HANDBOUND
AT THE

UNIVERSITY OF
TORONTO PRESS

MISS BERRY'S

JOUENALS AND COKBESPONDENCE,

VOL. II.

LOlfDOW

PEIIfTBD BY SPOTTISWOODE AICD CO.
ItEW-STBBET SQITAEB

Longman 8cC°

EXTRACTS

JOURNALS AND CORRESPONDENCE

OF

MISS BERRY

FROM THE YEAR 1783 TO 1852.

EDITED BT

LADY THERESA LEWIS.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. n.

LONDON :
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

1865.

MICRUi . .J BY

.

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DATE AUb zs ^ ib)89

52>b

JOURNAL

CORRESPONDENCE OF MISS BERRY.

1796.

Miss BERRY stated in her entry for this year that
General O'Hara had met them at Cheltenham, and after-
wards at Park Place. He was no new acquaintance to
Miss Berry, for so early as the year 1784 he is mentioned
in her journal as having accompanied their party in their
expedition to the Falls of Terni.

General O'Hara was highly esteemed by those with
whom Miss Berry lived in greatest intimacy. He is
often mentioned with praise and interest in Lord Orford's
letters. He was a cherished friend of Marshal Conway
and Lady Ailesbury, and was on terms of almost brotherly
affection with their daughter Mrs. Darner. He was for
some years Governor of Gibraltar, and the following
character of him, which appeared in the novel of ' Cyril
Thornton,' may throw some light on his claims to the
warm admiration of his friends, and to that enthusiastic
love, which he inspired in vain, and never really lost : —

' It is impossible for me to recur to the period of my sojourn
in Gibraltar, and yet to say nothing of the governor, General
O'Hara. His appearance, indeed, was of that striking cast,
which, once seen, is not easily forgotten. General O'Hara was

VOL. II. B

'2 LETTERS. [1796

the most perfect specimen I ever saw, of the soldier and courtier
of the last age, and in his youth had fought with Granby and
Ligonier. . . . Notwithstanding the strictness of the discipline
which he scrupulously enforced in the garrison which he com-
manded, no officer could be more universally popular than
General O'Hara. ... In his own house, and, above all, at his
own table, he delighted to cast off all distinction of rank, and
to associate on terms of perfect equality with even the humblest
of his guests. The honours of the table were done by his staff,
and the General was in nothing distinguished from those around
him, except by being undoubtedly the gayest and most agreeable
person in the company. . . . Before we quitted Gibraltar he
died. There was no hypocrisy in the heavy looks of the soldiers,
as they followed his remains to their last earthly tenement.' —
Vide Cyril Thornton, vol. ii. pp. 159, J 60, 161, 163.

How far General O'Hara was really worthy of the
ardent admiration with which Miss Berry viewed his
general character and his powers of mind, it is needless
to enquire. She loved him with that warm and generous
enthusiasm that invests its object with every human
quality deemed necessary to perfection, and to the latest
years of her life she firmly believed that her union with
him would have given increased elevation to her own
character, would have called forth the best feelings of her
heart, and secured her happiness in this world. At Chel-
tenham she became aware of the more tender and serious
nature of his sentiments towards her, and an engagement
of marriage, formed during the subsequent visit to Park
Place, was the result of their mutual attachment. How
Lord Orfordbore the intelligence of this projected change
in the life of one of his ' beloved wives,' does not appear
by any of his letters ; but it certainly was matter of
considerable anxiety to both General O'Hara and Miss
Berry that the communication should be so made as to
avoid giving pain to her devoted old friend. The letters
which close the correspondence with Lord Orford of this
year are full of solicitude for her health, and show that

1796] GENERAL O'HARA. 3

his interest in her welfare was unabated. General O'Hara
quitted England for Gibraltar in the month of November.
He proposed an immediate marriage, in order that Miss
Berry might accompany him, but she conceived it her
duty to decline this offer out of consideration for others.
' In submitting to this absence,' she wrote, ' I think I am
doing right. I am sure I am consulting the peace and
happiness of those about me, and not my own' Perhaps
she mistook her line of duty ; perhaps she brought upon
herself greater evils than those she meant to avert ; but
who will not admire the self-sacrificing spirit in which
her decision was made ? They never met again, and a
shade of tender regret was cast upon her long life that
was never effaced. Forty-eight years after the engage-
ment was broken, and correspondence terminated, Miss
Berry reopened the packet of letters that had passed at
this time, and ere she closed it again, attached to it the
following touching little record of the disappointed hopes
and blighted affection that deepened the natural vein of
sadness in her character : —

( This parcel of letters relate to the six happiest months of
my long and insignificant existence, although these six months
were accompanied by fatiguing and unavoidable UD certainty,
and by the absence of every thing that could constitute present
enjoyment. But I looked forward to a future existence which
I felt, for the first time, would have called out all the powers of
my mind and all the warmest feelings of my heart, and should
have been supported by one who but for the cruel absence which
separated us, would never have for a moment doubted that we
should have materially contributed to each other's happiness.
These prospects served even to pass cheerfully a long winter of
delays and uncertainty, by keeping my mind firmly riveted on
their accomplishment. A concatenation of unfortunate circum-
stances— the political state of Europe making absence a neces-
sity, and even frequent communication impossible, letters lost
and delayed, all certainty of meeting more difficult, questions un-
answered, doubts unsatisfied. All these circumstances combined

B 2

4 LETTERS. [1796

in the most unlucky manner crushed the fair fabric of my hap-
piness, not at one fell shock, but by the slow mining misery of
loss of confidence, of unmerited complaints, of finding by de-
grees misunderstandings, and the firm rock of mutual confidence
crumbling under my feet, while my bosom for long could not
banish a hope that all might yet be set right. And so it would,
had we ever met for twenty-four hours. But he remained at
his government at Gibraltar till his death, in 1802. And I,
forty-two years afterwards, on opening these papers which had
been sealed up ever since, receive the conviction that some
feelings in some minds are indelible.' — M. B., Oct. 1844.

Miss Berry's view of the blessings of married life is
so beautifully portrayed in her ' Life of Lady Eachel
Eussell,' that it cannot be read without feeling how
capable she was of appreciating the value of that happi-
ness which it was her misfortune to have missed : —

' It was thus, surely, that intellectual beings of different sexes
were intended by their Great Creator to go through the world
together; — thus united, not only in hand and heart, but in
principles, in intellect, in views, and in disposition — each pur-
suing one common and noble end, their own improvement, and
the happiness of those around them, by the different means
appropriate to their sex and situation ; — mutually correcting,
sustaining and strengthening each other; undegraded by all
practices of tyranny on the one part, and of deceit on the other ;
each finding a candid but severe judge in the understanding,
and a warm and partial advocate in the heart of their com-
panion ; secure of a refuge from the vexations, the follies, the
misunderstandings and the evils of the world, in the arms of
each other, and in the inestimable enjoyments of unlimited
confidence and unrestrained intimacy.' *

It was at the end of April 1796 that the engagement
with General O'Hara was finally broken off. The fol-
lowing extract from a letter of Miss Berry's to Lord
Orford evidently alludes to her recent distress : —

* Life of Lady Rachel Russell, prefixed to her Letters.

1796] PUBLIC BECEPTIOX OF THE PRINCESS OF WALES. 5

, May 19, 1796.

But let me assure you (though I trust you know me too well
to doubt it), that whether in or out of spirits, happy or other-
wise, every new occurrence of my life only seems to give me
fresh instances of your consoling friendship, to increase my
confidence in it, and to convince me that I may flatter myself
with having inspired one sentiment at least as lasting as it is
rare. Farewell.

From Lord Orford.

May 30, 1796. 3 o'clock.

A million of thanks for yr letter, though with my poor
scrawling hand I don't think I can have time to answer a
quarter of it before the post departs. I have had people till
this instant, and Kirgate is not at home, and I have been forced
to get Sir Charles to write letters to Norfolk, where there is
started up an opposition to Coke and Wodehouse, whom I must
support.

My first object is to beg you to stay as long as it does you
all good ; yet to-day is most unfavourable.

I want no book but * first volume of the Thames.

The scene at the Opera on Saturday was much stronger than
even the papers represented. The Princess at first retired,
but the Duke of Leeds persuaded her to stand up and curtsie.
She did, and then all the house rose, and then every woman
as well as man, in every part, clapped incessantly, and re-
peated it, and it was well two other persons were not there, as
insults were loudly declared to be intended, and on their not
appearing, * (rod save the King ' was called for, and sung with the
same view. Their Majesties were not there, or a third person
might have heard something unpleasant, as the town has got a
notion of too much favouring Lady J. at least.

My fingers are too bad to suffer my writing more, and I am
sure you will forgive yr 0.

From Professor Play fair to Miss Berry.

Edinb., May 8, 1796.
DEAR MADAM, — When I took the liberty of asking permission

* The name is much blotted, but was probably Farringdon, the author of
' Britannia Depicta.'

6 LETTERS. [1796

to write to you I said I would not be troublesome by the fre-
quency of my letters, and I have indeed kept my word with
disgraceful punctuality.

The whole business of this letter, I fear, will be nothing else
but to make apologies and to ask questions. How does Lord
Orford ? His mind has so entirely resisted the approaches of
old age, that I would fain hope his body will still hold out for
a long time, tho' it has not, it must be acknowledged, made so
vigorous a resistance as the intellectual part. The literary world
would wish to prolong the possession of one of its brightest
ornaments, more especially at a season like this when it has
suffered so many losses and is threatened with such unknown
calamities.

Let me entreat your patience while I propose one question
more. In what state is the MS. you did me the honour to show
me at Twickenham ?* Is it perished, or have you executed the
plan that you proposed about submitting it to Lord 0. ? The
more I think of it, and consider its superority in every point to
anything that has appeared for many years, and of the dialogue,
in particular, to anything that has perhaps ever appeared with
us, the more I am convinced that it would have the most brilliant
success. But I am doubtful how it will be brought forward if
the author is resolved, at all events, to remain unknown.

In return for all the valuable information that I am thus
requesting you to communicate, I wish I had anything that I
could offer in exchange. The literary and philosophical world,
at least such parts as I hear of, afford but little that is interest-
ing. I waited with much impatience for the * Life and Miscel-
laneous Works of Gibbon,' and if I have not been quite so
much delighted as I supposed, I have yet been highly gratified
by becoming more intimately acquainted with the person and
character of a great man whom I had before only admired
at an immense distance. Lord Sheffield has not been very
discriminating in the selection of some of the pieces he has
given to the public, and I wonder that his lordship should
have preferred the character of an exact editor to that of a
delicate friend. After all, he has suppressed, I fear, some
valuable details concerning the progress of Gibbon's religious
opinions, which, I think, should on no account have been done.

* This must refer to Miss Berry's play of 'Fashionable Friends,'

1796] LETTER FROM PROFESSOR PLAYFAIR.

This, however, is but conjecture, and, on the whole, I feel much
gratitude, both to the author and the editor. I have lately seen
a posthumous work of Condorcet's ; it is a very curious book,
full of false views and unsound principles, mingled with truth
and philosophy in a manner extremely ingenious and artful.
But I must leave it for another letter, as this is grown most
insufferably long.

I fancy to myself Miss Agnes, this time, one of the greatest
metaphysicians of the age, and familiar with every argument of
Locke, Berkley, Leibnitz, and Hume. At least she was setting
about the study with so much industry when I saw her last, that,
knowing her abilities for the acquisition of that or any other
branch of science as well as I do, I cannot doubt of her having
made such proficiency. She at least has not the excuse that
your favourite poet has so beautifully applied to himself in the
case of another science,

Gelidus obstiterit circum praecordia sanguis;

and, therefore, if she has not extended her researches as far as
I suppose, I will ascribe it solely to the avocations of a fashion-
able winter spent in the gay circles of London, which, to say
the truth, it must be very difficult to unite with the abstract
speculations of metaphysics. Be that as it will, I shall have
the honour of writing her a long letter of metaphysics very
soon.

If I dared to ask you another question, it would be what you
are yourself just now busied with — what studies of Greek verse
are to be 37our amusements in the summer ? Are you to be at
Twickenham all the summer, or what are your other arrange-
ments ? . . . .

I must now make an end, for you will begin to think that
I can no more measure time in writing than in not writing,
and the former to one's correspondents may prove the most
incommodious error of the two. I must, therefore, only ;i<l<l
that I have committed this great packet, with the 'Life of Mr.
Smith,' which accompanies it, to the care of young Dundas.
who has undertaken to convey them to you in safety. The
Life is a present from the author, who had once the pleasure to
converse with you for a very short time indeed, but long enough
to convince him thut few people are so well entitled as your« •!;'

8 LETTERS. [1796

to a present of the kind that he now sends you. Permit me
only to add that, with the utmost sincerity of esteem and friend-
ship,

I am, dear Madam,

Your obedient and humble servant,

JOHN PLAYFAIR.

From Lord Orford.

Berkeley Square, June 2, 1796.

I hope the post will bring this to you before you set out to-
morrow, which I do not write so much to answer your letter,
as to remind you that you must return to-morrow if you mean
to go to the exhibition on Sunday with Mr. Farringdon, who
lives at No. 35, in Charlotte Street, Rathbone Place. I speak
very disinterestedly, for I am sure I shall not be able to accom-
pany you, as my legs are not yet well.

I am glad all yr improvements have succeeded so well ; I
wish I may ever see them !

I did not suppose you cd send me my commissions on Monday,
it was so tempestuous that nobody who had not a rage for going
abroad at the very moment she had proposed to do anything,
could have taken it for a day suited for a jaunt into the country,
much less was it one for yr crossing my lawn. Apropos, the
' Thames ' is not in numbers, but in a volume half-bound, I
think.

The crisis ripens, the universal applause was repeated on
Tuesday at the Opera, but nothing offensive heard. I think
her appearance was well advised; her absence would havefallen
on her husband and been imputed to him ; to suppose that
she sought popularity would have offended nobody but him,
which at this moment could not have made the case worse. He
is said to be gone to the Grange for a month. — Oh ! I must
interrupt myself, I have this moment had such infinite pleasure !
my dearest Duchess of Richmond * has this moment been here !
and oh ! she looks so much better than when I saw her in the
summer. She has recovered much of her sweet countenance,
her spirits are returned, and her manner is like itself — in short,

* The Duchess of Richmond died in the following November. She was
the daughter of Bruce, Earl of Ailesbury.

1796] MISS BERRY'S MENTAL DISTRESS. 9

my joy has made me shed tears ! But I will resume my letter,
or I shall not save the post.

and is not to be at the birthday. Lady J removed

three days ago to her daughter's new house, and, as her new
child is dead, will probably move farther, for her present posi-
tion is not tenable. Lady Harriet is gone to Nuneham for
a long season, on pretence of St. Antony's fire — but I must
finish.

The Dutch fleet has been found at the Canaries, nine ships,
but in a most deplorable condition, and the sailors all ill. Adieu
till to-morrow.

Berk. Sq., June 25, 1796.

How grieved I am at the bad account you still give of your-
self, and that real summer does not mend you ! My hand is
better, tho' you see with what difficulty I yet write, yet I would
positively scratch out a few words to convince you I can, and
to tell you Hewetson has assured me I may go with perfect
security to Str. on Thursday next, and even stay there for
some days ; but I shall see you on Monday.

I have been tempted to make Kirgate frank this, as his
hand is so very like to mine ; but I would not venture any
miscarriage, when a note to you and a letter to Agnes were
concerned. This attempt says more than all I would say if I
had my old pen from the wing of Hercules, my ancient goosely
stationer.

The following extract of a letter written by Miss Berry
to an intimate friend at this time shows how much her
nerves and health had suffered from mental distress, and
how vigorously she resolved to combat the effects of her
depression : —

London, June, 1796.

You cannot have desired more to hear from me than I to
write to you, but for above a week I was really incapacitated
by illness, and although the extreme irritation on my nerves
has been quieted by five days of perfect retirement in the
country, such has been, and is, the depression on my spirits
that I have found it absolutely necessary to avoid everything
likely to agitate them. But do not suppose this long period

10 . LETTERS. [1796

of mental and bodily suffering has been lost upon me. I have
' communed much with myself in my own chamber ; ' I have
reflected, and seriously reflected, that, however little I have
hitherto enjoyed, and much I have suffered in life from the
circumstances in which I have been placed being quite inap-
propriated to my situation, still, that a being endowed by
nature with a sound understanding, possessing a cultivated
mind and a warmly affectionate heart, cannot be intended for
unhappiness, nay, can never be permanently unhappy but from
its own fault, and that with a conscience as clear as mine, it
will indeed be my own fault, if I do not make my future life
less uncomfortable than my past. All this I have felt under
the severe tho' perhaps salutary pressure of a recent and cruel
disappointment.

•

In the months of July and August Miss Berry accom-
panied Mrs. Darner, first to Bognor, and afterwards to
Goodwood.*

From Lord Orford.

Straw. -hill, July 25, 1796.

I have not writ to you till to-day that I was sure I was
well enough ; for two days I was in a strange way, yet said
nothing of it. On Friday I came down to breakfast, and then
attempting to dictate my catalogue for Princess Elizabeth,
Kirgate perceived that I neither articulated, nor used right
words, and advised me to leave off. I did, and sent for the
apothecary, who found my pulse low and quick, and would
have had me take aether, but I would take nothing without
Hewetson. Your father and sister were with me looking over
prints in the evening, but thought I was very low, tho' I com-
plained of nothing ; but at one I waked with a great palpitation,
I was forced to call up my servants, and really thought I was
going; but about three I felt sleepy, and did not wake till
seven o'clock, since when I have been perfectly well, — such a
strange constitution I have !

Lysoris and Mr. Farringdon dined with me yesterday, but I

* Seat of the Duke of Richmond.

i:96] LORD ORFORD'S SERIOUS INDISPOSITION. 11

did not go down to dinner. They went in the evening to see
Agnes's bower, and then came at night with her and her
father hither.

I am glad you find your rocks are groves not quarries, and,
consequently, that you will saunter, and not be snapped up by
a privateer. I wish you could have given me a better account
of rny dearest Duchess ; tell me when you see her again exactly
how you find her.

I have made more blots than words j but they make so con-
siderable a part of my letter, that I could not spare them, tho'
they contribute nothing to the story. Both my hands and my
head are much worn out, and as I cannot write with my pulse,
I will set you no longer to deciphering. — Adieu !

Strawb.-hill, July 2G, '96.

I received yr letter from Bognor this morning, and am
mighty glad your rocks are not of a temper to receive vessels
with open arms. It would not be pleasant to have one's
betrothed turned into the Fiancee du Roi du Gallia. Our
Tritons are humane and polite enough to have all manner of
attentions for women ; but the French, if they get to Kome,
will be brutal even to the Virgin Mary.

You see I am piquing myself upon writing legibly, and not
making a thousand blots ; consequently, the Lord knows when
I shall have finished my letter; besides, my pen limps, and
forgets its spelling. I shall go to town to-morrow for a couple
of days, but am not likely to see a soul but people on business.
I sat with Agnes this evening, she is delighted with your writing
to her so daily. Before I went to her, Lady Cecilia and Mrs.
Johnstone came and drank tea with me, and to thank me for
venison and orange flowers. They told me it is feared the
French will forbid the bans with the Duke of Wurtemburg * by
seizing his dominions, and that Lady A. Cumberland is ap-
pointed Lady to the younger Princesses. I answer for nothing
from Hampton gazettes, nor know anything more substantial.

The living of Crostwick, — which the madam who calls herself
Mrs. Aufrere, and I would call Mrs. Auferre, would have
candied off from me, is not vacant, and if it were, and in my

' His marriage with the Princess Royal of England.

12 LETTERS. [1796

gift, I should have wished it a thousand, — is a miserable pittance
of not thirty pounds a year ; so you will not name it, unless it
will please my sweetest to hear she was the first in my
thoughts.

Wednesday evening.

I came as I have told you I intended, but I have not heard
a syllable new, or seen an acquaintance, but the Churchills
and Horace, and they were going with the children to Astley's ;
fortunately Mrs. Chatterpost had intended to bring her husband
to dine with me to-morrow, which my coming prevented. I
suppose she thought I should be melancholy not to know
everything in the world that is not worth knowing.

I find that my memory fails in a very novel manner. I
moult many of my letters ; my words look like Hebrew without
points. I do not recover my walking at all. In short, I ad-
vance to what I have foretold, that I should have nothing but
my inside left, and then I shall be but an odd figure.

Having nothing better to talk of than my ruins, I shall not
make my despatches tedious ; it will be trouble enough merely
to read them. Adieu.

Strawberryhill, July 29, 1796.

It is almost ridiculous for me to attempt to write with my
own hand ; my fingers are so maimed they stumble at every
long word ; my attention dozes, and I have no more imagination
left than if I were forcing myself to write a new novel in five
volumes. In short, my decay is so sensible to me, that I will
not deceive myself, nor expect any further recovery — no change
will turn quite round ; I must only take care not to let it
expose me.

Agnes will give you Lady Charlotte's intelligence from
Brighthelm. Our villages furnish us with nothing but a recon-
ciliation which I conclude will not be much longer-lived than
the Royal one — it is between Hardinge and his wife : the
separation failed for want of a wherewithal for a separate
maintenance.

Mr. Joseph Banks has carried Lysonsto Kew with drawings of
all his discoveries at Woodchester. They made great impres-

1736] LOKD ORFORD'S SYMPATHY WITH HIS FRIENDS. 13

sion, and he is to send patterns of the mosaics for the Queen
and Princesses to work.

Tuesday, Aug. 2.

The post is going out, and none is come in, which is a great
disappointment ; and besides, writing in a hurry, my hand shakes,
and I am forced to call for Kirgate. I hoped to hear of all at
Goodwood, and flattered myself that I should have better
accounts both of you and my dear Duchess — now I am in perfect
ignorance of everything. Your sister goes to music at Udney's
this evening. I shall be jealous if she has had a letter when I
have not, and yet I wish she may have had, that I may be sure
no disorder or accident prevented your writing to me as you had
promised. I will keep my letter a few minutes longer, thq' it
will be barely in time.

Strawb.-hill, Aug. 5, 1796.

As I am not much in your debt for letters, I shall not com-
plain that I have nothing to send you in return. I do this
moment receive one from Goodwood, which I am not surprised
at your not admiring. The park at Halnaker is pretty, but the
old part of the house was, even in my eyes, deplorable, and
scarce preferable even to the vile modern part.

I am grieved that you can give me no better an account of
my dearest Duchess ; still, tho' slow (and slow indeed it is to
me who have it so very much at heart), I am confident she will
recover, tho' I may not be so happy as to see it.

Yes, I will certainly encourage any plan that may be of
service to yr sister. I am not indifferent to the very few
persons on whose affection I depend.

I do not know a tittle that is worth calling for Kirgate to «
write for me, and as the day is very fine, I am going to be
carried down to sit in the garden. My pen, you see, can walk
a little better — that is all I can boast of. Yr bathing, I hope,
will be more prosperous. Adieu !

Strawberry-hill, Aug. 9, 1796.

I have just received such a long letter from you of the 6th
that if I attempted to answer it with my own hand I should be

14 LETTERS. [1796

two days engraving it. Besides, tho' I like to hear so much
from you, I am very averse to your writing much, especially
when you are bathing, which I am delighted to hear is of service
to you. I like your drawing too, tho' not just now, as it adds
to your being sedentary. I have another strong reason against
your writing more than short notes to me ; it would curtail your
frequent letters to poor dear Agnes, which make her so very
happy.

I will reply as briefly as I can to some other points of your
letter. I am grieved that my dear Duchess has any additional
pains.

When I saw Halnaker House there was a new red-brick
apartment that had been run up by the last Earl of Derby that
possessed it, but I suppose the D. of E. has pulled it down.

I am glad you have no worse new neighbours than the
Pepys's, tho', as you and your companion are both so erudite,
I shall not wonder if he brings some of his clan to educate
under your eyes.

You may be assured that Lady I. does not go to Brighton,
nor any of the connection, or disconnection. Mrs. Lisle is
commissioned to search for a villa for her mistress, which she
has not yet found. The Countess drives about in a plain coach
without arms. The Pss. told the P. she could not let Mrs. P.
wait any more, but might keep her salary ; he replied that was
impossible ; and it is said Miss Colman, the late Maid of Honour,
is to succeed as Bedchamber- Woman. The bon-mot in the
'Times ' was certainly not mine, but perhaps was borrowed from
a very ancient one : when Lord Cowper got himself made a
titular prince of the empire, he wrote to England to know what
place he was to take ; I said I could tell him exactly — between
Prince Boothby and Count Ellis.

I have little faith in an invasion at present ; the unparalleled
spirit, activity, and cleverness of our seamen will not tempt the
French sailors much to embark ; they may attempt to run in a
few vessels here and there into open coasts of the three king-
doms, and they do give out that they will try one more campaign
against us, corps a corps.

Have you heard of single-speech Hamilton's mad will ? He
bequeathed the landed estate to Lord Egremont, and ten thou-
sand pounds to 'the young Lady Spencer, and then said he was

1796] DISPERSION OF LORD ORFORD'S FRIENDS. 15

very sorry that both land and money had been entailed by his
father, and that he only made the bequest to show his kind dis-
position towards them.

The Duchess of Devonshire has been in great danger of losing
her sight, by catching cold very indiscreetly. They have saved
her eyes by almost strangling her with a handkerchief, and
forcing all the blood up into her head, and then bleeding her
with leeches. This is all I have to tell you but a few words on
myself. I take the air every morning in my coach, and sit an
hour out upon the lawn, and crawl a little about between two
servants, and do think I have gained a grain of strength ; nay,
last night I took courage and was carried up into Lady Mendip's
room, and even played two rubbers at cribbage. I found nobody
there but the tribe of Agar (for I had informed myself) and Mr.
Williams, and the General and Lady Cecilia. Most of the neigh-
bourhood is dispersed; the House of Orange (which is nothing
to me) are gone to Nuneham, Oxford, and Blenheim ; the Mur-
rays to make a visit somewhere for a fortnight ; the Mackinzys
to Brighton ; and the Darrells to Cheltenham, as usual. Lady
Mount brought Madame de Cambis here t'other morning ; the
young Mounts are upon their mountain. Dixi.

The letters of August 16th and 24th, already pub-
lished, complete those addressed to the Miss Berrys
during this journey. The next which has been pre-
served is in December, without date of day, written in
Kirgate's hand, and addressed to Miss Berry at Cliveden
(Little Strawberry Hill).

Berkeley Square, Wednesday morning, Dec. 1796.

Tho' I thank you for letting me hear so often, your last
night's letter by'the penny post was most uncomfortable. You
had not grown better, as I hoped and expected. The weather is
grown so much softer to-day that I trust you will recover faster,
but pray take notice and remember that you are too delicate to
run any risks. My horses shall certainly be wirh you on Friday
night. I have seen nobody yet to-day. Last night I had Mrs.
D. and my sister, and Gr. Nicol, and Cosway, whose glibity was

16 LETTERS. [1796

very entertaining. He told us that the late Duke of Orleans
had told him that his object was to make his son, the Duke de
Chartres, king ; and he said that Monsieur de Vergennes, the
day after signing the commercial treaty with us, had said to
him (still to him, Cosway) that he (Vergennes) must have been
drunk when he signed a treaty so favourable to England — such
blabs were the French !

My kin have at last had a letter from their son, George
Churchill, in Jamaica, who is perfectly well, and who even does
not mention having been otherwise, whence they conclude some
previous letter must have miscarried. Adieu, unless I hear
anything before the post goes out.

This last, dated December 15th, and already published,
closes the correspondence with Miss Berry. It begins : —

[I had no account of you at all yesterday but in Mrs. Darner's
letter ; nor have I had any before post to-day as you promised
me in hers. I had indeed a humorous letter from a puss * that
is, about your house which is more comfortable, as I think she
would not have written cheerfully if you had not been in a
good way. I would answer it, but I am grown a dull old
Tabby, and have no ' quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles ' left]

An extract of a letter from Miss Berry to an intimate
friend, shows the state of her mind at the close of this
sad year.

Dec. 1796.

You will, I know, wish me to say something of myself. It
shall be little, for who can talk of suffering to you, or dwell
upon disappointments when they think of yours? After a
twelvemonth passed in the most painful, agitating, and un-
avoidable suspense, I find myself not only totally disappointed
in a plan of happiness, founded on the most moderate desires,
and pursued by the most rational means, but obliged to change

* This was written by Miss Seton in the name of a kitten at Little
Strawberry Hill, with whose gambols Lord Orford had been much amused.

M.B.

1796] MISS BERRY'S DEFENCE OF GENERAL O'HARA. 17

my opinion of one of the characters in the world of which I
had ever thought the highest, and in whose honour, truth, and
affection I had ever had the most entire confidence and the
sincerest satisfaction long before I considered him in any other
light than that of a friend. I shall not dwell on the effect
which you will easily guess all this must have had on a heart
as warm and as little generally confiding as mine, but a heart
which when once it trusts, trusts so implicitly. My consola-
tions have been in the increased and touching affection of my
sister, the kind, rational, and unremitting attentions of Mrs.
Darner, and the reflection that there is no part of my conduct
that I could for a moment have wished otherwise. These
have succeeded in restoring me to the power of employing
myself and my spirits to near their usual level.

It appears that some of Miss Berry's friends sought to
alleviate her distress, and lessen her regrets at the unfor-
tunate termination of her engagement, by endeavouring
to blame and depreciate the object of her affections ; but,
with her, disappointment did not find comfort in resent-
ment, and she generously defended from censure or de-
traction the conduct and character of one who had been
to her the cause of bitter suffering.

Extract of a letter to a friend : —

.... Mrs. L., you say, * observes that my affections have
been more deeply engaged than I was aware of,' and Mrs. D.
' has repeatedly intimated the same ' to you. Needed you any
intimation that my affections must have been deeply engaged
before I resolved, or even thought of marrying ? Had I ever
chosen to think of making what is called a prudent marriage,
did you suppose, that I, in common with all my sex, might not
have done it? Or could you suppose this a prudent mar-
riage? Did my silence on this subject deceive you? and did
you really believe me capable of the platitude of talking in
raptures, or enlarging on the character and perfections of the
man whom I considered as my husband ? Now that he no
longer stands in that position, it is not my having reason to
complain of him that shall prevent my doing him justice. I
know not where you have taken your reports of his character
VOL. II. C

18 LETTEKS. [179G

but I know that a character ' universally highly thought of,'
is the last I should choose for any intimate connection, for
(except in early youth) nothing but mediocrity can possibly
attain it. I have heard 0. H. called too exigeant and wor-
retting by idle officers under his command, and too bold by
the ministerial people here, after the failure at Toulon; but
in my life I never heard an allegation against either his
heart or his understanding, and if I had, I should not have
believed it, because in a long acquaintance I have myself known
and seen repeated proofs of the excellence of both. Instead
of not knowing ' any real virtues he possesses,' until this un-
fortunate affair, in which I am still convinced his head and
not his heart is to blame, I know nobody whose character
united so many manly virtues. It was this, joined to a know-
ledge of his conduct in all the relations of life in which he
then stood, that entitled him to the ' approbation and love
of such a heart ' as mine, and I felt and know he decidedly
* suited me as a friend,' because to an excellent understanding,
great natural quickness, and much knowledge of the world, he
joined an affectionate tenderness of heart which had always in-
spired me with a degree of confidence and intimacy, you have
often heard me say I hardly ever felt with any other per-
son. ... I still believe that had this separation never taken
place, I should never have had to complain of him, nor he to
doubt me.

1797] DEATH OF LORD ORFORD. 19

1797.

' I GO to Lady Spencer's at St. Albans, and to Brooke
Hall to meet Mrs. D. and Mr. Whitbread. Lord Orford
dies. See much of the Starembergs.'*

The principal event of the year was the death of Lord
Orford; and the account of his declining health and
reason is thus given by Miss Berryf : —

Very soon after the date of this letter (Dec. 15), the gout,
the attacks of which were every day becoming more frequent
and longer, made those with whom Lord Orford had been
living at Strawberry Hill very anxious that he should return to
Berkeley Square, to be nearer assistance in case of any sudden
seizure. As his correspondents, soon after his removal, were
likewise established in London, no more letters passed between
them. When not immediately suffering from pain, his mind
was tranquil and cheerful. He was still capable of being
amused, and of taking some part in conversation ; but during
the last weeks of his life, when fever was superadded to his other
ills, his mind became subject to the cruel hallucination of sup-
posing himself neglected and abandoned by the only persons to
whom his memory clung, and whom he always desired to see.
In vain they recalled to his recollection how recently they had
left him, and how short had been their absence ; it satisfied
him for the moment, but the same idea recurred as soon as he
had lost sight of them. At last nature, sinking under the
exhaustion of weakness, obliterated all ideas but those of mere
existence, which ended without a struggle, on the 2nd of March,
1797.— M. B.

* Austrian Ambassador for some years in England.

t Vide the note accompanying that portion of Lord Orford's Correspon-
dence which was first published in the year 1840.

c 2

20 WAS LORD ORFORD A LOVER OF MISS BERRY? [1797

A sad picture of that decay of body and extinction of
mind which forestalled the cessation of life itself, and
diminished the pang of final separation ; but it must
always have been a touching and gratifying recollection,
for those to whom Lord Orford looked for the happiness
of his latter years, that, whilst his feverish fears pointed
to their absence as his greatest ill, they were ever at hand
to soothe his apprehensions by their presence, and to
smooth the pillow of their dying friend.

It has been often a matter of speculation whether Lord
Orford's great attachment to Miss Berry had ever led to
any explicit declaration of a wish to obtain her consent to
their union in marriage. Notwithstanding the frequent
professions of equal attachment to both sisters, it is easy to
see throughout the correspondence that Miss Berry herself
was his first object. The dread of being thought ridicu-
lous by playing the part of a more than septuagenarian
lover, no doubt acted as a constant check upon the
indulgence of such hopes as he might have reasonably
entertained as a younger man ; and so entirely dependent
was he on the society of Miss Berry and her sister for
what remained to him of pleasure in life, that even if
impelled by the wish to secure to himself the absolute
right to her companionship and attentions as a wife, he
probably feared to lose her friendship by proffering the
hand she might not accept ; yet, it was admitted by those
best entitled to know, that at one time Miss Berry was
conscious that the choice was within her power ; but she
clung to his friendship too warmly and too sincerely, not
to sedulously guard him from the expression of any feel-
ing she could not fully return. She accepted his friendly
affection without reserve. He was spared the mortifica-
tion of ever learning from her lips that more he could
never expect. The letter of the 15th December was,
according to Miss Berry's account, the last received by
her, or her sister, from Lord Orford. It was the close

1797] . LORD ORFORD'S WILL. 21

of that tender and voluminous correspondence, which,
during the space of nine years, evinced a warmth of heart,
a never-failing playfulness of thought, and refinement of
wit, not only well worthy of the fame of the ' Prince of
Letter Writers,' but leaving on the mind of the reader a
still stronger impression of the genial affection and consi-
derate kindness which marked the declining years of Lord
Orford, and saved him from the chilling influence of in-
creasing age, painful infirmities, and domestic loneli-
ness.

By Lord Orford's will,* Little Strawberry Hill was left
to the Miss Berrys, and in a codicil, a box, marked 0,
containing MSS., was left to Mr. Berry and his daughters,
with directions that Mr. Berry should undertake the care
of a new edition of his works, with the addition of all the
papers contained in that box. Miss Berry acknowledges,
in a letter addressed to a friend at this time, that in mak-
ing her father his editor and Mrs. Darner his executrix,
' Lord Orford caused his papers being secured to her eye
and mine, and made me his editor without the necessary
publicity attached to the name.' Miss Berry describes
herself in the same letter as labouring with incessant per-
severance for nearly a twelvemonth ; as neglecting all her
own pursuits ; never looking in a book but that was con-
ducive in some degree to the work she had in hand ;
reading and rereading with perfect integrity of intention,
both with respect to the author and the public ; and she
adds that she is making all that part of the publication
which depends on her selection as worthy of it as possible.
It may be fairly presumed from this account that on
Miss Berry devolved the chief labours of the editorial

* Will of Horatio Wallpole, Lord Orford, proved 1797. Messuage and
outhouses, late in the occupation of Mrs. C. Olive, left to Mary and Agnes,
daughters of Robert Berry of North Audley Street.

In second codicil : — Box marked O, containing Manuscripts, left to Robert,
Mary, and Agnes Berry — to be divided f share and share alike.'

22 MISS BERRY'S MEMORANDA. [1797

duties bequeathed to her father. The edition published
with the name of Mr. Berry was given to the public in
•the year 1790.

The following memorandum was written at a time of
great depression as to the prospects of her own country, but
with Miss Berry's usual wish to bear some part in pro-
moting the welfare, or extending the knowledge of her
fellow-creatures ; it was probably the germ of that excellent
work ' A Comparative View of Social Life in England and
France,' which appeared many years afterwards, and was
the fruit no less of study than of personal experience and
personal observation.

May 7, 1797.

I am resolved for the future to make memoranda of the
remarkable circumstances and characters that pass either im-
mediately under my own eyes and knowledge, or that I can
learn from such undoubted authority, and such accurate ob-
servers, as may satisfy even the steady search and unquenchable
desire of truth which has ever existed in my mind. It is my
unfortunate lot to pass the most reasonable years of human
life — I mean from thirty upwards — in times of universal fer-
mentation ; when the minds of men all over Europe are under-
going some great change, and when some new system of social
order is struggling into existence opposed by all the obstinate
rancour of prejudice, and encouraged by all the heedless enthu-
siasm of novelty.

My own country tottering on its basis, with every means of
self-correction and principle of renovation within itself, in little
more than a hundred years after its complete establishment,
seems to the thoughtful mind but a new assurance of the im-
possibility of permanence to any institution of man. In such
times and such circumstances, my sex and situation condemning
me to perfect insignificance, and precluding all possibility of
my ever taking an active part, and then, like others, being
misled and blinded by the part I have taken, perhaps I am but
the more fit to record what I see. A very small fraction of the
great and awful scene may fall under my cognizance ; but how-

1735] PARODY OX ADDISOX'S 'TRAVELS.' 23

ever minute the features that I may attempt to seize, they will
neither be uninteresting nor useless to those inspired with the
same accurate love of truth and candid investigation of human
nature with myself.

Letters of H. Walpole not yet published.

A certain number of Lord Orford's unpublished works
have remained till now amongst Miss Berry's papers.
The interest attached to all that fell from his pen has
much increased, as fresh publications and new editions of
his letters have made his readers better acquainted with
his peculiar vein of thought and humour. They are
now therefore given to the public ; and the close of the
year in which Lord Orford died seems the fittest place to
which to assign these last gatherings of his miscellaneous
productions.

To Mr. Gray.

From Cambridge, 1735.
In the Style of Addison's Travels.

DEAR SIB, — I believe you saw in the newspapers that I was
going to make the tour of Italy ; I shall therefore give you
some account of the places I have seen, which are not to be
found in Mr. Addison, whose method I shall follow. On 9th of
Octr, 1735, we set out from Lodone1 (the Lugdunum of the An-
cients), the capital city of Lombardy, in a chariot-and-four.
About 1 1 o'clock, we arrived at a place the Italians call Tem-
pialbulo.2 Virgil seems to have prophesied of this town when 2 White-
he says —

Amisit venem vetua Albula nomen.

By Time the founder's great design was crost,

And Albula its genuine title lost.

5 Statue of

Here are no remains of Roman antiquity, but a statue of Marc K- w»Uiam
Aurelius,3 which the Lombards call Guglielmo Terzo, one of cutter's"6"
their kings, and some learned men,4 St. George and the Dragon, jjf^rrav'
It is an equestrian statue, and almost equal to that of Charle- p- 26.
magne, at the Great Cross,5 at Lodone. The church is an old K. Charles

at Charing
Cross.

24

LETTERS OF H. WALPOLE.

[1735

Gothic building, and reckoned the most ancient in Italy. Here
was some time ago an altar-piece of the Lord's Supper, in which
1 Dr. \\bite the painter having quarrelled with the Abbot1 of this church,
B^bop1 of represented him like Judas, with this epigram : —

Peter-
borough. Fallens, hac qui te pingi sub imagine credis,

Non similis Judas est tibi — pcenituit.

Think not, vain man, thou here art represented,
Thou art not like to Judas — he repented.

From thence we made the best of our way to a town, which in
English we should call Stony- Stratford, and corresponds with
the description which Virgil has given of it —

— vivo praeter vebor Ostia Saxo
Stratfordi, Megarosque sinus, Tapsumque jacentem.

Those that follow are little dirty towns, that seem to have been
built only to be ' knocked ' 2 on the bead, like

2 Expres-
sion ot Ad-
dison on
this line.

3 Bow.

* Epping.

Antitheum, Glaucumque, Medontaque, Thersilochumque.

The next town of note is Arc,3 so called from its being built
in the shape of a bow — ab Eoo curvatur in Arcum. From Arc
we travelled thro' a very pleasant country to Epino,4 whose
forest is celebrated by Virgil in these lines : —

Sylva Epini late dumis, atque ilice nigra
Horrida, quam densi complerant undique sentes ;
Kara per occultos ducebat semita calles.

Epinum's woods with shrubs and gloomy oak

Horrid, and all with brambles thick o'ergrown,

Thro' which few narrow paths obscurely led. — Mr. Trap.

We were here shown, at a distance, the thickets rendered so
5 Gregory, famous by the robberies of Grregorio.5 Here I was met by a very
highway- distant and troublesome relation. My namesake hints at such
man. See an one m those lines of his —

Ad. Trav.,

Accurrit quidam notus mihi nomine tantum,
Arreptaque manu, Quid agis, Cosinissime, rerum ? — HOT.

There step'd up one to me I hardly knew,

Embrac'd me, and cried, Cousin, how d'ye do. — Mr. Creech.

eflockerei. We lay that night at Oggerell,6 which is famous for nothing
but being Horace's Oppidulo, quod versu dicere non est.

1735] PARODY OX ADDISON'S ' TRAVELS.' 25

In our way to Parvulun,1 we saw a great castle,2 belonging l Little-
to the Counts of Suffolcia ; it is a vast pile of building, but quite

in the old taste. Parvulun is a small village, but formerly inn, the
remarkable for several miracles 3 said to be performed there by £ari Of
a Welsh saint, who, like Jupiter, was suckled by a goat, whence Suffolk-

3 \Vinstan-

they think it Porrum et Cepe nefas violare. — Juv. The ]ey's Won-
wonders of Parvulun are in great repute all over Lombardy. ^icksln
We had very bad ways from hence to Pont Ossoria,4 where are Mechanics.
the ruins of a bridge that gives name to the town. The account
they gave of it is as follows : — St. Bona being desirous to pass
over the river, met with a man who offered to carry her over ;
he took her up in his arms, and under pretence of doing her
service, was going to ravish her ; but she praying to the Virgin
Mary for help, the wretch fell into the stream and was drowned,
and immediately this bridge rose out of the water for her to go
over. She was so touched by this signal deliverance, that she
would not leave the place, but continued there till her death in
exercises of devotion, and was buried in a little chapel at the
foot of the bridge, with her story at length and this epitaph —

Hac sita sunt fossa Bonae venerabilis ossa ! 5 * Epitaph

of Venera-

From Pont Ossoria we travelled by land to Nuovo Foro 6 (the 6 ^e^mear.

Novum Forum of lockius), where are held the greatest races in ket.

all Italy. We were shown in the treasury of the Benedictines'

Convent, an ancient gold cup which cost an hundred guineas

(a great sum in those days), and given, as the friar told us that

attended us, by a certain German Prince, he did not very well

know who, but he believed his name was one King George.7 7 see p. 78.

The inhabitants are wonderfully fond of horses, and to this day

tell you most surprising stories of one Looby, a Boltognian. I

saw a book dedicated to the head of that family, intituled ' A

Discourse on the Magnanimity of Bucephalus, and of the Duke

of Boltogne's Horse Looby.' 8 J^ JJ Pol30-

I staid here three days, and in my way to Pavia 9 stopped at ton.
the Palace of Delfini,10 which is built on the top of a large °b^™~
barren mountain, and at a distance looks like the Ark resting ™ LordGo-
on Mount Ararat. This mountain is called Gog, and opposite hous^on
to one called Magog. They are very dangerous precipices, and Gogmagog
occasioned the famous verse- — u «incj(jjt

in Scylla

Incidit in Gogum qui vult vitare Magogon.11 qui vult

vitare
Charibd.n.'

26 LETTERS OF H. WALPOLE. [1735

I need not repeat the history of Grog and Magog, it being known
to every child, and to be found at large in most books of
travels.

Pavia and its University are described by Mr. Addison, so I
shall only mention a circumstance which I wonder escaped that
learned gentleman. It is the name of the town, which is derived
from the badness of the streets : Pavia a non pavendo, as
Lucus a non lucendo.

Till next post, adieu !

Yours ever,

HORATITJS ITALICUS.

To the Hon. Henry (afterwards Marshal) Conway.

London, October 81, 1741.

MY DEAREST HARRY, — You have made me infinitely happy,
but infinitely impatient for Monday se'nnight. I have wished for
you more particularly this week, and wanted you all at Sir
Thomas Eobinson's* and the birthday. You have already had
accounts, I suppose, of the former from Lady Caroline and Mr.
Selwyn, but I will say my bit about it too ; I told Lady Caroline
I would ; besides, I made a list of most of the people, and will
tell you some of the company, which was all extremely good ;
there were none but people of the first fashion, except Mr. Kent,
Mr. Gibber, Mr. Irving, and the Parsons' family, and you know
all these have an alloy. Kent came as governess to Lady
Charlotte Boyle,f Gibber and Irving have long had their freedom
given them of this end of the town, and the Parsons's J took out

* In Horace Walpole's letter to Sir Horace Mann, dated October 22, 1741,
he says : — ' The whole town is to be to-morrow night at Sir Thomas
Robinson's ball, which he gives to a little girl of the Duke of Richmond's.
There are already two hundred invited, from Miss in bib and apron to my
Lord Chancellor (Hardwicke) in bib and mace.' Lord Dover adds a note
to explain that Sir Thomas Robinson was not the diplomatist, afterwards
Lord Grantham, but Sir Thomas Robinson of Rokeby Park in Yorkshire,
commonly called ' long Sir Thomas.'1

t Lady Charlotte Boyle, second daughter of Richard, third Earl of
Burlington, married William, Marquis of Hartingdon.

\ The family of Alderman Parsons, a Jacobite brewer, who lived much
in France, and had been taken notice of by the King.

1735] ACCOUNT OF A PARTY AT MR. ROBINSON'S. 27

theirs at Paris. There were an hundred and ninety-seven
people, yet no confusion ; he had taken off all the doors of his
house, and, in short, distributed everybody quite to their well-
being. The dancers were the two Lady Lenox's* (Lady Emily
queen of the ball, and appeared in great majesty from behind a
vast bouquet), Lady Lucy Manners, Lady Ancram, f Lady Lucy
Clinton, Ladies Harriot and Anne Wentworth, Sophia and
Charlotte Farm or, and Camilla Bennet ; Miss Pelham (Lord !
how ugly she is !) ; Misses Walpole, Leneve, Churchill, Parsons,
Maccartny, Pultney, Mary Townshend, Newton, and Brown.
The men, Lord John Sackville, Lord Ancram, Holderness,
Ashburnham, Howard, Hartington, and Castlehaven ; Mr. Cole-
brook, Poulett, Churchill, two Townshends, Parsons, Vernon,
Carteret, Colonel Maguire, and a Sir William Boothby. For
the rest of the company you shall see the list when you come
to town. Lord and Lady Euston and Lady Caroline did not
dance. A supper for the lady dancers was served at twelve,
their partners and waiting tables with other supper stood
behind. Oh ! I danced country dances, I had forgot myself.
The ball ended at four.

