize the truth and nature of the painting, and am no way implicated in the satire. ... I had arranged to stay at least a month after the 12th of May, in hopes of detaining you at Aljbotsford ; and I will not let you off under a month or two the next year. I shall have my house completed, my library replaced, my armory new fur- nished, my piper new clothed, and the time shall be July. ... I know nothing I should wish you to see which has any particular chance of becoming invisible in the course of fourteen months, excepting my old bloodhound, poor fellow, on whom age now sits so heavily that he cannot follow me far from the house. I wished you to see him very much. He is of that noble breed which Ireland, as well as Scotland, once possessed, and which is now almost extinct in both countries. I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives, and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race ; for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to live double that time ? I don't propose being in London this 3'ear. . . . I do not like it. There is such a riding and driving, so much to see, so much to sa}^, — not to mention plover's eggs and IRELAND. 381 ohampasjno, — that I always feci too much oxcitecl in Loiulou ; though it is good to rub off the rust too, some- times, and brings you up abreast with tlie world us it goes. The INIisses Edgcwortli returned to Ireland the last of June, and Maria at once went to work on the sequel to " Harry and Lucy." She read the play of Sir Walter Scott, and found it very stupid. Tliis little play was written for a charitable purpose ; and Miss Edgeworth quotes, in remarking upon it. Mine, de Stael's saying, " Les bons intentions ne sont pour rien, dans les ouvrages d'esprit." In writing of the progress of " Harry and Lucy," she expressed her anxiety about its success ; saying to a friend, who urged her to do some larger work of the imagination, — " I assure you it is all I can do to satisfy myself tol- erably as I go on with this sequel to ' Harry and Lucy,* which engages all my attention. I am particularly anx- ious to finish that icell^ 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 of those subjects, and am obliged to go so warily, lest I should teach error, or pretend to teach what I do not know. ... I never could be easy writing any thing else for my own amusement till I have done this, which I know my father wished to have fin- ished." jNIiss Edgeworth did think, about this time, of writing a tale called " The Travellers," which would probably have embodied some of her own experi- 382 A STUDY OF MAKIA EDGEWORTH. ences of travel ; but she never made a sketch of it : other thmgs proved more engrossing. During the winter of 1822-23 she made a visit at Black Cas- tle. Mrs. Ruxton was always an inspiration to her niece, encouraging and animating her in any chosen work. She it was, Maria said long after, who first suggested to her the plot of " Castle Rackrent," and then urged her to go on with it, when the fear of failure, and her natural timidity, discouraged her. Miss Edgeworth was delighted with "Peveril," though "there is too much of the dwarfs and the elfic." "Scott cannot deny himself one of these spirits in some shape or other. I hope that we shall find 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 Fiuella is sometimes haudsome enough to make duke and 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, after long anticipation of such a visit, Maria, taking with her her sisters Harriet and SCOTLAND. 383 Sophy, went to Scotland. Passing through Glasgow, they saw the Bannatynes, and were cordially re- ceived by them, after the lapse of twenty years which had gone since Maria was there with Mr. and Mrs. Edgeworth. They then went to Kinneil Castle, where Mr. and Mrs. Dugald Stewart then lived. After a few days pleasantly spent with their old friends, marred somewhat by the very poor health of Mr. Stewart, they left for Edinburgh, seeing on their way Linlithgow Palace. They arrived in Ed- inburgh, and found lodgings taken for them by the Alisons in Abercromby Place. Mr. Lockhart wrote in his life of Scott : — "Among the visitauts at Abbotsford in 1823 were Miss Edgeworth and her sisters, Harriet and Sophia. After spending a few weeks in Edinburgh, and making a tour into the Highlands, they gave a fortnight to Abbotsford." Scott wrote his first impressions of Maria, — [To D. Terry.] " Castle Street, June 18, 1823. " My marbles ! my marbles ! Oh ! what must now be done ? My drawing-room is finished off, but marbles there are none. My marbles ! my marbles ! I fancied them so fine, The marbles of Lord Elgin were but a joke to mine. " In fact, we are all on tiptoe now for the marbles and the chimney-grates, which being had and obtained, we will be less clamorous about other matters. I have very little news to send you : Miss Edgeworth is at present the great lioness of Edinburgh, and a very nice lioness. She is full of fun and spirit ; a little, slight figure, very 384 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. active in her motions, very good-humored, and full of enthusiasm." This Edinburgli visit was very agreeable to all the party. Maria had thought that city delightful twenty years before. Of course she found many changes. Her experience was not that of the ruler who found the city of wood, and left it stone ; but she saw a larger circle of society and more cosmopol- itan manners and customs. Some observers consider that the destinctive charm of the old city was lost at this time. Mrs. Fletcher, in her autobiography, speaks of the delightful society of Edinburgh : — " The men then most distinguished in social intercourse, alike by literary reputation and amiable manners in socie- ty, WaLer Scott, Mr. Jeffrey, Dr. Thomas Brown, Mr. Mackenzie, Mr. Thomas Thomson, Professor Playfair, Mr. Pillans, the Rev. Dr. Alison. A little before this time the forms of social meetings had somewhat changed from what they were when I knew Edinburgh first. Large dinner-parties were less frequent ; and supper-parties — I mean hot suppers — were generally discarded. In their place came large evening parties (sometimes larger than the rooms could conveniently hold), where card-playing generally gave place to music or conversation. The com- pany met at nine and parted at twelve o'clock ; tea and coffee were handed about at nine, and the guests sat down to some light refreshments later on in the evening. Peo- ple did not, in those parties, meet to eat, but to talk or listen. There you would see a group (chiefly of ladies) listening to the brilliant talk of Mr. Jeffrey ; in a differ- ent part of the room, perhaps, another circle, amongst whom were the pale-faced, reverential students, lending EDINBURGH. 385 tlieir ears to the playful, imapjinative discussions of Dr. IJrown, while Professor Playfair would sometimes throw in an ingenious or quiet remark that gave fresh animation to the discourse. On other occasions old ]\Ir. Mackenzie would enliven the conversation with anecdotes of men and manners gone by." Lord Brougham says of Mrs. Fletcher herself, that, " with the utmost purity of life that can dignify and enhance female charms, she combined the inflexi- ble principles and deep political feeling of a Hutch- inson and a Roland." The changes noted by INIrs. Fletcher were of course inevitable : the fame of the city had caused the loss of just what she laments, by drawing to itself more and more people desirous of moving among the lit- erary and scientific society which it boasted as its peculiar charm. Mrs. Fletcher says of Miss Edgeworth, — " In the spring of 1823 Maria Edgeworth and her two younger sisters spent some time in Edinburgh. We met first at my dear friend and pastor's house, the Rev. Mr. Alison. It was the first time I had been introduced to the author c " ' Simple Susan ; ' though we were not un- known to each other, as she told me her brothers had often mentioned the agreeable society they met at our house when they were students at Edinburgh. Miss Edge- worth's personal appearance was not attractive ; but her vivacity, good-uumor, and cleverness in conversation, quite equalled my expectations. I should say she was more sprightly and brilliant than refined. She excelled in the raciness of Irish humor ; but the great defect of her manner, as it seemed to me, was an excess of compli- 386 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. ment, or what in Ireland is called ' blarney ; ' and in one who had moved in the best circles, both as to manners and mind, it surprised me not a little. She repelled all approach to intimacy on my part, by the excess of her complimentary reception of me when we were first intro- duced to each other at Mr. Alison's. I never felt confi- dence in the reality of what she said afterwards. I do not know whether it was the absence of good taste in her, or that she supposed I was silly and vain enough to be flattered by such verbiage. It was the first time in my life I had met with such over-acted civility ; but I was glad of an oppoi'tunity of meeting a person whose genius and powers of mind had been exercised in benefiting the world as hers have been. I feel sure from the feelings of those friends who love her, because they knew her well, that had this been the case with me, I might also have been one of her friends : so that I only give my impres- sion as arising from that of society intercourse of a very superficial kind. Miss Edgeworth and her two very agreeable sisters were pleased to meet at our house Sir Robert and Lady Liston. They accompanied us some days after this to dine at Milburn Tower, the Listons' country-house, near Edinburgh. Miss Edgeworth's va- ried information and quick repartee appeared to great advantage in conversation with the polished ex-ambassador of Constantinople, who always reminded me of the coup- let, — * Polite, as all his life in courts had been, Yet good as he the world had never seen.' " Mrs. Fletcher judged Maria to be insincere ; for- getting that the warmth of her manner was perfectly natural, and her heart was warm and overflowing with benevolence. SIR WALTER SCOTT. 387 Years after this, Miss Edgcwortli put into the mouth of Lady Davenani in ''Helen," a description of the appearance of Sir Walter Scott. "'If you have seen Racburu's admirable pictures, or Chantrey's speaking bust,' repUed Lady Davenant, 'you liave as complete an idea of Sir Walter Scott as painting or sculpture can give. The first impression of his appear- ance 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 to 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 amia- ble great man I ever knew.' " 388 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. CHAPTER XVII. Account of the Meeting between Maria and Sir Walter Scott. — An Evening with him. — Edinburgh seen with Sir Walter. — The Lakes and the Highlands. — Abbotsford. — Happy Visit. — Return to Ireland. — Home Affairs. — Visitors. — The Mental Thermome- ter. —"Take for Granted." — Mr. Constable. — The Visit of Sir Walter Scott to Ireland. — His Stay at Edgeworthstown. — Their Trip to Killarny. Miss Edgeworth's first memorable meetinor with ■O Sir Walter Scott was immediately after her arrival in Edinburgh. They had corresponded for 3^ears, but had no previous personal acquaintance. She had a note from him the evening they arrived. Dear Miss Edgeworth, — I have just received jouv 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 that you are engaged to dine with him to-mori'ow ; which puts Roslin out of the ques- tion for that day, as it might keep you late. On Sunday I hope you will join our family party at five, and on Mon- day 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 do 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 A CALL. 389 wait upon j'ou about twelve, and hope you will permit nie 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. Ali- son'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 l)oat-songs, and the like ; and that if you will come, as the Irish should to the Scotch, without any ceremon}^ you will hear what is more curious than mellifluous. The man returns to the Isles to-morrow. There are no strangers with us, uo party ; none but all our own family, and two old friends. Moreover, all ourwomaukiud have been calling at Gibbs's Hotel : so if you are not really tired and late, j'ou 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 AValter Scott's cordial invitation, sent for a hack- ney 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 ante-room, I heard the first sound of Walter Scott's voice, — ' The Miss Edgeworths come ! ' 390 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. ' ' The room was lighted by only one globe lamp. A circle were singing loud and beating time : all stopped in an instant ; and Sir 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 un- known of the North, as if he only thought of making others happy. 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 cir- cle as they then stood, and showing me that only his family and two friends, Mr. Clarke and Mr. Sharpe, were present, he sat down for a moment 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 boatmen 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 boat- man began to roar out a Gaelic song, to which they all stamped in time, and repeated a chorus, which, as far as I could hear, sounded like ' At am Vaun ! at am Vaun ! ' frequently repeated with prodigious enthusiasm. In an- other 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 sang and stamped, and shook the handkerchief on each side, and the circle imitated. LADY SCOTT. 891 "Lady Scott is so exactly what I have seen her de- scribed, tliat 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 atten- tion 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 character of others, to see what will please, and put all his guests at their ease. As I sat beside him at sup- per 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 Sir Walter Scott made his visit to the Hebrides in 1810, he became acquainted with this gentleman. Sir Keginald Macdonald Stewart Seton of Staffa, Allantown, and Touch, and he described his sending his piper, a constant attendant, to wake a neighboring family for them. He wrote an enthu- siastic and interesting description of Staffa and lona, and tells how his way was beguiled by the boat-songs of the clan, in a letter to Joanna Baillie. In " The Lord of the Isles," he embalmed his memory of this time in verse : — " That wondrous dome, "NVTiere, as to shame the temples decked By skill of earthly architect, Nature herself it seemed would raise A minster to her Maker's praise." 892 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOKTH. Miss Edgeworth saw historic Edinburgh under the auspices of Scott. "His conversation all the time better than anything we could see, full of apropos anecdote, historic, serious or comic, just as occasion called for it ; and all with a lonhomie and an ease that made us forget it was any trouble, even to his lameness, to mount flights of eternal stairs." She found in Sir Walter peculiar charms. "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." After these delightful days in seeing Edinburgh, which she described as "the most magnificent as well as the most romantic of cities," they saw Roslin Castle and its exquisite chapel with Scott ; and then, being joined by their brother William, the party left for an excursion to the North, as William wished to see the great engineering works in the Highlands. They saw all the romantic beauties of Loch Ka- trine and the mountains. One lovely day's drive Miss Edgeworth remarked on : — "Mountains behind mountains, as far as the eye could reach, in every shade, from darkest to palest Indian ink, cloud-color; an ocean of mountains, with perpetually changing foreground of rocks, sometimes bare as they were born, sometimes wooded better than even the hand of mortal taste clothed a mountain iu reality or picture, with oak, aspen, and the beautiful pendent birch." SCOTT's impressions of MARIA. 393 Miss Edfreworth was taken ill at Forres on this journey, but soon recovered, and was able to con- tinue this pleasaut trip. The following letter from Sir Walter Scott to INIiss Joanna Baillie will show his impressions of INliss Edge worth : — "Edinburgh, July 11, 1823. "TVe saw, you will readily suppose, a great deal of Miss Edgeworth, and two very nice girls, her younger sisters. It is scarcely possible to say more of this very remarkable person than that she not only completely answered, but exceeded, the expectations which I had formed. I am particularly pleased with the naivete and good-humored ardor of mind which she unites with such formidable powers of acute observation. In external appearance she is quite the fairy of our nursery-tale, — the Whippity Stourie, if you remember such a sprite, who came flying through the window to work all sorts of mar- vels. I will never believe but what she has a wand in her pocket, and pulls it out to conjure a little before she begins to draw those very striking pictures of manners. I am grieved to say, that, since they left Edinburgh on a tour to the Highlands, they have been detained at Forres, by an erysipelas breaking out on Miss Edgeworth's face. They have been twelve days there, and are now returning south- wards, as a letter from Harriet informs me. I hope soon to have them at Abbotsford, where we will take good care of them, and the invalid in particular. What would I give to have you and Mrs. Agnes to meet them, and what canty cracks we would set up about the days of lang- syne ! The increasing powers of steam, which, like you, I look on half-proud, half-sad, half-angry, and half- pleased, in doiug so much for the commercial world, 394 A STUDY OF MABIA EDGEWORTH. promise something also for the sociable, and, like Prince Housseiu's tapestry, will, I think, one clay waft friends together in the course of a few hours, and, for aught we may be able to tell, bring Hampstead and Abbotsford within the distance of, — ' Will you dine with us quietly to-morrow?' I wish I could advance this happy abridg- ment of time and space, so as to make it serve my present wishes." On their return to Edinburgh, tliey passed a de- lightful day with the family of Lord Jeffrey, at Craigcrook. On the 27th of July the Misses Edgeworth ar- rived at Abbotsford. Sir Walter was then at the height of his fame, and surrounded by a haj)py family circle. The gay walks, the evening conver- sation, the daily drives, made a bright and never-to- be-for£fotten visit. In these drives. Sir Walter was full of never-ceasing talk ; and wit and wisdom flowed from his boundless store. " He used to drive with his dog Spicer in his lap, and Lady Scott with her dog Ourisk in hers." Maria liked Lady Scott, while Lady Scott appreciated the kindly attention which Miss Edgeworth paid her. Too many of Sir Walter's visitors treated her with neglect or ridicule. Maria noted and admired the manner in which Lady Scott presided over a large establishment with judi- cious care and well-regulated hospitality. They saw, with Scott, Melrose Abbey, Ettrick Forest, and the ruins of Newark Hall, " where the ladies bent their necks of snow to hear the ' Lay of the last Minstrel.' " Maria, on seeing Sir Walter in his own home at ABBOTSFORD. 305 Abl)otsforcl, was more tlian ever charmed with him. Tliere the ^strength and simplicity of his character showed itself. " I never saw an author loss of an author in his hal)its. 