Chapter 43

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

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

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

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

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

[Footnote 120: Mrs. Dobson was authoress of an abridged translation of “Petrarch's Life,” and of the “History of the Troubadours.”--ED.]

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

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

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

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

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

[Footnote 126: Beattie's “Essay on Truth,” published in 1770, and containing a feeble attack on Hume. Commonplace as the book is, it was received with rapture by the Orthodox, and Reynolds painted a fine picture of Beattie, standing with the “Essay” under his arm, while the angel of Truth beside him, drives away three demonic figures, in whose faces we trace a resemblance to the portraits of Hume, Voltaire, and Gibbon. For this piece of flattery the painter was justly rebuked by Goldsmith, whose sympathies were certainly not on the side of infidelity. “It very ill becomes a mann of your eminence and character,” said the poet, “to debase so high a genius as Voltaire before so mean a writer as Beattie. Beattie and his book will be forgotten in ten years, while Voltaire's fame will last for ever. Take care it does not perpetuate this picture, to the shame of such a man as you.”--ED.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Footnote 135: This letter was written in reply to a few words from Mrs. Thrale, in which, alluding to her husband's sudden death, she begs Miss Burney to “write to me--pray for me!” The hurried note from Mrs. Thrale is thus endorsed by Miss Burney:--“Written a few hours after the death of Mr. Thrale, which happened by a sudden stroke of apoplexy, on the morning of a day on which half the fashion of London had been invited to an intended assembly at his house in Grosvenor Square.” [Mr. Thrale, who had long suffered from ill health, had been contemplating a journey to Spa, and thence to Italy. His physicians, however, were strongly opposed to the scheme, and Fanny writes, just before his death, that it was settled that a great meeting of hi friends should take place, and that they should endeavour to prevail with him to give it up; in which she has little doubt of their succeeding.]--ED.]

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

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

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

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

[Footnote 140: The celebrated Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, equally famous for her personal attractions and her political enthusiasm in the Whig interest. Her canvassing, and, it is said, her kisses, largely contributed to the return of Charles james Fox for Westminster in the election of 1784. She was the daughter of John, first Earl Spencer; was born 1757; married, 1774, to William, fifth Duke of Devonshire; and died, 1806. Her portrait was painted by both Reynolds and Gainsborough. Mary Isabella, Duchess of Rutland, was the youngest daughter of the Duke of Beaufort, and was married, in 1775, to Charles Mariners, fourth Duke of Rutland. She died, 1831.--ED.]

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

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

[Footnote 143: i.e. To Streatham: Fanny had been home in the interval.--ED.]

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

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

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

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

[Footnote 148: Dr. Jonathan Shipley.--ED.]

[Footnote 149: The husband of Fanny Burney's sister, Susan.--ED.]

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

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

[Footnote 152: Pasquale Paoli, the famous Corsican general and patriot. He maintained the independence of his country against the Genoese for nearly ten years. In 1769, upon the submission of Corsica to France, to which the Genoese had ceded it, Paoli settled in England, where he enjoyed a pension of 1200 pounds a year from the English Government. More details respecting this delightful interview between Fanny and the General are given in the “Memoirs of Dr. Burney” (vol. ii. p. 255), from which we select the following extracts:--

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Footnote 156: The master of the ceremonies.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Footnote 163: The miserly guardian of Cecilia, in Fanny's novel. Among the “Fragments of the journal of Charlotte Anne Burney,” appended to the “Early Diary,” occurs the following passage, written at the end of 1782. “Fanny's Cecilia came out last summer, and is as much liked and read I believe as any book ever was. She had 250 pounds for it from Payne and Cadell. Most people say she ought to have had a thousand. It is now going into the third edition, though Payne owns that they printed 2,000 at the first edition, and Lowndes told me five hundred was the common number for a novel.” (“Early Diary,” vol. ii. P. 307.)--ED.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Footnote 171: John Hoole, the translator of Tasso.--ED.]

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

[Footnote 173: Soame Jenyns was one of the most celebrated of the “old wits.” He was born in 1704; was for twenty-five years member of Parliament for Cambridgeshire; died in 1787. His principal works were “A Free Enquiry into the Origin of Evil,” and “A View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion.” Boswell writes of him: “Jenyns was possessed of lively talents, and a style eminently pure and 'easy', and could very happily play with a light subject, either in prose or verse; but when he speculated on that most difficult and excruciating question, 'The Origin of Evil,' he ventured far beyond his depth, and, accordingly, was exposed by Johnson [in the 'Literary Magazine'], both with acute argument and brilliant wit.”--ED.]