Now for the birthday. There were loads of men, not many
ladies, nor much finery. Lord Fitzwilliams and myself were
the only two very fine ; I was in a great taking about my
clothes, they came from Paris, and did not arrive till nine
o'clock of the birthday morning. I was obliged to send one of
the King's messengers for them and Lord Holderness's suit to
Dover. There were nineteen suits came with them. Do you
know I was in such a fright lest they should get into the news,
and took up the Craftsman with fear and trembling. There
was the greatest crowd at the ball I ever saw. Lady Euston
danced country dances with the Duke. My aunt Horace had
adapted her gown to her complexion, and chose a silk all broke
out in pink blotches. The Duke of Kingston, Lord Middlesex,
and Lady Albemarle, are dreadfully altered. You can't think
what an alteration towards old I find among my acquaintance.

Harry, you must come and be in love with Lady Sophia

* Lady Caroline and Lady Emily Lennox ; the former married, 1744,
to Henry Fox, first Lord Holland; the latter married, 1746, to James,
twentieth Earl of Kildare.

f Lady Ancram, daughter of Robert, third Earl of Holderneas.

28 LETTERS OF H. WALPOLE. [1741

Farmer ; all the world is or should be. But I had cried her
up so much before she appeared that she does not answer
everybody's expectation. No more will the Opera to-night, for
Amorevoli is ill and does not sing; his part is to be read.
They had certainly much better have staid till Tuesday; but
for fear of disappointing people, I fear they will disappoint
them. I am not to be there, for Dodd has got a fever with the
heat of the ball last night, so I shall not leave him. Indeed,
my dear Harry, I will not scold you about the Opera, but I
should have been glad, I own, that you were not in the direc-
tion. I doubt much of the success ; and even should it succeed,
gentlemen' — and they very young gentlemen — are mighty apt
not to understand economy and management. Do get out of
it, if possible.

Good night ! I have nothing more to tell you now, but I shall
have a quantity to say to you. My loves to all your family.

Yours ever,

H. W.

To the Same.

Strawberry Hill, Thursday, Sept. 2.

Not being in town, there may be several more new produc-
tions, as the Grubbcea frutex blossoms every day, but I send you
all I had gathered for myself while I was there. I found the
pamphlet much in vogue, and indeed it is written smartly. My
Lady Townshend sends all her messages on the backs of these
political cards, the only good one of which, the two heads
facing one another, is her son Greorge's. Charles met D'Abreu
t'other day, and told him he intended to make a great many
good speeches next winter. ' The first,' said he, ' shall be to
address the King, not to send for any more foreign troops, but
to send for some foreign Ministers.'

Mr. Fox had a very bad sore throat, but never was in any
danger. You have heard, I suppose, what an abominable will
Lord Fitzwilliams left ; did not mention his wife or younger
children in it, but leaves all to his eldest son, tho' she is one of
the most deserving women in the world, and the younger son
and five daughters will have but 2,5001. a-piece !

My Lord Chesterfield is relapsed : he sent Lord Bath word
lately that he was grown very lean and very deaf; the other

1764] TO HON. H. CONWAY. 29

replied, that he could lend him some fat, and should be very
glad at any time to lend him an ear.

I shall go to London on Monday, and if I find anything else
new, I will pack it up with a flower picture for Lady Ailesbury,
which I shall leave in Warwick Street, with orders to be sent
to you. Adieu !

Yours ever, H. W.

To the Same.
Strawberry Hill, Monday night, July 2, 1764.

If my Lady Ailesbury* does not think the little 'bull' as
handsome as Jupiter himself, I shall resent it. He is accom-
panied by seven bantams for the Infantas, f

As Lord Frederick and Lord John are gone to you this
evening, I can tell you no politics but what they know. The
Bedfords are certainly jealous of some negotiation being on
foot between Lord Bute and Pitt, but I cannot find that it is
with any reason, tho' I do not desire to have them undeceived.

Lord Bath has been dying, but is out of danger, and, what I
like more, Legge mends again. Your brother has sent me the
Duke and Duchess of Berwick, and what upon earth to do
with them I don't know. They have the grace to call them-
selves Lirias here, yet they do not go to Court, and say they
are only come to see their relations. He looks like a cook, but
does not seem to have parts enough for one. He had never
heard that his great-grandmother married Mr. Godfrey ; he told
me to-day that she called herself Churchill, but that her family
name was Marlborough. The Duchess of Lina, who is sister
of the Due of Alva,J is a rational civil being, not at all hand-
some, but easy and genteel. They have more debts than duke-
doms, tho' he is Duke of Veraguea, too, and have crowded all
their rich blood into la rue de Suffolk Street.

They talk of a match between Lord Middlesex and Lady

* Lady Ailesbury, daughter of John Duke of Argyll, widow of Charles
Earl of Ailesbury and Bruce.
f Daughters of Lady Ailesbury.
j Anne Seymour Conway, afterwards Mr?. Darner.

30 LETTERS OF H. WALPOLE. [1736

Jane Stuart :* in the meantime, Mr. Ellis is dying for her, and
Lord Holland's young Macartney f very desirous of living by
her.

The fashionable diversion in town is a conjuror. We had
him last night at my Lady Harrington's. His tricks are ten
times more dexterous than Sandwich's.

There was last night at Guerchy's J a daughter of Lord
Dillon, § just corne out of a convent, who is to be the future
Duchess of Norfolk. She has a fine person, and not at all a
disagreeable face.

The Mecklenburgh Countess was there too, ten times more
dirty, frowzy, extravagant and mad than ever. Prince William
has said, ' This is the worst sample we have had yet.' I begin
to think he will not command the army.

My Lord Townshend and Charles had quarrelled lately. My
Lady made a reconciling dinner for them, and all was made up.
As soon as they parted, George wrote the most abusive letter in
the world to Charles, and they are rather ill together again.
Adieu !

Yours ever, J. W.

To the Dowager Duchess cPAiguillon.

Strawberry Hill, Nov. 3d, 1766.

One cannot repine, Madam, at some portion of illness, when
it procures one such marks of goodness as I have experienced,
especially from your Grace ; indeed, it grew a little too serious,
and I began to think that I should not live to pay my debts of
gratitude. My Lady Hervey, with all her kindness to me and
her partiality, her just partiality, to France, is however in the
wrong to attribute any part of my illness to my manner of living
at Paris. I came from thence perfectly well; and, to say the
truth, I ascribe much more to the damp air of England than to
any course of life. Yet I will not say too much against my

* Eldest daughter of tlie Minister, Earl of Bute.
f Sir George (afterwards Lord Macartney) who married her.
£ Comte de Guerchy, Ambassador from France.

§ The Duke of Norfolk married secondly, in 1771, Miss FitzRoy Scuda-
rnore of Holme Lacy, county Hereford.

1766] TO THE DUCHESS D'AIGUILLON. 31

own country, that I may not destroy any little merit I may have
in returning to Paris this winter. I neither deserve nor expect
any sacrifice, but am ready to sacrifice anything both to your
Grace and Madame du Deffand, who have both shown me so
many marks of kindness and protection.

Mr. Hume has, I own, surprised me, Madam, by suffering his
squabble with Kousseau to be published. He went to Scotland
determined against it. All his friends gave him the same ad-
vice ; but I see some philosophers can no more keep their reso-
lution than other philosophers can keep their temper. If he
has been overpersuaded from Paris, I suspect that the advice
was not so much given him for his sake, as to gratify some
spleen against Eousseau ; and that his counsellors had a mind
to figure in the quarrel ; for men of letters delight in these
silly altercations, tho' they affect to condemn them. It spreads
their names, and they are often known by their disputes, when
they cannot make themselves talked of for their talents. For
my own part, I little expected to see my letter in print, as your
Grace tells me it is, for I have not yet seen the book. I have
neither been asked nor given any consent to my letter being
published. I do not take it ill of Mr. Hume, as I left him at
liberty to show it to whom he pleased ; I am, however, sorry it
is printed : not that I am ashamed of any sentiment in it, es-
pecially since your Grace does me the honour of approving it ;
but I think all literary controversies ridiculous, impertinent, and
contemptible. The world justly despises them, especially from
the arrogance which modern authors assume. I don't know
who the publishers are, nor care ; I only hope that nobody will
think that I have any connection with them. Nor have I ; tho' I
have played the fool in print, I have not so much of the author
as to think myself of consequence enough to trouble the world
with my letters and quarrels. Authors by profession may, at
least they generally do, give themselves such airs of dignity ;
but they do not become me. However, madam, I only laugh at
all this, for I am no philosopher, and therefore am not angry.

I am told it is asserted that I have owned that the letter to
Eousseau was not mine ; I wish it was not, for then it would
have been better. I told your Grace, I believe, what I told to
many more, that some grammatical faults in it had been cor-
rected for me, for I certainly do not pretend to write French

32 LETTERS OP H. WALPOLE. [1766

well ; and it ought to be remarked, too, that the letter was not
written in the name of a Frenchman. I must have been vain
indeed if I had flattered myself that I could write French well
enough to be mistaken for a Frenchman. The book too, I
hear, says that the real author ought to discover himself. I
was the real author, and never denied it. But is not it
amusing, madam, to hear an anonymous author calling on
somebody, he does not know whom, to name himself ? And are
not such authors very respectable ? I shall not imitate him, nor
ask to hear the publisher's name : I do not believe I should be
much the wiser for knowing it.

I am told, too, that my letter to Eousseau is censured in this
book. It is very mortifying to me, to be sure, that, when so
many persons of taste had been pleased with that letter, it
should be condemned by higher authority; but it is not
uncommon for men of taste and men of letters to be of
a totally different opinion. Nor am I surprized that a trifle,
designed as a jest, and certainly never intended to be made
public, should be anathematized by their holinesses the philo-
sophers and the enemies of Eousseau. It looked like candour
to blame me, when so real an injury was meditated against him
as the publication of his absurd letter to Mr. Hume. Philo-
sophy is so tender and so scrupulous !

I beg your Grace's pardon for troubling you so long. You
find I am so much of an author, that I contradict myself, and
think this very foolish controversy important enough to employ
two pages. Indeed it is not ; and if I were not alone in the
country, I should not have thought it worth two lines. Such a
real genius as Eousseau cannot appear, but he causes all the
insignificant scribblers in Europe to overwhelm the public with
their opinions of him and his writings. But he may comfort
himself ; his works will be admired when the compilers of dic-
tionaries and mercuries will be as much forgotten as your
Grace's

Most obedient, humble servant,

HORACE WALPOLE.

1767] HIS ACCOUNT OP CHARLES TOWNSHEND's SPEECH. 33

In a letter from Horace Walpole to Sir Horace Mann,
dated May 12th, 1767, the following passage occurs : —

[Nothing was ever so vexatious ! I had just written you a
long letter of three sides, and laid it upon the hearth to dry,
while I stepped into the next room to fetch some sealing wax.
A coal has fallen on it, and I find it all in flames. I have not
time to write half of it again. I will just run over the heads, if
I can remember them.

My chief article was a wonderful speech made by Charles
Townshend last Friday, apropos to nothing, and yet about
everything — about ministers, past, present, and to come — him-
self in particular, whom I think rather past than to come. It
was all wit and folly, satire and indiscretion. He was half-
drunk when he made it, and yet that did but serve to raise the
idea of his abilities.]

The following account of Charles Townshend's* speech,
dated May 8th, 1767, is probably the 'chief article' of
the burnt letter to which he alludes. Horace Walpole
sometimes preserved copies of his letters, but in this case
it seems more probable, though dated the 8th, it was a
memorandum from recollection of the letter he had in-
tended sending to Sir Horace Mann.

May 8th, 1767.

Charles Townshend had come to the House with a black silk
hanging over his wounded eye, which in the warmth of debate
he turned aside, and discovered two very small slips of sticking-
plaister over and below his eye, not amounting to more than
scratches. In the beginning of the day he made a fine speech,
in which he said he hoped his behaviour in the conduct of the
transaction with the East India Company had wiped out the
levities and imperfections of his former life ; and he magnified
his own firmness in having borne and overborne much reproach
and contradiction, which he insinuated to have received from
Lord Chatham, whom he had not seen during the winter. At

* Honourable C. Townshend, second son of Charles third Viscount
Townshend, made Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1766 ; died Sept. 1767.
VOL. II. D

34 LETTERS OF H. WALPOLE. [1767

four o'clock he left the House, tho' the management of the day
depended on him ; and taking one or two members with him,
he went to dinner. His presence growing absolutely necessary,
Mr. Conway sent for him. He returned about eight, as Mr.
G-renville was speaking ; after whom Townshend rose, half
drunk, and made the most extravagantly fine speech that ever
was heard. It lasted an hour, with torrents of wit, ridicule,
vanity, lies, and beautiful language. Not a word was pre-
meditated, yet every sentence teemed with various allusions
and metaphors, and every period was complete, correct, and
harmonious. His variety of tones and gesticulation surpassed
the best actor in comedy, yet the faltering of his pronunciation
from liquor, and the buffonery of his humour and mimicry,
would not have been suffered in high comedy. Nothing had
given occasion to his speech, and there was no occasion on
which it would not have been as proper, or, to say truth, as im-
proper ; for if anything could exceed his parts, it was his indis-
cretion. He meant to please everybody and exalt himself ; but
lest he should not enough distinguish the latter, he took care to
overturn all he had done to effect the former. The whole of
his speech was diverting to every man that hated any set of
men ; it was impertinent and offensive to all it described or
seemed to compliment ; and was most painful to those who had
any love for him. The purport seemed to be an intention of
recommending Kockingham's party for ministers, with himself
at the head of them ; complimenting but sneering at Grenville,
and slightly noticing Conway. But lest the great families
whom he adopted should assume too much, he ridiculed the
incompetence of birth and high blood, cried up the sole advan-
tage of abilities and experience, and informed those he pro-
tected that rank was not talents, and that they must wait till
ripened, and not come to government as if forced in a hotbed.
The most injurious part fell on the Crown, he stating the mis-
chiefs of the late so frequent changes, calling for restitution of
the first post in administration to the House of Commons, and
treating the actual ministry as no longer existent. Govern-
ment, he said, must not continue to be what he himself was
always called, a weather-cock.

Nobody but he could have made that speech ; and nobody
but he would have made it, if they could. It was at once a
proof that his abilities were superior to those of all men, and

1767] HIS ACCOUNT OP CHARLES TOWNSHEND's SPEECH. 35

his judgment below that of any man. It showed him capable
of being, and unfit to be, first minister. Yet tho' it was rather
the tittle-tattle of a coffee-house, and the flower of table elo-
quence, still was it the confusion of affected and laboured
oratory. Nature in him made sport with rules and meditation ;
and half a bottle of champagne, poured on genuine genius, had
kindled this wonderful blaze.

The House was in a roar of rapture, and some clapped their
hands with ecstacy, like audience in a theatre. Nor was it the
least striking circumstance of this speech, that, laying his hand
on his heart, he called God to witness that he had not been
made privy to the business of the day. Fourteen of the minis-
terial managers, who then were actually sitting round him,
had concerted with him the motion at Townsh end's own house
that very morning, and were thunderstruck at his madness and
effrontery ; and when Conway, the moment he concluded, asked
him how he could utter such a falsehood, he thought it the most
favourable way of recommending the business to the House.

In this speech, he beat Lord Chatham in language, Burke in
metaphors, Grenville in presumption, Rigby in impudence,
himself in folly, and everybody in good-humour ; for he pleased
while he provoked at random ; was malicious to nobody, cheerful
to all ; and if his speech was received with delight, it was only
remembered with pity.

The letter addressed to the Duchesse de Choiseul ap-
pears to have been written in December 1770, when
Horace Walpole writes thus to Sir H. Mann : — ' The Due
de Choiseul is fallen. Abishag (Madame du Barry) has
strangled an administration that had lasted fourteen
years. I am sincerely grieved for the Duchesse de Choi-
seul, the most perfect being I know of her sex.'

To the Duchess of Choiseul.

Pendant que la France entiere vous marquoit ses regrets,
madame, je n'osois pas vous importuner des miens. Mais le
triomphe de la vertu doit-il se borner a un seul pais? La
reconnoissance et la plus parfaite estime ne trouveront-elles

D2

36 LETTERS OF H. WALPOLE. [1784

pas un moment a se faire entendre ? Oui, chere grandmaman,
je perds le respect, qui vous est du a tant d'egards, pour epan-
cher mon cceur avec plus de liberte et de tendresse. Je me
rejouis avec vous, car de quoi vous plaindre ? Avez-vous ete
ambitieuse, avare, insolente ? Sont-ce des creatures qui vous
regrettent, ou des malheureux ? Monsieur le Due de Choiseul
est-il condamne de sa patrie et de vous, ou approuve et
comble de louanges ? Est-il plus doux de deviner ce que la
posterite dira de nous, ou de 1'entendre de la bouche de sa
patrie et de toute 1'Europe ? Oh ! vraiment je benis le ciel de
m'avoir donne un pere et un grand-pere dont la gloire ne fait
qu'accroitre tous les jours, et a qui il ne manquoit que la dis-
grace pour fixer 1'immortalite. Oui, oui, belle maman, il faut
vous center ce qu'on dit de papa Choiseul ; et cela ne vient pas
d'une voix suspecte. My Lord Chatham a dit en plein parlement,
que depuis feu M. le Cardinal de Eichelieu la France n'avoit
point possede un aussi grand ministre que M. le Due de Choiseul,
et qu'il avoit emporte les regrets de tous les ordres de 1'etat. Voila
comme parlent les veritables grands hommes, qui s'y entendent.
Notre peuple, qui ne connoit M. de Choiseul que par la peur
qu'il leur avoit faite, a une maniere de louer toute differente, et
se felicite de sa chute. Ce n'est pas un eloge a mepriser.

Votre fermete et la noblesse de votre ame, madame, m'as-
surent que parmi tant de sujets de gloire, vous n'oublierez pas
entierement un homme que vous avez comble de bontes, et qui
vous est attache par la reconnoissance et par 1'admiration de
toutes vos belles qualites. Permettez-moi de conserver le doux
titre de votre petit-fils, et laissez-moi m'enorgueillir, comme si
j'etois grand prince, sans merite des vertus de mes ancetres. Ma
foi, je ne les troquerois pas centre un Cardinal de Eichelieu,
trop flatte si s'ose me signer,

Madame,
Votre tr&s-affectionne et tres-fidele serviteur,

HORACE WALPOLE de Choiseul.

My Answer to the Rev. Wm. Mason.

[Berkeley Square, Feb. 2, 1784.

I thank you for your condolence on the death of my brother,
and on the considerable diminution of my own fortune, tho'

1784] TO THE REV. WM. MASON. 37

neither are events to which I am not perfectly reconciled. My
brother was seventy-seven, had enjoyed perfect health and
senses to that age, did not even begin to break till last August,
suffered no pain, saw death advance gradually tho' fast with
the coolest tranquillity, did not even wish to live longer, and
died both with indifference and without affectation : is that a
termination to lament ?

I do lose fourteen hundred a year by his death ; but had I
reason to expect to keep it so long ? I had twice been offered
the reversion for my own life, and positively refused to accept
it, because I would receive no obligation that might entangle
my honour and my gratitude, and set them at variance. I
never did ask or receive a personal favour from my most inti-
mate friends when in power, tho' they were too upright to have
laid me under the same difficulties, and have always acted an
honest uniform part : but tho' I love expense, I was content
with a fortune far above any merit I can pretend to, and knew
I should be content were it much lessened. As it would be
contemptible to regret the diminution at sixty-six, there is no
merit in being quite easy under the loss. But you do me
honour I do not deserve, in complimenting me on not loving
money. I have always loved what money would purchase, which
is much the same thing ; and the whole of my philosophy con-
sists in reconciling myself to buying fewer baubles for a year or
two that I may live, and when the old child's baby-house is
quite full of playthings.

I am surprised that you expected me to take notice of Lord
Harcourt's turning courtier. It did not astonish me in the
least, as I have known for near two years that such an event
was by no means improbable, and did myself try to contribute
to it, when I thought it not at all irreconcileable with his former
conduct: nor do I wonder at your announcing in effect the
same of yourself. Were I surprised, I should contradict one of
*my own maxims, which I have scarce or never known to fail,
and which is, that men are always most angry with those with
whom they quarrel last, which generally produces reconciliations
between those whose hatreds agree in eodem tertio. But, in
truth, I concern myself with no man's politics but my own ;
first, because I have no more right to dictate to others, than I
will allow anybody to dictate to me ; and secondly, because I

38 LETTERS OF H. WALPOLE. [1784

can see into no heart but my own, nor know its real motives of
action. My own point has been to be consistent, ever since I
first thought on politics, which was five-and-forty years ago ;
and I feel a satisfaction in having been so steady, because it
seems to me, if I do not deceive or flatter myself, that it is a
proof that I have acted on principle, and not from disappoint-
ment, resentment, passion, interest, or fickleness.

It made me smile> indeed, when I heard that Lord Harcourt,
on his change, had given away his ring of Brutus to Lady
Jersey's little boy ; because I do not see how anything that has
happened within this twelvemonth has affected the character of
Brutus, who died seventeen hundred years before the coalition
was thought on. I am glad, however, that if I change, I may
keep my Caligula without committing treason.

Your distinction of the Crown's friends is, I own, too
theologic a refinement for my simple understanding, who never
conceived a confusion of two natures in one person, yet still
remaining separate. Nor in human affairs should I comprehend
why a pope's disgracing himself as a gentleman by the means
of duplicity, should make one fall in love with his tiara. Do
you think I should accept for sound reasoning, if you were
capable of telling me that, tho' you vowed in a sermon that you
would never be a bishop, yet your gown being distinct from
you, you could see no reason why your gown might not be
turned into lawn sleeves ?

What miracles the new set of men that are to arise are to
achieve, I neither know nor care ; I shall be out of the question
before that blessed millennium arrives ; unless they are already
come, as perhaps they are — and for that, too, I cannot have long
to care ; tho' I firmly believe that your new set will only effect
what has often been tried before, and what you say ought to be
tried, i. e., to prove themselves the Crown's friends ; an act of
loyalty which I dare to say the wearer will be the first to
pardon.

You see, by my using the same liberality of correspondence, I
approve of yours. I am above disguising my sentiments, and
am too low for any man to disguise his to me. Mine, indeed,
having no variety in them, must be less entertaining ; and there-
fore, unless I take a freak of hobbling to court, you can have
no curiosity to hear them. Nor should I have mentioned them

1784] EXPLANATION OF LETTER TO EEV. WM. MASON. 39

now, but that I thought it respectful to you and candid, when
you communicated yr new sentiments to me, to tell you that
mine remain unaltered.

I cannot conceive why you think that I shall not like your
tragedy: am I apt to dislike your writings? Tho' I am too
sincere to flatter you when I think you unequal to yourself, I
did reckon that I was one who had taste enough to be sensible
to the utmost of the beauties of yr capital works ; and tragedy
is certainly not a walk in which I can believe you will miss
your way — you have trodden more difficult paths with the
happiest facility. I shall be glad to see your piece, when you
will indulge me with it, and am

Yours ever,

HOKACE WALPOLE.]

Explanation of Mr. Tf.'s Letter to Mr. M.*

Mr. Mason, Gr. S. Earl of Harcourt, and Mr. H. Walpole
were intimate friends, and agreed in condemning the K.'8 mea-
sures. But at the end of the year 1783, when Mr. Ch. Fox pro-
duced his famous E. India bill, Mr. Mason and Ld Harcourt,
without even the slightest hint to Mr. Walpole, changed sides
totally, and tho' Mr. W. dined with the Earl in private but the
very day before Ld H. voted against that bill, he did not drop
a syllable of his intention, nor of his design of going to court,
which he had not done for some years ; yet he had acquainted
Mr. Mason, or rather, I believe, had been persuaded by him
secretly to take those steps ; and when they were taken, Mr.
Mason wrote an authoritative letter to Mr. Walpole approving
that conduct, and presumptuously flatteriDg himself, even without
giving any reason for their total tergiversation, that he should
influence Mr. Walpole to take the same part. Mr. W. thought it
became him to treat such treacherous and impertinent behaviour
as it deserved, and to let Mr. M. see that, with all his admira-
tion of Mr. Mason's satiric abilities in poetry, Mr. W. neither
feared his anger, nor w4 suffer him to govern his principles.
Mr. W.'s answer received none ; and tho' Mr. M. continued to

* In Mr. Cunningham's edition of H. Walpole's letters, the explanation to
the foregoing letter is taken from a book called ' Walpoliana ; ' that which is
here given is taken from a MS. in Walpole's own handwriting. __

40 LETTERS OF H. WALPOLE. [1794

visit him for a year or two, a total coolness ensued, and all
correspondence by letters ceased.

Lady Harcourt, who during Ld Eockingham's short adminis-
tration had overwhelmed Mr. W. with letters, two or three in a
day, to get her lord a place, which he had tried in vain, was
made lady of the bedchamber ; and she and her lord became
a proverb, even to courtiers, of the most servile attachment to
their Majesties, tho' both had forsworn St. James's on the
King's and Queen's neglect of them on the unfortunate death
of the Earl's father ; and his lordship, besides wearing a ring
of Brutus with the daggers and ides of March, had given away
the portraits of King and Queen, their presents to the late Earl.

Mr. Mason had preached a sermon at York against the Arch-
bishop, in which he declared he never wd be a bishop, and was
going to print it, but had been dissuaded by Mr. Walpole from
making such a rash vow in print. Mr. Mason hated Lord
Kockingham and Mr. Fox.

The K. had approved of and encouraged the D. of Portland
and Mr. Fox on their India bill, and then commanded even the
lords of his own bedchamber to vote against it.

Mr. W. has a very fine antique bust in bronze of Caligula.

The Opposition had for many years complained of that knot
of devotees to the court, who affected to call themselves
the King's friends ; and nobody had been more determined
against them than Ld Harcourt and Mason.

Mr. Pitt, when in opposition, had supported Mason's and
Wyvill's project of altering the representation of Parl., and
Mason, no doubt, expected wd promote it when become minister ;
but he disappointed him : and Mr. Pitt, on the contrary, gave
a capital blow to the House of Commons by maintaining him-
self by the prerogative against a majority of that House, which
proved that Mr. W. had foreseen rightly of the new set of men.

Mason's capital work indisputably was the Heroic Epistle to
Sr William Chambers.

Unknown to whom addressed.

May 27, 1794.

DEAR SR, — An idea has arisen in my thoughts, on which I
have a great desire to consult you, not minutely, but in general,
and this for two reasons : the first, because I have not extended

1794] FLAX FOR INSPIRING PATRIOTISM. 41

or weighed the idea sufficiently myself; and the second, because
the season is not yet arrived to carry the design (supposing it
should be proper and practicable) into execution.

My wish is, that all who live under our present unprece-
dentedly happy constitution, composed of King, Lords, and
Commons, should be grounded from their earliest youth in such
a firm attachment to that matchless system, in such undivided
ardour of patriotism for that trinitarian but one composition,
that no monarchic or republican doctrines, no factious or inte-
rested views, no attachment to political leaders or dictators, may
ever be able to detach them from the great principles of the
constitution.

It is undesirable that we have no system of education at all
calculated for impressing such essential patriotism. Parents
content themselves with breeding up their children in their own
principles ; that is, of talking before their children with a bias
towards Whig or Tory principles ; and the masters or tutors
appointed are probably chosen, if principles enter into the con-
sideration, for being supposed of the same party as the parent.
If the tutor or master be a clergyman, he will doubtless instill
into his pupil a due respect for the Church, which, tho' incor-
porated by law into the general system, is not a specific part of
our tripartite constitution, tho' admitted into it, and which I
would preserve there for (perhaps a singular) reason. I mean,
looking on the complex body of higher and lower clergy as a
pin that tends to support that third part of the constitution, the
Crown, which might be too much weakened if deprived of that
buttress, should a contest arise between the Crown and the two
other branches of the legislature, who, possessing the whole
landed property of the kingdom, might be an overmatch for the
third power ; and since the union of the three has produced and
preserved our unexampled system, and raised this country to
such a summit of glory and wealth, with perfect freedom, it
would be madness to shake an edifice so cemented, in order to
try speculative experiments and reforms which might endanger,
but could not augment, our general felicity. The happiness of
the whole is not to be risked to humour a few visionaries.

After this short introduction, I will sketch my novel idea.

I would have an exposition of our triformed constitution
drawn up, showing how, in its contexture and consequences,

42 LETTERS OP H. WALPOLE.

it is preferable to all systems of government yet invented. (I
do not detail more on this head here), but when stated in the
strongest and clearest manner, and then reduced to a corollary
of implicit faith, I would have all schools, seminaries, colleges,
universities, obliged to inculcate this creed into all the youth
committed to their care, and a plan of education a little more
necessary to a Briton than Greek and Latin, tho' I do not desire
to exclude or interfere with the instruction into those languages
— far from it. If a code of constitutional doctrine could be
formed, I would have it subdivided. I would have an accidence
of short aphorisms or axioms extracted for young beginners ;
larger grammars for the adults, and these only taught in short
lessons on holidays, and without punishments annexed, that the
learners might have no disagreeable sensations annexed to what
I wish to have them love — the constitution. Lectures in the
manner of sermons might be delivered once a week to the dis-
ciples of all ages, and the love of our country and its beautiful
constitution inculcated by every art possible.

You, my dear Sr, would be infinitely more able than I am to
dilate these rude hints into a valuable and practicable system.
My object is to raise a spirit of enthusiasm for our constitution
into our young and future countrymen ; and as my plan would
attach them to each branch of the legislature, not one of the
three can, or at least ought to be averse from adopting it by law,
if it were better digested, and a patriotic code formed, which it
would be the interest of all the three powers to sanction. All
opposition that should tend to annihilate any one of the three
powers would be baffled, if the bigotry of the nation to the esta-
blished constitution were predominant.

Unknown to whom addressed.

I am not at all sorry, Sr, for the little misunderstanding that
has happened, both as it has procured me a most obliging letter
from you, and as it gives me an opportunity of explaining my
expressions by Mr. Bedford, which I hope you will give me
leave to do, yet as briefly as I can, for your time, S% is precious,
tho' mine is not.

If I had the pleasure of being better known to you, you would
not have been surprised at my message. Being a very subor-

TO AN UNKNOWN CORRESPONDENT. 43

dinate officer of the Exchequer, I have always known it
was my duty to receive the commands of my superiors the
Lords of the Treasury with respect and obedience, and to give
them any information that they please to demand within my
small province. I once received a parallel order from Mr.
Eobinson, as Mr. Bedford can tell you, and behaved with the
like deference. Allow me to add, that Mr. Bedford will always
be ready, Sr, to comply with yr commands, either with regard to
any information he can give you or in other particulars.

It is very true, Sr, that at first I did imagine that there might
be a farther view in your inquiry ; but I was not less ready to
obey it. When the Commissioners of Accounts sent for Mr.
Bedford, I gave him the most positive orders to lay before them
the most minute details of my office, and to answer circumstan-
tially their every question, as I would resign my place to-morrow
rather than hold it by any subterfuge or disguise. I owe every
thing I have to, the Crown and the public, and certainly by no
merit in myself. I should deserve to lose all were I capable of
any deceit. When there has been any question on patent places,
I have thought it most respectful to await the determination of
the legislature in silence: and therefore resolved neither to
make interest to save myself from what should be thought
necessary for the public ; nor, as I have great contempt for
ostentation, not to affect to be willing to give up my right, as I
do not believe that any man really desires to have his fortune
lessened ; tho' I flatter myself that nobody is less disposed to
prefer his private interest to that of the public.

These sentiments, Sr, led me into the mistake which you have
been pleased so obligingly to clear, for which I beg you to receive
my sincere thanks. May I, Sr, entreat you likewise to offer like
respectful thanks to Lord Shelburne ? I am very sensible of
his lordship's kind attention, to which my insignificance has no
pretensions ; and, therefore, my gratitude can but be the greater.
I would thank his lordship myself, but he can have no time to
throw away on complimentary letters; and I have taken up
but too much of yours. I have the honour to be with great
regard, Sr,

Yr most obedient and most obliged humble Ser*,

HOK. WALPOLE.

44 LETTEKS OF H. WALPOLE.

As there are still a few persons (tho' truly very few) who are
so idle and weak as to bewilder themselves in the Chattertonian
Controversy,* and who would rob the poor lad of the honour of
having imposed on them by his forgeries ; and who having mis-
carried in reestablishing his credit, still vow vengeance on one
who has aided to dissipate the delusion ; it would perhaps be
cruel to destroy their harmless, tho' silly, pastime, which hurts
nobody ; and vain to attempt to set a man right who, by invent-
ing falsehoods to justify his mistake, shows he is conscious of
being in the wrong. I, tho' invited to resume the trifling con-
test, am less called upon than most men to enter the lists,
especially against masked antagonists, as, having once told my
whole story simply, with unimpeached veracity, and to general
satisfaction, I declared I would not waste a word more on the
subject, of which everyone but two or three old and early con-
verts, is heartily weary ; for whatever pity accompanies a detected
impostor, this is not an age in which his ashes raise new prose-
lytes. When Tom Paine is hanged, his disciples will not be
numerous.

If I violate my own resolution, it is not to revive the contro-
versy but to leave a memorial behind me, that shall baffle the
future aspersions that I am persuaded are prepared and meant
to substantiate the exploded charge of ill-usage of Chatterton,
as soon as I shall be no more. My adversaries keep back and
dare not publish my letter of kind advice to that unhappy lad,
tho' no doubt they are possessed of it, as well as of my first
letter to him, which they have printed to show that at the first
moment I was imposed upon by him. Why are they not as
industrious to authenticate the other ? No, it would do honour
to my sensibility, and their object has been to represent me as
harsh, cruel, and in'solent to him, which that I ever was, they
must suppress my kind letter, and forge one in a contrary style,
to make believed — and if such letter is produced, Eowley will
have written it as much as I did.

I will now trace the steps by which this scarce-gasping contest
has been attempted to be set again upon its legs, for while a

* See Letters and Papers relating to Chatterton, pp. 205 to 239 (vol. iv.
4to. edition of Lord Orford's Works), amongst which this Memorial is not
included.

THE CHATTERTON CONTROVERSY. 45

spark of life remains, there is no case so desperate for which
some physician or other will not be found to prescribe.

Chatterton was too young and had too much parts to have
attained that summit of antiquarian excellence, the dull accu-
racy of dates, and consequently his forgeries were ill-adapted
to the barbarous style and narrow discoveries of the dark
ages for which he pretended to model his compositions. He
attributed beautiful imagery to monks who had no imagina-
tion, and antedated arts by whole centuries, in which ingenious
discoveries would have been imputed to magic sooner than to
genius. But as in all ages there are men of monkish blindness,
Chatterton was believed when he coined the most palpable
improbabilities, and a real genius of the seventeenth century
persuaded his converts that his works had been the productions
of the barbarous fourteenth in which they would have been un-
intelligible. A black from the coast of Gruinea would as soon
have understood his African eclogue because it has the names of
some African rivers, as the good folks of Bristol would have
comprehended the phraseology of Olla, tho' sprinkled with some
English words now obsolete. Had the imaginary Eowley existed
and written for the stage, he would probably have penned Mys-
teries, not Dramas on the Greek model, of which he could never
have heard ; but Chatterton had never, I suppose, heard of the
Mysteries, or he would have lent some translation of them to
Eowley — to the complete satisfaction of our antiquaries, who
must internally be a little shocked at a classic, and consequently
a heathen tragedy, issuing from the gloom of a convent at
Bristol. Credulity's darling apothegm is Credo quia impossi-
bile est, and its faith increases in proportion as it is confuted ; for
faith ceases to be faith, and becomes conviction when it rests
upon demonstration. Faith dwells in the clouds, demonstration
on a rock.

An article which appeared in the ' Sun ' in October
1797, elicited a letter of contradiction from the nephew
and heir of Sir Horace Mann, and which also explains
Lord Orford's repossession of his own letters addressed
for so many years to his friend at Florence.

46 H. WALPOLE'S MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. [1797

In the SUN of 2d October, 1797.

The late Lord Orford had designed to publish his corre-
spondence with the late Sir Horace Mann, and for this purpose
ordered most of his letters to be transcribed, making such omis-
sions as he thought proper. The originals were then returned
to the present Sir Horace Mann, who will not permit the letters
to be printed, alleging that having the originals in his possession
the copyright is vested in himself. With this hiatus, how-
ever, the works of Lord Orford are likely to make five volumes
in quarto.

In the SUN of 4th October, 1797.

SIR, — I must positively contradict a paragraph in your paper
in which there is not the slightest foundation of truth. A cor-
respondence for many years subsisted between Lord Orford and
Sir Horace Mann. Whenever I returned from frequent visits
into Italy, I brought with me by Lord Orford's express com-
mands all the letters he had written to my uncle to the period
of my return. They were sealed up in a packet and delivered
by me into Lord Orford's own hands, who gave an injunction that
no copy should previously be taken of any one of them. I can-
not therefore have it in my power to withhold the publication,
or have the least idea of any copyright being vested in me, as
is maliciously represented, for the originals never were returned
to me, nor can I have the smallest claim to them. They are
by Lord Orford's will submitted to the disposal of the most
honorable and intelligent persons, whose understanding will
point out to them what are proper for publication.

I am, Sir, your obedient Servant,

HORACE MANN.

Egerton Farm, Maidstone, Oct. 3, 1797.
To the Editor of the ' Sun.*

DETACHED THOUGHTS.

It is said that Congreve had too much wit in his comedies.
It is a pity that no comic author has had the same fault.

A Gothic cathedral strikes one like the enthusiasm of poetry ;
St. Paul's, like the good sense of prose.

I would never dispute about anything but at law, for there

DETACHED THOUGHTS. 47

one has as much chance as another of getting the better without
reason.

* Liars are like the old writs of kings that were signed Teste
Meipso, for they have no witnesses but themselves.

* It is wrong to dispute, as one may set out in the wrong,
and then one is sure to remain so, for one not only grows heated,
but partial to one's own arguments, and then one remains in the
wrong.

* By the throngs at places in England where waters are
drunk, a foreigner would conclude that this is the most un-
healthy country in Europe ; but it is a proof of the reverse, for
nine in ten go thither from health and spirits, and to dance and
game and be diverted, for one who goes from illness.

A dead language is the only one that lives long, and is unlike
the dead, for by being dead, it avoids corruption.

* Indiscreet persons, who say all they think and tell all they
know, put others on their guard not to trust to them.

In former ages men were afraid of nothing but cowardice.
Even riches, which now make men fond of life and consequently
timid, then made men brave, for everybody was forced to
defend his own property, or the stronger would have invaded it.

* Most writers on Government make a great mistake when
they suppose that laws were made for the benefit of society.
More laws have been made for the interest of individuals than
for the good of the community. When an individual has power
of making laws, he makes them for himself and against others.

Of all the Virtues Gratitude has the shortest memory.

* Otway perhaps took the names of Castalio and Polidore in
his ' Orphan ' from Castor and Pollux.

There are playthings for all ages: the plaything of old
people is to talk of the playthings of their youth.

Man is an aurivorous animal.

History is a romance that is believed; romance, a history
that is not believed.

Montaigne pleased because he wrote what he thought — other
authors think what they shall write.

This world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those
who feel.

* The asterisks indicate those ' thoughts ' that have not been published
before.

48 H. WALPOLE'S MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

Our Passions and our Understandings agree so ill, that they
resemble a Frenchman of quality and his wife, who tho' they
live in the same house together, have separate apartments,
separate beds, go different ways, are seldom together, but are
very civil to each other before company ; and then the Passions,
like the lady, affect to have great deference for their husband the
Understanding.

* The Eeformation in England was so short of what it ought
to have been, that in reality it was only a re-formation.

* The line in Horace, Quo teneam vultus, &c., might, if cor-
rected in the stoppage, be applied to people who frequently
change their principles ; thus —

Quo teneam vultus mutantem Protea ? — nodo— by a halter.

It is idle to attempt to talk a young woman in love out of
her passion. Love does not lie in the ear.

Whoever expects pity by complaining to his physician is as
foolish as they who having lost their money at cards complain
of their ill-luck to their companions the winners. If none
were ill or unfortunate, how would physicians and gamesters
get money?

Beauty after five and thirty is like a forfeited peerage, the
title of which is given by the courtesy of the well-bred to those
who have no legal claim to it.

Albano's boy-angels and Cupids are all so alike, that they
seem to have been the children of the Flemish Countess who
was said to be delivered of 365 at a birth.

* A good character is the only wealth a man can keep up
which will be his after his death.

Persons extremely reserved are like old enamelled watches,
which had painted covers that hindered your seeing what o'clock
it was.

Many new pieces please on first reading, if they have more
novelty than merit. The second time they do not please, for
surprise has no second part.

An author without originality is like a courtier who is always
dressed in the fashion ; nobody minds the colour or make of his
coat ; if it is ill-made, it is criticised ; if not, what can be said
on it ? hundreds are dressed as well. Booksellers and salesmen
lay up the book or the coat the moment the fashion of it is past,
till they can sell either into the country.

DETACHED THOUGHTS. 49

* Some faces change so little that they look as if they had
been made once for all.

If a man's eyes, ears, or memory decay, he ought to con-
clude that his understanding decays also, for the weaker it grows,
the less likely is he to perceive it.

* Motto for Captain Coram, who instituted the Foundling
Hospital :

Corain quem quaeritis, adsum.

* In the Bas Empire, the Komans had two parties, the Blue
and the Green. Those colours would be very convenient in all
times when men change sides so often. No two colours are so
easily confounded. A man of the blue party going over to the
green might pretend he had always been of a bluish green.

* It is probable that the eyes of no two persons see objects
alike. Each object may appear larger or smaller, or darker or
lighter, or of a different hue to one man from what it does to
another. This may be one of the causes why some see more or
less beauty in a woman than others do; and why some see
resemblances between two faces, that to another do not seem to
resemble.

Envy deserves pity more than anger, for it hurts nobody so
much as itself. It is a distemper rather than a vice, for nobody
would feel envy if he could help it. Whoever envies another,
secretly allows that person's superiority.

* An epic poem is a mixture of history without truth and of
romance without imagination.

* Old persons, who are too juvenile for their age, give no proof
so strong of their loss of memory as by not remembering that
they are nearer to their second childhood than to their first.

When flatterers compliment kings for virtues that are the
very reverse of their characters, they remind me of the story of
a little boy who was apt to tell people of any remarkable defect
in their persons. One day a gentleman who had an extraordi-
narily large nose being to dine with the boy's parents, his
mother charged him not to say anything of the gentleman's
large nose. When he arrived, the child stared at him, and then
turning to his mother said, * Mamma, what a pretty little nose
that gentleman has ! '

* A woman in a riding habit is something between a man
and a portmanteau.

VOL. II. E

50 H. WALPOLE'S MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

Experience becomes prescience.

Nothing is more vain than for a woman to deny her age, for
she cannot deceive the only person who cares about it — herself.
If a man dislikes a woman because he thinks her of the age she
is, he will only dislike her the more for being told that she is
younger than she seems to be, and consequently looks older than
she ought to do. The Anno Domini of her face will weigh
more than that of her register.

Censorious old women betray three things : one, that they
have been galant ; the next, that they can be so no longer ; and
the third, that they are always wishing they could be.

* An old woman who pretends to be religious and yet propa-
gates scandal is the reverse of charity, which covers a multitude
of sins : She uncovers all she knows, or suspects, or invents.

No woman ever invented a new religion : yet no new religion
would ever have spread but for women. Cool heads invent
systems, warm heads embrace them.

* The advantage of truth over falsehood is, that the former
can never be detected.

Posterity always degenerates till it becomes our ancestors.

It is unfortunate to have no master but our own errors. If
we profit ever so much under them, the unjust public always
recollect the master, more than they take notice of the improve-
ment of the scholar.

* The heart of man would not bear to be examined in a
microscope.

Men are capable, often, of greater things than they perform.
They are sent into the world with bills of credit, on which they
seldom draw to the full extent.

* It is possible that the pyramids of Egypt may last so long
that they may come to be supposed to be the tombs of some
kings who are not yet born.

Motto for Congreve's ' Old Batchelor ' : —

Nolito front! credere, nupsit heri. — Mart.

Epic Poetry is the art of being tiresome in verse ; of excluding
half the passions, and most of the ingredients that constitute
amusement. It is an Index Expurgatorius for wit ; a monopoly
of gaping, and utter prohibition of laughter. Nobody may joke
in an epic poem except a god, and that only upon some occasion

THOUGHTS ON GOVERNMENT. 51

that is not dignus vindice. A hero may now and then attempt
a sarcasm, but then it must be a very clumsy one. An Epic
Poem must be a tragedy that does not make you melancholy.
You must not be concerned for any person slain in it, except
for a young man or two, who is introduced only to be killed.
The action must be one : you must be as long as possible before
you bring it about ; and whenever the catastrophe is inevitable,
you must digress to something that will make the reader forget
how near you are to the conclusion. Above all things you must
allow that an Epic Poem is the most sublime work that can be
achieved ; you must own that there are not above five or six
good epic poems in the world, and you must totally forget that
the men who wrote them might, in half the time wasted on
such senseless productions, have produced works in other kinds
ten times more worthy of immortality. An Epic Poem is like
the Tower of Babel, which answered no end, and with the
stones and labour bestowed on which might have been built
many excellent fabrics.

THOUGHTS ON GOVERNMENT.

The world is divided into men of sense and fools, but un-
equally. Strength is pretty near imparted alike to all ; but the
majority, having little sense, would make an improper use of
their strength. Self-love being equal in all, a man of sense
would turn his strength to advantage. I do not know whether
it was a strong fool, or strong man of sense, that first employed
his sense to render others subject to him : probably the latter.
But all men have sense enough to see the inconvenience of
being subject to brutal force. Men of sense, who had not
strength enough to resist the force of a combination of fools, or
the artifices of sense endued with force, invented laws and govern-
ment. For such was certainly the origin of both, and not that
silly idea of patriarchal authority. It could strike the common
sense of nobody, that, because a man was fit to govern his own
children, he was therefore fit to govern a whole people. No man
is fit for it, because no man can do it alone. He must have
ministers, deputies, substitutes ; and if they abuse their power,
all his fitness will not enable him to correct their errors or
crimes. If he punishes or removes them, he is equally liable to
be mistaken in his choice of their successors.

E 2

52 H. WALPOLE'S MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

Government being once established, and accompanied with
power, made a new division of mankind into knaves and fools ;
in which the latter were always reduced to be imposed on and
governed by the former ; till ambition and self-love invented
Hereditary Power; and ever since that time, more fools have
enjoyed royalty than wise men ; because artful men had laid
the foundations of hereditary power on such solid ground, that
subsequent artful men could not remove them ; and the number
of fools born being greater than that of wise men, there are far
more foolish kings than wise.

If we believe that Government had not this origin, but was
designed for the benefit of mankind, as most say they suppose,
its present existence would be more abhorrent from its institu-
tion than the hypothesis above. It cannot be for the interest of
a community that its chief magistrate should be maintained in
an opulence and splendour that impoverishes the greater part of
his subjects. It is not for their good that he should have power
to put to death, imprison or banish them, at his will. It is not
for their advantage that his ministers, officers, substitutes, should
have like power delegated to them. It is not for their advan-
tage that he should have an imaginary honour and dignity, in
support of which he should employ his subjects in war ; that he
should have power to expose them in battle to revenge his per-
sonal quarrels, or indulge his ambition. All these and a thou-
sand more are absurd prerogatives, and not only not for the
benefit of the community, but to their great detriment. Pre-
rogatives affected to the Crown, and for the sole advantage of
the wearer of it, and prejudicial to its subjects, are contradic-
tions totally repugnant to the idea of a good government, and
ipso facto annihilate it. An army greater than is necessary to
defend the country from invasion and oppression by a foreign
enemy, is destructive of the good of that country ; not only as
it may invade its liberty, but as it employs too many men who
might be more usefully employed.