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 thiuning, but little at a time. If you thin much at a time, you let iu the wind, and hurt your trees. ' ' ' Long afterwards Miss Edgeworth tokl Mrs. S. C. Hall, that she i^roposed to Scott that they should visit Melrose Abbey by moonlight, as she recalled with pleasure his famous lines, — "If thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright, Go visit it by the pale moonlight." Scott at once assented, adding, "By all means, let us go, for I myself have never seen Melrose by moonlight." Lockliart says, — "The next month — August, 1823 — was one of the happiest in Scott's life. Never 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 396 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. when she was received by him at his ai'chway, and ex- claimed, ' Every thing about you is exactly what one ought to have had wit enough to dream ! ' The weather was beautiful, and the edifice and its appurtenances were all but complete ; and day after day, so long as she could remain, her host had always some new plan of gayety. One day there was fishing on the Cauldshiels Loch, and a dinner on the heathy bank. Another, the whole party feasted by Thomas the Rymer's waterfall in the glen ; and the stone on which Maria that day sat was ever afterwards called ' PMgeworth's stone.' A third day we had to go farther a-field. He must needs show her, not Newark only, but all the upper scenery of the Yarrow, where ' fair hangs the apple frae the rock ; ' and the baskets were unpacked about sunset, beside the ruined chapel overhanging St. Mary's Loch. And he had scram- bled to gather bluebells and heath-flowers, with which all the young ladies must twine their hair ; and they sang, and he recited, until it was time to go home, beneath the softest of harvest moons. Thus a fortnight was passed, and the vision closed." During the visit to Abbotsford in 1823, commemo- rated in a pictorial group ^ in which he is included, Mr. Constable had the honor of meeting Miss Edge- worth; and the impression he made on her must have been favorable, for she begged him to commu- nicate with her London publisher regarding plans he had suggested for promoting the sale of her works. Miss Edgeworth writes as follows, while on her homeward route : — 1 By Mr. William Stewart Watson. LETTER TO MR. CONSTABLE. 397 [Miss Edsewortb to Mr. Constable.] Glasgow, Aug. 13, 1823. Dear Sir, — You have gratified me much by your polite atteution to my sisters. The present of the proof- engraviug you have sent me is invaluable : the very thing for which I had wished, and had despaired of obtain- ing. You talked of sending me a prospectus of j'our new encyclopedia. I wish you could send it to me while I am in Glasgow. I shall be here till INIonday or Tuesday next. If you have not been able to procure the review of books for young people, do not trouble yourself more about it ; because I can get it from Hunter, to whom I am going to write. I wish you would write to him the note of advice you proposed. Send it to me, and I will enclose it in my own letter. I rejoice that we had the pleasure of meeting you at Abbotsford, and I am glad to owe this among the num- berless other obligations I have to the Great Knoicn. Many may be, or may seem, great while unknown ; but few like him, appear greater the more they are known. I am, dear sir, yom- obliged, Makia Edgeworth. After leaving the pleasant home of Scott, they went to Glasgow to then- friends the Bannatynes, and by easy stages returned to Ireland by Port Patrick. They made some visits on their homeward way, and arrived at Edgeworthstown the 3d of September. Sir Walter wrote Miss Edgeworth after this visit, which made them very intimate friends for life. The following was his first letter : — 398 A STUDY OF JVIARIA EDGEWORTH. Abbotsford, Sept. 22, 1823. My dear Miss Edgeworth, — Miss Harriet had the goodness to give me an account of your safe arrival in the Green Isle, of which I was, sooth to sa}^ extremely glad ; for I had my own private apprehensions that yoiu- very disagreeable disorder might return while you were among strangers, and in our rugged climate. I now conclude you are settled quietly at home, and looking back on rec- ollections of mountains and valleys, and pipes and clans and cousins, and masons and carpenters and puppy-dogs, and all the confusion of Abbotsford, as one does on the recollections of a dream. We shall not easily forget the vision of having seen you and om- two young friends, and your kind indulgence for all our humors, sober and fantastic, rough or smooth. Mamma writes to make her own acknowledgments for your very kind attention about the cobweb stockings, which reached us under the omnipo- tent frank of Crocker, who, lilve a true Irish heart, never scruples stretching his powers a little to serve a friend. "We are all here much as you left us, only in possession of our drawing-room, and glorious with our gas-lights, which as yet have only involved us once in total dark- ness, once in a temporary eclipse. In both cases the remedy was easy, and the cause obvious ; and if the gas has no greater objections than I have yet seen or can antici- pate, it is soon like to put wax and mutton-suet entirely out of fashion. I have recovered, by great accident, another verse or two of Miss Sophia's beautiful Irish air : it is only curious as hinting at the cause of the poor damsel-of-the-red-petticoat's deep dolour : — " I went to the mill, but the miller was gone : I sat me down and cried ochone, To think on the days that are past and gone, Of Dickie Macphalion that's slain. Shool, shool, etc. scott's letter. 399 I sold my rock, I sold my reel, And sae hae I my spinning-wheel, — And all to buy a cap of steel For Dickie Macphaliou that's slaui. Shool, shool, etc." But who was Dickie Macphalion for whom this lament was composed? Who was the Pharaoh for whom the pyramid was raised? The questions are equally du- bious and equally important ; but as the one, we may reasonably suppose, was a king of Egypt, so I think we may guess the other to have been a captain of Rapparees, since the ladies, God bless them, honor with the deepest of their lamentation, gallants who live wildly, die bravely, and scorn to survive until they become old and not worth weeping for. 80 much for Dickie Macphalion, who, I dare say, was in his day, "a proper young man." We have had Sir Humphry Davy here for a day or two — very pleasant and instructive. I wish Miss Harriet would dream no more ominous visions about Spicer. The poor thing has been very ill of that fatal disorder proper to the canine race, called, par excellence, the distemper. I have prescribed for her, as who should say thus you would doctor a dog ; and I hope to bring her through, as she is a very affectionate little creature, and of a fine race. She has still an odd wheez- ing, however, which makes me rather doubtful of success. The Lockharts are both well, and at present our lodg- ers, together with John Hugh, or, as he calls himself, Donichue, which sounds like one of your old Irish kings. They all join in every thing kind and affectionate to you and the young ladies, and best compliments to your brother. Believe me ever, dear Miss Edgeworth, yom-s, with the greatest truth and respect, Walter Scott. 400 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. One can -well imagine what an enjoj^ment this journey to Scotland was to Miss Edgeworth. A delightful episode in a life not uneventful or unin- teresting. After her return, she described herself as doing "nothing but idling and reading, and pav- ing a gutter and yard to Honora's pig-sty and school - house : " tliis seems a truly Irish combination of the " pig-sty and schoolhouse." While Miss Edgeworth was at Abbotsford, she related the story of Carabou, and the imposture practised by her ; and Sir Walter used this incident m his " St. Ronan's Well." In January of the year 1824 Miss Edgeworth made a visit to her friends at Pakenham Hall. In March of this year her sister Sophy married their cousin, Capt. Barry Fox. Scott wrote a letter which contained the following allusion to this event, Maria having announced the marriage of her sister : — "I do not delay a moment to send my warmest and best congratulations upon the very happy event which is about to take place in your family, and to assure you that you do me but common justice in supposing that I take the warmest interest in whatever concerns my young friends. All Abbotsford to an acre of Poyais, that she will make an excellent wife ; and most truly happy am I to think that she has such an admirable prospect of mat- rimonial happiness, although at the expense of thwarting the maxim, and showing that ' the course of true love sometimes may run smooth.' It will make a pretty vista, as I hope and trust, for you, my good friend, to look forwards with an increase of interest to futurity. Lady SCOTT'S LETTER. 401 Scott, Anno, and Sophia, send their sincere and hearty coni>:ratuhitions upon this joyful occasion. I hojw to hear her siug *■ The I'ettiooat of Red ' some day in her own house. I should be apt to pity you a little amid all your iKippiness, if 3'ou had not my friend Miss Harriet, besides other young companions, whose merits are only known to me by report, to prevent your feeling, so much as you would otherwise, the blank which this event must occasion in your domestic society. . . . There was great propriety in Miss Harriet's dream, after all ; for if ever a dog needed six legs, poor Spicer certainly requires a pair of additional supporters. She is now following me a little, though the duty of body-guard has devolved for the pres- ent on a cousin of hers, — a fierce game devil that goes at every thing, and has cowed Ourisque's courage in a most extraordinary degree, to Lady Scott's great vexa- tion. Here is a tale of dogs ^ and dreams and former daj's ! But the only pleasure in writing is to write whatever comes readiest to the pen. My wife and Anne send kindest compliments of congratulation, as also Charles, who has come down to spend four or five months with us : he is just entered at Brazen Nose — on fire to be a scholar of classical renown, and studying (I hope the humor will last) like a very dragon. " Always, my dear Miss Edgeworth, with best love to the bride and to dear Harriet, " Very much yours, "Walter Scott." While Miss Edgeworth was making a visit at Black Castle in July of this year, the news arrived 1 Sir Walter Scott raised one dog of his famous Dandie Dinmont breed for ^liss Edgeworth; but it died, and then came his trouble and ill-health, and he did not attempt to give her a dog. 402 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. of Mrs. Beddoes's death in Florence. Miss Edge- worth was very much attached to her ; and once, when some one remarked that they looked much like each other, she expressed pleasure at the thought. There were many visitors during the summer ; and among them may be named Mr. Hunter the pub- lisher, Mr. Butler, and a Mr. Hamilton, whom Maria called "an Admirable Crichton of eighteen." It was in December of this year that Maria received a superb portfolio from a Jewish lady, a Miss Yates of Liverpool, with the name "Harrington" on it, — a remembrance of her regard for the Jews, in writing that tale which had for its hero a good Jew. In January of 1825 Miss Edgeworth had a request fi'om a foreigner settled in London, a publisher by the name of Lupton Relfe, that she would look over her portfolio for something for an Annual he was preparing. She recollected " The Mental Thermom- eter," 1 which had never been printed, except in an Irish farmers' journal not known in England. "So [she adds] I rooted in the garret uuder pyra- mids of old newspapers, with my mother's prognostica- tions 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' grovelUng, with my object in my hand ! Cut it out, added a few lines of new end to, and packed it off to Lupton Relfe ; telling him 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 ' See Apj)eudix. "TAKE FOR GRANTED." 403 a parcel containing six copies of the new Memorandum Book, and a most l)eautiful twelfth edition of 'Scott's Poetical Works,' bound in the most elegant manner, and with most beautifully engraved frontispieces and vignettes, and a five-pound note. I was quite ashamed ; but I have done all I could for him by giving tlie ' Friendship's Offering ' 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 in Edinburgh, and particularly wished for it. Made a present of the five pounds to some one else. I might have looked over my portfolio till doomsday, as I have not an unpublished scrap, except ' Take for Granted.' " This " Take for Granted " Miss Edgeworth made many notes for, but never finished it. This remark of hers would seem to clearly disprove the statement sometimes made, that she left many manuscripts, as she was certainly at the height of her powers at this time; and if she had no unpublished writings in 1825, it is not probable that she left any manuscripts of importance. "Take for Granted" never quite pleased her, and she worked many years at it ; but it reached no more definite shape than notes. In writing late at night at this time, she playfully adds, as she felt guilty on hearing the carriage, with Mrs. Edgeworth, rolling up to the door, — "Yours affectionately, in all the haste of guilt con- science-stricken, that is, found out. No I All safe, all innocent, because not found out. Finis. " By the author of ' Moral Tales ' and ' Practical Edu- cation.' " 404 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. [Miss Edgeworth to Mr. Constable.] Edgeworthstown, Nov. 18, 1824. Dear Sir, — I have received from some unknown friend a perfect copy of "Reginald Dalton," for wliich I suspect that I am obliged to you. If so, accept my thanks. I assure you that when I asked for a few pages, I did not mean to beg a book. The copy which 1 first possessed I shall keep as a curiosity, on which future commentators in future ages may write ingeniously on the inexhaustible subject of the Scotch novels. "Matthew Wald " has great power. I am sorry his story came to such a horrid, and unnecessarily and uncon- scionably horrid, a conclusion. I am delighted with ' ' Redgauntlet. ' ' The author has made more of rebellion, and more of the Pre — Che — than any man alive or dead ever did. I, in common with thousands and tens of thousands, am impatient for the next production of that exhaustless genius. Christmas, I hope, will find us all happily at "The Crusades." I am, dear sir, with many thanks for your obliging attentions, Youi's sincerely, Maria Edgeworth. Mr. Constable wrote, begging Miss Edgeworth's co-operation in the scheme for his encyclopsedia. She replied as follows : — Edgeworthstown, Jan. 19, 1825. Dear Sir, — I have delaj'cd answering your obliging letter, that I might get an opinion from a friend in Eng- land upon your plan ; which, as he is a man of science and high reputation in the scientific world, must be worth LETTER TO CONSTABLE. 405 much more to you than mine can be, ignorant as I am of science or of the requisites, for such an encyclopredia as you propose to form. As far as 1 can judge, I agree completely with my friend's opinion, which 1 enclose to you. 1 think for youth you should not give treatises on each subject ; indeed, for all people there is an encyclo- panlia too much or too little. Those who want to study deeply must go through the regular means of study, in the complete treatises published in different works on the subjects ; but in referring to an encyclopn3dic dictionary, 3'oung people especially want immediate, precise informa- tion of the meaning of certain terms, or of the means of accomplishing certain purposes. It should be, therefore, more practical than theoretic. If I were you, in the first place I would weed out all the heads in your present pro- spectus which would be general treatises, and class the others into what are essential, necessary in the next degree, and so on. AVhen you have thus got rid of what is obviously superfluous for your purpose, compress again and again, till you get your design into the smallest com- pass that will hold the needful : portion this out to the most skilful hands, make it worth their while ; and then you secure the solid reputation of your book by their work, and its celebrity by their names. When this is done, you may, if you want bulk, add what other articles you please. If you make, as my friend advises, your arrangement alphabetical, you will have no trouble. For mercy's sake, make your writers say all they have to say under one good head, and not refer the wretched readers from one letter to another, till their patience and desire for information be absolutely worn out, — ArcJi, see Building; Building, see Masonry; Masonry, see Ar- chitecture, Civil, Gothic, etc. ; and then a whole treatise on each before you can get the simple meaning of an arch, or how to construct one. 406 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. You told me in your letter that you enclosed some list of articles which you particularly wished from me. No such list came in your letter. No matter, for I have as much on my hands at present as I can possibly do till Easter : therefore I would not undertake ayiy thing for you till after that time.^ I am highly flattered by the compliment you intended me in putting an engraving of my portrait in this work. But, independently of the reason which could induce me to decline it for your sake as quite unsuited to your work, it is impossible I should give it you, as I have refused my portrait to my nearest relations. I truly think that both the public and I shall be better off in consequence of this my determination. I see my father's name in your prospectus. I certainly do not wish that to be struck out. I think I see your kind intentions to have justice done to his memory, and to his 2)^'ofessional education. I thank you : you could not gratify me more. Command me in any assistance I am able to give as soon as my having accomplished my present engagements gives me time at my own disposal. My friend Mr. Butler was grateful for your attentions to him, and for the fine engraving of Sir Walter Scott which you gave him. If you can, pray send me "The Crusaders ' ' before they are published. . . . If a pretty, elegant, lady's memorandum-book, whose title is, I think, " Friendship's Offering, or Lady's Re- membrancer," should come from London to Edinburgh, pray give it a good puff, and a good push forward. The publisher, a man of a strange name, Lupton Relfe, is unknown to me ; but he besought me to give him a help- 1 TJie s^lbjects which Mr. Constable desired that Miss Edgeworth should contribute were, Female Education; Etiquette; Recreations, Rational and Useful, for the Female Sex. MES. BARBAULD. 407 ing hand, and told me he had expended fifteen hundred pounds in getting up this pretty trille. I sent him a few pages containing an old thermometer, a Mental Ther- mometer^ constructed when I was sixteen. lie sent me in return a hundred thousand times more than it was worth, — a beautiful copy of Scott's poetical works, your duodecimo edition, with the frontispiece portrait of Sir Walter, and beautiful little vignettes. I feel as if I had taken bounty-money, and enlisted to serve him ; and I really have no power to do so : pray help me, for you can. I sent his pocket-book to Lady Scott, I think by Mr. Butler, but have never heard of her receiving it. I am, dear sir, yours sincerely, Maria Edgewoktii. This was a very favorite project of Constable's; and Mr. Jeffrey alluded to a plan of one proposed by him as early as 1804, in a letter he vs^as writing to Francis Horner. The business crisis in Mr. Con- stable's affair brought the plan to an end. ]\Iiss Edgeworth heard of her old friend Mrs. Barbauld's death in March, 1825, while she was at Black Castle, and wrote as follows: — "You have probably seen in the papers the death of our admirable friend, Mrs. Barbauld. I have copied for 3'ou 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. P^legance and strength — qualities rarely uniting without injury to each other — • combined most perfectly in her style ; and this rare com- bination, added to their classical purity, forms perhaps the distinguishing characteristics of her writings. Eng- land has lost a great writer, and we a most sincere friend." 408 A STUDY OF MAKIA EDGEWOETH. There is a nice discrimination and analysis of char- acter shown in these words about Mrs. Barbauld. " In reading one of the most paltry quartos I ever opened," said Miss Edgeworth at this time, "'The Life of Murphy,' a perfect sample of the art of book-making, I found two excellent things in proof of my system that there is no book so worthless but we may find some good in it." She was surprised to see herself mentioned at length, and a discussion of her writings, in the re- view of the novel " Tremaine," in the new " Monthly Magazine " for Ma}^ 1825. She said she was in this review "like Mahomet's coffin, between heaven and earth." During Moore's visit to Ireland in this year, he mentions driving with Sir Philip Crampton, in his gig, in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, and adds, — "He gave me some pretty verses of his own to Miss Edgeworth, with Sh "Walter Scott's pen ; showed me some verses of hers to himself, strongly laudatory, but very bad." Miss Edgeworth wrote the following letter to Con- stable in behalf of a inotegee : — [Miss Edgeworth to Mr. Constable. ] Edgeworthstown, March 12, 1825. Sir, — Some very interesting letters, from a lady who has been for tliese last four years resident in Upper Canada, have been lately put into my hands : I have advised their pubUcatiou, and have obtained permission that they should be published. I know the lady by whom LETTER TO CONSTABLE. 