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

[Footnote 175: Hester Mulso was born in 1727; she married, in 1760, an attorney named Chapone, who died within a year of the marriage. Among the many young ladies who surrounded and corresponded with Samuel Richardson, Hester was a first favourite. The great novelist's letters to his “dear Miss Mulso” are very pleasant to read. Mrs. Chapone enjoyed considerable esteem as an authoress. Her “Letters on the Improvement of the Mind,” dedicated to Mrs. Montagu, went through several editions. We should like to praise them, but the truth must be owned--they are decidedly commonplace and “goody-goody.” Still, they are written in a spirit of tender earnestness, which raises our esteem for the writer, though it fails to reconcile us to the book. Mrs. Chapone died on Christmas-day, 1801.--ED.]

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

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

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

Reader, this cold and humble spot contains The much lamented, much rever'd remains Of one whose wisdom, learning, taste, and sense, Good-humour'd wit and wide benevolence Cheer'd and enlightened all this hamlet round, Wherever genius, worth, or want was found. To few it is that bounteous heav'n imparts Such depth of knowledge, and such taste in arts Such penetration, and enchanting pow'rs Of brit'ning social and convivial hours. Had he, through life, been blest by nature kind With health robust of body as of mind, With skill to serve and charm mankind, so great In arts, in science, letters, church, or state, His name the nation's annals had enroll'd And virtues to remotest ages told.”]

“C. BURNEY.”]

[Footnote 177: Mr. Gibbon, “in stepping too lightly from, or to a boat of Mr. Cambridge's, had slipt into the Thames; whence, however, he was intrepidly and immediately rescued, with no other mischief than a wet jacket, by one of that fearless, water-proof race, denominated, by Mr. Gibbon, the amphibious family of the Cambridges.” (“Memoir of Dr. Burney,” vol. ii. P. 341.)--ED.]

[Footnote 178: The “Essex Head” club, just founded by Dr. Johnson. The meetings were held thrice a week at the Essex Head, a tavern in Essex-street, Strand, kept by Samuel Greaves, an old servant of Mr. Thrale's. Among the rule's of the club, which were drawn up by Dr. Johnson, we find the following: “Every member present at the club shall spend at least sixpence; and every member who stays away shall forfeit threepence.” He ought to have added, “to be spent by the company in punch.” (See Goldsmith's delightful essay on the London clubs.)--ED.]

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

[Footnote 180: It must be borne in mind that the “Diary” is addressed to Fanny's sister Susan (Mrs. Phillips),--ED.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Footnote 188: Her brother--ED.]

[Footnote 189: “Memoirs of Dr. Burney,” vol. iii. p. 87. Fanny had, however, to assist in dressing the queen. See postea, P--345.]

[Footnote 190: The death of the Duchess dowager of Portland.]

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

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

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

[Footnote 194: Joseph Baretti, author of an Italian and English Dictionary, and other works; the friend Of JOhnson, well known to readers of Boswell. He had long been acquainted with the Burneys. Fanny writes in her “Early Diary” (March, 1773): “Mr. Baretti appears to be very facetious; he amused himself very much with Charlotte, whom he calls Churlotte, and kisses whether she will or no, always calmly saying, 'Kiss a me, Churlotte!'” Charlotte Burney was then about fourteen; she was known after this in the family as Mrs. Baretti.--ED.]

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

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

[Footnote 197: Madame de Genlis had visited England during the spring of 1785, and made the acquaintance of Dr. Burney and his daughter Fanny. In July Fanny writes of her as “the sweetest as well as the most accomplished Frenchwoman I ever met with,” and in the same month Madame de Genlis writes to Fanny: “Je vous aime depuis l'instant ou j'ai lu Evelina et Cecilia, et le bonheur de vous entendre et de vous conneitre personellement a rendu ce sentiment aussi tendre qu'il est bien fonde.” The acquaintance, however, was not kept up.--ED.]

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

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

[Footnote 200: “Adele et Theodore, ou Lettres sur l'education” by Madame de Genlis, first published in 1782.--ED.]

[Footnote 201: We shall hear again of 'Mr. and Mrs. Hastings, and of the scandal which was caused by the lady's reception at Court. She was bought by Hastings of her former husband for 10,000 pounds. The story is briefly as follows:--