Such is the nature of man, that a king had rather reign over
vast solitudes than over a small free nation. Conquest is the
blackest crime against society, because no man has a right to
force any number of men to be his subjects : I mean by con-
quest, the ambition of acquiring dominions to which a king
has no right. It is a crime both to the invaded, and to those

PLAN FOR ENCOURAGING PAINTING. 53

whom he leads to invasion. And every man that falls in the
quarrel is murd'ered by the king.

A king that violates the laws of his country, and is expelled
or dethroned by his subjects, is not less guilty if he attempts to
recover his crown by force. All nations have a right to prescribe
the terms on which they choose to be governed ; and if the king
has sworn to conform to those laws, and does not keep his oath,
he is a criminal in the highest sense of the word.

Any endeavour of extending his power beyond the laws of
which he is king, is a violation of those laws, and he deserves
to be punished. To support him in his attempts is treason
against the community.

No nation can make laws for posterity without posterity
having equal right to repeal them. No man can be born with
a right to oppress others. No man is of a nature superior
to other men. He is as fallible as they. A crown gives no
superior virtue or wisdom ; but it demands more of both ;
because a king, who is only a chief magistrate, ought to have
virtue and wisdom not only to govern but to set an example to
his people. His vices are more detrimental than those of a
private man ; and a vicious king weakens the laws, which are
made to discountenance as well as to punish vice. An ambitious,
an avaricious, or a prodigal king encourages those vices in his
ministers and in his people by his example ; and if he punishes
those vices in others which he practises himself, he is unjust. He
is bound not only to be virtuous himself, but to choose virtuous
men for his ministers and servants ; for as he cannot himself
execute all the duties of his magistracy, he is responsible for
those to whom he delegates his power. The most virtuous king
is obliged to take care that he tolerates no vicious persons about
him, and, if he is really virtuous, he will tolerate none. A vir-
tuous king may have a hypocritic, but never will have a profligate
court. He is a judge of men's outward professions, if not of
their hearts. The appearances of virtue will have some effects ;
those of profligacy can have none.

PLAN FOR ENCOURAGING PAINTING.

It is a common complaint that in England there is little
or no encouragement for historic painting; and it is almost
as common an answer, that as historic pictures are seldom

54 H. WALPOLE'S MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. [1735

admitted into churches, and as our churches have each but one
altar, there are few public places fitted to receive large pieces.
The first objection might be removed in some degree by the
following plan ; and the second is not only not true, but proper
spaces will be pointed out by the same plan.

Many funds for historic paintings might be pointed out with
small inconvenience to the contributors. Suppose every Arch-
bishop of Canterbury was obliged to pay 3001. within three
years after his promotion to the see, or rather one hundred each
year, for only the three first years, which at his grace's option
should either go to a fund for furnishing historic pictures on
scriptural or historic English subjects, or should pay for one
picture on such a subject, which picture should be placed in
the palace at Lambeth, and always remain there.

The Archbishop of York should in the same space of three
years pay 2001. in like manner for the archiepiscopal palace in
Yorkshire.

The Bishops of London, Durham, and Winchester, 2501.
for the ornament of their palaces. Ely and Worcester, 2001.
Other bishops less in proportion to their incomes.

Thence their palaces, naked as they are, and stripped on
every death, would still have some decoration, and the arts
would spread into the counties.

Every bishop should pay the sum allotted, if he remain three
years before translated. And if translated, after three years,
be should pay again, being translated to a better see.

The Lord Chancellor should in like manner pay 3001. if
continued in office three years, or 1001. for each that he did
remain. The picture paid for by him, or by a fund from the
following years, should represent some English historic subject,
some memorable sera of the Constitution, or some remarkable
trial or cause ; and the picture should be hung in the Court of
Kequests, in the Painted or Princes Chambers.

The Chief Justices, being for life, should pay 3001. ; the
Chief Baron and Master of the Eolls, 2001. each ; the Attorney
and Solicitor Generals, 2001. each, if remaining in place three
years, or in proportion. The pictures on the subjects and for
the like positions.

The Speakers of the Houses, 2001. each, if three years in
office; the subjects like the former, or on any memorable
debates.

1785] PLAN FOR ENCOURAGING PAINTING. 55

The First Lord of the Treasury, being of very uncertain
tenure, should only pay IOOL a year, according to his duration,
and never after three years.

The First Lord of the Admiralty to contribute in the same
manner.

The pictures furnished by the Treasurers, to adorn the Trea-
sury, and when that full, the House in Downing Street. The
subjects, English historic.

The Admirals, naval engagements, &c., for the Admiralty.

The two Secretaries of State, and other great officers might
be taxed in proportion, and the Palaces of St. James's or Ken-
sington be adorned by their contributions.

No contributor should be allowed to give his own portrait in
lieu of an historic picture.

Perhaps it would be better to have all the contributions go to
a separate fund for each class, and be laid out whenever a proper
subject was fixed on, and a price agreed on of 300L, 400/., or
5001. according to the size of the picture, and merit and price
of the painter.

A standing committee to fix on the subjects, and regulate the
prices and dimensions. The costume of every age in every
picture to be strictly observed.

The City of London might find some similar methods for
decorating the Mansion House and Company Halls.

Feb. 9, 1785.

THOUGHTS ON THE REIGN OF GEOKGE III.

Few reigns in our annals have been distinguished by so many
changes of administration as that of George III. James I. very
frequently in the latter part of his time displaced Ministers,
particularly his High Treasurers ; but they never were his Prime
Ministers : they were promoted or removed by the caprices of
his rash and presumptuous young favourite, the Duke of Buck-
ingham. King William, as wise as James and George were
foolish, was forced to change his administrations by the factious
struggles of the Whigs and Tories, the latter of whom were his
enemies, and the former unsteady friends. George, aiming at no-
thing but personal power, and sacrificing the dignity of his crown,
the interest of his kingdoms, and frequently his own peace to

56 H. WALPOLE'S MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

accomplish that sole object, could bear no Minister who would
not be a tool, and removed every man, when he could, who was
fit to be his servant. He commenced his reign by disgusting
Mr. Pitt, who had raised Great Britain to a height of glory it
had never before attained, and who, tho' far more ostentatious
than solid, had endeared himself to the nation by fortunate
rashness, and, which was of still more importance, had struck
terror into all our enemies. This great man was driven away
to make room for a wretch who, with as much vanity as Mr.
Pitt, and resembling him in no one essential, and whom the
King himself had grown to hate, before he raised him to the
head of the administration, sweeping away in the same breath
that ridiculous and impotent veteran, the Duke of Newcastle,
who had had the address to engross much power during the
administration of Sir K. Walpole, who did not love him,
and knew himself betrayed by him, and who associated
himself with Mr. Pitt, during the plenitude of the latter's
power. Lord Bute's pusillanimity anticipated his incapacity,
and he fled from his post before he had time to show
how totally he was unfit for it. A momentary triumvirate of
Lord Egremont, Lord Halifax, and Mr. George Grenville
stepped into the vacancy, because no system was ready, and
because the King had a predilection for nobody. These men,
mistaking chance for abilities in themselves, neither ingratiated
themselves with the King, nor would condescend to pay court
to the self-dethroned favourite, who, from habitude, retained
more of the royal confidence than any other man, and who had
hoped to find substitutes who might at once stand between him
and the danger of responsibility, and who would submit to be
actuated by his influence. Finding himself disappointed, he
had the folly to fly to the man whose power he had usurped,
Lord Chatham, who would not have been implacable if the
King had not already conceived the idea of employing no man
who would not stoop to be a cypher. The mutual intrac-
tability of His Majesty and Lord Chatham vested the sole power
in Mr. Grrenville, who had many ingredients that fitted him
for the place of Minister, but wanted as many to make him a
Great Minister, and more that would suit the temper, views, and
insincerity of the King. Grenville was firm, intrepid, daring ;
he was also immeasurably obstinate, avaricious for himself, and

THOUGHTS ON THE KE1GX OF GEORGE III. 57

triflingly penurious for the revenue. He was tedious, un-
gracious, implacable ; and not content with seeking every
opportunity of being revenged on the nominal favourite, he
refused the King inconsiderable sums for his amusement, and
teased him for unreasonable grants to himself. Is it necessary
to say that want of judgment crowned all his bad qualities ?
At the moment that he had raised a convulsion in America by
his offensive Stamp Act, his hatred to the favourite induced him
to join in a public insult to the King's mother. Such conduct
had its natural consequence. Grenville was disgraced, and Lord
Chatham being betrayed by his friend, Lord Temple, who had
chosen that conjuncture to be reconciled to his brother Gren-
ville, again refused the administration, which the King, from
having no choice left, was forced to put into the hands of Lord
Rockingham, who, disdaining to be the lieutenant of the nominal
favourite, and proscribing the King's secret tools, who in reality
had the confidence which the favourite only seemed to possess,
the new administration was suffered to remain but a single year,
and Lord Chatham was once more called to power, and accepted
it, tho' with scarce an adherent left.

Never was a greater fall ! That wild intoxication which,
seconded by fortune, had been so happily applied to military
Quixotism, was by no means adapted to the sobriety of peaceful
councils. Whether the insanity remained, when the fire of
adventure had subsided, or whether, conscious of his own defects,
he preferred the imputation of disordered intellects to the con-
fession of incapacity, Lord Chatham had scarce resumed his power
before he totally suspended the exercise of it, and, which indeed
was rather an evidence of delirium, he retained his superin-
tendence, tho' he obstinately refused to officiate.

The nation had for some years beheld, or thought it descried,
a real Minister behind the curtain, who interposed his credit
without holding an office. Here was the reverse — a Minister in
whose name all business was transacted, but who would exercise
no part of his function.

From so strange a position arose the authority of the Duke
of Grafton. He had been delegated by Lord Chatham, who
sullenly saw him grow Minister from the exigence of the mo-
ment, and who still would neither be consulted by him nor
forgave him for acting without his orders.

58 H. WALPOLE'S MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

Grrafton proved a Minister after the King's own heart. No
merit, no talents had recommended him ; he was indolent ; his
Lad temper created no adherents ; his pride was unsocial, and
he was content to be prompted by the secret Junto. His
behaviour, his negligence, and the variations in his ill-humour,
occasioned such universal discontent, that even the prerogative
majority in the House of Commons was shaken, and, subservient
as the Minister was, the King's influence grew into as great
danger as if his Minister had been formidable to himself. It
is probable that the Junto instilled a panic into the Duke him-
self, tho' they were by no means satisfied that they were provided
with an adequate successor. Lord North, the Duke's second,
was tried, and more than repaired the breach.

With as much indolence as Graft-on, North had infinitely
more parts, an excellent temper, an amiable private character,
most conciliating sociability, never-failing wit, and a steady reso-
lution of pliancy to all his Majesty's prejudices. This inveterate
submission, most commonly in contradiction to his own judgment,
proved his ruin. Acquiescence in all the worst measures of the
American War, and negligence in the execution of them all,
awakened even the prostitute majority in the House of Commons.
The royal perseverance in that odious and impolitic war, and
Lord North's compliance with his master's infatuation, cost the
one America, and the other his post of Prime Minister.

If Lord Shelburne could have waited to undermine Lord
Eockingham, or to wait for his death, which was imminent, he
might have reduced the King to the necessity of submitting to
the spirit of the Constitution ; but Shelburne was impatient to
be Minister, and liked to become so by treachery rather than
by patience. He broke the party to pieces, by transacting a
settlement with the King rather than with his allies, and by
that means succeeded Lord Eockingham, who died in two
months. But, having undermined his own ground, Shelburne
had no strength but what the King should please to impart to
him ; nor did that weight suffice against his own folly and false-
hood, which, by the beginning of next year, overset him. The
King's anguish was inexpressible, not at losing Shelburne, whom
he both hated and despised, but at being forced to accept an
administration of honest, able men, whom he could not bend to
his own purposes. He offered the Treasury to the boy Pitt, who

THOUGHTS ON THE REIGN OF GEORGE III. 59

in the compass of five days twice accepted it and twice had not
courage to undertake it, — a want of spirit that it cost him nine
months to surmount.

The Duke of Portland, enforced by the matchless abilities of
Mr. Fox, became Minister, and commenced a system that pro-
mised reparation to many of the evils inflicted on this country
by the fatal measures of the reign. But Mr. Fox daring to
attack that detestable incorporation of harpies, the East India
Company, and its servants, or rather its masters, the King per-
ceived that the worst enemies of this country were now presented
to him as most useful allies, and therefore, adopting their fears
and vengeance, and borrowing their plunder in aid of his own
exhausted treasury, he at once dismissed his new Ministers, and
threw himself into the hands of Lord Temple, almost as young
and inexperienced as Pitt, but, fortunately for the latter, a
greater coward. Lord Temple fled the very moment that he
had lent himself to the removal of the Ministers, and Pitt, whose
presumption had sighed for nine months over his last faint-
heartedness, catched at a third offer of power, and determined
to varnish over his timidity by excess of insolence and abuse
of those who had had more spirit than himself, and a much
greater degree of spirit, for they knew they could not trust the
King, and Pitt was sure of his support as long as he was sub-
servient.

That ground he secured by open prostitution of his former
professions, declaring himself the Minister of the Crown. On
that foundation he stands at present, and finds it a pedestal
which his extreme ignorance has not as yet been able to over-
turn, tho' defeated, forced to abandon, or to correct, every
measure he has hitherto attempted.

He must continue to support and extend prerogative, or he
will be sacrificed by the King. If his abilities prove equal to
the task of enlarging the power of the Crown, he will have the
glory of being an able Minister at the most premature age, but
instead of being remembered, like his father, for glorious services,
he will be contrasted with him, and paralleled with Cardinal
Richelieu.

From this slight view or sketch, it is obvious that every
disgrace and misfortune that has fallen on the King has pro-
ceeded from only those Ministers whom he himself approved.

60 H. WALPOLE'S MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. [1779

By removing Lord Chatham, Lord Bute was enabled to strike
up the shameful Peace of Paris, which saved France and enabled
her to support the Americans. By the compliance of Lord
North, war was made on America. By the courtly treachery of
•Lord Shelburne, the American Royalists were abandoned ; and
by Pitt's ambition, Mr. Fox's India Bill was prevented, which
France regarded as the most fatal blow she could receive. By
Mr. Pitt's dread of a Reform of Parliament in Ireland, his eleven
propositions were conceived, which are likely to divest the King
of his sovereignty over Ireland, almost as much as he has lost
it over America.

Upon the whole, both the Crown and Great Britain have lost
their dearest interests by the King's ambition of extending his
prerogative. He has sunk to be a little Prince in Europe ; and
the loss of dominions and credit will be ill compensated to his
successors by any domestic jewels he may ravish from the Con-
stitution. When Louis XL, the most detested of the French
monarchs, placed the Crown hors de page, he at the same time
extended the bounds of his empire ; and if he was an odious
tyrant, was at least not a contemptible politician.

June 14; 1785.

I have extreme contempt for an anonymous writer, who
betrays consciousness of guilt by concealing himself, and who
has been so foolish as to take ridiculous pains to verify what I
never denied, and so mean as to ascertain my handwriting and
disguise his own. He shows a willingness to stab in the dark,
but luckily possesses no sharper a weapon than a broom-stick,
with which he has clumsily knocked himself down, to my great
diversion.

LIFE OF RENE OF ANJOU,

KING OF NAPLES.

Feb. 1, 1779.

The courage that would constitute a hero may, if unaccom-
panied by proper symbols, form only a philosopher, in the eye
of common acceptation. Ambition, love of glory, activity, per-
severance, recommend the former. Contempt of danger, indif-
ference to fame, resignation to misfortune, indicate as firm a

1779] LIFE OF REXE OF AXJOU. 61

soul ; but courting, soliciting no applause, are seldom honoured
with the suffrages of the multitude. When boundless humanity,
or even success, crown the temperate hero, he attains the more
amiable titles of philosopher and father of his country, but
is rarely placed amongst the favourites of noisy celebrity.
Marcus Aurelius is scarce known as an intrepid general, for he
fought to protect his country, not to aggrandize himself. Henry
the Fourth of France, as brave as the first Caesar, is more adored
as a man than as a victor, for he sheathed the sword the moment
he had conquered in a just cause.

Eene of Anjou, of whom history has recorded no symptom of
want of courage, and on whom his subjects conferred the most
desirable of all appellations, the Good, from the dawn to the
conclusion of a long reign; having lost splendid crowns, and
retaining only a province, with which he had the wisdom to be
contented, has been distinguished by no panegyrics, and is rather
considered as a pusillanimous prince, who submitted to reverses,
and who, without struggling against impossibilities, preferred
his ease, his pleasures, his amusements, and (it should be re-
membered) the happiness of his remaining subjects, to the
tormenting efforts of disappointed and unsatisfied ambition.
He lost crowns, he lost his son, he saw his daughter dethroned, —
but he never lost his temper. His people, his wives, his mis-
tresses, his natural children, his muse, his pencil, nay, the
institution of festivals, and the laws of heraldry, consoled him
for the more painful duties of royalty that were torn from him,
but not till he had bravely defended them ; and unlike hun-
dreds of trifling monarchs, he sank not into an inglorious prince
till he had deserved to be a puissant and illustrious one. That
mind is noble, which, like Scipios', can sport with pebbles on the
shore after demolishing Carthage, or that, like Kene's, can adjust
the ceremonial of tournaments after losing battles and sceptres.
Never to forget the pomp of triumph nor the sting of defeat, is
the symptom of pride, or of obstinacy, or of conscious shame.
The true hero is satisfied with having served his country ; the
true philosopher with having done his duty. Their minds are
then at leisure to be private men : 'and to be able to trifle is to
prove that they are sincere.

62 H. WALPOLE'S MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

Letter to Mr. H. S. Wood/all.

gIEj — Strolling by chance lately into a public house, the
landlord showed me the following lines, with which he was
much transported, and wished to get them set to music. They
were written by an apprentice who frequents his house, and
whom mine host extolled above Churchill and Falstaff, the
latter of whom he takes for a poet. As there is something very
original in this little piece — at least genuine strokes of nature
— I thought it might not be unacceptable to many of your
readers.

Yours, J. Gr.

THE JOYS OF SPKING.
A new song.

Returned is the spring,
And the nightingales sing :

My Phillis and I

To the country will hie,
Where we'll revel and love,
Like the blackbird and dove.
Nature calls us abroad,
And on one side the road,

At the Saracen's head
In a snug little arbour a napkin is spread.

Charming scenes !

Peas and beans !

Union of hearts,

And gooseberry tarts !

On cool tankard and cyder and cream we regale,
And mix kisses and squeezes with cakes and ale :
Till with Bacchus and Cupid at length overcome,
We trudge home and all night sleep as sound as a drum.

In joys like these O ! let me live,
Which rural life alone can give.
Nor ambition nor riches intrigue us :
The Golden Age
Contents the sage :
His highest view
But reaches to
His Phillis, a haycock, and negus.

1758] DRYDEN AND POPE. 63

In Wright's original ' Theory of the Universe,' are the follow-
ing lines, quoted by accident from Dryden and Pope : —

Had we still paid that homage to a name,

Which only God and Nature justly claim ;

The western seas had been our utmost bound,

Where poets still might dream the sun was drown'd ;

And all the stars that shine in southern skies

Had been admired by none but savage eyes. — Dryden.

He who through vast immensity can pierce,

See worlds on worlds compose one universe,

Observe how system into system runs,

What other planets and what other suns,

What varied Being peoples every star,

May tell why Heaven made all things as they are. — Pope.

The comparison of these lines shows that Dryden was a poet
by nature, Pope by art. Dryden might have said in prose
what he has said in rhyme, and yet there would have been
harmony in his numbers. In the five first lines of Pope there
is fine poetry, but no mortal could have spoken so in prose.
The sixth line is mere prose, with no harmony at all. Dryden's
thoughts, tho' expressed in common words, fell into music.
Pope was forced to use transposition and less common words
to prevent his thoughts from appearing in prose.

Letter and Verses to the Honourable H. Conway.

February, 1758.

I am this minute arrived, and going to dine at Brand's. I
will come to you afterwards, before I go to North House. In
the meantime I send you a most hasty performance, literally
conceived and executed between Hammersmith and Hyde Park
Corner. The Lord knows if it is not sad stuff. I wish for the
sake of the subject it were better!

When Fontenoy's impurpled plain
Shall vanish from th' historic page,

Thy youthful valour shall in vain

Have taught the Gaul to shun thy rage.

H. TTALPOLE'S MISCELLANEOUS PIECES.

When hostile squadrons round thee stood
On Laffelt's unsuccessful field,

Thy captive sabre, drench'd in blood,
The Taunting victor's triumph seaTd.

Forgot be these! Let Scotland, too,
Culloden from her annals tear,

Lest Envy and her factious crew

nhmiH sigh to meet thy laurels there.

When each fair deed is thus defac'd,
A thousand virtues, too, disgiuVd,

Thy grateful country* s voice shall haste
To censure worth 30 little priz'd.

Thou, patient, hear the thunder roll,
Pity the blind you cannot hate ;

Nor, blest with Aristides" soul,
Repine at Aristides* fate.

The following passageT with its accompanying verses,
are afl in Lord OrforxTs handwriting, though not signed
l>v him : —

•f

Lord BoKngbroke wrote these lines of Maynard, at his house
of La Source in France : —

La» d'espeia- et de me pbrindre

and rnnipLnnmj,
Of longs tbat ragn or sboold be reignia^,
Without m wiA I wsrit demih hoB—
And, as Fm afc^ wit &oai a fear.

Ofreid Wood, and trahor in Ins bent,
Bat fenr'd by infra* to the wiaer part,
Indian^U be rfrift* be principle*, thai bum
To ap tbe laws be could not overturn.
Bat Natne planting coward in bis sooi,
To XortomT* bands be traste the pouoo'd bowl;
Content hum EnghnTs fidl to coont MBgnan^
Wbetber a Branmrie or s Stnrt ie%M.

70 ^TL^-TH^H: Z*1I_ r '"•

To all the readers of Horace Walpole's letters the
name of Thomas Kirwate is most familiar. He was often
the humble instrument of communication, between his
employer and his numerous correspondents, and gave to
the world the fruits of the well-known Strawberry Hill
Press ; but whether from carelessness, or from an inade-
quate idea of his necessities, it seems to be a melancholy
feet that he was not sufficiently provided for by wOl;
and the ' Printer's Farewell ' carries with it a touching
reproof that thirty years' service was not better remem-
bered. He died in 1820.

THE PRINTER'S FAREWELL TO STRAWBERRY

Adieu! re giores and Gothic txnr is,
Whew I ••••••£ My yoBMral boon,

Alas! InBdiBTaia*:
SMB he who coold BIT age protect,

Fix left BM to eomhon !

For thirty Teara at

To Mat •Bckaif}* reward at feat,

Hat added to aj !••;
To <pdt the quiet scenes of fife,

Farewell f my pnDtxnf-howe. CnvwcD !
Where I BO man shall eahvhr dvefl,
WiAia BIT peacefid door:

Enjoj BIT fixnd and ap anr tea ;
Ah! BO; those days are o'er.

OB Aee, BW feflow-lab «r dear,
XT Pms, f drop the alert tear

T. K.

For than, like me, bj aaw art won,
Like BM, too, tho« art kftakkEB,

VOL. IL

66 MISCELLANEOUS LETTEES. [1798

MISCELLANEOUS LETTEES.

1798.

ENTEY.

' MES. D. and Lady Ailesbury settle at Strawberry Hill.
Become acquainted with Mrs. Howe.' *

In the month of January Miss Berry received a letter
from their friend Mr. Brand. j* After announcing his
marriage to Miss Deborah Wharton, daughter of Dr. W.,
of Old Park, Durham, he adds : —

Lady Ossory, to alleviate my confinement in a very bad cold,
has treated me with Lord Orford's letters to her, tho' in a very
mutilated transcript, and desired my opinion about their publi-
cation. I advised that they should be kept in the family as
an invaluable treasure rather than be published in this manner,
but thought many of them so well written and so interesting at
the present moment (some from Paris especially), that I could
not help wishing to see them printed in Mr. Berry's collection.
I was glad to find afterwards that Lord Ossory and most of her
friends were against publishing the collection as it stood. I
am to dine there on Wednesday and to bring you a message
when I come to town. The message, I guess, may be the offer
of some of the letters. Can I be of any service in this business

* The Honourable Caroline Howe, married John Howe of Branslop, Bucks;
died June 1814, in her ninety-third year. She possessed an extraordinary
force of mind, clearness of understanding, and remarkable powers of thought
and combination. She retained these faculties unimpaired to the great age
of eighty-five, by exercising them daily, both in the practice of mathematics
and in reading the two dead languages, of which late in life she had made
herself mistress. To these acquirements must be added warm and lively
feelings joined to a perfect knowledge of the world, and of the society of
which she had always been a distinguished member. — M.S.

t Vide Journal of 1784.

1798] LETTER FROM SIR U. PRICE. 67

by giving any preparatory hint ? Is there any particular period
of his correspondence you would like to have ? any chasm to
fill up?

Miss Berry commences her reply by wishing that
' printer ' and ' proof sheets ' had left her that day a little
more time to express her feelings on the approaching
event.

Thank you much (she continues) for your information con-
cerning Lady Ossory. When you come to town I shall make
you laugh at her ever intending to publish anything after her
declarations on the subject. Be the bearer of any message from
her to us, and receive any letters she gives you for us. But we
have none to ask for, and none to want, and no chasm to fill.
Our volume will already, I find, be such a thumper, that unless
I subtract some from those already in hand I can add none.

Two thick volumes of these letters have since been
given to the public, by Mr. Vernon Smith,* and have
recently been incorporated, under the editorship of Mr.
P. Cunningham, into a new edition of Horace Walpole's
Letters.

Miss Berry omitted, in her little entry for this year, a
visit to Malvern, to which the following letter alludes
from Sir Uvedale Price ; f a letter truly characteristic of
the great lover of the picturesque : —

Foxley, August 29, 1798.

It is impossible to say how much I have been vexed and
disappointed. I had got off my engagement for Monday though

* Now Lord Lyveden.

t Sir Uvedale Price, of Foxley, co. Herefordshire, was the author of the
' Translation from the Greek of the Account of Pausanias of the Statues,
Pictures, and Temples of Greece,' published 1780, 'Essay on the Pic-
turesque,' 1794, and of other minor works; also of a 'Dialogue on the
Distinct Character of the Picturesque and the Beautiful,' in answer to the
objections of Mr. Payne Knight, published 1801. Sir Uvedale was born in
1747 ; married to Caroline, fourth daughter of George, first Earl of Tyr-
connel, created Bart. 1828, died 1829.

ri

68 MISCELLANEOUS LETTEES. [1798

with some difficulty, as there was a haunch of venison that
would not hear of being kept. I had ordered my horses to be
ready, and myself to be called before daybreak on Sunday, all
which was most punctually performed ; the morning was such
as there is no speaking of but in poetry —

Piu bell' aurora, piu lieto di
Dal' sen' del' onde mai non usci.

But I rose very unlike the morning, with a violent headache
and shiverings — in short, quite unable to go. So after looking
wishfully at the Malvern Hills, which are on view from my
window, I at last shut out the day and did not exercise the
Christian virtues of patience and resignation. I hope my
recording angel (I conclude there is more than one to the
planet, or he has no sinecure) did not set down all my fretting
and pining, but considered how severe the trial was. I never
promised myself so much pleasure in any expedition ; I had
planned a ride across a tract of country I had never been
through, parts of which I know must be full of beauties from
the general view of it from the Malverns, for it is a country
full of small knolls and swellings covered with wood, and in
the sheltered parts between them there are a number of fine
hop yards, and this is just the beginning of hop -pulling; then,
to crown all, at the end of this pleasant ride I was to find you
at Malvern. I was particularly glad to hear that you were to
be at Malvern village, and not at the wells, for I have such a
horror for that staring red house and staring view from it, that
nothing less than the pleasure of your society would tempt me
to stay there. Now, on the other hand, I am delighted with the
view from the inn, for the rich tower of the church rises finely
above the horizon, and most happily breaks the extensive dis-
tance, which is thrown off and enriched by the battlements of
the body of the church ; and though the face of Worcestershire
is not by any means so varied as our side of the hills, yet when
viewed from Malvern, it has the material advantage of receiving
the full effect of the evening lights. I am very apt to consider,
wherever I happen to be, what would be the best situation for a
house in respect to the view from it, and I found no spot in Mal-
vern, where all the objects were so happily combined as the inn.
Not only the church, but the old archway, the parsonage covered

1798] MISS BERRY TO MR. GREATHEAD. 69

with jasmin, the churchyard, the path through it, the cottage at
the end, form a very lucky composition of foreground and dis-
tances. All this, and many parts about Malvern, I was very
desirous of seeing with you, for I have never had the pleasure
of being with you amidst any striking scenery, though we have
talked upon the subject. I had hoped for one of those days
that are passed with delight and always recollected with pleasure,
but it seems to have been ecrit la haut that we should not
meet this time. I remember having received a letter from a
devout old German, who was chef de cuisine to Lord Barrington,
in which he told me that he was very happy to have been the
instrument, under Providence, of procuring me a good cook. I
beg you will present my best compliments to Mr. Berry and
your sister.

I am, dear Madam,
Most sincerely and faithfully yours,

U. PRICE.
General Fitzpatrick desires his best compliments.

Some extracts of Miss Berry's correspondence with
different friends, and some reflections on the different
books she had been reading, close the remains of this
year.

To Mr. Greathead.

Little Strawberry Hill, August 2, 1798.

The torments of an evil conscience I can bear no longer, and
therefore write to you I must. If I hated writing ten times
more than I do, I am sure fifty letters would have been less
pain and trouble to me than what I have felt for never having
written to you at all, whenever you came into my thoughts,
which has been much oftener than I wished, I assure you. This
time twelvemonth I fully thought and hoped that, instead of
now corresponding by letters, we should have been together at
Pyrnant. Lady Tancred's accounts were by no means inviting,
tho' I made due allowance for a traveller whose peregrinations
for several years before had been confined to the road between
London and Ramsgate — never, I think, exceeded a trip to Paris
in the halcyon days of French despotism. Most thoroughly do
I begin to feel the want of that shake out of English ways,

70 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS. [1798

English whims, and English prejudices, which nothing but
leaving England gives one. After a residence of four or five
years we all begin to forget the existence of the continent of
Europe, till we touch it again with our feet. The whole world
to me, that is to say the whole circle of my ideas, begins to be
confined between N. Audley-street and Twickenham. I know
no great men but Pitt and Fox, no king and queen but George
and Charlotte, no towns but London. All the other cities, and
courts, and great men of the world may be very good sort of
places and of people, for aught we know or care ; except they
are coming to invade us, we think no more of them than of the
inhabitants of another planet. We should like, indeed, just to
know what is become of Buonaparte, because we are afraid of
our settlements in India, and because we are all great news-
mongers and politicians, tho' more ignorant, more incapable of
any general view upon those subjects, than any other people
with whom I ever conversed (the French of ten years ago only
excepted). Well, that I may not quite grow to the spot on
which you left me last August, I am going to begin my travels
on Tuesday next. My sister, as she could not go to Pyrnant,
was obliged to go to Cheltenham, from whence my father and I

are going to fetch her home.

#***»**

I am anxious to hear if Bertie has yet met with Matilda
Pottingen, and if he writes odes upon her in the style of
Ruggiero. I know Lysons sent you the Anti-Jacobin, and, in
spite of its title, I am sure you would be diverted with the
excellent laughable criticism upon German plays — such, I mean,
as we ignoramus's see them through the medium of bad trans-
lations. Lysons I have heard of at Cheltenham, and likewise
of Mrs. Siddons, who has been acting there. I improved my
acquaintance with her last winter, and I need not tell you how
much she gains by being known. She read * Hamlet ' to us one
evening, in N. Audley-street, which was to me a great treat.

To Bertie Greathead, Esq., at Gottingen.

To the Honourable Mrs. Darner.

Cheltenham, August, 1798.

This place and everything about it recalls, in the most lively
manner, scenes and recollections to my mind, which, tho' me] an-

1798] FEOM MISS BEERY. 71

choly, I cannot call unpleasing. They are, thank Heaven ! un-
embittered by reproach, and undisgraced by folly. My imagi-
nation seems to pass over everything that has happened since,
and to bring me back to the calm but lively enjoyment of a
society in which I delighted.

To the Same.

Brandsby, Oct. 1798.

I have not said a word to you of our glorious victory,* but
you do not suspect me of not feeling it. Do you participate in
some other less agreeable feelings which to me accompany this
and every other success in that quarter ? When I think (that
under other circumstances) we might have been so much nearer
the scene of action, and among the first to receive and con-
gratulate the gallant conquerors ! How much more appropriate
to our minds, interesting to our feelings, and gratifying to our
vanity, in spite of all the privations with which such a situation
might seem to have been accompanied, than anything we are or
have been doing.

Brandsby, Oct. 1798.

I rejoice to hear you say that all you have felt on our late
glorious victories, convinces you that active scenes are no less
gratifying than ever to your mind, and that they have roused
that latent spark of heroism which I know, and which you know
yourself, exists in your composition. I have sometimes feared
lest the narrow circle to which you have confined yourself, and
the sort of life which circumstances have combined to make
you lead, for these last four or five years, should contract, not
your sentiments or ideas, but your powers of acting in and en-
joying more animating, active, and interesting passages of life,
into which it would be your ambition, as it would be mine, to
carry a mind as philosophic and sedate, as ever we enjoyed
in our own gardens. For my part, I think the magnitude of
objects would render easy all the difficulties, sufferings, and
exertions for their attainment, and even considerably soften the

* The battle of the Nile was fought August 1, 1798. The despatch an-
nouncing the victory was dated August 3, and it appeared in the London
Gazette Oct. 2. A length of time between the event and its announcement,
that seems somewhat strange to those who have lived since the invention of
steam navigation and electric telegraphs.

72 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS. [1798

disappointment of a failure. The magnis tamen exddit ausis
must, I think, have been a great comfort even to poor Phaeton.

To the Same.

Brand-iby, Oct. 1798.

Do you know that I have been working as hard at Greek for
this week past as you could possibly desire ? The parson who I
mentioned in my last, stayed till yesterday. He is a very good
scholar, and has been much in the habit of teaching. He cor-
rected a piece of Isocrates which I had done by myself, and then
read on with me in the same oration, and whilst he was here I
translated above two pages more, writing them down, I mean,
and all the verbs and their parts in the opposite page, in our
own way, you know. This young man's pertinacity about the
use of accents would have provoked you ; it diverted me, who
was too weak and too ignorant an opponent to attempt their
defence. I find that about six months' regular tho' moderate
study would really make me a sufficient Grecian for my purpose,
that of mere enjoyment, and that six months I am determined
(as much as I can determine anything) shall be next winter, if
I can possibly find an assistant.

Extract of a Letter from Miss Berry to a Friend.

Little Strawberry, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 1798.

. . . . I have been as busy as a bee in my garden and
greenhouse, to which I always return with new pleasure and
satisfaction, convinced that when once one likes and enters into
it, it is one of the very best sources of interest and amusement ;
there is nothing that so agreeably fatigues the body and rests

the mind As soon as I have got my work under

a little in the garden, I mean to set seriously into Greek, and
to finish Wraxall and many other books I have in my eye ; by-
the-bye, don't let me forget to advise you to read the * Natural
Son,' or * Lovers' Vows ; ' it is the entire and literal translation
of the play which is now acting with such success at Covent
Garden,* but not as it is acted ; you can get it at Todd's, where
I did, to read in the chaise. I think it quite charming, and it

* ' Lovers' Vows.' Play in five Acts, translated and adapted to the En-
glish stage by Mr. Richard Cumberland, from the German of Kotzebue.

1798] FEOM MISS BERRY. 73

affected me much, tho' not of the black and dreadful school of
Schiller. You must allow for German manners and for the (at
all times) sad disguise of a translation. I find people of taste
in general disapprove of it as acted, tho' they own it affecting.
This I can readily believe to be just, for I should conceive it
very difficult to adjust to an English audience. We all re-
gretted its not being acted while we were in town. Another
book which I purchased at Todd's and read in my chaise was
the ' Essay on Population ' * which Mr. Wrangham left with you.
It is uncommonly clearly thought and written, and contains
much curious and uncontrovertible reasoning on the subject in
question.

Extract from a Letter to the Same.

Little Strawberry, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 1798.

I think, by way of filling up my cover, I shall send you a
letter of Edwards', written in answer to some inquiries I had
made about the event of his friend Johnstone's trial. You will
see how rationally and liberally Edwards owns Government here
to have been in the right, and you will see that Attorney-
Generals are not always so much in the wrong as you are
inclined to think them. As to poor Tone's f case, I think judge,

* Thos. Robt. Malthus, born 1766 ; published in 1798 his ' Essay on
Population.' A few years later he was appointed Professor of Political
Economy at the East India Company's College at Heyleybury, a post which
he retained till his death, in 1834. He was the author of several works on
political economy, and was one of the founders of the Political Economy
Club, and the Statistical Society. — Imperial Dictionary of Universal Bio-
yraphy.

•f Theobald Wolfe Tone, born at Dublin in about 1763, called to the bar
1789, became a political writer, and, though himself a Protestant, was the
founder of a club called the ' United Irishmen.' He was finally taken pri-
soner in the act of returning with the French invading squadron, in which
he had accepted a commission. He was brought to Dublin and tried by a
court-martial : he prayed the Court to sentence him to be shot. This
request was denied him, and he was ordered to be executed, but the night
preceding that of his intended execution he contrived to inflict a dangerous
wound on his own throat. The next morning Mr. Curran applied to the
Court of King's Bench for a writ of Habeas Corpus to bring up the body
of Mr. Tone upon the ground ' that courts-martial had no jurisdiction upon
subjects not in the service of His Majesty during the sitting of the Court
of King's Bench.' The Chief Justice, Lord Kilwarden, ordered a writ to
be made out immediately, but Mr. Tone was not in a condition to be moved.

74 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS. [1798

jury and accusers, and friends, all seem to be equally Irish mad,
and nobody to have common sense but the poor unhappy
prisoner, who, I heartily hope, will never live to be tormented
with a new trial.

Little Strawberry, Tuesday, Dec. 14, 798.

. . . During my illness I have finished the 2nd vol. of Wrax-
all which I had just begun at Brandsby, and which I like better
and better the farther I go. I have consulted, too, one of his
authorities for many things in the age of Henry the Third,
Montaigne's Essays, a very curious and an astonishing book,
considering the times in which it was written, and which one
never consults without entertainment. I have reread, too, Con-
dorcet's book,* and compared his ideas and arguments on the
subject of population with those of the Essay we have been
reading, and certainly the Essay has not only the best of the
argument (upon these points) in a philosophical light, but is
absolute conviction on the subject of the different ratios in
which population, and the means of subsisting that population,
increase. . . .

That Miss Berry should have read with interest such a
work as Malthus's essay on the ' Principle of Population,'
that it should have confirmed her own unassisted ideas
on such a subject, and that she should have felt that she
coincided with the reasoning of such an author, is no
small proof that her mind was considerably in advance,
not only of other women, but of the majority of the men
of that day.

I cannot but feel flattered at finding my own unassisted ideas
upon subjects of philosophical politics and national economy
confirmed by those of some of the most enlightened authors. A
pleasure of this sort I have lately received in reading Malthus's
Essay on the Principle of Population,— his ideas on the rela-
tive greatness of two countries, the one deriving its wealth

The execution was suspended, and on the 19th he died in prison from the
effects of his self-inflicted wound. — Annual Register.

* Mr. Malthus refers to M. Condorcet's ' Esquisse d'un Tableau Historique
des Progres de 1'Esprit Humain ' in his l Essay on the Principle of Popu-
lation.'

1798] MALTHUS OX POPULATION. 75

principally from trade and manufactures, and the other from
agriculture — upon the high price of labour materially checking
our foreign dealings — his assumption that high duties and pro-
hibitions on foreign produce and foreign commodities is neither
more nor less than giving a bounty to our own manufactures,
and thereby depressing and turning away attention and capital
from agriculture.

All these ideas I have long entertained, in all his reasonings
on them I perfectly coincide with him ; and, if I may be
allowed to go on a little farther by myself, not without hopes
of finding these further ideas also confirmed, in future, by some
better head than my own, possessed of more data, and having
that practical acquaintance with details of which I must neces-
sarily be ignorant ; I would say, then, that I can see no pos-
sible objection (in theory at least) to a country, under the
peculiar circumstances that ours happens to be, receiving all
the produce and all the manufactures of all the countries in
Europe without any particular restriction or higher duties on
the one than on the other. We are allowed on all hands to
have risen to a perfection of machinery in our own manufac-
tures hitherto unrivalled, and which allows us, in spite of the
present high price of labour and of provisions, to undersell
others in the foreign markets.

Our manufactures, in time of peace, certainly employ as many
hands and as much of the capital (as the economists call it) of
the country, not to say more than can be properly spared from
agriculture and its improvements necessary to the welfare of the
state.

Under these circumstances, what possible harm could accrue
to us from receiving, for instance (and it is certainly the
strongest instance that can be cited), the wines and silks of
France at the same regular and moderate duties at which we
should receive the produce of what are now called the most
favoured nations ?

Can anybody suppose, while we continue to possess superior
habits of industry and commercial confidence, that we need
dread a competition with France, while we have hardware of all
sorts, collars and muslins, articles of much more general and
necessary use than wine and silks, to bring to their market, and
those of every other quarter of the world ?

76 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS. [1798

Our allowing an open and fair competition, which surely
we could have no reason to dread, would, in the first place,
remove that odium under which we too surely lay with all
Europe for a spirit of mercantile tyranny and monopoly ; and,
at all events, it would gently let us down to our own level (a
very high one it must always be) in the scale of commercial
nations — it would weaken the blow that our fictitious and
unnatural commercial wealth will unavoidably receive, and
enable us to bear it without any violent convulsion either of
public prosperity or of private happiness, by turning more of
the capital of the State to the support and increase of the agri-
cultural system — the only solid basis of commercial prosperity.

But on this subject, as on many others, a few simple, funda-
mental, immutable principles are so involved in the complex
systems which are built upon them, that by the generality of
mankind — nay, even by the reasoning part of mankind — they are
utterly forgotten, and by few indeed received to suffice really.

Thus all possible systems of political economy, and of com-
mercial or agricultural success, and of national prosperity, must
all necessarily be founded on a few simple principles, which, like
the truths on which rest the first principles both of reasoning
and of mathematics, will, at first sight, appear so self-evident
as to make demonstration superfluous ; while the farther we
advance, the more we perceive how often they require to be
impressed on our minds ; and that error can only be avoided by
frequently rallying our wandering thoughts to the standard of
their immutability.

These principles in political economy may be thus stated : —

1st. That man cannot live without food ; consequently, that
no greater number of people can possibly be made to exist than
there is the means of maintaining ; or, in other words, that no
power can make the population exceed the means of sub-
sistence.

2nd. That man will feed himself before his neighbour ; con-
sequently, that the nation which gets from others the means of
subsistence, instead of having wherewithal within itself, will be
the first to starve ; or, in other words, that the nation which
habitually imports instead of exporting corn will be subject to
severe scarcities.

3rd. That in plenty, what remains to man at the end of the

1798] TO MRS. CHOLMELEY. 77

year, after he has fed himself, is the only possible fund he can
have, either for raising a greater quantity of food next year, or
for keeping himself idle and making others work for him ; or,
in other words, that the surplus produce of agriculture and of
labour is the only possible fund and support for commercial
prosperity.

By the test of these few simple principles, all systems what-
soever, to whom related or by whom begot, must be tried ; and
no apparent contradictions to them in the circumstances, past
or present, of any of the States of Europe, can diminish one
jot from their immutability.

Extract from a letter to Mrs. Cholmeley.

Little Strawb., Tuesday, Dec. 11, 1798.

... On the evening of Friday we went to the play at Covent
Garden. Saw ' Lovers' Vows,' and a new farce called * The
Jew and the Doctor,' * which has more real laughable fun in it,
more plot, and certainly more good writing, than any comedy I
have seen or heard of for this age : as a farce, it certainly is
quite admirable, and, I dare say, will always maintain its place
upon the stage. It is said to be the first production of young
Dibdin, son to the man who writes the songs and exhibits
some sort of an entertainment to the public under the name
of the Sans-Souci. ' Lovers' Vows ' disappointed me. The ne-
cessary curtailments which have been made from the German
' Natural Son,' to avoid des longueurs, and to suit it in some
degree to our manners upon the stage, destroy the effect of
many situations and sentiments, by having in a great degree
taken away their efficient, or at least sufficient cause, and con-
sequently making them appear awkward or misplaced, or more
or less than enough to the minds of the spectators : in short,
a good play must ever be a whole from which it is quite im-
possible to take out a bit here and put in a bit there without
disfiguring and degrading the original, even when that original
would not succeed in representation, as is certainly the case

* 'The Jew and the Doctor' was first performed at the Maidstone
Theatre, and afterwards at Covent Garden. Mr. Dibdin says, ' though not
produced in that order it was hia first? — Vide advertisement to 'Jew and
Doctor/ in Mrs. Inclibald'a Collection of Farces.

78 MISCELLANEOUS LETTEES. [1798

with the ' Natural Son,' as I read it, closely translated from the
original. . . .

Roscoe* has just sent us a poem of his translation from an
Italian poet whose very name was unknown to my very shallow
Italian erudition, f It is called ' The Nurse,' from * La Babia '
of Luigi Tansillo. I have read it over, tho' not yet with suffi-
cient attention ; but I am disappointed in it, because I expect
nothing but what is excellent from his pen.J The subject,
which is reprobating hired nurses and exhorting all women to
suckle their own children, does not do in English verse, tho' the
Ariosto-like familiarity and simplicity of the original, makes it
pretty in the inimitable beauty of the Italian language. The
subject, too, never to the eye of reason and nature can admit
of an argument, and therefore is a repetition of the same idea.
I mean, that it never can admit of anything but a physical
argument from some peculiar defect or infirmity of the mother,
which does not and cannot do in poetry. The poem is pub-
lished, beautifully printed, with the Italian on the opposite
page ; it is not long, and you can no doubt get it at York.

* William Roscoe, born at Liverpool, 1753. His father kept a public-
house, and also carried on the business of a market-gardener. In 1774
William Roscoe became an attorney of the Court of King's Bench ; in 1784
he was elected Member of the Manchester Literary and Philosophical
Society. He first appeared as an author in 1796 ; he wrote the ' Life of
Lorenzo de' Medici,' ' Life of Leo X.,' &c. &c. In 1816 he was elected
M.P. for Liverpool. The Royal Institution of Liverpool owes its origin to
him. Died in 1831, in his seventy-ninth year.

t Tansillo, an Italian poet of no great merit. ' La Babia,' published 1767 ;
Roscoe's translation, published 1798. — Watts' 's Dictionary.

| ' Mr. Roscoe is happy in an opportunity of paying his respects to the
Miss Berrys, and requesting their acceptance of a copy of " The Nurse,"
translated from the Italian of Luigi Tansillo. He is well aware how much
his translation will suffer in the estimation of persons so fully acquainted
with the Italian language by a comparison with the original, which pos-
sesses a degree of simplicity wholly unattainable — at least by the present
translator : besides which, they will perceive numerous omissions and
variations, the reasons of some of which will be sufficiently obvious. It
would afford Mr. R. great pleasure if he could fatter himself that this trifling
production could afford Miss Berrys any amusement ; and should any error
or impropriety occur to them on its perusal, he shall esteem* himself highly
obliged by their noticing it to him whenever their leisure will permit. Mr. R.
incloses another copy, which he requests Miss Berrys will take the trouble
of sending to the Hon. Mrs. Darner, with his best respects.
' Birchfield, Dec. 3, 1798.'