409 thoy aro written. I s.aw each letter as it came from C;m:ul;i to lier friends here, and can voucli for their aulhcnl icily, and for tlie letters not having been written with any view to pulilication. On this their merit in a great measure depends. They contain a view never yet laid before the public, of the details and progress of an Irish settler's life in Canada. They have interested every- body who has seen them, by their perfect truth and sim- plicity, and from their letting us behind the scenes, and telling what no one writing a book for the public would think of telling. The lady was bred up in the first cir- cle of society, is highly accomplished, and was, when she married, apparently successor to a very considerable for- tune. The roguery of some of her relatives, and the misfortunes of others, suddenly reduced her husband from opulence to the necessity of emigrating to America to settle on a grant of crown-land in Canada. From the moment she followed her husband's fallen fortunes thither, she made herself to her changed state ; and such has been her fortitude, and such her exertions, as have interested every creature that knows them, in her favor. These let- ters have made them known to many who were strangers to her ; and, judging by the impression they have made on persons of different tastes, I cannot hesitate about their publication. Her name must not be told. But I will willingly put my name to a preface vouching their authenticity. My object, I plainly tell you, is to assist in making up for her and for her husband and children a sum which may enable them to visit, once again in their lives, their native country for a few weeks. I do not think the letters have body or solidity enough to stand as a separate publication ; but I think, and am confident, that they have spirit and soul enough to inter- est much in a periodical publication. I have a periodical 410 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. publication in London open to me, which I know will gladly accept them on my recommendation ; but I prefer offering them to you. With as much frankness as I write to you, answer me, whether from this account you are disposed to publish them in your " Edinburgh Journal." I have not yet all the letters before me, therefore I cannot tell you how much they will altogether make in print. Tell me the number of letters in your sheet of journal, and I will count them off. Let me also know what you can afford to give per sheet. The fairest way would be, I think, to try one sheet. Send your answer to Dr. Brewster's, directed to me ; and he will enclose it in a packet, which will come free to me through Lord Rosse's frank. I am, yours sincerely, Maria Edgeworth. In answer to him, after a letter containing a liberal offer for the letters, she replied, expressing herself very honestly as to the merits of the letters on fur- ther examination, — [To Mr. Constable. 1 Edgeworthstown, April 14, 1825. Dear Sir, — I am much obliged by your letter and lib- eral conduct. I feel obliged to you (independently of all that may be gratifying to myself in this transaction) for giving me the pleasure of seeing such frank and generous dealing. In fact, I am more obliged than if I profited by your offer for my friend or for myself. But the fact is, that upon looking over these letters again, I find so much of the interest depends upon 2>ersonal narrative and details which cannot be laid before the public, that after all the garbling and suppression of names and so forth, I appre- LETTER TO CONSTABLE. 411 henrl I could not honostly insure to 3'ou their sueocss ; and, without feeling internally convineed at least of their deserving literary success, I could not recommend them to )'ou, trusting, as I see you so handsomely do, to my pure and sole recommendation. Besides this, another qualm of conscience has seized me : an inconsistency stares me in the face ! A literary friend has just ai)plied to me for some of the letters of a lately deceased celebrated person, which were addressed to me. I have (since I wrote to you) refused them ; de- claring it to be my principle never to give up private letters to publication, expressing my belief that this publishing of letters tends to weaken and destroy private confidence. "Wliile I was writing this letter, suddenly it flashed across my mind, that I could not afterwards, with any consistency, put my name to a preface to the Canada let- ters I was recommending to you ; for, though the lady and her friends consent to the publication, yet still what becomes of my principle about the tendency to destroy private confidence, which I believe would be the result of this practice ? Let me repeat my thanks to you for your frank and gentlemanlike conduct, and wish you all the success and happiness such conduct deserves. I am, with due esteem, your obliged, Maria Edge worth. In August of 1825 Edgeworthstown received the great "known," as he was often called in later years. Sir Walter Scott arrived at the home of Miss Edsfe- worth, accompanied b}' his daughter and the surgeon- general, Sir Philip Crampton, the friend of whom Moore so often writes. Capt. and Mrs. Scott and 412 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. Mr. Lockhart were detained in Dublin, and did not reach Edgeworthstown till some hours after the rest of the party. This was a very happy event in Miss Edge worth's life, and a proud moment for Ireland, when the great- est writer of the sister isle visited her shores; full of eagerness to study the habits of the people, see the picturesque spots and the places of note in the country, made famous by the pen of one whom he loved and respected. Lockhart wrote of this journey : — "On the 1st of August we proceeded from Dublhi to Edgeworthstown, tlie party being now re-enforced by Capt. and Mrs. Scott, and also by the delightful addition of the surgeon-general,^ who had long been an intimate friend of the Edgeworth family, and equally gratified both the nov- elists by breaking the toils of his great practice to witness their meeting on his native soil. A happy meeting it was. We remained there for several days, making excursions to Loch Oel and other scenes of interest in Longford and the adjoining counties ; the gentry everywhere exerting themselves with true Irish zeal to signalize their affec- tionate pride in their illustrious countrywoman, and their appreciation of her guest : while her brother, Mr. Lovell Edgeworth, had his classical mansion filled every even- ing with a succession of distinguished friends, the Mite of Ireland. Here, above all, we had the opportunity of seeing in what universal respect and comfort a gentle- man's family may live in that country, and in far from its most favored district, provided only they live there habitually, and do their duty as the friends and guard- 1 Cramptou. SCOTT'S visit to IRELAND. 413 dians of those among whom rrovidcnce has appointed their proper pUxce. Here we found neither mud liovels nor naked peasantry, but snug cottages and smiling faces all about. Here there was a very large school in the Vil- lage, of which masters and pupils were, in nearly equal proportion, Protestants and Roman Catholics ; the Trotest- ant squire himself making it a regular part of his daily business to visit the scene of their operations, and strengthen autliority and enforce discipline by his per- sonal superintendence. Here, too, we pleased ourselves with recognizing some of the sweetest features in Gold- smith's picture of * Sweet Auburn ! loveliest village of the plain.' . . . " It may well be imagined with what lively interest Sir Walter surveyed the scenery with which so many of the proudest recollections of Ireland must ever be asso- ciated, and how curiously he studied the rural manners it presented to him, in the hope (not disappointed) of being able to trace some of his friend's bright creations to their first hints and germs. On the delight with which he con- templated her position in the midst of her own large and happy domestic circle, I need say still less. The reader is aware by this time how deeply he condemned and pitied the conduct and fate of those, who, gifted with pre-emi- nent talents for the instruction and entertainment of their species at large, fancy themselves entitled to neglect those every-day duties and charities of life, from the mere shad- owing of which in imaginary pictures the genius of poetry and romance has always reaped its highest and purest, perhaps its only true and immortal honors. In INIaria he hailed a sister-spirit ; one who, at the summit of literar^^ fame, took the same modest, just, and, let me add, CJiris- tiau view of the relative importance of the feelings, the 414 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. obligations, and the hopes, in which we are all equally par- takers, and those talents and accomplishments which may seem, to vain and short-sighted eyes, sufficient to consti- tute their possessors into an order and species apart from the rest of their kind. Such fantastic conceits found no shelter with either of these powerful minds. I was then a young man ; and I cannot forget how much I was struck at the time by some words that fell from one of them, when, in the course of a walk in the park at Edgeworthstown, I happened to use some phrase which conveyed (though not perhaps meant to do so) the impression that I suspected poets and novelists of being a good deal accustomed to look at life and the world only as materials for art. A soft and pensive shade came over Scott's face as he said, ' I fear you have some very young ideas in your head. Are you not too apt to measure things by some reference to literature, to disbelieve that anybody can be worth much care, who has no knowledge of that sort of thing, or taste for it ? God help us ! what a poor world this would be if that were the true doctrine ! I have read books enough, and observed and conversed with enough of eminent and splendidly cultivated minds, too, in my time ; but I assure you I have heard higher sentiments from the lips of poor, uneducated men and women, when exerting the spirit of severe, yet gentle heroism under difficulties and afflictions, or speaking their simple thoughts as to circumstances in the lot of friends and neighbors, than I ever yet met with out of the pages of the Bible. We shall never learn to feel and respect our real calling and destiny, unless we have taught ourselves to consider every thing as moonshine, compared with the education of the heart.' Maria did not listen to this without some water in her eyes, — her tears are always ready when any generous string is touched (for, as Pope says, ' The finest SCOTT's visit to IRELAND. 415 minds, like the finest metals, dissolve the easiest'), — but she brushed them gayly aside, and said, ' You sec how it is. Dean Swift said he had written his books in order that people might learn to treat him like a great lord. Sir Walter writes his in order that he may be able to treat his people as a great lord ought to do.' "Miss Edgeworth, her sister Harriet, and her brother "William, were easily persuaded to join our party for the rest of our Irish travels. We had lingered a week at Edgeworthstown, and were now anxious to make the best of our way towards the Lakes of Killarney. But posting was not to be very rapidly accomplished in those regions by so large a company as had now collectetl ; and we were more agreably delayed by the hospitalities of Miss Edge- worth's old friends, and several of Sir Walter's new ones, at various mansions on our line of route : of which I must note especially Judge Moore's at Lamberton, near Mary- borough, because Sir Walter pronounced its beneficence to be even beyond the usual Irish scale ; for on reaching our next halting-place, which was an indifferent country inn, we discovered that we need be in no alarm as to our dinner, at all events, — the judge's people having privately packed up in one of the carriages, ere we started in the morning, a pickled salmon, a most lordly venison pasty, and half a dozen bottles of champagne. But most of these houses seemed, like the judge's, to have been con- structed on the principle of the Peri Banou's tent. They seemed all to have room not only for the lion and lion- esses, and their respective tails, but for all in the neigh- borhood who could be held worthy to inspect them at feeding-time. ' ' It was a succession of festive gayety wherever we halted ; and in the course of our movements we saw many castles, churches, and ruins of all sorts, with more than 416 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETfl. enough of mountain, wood, lake, and river, to have made any similar progress, in any other part of Europe, truly delightful in all respects. But those of the party to whom the south of Ireland was new had almost continually be- fore them spectacles of ahject misery, which robbed these things of more than half their charm. . . . There was, however, abundance of ludicrous incidents to break this gloom ; and no traveller ever tasted either the humors or the blunders of Paddy more heartily than did Sir Wal- ter. I find recorded in one letter a very merry morning at Limerick, where, amidst the ringing of all the bells, in honor of the advent, there was ushered in a brother-poet, who must needs pay his personal respects to the author of 'Marmion.' He was a scarecrow figure, attired much in the fashion of the strugglers, by name O'Kelly ; and he had produced, on the spur of the occasion, this modest parody of Dryden's famous epigram : — * Three poets, of three different nations born, The United Kingdom in this age adorn, — Byron of England ; Scott, of Scotia's blood ; And Erin's pride, O'Kelly, great and good.' " Sir "Walter's five shillings were at once forthcoming; and the bard, in order that Miss Edge worth might display equal generosity, pointed out, in a little volume of his works (for which, moreover, we had all to subscribe) , this pregnant couplet : — ' Scott, Morgan, Edgeworth, Byron, prop of Greece, Are characters whose fame not soon will cease.' "We were still more amused (though there was real misery in the case) with what befell on our approach to a certain pretty seat, in a different county, where there was a collection of pictures and curiosities, not usually shown to travellers. A gentleman, whom we had met in Dublin, SCOTT'S visit to IRELAND. 417 harl 1)pcn accompanyinco'ticularly liking ; but the involuntary feeling is perhaps the most gratifying to a writer of benevolent heart, as well as superior genius. " I am afraid you are soaring above us. I read of such fine doings at the Rosery, such a grand breakfast on the marriage of Miss M . But as she is good Irish, you are true to your national affections ; and there may be room in your heart for all of us." TRIM. 603 In another letter written about this time, she speaks of Dickens's " American Notes " as follows : — " Dickens's ' America ' is a failure : never trouljlc 3'our- self 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 human of his ascendant popularity." Miss Edgeworth was pleased to think that she admired Lady Lansdowne, and " appreciated both her talents and her character," she said at this time, " before all the world found out that she was a superior person." She had excellent opportunities for studying the fine character of Lady Lansdowne early in that lady's life, in their first visit at Bowood, where she saw her domestic virtues and her mental abilities. She was a noble specimen of the high- born and well-bred Englishwoman of her clay. While at Trim, Miss Edgeworth received the announcement of Lucy Eclgeworth's engagement to Dr. Robinson, the celebrated astronomer. At this time she took much pleasure in building a greenhouse for Mr. Butler, who was very fond of flowers. In November of 1843 Miss Edgeworth went again to England, to visit her sister, Mrs. Wilson. She saw many old friends, — Lady Charleville, Lady Elizabeth Whitbread, the Lansdownes, — made the acquaint- ance of Sydney Smith, whose daughter was the sec- ond wife of her old friend Sir Henry Holland. She 604 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. met Sydney Smith at the Hollands, and spoke of out- Bos welling him. Lady Holland speaks of this as follows : — "During her visit she saw much of my father; and her talents, as well as her love and thorough knowledge of Ireland, made her conversation peculiarly agreeable to him. I wish I had kept some notes of these conversations, which were very remarkable ; but I have only a characteristic and amusing letter she wrote to me after her return home, from which the following is an extract : — "'I have not the absurd presumption to think your father would leave London or Combe Florey for Ireland, voluntarily ; but I wish some Irish bishopric were forced upon him, and that his own sense of national charity and humanity would forbid him to refuse. Then, obliged to reside among us, he would see, in the twinkling of an eye (such an eye as his), all our manifold grievances up and down the country. One word, one hon-mot of his, would do more for us, I guess, than Mr. 's four hun- dred pages, and all the like, with which we have been bored. One letter from Sydney Smith on the affairs of Ireland, with his name to it, and after having been there, would do more for us than his letters did for America and England : a bold assertion, you wiU say, and so it is. But I calculate that Pat is a far better subject for wit than Jonathan ; it only plays round Jonathan's head : but it goes to Pat's heart, to the very bottom of his heart, where he loves it. And he don't care whether it is for or against him, so that it is real wit and fun. Now, Pat would dote upon your father, and kiss the rod with all his soul, he would ; the lash just lifted, — when he'd see the laugh on the face, the kind smile, that would tell him it was all for his good. LETTER TO LADY HOLLAND. 605 "'Your father would lead Pat (for he'd never drive him) to the world's end, and maybe to common-sense at the end ; might open his eyes to the true state of things and persons, and cause him to ax himself how it comes that, if he be so distressed by the Sassenach landlords that he can't keep soul and body together, nor one farthing for the wife and children, after paying the rint for the land, still and nevertheless he can pay King Dan's rint, aisy? — thousands of pounds, not for lauds or potatoes, but just for castles in the air. Methinks I hear Pat saying the words, and see him jump to the conclusion that maybe the ghitleman, his reverence, that ^^ has the tcay tcifh him," ^ might be the man after all to do them all the good in life, and asking nothing at all from them. "Better, sure, than Dan, after all ! and we will follow him through thick and thin. "Why no? What he is, his reverence, the church — that is, onv cleargy — won't object to him; for he never was an inimy any way, but always for paying them off handsome, and fools if they don't take it now. So down with King Dan, for he is no good ! and up with Sydney, he's the man, king of glory ! " " ' But, visions of glory, and of good better than glory, spare my longing sight ! else I shall never come to an end of this note. Note, indeed ! I beg your pardon. ' ' ' Yours affectionately, "'Maria Edgeworth.' "Miss Edgeworth says in one of her letters to her sister, after one of the evenings spent in my father's society, — " ' Delightful I need not say ; but to attempt to Boswell 1 This in reference to a reply of Dr. Doyle's to Mr. Smith, about a proposition of his to offer the Catholic priests an income: "Ah, Mr. Smith ! you've such a way of putting things." 606 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. Sydney Smith's conversation would be out-Boswelling Boswell indeed.' " Sydney Smith, in describing the imprsssion made on him by his new friend, remarked, — "Miss Edgeworth was delightful, so clever and sen- sible ! She does not say witty things, but there is such a perfume of wit runs through all her conversation as makes it very brilliant." This observation from Sydney Smith on the con- versation of Miss Edgeworth shows that she was still, in spite of her advanced years, in full posses- sion of all her remarkable powers of mind, and as agreeable as ever. Praise from Sydney Smith was "praise indeed." Miss Edgeworth had tickets from Lady Byron, and two other friends among the peers, to visit the House on the occasion of Queen Victoria's opening Parliament in February, 1844 ; and she enjoyed the brilliant pageant and display very much. Samuel Rogers, her old friend, she had many atten- tions from, and, in speaking of it, said of him, "dear, good-natured old man," in her affectionate manner. She always saw him much during her London visits. She dined with the Archbishop of Canterbury, at Lambeth Palace, and met there the Bishop of Lich- field, and Dean Milman of St. Paul's. She enjoyed the conversation of these eminent church dignita- ries, and the "dear, simple, dignified, yet playful archbishop, who talked well of all things, from nursery rhjanes to deep metaphysics and physics." KETUKN TO IRELAND. 507 This was ]\Iiss Edgeworth's last visit to London. She returned to Irehind, and made a visit at Trim, where she was unfortunate in having an attack of her old enemy, erysipelas: she recovered from it in a short time, and was able, daring her convalescence, to enjoy reading some new books. She found W. H. Prescott's " Mexico " " extremely interesting ; " and among other books, of a lighter style, she names, — '"Ellen Middleton,' by Lady Georgiana Fullerton, grand-daughter of the famous duchess-beauty of Devon- shire ; aud whatever faults that duchess had, she cer- tainly had genius. Do 3'ou recollect her lines on ' William Tell"? or do 3'ou know Coleridge's lines to her, begin- ning 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 throughout the book (where got she ' that heroic measm-e ' ?) , without any cant or ostentation. It is the same moral I intended in 'Helen,' but exemplified in much deeper and stronger colors." These remarks on " Ellen Middleton," and con- trasting and comparing it with her own " Helen," rather in disparagement of herself and her work, show the generosity and impartiality of her mind, and her perfect freedom from literary envy and petty jealousy. 508 A STUDY OF MAKIA EDGEWORTH. She made a visit in 1844 to her new brother-in- law and sister at the Observatory at Armagh, and was charmed with Dr. Robinson, saying, — " Robinson at home is not less wonderful, and more agreeable even, than Robinson abroad : his ahondance in literature equal to Mackintosh ; in science, you know, out of sight, superior to everybody." Surgeon-General Sir Philip Crampton showed Lever the remarks of Miss Edgeworth in praise of his former works ; and when he published " Tom Burke," in 1845, he dedicated that book to her. He says he would not venture to dedicate an Irish novel to her, and he is "too sensible of" his "own inferi- ority " in that dej^artment. This dedication is a pleasant tribute to Ireland's gifted daughter. He writes : — "I cannot resist the temptation of being, even thus, associated with a name, the first in my country's litera- ture. " Another motive I will not conceal : the ardent desire I have to asure you, that, amid the thousands you have made better and wiser and happier by your writings, you cannot count one who feels more proudly the common tie of country with you, nor more sincerely admires your goodness and your genius, than " Your devoted and obedient servant, "Charles J. Lever." Miss Edgeworth was much gratified b}^ Mr. Lever's attention. She wrote him on the aj^pearance of the " O'Donohue," and he expressed himself as encour- aged by her kindly words of interest. " OELANDINO." 609 The year 1846 was one of much anxiety to Miss Edgewurth. Her brother Francis died in this year. Private grief and public distress made this time a busy one for Miss Edgeworth. This season saw the beo-inning; of the disastrous famine of 1846-47. Miss Edgeworth was always interested in the poor; and the villagers of Edgeworthstown owed much to her thoughtful, generous acts of kindness. For many years she took the care, in ad.dition to her many other duties, of making up their letters, and sending them to their friends in America and else- where, that they might be properly delivered. When the famine came, she exerted herself to the utmost to secure the necessaries of life for the suffering peo- ple, and provided work, begged relief of otliers, and gave herself: she wrote a story for " Chambers's Mia- cellany " in order to add to the Poor Relief Fund. She had laid aside her pen for some time ; but her strong desire to push on the good work of temper- ance, and the hope of adding a good contribution to her subscription for the suffering, were her incentives. This little story formed the first of a series edited by William Chambers. Miss Edgeworth sympa- thized with Mr. Chambers in his desire to serve juvenile literature. This tale has Miss Edgeworth's usual peculiarities and excellences. She makes her children almost too self-denying and ready to give up. Few children are able to exercise the self-con- trol and cheerful generosity of her little people. Orlandino, the hero, is rescued from debt, drunken- ness, and ruin, by the children, who first sec him at the beck and call of an unscrupulous circus-man- 610 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOETH. ager. As Orlandino was a Protestant, the pledge of Father Mathew would not protect him. Miss Edgeworth takes occasion to expatiate eloquently on the beneficial influence of the good man's work : saying the reformation has lasted nine years; and, though lapses have occurred, "intemperance is no longer tolerated in good society." " 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, siuce the world began, were countless multitudes so influenced and so successfully directed by one mind to one peaceful purpose. Never were nobler ends by nobler means attained." She speaks of his simplicity, absence of all ora- torical attempts, the forbearance from all that could touch the imagination, or rouse the passions, excite enthusiasm, or even produce what is called a sensa- tion. She strikes no uncertain note in favor of temper- ance, showing how necessary for some is total absti- nence. " Nothing less would break the habit. Tell him noth- ing else will do. Tell him that Father Mathew tried, and found that nothing less will do. Tell him that Dr. John- sou tried it, and said to one who was hesitating about giving up wine, ' Drink water, sir, and you are sure of yourself. If you drink wine, you never know how far it may carry you. I drink water. I now no more think of drinking wine than a horse does. The wine upon the table is no more for me than the dog that is under it.' " " PREFACES." 511 Miss Edgcwortli wrote Mr. Chambers that " Orlan- dino " must have no other title, and " it does not require or admit of any preface." Mme. Belloc had a copy of this little story for translation. Miss Edgeworth wrote the following, concerning its pub- lication, in 1848, to her friend Mrs. S. C. Hall : — " Chambers, as you always told me, acts very lil:)erally. As this was to earn a little money for our parish poor, in the last year's distress, he most cousiderately gave prompt payment. Even before publication, when the proof-sheets were under correction, came the ready order on 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. Edge- worth's principle and mine is to excite the people to work for good wages, and not, by gratis feeding, to make beg- gars of them, and ungrateful beggars, as the case might be. "I do not deserve the very kind, warm-hearted letter I have just received from you, dear Mrs. Hall ; but I prize and like it all the better. So little standing upon ceremony, and so cordially off-hand and from the heart ! Thank you for it with all vvj heart, and be assured it gave me heartfelt pleasure ; and this I know will please you." When Messrs. Simpkin & Marshall were prepar- ing to publish Miss Edgeworth's collected works in 1847, they asked her to write prefaces for them in the way Sir Walter Scott had done for his novels. She answered them at length, and told them that her books were not of national interest, and her writings could not be thought of in comparison with those of Scott. 612 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOETH. [To Messrs. Simpkin & Marshall.] Gentlejien, — Accept my best thanks for j'our kind- ness in letting me know in time of your design of publish- ing a new edition of my novels and tales. I am further and highly obliged and gratified by your liberal intention of illustrating and "embellishing those works upon the plan of the present edition of the Waverley novels." I am fully sensible that even such writers as AValter Scott owe much of their popularity to the talents of the painter and engraver, especially in these modern days of literary luxury. How much more necessary must be the elegances of printing and external decoration to writers of inferior pretension ! Without any affectation of humility, — which I despise and dislike more than frank vanity, — I cannot believe that any thing I could write as prefaces or notes to my stories could add to their value or interest with the public in any proportion to those of the Waverley novels ; and I have too much honest pride to degrade myself by servile imitations, when I could not hope, by any effort, to catch the spirit or attain the value of the ongmal. Sir Walter Scott, skilful beyond all other writers in art of gracefully speaking of himself, possesses in tliose pref- aces and notes peculiar advantages, which protect him from the offensive appearance of egotism. It is not of himself as an individual that he speaks, but of his coun- try, of its historical traditions, and romantic legends. His novels are truly national : his elucidations are neces- sary to make national manners and language, and local or transitory customs, intelligible to the English reader even of the present day, and still more to those who will be delighted with his works m distant lands in future ages. The history of each of his fictitious narratives, traced from the first idea through all its variations and transfor- mations to its final completion, is not only interesting and LETTER TO PUBLISHERS. 513 useful as literary criticism to all readers and writers, but further, and in a higher sphere, is important to tlie phi- losopher and the metaphysician curious to learn the secret workings and processes of that mind which has raised Sir Walter Scott to a pre-eminence never before attained by any writer in his lifetime, and which has gained for him personally the sympathy of his country, from the cottage to the throne. After this view, how can I return to speak of myself and of my works? Of her father's prefaces she says, — " In truth, I have nothing to say of them but what my dear father has said for me m his prefaces to each of them as they came out. They sufficiently explain the moral design : they require no national explanations, and I have nothing personal to add. As a woman, my life, wholly domestic, cannot afford any thing interesting to the public. I am like the needy knife-grinder, — I have no story to tell. There is, indeed, one thing I should have wished to tell, but that Sir Walter has so much bet- ter told it for me. I honestly glory in the thought, that my name will go down to posterity as his friend." She thought it needless to show her own processes of thought, and the " secret workmgs " of her mind. But a description of the development of her intel- lectual powers, and something of a sketch of her original studies, and the gradual growth of a story as it formed itself in her mind, would have been most interesting to the reader ; and it is to be regretted that she was not willing to give these prefaces to the publishers. 614 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOllTH. [To W. H. Prescott, Boston, U.S.A.] Edgewortiistown, Aug. 28, 1847. Dear Sir, — Your preface to j'our "History of the Couquest of Peru" is most interesting, especially that part which concerns the author individually. That deli- cate integrity which made him apprehend that he had received praise or sympathy from the world on false pre- tences converts what might have been pity into admira- tion ; without diminishing the feeling for his suffering and his privations, against which he has so nobly, so persever- ingly, so successfully, struggled. Our admiration and highest esteem now are commanded by his moral courage and truth. What pleasure and pride — honest, proper pride — you must feel, my dear Mr. Prescott, in the sense of diffi- cult}'^ conquered, — of difficulties innumerable vanquished, — by the perseverance and fortitude of genius ! It is a fine example to human nature, and will form genius to great works in the rising generation and in ages yet unborn. What a new and ennobling moral view of posthumous fame ! — a view which short-sighted, narrow-minded medi- ocrity cannot reach, and probably would call romantic, but which the noble-minded realize to themselves, and ask not either the sympathy or the comprehension of the commonplace ones. You need not apologize for speaking of yourself to the world. No one in the world, whose opinion is worth looking to, will ever think or call this " egotism," any more than they did in the case of Sir Walter Scott. Whenever he spoke of himself, it was with the same noble and engaging simplicity, the same endear- ing confidence in the sympathy of the good and true- minded, and the same real freedom from all vanity, which we see in your addresses to the public. LETTER TO MR. PRESCOTT. 615 As to your judgments of the advantages peculiar to each of your histories, "The Conquest of Mexico," and "The Conquest of Peru," of course you, who have con- sidered and compared them in all lights, must be accurate in your estimate of the facility or difficulty each subject presented ; and j'ou have well pointed out, in your preface to " Peru," the difficulty of making out a unity of sub- ject, —where, in fact, the first unity ends, as we may dramatically consider it, at the third act, when the con- quest of the Incas is effected ; but not the conquest of Peru for Spain, which is the thing to be done. You have admirably kept the mind's eye upon this, the real end, and have thus carried on, and prolonged, and raised, as you carried forward, the interest sustained to the last moment, happily, by the noble character of Gasca, with which terminates the history of the mission to Peru. You sustain with the dignity of a just historian your mottoes from Claudian and from Lope de Vega ; and in doing this con amore you carry with you the sympathy of your reader. The cruelties of the Spaniards to the inoffensive, amiable, hospitable, trusting Peruvians and their Incas are so revolting, that, unless you had given vent to indignation, the reader's natural, irrepressiljle feelings would have turned against the narrator, in whom even impartiality would have been suspected of want of moral sense. I wish that you could have gone further into that com- parison or inquiry which you have touched upon, and so ably pointed out for further inquiry, — how far the want of political freedom is compatible or incompatible with happiness or virtue. You well observe that under the Incas this experiment was tried, or was trying, upon the Peruvians ; and that the contrary experiment is now try- ing in America. Much may be said, but much more is to 616 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. be seen, on both sides of this question. Tliere is a good essay by a friend of mine, perhaps of yours, the late Abbe Morellet, upon the subject of i^ersonal and political freedom. I wonder what your negroes would say touch- ing the comforts of slavery. They seem to feel freedom a curse, when suddenly given ; and, when unprepared for the consequences of independence, lie down with the cap of liberty pulled over their ears, and go to sleep or to death in some of our freed, lazy colonies, and the empire of Hayti. But I suppose time and motives will settle all this, and waken souls in black bodies as well as in white. Meanwhile, I cannot but wish you had discussed a little more this question, even if you had come upon the yet more difBcult question of races, and their unconquera- ble or their conquerable or exhaustible differences. Who could do this so well ? I admire your adherence to your principle of giving evidence in your notes and appendices for your own accu- racy, and allowing your own opinions to be re- judged by your readers in furnishing them with the means of judging which they could not otherwise procure, and which you, having obtained with so much labor and so much favor from high and closed sources, bring before us gratis with such unostentatious candor and humility. I admire and favor, too, your practice of mixing biog- raphy with history ; genuine sayings and letters by which the individuals give their own character and their own portraits. And I thank you for the quantity of informa- tion you give in the notices of the principal authorities to whom you refer. These biographical notices add weight and value to the authorities, in the most agreeable man- ner ; though I own that I was often mortified by my own ignorance of tlie names you mention of great men, your familiars. You have made me long to have known your LETTEll TO MR. PRESCOTT. 517 admirjible friend, Don Fernandes de NaA^arrete, of whom you make such honorable and touching mention in your l)reface. . . . I 3'esterday sent ... a parcel ... to Mr. Tickuor. In it I have put, addressed to the care of Mr. Ticknor, a very trifling offering for you, my dear sir, whicli, trilling as it is, I hope and trust your good-nature will not dis- dain, — half a dozen worked marks to put in books ; and I intended those to be used in your books of reference when j'ou are working, as I hope j^ou are, or will be, at your magnum opus^ — the " History of Spain." One of these marks, that which is marked in green silk, "Maria E , for Prescott's works"! is my own handiwork, every stitch ; in my eighty-first year, — eighty-two almost : I shall be eighty-two the 1st of January. I am proud of being able, even in this trifling matter, to join my young friends in this family in working souvenirs for the great historian. Believe me, my dear Mr. Preseott, your much obliged and highly gratified friend, and admiring reader and marker, Maria Edgevtorth. 618 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOKTH. CHAPTER XXII. Miss Edgeworth's continued Interest in Literature. — Lady Cecilia Clarendon. —Mrs. Wilson's Death. —Note in Macaulay's History on Maria. — Maria's Letter about a Severe Illness. — Lines to Ireland. —Maria's Gift to the Irish Porters.— Maria's Sudden Illness. —Death. — Her Wishes. —Her Habits. — Her Disposi- tion.— Her Mental Training. — Intellect.- Notes. — Methods of Work. — Summary. — Character and Influence. Miss Edgeworth continued to interest herself in literature and the books of the day. Of " Granby Manor " she wrote, that she enjoyed it very much : " It is beautifully written, pathetic, without the least exaggeration of feeling or affectation." When Lamartine was writing his " Histoire des Girondins," he wanted some information about the Abbe Edgeworth, of whom Sneyd Edgeworth had written a Life some years before. Miss Edgeworth gave Mr. Lamartine what he needed ; and she was not at all pleased with "a note from that most conceited and not over-well-bred M. de Lamartine," adding, " What an egotist and what a puppy it is ! But the ovation has turned his head." Some inquiries were made as to the color of " Lady Cecilia Clarendon's ^ eyes," and she wrote that when she last saw Lady Cecilia " her eyes were blue ; " and she adds, that she is " highly gratified by finding 1 Helen. DEATH OF MRS. WILSON. 