1798] TO MRS. CHOLMELEY. 79

To the Same.

Little Strawb., Monday, Dec. 24, 1798.

. . . You will see in to-day's paper the confirmation of the
capture of Minorca,* which I fancy is really of very consider-
able importance towards maintaining our present superiority in
the Mediterranean. Mrs. Charles Stuart may now, instead of
* tearing her hair for her general's departure,' go to him at
Minorca, of which he is made governor. . . . The Union with
Ireland may most truly be called the Irish Union, for it seems
likely totally to disunite the two countries. Wrong heads,
either individually or nationally, are, to be sure, the d — 1 to deal
with ! The Union with Scotland (from which she has to date
the most rapid improvement and prosperity which ever took
place in a country) was opposed with hardly less violence by
the pride and prejudices of the Scotch ; but the Scotchman will
always ultimately submit both his pride and his prejudices to
his interest, and has the sense to see what that interest is ; which
latter sense I can by no means allow to the Irish, after their
seriously planning to set themselves up, in the present state of
Europe, as an independent republic under the protection of
the French ! You will think me growing ministerial: nothing
less, I can assure you. We have behaved like brutes and like
fools to Ireland ; but now they are behaving like brutes and
fools to themselves ; for I feel convinced that a union with this
country would be the making of Ireland, tho' I by no means
think it likely to be a great advantage to England : the balance
must always be in favour of the poorer country admitted to
participate in all the commerce and commercial undertakings
of the richer one. I am told there is in Somerville's ' Queen
Anne ' a very curious and detailed account of all the opposition
made to, and all the arguments pro and con the Union with
Scotland. I have not yet come to it. What signifies if the
idle Irish lords should all come over and live here ? — their estates

* In the { Gazette ' of Dec. 24th is the despatch addressed to the Right
Hon. Henry Dundas, and signed ' Chas. Stuart,' giving an account of this
event, beginning — ' I have the honour to acquaint you that His Majesty's
forces are in possession of the Island of Minorca, without having sustained
the loss of a single man.' — Annual Register.

80 MISCELLANEOUS LETTEES. [1798

would very soon be bought by great linen-weavers and other
manufacturers, as all the little Scotch lairds' estates have been
bought by people having made commercial fortunes, and able
and willing to lay out a great deal of money in ameliorating and
cultivating to the utmost their purchases. My Irish specu-
lations are luckily interrupted by dinner. Farewell !

' Tristram Shandy,' while it diverts, always reminds me of a
Dutch portrait, in which we admire the accurate representation
of all the little disgusting blemishes — the warts, moles, and
hairs — of the human form. Even when he affects us, it is by a
minute detail of little circumstances which all lead to the weak-
nesses, and are often connected with the ridicules, that belong to
our nature; while Eousseau, on the contrary, like the great
masters of the Italian school of painting, gives grace and dignity
to every character he brings forward — choosing to represent
scenes and situations when every ennobling faculty of our
mind is brought into action, and the greatest expression of
passion and character is produced without even losing sight of
decent grace, or presenting anything disgusting to the imagi-
nation.

The one degrades worth, by a thousand little mean circum-
stances that destroy the respect which it ought to inspire ; while
the other consoles frail human nature with the idea that even
great failings are redeemable by virtuous exertion.

When I read * Paradise Lost,' I am no more able to conceive
the powers of imagination and genius exerted by Milton in the
composition of that poem, than I am able to conceive the in-
tellect of Sir Isaac Newton in the demonstration of the pheno-
mena of the universe. Both seem to me beings more exalted
above myself, in the scale of intellectual perfection, than I am
above the brute creation. Both serve, more than any other
contemplation of nature, to raise and purify my ideas of its
great Author — of that Being who has powers to delegate such
powers ! such emanations of something so purely spiritual ! so
clearly detached from all corporal properties and all animal
analogies !

With gratitude, too, I bow before the Origin of all good for

1798] MILTON'S 'PARADISE LOST.' 81

having placed me in that order of understandings, not disgraced
by the unconsciousness of such perfections, but who, looking
up to them at an incalculable distance, with pride and reve-
rence, as to the brightest ornaments of the nature to which I
belong, am yet capable of being enlightened by the philosophy
of the one, and enraptured by the poetry of the other.

Mr. Knight surprised me much the other day by his sentiments
of Milton's poetry: I mean, of Milton's poetry in his 'Paradise
Lost.' That even the finest parts of that poem, while he ad-
mired them, should rather oppress and sink him, than exalt to
that sort of enthusiasm and rapture, the true end and aim of all
really fine poetry, I cannot understand in a man of his admir-
able taste and classical acquirements. The perfect taste, the
delicacy, the divine purity of all the descriptions of Paradise, of
Adam and Eve — of their happiness, their loves, &c. &c., — he
thinks cold and unanimating, and admires most the descriptions
of Satan, and the diabolic part of the poem.

Here, again, I much wonder at and differ from him. No-
thing indeed can be more impressive, more dignified, grander,
or more consistent, than the character and conduct of Satan and
his compeers throughout ; but I must ever think such a character,
and the conduct and descriptions incident to it, less original,
less infinitely difficult, as to the effect produced by them, than
the exquisite pictures of the undisturbed happiness of Para-
dise and its inhabitants before their fallen state. To represent
scenes which interest, of uninterrupted happiness, without events,
without distress, without incident of any kind, and, above all,
to represent love — the enjoyments of happy, gratified, human
love — without grossness, without satiety, and with a purity
both of thought and of expression, for which he could have
neither prototype nor example, seems to me one of the greatest
possible efforts of the magic powers of true poetry, which may
indeed be said, in the instance of Milton, to have formed a
creation of its own.

VOL. II. G

82 EXTKACTS FROM MISS BERRY'S LETTERS. [1799

EXTEACTS FKOM LETTEES.
1799.

' STRAWBERRY let, at the [no name given] at Twickenham.
We go to Cheltenham to meet the Douglas' and Lady
Spencer. Mrs. D. came to meet us at Malvern.'

It is in the extracts of Miss Berry's letters to her
friend Mrs. Cholmeley that we best trace her occupations
and thoughts during this year.

Jan. 3, 1799.

Thus late with angel grace along the plain
Illustrious Devon led Britannia's train ;
And whilst, by frigid fashion unreprest,
She to chaste transports open'd all her breast,
Joy'd her lov'd babe its playful hands to twine
Round her fair neck, or midst her locks divine j
And from the fount, with every grace imbued,
Drank heavenly nectar, not terrestrial food.
So Venus once, in fragrant bowers above,
Clasp'd to her rosy breast immortal Love,
Transfus'd soft passion through his tingling frame,
The nerve of rapture, and the heart of flame.
Yet not with wanton hopes and fond desires
Her infant's veins the British matron fires ;
But prompts the aim to crown by future worth
The proud pre-eminence of noble birth.

FINIS.

Here are the concluding lines of Eoscoe's poem* which I
promised you. Your opinion of him as a poet may be perfectly
true, for I have never yet had time to read his translations of
Lorenzo, and know nothing of his verses except some little
insignificant trifles; but I can never agree to your idea of
' prettyness ' suiting the Italian language better than English or

* ' The Nurse,' a poem, alluded to in the letter dated Dec. 11, 1798.

1799] ITALIAN LANGUAGE — UNION WITH IRELAND. 83

French. I have ever thought that the only thing to which the
Italian language has been hitherto quite unapt is prettiness,
sentiment, id genus omne, in which the French, by its continued
application to them, so perfectly succeeds. The Italian language,
I am persuaded, is capable of becoming anything ; but hitherto
I think you will find it to have been the language of passion,
not of sentiment. . . .

I rejoice that you have such agreeable accounts from your
boy. You, I trust, will experience the truth of what I have
ever thought — the infinite use, advantage, and service a mother
can be to a son ; advantages and services which, if not neglected
on the one side,. I believe are rarely if ever forgotten or ill
repaid on the other.

Little Strawb., Saturday, Jan. 12, 1799.

. . Somerville's * Anne ' * is, I think, more dry than his
* William,' but clear, distinct, impartial, and wonderfully in-
forming ; his chapters upon the Union with Scotland are par-
ticularly so, and the topics and events of the present day make
them doubly interesting. From the almost rebellious state of
Scotland at the time, from their ridiculous ideas of an indepen-
dent kingdom, and their general aversion and opposition to the
plan, of none of which circumstances I had before at all a just
idea, I assure you I begin to think that, volens nolens, we must
have a Union with Ireland. If their potatoe heads rebel with,
they most certainly will rebel without it, the moment a great
military force leaves the country ; and I really fancy the attempt
at least of a Union is all we have for it to save them from the
merciless fangs of France.

The news from Naples is melancholy beyond expression, and
too plainly shows that the immortal victory of Nelson will only
tend to a still greater and fruitless destruction of the human
race in that devoted country ; while our ignorant ministers and
their pert adherents (ignorant, I mean, of foreign affairs), instead
of sticking to their ships and their sailors, are talking of being
the deliverers and arbitrators of Europe ! ! . . .

* l History of Great Britain during the Reign, of Queen Anne; with a
Dissertation concerning the Danger of the Protestant Succession.' By Thos.
Somerville, D.D., F.R.S., Edinburgh, Minister of Jedburgh. Published
1798. — Watts' s Dictionary.

G'2

84 EXTRACTS FROM MISS BERRY'S LETTERS. [1799

N. Audley Street, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 1799.

. . . I have ever sought in friendship persons I con-
sidered as my superiors in mental endowments; indeed, such
superiority must ever be the first real inducement and only real
foundation for an intimate union to a thinking mind. If I
afterwards found an inferiority in some points, I looked for and
recognised a superiority in others. My very seeking their inti-
macy at all, necessarily supposed these circumstances, this
balanced equality ; but, certainly, the more superior I found
them in judgment, in feelings, in opinions, in taste, the more I
sought, cultivated, and congratulated myself on the conviction ;
the more I took and the less I gave, the more I should have
considered the balance in my favour. . . ..

N. Audley Street, Sunday, Feb. 3, 1799.

. . . . I hope you have read the Irish debates on the
Union. I think you will have found in them much abuse, little
eloquence, and absolutely no argument. I fancy they think
they hold the charter of their constitution and independence
by a bull; for, would you believe it, the first official accounts
misstated the majority of the House of Lords for the minority,
and the mistake went all over London. I myself was shown a
letter by Mathew (Col. Mathew), which, from its handwriting,
and the office manner in which it was drawn up, I am sure
must have come from a clerk of the Parliament, in which this
mistake in computation was regularly stated ! ! Mr. Pitt's speech
on opening the business in the Parl* here, I really think very
good ; tho', in my opinion, some of the strongest arguments in
favour of a Union he hardly touches upon; whether from
thinking the cause too good to want them, or what other reason,
I cannot pretend to say. Sheridan's answer I thought miserable,
I mean in point of argument, and in his first speech he had
got himself fairly into a dilemma, when he first urged the
independence of the Irish Parl., and then its incompetency.
The famous Irish pamphlet in favor of the Union, called Cease
your Funning, which after much trouble I got to read, dis-
appointed me ; it is sharp and well-kept-up irony from beginning
to end, on a pamphlet on the other side, by the Ld Lieut.'s secre-
tary;* but it is not very entertaining, and not at all instructive.

* An official pamphlet by Mr. Cooke, the Irish Under Secretary of State,

1799] WILBERFORCE'S ' PRACTICAL VIEW.' 85

If our ministry open and discuss their plan of Union here, if
that plan is a liberal one, and if they do not now cram it down
the people's throats, but leave it to be considered and taken up
at some more propitious moment, I should suppose they would
do wisely, and therefore I doubt they will not do it.

Here is a long batch of politics for me. I might turn to your
other favorite subject, religion ; for, in compliance with your
request and my own wishes, I have been and am reading with
much attention Mr. Wilberforce's book, and likewise strictures
on it, in a series of letters by Mr. Belsham,* a man who has, I
am told, wrote several good historical tracts. When I have done,
I will tell you sincerely the impression they make upon me : I
can assure you it is a very deep one. My mind, always over
serious, grows every day more so as I approach that middle age
of life, when the prospect of rational beings begins to close in
upon them, and the visionary distance fades from their strength-
ened or weakened sight.

I have not sealed with black wax to you, because I think it
always alarming at a distance ; but I am in mourning for my
uncle (Furguson's) only daughter, who has just died of a con-
sumption at the age of 15, with the courage of a hero and the
resignation of a saint.

N. Audley Street, Tuesday Feb. 19, 1799.

. . . . Your * Practical Education ' f is a title I have long
set down in my pocket-book as of a work to read, which I most
certainly shall at my first leisure minutes. They, I fear, will not
be many, for I am going to go on with my Greek, under a mas-
ter recommended to me by Charles Burney, an English master.
Therefore, you will no longer have reason to be (comically) angry
at my supposed obstinacy about the pronunciation of Greek. I
intend to have him but once a week, that, allowing for my too
frequent interruptions from bad health and necessary idleness, I
may yet be able to work a good deal by myself, without which

entitled ' Arguments for and against the Union considered.' It was widely
circulated, and discussion of the subject encouraged. — Edinburgh Heineic,
April 1859.

* Thomas Belsham, author of ' A Review of Mr. Wilberforce's Practical
View of the Prevailing Religious Systems of Professed Christians,' pub-
lished 1798, and of a variety of other works. — Watts' s Dictionary.

t By Miss Edge worth, published 1798.

86 EXTRACTS FROM MISS BERRY'S LETTERS. [1799

little can be done with all the masters in the world. This will
confine my reading (after I have finished what I am at present
about) principally to what I call reading up to the day : I
mean pamphlets and things of the moment, which one is left in
the basket without. Poor Jerningham has just published a
little thing, which he calls 'a dramatic whim.'* It is not posi-
tively bad in its way, but it is a way that you would not like. It
is a scene and a frolic of Charles 2nd and some of his most dis-
tinguished courtiers at Peckham, where (it seems) he had a
country-house. However, bad or good, I rejoice that a book-
seller has given him 40L for it, without his name to it (which,
indeed, might have done more harm than good). The poor soul
is just now in a distress for which one must pity him, tho' it is
in fact the luckiest thing that could possibly have happened to
him. . . . Mr. Sotheby f sent me his e Battle of the Nile.' £
The subject must ever inspire, however recounted, a degree of
enthusiasm very favourable to the recounter. There seems to
be a number of good lines in his poem, but the conduct of it is
not to me clear ; and the same want of clearness, I think, applies
to some of his verses.

N. Audley Street, Tuesday, March 5, 1799.

. . . On Saturday Mrs. Darner and ourselves dined with
your mother and brother; and yesterday we went with him, at
his own request, to the Great Orleans Pictures which are exhibited
at the Lyceum, in the Strand. It was my second visit. Among
them is the Sebastian del Piombo (a Eesurrection of Lazarus ),§
of whose excellence, if you remember,

He talked so much and long about it,
That e'en believers 'gan to doubt it.

But he could not say too much — I give him credit for all his

* ' Peckham Frolic, or Nell Gwynn/ comedy in three acts.

f William Sotheby, born 1757 ; entered the army, in the 10th Dra-
goons, when engaged in protecting part of the Scottish coasts from the
incursions of Paul Jones. In 1798 he published his translation of ( Oberon.'
He also translated the Georgics of Virgil, and the Iliad and the Odyssey
of Homer. He was also the author of ' Saul Constance of Castile,' &c.
Died 1833. — Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography.

I Published in 1799.

§ Now in the National Gallery.

1799] GREAT ORLEANS PICTURES SOTHEBY'S 'NILE.' 87

admiration ; it is one of the f me pictures in the world — excelling
in grouping, composition, drawing, intellect, clearness, expres-
sion, and all that constitutes the perfections of the higher order
of painting. Mrs. Darner, he, and I stood before it for above
half an hour yesterday thoroughly enjoying it. I am heartily
sorry that you do not see these pictures, for they are by far the
finest — indeed, the only real display of the excellency of the
Italian schools of painting that I ever remember in this country.
And then one sees them so comfortably, for there are fewer
people go to the Lyceum than even to Pall Mall, for the pic-
tures are all of a sort less understood and less tasted here : and
besides, they are without frames ; and besides, the Lyceum is
out of the way ; and besides, it is not near Dyde's and Scribe's,
nor Butler's, nor any of the great haberdashers for the women,
nor Bond St. nor St. James'«St. for the men. . . .

. . . I am well acquainted with Warton's criticism on Pope ;
and tho' it is certainly open to all you say of its wandering
manner, it is as certainly never unentertaining, and, in my
opinion, contains more candid and liberal criticism upon what-
ever may be the object under consideration, more enthusiasm
about genius, and ten thousand times more real taste than in
all the critical writings of the morose and bigoted Johnson.
Whatever recommends Lucretius to your notice, recommends a
source of exquisite pleasure to your poetic mind : his meta-
physics are naught, but his poetry is divine. Virgil shrinks into
prettiness whenever compared with him : but remember he is
supposed to have died the day Virgil was born ; therefore he is
less polished, less uniformly harmonious.

I have got your critique upon Mr. Sotheby's 'Nile,' which
I dare say I shall read with pleasure ; but how can you (except
indeed for a lesson to your boy) — you, who can so translate Gray
and may read Lucretius, and have little time, condescend so to
criticise a minor poet ? . . .

Tuesday morning, March 12, 1799.

. . . I am quite impatient to read the song of the Nile,
and shall certainly get it to-day when I am out ; for, having
resolved to buy, I would not borrow it. I don't know how my
' transports ' may be vis-a-vis des votres, but I believe few
people (with a head as prosaic as mine) read and regard poetry
more in its true intent, as one of the chief consolations and

88 EXTRACTS FROM MISS BERRY'S LETTERS. [1799

ornaments of human life. I always read to be pleased and
interested, to forget myself as long as possible in the charming
regions of imagination, or to rejoice in feeling its mighty powers
giving irresistible energy to the cause of truth and virtue. . . .
. . . Do you remember my speaking to you in high terms
of a series of plays upon the passions of the human mind, which
had been sent to me last winter by the author ? * I talked to
everybody else in the same terms of them at the time, anxiously
enquiring for the author; but nobody knew them, nobody cared
for them, nobody would listen to me ; and at last I unwillingly
held my tongue, for fear it should be supposed that I thought
highly of them only because they had been sent to me. This
winter the first question upon everybody's lips is, ' Have you
read the series of plays ? ' Everybody talks in the raptures (I
always thought they deserved) of the tragedies and of the intro-
duction as of a new and admirable piece of criticism. Sir Gr.
Beaumontjf who was with us yesterday morning, says he never
expected to see such tragedies in his days; andC. Fox, to whom
he had sent them, is in such raptures with them, that he has
written a critique of 5 pages upon the subject to Sir George. I
mention these two as persons of whose taste I, and I believe you
too, have a very decided opinion. I own my little amour-propre
is mortified that, having been honoured with a copy of the work,
my humble tribute of unfeigned admiration and undictated
praise had not reached the author before it is drowned in the
general voice. But, whoever that author is, they still persist in

* Joanna Baillie, daughter of Rev. James Baillie and his wife Dorothea
Hunter, born at the manse at Bothwell, near Glasgow. She was niece of
the great anatomists William and John Hunter, and sister of Dr. Baillie.
In 1798 she published her first volume of plays ; in 1836 she published
three more volumes of dramas ; and at different times several other pieces
of poetry, many exceedingly graceful. Died at Hampstead 1851, in her
89th year. — Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography.

t Sir George H. Beaumont, Bart., born in 1753. His name now stands for
the type of convention in landscape-painting. Married, in 1784, the daugh-
ter of Chief-Justice Willis. He was greatly admired as an actor in private
theatricals; he was a professed painter, as well as professed critic. Had he
been poor, he might have made a second-rate artist. It was principally
owing to Sir George Beaumont's exertions, and to his promise of leaving
his own collection of pictures to the nation, that the erection of a National
Gallery is due. Lord Dover, Lord Aberdeen, and Lord Farnborough were
his first principal supporters in this laudable design. — Imperial Dictionary
of Universal Biography.

1799] THEATRICALS. 89

preserving a strict incognito, for which I honour their honest
pride, which scorns to be indebted to any name for the success
of such a work, and, with the patient sense of real merit, has
quietly waited a whole twelvemonth for the impression it has at
last made on an obdurate public. I fancy one of them will be
acted — the least good one, in my opinion — but there are two fine
characters for Kemble and Mrs. Siddons.* She (Mrs. Siddons)
who was one of a little party we had last night, spoke of them
with a surprise and delight that did honour to her taste. She
(by the bye) was at her very best last night ; had put off the
Catherine, or rather not put it on since her return from Bath,
and sang to us after supper, and was agreeable. . . .

N. Audley Street, Tuesday, March 19, 1799.

. . . I am glad to hear of you at York, and glad to hear of
you at the play. * The Jew and the Doctor,' I felt, must please
you : it has true comic humour, a sufficient degree of intrigue
(which, if not new, is well put together), and is infinitely better
written than any modern comedy that I have seen. A comedy
in five acts appeared last week at Covent Garden by the same
author, which prepossesses one in its favour, but I have neither
seen nor heard any account of it. Apropos to plays, be sure
you read the vol. I mentioned to you in my last. There is now
such a rage for them here among all, the few, people who think
on these subjects, that they even admire the comedy excessively.
Here, I own, my admiration stops; not that there are not many
strokes both of nature and character in it ; the intrigue a com-
mon one, and, I think, none of the characters very interesting.
All this talking and thinking about plays brings my own long-
forgotten into my head, which it had better not, for it always
gives me an itching to do something with it, and it had pro-
bably better be left untouched to my executors. . . .

You, who know the activity of my mind, will be pleased to hear
that I have got a man to pursue Greek with me, recommended

* Sarah Siddons, born 1755. Her father, Roger Kemble, was manager
of a provincial theatre. From an early age she was accustomed to figure on
the stage as one of her father's troup. In 1773 she was married to Mr.
Siddons. She made her first appearance at Drury Lane in 1775, in the
character of Portia. She bade farewell to the stage in 1812; her last
appearance was in the character of Lady Randolph, in 1818. She . died
1831. — Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography.

90 EXTKACTS FROM MISS BEEEY'S LETTERS. [1799

by Dr. Chas. Burney. He is an Englishman, so that I shall soon
lose my foreign accent ; and he has been all his life employed in
teaching, so that one might expect his method to be good. But,
alas ! what a difference I find between his learning and that of
my Greek Petrachi ! The one I feel and see is only a scholar
more advanced than myself in the same study, and unused and
incapable of taking any deep views upon the subject: the
other had fathomed every depth of the language in which he
first began to speak ; and if ever he failed in explanation, it was
only where the accuracy of his ideas went beyond my powers
of perception. However, this man or any other is better than
none, and will prevent, at least, my having the mortification of
thinking that I have thrown away many months' time and some
painful attention, to be left on the threshold of knowing, what
in truth everything both in science and taste refers to, and is
deduced from.

N. Audley Street, Thursday, March 21, 1799.

... I am delighted you like * Basil,' with whom and with his
admirable friend I am in love. Nothing to me can be more
affecting than the end of that play. The great guns of taste,
I find, all prefer the other, except Mr. Fox : I am satisfied while
convenio cum eminentissimo Carpegno. The second tragedy
you will, I think, find very affecting too ; it is going to be acted.
The author, applied to by the means of Cadell, still refuses to
come forward even to receive emolument ; says the piece is before
the public, that the Theatre may do what they please with it,
only desires the simplicity of the plot may not be infringed
upon. Neither fame nor a thousand pounds therefore have
much effect upon this said author's mind, whoever he or she
may be. I say she, because and only because no man could or
would draw such noble, such dignified representations of the
female mind as the Countess Albini* and Jane de Mountfort.f
They often make us clever, captivating, heroic, but never ration-
ally superior. ... I have just received a work in 2 vols. from
H. More, called ' Strictures on the Modern System of Female
Education :' J when I have read it, you shall hear of it.

* Character in ' Basil.'

t Character in l De Montfort,' by Miss J. Baillie.

t Hannah More, born in 1746, a popular writer on moral and religious

1799] HANNAH MORE. 91

Thursday, March 28, 1799.

. . . H. More's book will, I should think, to you supply
everything that you want in Miss E.'s * Practical Education ;'
for this should properly be called, Strictures upon the Educa-
tion of Young Ladies as far as it relates to religion and morality.
There are many excellent details in it, much good sense, and an
infinity of wit, for which last indeed I think all H. More's prose
is quite remarkable; but there is in her writings, as in Mr.
"Wilberforce's, a principle radically false, which in my opinion
vitiates every system built upon it, and saps the very founda-
tions of morality — nay, the very throne of God ! . . . . The
world in general has nothing to do with one's faith : mine is
perfectly satisfactory to myself. Without disputing about or up-
holding our several doctrines while we ' now see darkly as through
a glass,' let us both endeavour to continue acting our parts
well, and we shall meet hereafter in some place where we shall
both understand the subject much better, and where such a
disquisition will not be attended with that human leaven of
error and acrimony which they are too apt to be here. . . . My
Greek, about which I am really anxious, takes me up some time,
and I have often, for ourselves and others, what many women
would call business. At present I have to talk and think a
good deal, and never very agreeably, about a trusteeship of my
father's to his uncle's great property in Scotland — an affair-in
which we are in no respect involved

Tuesday, April 2, 1799.

. . In the many hours I have spent alone this last
week, I have been able, though by very little bits at a time, to
go entirely through Hannah More, and Mrs. Woolstonecroft*
immediately after her. It is amazing, or rather it is not amazing,

themes, and of some dramas. Her father was in humble circumstances. She
had four sisters ; and, whilst still in their youth, they found themselves at
the head of a flourishing school. Hannah wrote verse very early, and
was the author of ' Coalebs in Search of a Wife,' and of many works of
a very serious character, and severe strictures on what she termed the
fashionable world. She was of a most active and benevolent character.
She died 1833. — Imperial Dictionary of Universal liiot/raphy.

* Mary Woolstonecroft, born 1759, died 1797 : authoress of 'Thoughts on
the Education of Daughters ;' married to William Godwin, who published,
after her death, many of her unpublished works, 1798. — Watts's Dictionary.

92 EXTRACTS FROM MISS BERRY'S LETTERS. [1799

but impossible, they should do otherwise than agree on all the
great points of female education. H. More will, I dare say, be
very angry when she hears this, though I would lay a wager
that she never read the book.

. . . Indeed, I have been most literally alone ; for Mrs.
Darner went on Friday and only returned yesterday from
Brocket Hall, where she assisted in acting a play with Lady
Melbourne's sons. It was 'Ways and Means,' a three-act
thing of Colman's. I never saw it. Her part was only Lady
Dunders, a mere fat aid woman who has only a few words to
say. But she put them all in the way of doing better than they
otherwise would. . . .

N. Audley Street, Friday, May 17, 1799,

. . . I was much entertained by some letters which Price
showed me from Sr Gr. Beaumont, Fox, and Knight,* containing
criticisms on the series of plays which he (Price) had set them
all reading. They were excellent, the ideas of three very
superior understandings and tastes, all struck with different
beauties and blemishes, and reasoning upon them according to
the varied medium of mind through which they saw.

N. Audley Street, Thursday, May 23, 1799.

. . . I fear there is no hope for you about the criticisms
on the plays : the letters were all, de tons c6tes, addressed to
Price ; they were only pieces of letters upon other subjects, but
he knows their value, keeps them in cotton, and went out of
town for good on Monday last. . . I began Homer's Iliad
on Wednesday last, to my no small delight, and felt no particular
difficulty in the comprehension of the first doz. lines. . . .

Cheltenham, Monday, Aug. 5, 1799.

. . . I am in no sort of hurry to leave this place, where I
enjoy a quiet in the morning which I seldom or never attain at

* Richard Payne Knight, Esq., of Downton Castle, Herefordshire ; "bom
1750; well known for bis great classical attainments, his love of art
ancient and modern, and as a collector on a large scale. His collection,
valued at 30,(XXW., he bequeathed to the British Museum. He was a writer
on classical subjects, — ' An Analytical Essay on the Greek Alphabet/ &c.
&c. ; and in 1805 he published his ' Analytical Enquiry into the Principles
of Taste.' Died 1824.

1799] COMPANY AT CHELTENHAM. 93

home, and the rest of the day lead a life as comfortably unlike
a public place as can be well imagined. The Douglas's, 17
Spencer,* and ourselves always meet at the well of a morng, and
generally pass some part of the even8 together, either walk-
ing or at the play (where we have had Kemble,) or sometimes,
but very seldom, at the rooms, where, as we have hitherto
none of us known anybody, we have had little temptation to go;
but there are new arrivals every day, and some agreeable,
conversable males will at last occur, I hope, which we much want
in our society, altho' never did I see so many men in a place of
this sort, but all of them unknown both to ourselves and those
we know here. Did I tell you that Ly Spencer (the Dow. I
mean) had sought our acquaintance with empressement, and that
I have become a great favorite with her and her granddaughter,!
who is a charming, natural, unaffected girl of sixteen, with a
warm heart and good understanding ? She will never, I think,
be handsome to compare with her mother, but has much of her
captivating manner. She has taken to me (of whom she says
she has heard so much beforehand) with all the overflowing
warmth of an affectionate heart at sixteen. . . .

Letter from the Dow. Lady Spencer to M'iss Berry.

Nuneham,{ Aug. 21, 1799.

You are very good, my dear Miss Berry, to give me the proof
you have done that I am not yet forgot. I should have been

* Margaret Georgiana, eldest daughter of Stephen Poynts, Esq., of
Medgeham, Co. Berks ; married, 1755, to John, first Earl of Spencer. Lord
Spencer died in 1783.

t Lady Georgiana Cavendish, daughter of the Duke of Devonshire, wife
of the late Earl of Carlisle, and mother of the present : died 1858. The
interest with which this lady inspired Miss Berry, more than double her age,
soon ripened into a friendship that terminated only with Miss Berry's
exiLstence. If it may be permitted here to offer a tribute of respectful
admiration to the memory of one whose virtues were exercised so strictly
within the pale of private and domestic life, it would be to remark how
truly her opening character had been discerned, how well through life she
kept the fair promise of her youth, and how in her declining years she
reaped the rich reward of more than ordinary devotion from those around
her, and to the last remained the centre of affection and duty to a circle of
numerous descendants.

| The seat of George Simon, second Earl of Harcourt : born 1736, died
1765.

94 EXTRACTS FROM MISS BERRY'S LETTERS. [1799

glad to have heard that you had found some old friends among
the new-comers, that might have replaced those to whom you
kindly gave up so much of your time.

We met the Duchess of Devonshire, several of my grchildn,
and Miss Trimmer,* at Oxford : this last is the governess to the
Lady Cavendishes, whom I wish you to notice when you see her,
because she is excellent in herself and invaluable to them ; and
you will therefore feel with me that the more weight can be
given to her by others the better : indeed, she is in a very inde-
pendent situation, and has never been on any other footing than
that of a friend.

I am here in a most beautiful place ; the weather is delight-
ful, and my early rising gives me many hours to stroll about
before the society I am in begin to live. But I want my sweet
child, to whom I might point out a thousand striking scenes,
and I often long for Miss Douglas's pencil and yours to fix them
on my memory. The way of living here is in the old style,
which tho' the modern world would call formal, has, like many
old customs, sterling worth — great regularity, decent magnifi-
cence, and much real charity and beneficence of every kind is
daily going forward, besides a little drawing-room loisir for
general conversation, which, when there is anybody that under-
stands what the thing means, is not unpleasant. But I forget I
am only thanking you for your letter, and not commencing a
correspondence, for which having neither time nor talent to bear
my part, I am not unreasonable enough to request. I beg my
best regards to Miss Agnes, and my compliments to Mr. Berry,
And am, dear Miss Berry,

Your faithful and affectionate,
jjumbie serv^

G-. SPENCER.

P.S. — Have you ever seen the 3d vol. of Mason's Poems,
published two years ago ? I never did till I came here ; and I
have found some sweet things in them, which I have been read-
ing this morning in the flower-garden facing the cinerary urn
Lord Harcourt has erected to his memory.

I cannot help translating the end of a sonnet written in his

* Daughter of Mrs. Trimmer, the well-known authoress of children's
books and works of education.

1799] SCENERY NEAR MALVERN. 95

70th year, which you will not wonder at my being particularly
pleased with, — but I wish you was here to mend my pen.

Still round my shelter'd lawn I pleas'd can stray,
Still trace my sylvan blessings to their spring;

Being of Beings ! Yes, that silent lay
Which musing Gratitude delights to sing,

Still to thy sapphire throne shall Earth convey,
And Hope, the cherub of unwearied wing.

Lord Harcourt makes me open this again, to add his very
particular compliments.

From Miss Berry.

Great Malvem, Sept. 10, 1799.

. . . Never was any place better calculated than this to
enjoy clear, sunny, calm weather. You heard me last year,
after only a slight acquaintance, talk in raptures of it ; and I
assure you that now, after a ten days' residence here, and having
explored both the mountains and the plain, I am quite con-
vinced it is the most beautiful and enjoyable part of Eng-
land, as to every rural perfection, that I have seen. The
village is in itself singularly rural and cheerful. We are lodged
in the parsonage-house.

. . We were to have gone to' Lord Sommers's, at Castle-
ditch,* in this neighbourhood, to-morrow ; but their house being
full, we have happily cribbed two or three more days here. On
Monday we shall proceed on our peregrination by going down
the Kiver Wye from Ross to Chepstow, a navigation which is
famous for its romantic scenery. From Chepstow we shall go on
to the first place upon the coast in Wales, where my father
thinks he can get a fortnight's good bathing

The Inn at Pyle in Glamorganshire,
Tuesday, Sept. 24, 1799.

-... Of your public affairs in Holland / have thought
wretchedly from the moment that, after the first engage-
ment, the whole country did not rise and join the English
troops, who, on the contrary, seem to have gained not an inch

* Charles Cocks, of Castleditch, created Lord Somers 1784 ; inherited
from his mother, Mary Cocks, the seat of Castleditch, now known as East-
nor Castle.

96 MISS BERRY'S TOUR IN WALES. [1799

of ground but that they fought for The

ministerial prdneurs, however, still maintain that everything is
going on well ; but the Dutch in this country, I know, are in
very bad spirits.*

Miss Berry omitted, in her brief summary of this year's
events, a little expedition into Wales, made in company
with her father and sister, and of which she kept a jour-
nal. The following extracts will show the changes that
have taken place in the mode of travelling through this
part of the country, and the very different estimate now
taken of the picturesque.

Monday, September 16^. — Left Castleditch (Lord
Somers's) for Eoss ; the road, most part of the way, very
bad — sometimes stony, sometimes deep and very hilly.
The town of Eoss a wretched, black-looking, ill-built
place. The churchyard neat, and the spire of the church
pretty, and the view fine, but, in this country of fine
views, not remarkable.

Tuesday, 17th. — Left Eoss at half-past 10 A.M. The
weather precluded all idea of going on the Wye. The
road from Eoss to Monmouth good — towards Monmouth
generally near the river, and very romantic and beautiful.
Monmouth is an old, ugly, unpicturesque town, prettily
situated, and with a very pretty spire to the church, in
the same fashion and much the same proportion as that
at Eoss.

Wednesday, 18^. — Left Monmouth at 10 A.M. ; arrived
at Chepstow at half-past three, by the river. The banks
of this winding river are very high, rocky, and well
wooded, particularly about Tintern Abbey, which, though

* An expedition to Holland was concerted between Great Britain and
Russia, in the confidence that numbers of the Dutch, opening their eyes to
their real interests, would combine with them as their deliverers, as soon as
they saw they could with safety act according to their wishes. — Annual
Register, 1799.

1799] CHEPSTOW — NEWPORT. 97

near the water, is not seen from it. The scattered cottages
of the village of Tintern, upon the side of the hill imme-
diately rising from the water, very pretty. The approach
to Chepstow upon the river, on coming in sight of Fierce-
field, beautiful. I recollect nothing finer than the ruins
of the immense Castle of Chepstow crowning the per-
pendicular rock that rises from the river, and which is, as
well as the river, diversified with every variety of foliage.
The town of Chepstow is an inconsiderable place, with
but one inn (the Beaufort Arms), a very bad one, that
keeps a few post horses, all of which were engaged. The
day after we arrived, we were obliged to send forward
the whisky to Newport (sixteen miles), in order that
horses might be sent back for us and the chaise. It was
late before the Newport horses got back and were suffi-
ciently rested to return with us ; and they were all so bad,
and the hill out of Chepstow so steep, that they refused
to draw at all, and others had to be sent for. It was
eight o'clock, and long dark, before we arrived at New-
port. The approach to Newport was over a long stone
bridge, now building, and left without any parapet or rail
whatsoever on either side. The lamps to our carriage
just showed us our situation when we were on the bridge ;
and I am glad I did not see more of it, for it would cer-
tainly have made me very giddy, though the danger might
be little with tired horses who knew the way.

Friday, 20 lth. — Newport is a small town, with a pretty
round castle upon the edge of the river. The inn is new
and large, now building by Sir Charles Morgan,* only
half finished and less than half furnished ; d'ailleurs clean,
and the people civil. Left Newport at eight o'clock ;
breakfasted at Cardiff. The road is rather less hilly ;
still we regretted not having taken four horses. Cardiff

* Sir Charles Gould, married Jane, daughter of Sir William Morgan,
K.B., of Tredegar, and assumed, under the will of his brother-in-law, the
name and arms of Morgan of Tredegar. Died 1806.
VOL. II. H

98 MISS BERRY'S TOUR IN WALES. [1799

is a small ugly town, situated on the edge of the flat
low country which goes down to the Bristol Channel.
Cardiff Castle, belonging to Lord Bute* in right of his
wife (a Windsor), has been repaired ; was fitting up for
a dwelling-house for the young Lord Mount-Stuart,f who
died. On his death, the building, furnishing, &c.. were
stopped. Some of the rooms are floored and ceiled, and
some family pictures of the Windsors hung up in two
of them. The enclosure of the castle is turned into a
lawn with shrubs, the ruined keep left as a ruin in the
middle of it, and a walk round the walls. The entrance,
which is the old gate, is the prettiest thing about it.
There are the remains of some dungeon-rooms joining
to it, in one of which they say Eobert, William the
Conqueror's eldest son (who is buried at Gloucester), was
confined by his brother. From Cardiff to Cowbridge the
road much the same — stony and hilly, but in general
good. Cowbridge is a wretched little town, or rather
village, with one bad inn, which keeps post horses. From
Cowbridge to Pyle the road and the country much the
same. The distinctive characteristics of South Wales are
hills, universally enclosed and cultivated, and cottages,
universally white ; and these more often dropt about
singly than collected in villages. The fashion of white-

O V

washing is so general in South Wales, that they whiten
even the outer walls of their little enclosures and their
pig-stys. This certainly gives a clean and cheerful look
to everything, but, in a picturesque point of view, makes
too many white spots in the landscape. Pyle is a very

* John, fourth Earl of Bute, born 1744 ; ambassador to the Court of Spain,
1792 ; created marquis 1796 ; married, first, 1766, Charlotte Jane, eldest
daughter and co-heir of Herbert Windsor Hickman, second and last
Viscount Windsor of the kingdom of Ireland — she died in 1800; and,
secondly, to Frances, second daughter of the. late Thomas Coutts, Esq. He
died at Geneva, 1814, and was succeeded by his grandson.

t John Viscount Mount -Stuart, born 1767; died 1794, aged twenty-
seven, in consequence of a fall from a horse. He married, 1792, Eliza-
beth, daughter of Patrick Crichton, Earl of Dumfries.

1799] NEWTON — PUBLIC AFFAIRS. 99

small village, composed of a few scattered houses along
the roadside, with an excellent inn. It was built by
Mr. Talbot, of Margam. The garden, which is a shelf of
rock with a wooded bank below, is laid out with extremely
good taste. There is an extensive view of the sea, and in
fine weather of the opposite coast of Devonshire.

Saturday, 21st — Went from Pyle to Newton, a little
village at about four miles' distance, immediately upon
the coast, where the landlord at Pyle has a house, and
where they receive people, boarding them together as
at Malvern Wells ; but the house in itself is small, cold,
and comfortless. It is surrounded on every side with
loose sandhills, which shut out the view from the sea
as thoroughly as if they were Alps. There is • so much
of the same loose sand, that it is impossible to stir out
without getting above our shoes in it : in short, a place
more destitute of beauty or comfort I never saw. We
found here four Welsh ladies and an Irishman living

o

together at a very bad ordinary ; and as the company
was not large enough to be entertaining, we returned to
the inn at Pyle on Monday morning.

Extract of a Letter from Miss Berry to Mrs. Clwlmeley.

Cheltenham, Saturday, Oct. 6, 1799.

. . . . The weather has become a most serious considera-
tion with respect to the harvest. Not all the wheat, and very
little of the barley, is housed even in this country ; what you
are to do in the North I have no idea. I had hoped that, from
the very extraordinary lateness of the season in every respect,
your harvest might not be yet begun, and that you might still
have some fine weather for it in this month. Wheat is here at the
same price you mention it with you, 1 4s. a bushel. A scarcity of
bread in the winter will not mend our public affairs, which, I
think, are going on as ill as possible everywhere but in India,
where those who really know say that the death of Tippoo Saib
for the present entirely secures our possessions, and frustrates

11 2

100 EXTRACTS FROM MISS BERRY'S LETTERS. [1799

all the designs of the French, even if they ever reach India,
which, I feel convinced, in spite of the victories of that Alman-
zor, Sr Sidney Smith,* they will. As to Holland, if the D. of
York f and the rest of them would but be persuaded to pocket
the affront, the sooner they all come back the better, and the
less disgrace will attend them ; for if the Dutch, like the wife
of the 4 Medecin malgre lui,' choose to be beat and hanged and
robbed and murdered by the French, it is vain that we oppose it.
We may step between and receive some of the blows, but we
shall never prevent them.

The only person you know here, I believe, is Mme de Coigny. :f
I never see her in London, but am very glad to meet her here,
for she is very entertaining and really uncommonly clever.
Mentioning her puts me in mind of a book which I am now
devouring with delight, though no new one, and though I am
now reading it for the third time. I mean Madme de Sevigne's
Letters. Are you well acquainted with them ? But I forgot

* Admiral Sir Sidney Smith, bom 1764; served, 1781, during the
American war j shared in Rodney's victory over the French, April 1, 1782 ;
and was post-captain at the age of nineteen. He then entered the Swedish
service, and, in 1793, as a volunteer in the Turkish marine ; distinguished
himself at Toulon, under Lord Hood. In 1794 he commanded a frigate,
to the terror of the French coast. In 1796, he was taken prisoner at
Havre-de-Grace, and imprisoned in the Temple ; was treated with great
rigour, and his exchange refused. At the end of two years he made his
escape ; reached England in 1798, a,nd commanded in the Mediterranean.
Buonaparte was preparing to subjugate Syria. The gallant and skilful re-
sistance then made by Sir Sidney Smith at Jean d'Acre cost the French the
loss of 4,000 men, and at the end of two months they were obliged to
retreat to Egypt. For this brilliant success Sir Sidney received the thanks
of both Houses of Parliament. His career as a naval commander continued
till the year 1814. He died at Paris, 1841.

f The Duke of York had landed in Holland the 13th of September.

I Madame de Coigny, daughter of the Marquis de Conflans and grand-
daughter of the Mare"chal d'Amenthieres, married to the Marquis de Coigny,
son of the Due de Coigny, Feb. 1775. 'This lady, whose figure and
talents, together with the favour of her husband's family at court, con-
spired to place for several years at the pinnacle of fashion in Paris, was,
during the early period of the Revolution, long resident in England, where
the cheerfulness with which she submitted to the loss of her former bril-
liant existence and to the difficulties of her actual situation are remembered
with hardly less admiration than was excited by the uncommon liveliness
of her conversation and the quickness of her repartees. — Vide Miss Berry's
Notes to M. du Duffantfa Letters.

1799] MADAME DE COIGNY. 101

you don't like gossiping books, and this is certainly eminently
so. But what a heart had that woman, what a capacity of affec-
tion ! Then her ideas are always so lively, so just, so clear !
She gives you a faithful and curious transcript of the then
world, and suggests more reflections to a thinking mind than
almost any book I know. Besides, I love the woman, and am.
intimately acquainted with all her friends, and very seldom find
any society in which I pass an hour so agreeably

Cheltenham, Monday, Oct. 14, 1799.

. . . We go on just as we did here, and the weather
goes on just as it did ; that is to say, we never yet have two
fair days together, and but once since our return one completely
fair day. What you will do in the North I have no idea. Hay
and corn have already risen here ; and the price of bread, I fear,
will be enormous, which, not only in its immediate effects, but
in all its consequences to a great capital, is dreadful. We must
hope to get through it as we did the last scarcity, and many
other mauvais pas which we have seen, and which, when passed,
I always wonder how we ever got over them.

. . . . Madme de Coigny is still here, and is of these
parties ; but they are so little in her way, that though she makes
a depense d'esprit that would ruin anybody else, she cannot
much mend them. . . . Madame de Coigny said the other day,
speaking of the possibility of a very disagreeable man finding
anybody to marry him, * II y a des personnes si amoureuses en
manage, qu'elles ne regardent pas du tout le mari.'

Cheltenham, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 1799.

.... What think you of this tour of Buonaparte's ? For
my part, I think it very likely to be the coup de grace to the
affairs of the Allies ; for if, as is more than probable, he has
contrived to negociate a peace between France and the Turks,
and now comes to head a victorious army in Europe, what have
we to oppose to him but the arrogance and ignorance of our
Ministers? which is certainly quite as remarkable as his con-
duct and luck. If one was not likely to be so seriously involved
without a possibility of preventing them, in the misfortunes of
one's country, what an interesting and entertaining age do we
live in !

102 EXTRACTS FROM MISS BERRY'S LETTERS. [1799

Cheltenham, Monday, Oct. 28, 1799.

.... As Madme de Coigny for the last week almost lived
with us, I ought to have much wit to repeat to you, which I am
too unwell at present to recollect. . . . She is a cheerful-minded,
contented creature, after a fall from such a brilliancy of situation
as would have first weakened and then soured the minds of
most other people. This I attribute in a great degree to an
extremely religious education (the only education indeed she
ever received), and which no prosperities, no dissipation, no
anything has been able to obliterate from her mind. She calls
herself * 1'enfant gate de la Providence,' and has an unfeigned
and uninterrupted cheerfulness about her, which she is more
likely to receive from her belief in such an idea than any other
circumstance in her situation

I am too unwell to begin talking of Holland. I have long
been perfectly convinced, by several circumstances that have
come to my knowledge, of the entire and disgraceful ignorance
of our Ministers as to foreign politics. Would to heaven, for
the sake of the many brave men that have fallen, that they
had not given all Europe such a convincing proof of their
ignorance ! — a proof by which their own country, I fear, is not
in a state to profit as it ought.

.... Do you know, I doat on Mme de Sevigne too much to
bear her being spoken even slightingly of. I have now read
her over for the 3rd time with equal pleasure and redoubled admi-
ration. I wish I could convey this taste to you, however you may
think fit to despise it, because you would find it a source of
great cheerful interest, which is a thing you want in life

N. Audley Street, Monday, Nov. 4, 1799.

. . . . Imagine what the roads must be when we were 11
hours and \ coming from Oxford with a pr of post horses in our
own carriage. Posting is everywhere raised to 14 or 15 pence
a mile, and the stage next London to 18d. The charges at the
inns, too, seem to be encreased in proportion, so that the inn-
keepers, at least, will be no losers by the extravagant price to
which I see everything is or will be immediately raised

I am told the general discontent and ill-humour about Holland
is great — well it may.* I could almost wish it greater, that

* This expedition to Holland was a grievous failure. On October 17, a

17&9] COMPANY AT STRAWBERRY HILL. 103

even sober, dull people might be convinced of the total inca-
pacity of our Ministers for foreign affairs.

. . . . The weather is as completely wintry as it can be
in December since we left Cheltenham. It has been continued
cold rain and wind ; wretched weather for the return of our
poor troops 1 Most of them however, I understand, are already

arrived

Strawberry Hill, Tuesday, Nov. 12, 1799.

. . . . We mean to return here the beginning of next
week. As we find our company a real comfort while they stay
here, and that it is impossible to be more perfectly at one's
ease and more comfortable than anybody may now be in this
house, the having effected making this house, such as you
remember it, both comfortable and warm, is nearly next to
a miracle. The Burns, both Mr. and Mrs., you have heard
me mention as very agreeable people, rational, well-informed,
and cheerful ; and we have besides sometimes Lady Howe *
of an evening (now a neighbour at Twickenham), some-
times Lady Cecilia, and, in short, no want of extraneous com-
pany Lady Ailesbury is, I think, particularly well

and in good spirits, and is, indeed, the picture of what an old
woman of between 70 and 80 ought to be, and so seldom is.
Mrs. Darner chips away at her marble one half of the morning,
and trots about the grounds the other half in all weathers, and
is much the better for this variety of exercise

Lady Howe, who was at the Drawing-room on Thursday,
says all the poor officers look very thin and weather-beaten, and
none of them much like talking of their adventures. Never
was there such deadly fighting; — our men drawn up upon a
totally exposed sandbank, where no considerable number could
ever be formed together from the nature of the country (which
I, who have been all over it, exactly recollect), set up as marks

suspension of arms vas agreed on ; and, as the price of permission to the
British troops to re-embark on board their transports without molestation,
8,000 of the seamen, whether Batavian republicans or French, who were
prisoners in England, were to be given up to the French Government : the
combined English and Russian army to evacuate Holland before the end of
November.

* Sophia Charlotte, Baroness Howe of Langar, daughter of Admiral first
Earl Howe. She married, first, the Hon. Penn Asheton Curzon, and,
secondly, Sir Jonathan Watkin Waller, Bart.

104 EXTRACTS FROM MISS BERRY'S LETTERS. [1799

to be shot at by the people from their intrenchments, and from
ditches, barns, and houses in the flat below them. Never was
there nearly so large a portion of officers killed and wounded ;
in the 1st batt. of Guards six officers only escaped totally unhurt.
The scene upon the parade when the Guards last week marched
into town was, they say, heart-breaking ; numbers of women and
children running eagerly through the ranks and enquiring for
husbands and fathers, of whose fate they were entirely ignorant,
and many of whom they were destined never to see again ! The
houses of the officers of the Guards who arrived before the men
were, they say, beset with women for the same purpose. Heavens !
how much harder such a duty to a heart of humanity than any
they had yet gone through ! Lord Chatham was saved by the
button of his epaulet, which turned aside a ball whose only effect
was a great contusion on his shoulder. Thomas Grosvenor had
half his moustache and the tip of his ear shot off. These are
people not mentioned among the wounded. • Grey, Sr Charles
Grey's son, is still at the Helder, and, they say, cannot live, not
having strength to bear a necessary amputation of leg. Column,
the maid of honour's brother, is shot through the lungs ; can-
not yet be turned in his bed, and is by no means out of danger.
To all these people the French general and officers behave with

the utmost degree of attention and kindness

My young friend (for I cannot call her my little friend) Lady
Georgiana Cavendish came to me in N. Audley Street. . . .
She is a charming, warm-hearted, affectionate girl. . . . Lady
Spencer, when we parted, recommended her to me with the
most flattering expressions of all the service I might be to her.
In this she probably deceives herself; but she shall not be de-
ceived in me. . . .

Strawberry Hill, Tuesday, Nov. 19, 1799.

. . . .' My other adventures in town, were going to
Devonshire House to see Lady Georgiana, and become ac-
quainted with the Duchess. Hitherto we had only known each
other at second-hand. Her manner is very pleasing and
unaffected. She was excessively civil to us, and asked us toge-
ther next night, Saturday, to the play with her, where she has
got a large private box. Poor Ag. was so unwell that she could
not be of the party ; but I went. The women were only the

1799] FEENCH AFFAIRS. 105

Dgs, Ly G-eorgiana, and myself. We had all the few men in
London in the box, several that I knew, and it was very agree-
able. There I first heard of this marvellous revolution in
France, of which you will see the papers full ; and, I fancy, more
than the papers nobody can at present tell you. For my part,
I think it will be better dealing with one or even with three
rogues than 500 ; but it will, in all probability, shortly end in
Bonaparte's assassination ; for, in a country where every man
thinks himself equally able and equally fit to govern, the go-
vernment of one or two or three must ever be looked upon with
invidious eyes, and not long looked upon at all, where murder
is no crime.

Just before I left town, I received a note from the DM about
a print of Ld Orford that I had promised her. She adds in
the prettiest and most affectionate terms towards her daughter,
that she must take the opportunity of telling how much she is
flattered by ' the kindness I have shown to her dearest Geor-
giana.'* ....

» Saturday night.

As I am sure, my dear Miss Berry, you will not think ill of me for having1
a hobby-horse, and as I hope that you will not think me very impudent in
urging its claims to you, I take the liberty of writing to ask you if, without
indiscretion, I might petition for one of the private prints of Lord Orford.
The Duke has given me the large-paper set ; and I have the greatest wish
to ornament it to my utmost with any prints, or even scraps of writing, &c.,
that may render it a treasure above other copies.

I have got all ' the noble authors ' that Harding has engrav'd, and I shall
procure drawings of the others ; but, in spite of my eagerness in this pur-
suit, if I am guilty of an indiscretion, I entreat you to refuse me.

I must take this opportunity of telling you how very highly I am flat-
tered by the kindness you have shown to my dearest G. I think her a very
extraordinary creature, from the pood qualities of her heart and mind ; and
how much then, loving her as I do to adoration, must I be gratified by a
goodness which I must look upon as a very distinguished happiness to her !

Pray excuse this letter. Je dors debout et vous demande grace ; but I
could not help writing to express my humble petition before your departure.

Pray say a thousand things to Mrs. Darner, whom I hope very soon to
see at D. H. Felicissima notte.

G. DEVONSHIRE.

DR MADAM, — You have augmented the favour of accepting the print
which I offered by your manner of claiming it.

Your Grace will observe that this portrait is the same as that prefixed to
the works. It is one of the proof impressions which we had taken before
we allowed the bookseller to make use of the plate. There are two other

106 EXTRACTS FROM MISS BERRY'S LETTERS. [1799

Strawberry Hill, Tuesday, Nov. 26, 1799.

. . . . You will see by the papers, which contain all that
anybody knows about France, that the Triumvirate have begun
their government with just the same bits of justice that the last
Eevolution did, only sending a still greater number without a
shadow of trial to Gruiana. France is now to me like Caleb
Williams, or some such vile interesting book, in which, tho' its
principles disgust, one cannot help longing to know what will
come next

Strawberry Hill, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 1799.

. Apropos to the Douglas's, they say his speech
upon the Irish Union is one full of facts and information. It
is directly in answer to Foster. The Irish Speaker's, the only
rational one upon that side of the question. Ld Minto's, upon
the other, I have heard, too, universally praised as the clearly-
stated and well-reasoned arguments of a great statesman. They
are all published ; and if you are curious upon the subject, I
advise you to read them, which I mean to do, not by way of
making up my mind upon the subject, which has long since
been done, but to read some good sense and good reasoning upon
it, of which the debates in the newspapers never contained a
single word.

prints of Lord Orford, both of which, I think, should obtain a place in a
complete copy of his works, and both of which I shall have the honour of
offering your Grace when I return to town ; for I cannot now lay my hand
upon them.

I have likewise several other little scaps, both of prints and printing,
which in the eyes of a collector are not without value, much at your ser-
vice. I shall think myself happy in thus contributing my mite at once to
your Grace's amusement, and to honouring the works of my deceased
friend.

I cannot express how much I am gratified by the part of your note which
relates to Lady Georgiana. I think I may venture to say that I am hardly
less aware than yourself of the claims of her character, of the integrity and
warmth of her heart, and the excellence of her understanding ; and, indeed,
the great disproportion between her years and mine makes your Grace per-
haps the person in the world best able to judge of the nature of my affec-
tion for her. It is such as I shall rejoice in every occasion of proving, and
such as will make me follow her happiness, her successes, her evils in life,
with an anxiety and an interest which nothing but real friendship can feel,
and real merit inspire.

I have the honour to be Your Grace's most obliged.

1799] ORDER ESTABLISHED IN FRANCE. 107

N. Audley Street, Monday, Dec. 16, 1799.

I have hardly been out of the house yet of

an evening, and seen but few people in the morning : for receiv-
ing morning visits in London is the abomination of desolation
of time, of which I never will be guilty — occupied you know I

always am with one thing or another The

Mathew Montagu's* I saw yesterday morning established in the
ground-floor of the great house in Portman Sq% while the old
lady, who no longer goes out at all and sees hardly anybody,
occupies the grand-floor, an arrangement so proper and so
natural that all the world wondered it was not done before.

. . . . Last night we had a comfortable quiet game at
whist here with only Mr. and Mrs. Burn, Jerningham, Mrs.
Darner and myself, and Mdme De Coigny the latter part of the
evening as a looker-on with Agnes. News there is none, French
or English, public or private, or between Mr. Burn and Mme De
Coigny we should have heard it. It is but too true that the
French have left the support of their prisoners here to us, which
in this time of scarcity is truly villainous and truly distressing.
Some French people are already returning to France, and all
the Eoyalists in high spirits. The fiction of having discovered
the little Louis XVII. alive, nobody believes, and it is never
hinted at in any of the French papers, tho' I own, if true after
all, it would not at all surprise me ; and I have ever thought
when (if ever) peace and security comes, a great many of the
guillotined will make their appearance again.

N. Audley Street, Thursday, Dec. 26, 1799.

What little I could read during two days and

part of two nights has been Mercier'sf Nouveau Paris, a sort
of continuation of his former Tableau de Pans. This last, in
six vols. is one of the most stupid, unclearly thought, ridiculous
books I ever saw, and yet I read it, not without entertainment
and instruction ; because I am sure that, without intending it,

* Mathew Montagu, Esq., born Nov. 1762 ; married, 1785, Elizabeth,
daughter and heir of Francis Charlton, Esq., became fourth Lord Rokeky in
18L>9 ; died 1831.

t Bartholomew Mercier, a learned French bibliographer and miscellaneous
writer, familiarly known by the name of the Abbe" de St. Leger, was born
1734 j died 1799. — Le Nouveau Paris, published 1799.

108 EXTRACTS FROM MISS BERRY'S LETTERS. [1799

he gives me a better idea than anybody else of the state of mind
and the habits of the people, and, consequently, of the real
causes which have influenced them in the different crises of their
revolution, and made them what they are. Yet I can hardly
recommend the lecture to anybody else : for the facts he tells
you, and the truths he lets you into, are all drowned in bother-
headed arguments which don't deserve the name of reasoning,
and false information, and false ideas. Of a very different
nature is a little book I have lately read over again for the third
or fourth time, — I mean, Mackintosh's accounts of his proposed
lectures on the Law of Nature and Nations. Such a compen-
dious syllabus of all the leading principles of truth and virtue I
never met with I I mentioned it to you, I think, last year when
I first got it. My approbation has now at least, none of the
enthusiasm of novelty, but is the deep-felt approbation of a
plain understanding and a warm heart.

Gr. Ellis's work will, I dare say, be very entertaining : when
is it to make its appearance ? he always writes neatly and well
I think. Talking of works, don't let me forget to answer your
question about the Walpoliana. If you had seen it, you would
not doubt what we must think about it, — that it is infamous thus
to make a dead man speak, and consequently say whatever his
editor pleases, which is notoriously the case in many instances
in the Walpoliana., besides repeating private and idle conver-
sation, of which, of all other things, poor Ld Orford had the
greatest dread. I was at first almost sorry to find that the man
had spoken civilly of us, for fear anybody might suppose we
countenanced such a work ; but I am told, which I own I did
not expect, that it has not at all succeeded, that it is generally
decried, known not to have our sanction, and that the bookseller
has lost money by it, which last one must be glad to hear, as
otherwise the editor might, and I dare say would, have made
other two, or other six such vols., whenever he pleased.

THOUGHTS ON ARCHITECTUEE, 1799.

The only art completely possessed by the architects of this
country seems to be that of making a large building look small,
in which their success is wonderful ! As witness Somerset

1799] THOUGHTS ON ARCHITECTURE. 109

Place, all the barracks, and indeed almost all the public build-
ings of this reign (George III.).

London itself seems to have been built as if by common
consent upon this principle. All enormous as it is, it is only a
congregation of smaller towns. Grosvenor Square, one of the
largest in Europe, has by no means an imposing air in propor-
tion to the magnitude of its space ; because neither the houses
as parts of that space, nor the doors and windows as parts of
those houses, are at all in proportion to it. Proportion ! that
indefinable soul of beauty in almost all external objects !

Very different was the art of the M. Angelos, the Bramantes,
the Palladios, and Scamozzis. They contrived, often in a very
confined space, by a division of large parts in proportion to one
another and to the whole (whatever that whole might be), to im-
press with ideas of grandeur and magnitude. A strong instance
of this, among thousands that might be re-called, is the entrance
into the Laurentian Library at Florence, designed by M. Angelo.
It is just twenty-two feet square, from the middle of which
springs a staircase ; yet so far from giving an idea of anything
small or crowded, it is impossible not to be struck with an idea
of size and even magnificence on entering it.

110 EXTRACTS FROM MISS BERRY'S LETTERS. [1800

EXTRACTS FEOM LETTEES.

1800.

' WE are at Strawberry Hill in November. We go in
the winter to Broadlands, and in our way there to the
Bishop of Winchester at Farnharu.'

A few extracts from Miss Berry's letters to Mrs.
Cholmeley and others, together with the play-bill of the
pieces performed at Strawberry Hill, and the prologue
written by Lord Mount Edgcumbe,* which were treasured
amongst her papers, is all that remains of this year.

N. Audley St., Thursday, Jan. 2, 1800.

. . To-day we are flattered with a thaw, but I fear
it is too good to last. Most earnestly it is to be wished on every
account, for if we were to continue to have a very hard winter,
much cattle, I should fear, must absolutely be starved, to say
nothing of man.

What think you of the man Buonaparte ? f absolute King
of France, quietly established in the Tuileries ! For my part
I admire him, and think, if he can keep his place, he does
his country a service. Nothing ever gave me so desperate an
opinion of our Ministers and their yet more desperate projects
than the abuse which is daily vomited forth in all the minis-
terial and soi-disant impartial papers against Buonaparte and
this new order of things. Formerly they said we were fighting
and aiding the other side because it was impossible to make
peace with an absolutely democratical government; now that
an absolutely aristocratical government is established, what
is it to us whether Louis Capet or Louis Buonaparte is at its

* Richard, second Earl of Mount Edgcumbe, born 1764; married Sophia
Hobart, daughter of John, second Earl of Buckinghamshire ; died 1839.

t Buonaparte was appointed First Consul. Sieyes and Roger Ducos were
displaced in favour of Cambaceres and Le Brun.

1800] LETTER TO MRS. CHOLMELEY. Ill

head ? If the nation is once in a state to maintain the rela-
tions of peace and the conditions of treaties, what have we,
what ought we to have to do with the means? I confess that,
as a • citizen of enlightened Europe, after all the various ty-
rannies under which the French have laboured, I should really
he sorry to see them return to their old original worn-out
tyranny under the Bourbons. For slaves I am convinced they
can be alone fit, till their many stains, contracted in the fange
of the despotism in which they were born and bred, have been
washed out and purified by a purgatory of I know not how
many revolutions ; but to return so soon and after such dreadful
convulsions to the point from whence they set out, even I don't
wish them.

I have been reading (for the little I could read) a new novel
of Godwin's, in four vols., called 'The Travels of St. Leon.'*
It is an odd work, like all his, and, like all his, interesting, tho'
hardly ever pleasantly so ; and while one's head often agrees
with his observations, and sometimes with his reasoning, never
does one's heart thoroughly agree with his sentiments on any
subject or in any character. He now allows that the social
affections may be cultivated to advantage in human life, and
upon this plan his present novel is formed. I should tell you,
which I know from Edwards, that it was written for bread,
agreed for by the booksellers beforehand, and actually com-
posed and written as the printers wanted it. I think you will
see many marks of this throughout the work if you read it,
which I should recommend to you, if, like me, you have not
seen a readable novel for this age. Lord Minto's speech on the
Union is really a very clear, logical, and admirable dissertation
upon federal governments and the various modes of separate
and united legislatures, but I do not think his logic is suffi-
ciently abridged, concentrated, and forcibly put, for a speech
delivered in any public assembly, where one must always count
upon one quarter being stupid and three parts idle. The first
frank I get I will send you a copy of a letter of the K. of
Naples to Lord Nelson, which I think will please.

N. Audley Street, Saturday, Jan. 11, 1800.
. . . . Mrs. John Hunter is assuredly and declaredly not

* By William Godwin, published 1719.

112 EXTEACTS FROM MISS BERRY'S LETTERS. [1800

the author of the plays. St. Leon, when you get it, I think
you will find a very disagreeable book.

Feb. 1800.

I am much more disgusted in society by the little impression
made by real merit, than by the so often lamented tolerance of
vice. This tolerance — for tolerance only it is — cannot satisfy
even those who are the objects of it, and could never be borne
by a mind deserving anything more. By real merit I don't
mean partial excellence or particular talents, that make them-
selves useful, or desirable in this or that particular situation or
circumstance, for these, I think, are always rated even above
par in the stock of common esteem. But I mean general
superiority of intellect and excellence of character. In what
light must the steady, rational, consistent mind, which such
superiority and such excellence supposes, view, not the incapa-
city of one-half of the world to distinguish them at all, but the
very little impression made on those who have distinguished,
and ivould be capable of appreciating them ? How often will
they have occasion to refer to that philosophy and knowledge
of human nature which must necessarily form a part of their
character, when they see that all their excellences and all
their acquirements will not outweigh the most trifling object of
self-interest, the most open attacks of flattery, or even the
pushing perseverance of those who, conscious they have little
else to recommend them, take care by being always in the way,
to make it much less trouble to take notice of than to avoid
them.

The false pictures given of human life in most novels, and
which alone (in my opinion) makes them dangerous reading
for young people, is, not that the sentiments and conduct of the
hero or heroine are exalted above the common level of huma-
nity, for there is no well-conceived novel which is not read
by many an ingenuous and noble mind, who can reflect with
pleasure that they have acted on some occasion with all the
high sense of honour, the exalted generosity, the noble dis-
interestedness described in their author. But what they must
not look for in real life, what they would expect in vain, what
it is necessary to guard them against, is, supposing that such
conduct will make a similar impression on those around them,

1800] PRIVATE THEATRICALS AT STRAWBERRY HILL. 113

that the sacrifices they make will be considered, and the prin-
ciples on which they act understood and valued, as the novel
writer, at his good pleasure, makes them. Among the thousands
who have erred like Julia, how many more have resembled her
in character and subsequent conduct than in possessing a friend
like Claire!

It was during the month, of November this year, when
Miss Berry mentions they were staying at Strawberry
Hill, that Mrs. Darner indulged in the favourite amuse-
ment of private theatricals, on which occasion Miss Berry,
her sister, and her father took part.

THEATRE, STRAWBERRY HILL,

November, 1800.

Will be presented a COMEDY in Two Acts, called

THE OLD MAID.

Mr. Harlow Mr. BURN.

Clerimont EARL of MOUNT EDGCUMBE.

Captain Cape ....... Mr. BERRY.

Mrs. Harlow ....... Miss BERRY.

Miss Harlow Mrs. BURN.

Trifle •.'.'. MissA.BERRY.

To which will be added,

THE INTRIGUING CHAMBERMAID.

Goodall Mr. BURN.

Valentine EARL of MOUNT EDGCUMBE.

Oldcastk . . . . . . . Mr. BERRY.

Trusty and Col. Bluff Mr. HERVEY.

Slap and Security . . . . . . Mr. CAMPBELL.

Mrs. Highman Mrs. BURN.

Charlotte MissA.BERRY.

Lattice Hon. Mrs. DAMER.

The PROLOGUE to the Performance to be spoken by the

EARL of MOUNT EDGCUMBE.
The EPILOGUE by the Hon. Mrs. DAMER.
VOL. II. I

114 PRIVATE THEATRICALS AT STRAWBERRY HILL. [1800
PEOLOaUE,

WEITTEN BY THE EARL OF MOUNT EDGCUMBE,

And spoken by him at the opening of the Theatre, Strawberry Hill,
Nov. 1800.

Noise and disputing behind the Scenes. — The Curtain begins to rise.
(Speaks ivithin.)

HOLD, hold ! What 's this ? No prologue to our play ?
Down with the curtain — let it down, I say ;
Let me go forth — I must, I will have way !

(Enters.)

So, I 've escaped at length ; with much ado,
With threats, entreaties, ay, and wrangling too,
I 've forc'd my passage, ere the curtain rise,
To mark your looks, your thoughts to scrutinize,
And read our doom, before-hand, in your eyes.
Long in the green-room was the point contested ;
Scarce to my pray'r a half-assent I 'd wrested ;
When, loudly summon'd by the prompter's bell,
(To young adventurers tremendous knell !)
Restraint disdaining, hastily I flew
To state the case, and plead my cause to you.
What ! an unpractis'd, novice band engage,
With vent'rous step, to tread the awful stage ;
Before this dread tribunal dare t' appear ;
Face such an audience as I now see here ;
Nor send one humble messenger before,
To court your favor, and your smile implore !
Thus did I vainly urge : they all reply,
' But -who so bold will venture ? ' Who will P— I.
Give me your Prologue ; let this task be mine,
Or I '11 no longer be your Valentine.*
Thus then — but soft ! methinks I here descry
Smiles of good humour beam from ev'ry eye ;
The gen'rous sentiment each bosom move,
That prompts to pardon, if it can't approve :
Yes, in these partial looks with pride I view
Our fondest wishes realiz'd by you.
No more, no more : I'll hasten to my friends ;
Tell them, in their despite, I've gain'd my ends ;
Bid them with confidence dispel their fear,
Certain to meet a kind reception here.

* The part of Valentine in the ' Intriguing Chambermaid.'

1800] MARRIAGE OP LADY GEORGIANS CAVENDISH. 115

It was at the close of this year that Lady Georgiana
Cavendish's marriage was settled with the Earl of Carlisle.
Miss Berry's continued and affectionate interest in her
welfare is warmly expressed in her letter of congratula-
tion to her brother, Lord Hartington, in answer to the
announcement of the intended marriage.

Little Strawb., Tuesday, Dec. 23, 1800.

Let me congratulate you upon what seems to give you all so
much pleasure, and which I enter into as heartily as I can,
considering how little I personally know the person in question.
I hope at least he is worthy of her, that he is aware of, and will
do justice to, her character. . . . She has a deep, serious,
thinking mind and a warmth and integrity of heart which will
constitute her happiness while doing right, and her misery if led
into error. What a character to set out with ! What ties upon
her good conduct in every relation of life ! It is he, he that is
to be congratulated. May he know, and deserve his happiness,
by contributing to hers !

Let us hope that, as she deserves all good, all good awaits
her, which no heart but your own can invoke more sincerely,
or rejoice in more thoroughly, than that of your faithfully
attached

M. BERRY.

i 2

116 PKIVATE THEATRICALS AT STRAWBERRY HILL. [1801

PEIVATE THEATEICALS AT STKAWBEEEY

HILL.

1801.

THE only entry in Miss Berry's Memoranda, for this
year, is, that the amusement ' of private theatricals at
Strawberry Hill was repeated, and,for the first time, a
comedy in five acts, written by Miss Berry herself, and
entitled c Fashionable Friends,' was performed by the
troop of amateur actors. The Prologue and Epilogue
were contributed by her friend Miss Joanna Baillie,*
and are pleasing specimens of that kind of composition.
The parts were cast as follows : —

FASHIONABLE FRIENDS.

COMEDY in Five Acts.

Dramatis Persones.

Sir Dudley Dorimant . . . Lord MOUNT EDGCUMBE.

Sir Valentine Vapour . . . Mr. BEERY.

Mr. LoveU Mr. BROWNLOW NORTH.

John Mr. CAMPBELL.

Lapierre Mr. BURST.

Doctor Syrop ....

Lady Selina Vapour . . . Honourable Mrs. DAMER.

Mrs. Lovett Miss BERRY.

Mrs. Rackett Mrs. BURN.

Miss Rackett Miss A. BERRY.

Trimming Lady ELIZABETH COLE.

* Miss Berry's intimacy with this distinguished authoress appears to have
been well established at this time, and she preserved to the last a very high
opinion of Miss Baillie's poetical powers, and the greatest esteem and affec-
tion for her character.

1801] * FASHIONABLE FEIENDS.' 117

PROLOGUE TO THE « FASHIONABLE FEIENDS.'*

BY MISS JOANNA BAILLIE.

IN ancient times, when harvest's yellow store,

In barns well lodged, call'd to the field no more,

And good folks sat the cheerful fire about,

And merry mummers play'd, and loud laugh'd every lout,

Winter approach'd with no forbidding grace,

And dull November wore a waggish face.

In the same season, whilst our favour'd land

Toasts Ceres' bounty and the olive wand,

We Ve dight us out in guise and motley geer,

And thus before these friendly ranks appear.

As heretofore you 've been, Oh ! be ye still

The gentle judges of our mimick skill !

Before you now we bring — I will aver it —

A comedy of no ignoble merit,

If wit, and sense, and unstrained nature may

Its listed pleader warrant so to say.

Such as to please had own'd no humble pow'rs,

Taste, not perhaps quite so refined as ours,

In other days, when plays, as plays have been,

Were written to be heard as well as seen,

And gleams of cheering favour sometimes thrown

On what was said as well as what was shown.

But times, like the clos'd scen'ry of a play,

With all their good old fashions, pass away.

If nought but plot and bustle can engage

(That hunt-the-slipper bus'ness of the stage)

• Hainpstead, October 14, 1801.

I send you a plain simple Prologue of no pretensions, but such I hope as
you will not dislike ; if you do, throw it aside, and I shall not be at all
offended. Whatever 1 have done in the way of poetry I am sure I have
lied well for you, and that is all the merit I can claim. I should have sent
it to you sooner, but I have been very much occupied in a great many
divers ways, and of all things I hate at present to write one word more
than I can possibly help.

I hope you receive pleasure from this blessed prospect of peace that is
opened upon us so suddenly. I have rejoiced heartily, and paid for our
clay and candles with no begrudging spirit. Perhaps it opens to you some
pleasant views independent of the public good. If it does, may they prove
in reality such as your imagination represents them.

Farewell! and let me hear soon how you do.

Yours affectionately,

J. B.

118 PRIVATE THEATRICALS AT STRAWBERRY HILL. [1801

Your much-priz'd favour now, so let it be,
I drop my claim, and urge another plea.
This piece an outcast helpless foundling stands,
Whose uncapp'd head receives from worldly hands
No kind endearing stroke. ' Out on the brat !
'Tis harelipp'd, ricketty, and blear' d, and squat,,
And squints, and halts. Away, I can't abide ! '
Alas ! no partial parent smiles beside.
But do the generous such sternness show
To the outcast and the unown'd ? 0 no !
They look on such still with a friendly eye,
And in its form ev'n added beauties spy ;
As left and lonely things, with wondrous grace,
Wave their neglected heads in some unbidden place.
Then to this gen'ral sympathy confess'd,
A native inmate of each gentle breast,
I'll freely leave it, with no anxious fear,
To meet the judgment that awaits it here.

EPILOGUE.

BY MISS JOANNA BAILLIE.

WHILST fogs along the Thames' damp margin creep,

And cold winds through his leafless willows sweep,

And fairy elves, whose summer sport hath been

To foot it lightly on the moonlight green,

Now, hooded close, in many a cowering form,

Troop with the surly spirits of the storm ;

Whilst by the blazing fire, with saddled nose,

The sage turns o'er his leaves of tedious prose,

And o'er their new-dealt cards, with eager eye,

Pale dowagers look and smile, or inly sigh,

And blooming maids from silken work-bags pour,

Like tangled sea-weed on the vexed shore,

Of patch-works, nettings, fringe, a strange and motley store ;

Whilst all, attempting many a different mode,

Would from their shoulders hitch times' heavy load,

Thus have we chose, in comic sock bedight,

To wrestle with a long November night.

' In comic sock ! ' methinks indignant cries

Some grave fastidious friend, with angry eyes,

Scowling severe, ' No more the phrase abuse !

So shod indeed there had been some excuse,

But in these walls, once a well-known retreat,

Where taste and learning kept a fav'rite seat;

Where Gothic arches, with a solemn shade,

1801] EPILOGUE TO ' FASHIONABLE FRIENDS.' 119

Should o'er the thoughtful mind their influence spread ;

Where pictures, vases, busts, and precious things,

Still speak of sages, poets, heroes, kings,

On which the stranger looks with pensive gaze,

And thinks upon the worth of other days ;

Where learning's rock, the time-defying Press,

Hath oft sent forth, prankt in its wordy dress,

The new-coin'd thought, in fair and goodly print,

Sterling and bright as guinea from the Mint ; —

Like foolish children in their mimick play,

Confined at grandame's on a rainy day,

Who borrow'd robes o'er stools and benches sweep,

And thro' chink'd doors and tattered curtains peep,

With paltry farce, and all its bastard train,

Grotesque and broad such precincts to profane!

It is a shame — but no, I will not speak ;

It makes the blood rise mantling to my cheek.'

Indeed, wise Sir ! Perhaps 'tis very true ;

But lack a day ! what will not woman do ?

Ah ! he who o'er our heads those arches bent,

And stored these relics dear to sentiment,

More mild than you, with grave pedantic pride,

Would not have ranged him on your surly aide.

But now to you, who on our frolic scene

Have look'd well pleased, and gentle critics been,

Who have received, with minds from caption freed,

The better will, for the imperfect deed,

Nor would our homely humour proudly spurn,—

To you, the good, the gay, the fair I turn,

And thank you all ; if, here, our feeble powers

Have lightly wing'd for you some wintry hours ;

If these remembered scenes, that now are past,

Shall on some future minutes pleasure cast ;

Shall still amidst your mazy fancies gleam,

Or on your pillow hang one pleasant dream ;

To right good end we 've worn our mumming guise,

And we 're repaid and happy — ay, and wise !

Who says we are not ; on his sombre birth

Gay Fancy smil'd not, nor heart-light'ning Mirth,

Home let him hie to his unsocial rest,

And heavy set the night mare on his joyless breast !

The following verses may be considered as a tribute to
the success of 4 Fashionable Friends,' written by some
approving spectator, but no name is given : —

120 PRIVATE THEATRICALS AT STRAWBERRY HILL. [1801

Verses sent to Mrs. Darner after the first representation of the
' Fashionable Friends ' at Strawberry Hill, Nov. 1801.

Sweet be the rest and undisturbed
That crowns the pleasant toil to-night,
And long may its remembrance live,
Long, long be cherish'd with delight.

Or if the spirits, highly wrought,
Court not so soon th' oblivious hour j
If e'en in slumbers unsubdued,
Genius and Fancy yet have power ;

(Since all that beauties choose to say
With faith implicit is receiv'd,
Since ladies never yet could lie,
And tales so grave are sure believ'd,)

0 ! may the parent of your child,
For your fond cares his thanks bestow,
Farquhar support the trembling sprite,
While Darner wreathes his modest brow.

Mark how he bends to sprightly Burn,
See how he kneels at Berry's feet,
And owns that, but for Edgcumbe's worth,
He could have punish'd foul deceit

That youth — O'Brien is his name ?
His hand the grateful Bard shall seize,
Glad on some stage to find again
One gentleman who moves with ease.

The vision flies — but not in dreams
Alone shall live this pleasant night,
For long shall its remembrance live,
Long, long be cherish'd with delight.

The more critical prose opinion, which appears to have
been written by some other spectator, but to whose MS.
no name is appended, was certainly encouraging to give
a wider publicity than that of private theatricals to
' Fashionable Friends.'

The great strength of the play is witty sprightly dialogue,
kept up uniformly throughout, without ever flagging in any
part ; and in the great skill with which one of the chief cha-
racters, Lady Selina, is drawn : the weakness, if it has any,
seems to me to be this, that the plan and conduct of the plot

1801] ' FASHIONABLE FRIENDS.' 121

resemble those of many plays that we have already, and the
first part of the play has, perhaps, less action carried on in it
than the present taste in plays may require. I think, however,
that its strength will do more than get the better of its weak-
ness, and that represented in a theatre where the dialogue may
be distinctly heard, it will meet with the warmest applause.

The event of the following year unhappily proved that
this prophecy was not fulfilled.

122 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso-2

1802.

THE state of the Continent now enabled Miss Berry
again to indulge in her taste for foreign travel, and after
an interval of eleven years, she left England with Mrs.
Darner, on a visit to Paris.

A visit of scarcely more than a month's duration, to a
foreign country, can furnish but little deeper than surface
knowledge of its social and political condition ; in so short
a time, little can be gathered which does not come under
the traveller's own immediate observation.

Miss Berry made notes of what she saw and of who she
saw. The social habits and the persons composing the
society through which she was now passing, had under-
gone great changes since she had last been in France,
and she set down in detail whatever came before her eyes.
Her Journal is, strictly speaking, a daily account of what
she saw and did at Paris, and nothing more ; it contains
neither essays, speculations, or prophecies. She saw and
made acquaintance with many whose names had already
become historical, but had more opportunity of observing
their personal appearance than of judging of their cha-
racter or conversation ; to her it was the exchange from the
misty ideas associated with mere names, to the substantive
reality of living men, and though the perusal of her
Journal cannot impart a similar gratification to others,
it tends to approximate the reader to those times and
scenes, to which he is thus introduced, by an eye-witness.

Miss Berry was much impressed with the magnificence
of the interior decorations of the Tuileries, and of the
official houses of ministers, &c. ; but so great has been
the subsequent development of manufacturing power and

1802] FROM LOXDOX TO DOVEE. 123

tasteful skill, that many objects which then excited her
surprise by their richness and splendour, are now within
reach of moderate fortunes to procure, and the silk
hangings, embroidered muslins, rich candelabra, and orna-
mental furniture, &c., are to be found repeated over
and over again in the large country-houses of England.
Some allowance must also be made for the heightened
effect which novelty and fashion give to whatever is
decorative. It would seem, for instance, that in 1802
the combination of mahogany and ormolu, carried with
it ideas of richness and elegance, that it would not now
convey, and handsome mirrors were thought to have
gained in effect by light drapery, in place of the massive
gold frames now again so highly prized ; but Miss Berry
was an experienced judge of luxury and magnificence,
and the impression conveyed to her mind by what she
saw of republican splendour was no doubt correct, ac-
cording to the taste of the time.

JOURNAL.

Monday, March 8th. — Left London at half-past eleven
o'clock, arrived at Sittingbourne at seven in the evening.
The road from London to Dartford so very deep in stiff
mud that four horses could hardly drag the coach (though
by no means heavy) at more than a foot's pace for several
miles together. The morning foggy and very cold. No
great road that I know in England is so tedious to travel
as this to Dover ; the stages are long, the road continually
up and down hills, several of which are long and severe,
and the postilions in all the stages stop at a half-way
house to give their horses water. To go from London
to Dover in one day would at the best time of the year
be a very long day's journey.*

* This once laborious day's journey is now accomplished in 2 hours and
20 min. ; and that from London to Paris in 9 hours.

124 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso-2

Tuesday r, 9^A. — Arrived at Dover at half-past one
o'clock. The day bright and sunny, but cold, with a
great deal of wind at north-east. The country about
Canterbury pretty, even at this bare season. Saw Dover
Castle from a hill six miles from Dover. The York Hotel
at Dover much more cheerfully situated, looking to the
sea, than the ' City of London,' and the accommodation
much better. Since dinner I have walked down to the
pier ; though I have twice landed here before from France,
I was always sick and sorry, and in a hurry to get away,
and never walked about the place. It is picturesquely
situated close under its high chalk cliffs, the most elevated
point of which is surmounted by its fine and extensive
castle, its inner and outer harbour, both crowded with
shipping, which interrupts the view of a number of mean-
looking houses. All this I have seen this afternoon
lighted up by a bright sun, and it has struck me very
much. Had we arrived here a couple of hours sooner,
so as to have got our carriage on board, and to have
saved the tide, there was wind enough to have carried
us to Calais in two hours and a half ; but having missed
the day's tide, it would be useless to sail in the night, as
at whatever time we reached Calais we should be kept
on board our vessel till the morning.

Wednesday, lO^A. — A clear sunny day, with hardly a
cloud. Went on board the Swift, Captain Blake, at
Dover quay, at eleven o'clock ; got to Calais harbour at
ten minutes past four, and alongside the quay in ten
minutes more, the same tide carrying us from one
harbour to the other. The pier and the quay were
crowded with sailor-looking people, as there was another
English packet just leaving the quay with a number of
passengers.

A shabby custom-house officer immediately came on
board the vessel (an old invalid officer or soldier, I know
not which), begged to see our passports, and desired us to

1802] CALAIS. 125

write down our names and nations. We were kept on
board till somebody from the vessel had gone and re-
turned to some municipal officer ; not the smallest rude
comment or remark was made upon us by the crowd
upon the quay, and the moment the captain said we
might leave the vessel, half a dozen dirty civil hands
were held out to help us up the ladder. With the
captain of our vessel and the old invalid (or whatever
he was) we proceeded first to one of the low small
houses close by the quay, where our names and nations
were again set down, and then to a sort of bureau of the
custom-house, where we were desired to declare if we
had anything upon us contre les droits ; our declaration
in the negative being immediately taken, we went, still
with our captain, our old invalid, and M. Quillaque (the
successor of M. Dessein), who had now joined us, to
the Hotel de Ville, where the commissaire de police read
our passport, and everyone answered to their names.
Here we left our pass from M. Otto * with a promise
from the commissaire that we should have his that even-
ing. All these ceremonies passed without any rudeness,
impertinent questions, or delays whatsoever.

From the Maison de Ville we went directly to Des-
sein's, and were in possession of a very comfortable
apartment by five o'clock. The only thing that I re-
marked with surprise at Calais was that in passing from
the quay through the gates and the market-place, and
from thence to the inn, I did not see one single soldier
except a sentinel at the door of the Maison de Ville.
Pessein's inn is very clean and comfortable, but neither
the cooking nor the wine good, and immoderately dear.

* Louis Guillaume Otto, a native of Baden, was the French commissioner
for prisoners in England. He was born 1754 ; employed in early life by M.
de la Luzerae, made Comte de Moslay by Buonaparte in 1805, and a Peer
of France by Louis XVIII. — Correspondence of Lord Cornwallis, vol. iii.
p. 385.

MISS BERET'S JOURNAL. [isoa

Thursday, 1.1th. — Left Calais between eight and nine
o'clock. The first thing that must strike anybody who
knew the appearance of this part of the country formerly,
is the improved state of cultivation, all the land looking
clean, well cropped, and neatly ploughed, and the cottages
cleaner (on the outside at least) and infinitely more com-
fortable than they were. I think, too, those scattered
about the country were more numerous than formerly.
The people, the children particularly, struck me as look-
ing much better, fatter, fairer, and better fed.* The only
buildings that wear a melancholy and ruinous appearance
in the country are the poor churches, all of which, even
in the little villages, have their windows broken, the tops
of their spires knocked off, and with most of them their
roofs falling to pieces ; at the same time I believe they
are almost all used. Those belonging to abbeys, of
which in the course of this day's journey we passed two
or three, are, for the most part, actually pulled down.
They have been sold to individuals with ground belong-
ing to the establishment, and have been taken down piece-
meal as they found means of using or disposing of the
materials.

The road between Calais and Montreuil is excellent.
Between every change of horses there is now one, and
generally two turnpikes, — a simple bar, which would,
in case of necessity, push across the road, not like our
gates. The tolls are very high (for a berlin with six
horses and a courier, 57 livres between Calais and
Paris, 2Z. 7s. 6d.), and I find, it is supposed, at present,
that the necessities of the Government do not allow much

* Miss Berry's personal observations on this subject fully bear out M.
de Tocqueville's opinions, written about fifty years later : — ' La revolution
d'ailleurs n'avait pas accable" le pays d'une maniere e"gale ; quelques-uns en
avaient porte" le faix, un grand nombre y avaient trouve" des biens tres-pre-
cieux mele's aux maux qu'elle causait. Je crois que le peuple proprement
dit avait e'te' beaucoup moins atteint dans son bien-etre qu'on ne se 1'imagine
commune'ment.' — CEuvres et Correspondance inedites d1 Alexis de Tocqueoitte,
par Gustave de Beaumont.

1802] CALAIS TO MONTREUIL. 127

of it to go to the conservation of the road. However,
there were many people working where it was out of
repair. At Saumer, a wretched little town two posts
from Boulogne, where the carriage, according to the
ancien regime, was surrounded by beggars, I observed
the first tree of liberty I have yet seen. It was a shabby
little lime, which had been transplanted when too old to
flourish, and was surrounded by a little white railing, in
the place or market-place.

At Montreuil, where we slept, 1'Eglise de Notre Dame,
the principal church in the town, is an entire ruin,
nothing remaining but a part of the walls, the broken
tracery of some very handsome Gothic windows, and
one or two of the Gothic pillars of the inside. On
questioning the people at the inn at what time their
church was demolie, they all denied it being demo-
lished, and said it had fallen down. At last the maid
who was waiting upon us owned that it had been
pulled down — that a rich individual of the town had
bought the church and meant to preserve it, but that the
people of the place, dans le temps de la terreur (which
they now all talk of as if it had taken place in the
days of St. Louis), had threatened him with the guil-
lotine if he did not allow it to be destroyed, and so,
indeed, it has been most completely. But what struck
us extremely, was the sort of shyness which the people
had, both to ourselves and servants, of owning this, or
allowing it to have been demolished, as if they considered
it as a disgrace. Two convents were likewise destroyed
in this little town. It possessed no less than seven
churches ; the one I have mentioned is the only one
destroyed, but of the seven there are but two open for
worship. All the chateaux (of which we passed several
small ones in this day's journey) in part or in whole shut
up and visibly neglected, but not defaced or pulled down.

Friday, \'2th. — Left Montreuil. The road sandy and
the country near it very open, but everywhere well

128 MISS BERET'S JOURNAL. [1502

cultivated. Much wood about a long straggling village
through which we passed, all the houses thatched, and
every one having a gardener an orchard belonging to them.

At Namport, the first post from Montreuil, a wretched
village, a shabby wooden cross is still subsisting, placed
against a bank, the first I have seen in France. Of a
large chateau very near the road, in a village near Nou-
vion, the windows were broken and shut up, and the woods
and walks neglected but not cut down. Abbeville, which
is a large town, struck me as looking very wretched ; in-
deed, it is the appearance of the country, its culture, and
its inhabitants, not of the towns and little bourgs, that is
improved. The fortifications of Abbeville seem quite
neglected, and in some places pulled down. I observed
fixed against the gate a Defense aux Citoyens, in the name
of liberte and egalite, to pull down or injure the walls, &c.
There is a small barrack near the gate, at the entrance of
which I saw a dragoon, absolutely the first soldier (the
sentinel at Calais excepted) I have seen in France. While
our horses were changing, observing a church very near
the post-house less mutilated than usual and open, I ran
over to see it. It was in tolerable good order inside, with
some pictures remaining, and the brass candlesticks of the
principal altar. In each of the side aisles was a priest
standing at a table and surrounded by above a hundred
poor ragged children of both sexes, whom he was hearing
their catechism. Eoad beyond Abbeville planted with
apple trees on each side for several miles, all of which are
in good order, and many young ones neatly and carefully
planted.

Flexcourt and Pecquigny are wretched villages in the
old style, full of beggars. At Flexcourt we were detained
twenty minutes for horses. Near Pecquigny, on the bank
of the Somme, is the very large Abbaye du Garde.* The

* The Abbaye du Garde is occupied by monks of the order of La Trappe.
— Murray's Handbook, 1844. The present proprietor of the Abbaye du Garde
is M. Bocquillon de Genlis. 1860.

1802] AMIENS. 129

church is entirely pulled down. The Abbaye, which
looks like a large modern-built chateau, is purchased by
a negociant of Amiens, who inhabits it as his country
house. Immediately above the village of Pecquigny is a
large chateau of the Cte. D'Artois's,* with half the roof
off and otherwise quite ruined.

Arrived at Amiens, through a very long, straggling,
dirty faubourg. The town itself looks well, and has
wide and good streets. The cathedral here has not been
touched, and the people boast they have heard much
more than they have seen of the Eevolution. We sent
a note to Lord Cornwallis to enquire after him, asking his
orders for Paris. Mr. Merry f knew of our coming, and
was with us in an hour after we arrived. The account
he gave of the way in which the negotiators pass their
time at Amiens was curious. Lord Cornwallis riding
every morning, and Joseph Buonaparte not getting up
till one or two o'clock. The conferences, which are very

* The Castle of Pecquigny was built at the end of the fifteenth century.
Madame de Sevigne" thus describes it in her letter, dated April 27, 1639 : —
' C'est un vieux batiment (Sieve" au-dessus de la ville comme Grignan ; un
parfaitement beau chapitre comme en Grignan ; un doyen, douze chanoines ;
je ne sais si la fondation est aussi belle, mais ce sont des terrasses sur la
riviere de Somme qui fait cent tours dans les prairies ; voila ce qui n'est
point a Grignan. II y a un camp de Ce"sar a un quart de lieu d'ici, dont on
respecte encore les tranche'es.'