519 that my dear Lady Cecilia's eyes still continue to interest sufficientl}^ to have a question as to their color." The last of Miss Edgeworth's life was saddened by the death of her favorite half-sister, Mrs. Le Stock Wilson (" Fanny "). She was deeply attached to all her half brothers and sisters, but Fanny was particularly beloved by her. She died after a short illness, and the shock was much felt by Maria. Mr. Hall, in speaking of the last time he ever met Miss Edgeworth, says, — ' '• The last time we saw her was at the house of her sister, Mrs. AVilsou (now also departed), iu North Aud- ley Street. She was, of course, a centre of attraction : the heated room and many ' presentations ' seemed to weary her. We, of course, were seldom near her iu the crowd ; and, as we were bidding her good-by, she made us amends by whispering, ' "We will make up for this at Edgeworthstown.' Alas ! that was not to be : not long afterwards she returned to Edgeworthstown, and was suddenly called from earth. " In one of her letters to Mrs. Hall (who wrote to her on her birthday every year during several years), she says, ' Your cordial, warm-hearted note was the very pleasautest I received on my birthday, except those from my own family. You must not delay long iu finding your way to Edgeworthstown if you mean to see me again. Remember, you have just congratulated me on my eighty-second birthday.' " Lord Macaulay's biographer saj's, — " Among all the incidents connected with the publica- tion of his history, nothing pleased Macaulay so much as 620 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. the gratification that he contrived to 2:ive Maria Edo-e- worth as a small return for the enjoyment which, during more than forty years, he had derived from her charming writings.^ That lady, who was then in her eighty-third winter, and within a few months of her death, says in the course of a letter to Dr. Holland, ' And now, ray good friend, I require you to believe that all the admiration I have expressed of Macaulay's work is quite uninfluenced by the self-satisf action, vanity, pride, surprise, I had in finding my own name in a note ! I had formed my opin- ion, and expressed it to my friends who were reading the book to me, before I came to that note.''^ Moreover, there was a mixture of shame, and a twinge of pain, with the pleasure and pride I felt in having a line in this immortal history given to me, when there is no mention of Sir Walter Scott throughout the work, even in places where it seems impossible that the historian could resist paying the becoming tribute which genius owes, and loves to pay, to genius. Perhaps he reserves himself for the '45, and I hope in heaven it is so. Meanwhile be so good as to make my grateful and deeply felt thanks to the great author for the honor which he has done me.' " After Maria's dangerous illness a few years before her death, she said to a friend, — "And, now it is all over, I thank God not only for my recovery, but for my illness. In very truth, and with- 1 " Macaulay on one occasion pronounces that the scene in The Absentee, where Lord Colambre discovers himself to his tenantry and to their oppressor, is the best thing of the sort since the opening of the twenty-second book of the Odyssey." 2 " This note is in the sixth chapter, at the bottom of the page describing the liabits of the old native Irish proprietors in the seventeenth century : ' Miss Edgeworth's King Corny belongs to a later and much more civilized generation; but whoever has stud- ied that admirable portrait can form some notion of wliat King Coruy's great-grandfather must have been.' " AN ILLNESS. 521 out 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 I would willingly go through all the fever and weakness to have the delight of the feelings of warm affection, and the consequent un- speakable 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 ti-anquil from the banquet of life, where I had been a happy guest ; I confidently relied on the goodness of my Creator." And again, a few weeks only before lier death, she 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 ever I had in my life.'* Only a few weeks before her death, Miss Edge- worth addressed the following lines to her beloved country. They were written early in May. *' 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 humor, sad improvidence, And even what sober judges follies call, I, looking at the heart, forget them all." Miss Edgeworth was much touched by the gener- osity of the porters who carried the supplies to the vessels loaded by American liberality for Ireland during the famine ; and, hearing that these poor men b 622 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. refused to accept any payment for their services in the good work, she knit with her own hands a woollen comforter of bright colors for every man. They were proud and grateful for the remembrance, but before these gifts reached their destination the srenerous giver was no more. The latter part of Miss Edgeworth's life was passed mostly at Edgeworthstown, alternating with long visits at the rectory of Trim. The society of Mr. Butler, himself a well-known scholar and anti- quarian, was very attractive and congenial to Maria. Trim is in the neighborhood of Laracor, famed for its associations with Dean Swift and Stella , and near by is the birthplace of the Duke of Wellington, Dangan Castle. Miss Edgeworth was expected at Trim when the news of her death arrived, so sudden and unexpected was her last illness. She drove out, in her usual health, a few hours before her death. She was sud- denly seized with a pain in the region of the heart, and felt languid and oppressed. She consented that a letter should be written to her friend, the skilful physician. Sir Henry Marsh, summoning him for advice , but shortly after it was sent she expired, without a struggle, in the arms of her stepmother. Miss Edgeworth had often in her latter years expressed a desire that she might die at home, be spared a long illness out of consideration to the family, and that Mrs. Edgeworth might be by her side at the last: all these wishes were fulfilled, and her death was as painless as possible. To the very latest hour of her life, she was fortunate in being in full DEATH OF MISS EDGEWORTH. 523 possession of her faculties. Her brilliant mind was clear and vigorous to the last. She was never very strong, never equal to much exercise: but she was favored to the end with average health , her spirits were unfailing; and her pleasure in life and the daily occupations with which she busied herself was some- thing wonderful. During the years, after the publication of " Helen," which preceded her death, she made some notes for a story, " Take for Granted," and wrote " Orlandi- no; " but she was wise enough to feel that she had passed the time for producing original work. She rested her fame on work well done, and did not trifle with the public estimation by offering inferior com- positions to her readers. There are few authors who can resist the temptation of publishing. She was early trained to wait : during the years previous to her first appearance as a writer, with her little ven- ture called " Letters for Literary Ladies," she wrote much, as we have seen, but was content to reserve her powers for the instruction and amusement of her own family and friends. Miss Edgeworth, in writing to Mrs. Inchbald, said she was her own Rosamond in " Patronage : " witty, vivacious, impetuous, generous-hearted Rosamond was said by her family and friends to be her own counterpart. Undoubtedly she had all the impetu- osity, frankness, animation, and warmth of feeling, of this character. Her tears were easily excited by a tale of woe : some amusing anecdote brought smiles, or a pleasant event made her happy. She had, how- ever, the noble equalities of Caroline Percy as well. 524 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOETH. She was far-sighted, prudent, and high-spirited. She had great self-control, and could, as occasion re- quired, exercise this power. She forced herself to write " Ormond " by the bedside of her dying father, and refused M. Edelcrantz because she felt it was the wisest thing she could do, though her heart and fancy were deeply engaged. She was ever careful to attend to the practical details and petty affairs of every-day life, and could turn from the imaginary scenes of a novel, or the bright and profound con- versation of wits and philosophers, to arrange her sisters' costumes, as they visited in Continental or English society ; at home was the business manager of her father's estate, the overseer of village affairs, almoner to the poor, and, as we have seen, their best friend and adviser in their affairs. She did not disdain the smallest occupation, and found in little pleasures much to relieve and invigo- rate her mind. Home was ever to her the dearest place, the haven to which she turned. We have seen her admired, sought, and courted by wits, phi- losophers, women of fashion and culture. The great- est minds and people of rank alike vied with their homage and respect ; but these attentions never turned her head, or for a moment allured her from the snnple pleasures of a domestic life. She returned as readily from the " brilliant panorama of London," and the salons of Paris, to the "plain living and high thinking" of the home in Ireland, and the little cares incident to the life at Edgeworthstown, as she went. If the contrast between the well- ordered mansions of England, the elegance of Paris, LOVE OF HOME. 625 and Edgeworthstown, struck her, her affection for home and its surroundings was strong enougli to compensate for all deficiencies she saw in Ireland. As she always said, she "loved' Ireland ; and, much as she deplored the poverty and squalor which she made it her life-long object to ameliorate, she found the charms of home and family sufficient, nay more, — a large reward for the loss of the polish of Eng- lish life, or the brilliancy of Paris. In her own home, Miss Edgeworth was cheerful, sympathetic, and gay. When her sisters were with her in Paris, one of them wrote of Maria : " 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 , " and she turned with readiness from the company of savants and philosophers to arrange a party of pleasure for her young sisters, or perhaps advise about the style of a new dress. ]\Iiss Edgeworth was extremely small of stature, and her figure continued slight and erect to the last. She was active and alert in her movements, and always ready to take steps for others. Her counte- nance was exceedingly plain, and she was unpre- tending in her whole appearance. No one could meet and converse with her, without forgetting the plainness of face, in the spirit, benevolence, and genius which irradiated and played over her features, as she listened sympathetically to some story of suf- fering, laughed at a good anecdote, or told in her witty and animated style some Irish tale, or imitated the peculiarities of some brilliant orator like Mira- 526 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWORTH. beau, or the great Mrs. Siclclons. In 1831 Miss Edgeworth said, "Nobody is ugly now but myself, " and all through life she was conscious of her plain- ness, but could hardly have realized that her friends and admirers would gladly look upon the genius in the face without regard to the lack of beauty of feature, when she so resolutely persisted in refusing to sit for a picture.^ She was fastidiously neat in her dress, and method- ical in her habits , and the love of order, early im- pressed upon her by Mrs. Honora Edgeworth, was of immense value to her all through life. For order and method judiciously managed gave her time to do many and very various kinds of work. She could turn from her well-arranged writing, to give some order about her repairs or village charity work, superintend her garden, and settle accounts, with- out destroying the continuity of thought or mar- ring the dialogue of her stories. Undoubtedly she had rare powers of concentration and a very un- common memory, aided also by a fine power of discrimination in the use of material ; but when one considers that she wrote in the large family sitting- room, which was also a library and the general meeting-place of guests and business visitors, the admiration for her talents is increased. For a long time Miss Edgeworth used a little desk in this room, on which, two years before her father's death, he inscribed the following words : — 1 The picture I use is supposed to have been taken from a sketch by an artist who caught the likeness at some public place during her first London season. MISS edgeworth's mode of life. 527 "On this liuraMe desk were written all the numerous works of my daughter, Maria Edgeworth, in the connnon sitting-room of my family. In those 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 politi- cal : while endeavoring 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." After Mr. Edgeworth's death she used a writing- desk which had belonged to him ; and it was phiced on a table of his construction, to which she added a bracket for her candlestick, and other little conven- iences. It was easily rolled near the fire in winter, and in summer could be placed behind the pillars of the library by a window, where she enjoyed the air. Miss Edgeworth was an early riser; and in the morning, after a cup of coffee, usually walked, as before stated, for some time. She came hito the breakfast-room in summer with her hands full of flowers ; and sat with the family at the table, though she ate very little. She had some work always to busy herself with, and, on the arrival of the mail- bag, took much interest in reading her letters, and listened to the news of the day ; but she never was a politician, though she took pleasure in the general progress of affairs. After breakfast she sat do-wn to write, and worked till luncheon-time ; and after that meal occui)ied herself with some needlework, as experience taught her that writing immediately after eating was bad 528 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. for her. At times her anxiety about a certain piece of work, an interesting dialogue, or some half- finished character or scene, made her very unwilling to defer her writing ; but this was her rule. A drive in the afternoon, in later years, was a pleasant re- laxation : in early life she rode with her father, but natural timidity about horses made her a poor horsewoman. The rest of the day was passed much as other ladies pass their time. She dined, took tea with the family, and passed the evening in conversa- tion, or listening to reading. In this way she passed her time, when it was unbroken by visits. She worked so systematically and regularly many hours of the day when at home, that she could easily spare the necessary time for visits, and the com- plete change they made. Miss Edgeworth, while at Trim, in her eighty- third year, not long before her death, wrote by dictation some reminiscences. She said, — " I recollect a number of literary projects, if I may so call them, or aperqus of things which I might have writ- ten if I had had time or capacity so to do. The word aperqu my father used to object to. ' Let us have none of your ajyercus, Maria : either follow a thing out clearly to a conclusion, or do not begin it ; begin nothing without finishing it." She followed this advice, she saj^s, but notes down some of the many temptations she had to neglect it ; among them Sir Thomas Browne's " Vulgar Errors." " It might he useful [she says] and entertaining to look over this book, and mark what errors yet remain NOTES. 529 that deserve to l)e called vulgar, and what have been established as truths ; also to examine whence the errors, supposed to be such, arose ; and to ' hriixj Jhncard ' to posterity ' arrears outstanding. ' " To take a larger scope in the same range, it might be well to look at Bacon's 'Pyramid of Knowledge,' and note what progress has been made under each division, and what new divisions, or headings, have been made in consequence of new openings and new discoveries." Also take " The history of the imagination as well as science. " In looking at Bacon's ' Pyramid of Knowledge,' the task of examining and reporting on each division appears too vast for any mind but the mind of him who first sketched that ' Pyramid ; ' but even the commencing such an undertaking may be useful as encouraging other minds to assist. The slightest light thrown, making the dark- ness visible, points out at least Avhere we may attempt to penetrate to dispel that obscurity." Does not know of any advance to note in meta- physics, except " The doctrine of association, originally noticed by Aristotle, may be termed new in the more extended sig- nification in which it has been used by Hartley, Priestly, Hume ; but how far it has been usefully applied to educa- tion remains to be shown. Upon its revival, this prin- ciple seems to have been much over-valued, and, as Sir Walter Scott humorously observed, to have been used as 'a sort of metaphysical pick-lock.' It seems to have been forgotten, in the zeal for the power of association, that there must be something to associate with, some 530 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWOETH. original capacity of feeling or pleasure, probably different in different minds. " Look over Bentham to consider whether any advance has been made by him since Hume, respecting the princi- ple of utility, as applied either to morals or legislation. There is a slight ' Review ' on this subject, written by myself, which may be worth looking at ; as Sir Samuel Eomilly approved of it as being, at the time it was writ- ten, the most concise statement he had seen of the prin- ciple of utility, as applied to crimes and punishments. Of Dumont's Bentham ' Sur les Recompenses,' many new ideas have been stolen unacknowledged from it by mem- bers of Parliament and others, and ]^)lated out for their own purposes. "AYith regard to the whole system, foimded on the principle of utility, it should be observed that it is more a question of words than has hitherto in the discussion been observed, even by philosophers. If each party were to define intelligibly and exactly what they mean by the word 'utility,' the dispute must come to an end. Hitherto the enemies, as they call themselves, of the principle, disregarding derivation, assume that the word ' utility ' can be used only in a restricted sense ; as we say a chair is useful to sit upon, not considering what may be useful to human happiness in general, or in giving pleas- ure, independently of doing service. In this view of the subject, the beautiful, and all that relates to taste, they distinguish from the useful ; and they have fair play for ridicule well exemplified in Mme. de Stael's raillery against Dumont, and the system of utility in her ' Con- siderations,' where she asks the philosopher whether beautiful landscapes, etc., are useful. The defenders of the principle of utility have not yet sufficiently pointed out NOTES. 531 its exact dofinition. Duraont employs the word 'utility' as eveiy thing which is couducive to huinau happiness or human pleasure ; referring to his list enumerating such pleasures, temporal pleasures, both of the senses and the intellect, it seems he would also include religious happi- ness, or the hope of happiness in a future state, as being conducive to our happiness at present. This he does not distinctly state, but infers it ; as in his system there is, he declares, nothing contrary to religion, only contrary to persecution, which, producing evil, comes uuder the head of pains." Miss Edgeworth was interested in political econo- my, and in this same paper of notes she said she questioned how the present state of Ireland was affected by the potato. " I recollect that in Berkeley's 'Querist' there is this inquiry' : ' "Whether potatoes have been a blessing or an evil to Ireland?' and, as well as I can recollect, another of his queries is, ' "What would be the consequence to Ireland if potatoes ceased to be the national food ? ' "I have some excellent letters of my dear deceased friend Mr. Ricardo, which bear upon this subject, and which state what ought to be the desideratum for the food of a nation : such as, storabilit}' ; not to be the low- est price, that something may be had to fall back upon in case of crops failing ; food that requires industr}", not to be scratched out of the earth like pignuts." She compares Scott's and Johnson's Lives, one of the novelists, the second of the poets, " curious to mark the difference between criticism by one himself an artist in one particular line of fiction, and one only eminent in general literature, but not possess- 632 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. ing the imaginative or inventive faculty. Johnson's superior learning^ in the common acceptation of the term, hardly compensates for his want of imagina-. tion as to descriptive poetry, and the beauties of nature, or as to the graphic power of representing human character, and of combining incidents." She considered the asperity of Johnson, and false indul- gence or flattery of Scott, alike to be condemned. Scott was singularly free from envy and jealousy : he said, " I would as soon cherish a toad in my bosom." Her sketches were written in small, narrow books, like check-books, and, indeed, often sewed into the empty cover of a check-book, or stamped receipt- book. As the reader will have observed, she made many changes. As in " Patronage," before its publica- tion she took out the Irish absentee family, and made a separate story of it ; and again, after " Pat- ronage " was published, she changed some parts of it. Sometimes her stories were worked over, and the plot completely altered, as in "Helen," where she made no original plan or groundwork. Some of the tales were little altered from their first con- ception. In " Ennui " and " Vivian " the stories followed almost exactly the original sketches. Besides these sketches, she had note-books, small, and of the usual note-book shape, in which she entered any thing which struck her as affording material for thought or composition. So early in life did she begin these notes, that the first, dated 1780, is written in her childish round-hand. NOTES. 