The castle of Pecquigny was sold by Jean d'Ailly, in 1774, for 500.000 frs.
to M. de Ber, who resold it the following year to the Jew Calmer ; finding
his religion deprived him of the power of appointing to the dependent
livings, he resold it to the Comte d'Artois, who kept it till the Revo-
lution. The castle was then sold as national property. It belongs now
to the Baron Adrien de Morgan, Membre du Conseil General de la Somme,
who bought it twelve or fifteen years ago from the post-master at Pec-
quigny.

f Lord Cornwallis, in writing to a friend, says of his mission : — ' My
family on this occasion is circumscribed, and, exclusively of Mr. Merry, who
hiv, been negotiating at Paris, and Mr. Moore, of the Secretary of State's
office, who is to act under him, consists only of Lt.-Col. Li ttlehales, and
Lt.-Cc.l. Nightiugall.' Mr. Andrew Merry married, in 1803, the widow of
John Leather, Esqr., was Minister in France, the United States, Denmark,
and Sweden, from April 1802 to April 1809. He died 1836.— Corre-
spondence of Lord Comioallis, vol. iii. p. 384.
VOL. II. K

130 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

frequent, never begin till three or four, and last till dinner,
which is never sooner than six, seven, or eight o'clock.
These dinners are confined to a round of four or five
houses, of which the Prefect and the Mayor of the town
are two, and they are all heartily tired of always seeing
the same faces. These dinners, however, last a very short
time ; the carriages are kept waiting, and then they all
go to the theatre, except our good Lord Cornwallis, who
sits on quietly drinking a glass of wine with anybody
who will sit with him.*

Saturday, 13^. — Left Amiens. In the very open
country I observed some women for the first time working
in the fields. Beyond St. Just, for a quarter of a mile,
the road so bad that I think in wet weather a heavy
English berlin would not have been able to pass, but
everywhere a quantity of materials are to be seen ready
collected for repairs. At Breteuil a large new chateau
more than half demolished. At Clermont is a large park
of the Due de Fitz- James, f The house is entirely

* This account is fully confirmed by the following extracts from a letter
of Lt.-Col. Nightingall : — ' Nobody need envy us ; the only thing like
comfort is on those days when we dine quietly at home by ourselves, and as

for amusements, there are none of any kind We meet every day the

same people, and always the same formal parties at dinner. The company
consists of Joseph Buonaparte, who is rather the best among them, though
he has not at all the manners of a gentleman ; he means, however, to do well
and to be civil. His wife (Maria Julia Clary, m. 1794) is a veiy short, very
thin, very ugly, and very vulgar little woman, without anything to say for
herself. The Dutch Ambassador is, I think, above par, and his wife, who
has been pretty, has more the manners of a gentlewoman than any one here.
The next in the list is the Prefect (Nicholas Marie Quinette, afterwards
Baron de Rochemont). He is a very ill-looking scoundrel, and was a mem-
ber of the National Convention . . . This man is not likely to become a
bosom friend of ours. . . . The next are the Mayor and his wife. . . . We
have generally one or two great dinners a week — dine once at Joseph's and
once at Schimmelpennick's, and sometimes with the Mayor or Prefect. As
there is no variety whatever, you are now in possession of our style of living
at Amiens. ... I forgot to mention that when we dine out we get nothing
fit to eat or drink, which does not add much to the pleasure or satisfaction
of the party.' — Correspondence of Lord Cormvallis, vol. iii. p. 436.

+ The park and chateau, formerly the property of the Duke de Fitzjames,
are passed on the right (from St. Just) shortly before reaching Clermont

1802] FKOM CHANTILLY TO PAKIS. 131

pulled down, and there are breaches in the park wall
every here and there, but the trees are untouched and
nourishing. The country about Clermont and Lingue-
ville, and between it and Chantilly, very pretty.

Sunday, 14^. — Not a single tree cut down in the road
between Chantilly and Paris. The chateau at Chantilly
totally demolished ; the stables remained, and have been
used as dragoon barracks. The town. through which we
passed (for the inn, a new one, is beyond the town)
looked, I thought, much worse than formerly. At a
village between Lusarche and Ecouen, where there is a
large stone church undefaced, many people were going
to church. At another village, upon another undefaced
church the words Temple de la Raison were painted over.
Most of the churches between Chantilly and Paris are
less injured than any that we have yet seen. I wish I
could say as much of the venerable and beautiful church
of St. Denis, now christened la Franqiade, but univer-
sally called St. Denis. Its roof is more than half off,
that is to say, nothing but the broken charpente left, which
has the most melancholy appearance possible, and one of
its spires is quite destroyed, down to the tower, from
which it rose. The corresponding spire seems to have
been spared, and the portail and the beautiful Gothic
tracery of the east window appeared to me, as I saw it
(en passant], not much injured. The entrance to Paris
this way was never striking, and we had got into the
Chaussee d'Autin, now called the Eue du Mont Blanc,
and stopped at Perregaux's* door, before I knew where
we were. The Boulevard struck me, as it always did,
with its appearance of gaiety, though I think the large

sur Oise. — Murray's Handbook, 1834. The present owner is M. de Beau-
mesril. 1860.

* Jean Frederic Perre'gaux, Senator and President of the Bank at Paris,
was born at Neufchatel, in Switzerland. He established one of the first
banking houses in Paris, and was much favoured by Xapoleon. — Diet, des
Contemporains.

K 2

132 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1302

houses looked less well painted and less well kept up
than they used to be. From Perregaux's door we drove
to the Hotel de 1'Empire, Eue Cerutti, a street above the
Boulevard where we had taken an apartment. The salon
was adorned with great glasses and expensive pieces of
furniture, but was by no means as comfortable as any
apartments I ever occupied before in Paris, and is at the
enormous price of eighteen louis for fifteen days, or thirty
for a month. After a little consideration, a little mur-
muring, and a good deal of regret at losing time in getting
settled, we sent the maid and the courier in search of
another in the Faubourg St. Germain, the quarter of
Paris to which we were both most accustomed. After a
tedious absence they returned, having been in more than
half-a-dozen hotels which were all full, but saying that
we might have the first floor of the Hotel d'Orleans, Eue
des Petits Augustins, for the next day, at the rate of five
louis a week. The hotels in the F. St. Germain are no
longer the fashion, as they used to be. The brilliant
quartier is the one we left, and is -so far convenient that it
is now near all the theatres, and in the Hotel de 1'Empire
there are certainly most elegant apartments, arid indeed
they ought to be so, for Mr. Caulfield, a young Irishman,
was occupying one for which he paid ninety louis a
month. The rest of the house was full of English. "We
hoped, in spite of our .unsettled state all the morning, that
in the evening at least we should be able to go to some
one of the theatres in some loge grillee of Perregaux's, as
in former days. Mais, point du tout, Perregaux never
came ; and we spent the evening in posting our journals,
not without often complaining, with Titus, diem perdidi.

Monday, 15.2A. — Left the Hotel de 1'Empire in a fiacre,
of which, by-the-bye, there are more than ever at Paris,
and certainly better than they used to be, though by no
means * good carriages,,' as in England we heard they were.
There are as many chariot-fiacres as coaches, and, in

1802] THE LOUVRE.

addition to these, there are long stands of cabriolets to
hire in the same way, in almost every quartier of Paris,
and both the horses, the harness, and the carriages are
much neater and better-looking than one could possibly
expect. They have all a number painted upon them, as
the hackney coaches, and are obliged at night to have
lamps lighted and at all times a grelot under the horse's
neck or somewhere about the harness. So have all the
cabriolets belonging to individuals, and all are under the
same obligations with respect to lanterns and grelots. In
our chariot-fiacre (chariots seem to be considered as the
genteeler of the two) we arrived at our Hotel d'Orleans,
where I found not one pin had been altered since I knew
it sixteen years ago ; consequently, it was not a little dirty
as to hangings, painting, and furniture.

Eeceived a visit from Barrois, the son of a great book-
seller here, whom we knew formerly with Edwards* in
London, and whom Edwards had desired to come to us
as soon as we arrived. From him, a very sensible, unpre-
judiced young man, we learnt a number of things by no
means favourable to the present state of affairs in this
country, and from him and his sentiments could pretty
well guess at the opinions, the fears, the prejudices, and
the prospects of the far greater part of the better order
of people, if not in France, at least in Paris.

At one o'clock went to the Gallery of the Louvre.
To strangers it is open every day (except the Decades)
from ten till four, by merely showing their passports
at the door. To give any idea of this gallery is quite
impossible. You ascend to it (at present) by a com-
modious plain staircase, and first enter a large square
room about twice the size of the exhibition room in
Somerset House, lined with all the finest Italian pictures,
very well placed as to light. Out of this room you enter

* A well-known bookseller in London : shop in Pall Mall.

134 MISS BEKRY'S JOURNAL. [l802

a gallery — such a gallery ! But such a gallery ! ! ! as the
world never before saw, both as to size and furniture !
So long that the perspective ends almost in a point, and
so furnished that at every step, tho' one feels one must go
on, yet one's attention is arrested by all the finest pictures
that one has seen before in every other country, besides
a thousand new ones. The small pictures, and all those
taken from palaces, are in their own handsome gilt frames,
but the large ones and those taken out of churches are,
for the present at least, only in flat frames of yellow wood.
The first half of this gallery contains the Flemish, Dutch,
and French schools ; about the middle there is a recess on
each side, from whence commences the Italian schools.
All I can say, and, indeed, all I could see, of the pictures
was, that each of these general divisions contained all the
noted and exquisite pictures that one had formerly ad-
mired in their separate countries. They appeared in very
good order, and not as if they had been varnished or
worked upon.* The light, too, is by no means bad, and
if they had blinds to the windows, as is intended, would
be as good as could be expected for such a multitude of
pictures. In the same immense gallery, on the ground
floor, are the statues, but here the space is divided into
several different rooms (called by the different names of
salle d'Apollon, salle des Muses, &c. &c.) or rather divi-
sions made by columns, all open one to another. The
walls are stucco, painted to look as if incrusted with red
and green granite, in a fine, simple style, worthy of Italy,
and at the same time very advantageous to the statues,
which are all a thousand times better placed than ever
they were in Italy, not excepting the Apollo, which stands
in a niche at the end of the rooms, and admirably

* Upon further examination, I am sorry to say, we found this not to be
the case with the Italian pictures of the old schools, which their reparations
are destroying. I mean destroying the identity of the picture and the touch
of the master. — M. 2?.

1802] VISIT THE THEATRE. 135

lighted. Of the statues, their numbers, their beauty, the
feelings they excited as old acquaintance, &c. &c., like
the pictures, I shall say nothing. In the gallery we met
Mrs. Cosway,* who is etching a general view of it, with
a little sketch of each of the pictures. She introduced
us to a secretary or keeper, M. de la Vallee, a modest quiet
man who seemed really to have taste, and showed us
many things.

In the evening we had intended going to the Theatre
Fran9ois, now called the Theatre de la Kepublique, but
rinding no places either in the first or second row, we
enquired of our valet de place (who in Paris are sort of
cicerones, and used to be extremely clever in their office)
in what other good theatre we were likely to get in. He
carried us to the Theatre de Vaudeville close by. We
were shown into a box au premier rang, where only one
man of very ordinary appearance was sitting in the front
row. We supposed he would offer us his place, mais
point de tout, he did not even look towards us ; he never
even made the least movement by way of inviting us to
sit beside him. This is indeed a revolution in France,
and such a one as I could not have believed if I had not
seen it ! We found ourselves in a good-sized theatre,
rather dirty but prettily ornamented, and filled by
people whose appearance certainly promised veiy little ;
but it is now quite as impossible to judge from appear-

* Maria Cosway, daughter of an innkeeper of the name of Hadfield, at
Leghorn, wife of the English artist of that name, and artist herself. After
her husband's death she went to Paris with the object of drawing the Gallery
of the Louvre, and accompanying each separate drawing with a history of the
picture and its painter. This intention was not fulfilled ; but she remained
at Paris, and became the devoted admirer of David the artist. After some
years' residence in Paris, tired of the pleasures of the world, she retired to a
convent near Lyons, of which she became the Superior. — Diet, des Contem-
porains. Mrs. Cosway was no new acquaintance of Miss Berry's. As early
as a letter dated June 8, 1791, Horace Walpole says, ' I am glad Mrs. Cosway
is with you. She is pleasing ; but surely it is odd to drop a child and her
husband and country all in a breath.'

136 MISS BEKRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

ances in France as it was formerly, though from directly
opposite reasons. We sat for a time behind our man,
who, to complete the business, chewed tobacco, and at
every instant spat into the empty place beside him ! In
time we obtained from the ouvreuse a stage-box, and
were thus relieved from the neighbourhood of the spit-
ting man, which had really made us sick. The appear-
ance of the men in this theatre was still worse than that
of the women — I mean more dirty and slovenly. More
of them were powdered than would have been in England,
but in great-coats, boots, and had in every way a neglected
appearance. The women were none of them indecently
dressed, but few smart, and all unbecoming. The sortie
of this little theatre is convenient, under cover, and one
carriage only, being able to come up at a time.

Tuesday, 16th. — Went to deliver some letters of in-
troduction to Madame Chabot de Castillane, to Madame de
Beauvau, and Madame de Mortemart, to Madame Louise
de Talleyrand Perigord, to Madame d'Audenarde, &c. It
used to be a necessary etiquette at Paris to deliver your
letters yourself, and even ask to be admitted before the
people knew you, and when they were to read the
letter in your presence, that was to tell them who you
were. But now sending them by a servant with a
ticket would, I believe, do quite as well. Went to
Madame le Eoi, at present the Mademoiselle Bertin of
Paris.* She is lodged in a ground-floor of a magni-
ficent hotel in the Eue de Eichelieu, now the Rue de
la Loi. She was very civil, and not at all pert ; but
if she had anything pretty, treated us en dames etran-
geres, and showed us nothing that I should have liked

* The well-known Mdlle. Rose Bertin was" dressmaker to Marie An-
toinette. During the Reign of Terror she was visited by commissaries of
the Government, desiring to know the amount and details of the queen's debts
to her ; but apprised of their intended visit, she destroyed her accounts,
and declared with unshaken firmness that the queen owed her nothing.
Mdlle. Bertin died in 1813. — Diet, des Cvntemporains.

1802] FRENCH OPERA AND BALLET. 137

to have worn, not on account of its singularity or youth-
fulness, but of its common vulgar look. Mrs. Darner
ordered a bonnet (at the price of two louis) to be made
on the model of one entirely of lace, which was to cost
seventy-two louis. The furniture of Madame le Eoi's apart-
ment was elegant in the extreme, purple lustring, festooned
a I' antique with a deep orange fringe. The chairs, &c. &c.,
mahogany, with the same furniture. Mahogany furniture
is, I find, become very general at Paris. In the evening
went to the Opera; in a box au premier, containing six
places, for which we paid the enormous price of 57 livres.
But the crowd is always great there, and on the beaux
jours, of which this was one, no possibility of securing
places in any other manner.

This theatre, built in the Eue Eichelieu, is new and
handsome. It has three rows of boxes, and some near
the stage, for the people of the theatre. The ornaments
are all in pale browns, and bronze, and gold, not very gay.
The lustre or circle of Argand lamps by which it is
lighted, in perfect taste. The pieces given were ' Ana-
cre'on' with a long dance introduced ; and, at the end,
' Telemaque.' Lays,* the first man of the opera, who was
Ariacreon, has a very fine voice, and the music very
pretty, and they were all perfectly well dressed a lf antique.
The head of Anacreon was perfect : but a French opera
is always a dull thing. The dancing is certainly more
marvellous than ever. I do not think it more pleasing.
In the first ballet there was only one entree of men, three
together, all the rest were women, of whom six were
capital dancers ; but the women now dance in the style
of men, that is to say, with all the difficult steps and
tours de force possible. A long pas de deux was per-
formed with such a perfect ensemble and precision, that

* Francis Lays, born 1757, was originally destined for the Church ; but
in 1779 he appeared on the stage, and continued a favourite with the public
till his retirement in 1822. — Diet, des Contemporains.

138 MISS BEREY'S JOUKNAL. [1502

one was obliged to rub one's eyes to feel sure it was not
two machines moved by the same strings. ' Telemaque '
was not half so well given as by D'Esrville in London.

»/

Vestris * was Telemaque — that style of dancing never
was what suited him best — he is still marvellous and
has movements that nobody else ever had, but he is
grown so much thicker that his figure looks ecrase and
his head too large ; his wig was bushy light hair, curled
all over. Mdlle. Clotilde was Calypso, f and at first
I did not much admire her figure, which is remark-
ably tall, but when she came in dressed for hunting, she
was the exact copy of the statue called the Diana Cacia-
trice, the drapery of which is open just above the knee,
and in my life I never saw such perfect legs, nor legs so
perfectly resembling those of the Apollo, into the atti-
tudes of which they fell a thousand times. All the other
women dancers were dressed in one petticoat of white
muslin, or something as thin, with another drapery of the
same stuff arranged in various ways about half as long as
the first, but both allowing the whole form to be fairly
perceived up to the waist, covered with flesh-coloured
tricot. Some of them had no covering above the waist
but flesh-coloured tricot, with some little strap on one
shoulder. The company at the Opera, though everybody was
there, did not appear brilliant; the women all wrapped
up in their frightful shawls, with heads by no means
looking dressed, and the men, even at this most favourite
spectacle, have a neglected, dirty appearance. Indeed, it
is at the sortie of the theatre that one of the wonderful
changes that have taken place in Paris is very decidedly

* Auguste Vestris, son of the celebrated dancer known by the name of
Dieu de la Danse, and who retired from the stage in 1781. Auguste Vestris,
like his father, was considered the best dancer of his time.

f Clotilde Augustine Malflattrai, born in 1776. She was pupil of the
elder Vestris, and appeared first in 1793. In 1802 she married Boildieu,
the composer, but her misconduct was such that in 1808 they were finally
separated. She quitted the stage 1819, and died 1826.

1802] APPEARANCE OF PARISIAN SOCIETY. 139

visible. That of the Opera, where one used to see bril-
liant groups of all the young people of fashion, and all
the fashionable filles who rivalled and surpassed them in
appearance, is now the strangest collection of odd, black-
guard-looking people that can be conceived. We stood
for some time waiting for our carriage, and had leisure to
remark them. I did riot see one woman who had the ap-
pearance of a gentlewoman, though there was one stand-
ing next me for some time who had a lace veil over her
hat which could not have cost less than sixty or eighty
guineas, and a large real shawl nearly as costly. The
order in going away is still very good in these great
theatres ; if one stays to the last, one is obliged to wait
some time for the carriage, but it is sure to come up and
get away without interruption or accident.

Thursday, 18th. — Went with Barrois to the Prefecture
de la police generate. The passport given at Calais (or
anywhere else on entering France) obliges you to show
yourself at this office as soon as possible, after your
arrival ; so people go within three or four days, as it
suits them, and say they arrived the day before. The
two men-servants went with us, as they are much more
difficult about men than about women. We passed up a
very dirty back stair into a large room full of as dirty-
looking clerks, into another partition of a large room,
where two or three other people were waiting for the
same business .as ourselves. The man to whom we spoke
was very civil, and after detaining us about a quarter of
an hour, copying our names into half-a-dozen books,
allowed us to depart ; but the servants were detained
nearly an hour before they made out the paper which is
given in lieu of the passport whilst staying in Paris. In
this office (where, if they do the business they are
appointed to do, it must be immense), all the papers are
kept in bandboxes on shelves round the rooms. One
might have fancied oneself at a milliner's instead of an
office of police.

140 MISS BEKRY'S JOURNAL. [1302

In the evening to the Theatre de la Kepublique, for-
merly called Fran9ais. This, too, is a new salle : the
beautiful one in the Faubourg St. Germain was burnt
down, and another was built before this, which did not
please. This has no right to better success, for it is
both ugly and inconvenient. They have had the rage
of making everything a I' antique lately, and this house is
quite spoilt by too many columns and too small apertures
for boxes. There is an amphitheatre, called la galerie,
of two rows, entirely round the house, in which,, when
people stand, they prevent those in the side boxes from
seeing, and when they speak, from hearing. The piece,
'Bazazet,' * acted by the four actors of the theatre. Mdlle.
Eaucourt,f now a great fat red-faced woman, acted Eoxane
in the worst taste possible — violent inflexions of voice,
and sometimes speaking three or four lines together
entirely in a whisper, which was meant to have great
effect, but which in fact only prevented her being heard.
Mdlle. Vanhove,J in Athalie, much better : her figure is
not dignified for tragedy, but her acting natural and im-
passioned. The Vizir Acomat well acted by Dupres— a
fine figure, clear enunciation, and much spirit without
rant. The dresses handsome, and scrupulously exact in
costume. It was followed by ' Defiance et Malice,' acted
by Saint Val § and Mdlle. Mezeray.|| She copied Mdlle.

* Racine.

t FratNjodse Marie Antoinette Sancerotte Raucourt, born 1756. She
made her debut at Paris 1772, and was enthusiastically received. In 1776
she lost favour with the public, and travelled abroad. In 1779 she returned
to Paris, and recovered her former popularity. In 1793 she was, during six
months, a prisoner in the Temple ; and afterwards, with other actors, re-
opened a second Theatre Franqais, and fortunately obtained the protection
of Bonaparte in 1799. In 1806 she opened a theatre at Milan. Died 1815.
— Eiog. Univ.

\ Afterwards married to Talma. Retired from the stage 1810.

§ Saint Val first appeared with great success in comedy. In 1793 he
was imprisoned with the other actors till 1794. He was afterwards much
admired as a tragic actor. Retired from the stage 1818 : died 1835.

|| Josephine Me"zeray, born 1772 ; appeared at the Theatre Francais 1791.
Her personal attractions and admirable acting in the parts of coquettes,

18C2] PARISIAN SHOPS. 141

Contat, but hand passibus equis. He is a stumpy ignoble
figure in comedy. Had I never seen the piece admirably
acted in society in England, I don't know that I should
ever have been as much pleased with it as I was.

Friday, Wth. — In the morning at shops. Vache, a
great silk mercer, is lodged in a vast hotel, Eue Vivienne,
under the same roof with Lignereuse, the successor of
d'Aquerre, and likewise with a considerable depot of
Sevres china. These sort of shops being in great hotels
is quite a new thing at Paris. Vache's magazin is in a
very large apartment, and consists of everything that has
to do with silk mercery, trimmings, &c. &c. ; it is reckoned
the first magazin in Paris. Lignereuse's disappointed me.
There were fewer things than I expected ; all in the most
expensive, and very few, if any, in real good taste. Of
mahogany and ormolu mixed together almost everything
is now composed ; and the ornaments of the candelabra,
the pendules, &c., in a minute frittered style. The new
Sevres china, too, is not in pretty taste : tortoise-shell,
steel, and all sort of odd dark colours form the ground of
the cups, with gold borders upon them.

Dined at Madame Chabot de Castellane, to whom Madame
de Staremberg had given us a letter. We were appointed
at half-past five. A prettyish house in a garden, Eue
Pluniet, Faubourg St. Germain. The lady herself looking
cross, but civil and sensible. Company consisted of nine
persons, of whom ourselves and the master and mistress
of the house and the instituteur of their children (who
dined at a side table) made five ; the others were Madame

secured her success. In 1794 she was imprisoned ; on her release she joined
Mdlle. Raucourt. The theatre was closed at the revolution of the 18th
Fructidor, on the ground of being a reunion of royalists. She reappeared at
the Theatre Franqais, but a professional jealousy disturbed her mind, and
she was found one night in a ditch full of water behind the Invalides.
The piteous cries of her little dog attracted attention to the spot, and she
was rescued, but died a few days later in a state of raving insanity, June
1823.— Biog. Univ.

142 MISS BERRY'S JOURXAL. [1802

de Stael, Mat. de Montmorency, M. de Crillon (a very
gentlemanlike Frenchman of the best sort of middle-aged
man). The dinner all served at once, except a remove of
fish and four plates of vegetables, which made more meat
on the table than ever I saw before in a French house.
The dinner lasted a still shorter time than formerly.

Saturday r, 2Qth. — Went to the Paper Magazin on the
Boulevard — formerly Arthur's, now Eobert's Papers. All
flock, of one colour, to look like casemir, with flock
borders ; very good effect. But here again the taste less
good than I expected.

In the evening went with Mr. Jackson to make visits
to some of the Ministers' wives — to Madame Lu9ay, the
wife of the Prefet du Palais, and Madame Fouche, of the
Minister of Justice. We sat out on this business a
little before ten. Got to Berthier's,* the War Minister,
who received on this day. He is lodged in a great
hotel, called the Hotel de la Genevre ; the staircase
dirty, and no appearance of servants or attendants. (At
all the Ministers' houses there are sentinels, not only at
the door but in the antechamber.) The apartment very
handsome. In the second room were a number of men
only ; in the third, where Berthier received (for he has
no wife), about a dozen women, and a great many men

* Louis Alexandra Berthier, born 1755; brought up as a soldier, he
remained faithful for a time to the Bourbons, and assisted the escape of the
aunts of Louis XVI. Under the republic he was made chef d'etat-major to
the army in Italy. In 1798 he commanded at Eome, when the Pope was
deposed. It is said he unwillingly accompanied Buonaparte to Egypt, having
fixed his affection on an Italian lady. On the downfall of the Directory,
1799, he became Minister of War. In 1806 created Prince de Neufchatel ;
and married Princess Elizabeth Marie of Bavaria-Birkenfeld. After the
campaign against Austria he was created Prince of Wagram. He accom-
panied Napoleon to Russia. In 1814, he returned to his old allegiance, and in
1815 accompanied Louis XVIII. to Ghent. Wishing to remain neutral, he
retired to Bamberg. Here he was murdered by six men in masks, supposed
to be emissaries of some secret societies, who, suddenly entering his room,
thrust him out of window into the street, from whence he was taken up
dying.

1802] BERTHIER. — CAMBACERES. — MACDOXALD. 143

in uniforms of some sort, either military or of the con-
stituted authorities. Berthier received us very civilly.
He is a little rather ill-looking man, with a crop curled
head of dark hair ; his dress the uniform of a Minister
d'Etat — blue cloth, with a broad silver embroidery. But
a greater revolution seems to me to have taken place in
the race of tailors than in that of any other set of men.
Nobody's coat is now well made, and more especially the
uniforms of the constituted authorities — they all look too
long and too big ; in short, like coats made by a village
tailor. Cambaceres,* the Second Consul, was among the
company : he came late, and was received without any
sort of distinction. He is an uncommonly ill-looking,
shortish, thick man, with his eyes sunk in his head ; his
hair badly dressed ; his dress the undress uniform of
the Consuls — blue velvet, with a broad gold embroidery,
fustian breeches, and common turn-down boots. General
Macdonaldf (he that commanded in Italy), neatly dressed
in uniform, like a soldier, and with a very intelligent
though not a noble countenance ; the hereditary Prince
of Orange, in his uniform ; the President of the Tribunat,
in his uniform — blue cloth, embroidered with gold, panta-
loons, and hussar boots bound with gold tassels. We

* Jean Jacques Regis de Cambaceres, born at Montpelier Oct. 1783 ; died
at Paris June 1824. He served as a deputy in the Convention 1792 ; be-
came President of the Assembly, and afterwards President of the Com-
mittee of Public Safety. He lost the confidence of the Directory, having
refused to vote ' La Mort du Tyran.' He was chosen by Buonaparte as
Second Consul. When Buonaparte became Emperor, Cambaceres was ap-
pointed ' Archi-Chancelier,' in which office he remained till the fall of
Napoleon.

f Stephen James Joseph Macdonald, Mare"chal of France, Duke of Ta-
rentum, born at Sedan in 1765, of a Scotch family long settled in France.
He distinguished himself at Jemappes, and, in 1795, at Menin Commines
and Courtrai, he passed the Wahl' on the ice, and captured the Dutch fleet.
At Wagram, created Marshal on the field of battle, he bore his part in the
Russian campaign, and fought at the battle of Leipsic, 1813. He attended
Napoleon at Fontainebleau, and urged his abdication. He afterwards ad-
hered to the Bourbons. He died in 1831.

144 . MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1502

found ourselves almost immediately surrounded by a
number of acquaintance whom we had met elsewhere —
the old original Princess Sta.Croce, looking quite as young
and well as ever she did in Italy, and quite as uncovered
as anybody in France ; Madame Doria from Genoa, &G.
&c. We were presented to a number of French women —
Mesdames de SemerviUe and Joubert,* Madame Le Con-
teuse, Madame de Marmont, Perregaux's daughter (married
to General Marmont, a favourite of Buonaparte), Madame
Visconti, a very handsome Italian, the mistress en titre of
the master of the house ; Madame de Stael too there. Most
of the ladies loaded with finery of shawls, laces, and a good
many diamonds, and abominably ill-dressed ; Madame Vis-
conti well dressed in black velvet, with only diamonds in
her head. The servants who served refreshments were in
boots. The ladies sat all round the room, as in a small
assembly in London ; and the men stood in the middle.
Here we remained till near twelve o'clock, when the
rooms began to be very thin.

Two people, a man and his wife, who kept a little
shop upon the Pont Neuf, were murdered last night at
half-past six, that is to say in daylight, with hundreds of
people passing every instant, and a Corps de Garde upon
the bridge ; these shops, too, being only the recess formed
by the top of the pier of the arches of the bridge, one
hardly conceives how it is possible for two people to let
themselves be egorges without calling for help, which must
have been near.

Sunday, 2~lst. — Walked in the Tuileries from the Place
de Louis XV. to the door at the Pont Eoyal. The day
was not fine, and threatened rain ; however, as the Decade

* Mdlle. de Montholon was married to General Joubert on the 16th of
July 1799, at the moment when he was ordered to take the command of the
army in Italy. He left his bride, according to some, the day after the mar-
riage ; according to others, a few days after ; they parted at Pont-de-Vaux,
never to meet again. On the 15th of August he was killed at the battle of
Novi.

1802] GARDENS OF THE TUILERIES. 145

and the Sunday happened to meet, a good many people
were walking in the alley next the Terrace des Feuillans ;
but there exists now little of that charming variety which
used to distinguish the public walks of Paris. All the
men are about equally ill-dressed ; and among the women
the old costume of different etats has almost vanished.
The parterre before the Palace is much prettier than it
was : in each former division of parterre they have made
a grassplat surrounded by borders, which divisions are
enclosed with a sort of rough treillage and very pretty
shrubs and plants growing well within. Several of the
statues have been removed from other places to the
terrace immediately before the Palace.

In the evening at the Theatre du Louvois, by far the
prettiest I have seen in Paris, both as to coupe and deco-
rations : the coupe is that of the burnt Theatre Fran9ais ;
the decorations, a pink or dark buff-coloured ground,
with arabesques, griffins, &c., in bronze colour ; the backs
of the boxes painted as if hung with blue cloth or silk.
The pieces given were ' Les Provinciaux a Paris,' followed
by ' La petite Ville ; ' both most laughable comedies, or
rather successions of scenes written by Picard,* himself an
excellent actor in both pieces — indeed, all the characters
were represented with that perfect naturel, that en-
semble only to be found on the French stage. In the
morning called on Madame de Stael. Found her in an
excessively dirty cabinet — sofa singularly so ; her own
dress, a loose spencer with a bare neck. The shops,
between its being both Decade and Sunday, were nearly
all half shut, and many altogether.

Monday •, 22nd. — In the morning, Statue Gallery

* Louis Benedict Picard, dramatist, born at Paris 1769 ; died in 1828.
His first production was ' Le Badinage Dangereux,' followed by a long suc-
cession of clever comedies. ' Le Contrat d'Union,' ' La Petite Ville,' and
' Les Marionettes,' are considered the best. He was also a writer of poems
and of novels. — Hose's Biog. Dictionary.
VOL. II. L

146 MISS BEKRY'S JOURNAL. [1302

and some brocantines. These shops at present contain
treasures of old Sevres china and rich ornaments of
all sorts, which have been bought for nothing out of the
great hotels, and are selling now for a fourth of their
original price.

In the evening to Madame de Lucy's, the wife of the
Prefet du Palais. This again was an assembly about as
numerous as that at Berthier's, but less well composed as
to women ; here again, was all the Corps Diplomatique :
Cardinal Caprera,* the Nonce du Pape, in his regular
cardinal's dress, Cardinal Erskine,f in that of a monsig-
nor ; he is as yet only a cardinal in petto as it is called,
consequently has no right to the dress. The same Italian
squad of women and some French, but dreadfully vulgar-
looking.

The apartment was too small for an assembly, but
arranged prettily enough, painted to look like panels of
satin-wood and mahogany. The mistress of the house a
pretty and very civil little person ; the master very civil
too, Men coiffe and not in uniform. To this meeting we
went at ten o'clock, came back to our hotel a little before
twelve to supper, and then started for a ball at what is called
the Circle des Strangers : it is given in a large and very
handsome hotel near or upon the Boulevards, in the Eue
Grange Batliere, and I believe the expenses are defrayed
by a club of men. We were told that here we should see
les nouveaux riches. If all the company consisted of them
they are numerous indeed ! It was a meeting of many

* Cardinal Caprera, born 1733 ; was sent to France in 1801, when the
First Consul solemnly re-established the ordinances of religion. The Car-
dinal led the Te Deum that concluded the ceremony on this occasion ; and
in 1805 he crowned the Emperor Napoleon King of Italy. He died in
1810. — Diet, des Contemporains.

t Charles Erskine, born at Rome 1753 ; descendant of a Scotch family
who followed the Stuarts into exile. Ke was made Cardinal by Pius VII.
and was well received by the First Consul. He died in 1811.— Diet, des
Contemporains.

1802] SOCIETY AT PARIS. 147

hundreds, I think not less than three hundred or four

hundred persons. There was a file of carriages of nearly

a quarter of a mile long on the Boulevard, another in the

street by which we came. In London this would have

been the means of breaking a dozen carriages ; here,

some soldiers stationed on the Boulevard allowed one

carriage of each file to come up successively. Of the

dress and the undress of the women in the ball, and the

appearance of the men, and indeed of the whole company,

I can give no idea. The little coloured prints of the

Paris fashions are exact unexaggerated representations of

their dresses, but in reality they are seldom exhibited upon

as handsome figures. Loads of finery in gold and silver,

excessively fine laces, bare necks and shoulders more than

half-way down the back, with the two bladebones squeezed

together in a very narrow-backed gown ; arms covered

with nothing but a piece of fine lace below the shoulder ;

and trains that never ended : in short, an endless variety

of bad taste, without one single figure that one's eye could

repose on with pleasure. Such were the women. Among the

men, in vain I looked for les merveilleux et les incroyables.

A general unsmartness of appearance pervaded them all ;

even those who we saw dance (and excessively well) a

French country dance. We left the bah1 between one and

two o'clock, with people still coming in. It continues all

night, and the company sup at any time they like in

separate rooms. I must not forget to say that these

extraordinary figures of men and women waltzing together,

in the slow and deliberate manner in which in France

they think it graceful to perform this dance, was ludicrous

in the extreme. From every circumstance, both of the

meeting and of the people composing it, it was nearly

impossible to believe oneself at Paris ; but then I should

add we were told that the principal part of the company

was what they call the second order of the nouveaux

riches.

i. 2

148 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso?

Tuesday, %3rd. — In the evening went to the Princess
de Beauvau's (Mdlle. de Montemart's sister), to whom
I carried a letter from Mrs. Harcourt : as I did not
even know that it was meant as one of introduction,
their civilities to us were the more marked. They are
lodged in a small house, the apartment more like an
English than a French one in size and furniture. Indeed,
having been all long in England, (Mdlle. de Monte-
mart from a child) they are much attached to English
manners, habits, and fashions, and speak English better
than any French persons I ever heard. We were the first
of the party ; after us came Madame de Bouillie (wife
to the son of the Marquis de Bouillie, an uncommonly
pretty, fair, quiet-looking young woman), Madame d'Hen-
nin, Madame de la Eochefoucauld (widow of the Due
who was assassinated*), the Due de Eohan-Chabot, his
nephew the Chevalier de Chabot, Mr. Jackson, Lord
Cowper, Mr. Luttrell f , and Lord Henry Petty. J We sat

* Louis Alex, de la Rochefoucauld supported warmly many of the doc-
trines of the Revolutionary party, but was not prepared to go the lengths
of its most violent partisans. He openly disapproved of the conduct of
Pethion and of Manuel in 1792. The friends of these men becoming the
dominant party, the Duke was insulted and persecuted. He left Paris ; but
his retreat was discovered, and assassins were sent to Gisors, where he
was murdered, Sept. 1793, aged circ. sixty years. His mother narrowly
escaped a similar fate. — Diet. Univ.

f Henry Luttrell, Esq., was distinguished through life by his conver-
sational powers ; he had a fund of anecdote at command and a ready flow
of epigrammatic wit ; but his satire, though pointed, was seldom calculated
to wound, and he was a favoured guest in every society in which he lived.
He was the author of ' Letters to Julia/ published 1822. Mr. Luttrell died
at an advanced age in 1851.

f Lord Henry Petty, second son of William, first Marquis of Lansdowne,
born 1780, succeeded to his brother's titles and estates, 1809 ; married Louisa
Emma, daughter of second Earl of Hchester ; died 1863. Miss Berry's
mention of Lord Henry Petty in. his early youth, can hardly be passed over
without a word of tribute to one who afterwards filled for so many years a
most prominent and useful position, both in public and social life. His
political career began at the age of twenty six, when he was appointed Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer. As a statesman, his sound judgment and consistent
principles secured him the confidence of those who acted with him, and the
respect of those who were opposed to him. His liberal encouragement

1802] ST. ROC. 149

round a very small room in conversation, these people
dropping in at different times till twelve o'clock, when a
cold supper was served in one of the coldest dining-rooms
I ever felt ; we returned up stairs in about half an hour,
and were at home by half after one. The supper, I believe,
was for us and the other English, for few or no suppers
are now given here, either by the new or the old set.

Wednesday, 24^. — In the morning to St. Koc, the
church in the Eue St. Honore. This church and Notre
Dame are those which suffered the most in the days of
devastation, and, nota bene, it is now the most fashionable
church in Paris next to the Carmes de la Eue Vaugerard.
The side chapels are entirely degarnie, the altars and
everything taken away from them ; the sides of the church
and the basement which support the columns Of the aisles,
were formerly lined with marbles ; this lining is in many
places taken away, and all the pictures, and all the fine
frontispieces of even the remaining altars. There are two
chapels behind the great altar in this church, and in the
farthest they have placed a marble crucifix bigger than
life, and very well executed ; it was formerly in the
church of the Mont Calvaire ; here it is lighted from
above, and seen through two recesses, and the effect is
admirable. In this church there were a few shabby-
looking people saying their prayers, and one woman I

of art, and his taste for literature, made him the Maecenas of his day, and
those who benefited by his generosity, or whose society he sought, for their
merit, though often cheered by his kindness, were never oppressed by his
patronage. Lord Lansdowne had seen much, and heard much ; he had read
much ; he had observed much ; his memory was retentive, and his power
of collecting facts and amalgamating the knowledge derived from experience,
made him, not only a valuable leader and adviser in the affairs of state, but
also a most agreeable and instructive member of society ; he died in the
fulness of years, and there are few whose death was ever regretted by so
wide a circle of persons, who could proudly and gratefully claim the right to
mourn him as a friend and a patron. Miss Berry's acquaintance with Lord
Lansdowne probably dated from this visit to Paris, it continued with
warm unvarying friendship and intimacy to the close of Miss Berry's life.

150 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1302

saw at confession. The children of a number of different
parishes are sent here to say their catechism, and by the
multitude of chairs piled up in every part of the church,
one must suppose that it is often very full.

In the evening, Comedie Fran£aise : ' The Philosophe
sans le savoir,' and 'La Gageure imprevue.' The first is a
piece of Sedaine's,* much admired and very frequently
given now, perhaps because perfectly well acted by
Mole,f Fleury, and Mdlle. Contat.J It is in itself one of
the flattest pieces of nothing but comings in and goings
out that I ever saw. Whether for or against duelling one
don't know. The 'Gageure' is an old petite piece, in which
I have formerly seen Preville. § It is now admirably acted
in every character. Mole is still super-excellent, though
old ; Mdlle. Contat, whom I have seen in her brilliant
days, seen grown fat but still brilliant, is now still fatter
and no longer brilliant, but has a lovely countenance,
and in the roles de tantes, which she has now adopted, is
as excellent as she was formerly in those of the coquettes.
Nobody ever to my ears pronounced her language so
prettily.

* Michael John Sedaine, dramatic writer, born at Paris 1717, died 1797,
author of ' Rose and Colin,' ' Wife Revenged,' &c. — Watts 's Dictionary.

t Francis Reni Mole, born 1734, appeared on the stage in 1754 ; hia
politics saved him from sharing the fate of his comrades in 1793 ; he was
considered one of the best comedians of his time, and enjoyed a reputation
as a tragedian. He died in December 1802, and was followed to the grave
by all the actors of all the theatres ia Paris, and. by a deputation from the
Institute, of which he was a member. — Biog. Univ.

\ Louise Contat, born at Paris, 1760. She was the pupil of Madame
Preville, and made her appearance on the stage at sixteen years old. Her
first great success was in the part of Suzanne in Beaurnarchais' Mariage de
Figaro, 1784 ; and she became a distinguished performer at the Theatre
Francais. Her immense size obliged her to change her line of characters.
She quitted the stage three years before her death in 1813.

§ Pierre Louis Dubus, commonly known by the name of Preville, was
born in 1721. After a brilliant career of thirty-five years on the stage he
retired, appearing only twice again — in 1791 and in 1794, to celebrate
the restoration of himself and his colleagues to liberty, after the Reign of
Terror in 1793 ; he died in 1800.

J802] M. AND MADAME FOUCHE. 151

It was near eleven o'clock before we got to Madame
Fouche, the wife of the Minister of Police, who had an
assembly that night, and to which Mr. Jackson had
announced our coming. All the company were leaving
when we entered the room ; luckily we found Mdlle.
de Contuela, whom we knew, and who presented us to
a fair vulgar-looking woman in a yellow wig, with a very
fine gold-muslin gown with a border of gold, and a very
fine lace handkerchief, which fell down like an apron
before her. This was Madame Fouche.* Our visit
lasted less than ten minutes ; we had not half time to
admire the beauty of their most splendid apartments.
They inhabit the Hotel de Mazarin, upon the Quai de
Voltaire, which has been remis-a-neuf for its present
inhabitants ; the salon is hung in panels with the most
exquisite Gobelins, and surrounded with such a pro-
fusion of carving and gilding in admirable taste as I
never saw in any palace. Son of a grocer at Nantes, he
(Fouche f) was of the religious society called Oratoriens,
which they could quit when they pleased. He was a
Deputy to the Convention (that is to say the Third General
Assembly), and was sent as a Deputy or Pro-Consul to La
Vendee, where he distinguished himself as aide-de-camp
to Carrier, Ministre de la Police Generate, before the
return of Buonaparte. When the Jacobin clubs were open-
ing again, he, though supposed a violent Jacobin, had them

* Madame Touches maiden name was Guoico. ' Des femmes titre"es detin-
rent les amis intimes de Madame Fetiche", femme de beaucoup d'esprit, qui
les traitait sans ce"remonie.' Madame Fouche" died 1813. — Biog. nouvelle des
Contemporains.

t Joseph Fouche", afterwards Bnc d'Otranto, born 1763. He was twenty-
five years old when the Revolution broke out ; was married, and settled in
his native town. He voted with D«nton for the death of the King, and was
sent with Collot d'Herbois to Lyons, 1793. In 1799 he was raised to the
office of Minister of Police. He married, in 1815, a lady of the family of
Castellane. His well-known history is too long and too much involved in the
history of the time to be comprised in a biographical note. He was exiled
in 181*6, and died at Trieste in 1820.

152 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso2

shut up to keep his place, and was maintained in it by
Buonaparte, though known still to be a Jacobin. Fouche
himself was in the anteroom, and we only just made our
curtsies en passant. His figure is not prepossessing ; a
little man, with a pale flattish face and small grey eyes ;
his dress that of a minister of state, blue velvet embroid-
ered in silver, hussar boots.

Thursday ', 2bth. — In the morning, to the Musee des
Monuments Nationaux, which occupies the whole em-
placement of the Convent des petits Augustins. Here
they have brought together all the figures of their kings,
from St. Denis and every other place ; all the tombs
and monuments of their great men and women ; in short,
all the spoils of their churches and convents from almost
every part of the country. Everything of former ages in
way of sculpture, which the Vandalism of the present
time in the moments of effervescence left undestroyed.
These are partly arranged and arranging (for there are a
vast number of workmen now employed here by a M.
Le Noir) in large salles, some formed by the church, and
others by the cells and dormitory of the monks, and
everything is thrown together according to their cen-
turies,— that is to say, all the sculptures and tombs of the
thirteenth century together, then of the fourteenth, and
so on. We had only time to give a rapid coup d'ceil,
but M. Le Noir gave us tickets to revisit the Musee when
we pleased. It is curious to observe the rapid decay of
the art from the days of Francis I. to those of Louis XIV.
The admired tomb of Cardinal Eichelieu, which happens
to be placed in what was the Capucins' Church, and sur-
rounded with a number of tombs of the former period,
will not bear any comparison with them. In the garden
surrounded by the cloisters are hundreds of figures yet
unplaced : a beautiful one of Ignatius Loyola, in marble ;
a whole-length bronze of Louis XIV., a boy, very clever.
At all these museums and collections one must be an

1802] M. CAMBACERES. 153

artist, and only an artist, to admire without regret or
often without indignation. In the large garden of the
convent, which is prettily planted, M. Le Noir is arranging
tombs and cenotaphs to all the great geniuses of France.
Here he has (or says he has) the heart of Moliere and
the bones of Eacine, &c. &c. ; in short, he calls it the
Champs Elysees. This said M. Le Noir, the only violent
Jacobin (in conversation) that I have heard, is the only
person who viseed in his discourse, towards the abuse of
religion, &c.

In the evening we were presented by Mr. Jackson
to the Second and Third Consuls ; we went first to
Cambaceres', who inhabits the Hotel d'Elbceuf : we founct
him in the second room of a large apartment on the
ground-floor, lined entirely with Gobelin tapestry, Turkish
stories, after designs of a French painter ; when admiring
its freshness, he (M. Cambaceres) said, it had been up
above sixty-four years, and is certainly still more brilliant
than even pictures for furniture.

The company consisted of a circle of men all standing
as at a levee, in the middle of which we were presented
to the consul, and led by him to a row of chairs, where
were ranged about eight or ten other women, all of them
the wives of some of the constituted authorities ; they
were only in demi-toilette, as this is not called an
assembly. Most of the men in uniforms, military or civil.
M. Cambaceres' manner is very ciyil ; he spoke as much
to us as in such a meeting one can expect, and asked us
to come to his next assembly on Septidi (Sunday).

From hence we went to Le Brun's ; * he is lodged in

* Charles Francois le Bran, Duke of Piacenza, born 1739 ; deputy to the
States-General 1789 ; appointed TJrird Consul Dec. 1799; Arch-Treasurer of
the Empire 1804; Governor- General of Liguria, Duke of Piacenza, in
1805. Signed the constitution that recalled the House of Bourbon, and
created a Peer of France by Louis XVIII. After the return of Napoleon
in 1815, accepted the peerage from him, and the place of Grand Master of
the University, -which rendered him incapable of sitting in the new
Chamber formed in Aug. 1815. He died in 1824.

154 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso-2

that part of the Tuileries called the Pavilion de Flore,
entered from the corner of the Great Cour. The apart-
ment is small, not magnificently furnished like the others,
but containing some good pictures. Here was just the
same sort of meeting as at Cambaceres, indeed many of
the same faces who nad followed or preceded us there ;
amongst the rest General La Fayette * was announced ;
he was in no sort of uniform — a plain blue coat, round
hat, and cropped head ; he is rather a gentlemanlike,
sickly-looking man, but as I never happened to see him
before, I am no judge how much he is changed. I
observed that two young men, the one General De la
Eoche, the other the general who commanded at Porto
Ferrajo ; neither of them spoke to him. Cambaceres has
no wife or lady who does the honours. At Le Bran's
(who is a widower), there was an old vulgar-looking
housekeeper woman, some relation, to whom everybody
made a bow ; she came civilly and sat by me, but she
was so entirely ignorant of everything around her, that
she did not even know the names of anyone in the room.
Le Brun was the son of a farmer of Vire, in Normandy,

* Marie Jean Motier, Marquis de la Fayette, born 1757, at the Castle of
Chevagnac in Auvergne. Aa a general and as a politician he occupied a
prominent place in three great revolutions, and acquired fame in both
hemispheres. The history of La Fayette is too well known and too closely
interwoven with the history of France, to be attempted in a short biogra-
phical note. He was married at the age of sixteen to a daughter of the
Duke of Ayen. In 1777 he sailed for America. He sat as deputy for the
nobles of Auvergne at the Assembly of the States-General in 1789. In
1790 he swore on the 'Altar of the Country ' in the Champ de Mars, fidelity
to the King, the law, and the nation. A year afterwards he was denounced
by Robespierre, and accused by Collot d'Herbois, but not condemned by the
Assembly. In 1792 he took refuge in flight into Austria ; he endured five
years' imprisonment at Olmutz ; set at liberty by Napoleon's intervention,
in 1797 ; re-entered France on Napoleon's becoming First Consul. His
conduct in 1830 decided the fate of the old dynasty, and established that of
the new. He was Commander of the National Guard. He declined nego-
tiation with the King's party, by publicly replying : ' II n'est plus temps,'
and on the same day giving a public reception to the Duke of Orleans. He
died May 1834. — Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography.