633 [Note-book, 1780.] ^^McCuUoch, Western Isles. — On the mountains — de- grees of cold — whiskey iu cup mixed with hailstones — quicksilver sank into the bulb. '' For Harry and Lucy. — Boy going under archway, saw horse could go but not self ; caught hold of bar above, and clung. "-Star, December, 1801. — Tiial of Tailor and Sim- cox. Coachman would sleep on box ; gentleman snatched plate from coach ; at trial coachy turning the tables on him for stealing plate ; taken to Giltspur-street Compter ; damages one shilling." Entries were made just as she found things to interest her in a miscellaneous way ; and '' by some process of memory," as she says, she knew long after where to find them. It is difScult, in leaving the subject of ]\Iiss Edge- worth's method of work, and her deference to her father's advice and counsel in the construction of her novels and tales, to let the opportunity pass for a consideration of his influence over her mind. There is no more extraordinary case on record, of the subjection of one mind to another, than this. An original genius of the highest order is seen pressed into the service of a clever, ingenious, but self-satisfied and restless intellect ; and it is further burdened with sentiments of filial devotion and respect. The whole influence of ]Mr. Edgeworth in behalf of method, industry, and constant application, was o-ood , but what would have been the career of his gifted daughter, unhampered by the treadmill in 534 A STUDY OF MARIA EDGEWORTH. which the self-assertion and domineering criticism of her father condemned her to work ? Pity and con- jecture are alike wasted in regret at the manner in wliich Mr. Edgeworth made her write, or in fancying what her life would have been untrammelled by the mental foot-rule which he applied to her soaring genius and gay imagination. The natural modesty and timid disposition of Maria made her place implicit confidence in her father's judgment. Concentration and humor, un- usual in a woman's work, which is too often diffusive and sentimental, she owed largely to his early super- vision of her studies. Humor he could not give, but he had enough himself to foster the bias of his dauo-hter's mind. She was indebted to him for the remarkable ability to concentrate and conserve her mental forces. Masculine and feminine qualities of mind were thus hers in an unusual degree. My. Edgeworth had a love of petty detail : he car- ried into literature the same views which made him say that a child should not read any thing it could not perfectly comprehend. He had not considered sufficiently the saying of the French writer, " Le se- cret d'ennuyer est celui de tout dire." Miss Edgeworth was a devout and consistent member of the Church of England, and a constant attendant at her parish church. She was constantly attacked, during her lifetime, by critics who asserted - that she made morality her highest object. Robert Hall, after greatly praising her writings, laments that they contain no allusions to religion; saying, "She does not attack religion, or inveigh against it, but KELIGIOUS VIEWS. 635 makes it appear unnecessary by exhibiting perfect virtue without it." To those who made such strictures, the question might have well been put : What is perfect virtue without the essence of religion ? how can a person be perfectly virtuous without any religious belief? I think Miss Edgeworth meant to inculcate the highest sentiments of religion, which were not dependent upon creed or dogma, the pure essence of faith in " things unseen and spiritual ; " and that, as she abstained from profaning the highest human love by passionate descriptions of lovers' vows, she felt that to indicate the virtues was to convey, to the reader of fine intelligence, practical views of religion. She was intimate with many Churchmen, and the bright and shining lights of the Church paid homage to her genius and her good influence. Archbishop Whately, in his "Annotations of Bacon's Essays," has an allusion to Miss Edgeworth, in which he makes the same criticism as Robert Hall, and enters at leno;th into the want of artistic excellence this causes. All minds have their limitations, and that of Miss Edgeworth was no exception to this rule. For what she gave the literature of her country we must be grateful, and accept the books she gave us — she gave us of her best. If ever a life could be called "a prayer," that of Miss Edgeworth was such in its aspiration and in- spiration. Her earnest desire was to do good, to be to many the means of uplifting and cheering suffer- ing humanity. Miss Edgeworth was emphatically a representative 536 A STUDY OF MAEIA EDGEWOETH. of the utilitarian ideas which Bentham recognized as the great movement of the last century. The re- action from the old mediaeval ideas and formulas was a violent one, and the natural outgrowth of modern civilization and development. As the incoming tide washes away the debris left by the former waves, the century of the French Revolution saw vast changes in action and thought. Miss Edgeworth was a pro- gressive and modern thinker. She embodied in her novels the spirit of the modern movement, among whose leaders she may be named. She had a positive influence on society, manners, and litera- ture. Macaulay called her "the second woman of her age," counting Mme. de Stael as the first ; and an- other writer said of her influence, " Miss Edgeworth has done more good, both to the higher and lower world, than any writer since the days of Addison." Sir James Mackintosh said he should require " for Botany Bay a code from Bentham, and 'Popular Tales ' from Miss Edgeworth." In " Fors Clavigera " for May, 1876, John Ruskin, after some excellent hints on dress for young girls, tells his readers, if they have never seen "Parent's Assistant," to ask their parents to buy it for them ; and advises all to read "the little scene between Miss Somers and Simple Susan, in the draper's shop." In American and English literature, there are constant allusions to the characters of Miss Edgeworth's tales and novels. She has left the indelible impress of genius on our literature. She had also a Continental reputation. NOTICES OF MISS EDGEWORTH. 537 Her respect for the simple and daily virtues has often been remarked. It has been truly said, that great virtues are easy to write of, but to make the minor qualities interesting, and yet show marked power in handling larger themes, is unusual. She said in " Helen," " Whoever makes truth disagree- able commits high treason against virtue ; " and her writings are full of just such homely truths, at- tractively presented. Sir Walter Scott said once of her, " Some one has described the novels of Miss Edgeworth as a sort of essence of common-sense ; and the definition is not inappropriate." W. S. Landor, in the " Imaginary Conversations " of the dead and living, pays a pleasant compliment to Miss Edgeworth's writings. Among the latest sketches of Miss Edgeworth's life and writings (nothing larger has yet been attempted) is one very amusing and blundering description in " Illustrious Irishwomen," by E. Owens Blackburn. Miss Kavanagh has a brief account of her ; and the latest mentions of her are in " The Literary History of England," by Mrs. Oliphant (a critical sketch of " Castle Rackrent "), and, by " The Cornhill Maga- zine " for this month, which has a pleasant and sketchy account, from the pen of a well-known writer. The reviews, magazines, and papers of the day con- tained most tender and affectionate notices of Miss Edgeworth; and her death was mourned on both sides of the Atlantic as a public loss. One writer said of her, "No man or woman in this generation needs to be told of the surpassing excellence of her various writings; and then entered into a glowing 538 A STUDY OF MAKIA EDGEWOETH. eulogium of her public and private virtues. Sweet and well-merited words of praise echoed from Amer- ica. One notice said, — "This admirable writer has long enjoyed a reputation like the calm unbiased judgment of posterity. She lived to see her works pass from the regions of transient popu- larity to that of permanent fame." An Irish poetess, in announcing to a friend the death of Miss Edge worth, said, — "I feel it difficult to express my deep regret for Miss Edgeworth's sudden and totally unexpected death. You cannot well imagine the charm of her society, or the attraction of her manners and superior sense. She was never occupied by self. One was sure of pleasing her, in whatever way they essayed the trial : she would laugh like an Irishwoman in exuberant enjoyment of any pleas- ant subject. Her warm-hearted benevolence, aided by her warm-hearted love of country, was delightful." Old age is rarely seen in a more beautiful aspect than in Miss Edgeworth's life. She was neither narrowed nor depressed by the chilling influences of the years which brought with them the loss of friends and many changes. She retained to the last her generous heart, her clear mental vision ; and her serene hope in humanity, and her faith for the future, cheered her spirits and elevated her imagina- tion. The life of this gifted woman is a pleasant study of all that is best and brightest in human experience. She was amiable, affectionate, genuine, and brilliant. HEK WOMANLY CHARACTER. 639 Her character presents a rare combination of excel- lent qualities; and it is easy to gather from the various testimony of friends and contemporaries, that the woman was as true as her writings. In all the relations of life she was respected and beloved. \ APPEIS'DIX. THE MENTAL THEKMOMETEK.^ BY MISS MAEIA EDGEWOBTH. The Eastern style of allegory and narrative, of which there are so many examples in the "Spectator" and " Adventurer," was once a favorite with the public. There was too much of it : it went out of fashion, and has of late been considered as suited only to juvenile taste. Perhaps, for the sake of variety, it may now and then be again permitted in periodical publications. There appears something of Oriental style and invention in the following fiction, which was intended to turn popular attention to a curious problem in the history of the human mind, — a problem which has long been discussed, but which has hitherto been unsolved, by metaphysicians, — whether different people feel the same positive degrees of pain or pleasure with equal iutensity ; whether all men have the same capacity for happiness or misery. It seems further to suggest a moral idea, — that many were led to pursue what others falsely call Pleasure, merely from their want of power of comparing and reflecting on their own feelings, and thus of deciding for themselves in what their real happiness consists. 1 Friendship's Offering ; or, The Annual Remembrance. 1835. Lupton Kelfe, 13 Cornhill, London. 541 542 THE MENTAL THERMOMETER. ' ' My father was a merchant of considerable opulence, and of established credit, in the city of London. The hab- its of circumspection and frugality, which are insensibly acquired in the pursuit of wealth, had neither soured his temper, nor contracted his natural benevolence ; but on the contrary he found himself, as he advanced in years, not only in the possession of an ample fortune, but blessed with a mind capable of enjoying and sharing it with his fellow-creatures. The fame of his liberality drew around him numbers who were in want of his assistance ; and his discernment in distinguishing those who were proper objects of his bounty obtained for him the notice and friendship of many who were disinterested admirers of his virtues. Among those of the latter description, I can remember from my childhood an elderly gentleman who had the air and accent of a foreigner ; who, after having casually met and conversed with my father in several places of public resort, seemed particularly to solicit his acquaintance. My father was equally anxious of culti- vating his society ; and by degrees a friendship arose between them, which continued without interruption dur- ing the remainder of my father's life, and which, after his death, seemed to devolve upon me, his only son. Indeed, I had ever been ambitious of ingratiating myself with this person, and of deserving his esteem ; for I thought that he possessed a singular sagacity in judging and deciding upon the secret motives of human actions. I was but a very young boy when I first saw him, but even then I was struck with his appearance. He had a remarkable serenity of aspect, and a general expression of benevolence in his countenance, but an eye which guilt could not withstand, which seemed to penetrate with a glance into the inmost recesses of the human heart. Whenever he fixed it upon me, I well remember the awe THE MENTAL THERMOMETER. 643 which it diffused over my whole frame, — an awe which even the consciousness of innocence could not dispel. What his thoughts of me were in those moments, I know not ; but the reserve of his manner towards me was grad- ually dissipated, and he began to admit and to encourage my childish conversation and familiarity. He had been a gi'eat traveller, and had acquired an amazmg fund of knowledge, which he perfectly well knew how to dispense in conversation so as to entertain and Instruct. When I was a child he would often take me between his knees, and tell me marvellous stories, such as were fit to rouse my curiosity, and fix my attention ; blending at the same time useful knowledge and moral truths with his narra- tives, and infusing, as it were, wholesome nourishment with delicacies the most grateful to my palate. "As I grew older, he instructed me in the sciences in which he was most profoundly versed. Indeed, at times I could not avoid suspecting that his knowledge in the mysteries of nature was even greater than he thought it prudent to avow. I had a confused idea of secrets equally valuable and dangerous. This idea increased my reverence ; but I never ventured to hint it to him, lest I might by an idle curiosity offend him, or lose his company and friendship. He continued, this subject excepted, to treat me with the most unreserved confidence, till the time of my father's death, when I looked up to him as the only friend who could console me for my loss. "At this time, when my heart was softened with grief and disposed to solitude, he took me with him to a retire- ment at some distance from the metropolis. It was a charming spot, rich in all the beauties of nature, and highly cultivated by art. "After any irreparable misfortune has been severely felt, a species of mental calm succeeds. I now experi- 644 THE MENTAL THERMOMETER. enced a, kind of plulosopliic melancholy, which, though somewhat pamful, I was fond of cherishing. It was one of those thoughtful moments, towards the close of even- ing, as I was sitting alone with the good old man, my second father, he addressed me with uncommon serious- ness, urging me to tell him the plans which I had formed for my future life. Struck with the suddenness of a question upon which I had scarcely deliberated, I hesi- tated to reply. 'I have not,' said I after some recollec- tion, ' as yet formed any determined resolution ; probably from not being impelled to it by necessity. You know the success of my father's industry. The fruits of it he has left to me ; and finding myself possessed of a more than affluent fortune, a fair hereditary name, youth, health, an active mind, and one of the best of friends, I seem to have little care in life but to enjoy its blessings.' — ' But how securely to enjoy those blessings,' said my instructor, ' is the question. You doubtless wish to be happy, and believe the means to be in your power ; but recall the scenes which we have observed together m the metropolis. How many are there in possession of the very blessings which you boast of, and who ai-e yet discontented and miserable ! That happiness which is in the power of so many, why is it not enjoyed ? or, rather, in what does it consist ? Recollect, and tell me who you do believe to be the happiest man you know? ' I readily replied, ' Of all men I have ever seen, you appear to be the happiest, and yet I cannot precisely tell the reason why I think so : you are not young ; you do not possess any visil)le means of wealth ; your way of life pi'ccludes you from all the grati- fications of public admiration : and yet the unalterable serenity of your countenance, and the cheerfulness of your manner, convince me that you are happy. Perhaps it is to youi superior knowledge and philosophy that you owe your felicity. The confidence which you are now THE MENTAL THERMOMETER. 545 showing me, however, encourages me to speak my whole mind. From several circumstances which have occurred since we were first acquainted, and from some accidental expressions which liave dropped from you at different times, I conceived tlie notion tliut you were master of some extraordinary secret ; but 1 have hitherto repressed my curiosity on this subject, as I did not tliiuk it became me to penetrate further into your confidence than you condescended to admit me.' — ' You have,' said he, cast- ing upon me a look of approbation, ' fully invited my con- fidence, and it shall be no longer withheld. It is true, I am in possession of an extraordinary secret, — a secret 1 deem invaluable. It has been the purchase of many years' toil and experience, the reward of the reflection and the studies of a long life. I am a native of Italy, and my life has been spent chiefly in travelling through different countries. There is no part of the globe which I have not visited ; having uniformly kept one object in view, to which, thank Heaven ! I have at last attained. You know,' continued he, 'my friendship to 3'our father, and my particular attachment to you. I wish to give you some proof of my regard, before Nature calls me from you ; and I think I have it in my power to leave j'ou a gift truly worthy of your acceptance.' There he paused. " He di'ew carefully from beneath his vestment a small tube, of a substance which I had never before seen : it enclosed something which I concluded was a talisman. The old man put it into my hands : upon a nearer view, it appeared to me nothing more than a small instrument, constructed like one of our common thermometers, and marked into a great number of divisions. After I had examined it in silence for some time, m}- friend took it from me, and placed it near the region of my heart, — when instantly a fresh phenomenon appeared : a multi- tude of new divisions became visible. ' There are many 546 THE MENTAL THERMOMETER. more,' said my friend, observing my astonishment : ' there are many more too nice to be discerned by the unassisted eye of man ; but, the longer and more attentively you regard them, the more j'ou will l)e enabled to discover.' — ' But what is this liquor ? ' said I ; 'or is it a liquor which seems to move up and down in the tube? and what are those small characters which I perceive at the top and bottom of the instrument ? ' — ' The bright characters which you see at the top of the crystal are Arabic,' said he, 'and they signify jyerfect felicity ; the degrees which you perceive marked upon the crystal form a scale of happiness descending from perfect felicity to indifference, which is the boundary between pleasure and pain ; and from that point commence the dark divisions of misery, which continue deepening in their shade as they descend, and increasing in distance from each other, till they touch the characters at the bottom, which signify the final bounds of human misery and despair. The liquor which you see contained in the tube,' continued he, ' is endued with the power of rising and falling in the crj^stal, in exact proportion to the pleasure felt by the person who wears it at any given period of his existence.' I cast my eye down the tube as he held it in his hand. ' Perfect felicity and despair,' I repeated, and sighed : ' how many of my fellow-creatures are doomed to feel the one, how few attain the other!' — 'These extreme points,' said the good old man, recalling my eyes to the tube, ' though apparently so far distant from each other, are equally dangerous. It will seldom, however, be found actually at these extremes, and the intermediate degrees it defines with unerring precision.' — 'But,' said I, 'is it not enough for me to feel pleasure, to be convinced I feel it? and will not a little reflection ascertain the degree with sufficient accuracy?' — 'Perhaps not,' said he, smiling at my presumption : ' perhaps not so readily as you ima- THE MENTAL THERMOMETER. 647 gine. The want of precision in this circumstance is one of the first causes of the mistakes which mankind fall into in tlieir pursuits, especially the young and enthusias- tic : reflecting little on the past, and forming great expec- tations for the future, they seldom rightly value their present sensations ; guided by the opinion or the example of others, they mistake the real objects of happiness ; and the experiments necessary to be tried, to set them right, must be so often repeated to make useful impres- sions, that life itself passes away before they are con- vinced of their error, or before the conviction has been of material advantage to them. Now, such is the nature of this little instrument, that, if you wear it next your heart, it will invariably preserve its efficacy in all the situations of life, — in the most tumultuous assembly, as well as in the most tranquil solitude ; at the moment when your soul is the most agitated, when your emotions are the most complicated, when you would not or could not enter into any strict scrutiny of your own heart, this little crystal will be your monitor. Press it to your bosom, and ask 3'ourself this question: "What degree of pleasure or of pain do I now feel ? ' ' The answer you will find distinct and decided. The liquor in the tube will instan- taneously point it out upon the scale of happiness or mis- ery : it will remain stationary until j^ou unlock the chain from around j^our neck, in your hours of retirement.' " Now I began to comprehend the true use and value of this present ; and, retracting my hasty judgment, I expressed, in the warmest terms, my acknowledgment. 'Take it, my son,' said he, putting it into my hands. ' May you, in the course of your life, experience its utility as much as I have done ; may it facilitate your improvement in virtue and wisdom, the only genuine sources of happiness. My life must now Ite near its close ; my habits are fixed, and I have no further occa- 548 THE MENTAL THEEMOMETER. sion for this monitor : yet it has been so long my constant companion, that I can scarcely part with it, even to you, without reluctance. Promise me, however,' added he, ' to send me frequent and accurate accounts of the ex- periments you try with it : they will be an amusement to me in my retirement.' "I readily made my friend the promise which he required ; and, having again thanked him for his present, I eagerly clasped the golden chain around my neck, and resolved to begin, as soon as possible, a series of obser- vations. It happened, however, that, the evening on which I had intended to commence these, I was visited by one of the most celebrated metaphysicians of that day, a friend of my father : to him I communicated the secret I had in my possession, and showed him my treas- ures. Envy flashed in his eyes : he pressed my thermom- eter to his heart. Instantly the liquor rose almost to the point of perfect felicity ; then, fluttering, alternated be- tween that and despair. ' Could I but possess this instru- ment for one month,' cried he, 'I could solve problems the most interesting to metaphysicians, and I could per- fect my theory of the human mind.' " Friendship, philanthropy, and, to own the truth, some degree of curiosity to see how the liquor would rise in the tube if I should comply with his desire, decided my answer. 'Your wish is granted,' said I; and at that instant the liquor rose to the point of X)erfect felicity, with such violence that the tube broke with a sudden explosion ; and I, and the world, and the metaphysicians were deprived forever of our intended experiments on the Mental Thermometer." i:n'dex. AbBOTSFORD, 313, 379, 383, 394-396, 400. Ackland, Sir Thomas Dyke, 197. Aikin, Dr., ICO, 301. Aikin, Miss, 302. Alison, Mrs., 466. AUson, Rev. Mr., 194, 196, 200, 383, 386. Alison, Dr., 466. Allenstown, 141. Allibone, 228. Almack's, 374. Althorpe, Lord, 164. America, 101, 315. Andre', Major, 43, 45. Anglesey, Lord, 372. Apreece, Mrs. (Lady Davy), 230, 202, 272, 278. Apsley House, 435. Apsley, Lord, 368. Arago, M., 138, 346. Armagh, 508. Aristotle, 529. Ashburton, Lord, 163. Aucram, Lord, 197. Bacon, 529. Badajos, 263. Baillie, Mrs., 301. Baillie, the Misses Joanna and Agnes, 324, 369, 370, 375, 393, 4;>4. Ballautyne, James, 291. Ballinahinch Castle, 451. Ballinasloe, 451. Bannatynes, 383, 397, 442. Banks, Sir Joseph, 71, 136, 229. Barbauld, Mrs., 62, 131, 135, 137, 160, 195, 204, 207, 212, 238, 245, 248, 252, 273, 299, 301, 324, 331, 407. Barrington, Sir Jonah, 233. Barry, Col., 44. Bath, 13, 14, 25, 50, 71. Bathurst, Lord, 318, 368. Bathurst, Lady, 318. Beaconsfield, Lord, 254. Beauchamp, Lord, 304. Beaufort, Dr., 103, 105, 202. Beaufort, Miss, 103, 105, 109. Beaufort, Sir Francis (admiral), 138, 203, 323, 372. Beaufort, Rev. William, 138. Beaufort, Duchess of, 368. Beauharnais, Hortense, 183. Beddoes, Dr. Thomas, 97, 132, 138, 155, 157, 230. Beddoes, Mrs. Anna (Edge- worth), 97, 98, 139, 155, 208, 256, 280, 304, 315, 362, 402, 436. Bedford, Duke of, 164, 276. Beecher, Sir Wrixon, 253. Beechwood Park, 370. " Belinda," 141, 143, 172, 238, 243, 444. 649 550 INDEX. Belloc, Mme. (Mile. Swinton), 361, 426, 447, 511. Benger, Miss, 201. Beutley, Mr., 447. Bentham, Jeremy, 167, 346, 450, 530, 536. Berkeley, Bisliop, 531. Bernadotte, 366. Berners, Lord, 446. Berry, Miss, 334. Berry, Misses, 271. BerthoUet, 161. Besborougb, 326. Betty, Master, 269. BibliotLeque Britannique, 160. Biddle, Eachel, 256. Bisset, Lady Catherine, 367. Blackburn, E. Owens, 537. Black Bourton, 20, 21, 50, 52, 55. Black Castle, 40, 89, 92, 105, 208, 232, 263, 313, 334, 363, 382, 401, 407, 427, 429. Blagden, 72. Blake, Misses, 30, 56. " Blind Kate," 353. Boaden, Mr., 275. Bolton, Mr., 38. Bonaparte. Gen., 171, 173, 180, 184, 192, 277, 336, 340, 342, 343, 364, 427, 452. Bonstetten, M., 346, 351. Bowles, Mr., 317. Bowood, 315, 323, 325, 327, 362, 363, 368, 471, 503. Bradstone, Miss, 8. Brandon, Countess of, 253. Brandford, 433. Breadlebane, Lady, 330. Breguet, 161. Bremer, Fredcrika, 501, 502. Breton, M., 160. Brewster, Dr., 410. Bridgnian, Mrs., 5. Briukley, Dr., 255. Bristol, 156, 207, 218. Bristol, Bishop of (Dr. Hansel), 306. Bristow, George, 328, Broadhurst, Miss, 289. Brooke, Mr., 85. Broglie, Mme. de, 351, 352. Brougham, Lord, 275, 385. " Brown, Capability," 323. Brown, Dr. Thomas, 384. Browne, Sir Thomas, 528. Bruges, 160. Brunei, Mr., 325. Buchan, Lord, 202. Bumstead, Mr. Horace, 133. Bunsen, Baroness, 157. Burney, Dr. Charles, 277. Buruey, Miss, 172. (See D'Ar- blay.) Burney, Mr., 377. Burke, Edmund, 248,376, 377. Bushe, Chief Justice, 253. Bussigny, 349. Butler, Mrs. Harriet (Edgeworth), 334, 382, 393, 401, 415, 420, 421, 424, 427, 445, 491. Butler, Rev. Mr., 402, 406, 427, 503, 522. Byrkeley Lodge, 313, 327. Byron, Lord, 246, 271, 278, 279, 305. Byron, Lady, 272, 333, 506. CafFARELLI, Gen., 337. Calwich, 351. Campan, Mme., 171, 183. Camelford, 164. Caudolle, M. de, 346. Canmont, Mme. de, 341. Canning, Mr., 164, 355. Canterbury, Archbishop of, 506. Carnegy, Miss, 316. Carr, Miss, 333, 437, 451. Carr, Mr. and Mrs., 273, 330, 333, 369, 434. INDEX. 551 Carrington, Lord, 277, 283, 314, 365, mi. Carton, 253. Castle Forbes, 83, 84, 210, 214, "Ca-stle Rackrcnt," 77, 78, 140, 142, 143, 172, 228, 2G1, 375, 382, 457-15il, 4'.I4, 537. Cathcart, Lord, 217. Chambers, William, 509, 511. Chamouni, 348. Chandler, 280. Charlemont, Lord, 253. Charleville, Countess of, 272, 503. Chastellux, Marquis de, 168. Cheltenham, 304. Cheneir, M., 145. Chester, 5, 28. Chesterfield, Lord, 26, 180. Chorley, H. F., 215, 463. Cirencester, 368. Clarendon, Lady Cecilia, 518, 519. Clifford, Mrs., 280. Clifton, 92, 93, 97, 155, 304, 362, 368. Cockbum, Lord, 196. Collon, 15, 105, 106, 141, 202, 214, 313, 314. " Comic Dramas," 309. Coleridge, S. T., 507. Condorcet, 168. Connemara, 258, 451. Conolly, Lady Louisa, 253, 299. Constable, Mr., 396, 404. Constant, Benjamin, 339. Cook, Capt., 72. Coppet, 347, 351. " Corinne," 227. Cork, 200. " Cornwall, Barry," 463. Corpus Christi College, 20. Corry, Mr., 254. Cowper, 87. Craigcrook, 394. Crampton, Sir Philip, 253, 254, 298, 408, 411, 428, 508. Cranallagb, Castle of, 3. Craven, Clarissa, 256. Crewe, Lady, 84, 271. Crillon, Due de, 172. Croker, Wilson, 253, 355. Croydon, 493. Cullum, Sir Hugh, 3, 4. Cuvier, 335. DaER, Lord Basil, 137. Dalgouski, Princess, 179. Dangan Castle, 522. D'Angouleme, Duchesse, 341. D'Arblay, Mme., 277, 285, 330. Darwin, Dr. Erasmus, 28, 31, 32, 46, 62, 88, 93, 96, 99, 109, 153, 154, 306, 439, 491. Darwin, Mrs,, 32, 34, 156. Davis, Mrs., 65, 72. Davy, Sir Humphry, 138, 139, 218, 255, 258, 262, 272, 278, 303, 375, 399, 426. Day, Thomas, 38, 41, 45, 54, 57, 62, 71, 74, 82, 86-88, 96, 97, 138, 280, 316, 323, 325, 328. Deane, Mr., 19. Degerando, M., 171. Deepdene, 330, 368, 378. Deffand, Mme. du, 247. Delany, Mrs., 13, 14. Delessert, M., 102, 181, 335, 359. Delessert, Mme., 102, 167, 181, 359. Delessert, Franrois, 162. Denman, Lord, 137. Derby, 268. D'Escars, Duchesse, 338. Devonshire, Duke of, 25. Dewes, Mrs., 13, 14. Dickens, 503. Diesterweg, 134. D'Israeli, Mr., 355. " Dog Trusty," 90. 552 INDEX. D'Osmonds, Marquis, 346. D'Ouditot, Mme., 1G9. Douglas, Miss, 428. Doyle, Dr., 505. Drogbeda school, 15. Dromaua, 253. Dublin, 3, 4, 6, 41, 135, 255, 265, 291, 298, 303, 334, 493. Dublin, University of, 15, 19, 20, 213. Dublin University Magazine, 463. Dudley, Lord. (See Ward and Dudley.) Dumont, M., 73, 162, 163, 165, 167, 237, 315, 31G, 320, 346, 348, 353, 354, 358, 371, 449, 450, 471, 530. Dunmore, Lady, 272. Dunne, Michael, 308. "Early Lessons," 144, 172, 282, 381, 444. Edelcrantz, M., 174, 177, 203. Edge worth, Edward, 2. Eilgeworth, Francis, 2. Edgeworth, Francis, 5, 7, 9. Edgeworth, Capt. John, 3, 5. Edgeworth, John, 5. Edgeworth, Lady, 6, 7. Edgeworth, Mr. Richard, 41. Edgeworth, Mrs., 28. Edgeworth, Miss Margaret, 40, (See Ruxton.) Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, — Extract from his own memoirs, 2. Born at Bath, 11. Sent to Dr. Lydiat's school at Warwick, in England, 12. Spends Christmas holidays at Welsbourne, 13. Returns to Ireland ; Drogheda school, 15. Mock marriage, 18. Enters Dublin University, 20. Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, con- tinued. Removed to Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 20. Visits his parents at Bath, 25. Marries Miss Elers, 26. Takes his wife to Ireland, 27. Returns to England, 28. Visits Lichfield, 31, et seq. First introduction to Dr. Dar- win, 32. Description of Mr. Edgeworth by Anna Seward, 37. Makes acquaintance with Mr. Thomas Day and others, 38, 39. Takes Mr. Day to Ireland, 40. Inherits the paternal estates, 41. Becomes interested in Miss Honora Sneyd, 42. Visits Lichfield, and is the bearer of a proposal of mar- riage to Miss Honora Sneyd from Mr. Day, 46. Visits France with Mr. Day and young Richard, 50. Reasons for deciding to edu- cate his son according to the system of Rousseau, 50, 52. His wife joins him for a short time, 52. Hears of the death of Mrs. Edgeworth, and returns to England, 53. Marries Miss Honora Sneyd, 54. Takes his family to Ireland, 56. Returns to England, 57. Visits Ireland, and returns to Lichfield, 60. Writes the first part of " Harry and Lucy," 62. Writes to Maria of the death of Mrs. Honora Edgeworth, 64. INDEX. 553 Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, con- tinued. His influence over Maria's mind, U7. Married to Miss Elizabetli Sneyd, 70, 71. Makes steeple-clock at Brere- ton, 74. Goes to Ireland to live, 7.5. Begins improvements at Edge- wortbstown, 78. Death of his friend Mr. Day, 86. Writes Mrs. Day of the fatal illness of his daughter Houo- ra, 88. Goes to England with Mrs. Edgeworth, 90. Sends for Maria to join him at Clifton with the children, 92. Meets old friends, 93, 96. Visits Dr. Darwin, 95. Returns to Ireland on account of disturbances there, 08. Offers his system of telegraph- ing to the government, 99. Mrs. Elizabeth Edgeworth dies, 103, 104. Attachment for Miss Beaufort, 106. Marries Miss Beaufort, 109. Raises a corps of infantry, 112. Moves his family to Longford, 116. They return in safety to Edge- worthstown, 125. Is elected to Parliament, and visits Dublin with his wife. They go to England, accom- panied by Maria, 135. M. Pictet, description of a visit to Edgeworthstown, 145, 153. Sets out for England with Mrs. Edgeworth, Maria, etc., on their way to the Continent, 155. Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, con- tinned. Visits Mrs. Darwin and others, 156, 1137. Buys in London a large com- fortable travelling carriage for their Continental journey, 159. Takes lodgings in Rue de Lille, Paris, 161. Ordered to quit Paris in twenty- four hours, 180. Returns to Paris, 182. Visit to Madame de Genlis, 183, 190. Leaves Paris, and goes to Edin- burgh, where they spend some weeks in the society of litera- ry, cultivated, and scientific people, 192, 201. Returns to Edgeworthstown, 203. Visits London, 210. Letter to Lady Morgan, 216. Death of his daughter Char- lotte, 219. Dedication of " Professional Education " to Earl Spencer, 225. Has an inflammation of the eyes, 229. Letter to Mrs. Inchbald, 2.39. Attack of " The Edinburgh Re- view " on " Professional Edu- cation," 246. Suggests ISIaria's writing a pre- face for Mrs. Leadbeater, 248. Letter to publishers, 252. A visit to Kilkenny, 253, 254. He visits Dublin, 255. Builds spire to Edgeworths- town church, 256, 260. Visited by IMr. Hall, 260, 262. He visits England, 267, et seq. Receives much attention, 271. 654 INDEX. Edgeworth, Richard Lovell, con- tinued. Mackintosh's account of him, 276. Byron's description of him, 278, 279. Leaves London, 280. Miss Hamilton's mention of him, 28.3. Illness, 291. A visit to Dublin, 298. Continued ill health, 298, 299. Publishes " Readings on Poet- ry," 300. A drive to Pakenham Hall, 306. His share in " Orraond," 308. Remarks to Lady Romilly, 311. Prefaces to "Harrington" and " Ormond," 311. His death, 311. His epitaph by himself, 313. His memoir, 314, 316, 325, 328, 331. Remarks by " The Quarterly Review," 355-357. Remarks by " The Edinburgh Review," 359. His inscription on Maria's desk, 526, 527. His influence on Maria, 533, 534. Edgeworth, Maria, — No life of her has yet appeared, 1. Irish only in her sympathies, 2. Her father's influence, 2. Her memoir of her father, 2. Her ancestors, 2, et seq. Her father's scientific tastes in- fiuence her, 12. " The Quarterly Review " no- tice affects her, 18. Birth of Maria, 30. Early years, 30. Life at Black Bourton, 52. Her mother's death, 56. Edgeworth, Maria, continued. Her father's second marriage, 56. Goes to Ireland for the first time, 56. Three years there, 57. Sent to boarding - school at Derby, 61. Recollection of Mrs. Honora Edgeworth, 61. Writes her first little story, 65. Removed to London school, 65. Proficiency in Italian and French, G6. Entertains her school-fellows by stories, 66. Learns to study character, 67. Third marriage of Mr. Edge- worth, 72. Maria has trouble with her eyes, 72. Spends holidays at Mr. Day's house, 72. His care of lier, 73. Gradual recovery of her eyes, 74. Goes to Ireland to live, 74. Writes of this event, 75, 76, et seq. Her father's management of his estates, 77. Studies the people, 77, 78. Home-life, 78-80. Keeps her father's accounts, 80, 81. Begins to translate " Adele et Theodore," 81, 82. Writes much, 82. Very quiet in early life, and re- served, 82. Family friends, 83, 84. Meets Lady Moira, 84, 85. Maria speaks of Mr. Day, 87. Left in charge of the family and place, 90. INDEX. 555 Edgeworth, Maria, continverl. Manner of writing, IK), 91. A visit to England, 92-98. At work on the " Freeman Fam- ily," 98. "Letters for Literary Ladies" in process, 99. "Practical Education" on the stocks, 99, et seq. "Letters for Literary Ladies " appear, 101. "Parent's Assistant" pub- lished, 102. " Moral Tales " in hand, 103. Death of Mrs. Elizabeth Edge- worth, 103. Mr. Edgeworth's fourth mar- riage, 105-109. Maria at work, 110. Internal dissensions and alarm, 111, et seq., 127. " Whim for "Whim " acted, 128. "Practical Education" pub- lished, 128. Account of " Practical Educa- tion," 128, etseq.,lU. A visit to England, 135. " Forgive and Forget," 135. Friends in England, 135-140. London, 139. "Castle Kackrent" published, 140. " Belinda " published, 141. Anecdote, 141, 142. Second edition of " Castle Rack- rent," 143. " Essay on Irish Bulls," 144. Visit of Pictet, 144, et seq., 152. The visit to France, 153, et seq., 192. A visit to Miss "Watts, 157-159. Belgium, 159, 160. Paris, 161-192. Edgeworth, Maria, continued. Many friends made, 101-192. An offer, 174-177. Return to England, 192. Edinburgh, 19;J-202. Maria makes many friends, 19G, 197,201. Return to Ireland, 202. Maria at work on " Popular Tales," 203. " Griselda" written, 203. Letters to Mrs. Barbauld, 204- 207. A visit to Black Castle, 208. Sleeves sent to Mrs. Stewart, 209. Visits to friends, 210. A letter to Mrs. Barbauld, 212, 213. " Leonora," 214. Visits to various Irish friends, 214. Anecdote of the Duke of "Wel- lington, 217. A visit to Coolure, 219. Maria's garden enlarged, 220. Letter about " Professional Ed- ucation," 222, 223. Maria reads " Corinne," 227. "Professional Education," 229. Maria finishes "Ennui," 229, 230. At work on " Vivian," 230, 231. A dinner at Pakenham Hall, 230, 231. A visit to Black Castle, 232. " Fashionable Tales " pub- lished, 233. Maria's reading, 234. * Visitors, 235. "Belinda" a.sked for by Mrs. Barbauld for her collection, 238. Maria makes visits to Sonna, etc., 238. 556 INDEX. Edgeworth, Maria, continued. Letter to Mrs. Inchbald, 239- 243. Letter to Mrs. Barbauld, 243- 245. Criticism of new books, 246, 247. Maria edits "Cottage Dia- logues," 248. Letter to Mrs. Barbauld, 248- 252. Attends theatricals at Kilken- ny, 253, 254. A visit to Dublin, 255. Meets several eminent people, 255. " Patronage " in hand, 256. " The Absentee," 256, 257. Maria's account of the spire, 258-260. Maria described by Mr. Hall, 200-262. " Absentee " finished, 263. Visits at Black Castle and Pak- enham Hall, 2G3. Letter to Mrs. Inchbald, 263- 265. Another letter to the same, 265, 266. Visit to Dublin, 265. " Patronage " finished, 266. A visit to England, 267. Welcome in London, 268. Maria finds herself famous, 270, 27L Friends made, 271-277. Byron's account of Maria, 278, 279. They leave London, 280. Visits to friends, 280, 281. Return to Ireland, 282. Maria begins new series of "Early Lessons," 282. She has a visit from Miss Ham- ilton, 282, 283. Edgeworth, Maria, continued. Maria's description of Mrs. Siddons's reading, 283, 284. Letter to Mrs. Inchbald, 284, 285. JIaria receives French transla- tions of her books, 285. "Patronage" published, 286. Letter to Mrs. Inchbald, 287- 290. A visit to Dublin, 291. Maria's pleasure at Scott's Postscript to " Waverley," 291. Her letter to the author of "Waverley," 292-297. Writes Mrs. Barbauld, 299, 301- 305. Letter from Miss Mordecai, 305. A visit from Mr. Ward, 305, 306. A compliment from Scott in "Harold the Dauntless," 307. "Ennui," 307. Letter to Mrs. Inchbald, 309, 310. " Dramas " iinblished, 311, " Harrington " and " Ormond," 311. " Thoughts on Bores," 311. Grief at her fatlier's death, 312, 313. A visit to Black Castle, 313. Return to Edgeworthstown, 314. Begins memoir of her father, 314. A visit to Bowood, 315. Letter from Bowood, 316-319. Visits to the Grove, 323. At Joanna Baillie's, 324. Lady Spencer's, 324. Bowood again, 325. Byrkeley Lodge, 327. Trentham, 327. INDEX. 