180-2] M. LE BRUX. 155

secretary to the famous Maupeou, for whom he wrote all
the edicts and proclamations ; called by Maupeou ' Mon
Bijou ; ' was of the Constituent Assembly ; then of the
Conseils des Anciens, from whence, wrhen Buonaparte
came from Egypt, he was made Consul. He has the
manners and appearance of a clever man ; he recollected
Mrs. Darner, from having seen her as long ago as when
the Prince of Conti's pictures were sold here in 1775.
He is a man of letters, has translated ' Tasso's Jerusalem '
and the ' Iliad of Homer ' into French prose.

After staying about half an hour at Le Brun's, we
returned where Barrois was to meet us, and changing
our dress, that is to say, making ourselves less smart, we
were conducted by him to one of the many public rooms
open most nights- for dancing in this great town. The
one we chose, as the nearest, was called the Hotel de
Longueville, in the Place de Carouzel. It is a very long
low room, painted in arabesques, very dirty, but very
well lighted by the patent lamps suspended from the
ceiling. We found this place at eleven o'clock about half
full of shabby-looking people ; masks were admitted that
night, so that a third of the company were in masks,
which I regretted. After all the repeated histories one
has heard of the indecency of the dress and manners of
Paris, I felt some degree of uneasiness before I went in,
for fear of seeing somewhat too much. My fears were
quite superfluous. I never was in a more quiet decent
assembly; there was not one woman dressed the least
indecorously, not one half as naked as those at the Bal des
Etrangers. Nor was there any impropriety of manners ;
there was indeed much less gaiety than I should have
expected in such a meeting, much less than I have for-
merly seen in dances of this order of people in France.
The dances were principally waltzes, for which there is
such a rage at present, that in every society they have in
a manner superseded their own pretty country dances, in

156 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isc2

which they excel, while they don't waltze half as well as
the Germans. All the women who dance in the sort of
balls I am now speaking of, are sensees to be of bad
character, which made the decency of their dress and
manners the more remarkable. There were several bons
bourgeois, both men and women, walking up and down
the room, for it is only dancing which is forbid a des
honnetes femmes in these places. There were several
women in men's clothes, a fashion now very general in
this order of people, sometimes for convenience, and at
other times, I dare say, for less excusable reasons. There
were likewise several men in women's clothes, but these
wore masks, or intended to do so. We remained at this
ball near an hour, and left the room much fuller than
when we entered. It was to continue all night.

Friday, 26th. — In the morning, walked in the Champs
Elysees from the Place de Louis XV. quite up to the
Barriere. It was between three and four o'clock, and
there was almost a string of carriages then going to the
Bois de Boulogne — so much are the hours of Paris altered.
The Bois de Boulogne is more than ever the fashionable
rendezvous of all the world that have horses and carriages.
Saw three women on horseback, well mounted, with hats
and habits exactly like English women. The road upon
each side of the pave through the Champs Elysees very
rough, and the walks between the trees are by no means
in good order. There were not many people walking,
though the day was fine and warm. Dined at Mr. Jackson's
(our Minister). He is well lodged in a rez-de-chaussee apart-
ment in the Hotel de Caraman, Eue St. Dominique. The
company consisted of Madame Brignole, Madame de Stael,
the ci-devant Abbe, now M. de St. Phar, the Prince Auguste
d'Aremberg, called formerly theComte de la March e, Baron
Amfelt, Adrien de Montmorency,* the Swedish Minister

* Anne Pierre Adrien Montmorency, born 1769, succeeded to the title of
Due de Laval on his father's death, 1816. He served in the army as a

1802] GENERAL MARMONT. 157

(Baron Ehrenswerd), the Marquis of Douglas,* and General
Marmont's f wife (Perregaux's daughter), a pretty little
woman, but with airs and graces and certain careless
impertinence of manner which rencheried upon all the
ci-devant duchesses and marquises ; her husband is an
affide of Buonaparte's ; is one of the five who returned
with him from Egypt, and now much in his confidence.
He is rather short, with black hair out of powder, and
much beard ; a sensible, intelligent, grave countenance :
he put me something in mind of the second daughter of
the Archbishop of York.J

While we were dressing, between five and six, to
dine at Mr. Jackson's, the cannons of the Invalides
announced to us that the long-expected peace was at
last signed. It seemed to make very little impression
on the company with whom we dined. Our Minister
seemed much in the dumps, for which probably he had
reasons of his own. The news in no way occupied
any part of the conversation or attention of the rest of
the company. At the Opera or in the streets, I expected
to see some lively demonstrations of some sort or other.
Mais point du tout ! in the streets there were no crowds,
or groups, or bonfires, or anything; the public offices
were illuminated with little pots-a-feu upon the outside of

young man, but giving up his profession he returned to France in 1801. In
1814 he was roused again to take part in the Royalist cause ; the same year
he was sent as ambassador to Madrid ; he filled the same position afterwards
at Rome and in London.

* Alexander, Marquis of Douglas, born, 1767, succeeded his father as Duke
of Hamilton, 1819 ; died 1852.

t Auguste Frederic Louis de Marmont, Due de Ragtisa, was born in
1774, of an ancient and respectable family. He entered the army in 1789.
Iii 1796 he was first aide-de-camp to Napoleon, when commanding the armv
of Italy, and was from that time engaged in constant military service and
commands, and generally with distinction, till defeated by the Duke of
Wellington, at Salamanca. On the return of the Bourbons he gave in his
adhesion, and accompanied Louis XVIII. to Ghent. Died at Venice, 1852.

J Dr. William Markhain.

158 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

the walls, but hardly any private houses were lighted —
nothing like a general illumination. The Tuileries were
beautiful with straight lines of fire along the immense
extent of the building, and again upon the iron rails and
gates of the cour in front. At the Opera, where we did
not arrive till near nine o'clock, the announcement of the
peace had taken place immediately after the curtain drew
up, and was received, we were told, with loud applause
by a crowded house. But this first applause over, there
was no return, no allusions, no anything that could lead
one to suppose a great event had taken place. I am told
that the people of Paris have now for long been so
fatigued with emotions and changes and great events, that
they are grown perfectly indifferent, and that all those
events that have happened in their own history for these
last three years, have been received with equal indifference.

The opera was ' Edipe a Colonne,' the music very pretty.
The ballet ' Paris,' admirable ; but unfortunately, in the
midst of it, Jackson announced to us in a very unqualified

manner, the death of , which he had just heard from

England ! Of the ballet I saw little more !

Saturday, 27th. — I had a bad night, and woke with
such a violent attack of nervous headache, that I was
confined to my bed all day.

Sunday, 28th. — Drove through the Bois Boulogne to
Bagatelle. It is now open to all the world upon pay-
ing sevenpence a-piece for people walking, or fifteen
pence for a carriage. The first corps de bdtiment,
through which we drove to the little pavilion itself, is
inhabited by a traiteur, who, I fancy, is a considerable
proprietor of the whole, and I dare say makes it answer
very well, for on this fine Sunday there were above half a
dozen cabriolets and other carriages in the cour, and a
number of people walking about the grounds, which are
kept in very tolerable order, though very different from
what I saw it when we breakfasted there with the Duke

1802] BAGATELLE. — HAMEAU DE CHAXTILLT. 159

of Dorset* in 1785. The Pavilion, too, is open to all
comers. The arabesques upon the walls, the ceilings,
and the chimney-pieces remain the same, only much less
clean. Some of its Sunday visitors were playing in the
billiard-room. The grounds are pretty, though the trees
have ill-thriven, and, I think, the evergreens and firs have
positively not grown an inch in the last fifteen years. The
water, too, is ridiculous, conducted in little narrow wind-
ing channels, with half-a-dozen bridges of all sorts and
sizes over it, and half-a-dozen different rock-works and
caverns on its banks. In the Bois de Boulogne were
numbers of people walking and sitting in groups under
the trees. On our return, between three and four o'clock,
all the carriages of Paris — bad, good, and indifferent—
were drawn up in the great alley of the Champs Elysees,
opposite the garden of the house formerly belonging to
the Duchess de Bourbon, now a public garden, and called
the Hameau de Chantilly, from whence a balloon was just
going off. We saw it inflated and appearing above the
wall of the garden, and soon after our return home saw
it passing over our heads at a vast height. This day has
convinced me how much Sunday is now kept by the
Parisians. Most of the shops were shut, everybody in
the streets or in the public walks, in their best clothes ;
in short, a dimanche bien constate of the ancien regime.
The gaiety of Paris and its environs in a fine day of this
sort must strike every mind agreeably, even one as little
disposed to cheerfulness as mine is at this instant.

In the evening at Cambaceres' assembly. It is exces-
sively entertaining to us to see there the figures of a num-
ber of persons whose names one has been reading of in
newspapers for these last ten years. Among those we
saw was a garcon imprimeur, who became the editor of a

* John Frederick, third Duke of Dorset, appointed ambassador to France
December 1783. He married, 1790, Arabella Diana Cope, daughter of Sir
Charles Cope, Bart. He died July 1799.

MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1302

journal, which he composed, printed, and distributed him-
self,— General Brune* (who commanded in Holland) ; he is
one of the very tallest men I ever saw, between thirty and
forty, rather awkward, with a sensible but not agreeable
countenance. Massena f was there, not in uniform ; a crop,
with thick black hair ; a vulgar-looking intelligent coun-
tenance, and rather a short thick figure. There were
several whose name we could not learn, in general's full-
dress uniforms, which is extremely rich : blue embroidered
in gold, with scarlet cuffs, a monstrous high scarlet collar,
both covered with embroidery; white pantaloons flourished
all over with embroidery in the front, and likewise down
the seams, to hussar boots bound with gold and gold tassels ;
a broad scarlet belt, covered with gold ornaments, and
fastened with a large plaque in front ; a large and highly
ornamented sabre. Cambaceres received us in the great
apartment on the first floor, consisting of I know not how
many rooms. As in London, the first room only was full.
This hotel (the Hotel d'Elboeuf ) is a specimen of the fine
old ones, remis a neuf, and some new furniture, such as
bookcases, &c., and beautiful carpets, to which one's atten-
'tion was every minute disagreeably called by all the men
indiscriminately spitting upon them. There were many

* Mare"chal Guillaume Marie Anne Brune, born 1763. He was sent to
Paris to study the law; wrote pamphlets on the state of public affairs, and
in 1790-91 was editor of the Journal de la Cour et de la Ville, He aided
Danton in forming the Club des Cordeliers. He commanded in Belgium,
1799, when the Prussian-English army capitulated. In 1800 he commanded
in La Vendee, and in 1803 was sent ambassador to Constantinople. In 1814
he gave in his adhesion to Louis XVIII. ; joined the standard of Napoleon
on his return from Elba, and repeated his submission to Louis XVIII. after
the Cent Jours — but was murdered at Avignon on his way to Paris. — Hose's
Biog. Diet, and Biog. Univ.

f Andre" Massena, born 1758 ; in 1793 he commanded the right wing of
the army in Italy ; his constant successes obtained for him from Napoleon
the title of ' L'Enfant chtirie de la Victoire.' In 1810 he replaced Soult in
Spain, and was repulsed by the Duke of Wellington. In 1814 he gave in
his adhesion to Louis XVIII. After Waterloo he was Commander-in-
Chief of the National Guard; died 1817.

1802] THE OPERA AND BALLET. 1G1

more women at this meeting than I have seen at any of
the others — all of the new world, or foreigners. Many of
them strange, uncouth figures, all meaning to be smart
loaded with finery.

Monday, 29th. — I never even in England experienced
such a violent and sudden change in the temperature as
took place between yesterday and to-day. Yesterday it
was oppressively hot in the sun, without a breath of air.
To-day, the wind having got into the north, it was so cold
that snow fell in the morning. Called at Madame de
Boufflers (the wife of the Chevalier) and Madame de
Castellane, whom we found at home. Her account why
the two present societies cannot easily amalgamate is
curious and very true by what we have seen.

In the evening at the Opera. 'Astyanax' was the opera,
and ' Psyche ' the ballet. All French operas are so like
one another that it is only of the decoration that one can
speak. The last scene, of Pyrrhus going on board a vessel
with Astyanax and Andromache, and sailing away with all
his fleet, was very good; but au reste, it is always the same
scrambling and violent exertion of voice, always the same
exaggerated action, always a scene which we have called
the tearing scene, where, from sorrow, or joy, or fear, or
entreaty. Us sejettent Pun sur Vautre, and after half pulling
one another to pieces, are always either torn asunder, or
go off in one another's arms. The bodily fatigue of these
grand roles d opera is so great that the people must have
monstrous strong constitutions, as well as monstrous strong
voices, to support them. Mdlle. Maillard, a great fat
woman, acted Andromache not without some dignity ; but
there is no fine female actress at the Opera at present. The
ballet of * Psyche,' as they give it here, is a long pantomime,
little dancing, but admirable in its way. Madame Gardel*

* Marie Anne Elizabeth Gardel, wife of a favourite dancer of that name,
born 1770. She appeared in 1786, and from the year 1792 was held in high
VOL. II. M

162 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso-2

was Psyche, and is lightness and grace itself. St. Amand
was Amour. The scene of Psyche ascending the rock, of her
being carried off in the clouds by Cupid, and of her tor-
ments in Tartarus ; of her toilet and her lesson of dancing
given by Terpsichore, charming. In all the ballets here,
even when there are not many entrees of the principal
dancers, the remplissage of figurants, &c. is never tiresome,
because it is done with a grace and a perfection of execu-
tion which exists here, and here only.

Tuesday, 3(M. — In the morning to the Abbe* Sicard's*
Institution for the instruction of the deaf and dumb.
Every decade, I believe, he gives a public lesson, or rather
exhibits some of his pupils in public. Lord Henry Petty,
who recommended us to go, procured us some tickets. It
is a seminary (formerly a religious one), called St. Maglaire.
We entered a large room, with circular benches filling it
up, to a sort of estrade, where the abbe stood, and about
twenty of his pupils, in uniform of pepper and salt faced
with blue, seated on each side of him. The most enter-
taining part was when he gave a first lesson to a very
pretty little boy of eight years old, and when he allowed
his most advanced pupils to prove how thoroughly they
understand both language and grammar, and how clear
and just are their ideas. This was done by one deaf and
dumb reading (by signs) out of a quite new pamphlet to
another deaf and dumb, who, as fast as anybody speaking

estimation by the public. She retired in 1816 but reappeared in 1819 on
the occasion of her husband's benefit.

* Roch-Amboise Cucurron Sicard (Abbe"), born 1742. In 1791 the Con-
stituent Assembly adopted his establishment for the instruction of the deaf
and dumb as a national institution. In 1792 he was seized whilst instruct-
ing his pupils and thrown into prison ; he appealed to a Protestant friend,
M. Laffon de Lade"bat, from the chambre d'arret of L'Abbaye St. Germain-
des-Pres, saying he was the only priest the people had not yet sacrificed;
his appeal was not in vain, and he was rescued from a most perilous position.
He afterwards endured two years of exile, but was restored to his labours
and his institution by the revolution of the 18 Brumaire. He died in 1822
at the age of eighty. — Diet, des Contemporains.

1802] THE ABBE SICARD. 163

could dictate, wrote down word for word what was con-
tained in the book upon a large slate tablet, exposed to
the eyes of all the spectators, and afterwards making upon
another slate tablet by the side of it, a grammatical
analysis of what he had written ; that is to say, taking
out all the propositions or assertions made in the phrase
he had written, and placing them one after the other in
their grammatical construction, and without their con-
necting prepositions, conjunctions, &c. This was both
curious, satisfactory, and amusing ; but when the master
talked himself, which he did in a proportion which more
than made up for the dumbness of all the others, he
proved that if he had the powers of giving others clear
ideas he had not left a single one for himself. He em-
brouilleed himself in systems of general grammar, of mind,
and of logic, till he became so excessively confused and
tiresome, that after sitting there from eleven till past one
o'clock, and finding there was no hope of his ending, we
contrived to get away, resolving never to trust ourselves
to the eternal Babel of a teacher of deaf and dumb till we
had become theirs* ourselves, and had no objection to
remain the second.

From this we went to the Tuileries, to see the apart-
ments occupied by Buonaparte. Sandos, a Swiss tailor,
settled here and much employed by Madame Buona-
parte, procured us this permission, which is only obtained
by favour, as it is by no means shown to all the world.
It is well they are not. Republican simplicity might
well be excused for being startled at such magnifi-
cence. I have formerly seen Versailles, and I have
seen the Little Trianon, and I have seen many palaces
in other countries, but I never saw anything surpassing
the magnificence of this. The apartment was that in
which they actually live; it is the lower range of win-
dows looking to the garden from the Pavilion de Flore
to the centre. It consists of a large antechamber ; a

M 2

164 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL.

salon, hung and furnished with blue-lilac lustring em-
broidered in the honey-suckle pattern with maron, in the
best taste possible. The curtains had the same pattern in
an applique of cloth. In this room is the beautiful
St. Cecilia with a turban, playing upon the harp, by
Dornenichino — I think from the Borghese Palace. The
second salon was furnished with yellow satin and brown
and sang de boeuf fringes, and nothing can be more mag-
nificent than this room ; the glasses were all drapes, ands
not framed, which has a much handsomer effect ; beneath
the glasses stood beautiful porphyry and other fine marble
tables, and upon these tables magnificent vases of Sevres
and of granite, &c., mounted in ormolu, and very fine
candelabra ; in the middle of the room hung a lustre of
English crystals, mounted with a great deal of ormolu ;
the chairs, exquisite tapestry. The next room was the
bedchamber, the one where they actually both sleep in one
bed. The furniture here was blue silk with white and
gold fringes — the bed, in a recess drape ; it is of ma-
hogany, with rich and rather heavy ormolu ornaments.
The room is hung with some small old pictures ; beyond
this a small salle des bains, without any particular orna-
ment ; here Buonaparte shaves and makes his very short
toilet ; and from hence an escalier derobe leads up to his
cabinet de travail above ; beyond this room (the salle des
bains], from which a passage is taken off, is a cabinet de
lecture, that is to say, a smallish room, with bookcases all
round about the height of a chimney-piece, shut up, of
rosewood inlaid a la Grecque with satin-wood, the walls
above hung with green ; and in this room is placed the
'Madonna della Sedia,' but it immediately struck both
Mrs. D. and myself to be a copy, or if the original,
painted over so as to be no longer itself — I hope and
believe it is a copy. Beyond this is Madame Buonaparte's
dressing-room, fitted up with* the same elegance — a low
room — white muslin embroidered, and white lustring

1802] VISIT TO BUONAPARTE'S APARTMENTS. 165

curtains with white and gold fringes. Here was a rose-
wood cabinet, or rather large necessaire, containing every-
thing for ladies' work, all in cut steel, the outside much
ornamented with the same ; it was brought from England
to Madame Buonaparte by General Lauriston.* Beyond
this dressing-room is a small bedchamber, inhabited by
Mademoiselle de Beauharnoisf till she married. It contains
a very large cabinet lately brought from Versailles, and
meant to be placed in one of the large apartments. It
was originaUy made "to contain the queen's jewels, and is
by far the richest meuble I ever saw, though neither
pretty or in good taste, but covered with ormolu nacre-
de-perle, Sevres china, and painted cameos. From hence
we went up stairs, meaning to see the great apartment,
but it was locked. The next day we made another
attempt under the auspices of Mr. Sandos, a personage
seemingly in high favour at the Tuileries. I fancy seeing
this is attended with some difficulty, owing to no one
being admitted into Buonaparte's cabinet de travail, which
was indeed what we principally wished to see.

In the evening went to Berthier's. It was novidi, his
day, and he had made it a ball. There were benches
placed ah1 round the first room, which was empty when
we arrived ; but in time the rooms were occupied by
women, while a wide passage was left behind them for
the men to move about. We got places upon these
benches, and I saw a great deal of excellent dancing.
The dress much less naked and extravagant than at
the Bal des Etrangers. Madame d'Hamelin one of the
best dancers, but she is not pretty, and has a heavy
figure. M. de Chatillon the best among the men,

* General Lauriston, born at Pondicherry, 1764, was employed on
various missions by Buonaparte when First Consul ; he was sent to Eng-
land with the ratification of the preliminaries of the Peace of Amiens.

t Hortense, born 1783, married to Louis Buonaparte, afterwards King of
Holland, January 6, 1802.

166 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso-2

though many danced admirably; but I never saw any
dancing like his off the opera stage, and his figure made
for it. They all wore crops, and very few bien peigne
or looking clean. There was a supper for above a
hundred people. Among the company at Berthier's
was General Moreau* and his wife.f He is a middle-
sized, quiet-looking man, who at a distance gave me a
little the idea of Sir G. Beaumont, though shorter and
blacker ; but I was not near enough to see his counte-
nance. His wife is a very pretty, very modest-looking
young person, prettily dressed, and dancing very well.
Young Beauharnois was among the dancers ; he is rather
good-looking, but by no means distinguished. Monge,J
who was once the Minister of Marine and was afterwards
at the head of the Egyptian Institute, was likewise there,

* Jean Victor Moreau, general of the French Eepublic, born 1763 ; he
took up arms at Rennes, where he had gone to study the law, in 1787. He
assisted Pichegru in the conquest of Holland, and opened the campaign of
1796 by the defeat of the Austrians. The discovery of the secret corre-
spondence carried on by Pichegru with the Bourbons involved him in that
disgrace, and he retired from the army. In 1798 he was again employed.
At the close of 1800 he won the battle of Hohenlinden. In 1804 he was
again charged with being implicated in the Eoyalist conspiracies ; he was
condemned to prison, but allowed to go to America. In 1813 he returned
to Europe, and was induced by the sovereigns' of Russia, Austria, and
Prussia to aid in the direction of the allied armies against his own country.
He was dangerously wounded on the 27th of August, in the attack on
Dresden, and died in consequence on the 1st of September. He was buried
at St. Petersburg ; the Emperor of Russia provided for his widow, who
received the title of Mare"chale from Louis XVIII. — Rose's Biog. Diet.

t Madame Moreau was the daughter of General Halot d'Osery.

J Gaspard Monge, born 1746, one of the founders of the Polytechnic
School. He was employed, at the age of sixteen, to teach natural philo-
sophy in the College at Lyons. In 1796 he accompanied the army in
the invasion of Italy, and afterwards in the expedition to Egypt ; and to him,
with Bertholet and Fourier, all the scientific fruits of that expedition are
due. An intimacy sprang up there between Monge and Buonaparte, which
made the former so zealous an adherent of the latter, that he was expelled
from the Institute at the final restoration of Louis XVIII. Monge was
the author of various scientific works of great reputation. He died in 1818.
— Rose's Biog. Diet.

1802] LA PLACE. — MONGE. 167

and La Place,* the great mathematician, a smooth, sickly,
ordinary-looking man. To him we were introduced by
Sir C. Blagden,f and to Monge by Madame de Stae'l.
But a ten years' separation of the two countries seems to
have made them entirely forget England and English
people, and everything that concerns them. They have
not, thank God, had emigrants during this period to keep
up their acquaintance with us !

Wednesday, 31s£. — Made some visits. To Madame de
Coigny ; found her at home. She lives in Eue d'Agnes-
seau, Faubourg St. Honore, and has a comfortable apart-
ment in the house that was her mother's, the Marquise de
Conflans. In the evening to the Opera, in the box of the
Swedish Minister. ' LesMysteres d'Isis.' The music is really
beautiful, by Mozart ; but all music becomes nearly alike
by the manner in which they sing it, except just the two
or three airs given by Lays. ' The Mysteres d'Isis ' is re-
markable, even here, for its decorations and coup de theatre.
A view of Tartarus upon one side of the stage, and the
Elysian Fields upon the other, showed in succession to the
hero; admirable tableaux. The last scene, of a vast
palace (I know not where) where the hero (I know not
who) is rewarded with the hand of his mistress, very
good, but not sufficiently lighted. This, I understand,
always happens after the first three or four representa-
tions of a new piece ; they economise upon the lights and
so spoil a part of the effect.

After the opera, went to M. le Comte de Crillons,

* Pierre Simon La Place, the celebrated mathematician and astronomer,
born 1749, was son of a farmer in Normandy. D'Alembert procured for
him a chair of mathematics at the Military School in Paris. In 1709
he was made Minister of the Interior by Buonaparte, afterwards removed
to the Presidency of the Conservative Senate. In 1814 he voted for the
deposition of Napoleon. He was created a count by the Emperor, and a
marquis by Louis XVIII. He died in March 1827. He was the author of
a long list of works on mathematics, astronomy, &c.— Rose's Biog. Diet.

t The author of several works on subjects of natural philosophy and
medicine.

168 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

with whom we had dined at Madame de Castellane's.
Madame de Crillon gave a little ball, or, as it was called,
a souper dansant, to which Madame de Coigny was told
to ask us. I sent in my name from the antechamber to
Madame de Coigny, who presented me to Madame de
Crillon, a civil woman of about fifty, who it seems had
a considerable fortune aux isles. The party was very
select, some of the best danseuses of the ancien regime.
The company, consisting of about seventy or eighty
people, were of that party. Mdlle. de Coigny's dancing,
much as I had heard of it, did not disappoint me ; it is as
excellent as Madame Hamelin's. The dress, too, of these
people was as simple as the others were recherche — plain
chemises of muslin, short for the dancers, with their hair
coiffe en cheveux, with a bunch of flowers, was the general
costume, and no bosom more displayed than it would
have been in England. There was an excellent supper
served in a fine salle a manger, at one o'clock, with room
for every one to sit down. M. de Crillon is the youngest
son of the Due de Crillon, who commanded against
Gibraltar. By prudence and by remaining at his post, he
has got through the Eevolution less shaken by the general
convulsion than almost anybody else that can be quoted.
He inhabits the same house (one of the noble ones in the
Place de Louis XV.), is served even by the same servants,
and in short, except by taxes and the loss of seigneurial
rights, &c., is much where he was. I had remarked him
at Madame de Castellane's dinner as a particularly gentle-
manlike man.

Thursday, April ~Lst. — In the morning went with Mrs.
Cosway to be presented to Buonaparte's mother. On
arriving at her house in the Chausse d'Autin, I im-
mediately recognised it to be that which belonged to the
family of Montfermeil, of whom we saw so much when
we were for the first time at Paris. Of them I can learn
nothing but that they emigrated, and my informer said

1302] VISIT TO BUONAPARTE'S MOTHER. 169

he believed M. de Montfermeil had died in Germany,
but he seemed to know little of the matter. The house
suffered much during ' le temps de la terreur ' (as it is
always called). It was a maison darrestation^ and has
since been sold three or four times over, and a great part
of the beautiful garden turned into a potager, and the
rest badly laid out a VAnglaise. The house for its present
possessor has been newly painted and furnished mag-
nificently. The beautiful salle a manger en coupole is
painted as if incrusted with porphyry and other marbles,
which they imitate now at Paris in the greatest perfection.
In the salon, chairs of crimson velvet laced with gold and
crimson lustring, curtains with gold open fringes. The
room in which she received us was lined with Italian
pictures and furnished with purple-striped satin with deep
gold-coloured fringes. Madame Buonaparte walked with
us over the whole apartment, all furnished in the same
style, all covered with magnificent carpets, and all full of
fine candelabra, &c. She herself is a woman turned fifty,
with large dark eyes, an intelligent mild countenance, and
great remains of having been very handsome. She has a
civil quiet manner, but no mark of particular cleverness
either in her conversation or in her manner. She is said
to be in all the heights of Swedenborgism, or at least
what used to be called quietism here ; and I should fancy
it was true by her partiality for our introductress, but I
hardly see that she has influence or interest with any-
body. Her son, when she is ill, comes to see her, has
lodged her well, takes good care of her, and I fancy has
little more to do with her. All the family of Buonaparte,
however, live very much together, and as there are five
brothers and three sisters, they constitute no small
society. She endeavours, I believe, to protect the quon-
dam convents of women and their attendant priests in
the conquered countries; how far she succeeds I know
not.

170 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

Dined at Madame de Steel's with twenty people. Gene-
ral and Madame Marinont, Madame Eecamier, Mr. and
Mrs. Neckar, Saussure, Lord Archibald Hamilton, Comte
Marcoff (the Eussian Minister), Benjamin Constant, M.
de Chauvelin, Lord Henry Petty, Le Marquis Lacchesini,
Comte Louis de Narbonne,* General Dessolles, f Mr. Giran-
din (now President of the Tribunal, son of the proprietor
of Hormononville),and two other men whose names I don't
know. Luckily I got seated next Comte Louis de Nar-
bonne, who is uncommonly sensible and pleasant in con-
versation ; on my other hand was General Dessolles, who
was at the head of Moreau's etat-major, and wrote the
account of the battle of Hohenlinden, supposed here to
be the best military despatch that ever was penned. He

* Count Louis de Narbonne, Minister of War in the reign of Louis XVI.,
was born in the Duchy of Parma, 1755. His mother was dame d'honneur
to the Duchess of Parma (daughter to Louis XV.), and his father first
gentilhomme de la chambre. After the death of the duchess, he was
brought up at court, where his mother was dame d'honneur to Madame
Victoire. Though attached by duty and gratitude to the house of Bour-
bon, he shared in many of the more liberal opinions of the revolutionary
party. He assisted the King's aunts in leaving France for Rome in 1791.
He emigrated to England in 1792, and was settled with Madame de Stael
and her party at Juniper Hall, Surrey. He accepted employment under
Buonaparte, and was created a lieutenant-general. He accompanied the
French army to Moscow, and died in the retreat, at Torgau, 1813. Miss
Burney gives a more romantic and scandalous account of the parentage of
Count Louis de Narbonne. (See Madame D'Arblay's Journal.)

t Marquis Jeyan Jos. P. Aug. Dessolles, born 1767. Accompanied Bona-
parte in his Italian campaign, defeated the Austrians in the Valteline, and
was engaged in military service till the peace of Luneville, and was then
named ' commandant en chef, provisoire de l'Arme"e du Hanovre.' He was
replaced by Bernadotte, and sent, in 1808, to Spain. He accompanied
Prince Eugene in the Russian expedition, but his health obliged him to
return. In 1814 the Provisional Government appointed him to the com-
mand of .the f Garde Nationale,' at Paris, and he declared in favour of the
Bourbons. In 1815 he appealed to the Garde Nationale to stop the progress
of Napoleon, and accompanied Louis XVIH. After the battle of Waterloo
resumed his command of the Garde Nationale, but disapproving of the
conduct of those in power, he resigned. In the Chambre des Pairs he
continually raised his voice against the infringements of the ' Charte/ and
was one of the firmest supporters of public liberty.

1802] VISIT TO MADAME BUONAPARTE. 171

has a niild quiet countenance and manner. The little
conversation I had with him was on the subject of fine
climates, for which we were both equal enthusiasts.
Switzerland, by accident, was touched upon ; he regretted
what had been done there, believed it to have been the
cause of much evil to the French. We left Madame de
Steel's early, and felt ourselves so thoroughly fatigued
with the veilles of the night before, that we indulged our-
selves in staying quietly at home.

Friday, 2nd. — This was the day that our friend the
Swiss tailor assured us that Madame Buonaparte was, by
her own appointment, to receive us at his recommenda-
tion, as two ladies who had come from England particu-
larly desirous to see the Grand Consul, and to make her ac-
quaintance. We were to have gone at mid-day, but as they
only returned from Mal-Maison at twelve o'clock the night
before, our tailor brought us word that at three o'clock she
would see us. I own I doubted it to the last moment, —
however, at three o'clock we went to the Tuileries, and,
after some enquiries for our tailor, we were shown into
one of the salons we had before seen. Here we waited
for about ten minutes, examining the picture of the ' Bat-
tle of Marengo,' which still remained in the room, while
several people (four or five ladies) were ushered through
it : at last our tailor came, hoping we did not mind a
little detour, and then led us through a passage at the
back of the apartment to the door of the little waiting-
room between the dressing-room of Madame Buonaparte
and the little red chamber beyond it. Here we found
two or three little black boys in waiting, and a Mameluc
(as they are called), that is to say an Asiatic black, in a
sort of Turkish dress, keeping the door. Our tailor con-
ducted us to the door of Madame Buonaparte's dressing-
room, where she met us, and the tailor disappeared. She
crossed the room to the chairs that were ranged along the
wall, and, sitting down first herself, begged us to be seated

172 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso2

also. She is a thin, dark, very genteel-looking woman,
about the size, and not unlike, Lady Elizabeth Foster, but
with a more sensible and less minaudiere countenance ; in
her manners, without assuming those of a queen, she
unites much protection and dignity with much civility.
I think elle se tire d affaire (and it is no easy matter) very
cleverly. We talked of the taste of her apartment, of
Mal-Maison, of her garden there, of the plants she was
getting from England, from Lee and Kennedy's, of those
she wished to have, &c. She asked us if we had places
for the parade ; when we mentioned those we had, she
said they were not good ones ; that she would place us
better, and then rising went to the door, and calling to
Sandos, said, ' Vous amenerez ces dames le jour de la pa-
rade, je les ferai bien placees ;' upon which we curtsied, and
with many thanks took our leave. Who she took us for —
whether the tailor had ever explained who Mrs. D. was —
Heaven knows ! But it is certain she had no idea of Mrs.
D.'s talent, or at least did not take the least notice of it,
though I gave her a fair opportunity by asking if the
little bust of Buonaparte, which stood upon a coin in the
room, was like ; she said it was very little like, but with-
out releveiny the subject at all. In short she, like all the
rest who have not emigrated, seem to have totally forgot-
ten all the very little they ever knew about England or
English people. All Buonaparte's servants, and we saw
several in the antechamber and on the staircase, are in a
livery — a lightish blue coat, waistcoat, and breeches, with a
silver lace round the collar.

Before we went to Madame Buonaparte's, we had
called on Madame de Beauvan and her sister : they are
two particularly amiable people, and I regret not seeing
more of them. I received a long visit from M. Fregeville,*
whom we knew long ago at Montpelier. He is become a
general de division, their highest military grade ; was at

* Charles, afterwards Marquis de Fregeville.

1802] VISITS. 173

one time deputed to the legislative body ; in short has, as
he said himself, had a very successful career. He is mar-
ried again and has one child living ; he has purchased a
terre in Languedoc, and I fancy is very well off there.

In the evening went to the Theatre de Montansier, at
the upper end of the Palais Eoyal. This theatre is almost
entirely filled and supported by the files of the Palais
Eoyal and their amateurs. The theatre is not of a pretty
coupe ; there are some boxes, grilles or not grilles, as you
please to make them : by taking one of these one can go
to this theatre just as well as to any of the others, for
there is no noise, no squabbles, no indecorum, either on or
off the stage. The mauvaise compagnie here (and I have
now been twice among them) are quite as decently be-
haved, and more decently dressed, than that which call
themselves la bonne compagnie. At this theatre they give
four and sometimes five little pieces. Those we saw were,
' La Guerite,' ' La Jolie Parfumeuse,' and ' Cadet Eoussel
aux Champs Elysees.' The first entirely supported by the
acting of Brunet, the hero of this theatre and a very good
actor in the low comic. The drollery of the third
depended upon slip-slop speaking, modes of pronuncia-
tion, which to us was not very entertaining.

From the theatre we came home, supped, changed
our gowns, and between eleven and twelve went to
the great ball given by M. Demidoff, a young Eussian,
who has been here all the winter, and spending more
than anybody. He is lodged at the Hotel de Mont-
holon on the Boulevard. The house is in itself much
ornamented, and was now decorated with much pink
and silver drapery, and artificial flowers for the fete ;
but the rooms are not large, nor many of them, so
that the company was too large for the house. The first
person I met here was my old acquaintance the Due
de Eichelieu. He looks much better than when I saw
him in England, and is an uncommonly gentlemanlike

174 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1302

man. He seemed really glad to see me. Indeed, nothing
can be more striking upon all occasions than the manners
of the old and new world : the first are all prevenances,
attentions, and politeness ; the latter seem not to know or
totally to neglect all common forms, returning visits, &c.
It is impossible that these two worlds should ever amalga-
mate in society: their children may. Till I saw them
both I blamed the old world ; but it is still more the fault
of the new. All the jeunesse de Paris were there of the
new regime^ and very many of the old ; all the Foreign
Ministers' wives, and a good many strangers. Vestris,
who was there, danced a quadrille, which was composed
of the very best dancers of society ; he danced with Ma-
dame Hamelin, M. de Lafitte* (the supposed best dancer
of Paris), with Madame Ferval; the other two ladies

were Mdlle. Carlot and Madame . Vestris's figure

was curious ; his coiffure was one of those bustling, frizzed
and powdered heads which were worn about twenty
years ago, and in dancing showers of powder came out of
it, and it flapped up and down in the most ridiculous
manner. M. de Lafitte was likewise frizzed and pow-
dered, while the other two men, and indeed all the other
men, wore crops. This took much from that sort of
similarity of dress which certainly adds to the effect and
beauty of a dance. The women were in general well-
dressed, all coiffees en cheveux with flowers, and all the
young ones dressed in white, trimmed with bunches of
flowers. In the antechamber was a bouquetiere, who
gave every lady as she entered a large bouquet of beau-

* Jacques Laffitte, the -well-known banker at Paris, was born 1767; he
was placed in Perre"gaux's bank in 1788 ; in 1804 became a partner. He
was distinguished by his knowledge, his conduct, and his principles in all
matters of finance. In 1814 he was appointed governor of the Bank of
France. He took an active part in political and economical questions in the
Chamber of Deputies, and acquired the respect of all parties. He was well
known for his liberality when charitable contributions were needed. He
died in 1844.

1802] M. DEMIDOFF. 175

tiful forced flowers, roses, carnations, &c., such as at Paris
at this season could not cost less than twelve or eighteen
livres a piece. These bouquets were changed as often as
you pleased. The liveries of this Eussian are more covered
with gold lace than anyone ever saw anywhere, upon
a fond of dark green ; and there were besides chasseurs
and coureurs, and jocki/M, and blacks, and little boys
habilles a la Tartare, but all equally gallones upon scar-
let and black ; and besides all this, the persons who served
(out of livery) were all in brown coats with a gold em-
broidery, comically like that of the tribunes here : yet, with
ah1 this magnificence of servants, they were not properly
ranged and placed, and did not make the effect they
ought. The supper was served as people desired it, and
in any room where it was called for. To have the whole
honour of this ball, Demidoff received himself, and did not
allow his wife to do the honours ; but people just gave
their tickets at the door, and half the people in the room
I am convinced he did not know.

Saturday, 3rd. — In the morning took a walk upon the
quais, and poked into a number of brocanteur shops. In
the evening went to Madame Fouche's assembly — very few
people — as all the world had gone to Mole's benefit. We
saw there Barbe de Marbois,* the one of the Deportes to

* Count Francis de Barbe" Marbois, born at Metz, 1745, where his father
was director of the Mint. He began life as tutor to the family of M. de
Castries, Minister of the Marine, was afterwards Consul-general in the
United States, and then In tend ant of St. Domingo. He returned to France
in 1790, in 1791 was named ambassador to the German Diet, and the year
after to Vienna. In 1795 he attacked the conduct of the Directory; and
was sentenced to transportation, but survived the influence of the climate of
Guiana, and returned to France after the 18th Brumaire, became a coun-
sellor of state in 1801, director of the Treasury, and finally Minister. As a
senator, in 1814, he pronounced the fall of Napoleon, and he received from
the Bourbons similar situations to those he had held during the Republic
and the Empire. In 1815 Louis XVHI. made him Garde des Sceaux, and
he swore allegiance to Louis Philippe in 1830, and continued in office till
1834. He was the author of several works, and died in the year 1837, aged
ninety-two.

176 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1302

Cayenne, who would not escape with the others, but re-
mained conformably to the orders of his country, till
recalled by Buonaparte. He is now Ministre du Tresor
public. He is a tall thin man of past fifty ; not hand-
some, but with an uncommonly fine head, and a great deal
of character about it ; in short, he is the only man that
I have yet seen wearing the uniform of a Ministre dEtat
who had the look of a gentleman. Mine, de Stael, who one
is sure to find talking or endeavouring to talk to the most
distinguished man in company, brought him near us, and
was asking him questions about Guiana, and his manner
of passing his time there, &c. &c. ; which, without affec-
tation or reluctance on his part, led to several curious and
melancholy particulars of their life there. This man I
find has the reputation of being one of the honestest men
in France, and of having no equal in probity among his
confreres in the present government.

From Madame Fouche's we went to an assembly at
the Duchesse de Luines' — one of the very few houses
among what I call the old world that still receive com-
pany, and the company is confined exclusively to the
old world, for of the new I saw only Madame Visconti
there. Four rooms were open ; in the first a table
was spread with refreshments, at which sat Madame
de Luines and most of the ladies. In the salon they
were playing at beribi, in another room at crepes, and in
a third at whist. I fancy a good deal of play goes on at this
house. The old world is certainly much better-looking
as well as much better and more simply dressed than the
new world. There were at this assembly a number of very
pretty women. Madame de Bouillie, Madame de Chev-
reuse (the belle jille of the house), Madame de Montmorenci,
and many others. They were none of them more decoltee
than they would have been in England — coiftees en cheveux
with flowers. Madame de Beauvan presented us there ; we

1802] M. AND MADAME RECAMIER. 177

remained in the antechamber till she led us up to Madame
de Luines.

Sunday, kth. — Many of the shops are open to do busi-
ness here of a Sunday, though certainly more are quite
shut than on the Decade.

Went to the Gallery, which the more one sees the more
it astonishes ; and it would be very long before I should
sufficiently get the better of this astonishment to be able
to fix my mind quietly to one picture or one set of pic-
tures, and really enjoy them as I used to do when there
were not above half-a-dozen of the most exquisite in a
collection.

Dined at Mr. Jackson's : the women were Madame de
Brignole, Madame Eecteren, a Spaniard, wife to a Count
Eecteren, formerly Minister from Holland to Spain, a lively-
looking woman, and Madame Eecamier,* a rich banker's
wife here, who has the finest house in Paris in the new
style, and is herself the decided beauty of the new world,
for if she can be called handsome, it is entirely a figure de
fantasie. She has a clear complexion, is young, tall,
dressed with much affectation of singularity in the ex-
travagance of the mode ; her manners are doucereuses,
thinking much of herself with perfect carelessness about
others ; for, besides being a beauty, she has pretensions,
I understand, to bel-esprit They may be as well-founded,
and yet not sufficient to burn her for a witch. The men
of our dinner were nothing remarkable. General Dessolles
sat by me at table. He is doux and facile in his manners,

* Madame Re"camier, the daughter of a notary at Lyons, named Bernard,
was bora 1777. At the age of fifteen she was married to M. Re"camier,
forty-three years old. Her career as a beauty, exercising a large amount of
social influence, has been recently the subject of more than one biographical
sketch. At the age of seventy she is said to have received an offer
of marriage from M. de Chateaubriand, then near eighty, but which she did
not accept. She died of the cholera, May 1849.

M. Re"camier was formerly a hatter at Lyons. By successful" opera-
tions in the course of the Revolution, he has acquired, I was assured very
honourably, a large fortune. — M. B.
VOL. II. N

178 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

but I fancy is rather a good general than un homme
d'esprit

We left Mr. Jackson's before nine — came home — changed

our gowns, and went with Barrois to the Hameau de Chan-

tilly, one of the many public gardens open most nights for

dancing, &c. This was formerly, as said before, the hotel

and garden of the Duchesse de Bourbon. The entrance

is by a large court from the Faubourg St. Honore. The

garden goes back to the Champs Elysees. It is extremely

well laid out with many little intricacies, a large alley that

goes round it, a broad terrace by the house, and a large ,

sloping lawn before it. All this is well lighted with

patent lamps, placed in large square glass lanterns hung

across the walks and fixed in the bosquets and under the

trees. Nothing can be prettier than both the general

effect and the details of this garden. Under the trees

was an excellent orchestra, led by the same man (a

Creole) who conducted the music at M. Dernidoff's, and

there were, I know not how many, sets of French country

dances ; we saw two danced by different sets extremely

well. The dancers were ouvrieres, mantua-makers, &c.

&c., orjittes, mostly the latter and shopmen, &c. &c. In

the intervals of the dancing they spread themselves about

the garden, where at every step are placed little green

tables with two or three chairs, and every here and there

little rooms like cottages on the outside, and the lower

part of the house is open. All the gilding and painting

upon the walls, and the glasses remain just as they were

in the time of Madame de Bourbon ; and in one of the

rooms are still the fine tapestry fauteuils that originally

belonged to the house ; we were struck also with the

locks and fastenings to the doors and windows being much

handsomer than usual, and found that the arms of France

were carefully obliterated from every one of them. All

these rooms are well lighted, and full of little tables and

chairs ; and here refreshments are to be had, with prices

1802] VISIT TO THE HAMEAU DE CHANTILLY. 179

affixed to them in a long paper called la carte. But this
is not all. The entry of this garden is 24 sous, of which
15 are allowed en consomation, as it is called, that is,
15 sous worth of anything you please in food or in
amusements ; three country dances cost 5 sous a-piece, or
three turns of &jeu de bague or three courses upon the
little lakey on which there are about a dozen little boats,
ready for anybody who pleases to paddle about ; in
summer, they say, they are never- empty.

A large salon for dancing was arranged with treillage
paper, treillage columns and painted flowers and trees
with the perspective of a garden and avenue at the end,
and green boxes for real flowers all round it, and a recess
painted like a forest. Not the least remarkable part of
this evening was that we were walking about at ten o'clock
at night on the 4th of April and sitting in the open air,
without feeling cold, with the green buds all bursting over
our heads and the almond trees in full blow.: the warmth
was rather that of the end of May than the beginning of April.

Before I quit this place I must again take notice of the
extreme decency and propriety of behaviour which reigned
here, as in all the meetings of the lower orders where I
have been. This was a garden where everybody was walk-
ing about in pairs or in parties, and everybody seeming
very well disposed to amuse themselves, but one never
heard an improper propos, or saw anything that marked
the smallest dereglement.

While looking on at the dancing a man came up and
very civilly asked me to join — thanking him I said, that
I did not dance ; he made me a bow and retired as civilly
as he had come forward.

Monday, 5fA, — At last I have seen this famous- parade,
which all the Parisians have been talking of for a month
past. I was not disappointed in it, because my great ob-
ject was to see Buonaparte, and I knew beforehand how
little one could possibly see of him upon such an occasion,

N 2

180 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

although, whenever we complained of not having seen
him, everybody referred us to the parade, as if that was
to give us entire satisfaction. We were unfortunate in
weather ; it rained hard the whole time he was on horse-
back. We were conducted by our friend the tailor to a
window in the entresol of the Tuileries leoldng into the
Court, the best situation possible, as it is above the lines of
infantry and not much above the level of a man on horse-
back. There were several people at the same window with
ourselves ; Madame B. herself, and a party of people
with her, occupied other windows in the same range of
rooms.