557 Edge worth, Maria, continued. Smetlnvick, 3127. Grove House, 328. London invitations, 328. At tlie Duchess of Welling- ton's, 320. Meets the Duke of Wellington, 330. Visits at Deepdene, 330. NorLury Park, 330. Hampstead, 330. Ireland again, 331. "Popular Tales" translated, 331. A letter from Scott, 331, 332. A visit from the Carrs, 333. Completion of her father's memoir, 334. A visit to the Continent, 334, et seq. Changes observed in French society, 341-343. Geneva, 346. Chamouni, 346. Renews intimacy with Dumont, 346. Coppet, 347. A visit to Mme. de Montolieu, 349, 350. Maligny and Coppet, 351, 352. Rosamond, 353. Pregny, 353. The attack by " The Quarterly" on Maria's life of her father, 355-357. Return to Paris, 359. Sees Mme. de la Rochejaque- lin, 359-361. England, 362. Bowood, 363. Home again, 363. At work in Edgeworthstown streets, 364. A visit to England, 365. Visits at Smethwick, 365. Edgeworth, Maria, continued. Wycombe Abboj', 365. Meets William Wilbcrforce, 365, 36G. Gatcombe Park. 367. Mr. Ricardo, 367. Bowood, 3()8. Other visits, 368. Hampstead, 369. Meets Mrs. Somerville, 370, 371. Sir James Mackintosh, 371. Lord Anglesey, 372. Newgate, to hear Mrs, Fry, 373, 374. Almack's, 374, 375. Remarks on London society, 376, 377. Hears of Miss C. Sneyd's death, 378. More visits, 379. After return home at work on " Harry and Lucy," 381. Remarks on " Peveril," 382. Visit to Scotland, 383, et seq. Description of Scott, 387. Meeting with Sir Walter, 388, 389, et seq. Sees Edinburgh under his au- spices, 392. Arrival at Abbotsford, 394. The fortnight there, 395, 396. Letter to Constable, 397. Home again, 397. Home-life, 400. Visitors, 402. " The Mental Thermometer," 402. Other letters to him, 404-407. Comment on Mrs. Barbauld's character, 407. Letter to Constable, 408-410. Another letter to him, 410, 411. 558 INDEX. Edgeworth, Maria, continued. Visit of Sir Walter Scott to Edgeworthstown, 411, et seq., 422. Miss Edgeworth 's enjoyment of this event, 412. Their trip to Killarney, 419- 421, Business difficulties met by Maria, and successfully over- come, 425. Remarks on Lady Scott and Sir Humphry Davy, 426. Black Castle, 427. Acquaintance with Capt. Hall, 428. Early walks of Miss Edgeworth, 428. •' Garry Owen," printed in 1829, 429. A legacy, 429, Fire in the house, 429. Capt. Hall's journals sent to Maria, 430. Tribute of Scott in his intro- duction to the "Waverley Nov- els, 430, 431. Distress in Ireland, 432. A visit to England, 433. Meets Talleyrand at Lansdowne House, 433. Meets many friends, 434-437. Keturns home, 437. Again at work on "Helen," 439, 440. Letter to Mrs. Somerville, 440- 442. Death of Sir "Walter Scott grieves Maria, 442. Remarks, 443. At work on " Helen," 444-447. Publication of " Helen," 448, 449. A visit to Connemara, 451. Letter about " Helen," 451. Edgeworth, Maria, continued. A letter to Mrs. Stark, 453-4G2. Kind words from the public about " Helen," 463. A visit from the Ticknors, 465- 473. Comments on Mr. Ticknor, 472, 473. Letter to Mr. Peabody, 474- 476. Letter to Mrs. Farrar, 476, 477, Visit of Mrs. Farrar at the Edgeworths', 476-480. Visited by Mr. Sprague, 481- 486. Leigh Hunt's mention of Miss Edgeworth in a poem, 486- 488. Letters to Dr. Mackenzie, 488, 489. A visit at Trim, 488. Letter to Mrs. Ticknor, 490. A visit in London, 491. A meeting with Mrs. Sigourney, 492,493. Grief of Maria at Mrs. Mary Sneyd's death, 493. Returns to Ireland, and visits Dublin and Trim, 493. The Halls' visit to Maria, 495- 500. A severe illness, 501. A visit to Trim, 501. The temperance movement, 501, Letter to Mrs. S. C. Hall, 502. A visit to London, 503. Meets Sydney Smith, 504. Letter to Lady Holland, 504, Meets many old friends, 506. Returns to Ireland, and visits Trim, where she has a severe illness, 507. Visits the Observatory at Ar- magh, 508. Dedication from Lever, 508. INDEX. 669 Edgeworth, ^raria, crtnthmcd. The distress and famiuo in Ire- land, 509. Writes " Orlandino," 500, 511. Asked for prefaces to her col- lected works, 511. Reply to same, 512, 513. Letter to W. H. Trescott, 514- 517. Her continued i^leasuroin read- ing, 518. Grief at death of Mrs. "Wilson, 519. Pleasure on reading Macaulay's note, 520. Letter to friend after a danger- ous illness, 521. Address to Ireland, 521. Death, 522. Latter years, 523. Love of home, 524, 525. Personal appearance, 525, 526. Methodical manner of work, 526-528. Notes, 528, 532. Sketches, 532. Her subjection to her father, 533, 534. Religious views, 535. Utilitarian ideas, 536. Her literary position, 536. Notices of her, 537, 538. Estimate of character, 538, 539. Edgeworth, Mrs., 26, 28, 31, 40, 52, 53. Edgeworth, Mrs. Honora, 55, 57, 60, 64, 70, 78. Edgeworth, Mrs. Elizabeth, 99, 103, 104, 132. Edgeworth, Mrs. Frances Ann, 115, 138, 155, 237, 262, 279, 290, 496, 522, 526. Edgeworth, Anna. (See Bed- does.) Edgeworth, Charlotte, 141, 153, 155, 156, 219. Edgeworth, C. Sueyd, 102, 213, 230, 243, 289, 290, 298, 304, 433, 518. Edgeworth, Emmeline, 155. (See King.) Edgeworth, Fanny, 137, 289, 331, 334, 365, 368, 372, 430. Edgeworth, Francis, 438, 509. Edgeworth, Harriet. (Sec But- ler.) Edgeworth, Henry, 192, 194, 196, 199, 209. Edgeworth, Honora, 88, 89. Edgeworth, Honora (2d), 238, 247, 314, 466. Edgeworth, William, 99, 222, 392, 415, 422, 431. Edgeworth, Lovell, 93, 99, 132, 150, 191, 208, 229, 236, 304, 314, 412, 425. Edgeworth, Michael Pakenham, 315, 494. Edgeworth, Lucy, 503. Edgeworth, Richard, 50, 93, 101. Edgeworth, Sophia, 383, 400, 485. Edgeworth, Abbe, 181, 182, 221, 340, 341, 518. Edgeworth, Miss Anna, 429. Edgeworthstown, 2, 27, 74, 78, 80, 98, 102, 103, 106, 113, 116, 125, 128, 141, 203, 255, 258, 397, 426, 429, 465, 493, 500, 509, 519, 524. Edinburgh, 163, 192, 201, 383. " Edinburgh Review," 227, 228, 233, 246, 286, 358. Edinburgh, University of, 196. Edwards, Mr., 160. Edwards, Mr. Brian, 160. Egypt, 337. Elcrs, Paul, 20, 29. Elers, Capt., 30. 660 INDEX. Elers, Miss Anna Maria. (See Mrs. Edgewortb.) Ely, Marquis of, 253. " Emilie de Coulanges," 203, 231. England, 335, 362, 365, 433. " Ennui," 203, 229, 231, 307. Eroles, Miss, 438. Essex, Lord, 180. Eustace, Major, 123, 124. FaNSHAWE, Lady Catherine, 271, 328. Fairy-mount, 6. Farnham, 214. Farrar, Mrs., 476, 480. "Fashionable Tales," 233, 234, 23G, 245, 257. Fazakerley, 363. Ferguson, Adam, 199. Finch, Eliza, 256. Firmont, Abbe de. (See Abbe Edge worth.) Fitzgerald, Lady Edward, 188. Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, 253. Fitzpatrick, 278. Fletcher, Mrs., 143, 384-386. Foley, Admiral, 277. Fontainebleau, 337. Force, Duchesse de la, 338. " Forgive and Forget," 135. Forres, 393. Foster, Chief Baron, 15, 105. Foster, John, Speaker of Irish House of Commons, 15, 141. Foster, William, Bishop of Clogher, 15, 356. Fox, Lady Anne, 110. Fox, Capt. Barry, 400. Fox, C. J., 164, 377. Fox, Francis, 18. Fox Hall, 110. Fox, Judge, 210. Fox, Mr., 113. France, 50, 52. " Frank," 282, 369, 444. "Freeman Family" ("Patron- age"), 98. Frojbel, 134. Frognel, 379. Fry, Mrs., 373, 374. FuUerton, Lady Georgiana, 507. G ALTON'S "Hereditary Genius," 11, 33, 39. Gardner, Lord, 283. " Garry Owen," 429. Gatcombe Park, 367. Gautier, Mme., 162, 181. Gell, Sir William, 137. " Generosity," 90. Geneva, 144, 145, 153, 166, 167, 346, 347. Genlis, Mme. de, 81, 130, 160, 183, 190. Gibbon, 350. Gibbs, Sir Vickary, 164. Gifford, Mr., 355, Glasgow, 201, 383, 397. Goldsmith, Oliver, 12. Granaid, Lady, 210. Granard, Lord, 83, 85, 100. Granard, 111, 120. Grandison, Lord, 253. Grant, Mrs., 428. Grattan, Henry, 253. Greenough, Mr., 218. Gregory, Dr., 194, 196, 466. Grenville, Lady, 318. Grenville, Lord, 318. Grenville, Mr., 318, 320. Greville, Mrs., 84. " Griselda," 203. Gwatkin, Mrs., 436, 437. Hall, Capt. Basil, 138, 428, 430. Hall, Rev. Robert, 483, 534. Hall, S. C, 495, 519. Hall, Mrs. S. C, 395, 420, 421, 432, 495, 500, 502, 511, 519. INDEX. 561 Hall's " Travels in Ireland," 2G0- 202. Hallam, Mr., .">G3. Hamilton, Miss Elizabeth, 19C, 231, 282, 283, 297. Hamilton, Mr., 402. Hampstead, 273, 330, 369, 379, 434, Hampstead Hall, 491. Hampstead Heath, 324. Hare Hatch, 29, 30, 38, 41. Harness, Mr., 272, 322, 377. "Harrington," story of, 30G, 307, 311, 402. " Harry and Lucy," 282, 381, 426, 444. Hartley, 529. Haygarth, Mr., 302. Hay ley, Mr., 306. Hazlitt, 167, 355. Heberden, Dr., 62. "Helen," 312, 344, 376, 432, 439, 444, 446, 451, 453, 463, 468, Hemans, Mrs., 298. Herschel, Mr., 428. Hoare, Mrs. Charles (Miss Robin- son), 96, 97. Holland, Sir Henry, 235, 267, 372, 377, 503, 520. Holland, Lady, 504. Holte, Lady, 71, 82. Holte, Sir Charles, 72. Hope, Mrs. (Lady Beresford), 272, 276, 329, 374, 378. Horner, Francis, Mr., 273, 407. Howitt, Mary, 501, 502. Hughes, Rev. Patrick, 12. Humboldt, 335, Hume, 529, 530, Hungerford, Mr., 20. Hungerford, Mrs., 21, 22, 299. Hunt, Leigh, 88, 485-487. Hunter, Mrs., 324. Hunter, Mr., 285, 353, 362, 402. Huntingdon, Lady, 84, IlCHESTER, Earl of, 164. Inchbald, Mrs., 102, 236, 237, 239, 2(i3, 266, 271, 274, 275, 286, 309, 311,523. Inglis, Sir Robert, 197. Ireland, 2, 27, 31, 41, 56, 75, 97, 98, 140, 256, 331, 381, 397, 4.32, " Irish Bulls," 103,261. Jacob, Mr., 355, Jacotot, 134, Jameson, Mrs., 452, Jeffrey, Lord, 200, 313, 384, 394, 407. Johnson, Dr., 224, 234, 376, 450, 510, 531, 532. Johnson, Joseph, 101, 102, 139, 140, 154, 160, 203, 236, 244, 328. Jones, Sir William, 325. Jones, Lady, 325. Jordan, Camille, 171. KaVANAGH, Miss, 537. Keir, Mr., .38, 95, 97, 136. Kennedy, Sir Alexander, 22. Kildare, 248. Kildare, Countess of, 253. Killala, 113. Killarney, 420, 422, 451. Kilkenny, 253, 254. King, Mrs. (Emmeline Edge- worth), 208, 315, 367. King, John, 155, 156, 280, 368. Kinneil Castle, 383. Knowle, 437. Knutsford, 267. Kosciusko, Gen., 171. L'ABBAYE aux Bois, 335. La Celle, 340. La Harpe, 179. Lally-Tollendal, Marquis, 172. Lamartine, 518. 662 INDEX. Lamb, Lady Caroline, 303, 320. Lambeth Palace, 506. Landor, W. S., 537. Lausdowne, 3d Marquis of (Lord Henry Petty), 165, 269, 283, 316- 318, 323, 308, 433, 471, 503. Lansdowne, Lady, 165, 269, 273, 283, 315, 316, 321, 322, 325, 329, 368, 503. Lansdowne House, 165, 373, 433. La Place, 370. Laracor, 522. Latiffiere, Mrs., 61, 63, 65, 66. Latouches, 253. Lausanne, 348. Lavoisier, M., 327, 359. Lavoisier, Mme. (See Rumford.) Lawrence, Sir Thomas, 372. Lazarus, Mrs. (See Mordecai.) " Lazy Lawrence," 102. Leadbeater, Mrs. Mary, 248, 251, 252. Le Breton, M., 192. Le Brun, Mme., 339. Lefanu, Mrs., 254, 325, 326. Leinster, Duke of, 253. Leicester, 157. Lenet, M., 160. " Leonora," 211. Leslie, 491. " Letters for Literary Ladies," 82, 99, 101. Lever, Charles J., 508. Lichfield, 31, 32, 36, 37, 42, 46, 54, 327. Lichfield, Bishop of, 506. Lindsay, Lady Charlotte, 272. Linniean Society, 39. Lisbon, 97. Lissard (Castle), 6, 7. " Little Dog Trusty," 102. Locke, Mr. and Mrs., 3.30. Lockhart, J. G., 200, 291, 383, 390, 395, 412, 443, 447. London, 30, 50, 56, 268, 281, 435, 437, 493, 498, 504, 506, 507. Londonderry, Marquis of, 374, 375. London " Quarterly Review," 18, 234, 286, 299, 305, 355, 358. Longford, 111, 113, 114, 126, 495, 496, 500. Longford Castle, 368. Longford, Lady, 19, 83. Longford, Lord, 10, 55, 83, 96, 138, 220, 263, 304, 306, 329, 427. Louis XVIII., 221. Louis Philippe, 433. Lovell, Jane, 10. Lovell, Sir Salathiel, 10. Lovell, Samuel, 10, 11. Lushington, Dr., 369. Luttrell, 434. Lydiats, Dr., 12. Lygon, Lady Georgina, 304. Lyons, 52, 53, 354. MaCAULAY, Lord, 167, 236, 269, 519, 536. Macdonald, Lady Rachel, 253. Mackenzie, Dr., 489. Mackenzie, Mr., 384. Mackintosh, Sir James, 210, 220, 221, 228, 245, 246, 275, 276, 371, 372, 436, 471, 536. "Mademoiselle Panache," 102. Mahon, Lord, 277. Maligny, 351. Malthus, 340. Malvern Links, 280. Mausel, Dr. (Bishop of Bristol), 306, Manchester, 267. Mann, Horace, 134. " Manoeuvring," 231. Marcet, Mrs., 328, 346, 351, 358,491. Marmont, 338. Mars, Mile., 338. Marsh, Sir Henry, 522. INDEX. 563 Martin, Mrs., 451. Maskelyuc, 72. Maturin, R. C, 302. Mathew, Father, 501. Meath, Bishop of, 253. Melrcso Abbey, 3'J5. Mehin, Mile, 494. " Memoir " of R. L. Etlgewcrth, 334, 347, 350, 359, 362, 363. Milbanke, Lady, 271. Miles, Mr., 230, 237, 245, 257, 288, 328. Milesi-:Mojon, Mme., 331 Mill, John Stuart, 328. Millar, Dr., 302. ^lilman, Dean, 506. Jililnes, Miss, 58, 59. Mirabean, 166, 439, 449, 525. Moira, Lady, 84, 85. Moira, Lord, 157. Moilliets, 327, 346, 353, 354, 865, 491. Monaco, Prince of, 171. Monaco, Princess Joseph of, 157, 172. Montague, Basil, 463. Mont Blanc, 346. Montgolfier, M., 161. Montolieu, Mme. de, 349, 350. Moore, Tom, 253, 254, 207, 272, 279, 320, 322, 323, 325, 346, 408, 434. Moore, Judge, 415. " Moral Tales," 103,141. Mordecai, Miss Rachel, 305, 363, 428. Morellet, Abbe', 161, 169, 170, 188, 516. Morgan, Lady, 215, 216, 355. Morris, Mr. and Mrs., 274, 285, 289, 290. Mulgrave, Lord. (See Norman- ■by-) Murray, Lindley, 193. N ANGLE, Ann, 370. Napier, Mrs., 299. Napoleon I. (See Bonaparte.) Nash, Beau, 25. Navan, 103, 308. Necker, M., 351, 353. Necker, Mme., 353. Necker de Saussure, 334, 354. Nelson, Lord, 277. Newcastle, Duke of, 99. Newgate, 373, 374. New Orleans, 298. " Nicholson's Journal," 258. Norbury, Lord, 238. Norbury Park, 330. Normanbj% Lord, 434. Norris, Dr., 15. " North American Review," 359. North Carolina, 93. OlIPHANT, Mrs., 537. O'Neill, Lord, 253. O'Neill, Miss, 253, 254. Opie, Mrs., 237. Oriel, Lord, 105. "Ormond," 77, 306-308, 311, 313. Ossory, Lord, 163. Oxford, 20, 335. PaHENHAM, Admiral (Lord Longford), 83,219, 2.31. Pakenham, Sir Edward, 219, 298, 333. Pakenham, Lady Elizabeth, 210, 217. Pakenham, Capt. Hercules, 221, 203. Pakenham, Kitty. (See "Welling- ton.) Pakenham Hall, 83, 84, 210, 214, 230, 231, 238, 203, 304, 306, 400, 442. Pakenham, Thomas, 8, 9. Palgrave, 137. 564 INDEX. Palmerston, Lord, Idi, 197. " Parent's Assistant," 90, 102, 103, 143. Paris, IGO, 192, 335, 346, 354, 361, 409, 525, Park, Dr., 303. Parr, Dr., 273, 278. Passy, 162, 181, 182. Pastoret, M. de, 168. Pastoret, Mme. de, 168, 169, 335. "Patronage," 10, 177, 178, 227, 234, 248, 256, 257, 263, 266, 284, 290, 444. Peabody, Rev. W. B. O., 449, 468. Pelham, Mr.,99. Pepys, Sir William, 376. Pestalozzi, 134. Petty, Lord Henry. (See Lans- downe.) " Peveril," 382. Pevisham, 323. Phillips, Mrs., 275. Pictet, Marc Auguste, 144, 153, 160, 346. Pictet, M., de Rochemont, 354. Pitt, 164, 306. Playfair, Professor, 194, 196, 199, 200, 384. Pneumatic institution, 156, 157. Polignac, Duke and Ducbesse de, 319. Pollard, Mrs., 230. Poole, Mr., 227. Pope, 91. " Popular Plays," 300. "Popular Tales," 203, 212, 220, 233, 285, 300, 331. Portsmouth, 379. Potemkin, Princess, 339. Powerscourt, Lord, 197, 253. Powys, Mr. and Mrs. Henry, 48. Powys, Mrs., 89,92,97. Powys, iliss, 351. Pozzo di Borgo, 338. "Practical Education," 99, 128, 129, 134, 136, 141, 172, 225. Pregny, 347, 353. Prescott, W. H., 494, 514. Prevost, M. and Mme., 346. Priestley, Dr., 529. Primate of Ireland. (See Stuart.) Princess of Wales, 273. Pritchard, Mrs., 377. "Professional Education," 208, 224, 225, 229, 234, 246, 249. Prony, M., 161, 336, 337, 343. "Quarterly Review." (See " London Quarterly.") Queen Charlotte, 217. Queen Elizabeth, 2. Queen Henrietta Maria, 3. Queen Victoria, 506. Ralston, Gerald, 372, 493. Randall, Miss, 347, 353. Randolph, Mr., 379. " Readings on Poetry," 300. Re'camier, Mme., 171, 179, 335, 336. Re'camier, M., 336. Relfe, Lupton, 402, 406, Rennie, Mr., 220. Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 376, 436. Rhone, 52-54. Ricardo, Mr. David, 367, 372, 531, Richmond, Duke of, 299. "Rivuletta," 89. Rive, M. de la, 346. Robinson, Romney, 255, 503, 508, Robinson, Henry Crabbe, 273, Rocca, M., 317. Rocca, Alphouse, 348, 352. Rochejaquelin, Mme. de la, 359. Roehamptou, 97. Rogers, Samuel, 270, 272, 274, 280, 506. INDEX. 565 Roissey, Mme. de, 331. "Rokeby,"266. "Romance of tlie Forest," 96. Romilly, Lady, 311, 491. Roinilly, Sir Samuel, 73, 1G6, 325, 491. ♦' Rosamond," 102, 353, 362, 444. Roscoe, Mr., 267. Rosliu Castle, 392. Rosse, Lord, 410. Rosstrevor, 438. Rousseau, 50, 52, 134, 162, 167, 169, 170. Rowton, Lord, 254. Royal Irish Academy, 495. Royal Society, 136. Royer-Collard, 339. Ruioford, Countess de, 327, 345, 359. Raskin, John, 536. Russell, Lord John, 165, 322. Russia, Emperor of, 335. Rutland, Duchess of, 374. Ruxton, Mrs., 89, 105, 141, 174, 202, 204, 214, 232, 340, 363, 382, 429, 430, 432. Ruxton, Mr. John, 40. SaLA, George Augustus, 43. Salisbury, 368. " Sandford and Merton," 73, 87, 88. Scott, Lady, 390, 394, 401, 426, 471. Scott, Sir Walter, 195, 210, 215, 264, 268, 269, 291, 297, 298, 303, 313, 331, 369, 370, 375, 379, 384, 387, 401, 411, 418, 420, 431, 435, 442, 443, 452, 471. Scott, Sir Walter (Capt.), 411, 412, 452. Schlegel, 471. Sebright, Sir John, 370, 426. Segur, Comte de, 172. Selkirk, Lord, 222, 249. Seward, Anna, 31, 33-36, 43, 45, 54, 55, 59, 87, 89, 207, 306, 325, 351. Seward, Rev. Mr., 36. Seymour, Lord Webb, 197. Shakspeare, 178. Sharpe, 3i)0, 434. Shelburue, Earl of, 166, 320, 323. Sheridan, 128, 254, 256, 257, 326, 377. Sicard, Ahh4, 172. Siddons, Mrs., 271, 272, 274, 278, 283, 284, 375, 377. Sigourney, Mrs. L. H., 492. " Simple Susan," 102, 443. Simpkiu & Marshall, 511, 512. Sinclair, Mr., 298. Sinclair, Miss Catherine, 297, 298. Sismondi, M., 352. Slough, 379. Small, Dr., 38, 57, 58. Smith, Lady, 451. Smith, Sir Culling, 451. Smith, Mr., 283. Smith, Mr. ("Rejected Address- es "), 368. Smith, Sydney, 167, 321, 503, 504, 506. Sneyd, Misses Mary and Char- lotte, 101, 113, 131, 135, 313, 378, 447, 466, 467, 488, 493. Sneyd, Miss Elizabeth, 46, 48, 50, 52, 53, 70, 71, 238, 247. Sneyd, Miss Honora, 31, 36, 42, 47, 49, 50, 54. Sneyd, Mr. Edward, 36, 48. Sneyd, Mr. William, 65. Somerville, Mrs., 370, 375, 434,440, 441. Sonna, 145, 149, 214. Sotheby, 274. Southey, Robert, 139, 156, 355. Souvestre, 6mile, 331. Spencer, Earl, 225. Spencer, Lady, 272, 277, 324. 666 INDEX. Spire at Edgeworthstown, 255, 260. Spragiic, Rev. William B., 481. Stael, Augusts de, 272, 347, 348, 352. Stael, Mme. de, 67, 172, 272, 275, 279, 287, 306, 317, 318, 321, 329, 330, 334, 347, 348, 351-353, 366, 371, 431, 471, 530, 536. Staffa, Laird of, 389, 390, 391. Staffordshire, 313. Stanhope, Lord, 277. Stark, Mrs. , 315, 453. Stevens, Rev. W. B., 35. Stewart, Dugald, 99, 163, 194, 197, 325, 326, 383. Stewart, Mrs. Dugald, 194, 197, 199, 383. Stewart, Col., 453, 463. Stoke Newington, 273. Stonehenge, 368. Story, Chief Justice, 425. Strackey, Miss, 367. Strutt, Mr. William, 96, 136, 267. Stuart, Rev. Mr. (Primate of Ire- land), 232. Suard, M., 169. Suard, Mme., 172. Swetchine, Mme., 339, Sydney, Sabrina, 41, 46, 53, 57. TaGUS, 97 Talleyrand, 361, 433. Talma, 427. *' Tarlton," 102. "Take for Granted," 403, 422, 429, 468, 469. " Tales of Fashionable Life," 233, 471. Taylor, Ann, 143, 144. Taylor, Jane, 303. Taylor. William, 137, 195. Temple, Lord, 197. "Thady," 78, 147, 172, 457. " The Absentee," 256-258, 263, 289, 458. " The Bracelet," 90, 102. " The Bracelet of JSIemory," 353. " The Contrast," 256, 367. " The False Key," 102. " The Honest Boy and the Thief," 90. " The Mental Thermometer," 402. " The Mimic," 102. "The Orange Man," 102. " The Purple Jar," 102. Thomson, Mr Thomas, 384. Ticknor, Mr. George, 168, 331, 465, 472, 473, 488, 494, 517. Ticknor, Mrs. George, 465, 490. Tollendal, Lally, 172. " Toys and Tasks," 99, 101. Trentham, 327. Trimblestone, Lord, 15, 16. Trim, 427, 501, 503, 507, 522, 528. Tuite, Jane, 2. Tuite, Sir Edmond, 2. Tuite, Mr., 145. " Vivian," 230, 257. Vinde, M. de, 340. Waller, Mr., i4i. Walpole, Horace, 271. Ward, R., 305. Ward and Dudley, Lord, 197, 286, 306, 435. Warwick, 12. Watt, Mr., 38, 96, 136, 161, 327, 335. Watts, Miss, 157-159. " Waverley," 291, 297, 315. Wedgwood, Mr. Josiah, 38, 96, 157. Wellington, Duke of, 217, 330. Wellington, Duchess of (Kitty Pakenham), 83, 217, 274, 435, 437. INDEX. 567 "Westmeath, 111, 114. "Westminster Abbey, 275. Wbitbread, Lady Elizabeth, 272, 328, 372, 378, 503. White, Lydia, 238, 273, 375, 377. Wliitworth, Lord, 180. AVilberforce, William, 329, 365. William IV., 253. Wilson, Mrs. Fanny, 435, 503, 519. Wilson, Mrs. Elizabeth, 446. Wilson, Capt. Lo Stock, 138. Wilton House, 3()8. Wilkinson, Mrs., 377. Windsor, 379. Wooton, 330. Wordsworth, 432. Wycombe Abbey, 365, 366. Yates, miss, 402. York, 193. Young, Professor, 202. 11 7y ■JS UNIVEESITY OF CALITOKNIA LIBRARY, BERKELEY ' ^HIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW Books not returned on time are subject to a fine of 50c per volume after the third day overdue, increasing to $1.00 per volume after the sixth day. Books not in demand may be renewed if application is made before expiration of loan period. '^ov'^aiUo ^3^0^,, '^^n 13 1962 DAVIS NTER-LIBRARY. Lt3AN OCT 1 2 1967 20»t-ll,'20 263775 UNIVERSITY OF CAIvIFORNiA LIBRARY