Great part of the troops marched in by the centre door
of the grille which now divides the large space before
the Palace, from the Place de Carousel and this space,
though large, is small for a review. Buonaparte mounted
his horse (a light-coloured dun with a white mane and tail)
before one o'clock, at the great centre door of the Palace
accompanied by the generals of the different divisions of
infantry, cavalry, and artillery ; they then rode along the
lines, so that Buonaparte twice passed our window, once
near enough to see what one can see of a 'man on horse-
back gently trotting by with his head much enfonce in
his hat. I saw enough to convince me he is not much
like his busts. But all I saw was a little man, remarkably
well on horseback, with a sallow complexion, a highish
nose, a very serious countenance, and cropped hair. He
wore the dress of some infantry regiment, blue with a
plain broad white lappel and a plain hat with the very
smallest of national cockades in it. After riding along
all the four lines, he and his attendant generals placed
themselves beyond the second line, exactly opposite our
window, while all the troops — first infantry, then cavalry,
and then artillery — marched before him with their music
playing and colours flying ; none of the officers saluted
but their colonel. After passing Buonaparte they filed off,

1S02] A REVIEW. 181

and when the last had passed, he came again to the same
door of the Tuileries, dismounted and disappeared. This
is all that those who best see the parade can see of the
mover of the whole machine. I am quite unacquainted
with military details, and therefore shall not pretend
to give any opinion about the troops : all I could observe
was that they never marched in straight lines, and that
their muskets were carried in various directions ; any of
our colonels of militia would have been ashamed of their
men so marching before the king. The dress too of these
troops, particularly of the consular guard, of which I
had heard much, struck me as much less smart than any
of our regiments of dragoons or light horse. It is a dark
blue coat with a red cape, and a long large gold-coloured
worsted shoulder-knot, part of which is always tucked
up to the button-holes in front of the coat. Their hats
are looped up with the same coloured worsted, and a very
high plume of green and red, or blue and red, or red
and white, like those they have lately given our troops ;
their hair en queue. The consular guard, both horse and
foot, are allowed to be I elite of the armies in point of size
and appearance. The other regiments looked very small.
The regiment of hussars, commanded by the young Beau-
harnois, was the next best — the dress of the officers is
pretty, and the trappings of their horses, all of peau de
tigre, with the muffle of the tiger embroidered, or rather
pldqu4, upon the housing that covers the back of the
horse, had a very pretty effect ; but half-a-dozen officers
thus accoutred has nothing to do with the dress of the
troops.

Although it was such a bad day, there were a great
many spectators in the Place de Carousel looking through
the grille, and at all the windows in all the houses ; but
not the smallest applause or shouting or notice taken when
Buonaparte was riding along the lines quite near them,
though this is the first time he has appeared in public

182 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

since the peace. It was raining hard as we waited for our
carriage, and the arcades of the Tuileries were full of all
sorts of people ; a Hue of grenadiers kept a passage up
the staircase, and prevented people coming in ; but they
struck me as doing their duty in a much gentler manner
than I remember by the Garde Suisse and Franchise doing
formerly upon similar occasions.

In the evening to Madame de Stae'l. It was a sort of
concert. When we arrived, somebody was playing on
the pianoforte, and the servant begged we would wait in
the outer room till the piece was over. To this we readily
consented. The Prince of Orange arriving soon after, the
same injunction was put upon him, and we laughingly
remonstrated against keeping the Prince of Orange in the
antechamber ; but the servant stuck to his orders, and the
Prince remained very quietly with us, and others who fol-
lowed till the piece of music was finished, when we all
entered together. Garat,* a public singer, allowed to be
the first voice in Paris, performed. He first sang an Italian
air abominably, with the most violent and forced expres-
sion. He has a good and flexible voice, and seems to
understand music, but Ills taste is a thorough French taste.
The Chevalier de la Caineaf was there too, and sang better
than ever. I really began to pity poor Garat, although
the greatest coxcomb in appearance that ever was be-
held. But one need never pity a Frenchman where self-
conceit can bring him off: he is on all such, occasions
invulnerable. At last they sang a duet together, in which

* There'were two singers of the name of Garat — Pierre-Jean, and Joseph
Dominique Fabry — brothers. It was probably the elder brother to whom
Miss Berry alludes, as he appears to have enjoyed a high reputation at
Paris as a concert-singer. In 1795, not having a carte de surete, he was
arrested as a suspect. He amused himself by singing, till the commandant
of the fort, together with the soldiers, crowded round to listen to him, and
like another Orpheus, he so enchanted his audience that they carried him
in triumph to his home.

t The Chevalier de la Cainea, a Neapolitan nobleman, afterwards married
to Sophia, daughter of Sir Richard Mill, of Mottisfont, Hants.

1802] M. DAVID'S 'KAPE OF THE SABIXES.' 183

Garat did not spoil the effect of La Cainea's exquisite
singing, and he afterwards gave us two French opera
airs with much taste. The company consisted more of
the old than the new world. Ice and cakes were carried
about, and afterwards punch ; no supper.

Tuesday r, 6/A. — Walked about upon the quais to a
number of shops ; dined at home, and went in the even-
ing to the Theatre de Louvois : the pieces were ' Le Pere
Suppose,' 'LeVapoureur,' and 'Le Voyage Interrompu.' The
second was most tiresome — all sentiment and nonsense;
but a piece a sentiment is here always applauded, parti-
cularly where a child is brought on the stage, which is a
means of interesting to which of late they for ever resort.
The children (par parenthese) all act their parts admi-
rably. The 'Voyage Interrompu' is one of Picard's, in
which he himself acts a chattering notaire to perfection :
it was very amusing and laughable.

Wednesday, 7th. — Went in the morning to meet Mrs.
Cosway in the Gallery, to see David's picture of the ' Eape
of the Sabines ; ' but it happened to be the day of the De-
cade, on which it is shut to all the world, to be swept and
cleaned — certainly very necessary in so public a place.
We went on with Barrois to see David's picture, which
is exhibited, for his own profit, at one shilling and six-
pence a-piece. Barrois said many other painters in Paris
had attempted thus exhibiting their works, but nobody
had found it worth their while but David ; and I dare say
very few people indeed except strangers go and see this
picture. It is in a room by itself, and a glass so placed
as to reflect it. It is worth seeing, as a picture in which
the artist has done his utmost, and that utmost is some-
thing considerable. It is well drawn, and, generally
speaking, well composed ; the details well executed ; the
colouring of the two principal male figures too good —
I mean out of harmony with the rest Of mellowness it
has none : it gave me the idea of a finely-coloured bas-

184 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

relievo more than of a picture. The old French school
rises greatly indeed, placed as it now is in the Gallery,
not only by comparing it with other modern schools, but
still more by the modern French.

Went afterwards to the great Bibliotheque du Eoi,
in the Eue de Eichelieu, now converted into the Biblio-
theque Rationale, Eue de la Loi, and enriched with all the
spoils of Italy. We had a letter to the librarian, but as
seeing a library beyond a general coup d'oeil is, in my
opinion, of all wastes of time the greatest, we did not
deliver our letter, but just walked through. The library
is open every day to the public. It occupies an immense
apartment round a court. The books are in wooden
cases with wire doors, and are the height of the rooms.
The cases and their arrangement are in no respect altered
from what they were, but new shelves are placed between
the windows, with the shelves still empty, because (it is
said) the carpenter has never been paid for making them,
and won't let the books be placed till he is ! One
immense long room is entirely filled with tables, each for
about eight or ten people, and nearly every seat was
occupied by persons reading or transcribing from books.

Dined at Perregaux's with twenty-six people, more than
half of which were English. Among the French, the
only person of marque whom I had not before seen was
the Minister of the Marine — General (Admiral?) Decres.
He is the same who defended so gallantly the 'Guillaume
Tell '* when she was taken by us coming out of Malta. He
is one of the fattest, vulgarest, ugliest black men I ever

* March 30, 1800. The ' Guillaume Tell/ Captain Saulnier, bearing the
flag of Rear Admiral Denis Decres, came out of Valetta ; she was chased
and attacked, but defended herself most gallantly against the 'Foudroyant/
' Lion/ and ' Penelope/ though at last compelled to yield to such superior
force. 'A more heroic defence than that of the " Guillaume Tell" is not
to be found among the records of naval actions. She became, under the
name of the " Malta," the largest two-decker in the British navy, except the
" Tonnant." '—From James' Naval History, vol. iii. pp. 23-27, edit. 1826.

1802] VISIT TO THE TUILERIES. 185

saw. I had no opportunity of judging more of him than
his appearance. Madame Marmont, to keep up her character
of fine-ladyism, was among the last of the company who
arrived. Five was the hour on the card ; we dined about
six. Perregaux still inhabits (as before the Eevolution)
the famous Pavilion built by the Prince de Soubise for
Mdlle. Guimard ; * it has been new carpeted and new
furnished, but the decorations of the walls are the same.
In the evening to the Theatre de la Eue Feydeau : it is the
only one in Paris which is the same as I remember it, and
very pretty it is. The piece we saw was ' Une Folie,' a
French comic opera ; the music was extremely pretty and
well sung.

Thursday, 8th. — Went at three o'clock to the Tui-
leries to be presented to Madame Buonaparte. It had
been announced some days before by the Prefet du
Palais, M. Du Lugay, to the Foreign Ministers, that she
would on this day receive the Foreign Ministers' wives,
and les etrangeres de marque qui desiraient lui etre pre-
sentees. We went in at the door in the corner of the
court of the Tuileries which leads to Madame Buona-
parte's apartment, and were ushered into the yellow
salon which I have before described. In the antechamber
were half-a-dozen servants in Buonaparte's livery. The
door a deux battons was opened for every person by a
man not in livery. Here we found already about half-a-
dozen ladies and as many gentlemen, all Foreign Ministers,
or their wives, or foreigners. They continued arriving
till there were about forty women and about as many men.

There was a range of chaises-a-dos placed all round the
room, upon which the ladies were invited to sit down by

* Marie Madeleine Guimard, celebrated dancer, born 1748. She was
plain, dark, thin, and pitted with the small-pox, but much admired for her
extraordinary grace in dancing and pantomime. She became the maUresse
en titre to the Mare"chal Prince de Soubise. In the Rue de la Chausse'e
d'Antin a house was built for her, called the Temple of Terpsichore, and a
theatre holding 500 persons. She died 181G.

186 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

Madame de Lucay. We all placed ourselves, and
the men remained in a peloton before the window
at the bottom of the room. Buonaparte himself and
Madame B. entered at the same time from the door
of the bedchamber. The moment of their entry I did
not see, happening to have turned my head another way ;
when I looked round again she was already in conver-
sation with the first lady on her right hand, and the
Consul, in his undress uniform of Consul, between the
two Prefets du Palais, in their dress uniforms (scarlet and
silver), in conversation with the Princess Sta. Croce. He
went regularly round, speaking to every lady for about
two or three minutes — M. Lu9ay, the Prefet, having a
sheet of paper in his hand, on which was written the
name and nation of each lady, which he announced to
Buonaparte as he approached her. We, standing at the
further part of the circle from whence he began, had the
opportunity of observing his manner and address — it is
very simple and unaffected. He asked one lady if she
could ride on horseback, another if she had been long
in France ; to the Italians, of which there were several,
he spoke in Italian, saying much the same sort of royal
nothings. My turn happening to come before Mrs. D.'s,
he asked me if I had been long at Paris. ' Plus de trois
semaines.' ' Comment trouvez vous 1'Opera ; ' or, 'Etes
vous contente de 1'Opera ? ' ' Oh ! bien beau, mais nous
avons taut vu 1'Opera.' He seemed to feel by my answer
that he might have addressed us better ; but totally
ignorant of who either of us was, he knew not how to
change the subject, and continued it with Mrs. Darner,
by asking : ' Si nous avions d'aussi bons danseurs en
Angleterre ? ' ' Oh non, nous en faisons venir d'ici.'
' Cependant vous avez une bien belle voix, c'est Madame
Billington,* je 1'ai entendu en Italic.' ' Oui, assurement,

* Mrs. Billington was the daughter of a German of the name of Weich-
salj married to James Billington, of Drury Lane, to whom her father had

1802] INTEEVIEW WITH THE FIRST CONSUL. 187

elle a une tres belle voix, et c'est une Anglaise.' ' Oui,
c'est une Anglaise, mais elle a epouse un Francais et
etudie en Italic, de maniere qu'elle appartient aux trois
nations.'

And so he passed on to the next person, who hap-
pened to be a Eussian, and repeated the same royal
enquiry, si elle montait a cheval — which put me laugh-
ably in mind of the ' Do you get out ? ' of St. James's.
One could not but regret in every way that Mrs. Darner's
talents had never reached his ears, nor the principal
object of our journey to Paris, or he would certainly, had
it only been pour change de these, have addressed us
upon some other subject, of which many might have im-
mediately offered themselves, and have reserved the
opera for younger women.*

While he was thus going round the circle, Madame
Buonaparte followed him, leaving always a distance of
two or three persons in the circle between them. She in
her turn spoke to everybody, but had no attendant upon
her, nobody to tell her who anybody was, so that the

partly confided her musical education. She came out at DubBn, and in
London, and afterwards at Paris, where she had lessons from Sacchini.
Her singing was much admired in Italy. In 1799, her husband having
died, she married M. Felessart, a Frenchman. She reappeared at Covent
Garden in 1801 ; died 1818.

* The object of Mrs. Darner's visit appears to have been to offer the First
Consul a bust of Mr. Fox, but through whom the offer was made does not
transpire. It is to be presumed that neither the First Consul nor Madame
Buonaparte could have been aware of Mrs. Darner's intentions before this
reception; at any rate, this bust was more graciously acknowledged when
received years after.

The following account, which appears in a work entitled ' Queens of
Society,' by no means accords with Miss Berry's simple narrative of all that
really passed during Mrs. Darner's interview with the First Consul. 'After
the Peace of Amiens, Mrs. Darner set out to Paris, and wag presented to
the great man, who charmed Jter with his conversation. She was known to
be a friend and warm supporter of Charles Fox, and the First Consul
expressed his anxiety to have from her hand a bust of the " Man of the
People." ' — The Queens of Society, by Grace and Philip Wharton, vol. ii.
p. 203.

188 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

presentation was in fact one in form to Buonaparte and
none at all to her, only that he received and had the
ladies presented to him in her apartment.

After he had thus gone round to every woman, he
came to the group of men, spoke par-ei et par-la, to
about six or seven of them, and then slipped out by the
same door at which he entered. Madame Buonaparte
in the meantime had made her round, and had stopped
at the fauteuil by the side of the fire. As soon as Buona-
parte was gone she sat down, and invited us to do so like-
wise ; she spoke two or three words across the room to
two or three ladies, among others to Lady Caher, * and
was surprised at her going away so soon, and hoped she
would have stayed till autumn. We observed this, as it
seemed as if she wished it publicly to appear that she had
no particular intimacy with Lady Caher, which by their
having met at Plombieres last summer had been sup-
posed. She then spoke to two or three of the men
nearest her, and amongst others to the Hereditary Prince
of Orange, but without rising or making any difference
in her address to him. After ten minutes of this circle
she rose, bowed a la Francaise to all the company, and
went out at the same door as Buonaparte had done, into
her own bedchamber. We remained talking to one
another for ten minutes more, and then marched off as
fast as we could.

Madame Buonaparte struck us both still more like
Lady E. F., en representation than even she had done
before in private : but did not gain as much by being
more dressed, as I expected. She wore, by way of being
in a smart demi-parure, a pink slight silk gown, with a
pink velvet round spot upon it, a small white silk or
satin hat, with three small white feathers, tied under the
chin ; a handkerchief, and no fan, in her hand ; in short,

* Daughter of James St. John Jeffreys ; married to Lord Caher (after-
wards created Earl of Glengall) in 1793. Lord Glengall died in 1819.

1802] PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF THE FIRST CONSUL. 189

a decided half-dress ; while we were all as much dressed
as the present fashions (without any decided robe de cour)
admits of. Buonaparte himself, as I have already said,
was in his undress consular uniform, but with silk stock-
ings and small buckles. His hair is very dark, and
cropped much shorter than it appears on any of his busts,
and it does not lay well or smoothly upon his head. He,
by no means struck me as so little as I had heard him
represented, and as, indeed, he appeared on horseback.
His shoulders are broad, which gives his figure impor-
tance. His complexion, though pale and yellow, has not
the appearance of ill health. His teeth are good, and his
mouth, when speaking, as I saw him in good humour, has
a remarkable and uncommon expression of sweetness.
Indeed, his whole countenance, as I saw him in this circle,
was more that of complacence and quiet intelligence than
of any decided penetration and strong expression what-
soever. The Man of the Parade and the Man of the Circle
has left a totally different impression on my mind, and I
can hardly make the two countenances (one of which I
saw so imperfectly) belong to the same person. His eyes
are light grey, and he looks full in the face of the person
to whom he speaks. To me always a good sign. Yet,
after all I have said of the sweetness of his countenance, I
can readily believe what is said that it is terrible and fire-
darting when angry, or greatly moved by any cause.

In the evening to the Theatre de la Republique. The
pieces were ' Tancrede ' and ' La Reconciliation malgre
soi.' Talma was Tancrede.* He acts with fire and just
expression, but his voice is rough, hoarse, and very dis-
agreeable. His countenance, too, is against him, for he

* Franqois Joseph Talma, born at Paris 1766 ; brought up in England,
where his father practised as a dentist; returned to Paris, and made his
de"but in 1797, at the Theatre Fran^ais, in the character of Seide in Vol-
taire's ' Mahomet.' He became the first tragedian of his time, and effected
a reform in the costume of the stage. He was greatly favoured by Buona-
parte. He married Mdlle. Vanhove, a distinguished actress. Died in 1826.

190 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

squints. Were he better endowed by nature, I think
he would be a very good actor ; as it is, he is reckoned
one of their best. A debutante (Mdlle. le Court) per-
formed Amenaide very badly indeed. Her gestures were
so singularly awkward, that the parterre laughed. When
this begins at Paris, it is generally followed up in a very
painful manner, everything being taken in a ludicrous
light, and all efforts of the poor unfortunate actor to restore
gravity are in vain. However, this was not quite the
case on this occasion, for though a repetition of the same
awkwardness occasioned the same laugh, it was each
time hushed by applause. The debutante was considered
(as she, indeed, deserved) to have totally failed. When
they succeed tolerably they are always called for after
the piece. The curtain draws up, and they appear to
make their curtsey to the audience, and receive new
applauses.

Friday, 9#A. — In the morning called to take leave of
Madame de Castellane, Madame de Goigny, Madame de
Stael, and Madame de Beauvan. We found most of them
at home, and all very curious to hear the details of our
presentation at the Tuileries, which we recounted from
beginning to end two or three times in the course of this
day. In the evening visited Madame d'Haussenville (a
daughter of M. de Guerchy,* formerly ambassador in
England) and Madame de Brignole.

Saturday, Wth. — In the morning to Mdlle. Martin's
to buy rouge. I thought, from having heard all my
life of the fame of Mdlle. Martin's rouge, that her receipt
must by this time have descended to her great-grand-

«/

children. Mais point du tout The original Mdlle. Martin
herself, now a large fat old woman, with a very intelligent
countenance, served us. She was dressed in a large bon-
net, long powdered hair, the costume of twenty years ago.

* Count de Guerchy, frequently mentioned in Horace Walpole's letters.
Came to London October 1763.

1802] MADAME KECAMIEK'S HOUSE. 191

Afterwards called at Madame de Fleury's and at Madame
Le Conteulx, whom we found in one of those charming
houses in the Faubourg St. Honore, where the gardens go
down to the Champs Elysees, and the windows down to
the ground opening into these gardens. Went to the
house of Madame Eecamier. We were resolved not to
leave Paris without seeing what is called the most elegant
house in it, fitted up in the new style. It is that formerly
inhabited by Necker in the Chaussee d'Antin, close to
Perregaux's. There are no large rooms, nor a great
many of them ; but it is certainly fitted up with all the
recherche and expense possible in what is now called le
gout antique. But the candelabra, pendules, &c., though
exquisitely finished, are in that sort of minute frittered
style which I think so much less noble than that of fifteen
or twenty years ago. All the chairs are mahogany
enriched with ormolu, and covered either with cloth or
silk, those in the salon trimmed with flat gold lace in
good taste. Her bed is reckoned the most beautiful in
Paris — it, too, is of mahogany enriched with ormolu
and bronze, and raised upon two steps of the same wood.
Over the whole bed was thrown a great coverlid or veil of
fine plain muslin, with rows of narrow gold lace at each
end, and the muslin embroidered as a border. The cur-
tains were muslin, trimmed and worked like the coverlid
suspended from a sort of carved couronne de roses, and
tucked up in drapery upon the wall, against which the bed
stood. At the foot of the bed stood a fine Grecian lamp
of ormolu, with a little figure of the same metal bending
over it ; and at the head of the bed .another stand, upon
which was placed a large ornamented flower-pot, contain-
ing a large artificial rose-tree, the branches of which must
nod very near her nose in bed. Out of this bedroom is a
beautiful little salle de bain. The walls inlaid with satin-
wood and mahogany, and slight arabesques patterns in
black upon the satin-wood. The bath presents itself as a

192 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

sofa in recess, covered with a cushion of scarlet cloth
embroidered and laced with black. Beyond this again
is a very little boudoir entirely lined with quilted pea-
green lustring, drawn altogether in a bunch in the middle
of the ceiling.

Sunday, \\th. — Left Paris at three. When we had got
upon the Quai, just opposite the College des quatre
Nations, one of the wheel horses stumbled and fell from
the slipperiness of the pavement, and threw the postilion.
By the manner in which he lay on the pavement, it was
easy to perceive that he was more stunned by previous
drunkenness than by his fall. A crowd in an instant
gathered round him, each one making him out worse
than the other ; one declaring his legs were broken, and
another his head, and everyone advising different cures.
He was presently seated upon the kerbstone of the pave-
ment, and wanted to remount his horse again, which we
did not allow. However, the delay occasioned by this,
and going slowly over the pavement for the rest of our
trajet through Paris, made us nearly two hours getting
to St. Denis. It was dusk by the time we arrived at
Chantilly. Lord and Lady Caher, and a party who had
left Paris with them, had taken possession of the inn
there ; we proceeded therefore to Clermont. The weather
had entirely changed in the course of the night ; a violent
wind came on due north, and there were alternate showers
of hail and sunshine.

Monday, 12th. — An iron having been broken at Cler-
mont, we could not get away till ten o'clock, and by the
time we arrived at Amiens at five o'clock, I was so ill that
we remained there all night.

Tuesday, ~L3th. — Left Amiens ; when we had got about
a mile beyond Pecquigny we found that the iron of the
carriage had not been properly repaired ; were obliged
to get out at a little village called the Chaussee de Pec-
quigny. We went into the house of the blacksmith of

1802] ARRIVE AT CALAIS. 193

the village, who was employed in examining the carriage.
It was a mere thatched cottage in as inconsiderable a little
village of a few thatched houses as one could anywhere
see, and yet a more comfortable peasant's house I have
nowhere met with. It was clean too in the inside, though
the good woman of the house was in the midst of her
lessive. They had plenty of plates and dishes set up
above a dresser, good bacon hanging up in an adjoin-
ing bedroom, and behind their house much poultry,
the eggs of which the woman said they lived upon and
seldom sold ; they had also a bit of garden : in short, I
much doubt if in any cottage in France, ten years ago, be-
longing to the same order of people, one could have spent
three hours as comfortably, and left it with the same feel-
ings we did that of the blacksmith at the Chaussee de
Pecquigny. From this and other delays we did not get to
Montreuil till past eleven, and then found all the best
rooms in the inn occupied by the Duchess of Cumberland*
and her suite, and a French general de division into the
bargain ; however, they took us in.

Wednesday, \kth. — Left Montreuil ; arrived at Calais in
about ten hours. Found Madame de Vaudreuil lodged
in the same inn, and waiting for letters from Paris to
continue her route thither.

Thursday, 15^. — The wind so contrary that Captain
Blake, whom we found waiting for us, could not sail.
Called upon M. Mengaud, the commissaire-general de
police, to enforce the letters we carried him from Mr.
Jackson and Mr. Merry, begging to be allowed to return
in an English vessel, which he agreed to, though to no-
body else would he grant it.

* Anne, eldest daughter of Simon, Earl of Carhampton, and widow of
Christopher Horton, Esq., of Catten in Derbyshire, married, in 1771, to
Henry Frederick, Duke of Cumberland, brother to George III. He died
1790.

VOL. II. 0

194

MISS BERRY S JOURNAL.

[1802

Friday,, 16th. — Went on board the ' Swift ;' sailed from
Calais Pier a quarter after eleven : fine day, but the wind
fell almost entirely. At seven o'clock in the evening we
were within five miles of Dover in a dead calm ; got into
a Dover boat, were rowed into the harbour, and arrived
at the York Hotel at a quarter after eight, having been just
nine hours on our passage. Gave a passage in our vessel
to Lord and Lady Caher, whom Mengaud would not
allow to have another English vessel.

Saturday, llth. — Slept at Eochester.

Sunday ', 18th. — Arrived in North Audley Street at
three o'clock.

A month after Miss Berry returned from France, she
had the mortification of finding that the play which had
been acted in private with such flattering success the
preceding year at Strawberry Hill, did not receive the
sanction of the public voice. It was brought out at
Drury Lane with a cast of parts, comprising names which
must greatly have conduced to its success, and the cause
of its failure cannot be attributed to the want of ability
on the part of the performers.

Damatis Persona.

Sir Valentine Vapour

Sir Dudley Dorimant

Mr. Lovell

Dr. Syrop

Music Master

Shopman

La Pierre

John

Servants

Lady Selina Vapour
Mrs. Lovell
Mrs. Socket
Miss Racket
Trimming
Lappet

Mr.

Mr. C. KEMBLE.

Mr. BARRYMORE.

Mr. STJETT.

Mr. MADDOCKS.

Mr. EVANS.

Mr. WEURTZER.

Mr. CHIPPENDALE.
f Messrs. GIBBONS,
\ FISHER, & WEBB.

Miss Du CAMP.
Mrs. YOUNG.
Miss POPE.
Mrs. JORDAN.
Mrs. HARLOWE.
Miss TIDSWELL.

1802] PROLOGUE TO 'FASHIONABLE FRIENDS.' 195

The Prologue* was written by William Eobert

* HARD is the chase poor authors now pursue,
In this old world, to hunt out something new !
Where can the modern poet turn to find
One undiscover'd treasure of the mind,
One drop untasted yet in Learning's spring,
Or one unwearied plume in Fancy's wing ?
Our grandsire bards, with prodigal expense,
Squander'd the funds of genius, wit, and sense ;
Annuitants of fame, they took no care
How ill their beggar'd successors might fare :
Each thought exhausted, all invention drain'd,
A selfish immortality they gain'd,
And left no spot in all Apollo's garden,
No farm in all Parnassus, worth a farthing !
Some keen observers, on Dame Nature's face,
The crow-foot marks of time and sickness trace ;
No wonder, then, if our poetic sires
Felt for her youthful bloom more genuine fires ;
Nature to them her virgin smiles display'd.

They woo'd a spotless, we a ruin'd maid !
For she was won, if chronicles speak truth,

By many a Grecian, many a Unman youth ;

But still the lovely libertine retain'd

Charms yet unview'd, and favours yet ungain'd ;

For one immortal boy ! to him alone,

Her beauties and her failings all were shown.

Heedless of time, or place, or mode, or fashion,

Disorderly she own'd her glorious passion,

What time all rules of critic prudery brav'd.

In Avon's hallow'd stream her angel form she lav'd !

Her fading graces now less transport move,

We feel for Nature artificial love,

Though, for her age, the dame looks passing well,

Six thousand years' hard living still must tell !

E'en for the satirist few themes remain,

Folly herself has long been in the wane ;

Folly, though here immortal still she dwells,

In Strulburg palsy shakes her rusted bells !

Is Folly then so old ? — Why, let me see,

About what time of life may Folly be ?

Oh, she was born, by nicest calculation,

One moment after woman's first creation !

This night our unknown author will produce

Old subjects modernis'd for present use;

If you 're displeas'd, be cautious how you show it

Perhaps your nearest neighbour is the poet ;

But if you 're pleas'd and anxious to befriend us,

I Jke Fashionable Friends, in crowds attend us.
61

196 MISS BERRY'S COMEDY. [1802

Spencer,* Esq., and was spoken by Mr. C. Kemble. The
Epilogue f was written by the Hon. Wm. Lamb, and

* Son of Lord Charles Spencer, translator of ' Leonora/ author of
1 Urania/ and other poems.

f SURE, had our author, whom in vain we seek,

Compos'd the play, you just have seen, last week,

He would not now have sent me to attend,

In Italy, the death-bed of my friend ;

To throw away this gay auspicious year,

And lose the prospect which is opening here.

Is this a time for me abroad to roam ?
Now Peace will send so many lovers home ;
Sailors victorious still on every sea
O'er every foe, who yet must strike to me ;
And captains, cover'd with hard-earn'd renown,
From Eastern climates beautifully brown ;
Peace, which in every face throughout the isle
Has spread a heart-felt, universal smile, —
Peace, which in all most variously excites
New views, new thoughts, new fancies, new delights.
Some think on pleasure, some alone on gain,
On price of stocks, or plenty of champagne — •
Exports and imports trading men engage,
Cloth for new marts, new dancers for the stage —
Forward the epicure with transport looks
To a fresh troop of revolution cooks,
And o'er the pie exults, whose precious store
Has been denied him ten sad years before ;
While the gay nymph, who lures a crowd of slaves,
Prepares her charms, resolv'd to cross the waves ;
Besolv'd the beaux of Paris to invade,
And flirt with whisker'd generals of brigade.

Amidst these different tastes, may I advance
The grounds on which I vote for peace with France ?
Then — though through all this time of woe and fear,
We have not suffer'd much in England here,
Yet now, I own, new hopes within me rise,
Oft times more great, more happy, and more wise —
Now London shall appear herself again,
Adorn'd with fresh supplies of handsome men,
No thought of business now shall e'er invade
The nightly ball, and frequent masquerade ;
Now luxury again on wealth shall thrive,
And pleasure rule, and usury revive.
Exulting fashion hails the happy league,
Hence love of cards, and leisure for intrigue ;
Credit and curricles and dice increase,
Racing, and all the useful arts of peace.

1802] PREFACE. 197

spoken by Miss Du Camp.* Miss Berry's own account of
the causes of condemnation forms the preface to 'Fashion-
able Friends ' in the last edition of her works.

PKEFACE.

' This comedy was acted for three nights in May 1802, and
then withdrawn. In addition to its inherent defects of wanting
the bustle and intricacies of a popular plot, and all the exag-
gerations of character which such plots often make necessary,
it was believed at the time to be the production of some of a
certain Pic-nic Club then existing much addicted to theatrical
amusements, to which the pit-filling public (ignorant of its
harmless dulness) had endowed with a supposed power of pro-
pagating loose principles and profligate wit. This piece, there-
fore, emanating as they believed, from such a focus of evil, they
indignantly determined to stifle in its birth, and came to the
first night determined to damn without hearing it. The real
author, living in the midst of the world described in the comedy,
was particularly anxious to avoid all suspicions of authorship ;
so that the piece, being entirely unprotected by its natural friends
and attacked by prejudiced enemies, must have possessed much
greater merit than it can boast to have secured such a fair hearing
as might have fairly condemned it. The abuse which the news-
papers of the day lavished upon it, made the Advertisement,
which is here prefixed to it, necessary to its first publication.'

The Morning Post may now display unfurl'd
Four columns of the Fashionable World,
And not confin'd to tell of war's renown,
Spread all the news around of all the town :
While gay Gazettes the polish 'd Treasury writes,
Of splendid fashions, not of vulgar fights,
Proud to record the tailor's deeds and name,
And give the milliner to deathless fame,
Who first shall force proud Gallia to confess
Herself inferior in the arts of dress.
Oh ! join to pray my hopes may not be vain,
Commence, gay Peace, a long and joyous reign,
May Europe's nations, by my counsels 'wise,
Learn e'en thy faults to cherish and to prize,
And shunning glory's bright, but fatal star,
Prefer thy follies to the woes of war !

Afterwards Mrs. C. Kemble.

198 MISS BEKRY'S COMEDY. [1802

A dvertisement.

' This comedy, found among the papers of the late Earl of
Orford, and remaining unclaimed in the hands of his executors
for two years, was brought forward at the request of Mr. Kemble
on the Theatre Koyal, Drury Lane. After the extraordinary
abuse that bas been lavished upon it, the executors considered
it as a duty to the unknown autbor to publish it.'

It is often difficult to judge, from reading only, what may
be the effect produced by any dramatic work when placed
on the stage. Miss Berry's explanation of the condemnation
of her play may be correct, and it may have owed its re-
jection to the prejudices entertained by the public against
some supposed author, for it is certainly not deficient in
skilful arrangement of dramatic position, in stage intrigue,
or in pointed and epigrammatic dialogue, but, on, the
other hand, it must be confessed that no such play would
be written by a lady of the present day, or be performed
in private theatricals, or be offered to the public as the
representation of fashionable manners. A greater proof
of the happy change that has taken place, in the course
of the last sixty-three years, in the manners, the morals,
and the refinement of the higher classes could not well be
adduced. The plot, the characters, and the dialogue all
turn upon the most undisguised love intrigues of married
couples ; and though the author's purity of intention is to
be seen in making virtue gain some triumph over vice, and
her love of truth is to be traced in the way she exposes, in
all its odiousness. the false professions of a hollow friend-
ship ; though there is no intended propagation of loose
principles, no confusion of right and wrong in the mind
of the author, yet there is a tone of easy license with
which criminal attachments are treated, little credit-
able to the taste and . morality of that society which the
author professes to describe from personal acquaintance,
and which certainly could no longer be accepted as

1802] MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. 199

a representation of the habits and manners of ' Fashion-
able Friends,' and which would not now be borne either
in private theatricals or in the public stage.

JOURNAL.

Tuesday, October 26th. — Left North Audley Street.
A very fine sunny morning.

Wednesday, 27th. — Arrived at Dover ; found Captain
Blake waiting for us, too late to save the tide.

Thursday, 28th. — A south wind so directly in our teeth,
that it was impossible to sail. Walked about Dover and
to the Parade upon the beach about half a quarter of a
mile to the west of the town, where a whale no less than
eighty-seven feet long had, about three weeks before,
been towed ashore by two fishing-boats. It had at first
been seen by the Deal boats lying upon the Goodwin
Sands, and was taken for a vessel ; it was then floated
nearer this way, and was dead and much wasted be-
fore they brought it in here. When I saw it, the enor-
mous backbone, with a quantity of shapeless flesh and
skin about it, was lying within water mark, arid looked
exactly like a large irregular shelf of rock. The jaw-
bones, both upper and under, had been pretty well cleared
of flesh, and were lying on different parts of the beach,
likewise the tail with all the flesh still upon it, cut off
from the fish at the lowest vertebra of the backbone.
The length of the under jawbone of this stupendous
animal I measured 6 £ yds., and the length between the
fork of the tail, 18 ft. The length of the upper jaw-
bone must have been much greater, but it lay incon-
veniently for measuring. I much regret having missed
seeing this enormous creature while it was entire, for
from the mangled remains of its body no idea could be
formed of its shape. The farmers in the neighbourhood
have been ever since employed in carrying away cart-

200 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1302

loads of its flesh to manure their ground. A Greenland
captain, who happened to be here at the time, said that
he had hardly ever seen a longer whale, but that it was
a young one and much wasted.

Friday, 29th. — The wind still south, we could not sail.
As the morning was very fine, walked up to Dover
Castle. Beautiful views from every part ; a great deal of
money lately expended in making a road up to it on
which the heaviest artillery can be dragged with ease.
The whole castle apparently kept in very good order ;
two regiments, consisting of about 500 men each, now
there.

Saturday, 30th. — The wind changed, and we went
on board in a boat from the beach. The wind fell so
entirely, that we lay motionless on the water. After much
whistling for a wind, a little breeze sprang up which
carried us to Calais Harbour, time enough to save the
tide and land, after a passage of seven hours and a half :
on deck the whole time.

The pier at Calais was less crowded than when Mrs.
Darner and I arrived in the spring ; I suppose they are
no longer curious, after the infinite number of English
faces they have seen in the course of the summer. Took
possession of the very apartment I had left in April.

Sunday, 3Ist. — The Custom House was shut at five
o'clock. Money was also to be got from a banker, who
had the modesty to take only at the rate of 7 per cent,
from us. Got to Cormont that night.

Monday, November ~Lst. — Arrived at Amiens.

Tuesday, 2nd. — Reached Chantilly. At the Posts at
Clermont we found General Andreossi, * the French am-

* Count Antoine Francois Andreossi, born 1761, a distinguished French
officer and scientific writer, served in all the revolutionary campaigns, ac-
companied Napoleon to Egypt, was appointed ambassador to the English
Court after the Peace of Amiens. He was at the battle of Austerlitz and
of Wagram. Afterwards ambassador at Constantinople, but superseded in
1814. On the return of Napoleon from Elba, he joined his cause, but was

1802] OCCUPY OUR OLD APARTMENTS AT PARIS. 201

bassador, on his way to England ; he was travelling in a
handsome new French coach a VAnglaise, and a post-
chaise a I'Anglaise accompanied it, which, a la Franqaise,
had something about it broken.

Wednesday, 3rd. — Arrived at the Hotel d'Orleans, the
apartment upon the first floor ready to receive us ; and
finding everything just as I had left it six months before,
I could hardly persuade myself that I had been away at
all. Sent to Barrois and Mr. Merry, both of whom we
saw in the evening, and Mr. Jerningham, who we found
lodged in the same hotel, as well as Mr. William Throck-
morton * and Mr. Eobert Clifford.

Thursday, kth. — In the morning to the Musee and to
shops, and to call at Madame de Vaudreuil, at 1'Hotel
de Caraman (her father's house). In the evening to the
The'&tre du Louvois, Mr. Moore f and Mr. Throckmorton
of our party. The pieces ' Le Mari Ambitieux,' and c Les
Conjectures,' both by Picard, and in both he acted very
well ; but the first is a satire upon the intrigant and
ambitieux of the present day, whose means and whose
ends were both too ignoble to be interesting.

At the Musee the large square anteroom to the gallery,
which I had seen in the spring lined with all the finest
Italian pictures, was now filled with the exhibition of
works of their modern artists, and I am sorry to say
many more historic pictures, and many better than our
own Exhibition can boast. The one which everybody

instrumental in moderating the decree against the Royal Family. After
Waterloo, was one of the five commissioners to negotiate an armistice. He
died 1828, leaving many works written on different subjects. — Rose's Biog.
Diet.

* Mr. William Throckmorton, father of the late Sir Robert Throck-
morton, born 1762 ; married Frances, daughter of Thomas Giffbrd, Esq., of
Chillington. Died 1819.

t Francis Moore, brother of General Moore, born 1787, died in Ischia,
1854 ; married Frances, daughter of Sir William Twysden. He was in the
Foreign Office from July 1784 to Jan. 1802; then Deputy-Secretary at
War to Dec. 1802. — Correspondence of Lord Cornwallis, vol. iii. p. 382.

202 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso*

agreed in extolling as a capo $ opera was a Phaedra and
Hyppolitus by Gerard, a young artist, of whom there is
an extremely good portrait by a brother artist just under
his great picture. He is evidently of the school of
David, but seems likely to avoid his defects — that high
finishing and hardness which makes his great pictures all
foreground. In short, the French now are evidently
forming themselves upon the Eoman school, while ours
have taken the Venetian, which, though a Sir Joshua
Eeynolds ennobled, I think has been the bane of all our
artists.

Friday, £>th. — In the evening the Opera. Mr. Moore,
Mr. Throckmorton, and Mr. Pigou of our party. The
opera ' Tamerlane.' The story is Voltaire's ' Orphelin
de la Chine,' but all French great operas are so exactly
alike in their make, that it is never any matter what they
are called. This opera was over unusually early. We
were waiting nearly half an hour for the carriage. I
thought the company in the lobby had decidedly a better
appearance than in the spring, but I believe princi-
pally from there being a vast number of foreigners there.

Saturday, 6th. — In the morning called on Mdlle. de
Mortemer, and on Lady Mount Edgcumbe. In the even-
ing on Lady Elizabeth Foster.

Sunday, 7th. — Went with Barrois to the Pantheon. The
whole bas-relievos of the faqade have been altered from
those of St. Genevieve to emblems of liberty, and between
the six large columns which support the pediment, are
four colossal figures in plaster, meant as models to be
executed in marble, of Strength, Genius, the Eepublic,
and another figure which I did not make out. The

* Francois Gerard, born at Rome in 1770, in the house of Cardinal de
Bernis, his father a Frenchman, and his mother an Italian. His first works
were exhibited in 1795. He was considered as the rival of David, and held
in the highest estimation in France as a portrait and historical painter.
Died 1837.

1802] THE PANTHEOX. 203

inside, while intended for a church, was never finished.
It is a Greek cross of very fine proportions. Each
division of the cross would have made a very beautiful
modern church. One of the great piers which support
the cupulo had given way (I think before the Revolu-
tion), and the whole arch between pier and pier is now
filled up with a great charpente to support it. In the
lower church, or what in a Gothic church one should
call the crypt, supported by Tuscan columns without
bases, are the tombs, or rather cenotaphs, of Voltaire * on
one side, and Eousseau on the other. In the middle had
been placed Marat, but no trace of him now remained.
They are both enormous sarcophagi, of plaster or wood
columns like red granite, in which I suppose they are
intended (ad Grcecas kalendas] to be executed. On Vol-
taire's are inscriptions on every side, telling what he did
pour .1' esprit humain. On Rousseau is only written on
both sides ' A 1'Homme de la Nature.' From the Pantheon
we walked through the Luxembourg garden, great part
of which has been newly planted, and is one of the finest
public gardens in the middle of a large town that can
possibly be seen. The Luxembourg palace too has been
whitened and refreshed since it was the palace of the
Directory. It is now that of the Conservative Senate, and
some of them, I understand, have apartments there, and
charming they must be. In the evening to the Theatre
Feydeau. In the ' Concert Interrompu ' and ' Le Calif de
Bagdat ' f Ellevieu J acted. He has a good voice, and is

* On the tomb of Voltaire are the following inscriptions : — ' Poete, his-
torien, philosophe, il aggrandit I'esprit humain, il lui apprit qu'il devoit etre
libre.' ' II de"fendit Galas, Serven, de la Barre, et Montbuilly.' ' II combattit
lea Athe"es et les fanatiques, inspira la tolerance et reclama les droits de
1'homme contre la servitude et la fe"odaliteV The remains of Voltaire and
of Rousseau were removed to the Pantheon during the first Revolution, but
were secretly taken away during the Restoration. — Galignanfs Paris Guide.

t By St. Just.

J Ellevieu, born 1770, became so popular an actor, that he gave his name

204 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

by far the genteelest actor I have seen upon the French
stage of late years. Madame du Gazon acted the mother
in the ' Calif .de Bagdat,' and though, as the French say
of her, ' c'est une ruine que le temps n'a pas respectee,'
she acted so well, that she made something of what would
otherwise have been nothing. The house was very full,
as ah1 the theatres generally are on Sunday, and the
parterre very noisy. They were somehow or other (I
never could make out why) particularly diverted with a
shawl and a fur tippet hanging over the side of a box on
the same row in which we were, full of English people.
This shawl and fur tippet were pulled in and put over
again, always to the redoubled amusement of the parterre,
who all talked, and laughed, and roared at once to the
box, and this lasted at two or three different reprises for
above half an hour. The quiet better sort of people in
the galerie under our box were shocked at the behaviour
of the pit.

Tuesday, 9th. — In the morning at the Musee. In
the evening at the French theatre to see Mdlle. Du-
chenois,* debutante in ' Phedre,' who has appeared in a
variety of characters in tragedy this autumn with the
greatest success. She is a tall, very plain young woman,
and has not yet acquired (if she ever is to acquire) grace

to a certain number of characters, and it was said of other actors ' on debute
dans les Ellevieu/ or ' on etude, on joue les Ellevieu.' — Diet, de Contem-
porains.

* Catherine Josephine Duchenois, whose real name was Rafin, born near
Valenciennes in 1786. The effect produced on her mind at eight years old
by the acting of Mdlle. Raucourt determined her future profession. At
thirteen she appeared at Valenciennes, in the character of Palmiras in ' Ma-
homet,' acted for a charity, astonishing the audience with her dramatic
power. On the 21st July, 1802, she made her debut at the Theatre Francais
in the character of Phedre, and never lost the favour of the public. In her
last moments she was attended by the Archbishop of Paris, a circumstance
without example in the annals of the French stage. She died 1835, and is
buried near Talma, in the cemetery of Pere la Chaise. — Diet, des Contempo-
rains, and Rose's Biography.

18C2] MADEMOISELLE DUCHENOIS. 205

and action. Moreover, she has an inexpressive counte-
nance. Yet with all this, she is certainly a good, though
an unequal actress. She enters thoroughly into the
spirit of her part, seems to understand it, and has often
admirable touches of nature, which the French begin to
admire, even in that least natural of all compositions —
a French tragedy. With Mdlle. Duchenois they are
enchanted. As soon as the curtain dropped, a crown of
laurel was thrown upon the stage from some upper box.
The parterre then insisted upon the actress making her
appearance, which she did, still in her stage dress, for an
instant at the back of the stage, and made her bows to
the audience. Still they were not satisfied. The second
piece was attempted to be begun. They obliged the
actors to retire. At last, upon reiterated noise and con-
fusion, a manager, or director of some sort, came forward,
and said : — ' Messieurs, si c'est la lecture des vers que
vous desirez, vous me permettrez de vous observer que
nous Favons en commande de ne jamais lire des vers quel-
conques sur le theatre.' This message was well received.
The verses alluded to were some -fastened to the crown
of laurel. But the, noise still continuing, the actress
again appeared at the back of the stage, her stage-dress
off, and led in by the manager. She again made her
bow, and again retired. Still the noise continued, and
the farce was again in vain attempted. The audience
wanted to see the actress crowned by her companions.
At last, after this violent noise and bustle had lasted I
know not how long, the actress a third time appeared at
the back of the stage, led in by the same man, who put
the crown upon her head, which she instantly and very
modestly pulled off, and disappeared. The noise then
ceased, and the second piece was allowed to begin. It
is remarkable that now that the theatres at Paris have no
longer, as formerly, soldiers in the parterre to keep
everything quiet, that though they often make a great

206 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

noise in a body about the entertainment, an actor or
actress, &c. &c., yet they maintain a better police than
ever they had before, in allowing nobody to talk too
loud, or to disturb in any way the performance.

Wednesday, 10th. — Left Paris. The Forest of Fontaine-
bleau, with all the beech trees turned into gold by the
season, and all its birch trees still in leaf, hanging over
those odd masses of rock, was beautiful beyond ex-
pression.

Thursday, llth. — Left Villeneuve. At Sens is a fine
church (where the last king's father and mother were
buried), the outside of which does not seem much de-
grade.

At Joigny, upon the stone bridge which crosses the
river, is a wooden arc de triomphe, with a plaster bust of
Buonaparte upon it, with this inscription : ' Au Eesto-
rateur de la Paix, le Peuple reconnaissant ; ' I suppose,
erected at the time of his journey to Lyons, when he must
have passed through Joigny. All the little towns upon
this day's journey have those sort of picturesque old gates
which one sees so often represented in Sylvesties' prints.
Beached Auxerre. .

Friday, \%th. — Between Vermanton and Lucy les Bois
passed a large abbaye, with the church entirely pulled
down to the fagade. At five o'clock, on a very rainy
foggy November night, we found ourselves only at Kou-
vray, a poor village, where we determined to stay. The
inn was one of those large, cold barns of houses, with
half-a-dozen beds in each room, and a great open smoking
chimney.

Saturday, 13th. — Left Eouvray. In this day's journey
passed a good deal of common, the first I have seen in
France. The people hereabout look very wretched, though
there are many little scattered cottages, and all the valleys
much enclosed with corn, and vines, and wood. Arrived
at Autun at three o'clock, but the people gave us so bad

180-2] FKOM AUTUN TO LYONS. 207

an account of the two intermediate places that we thought
it best to stay where we were. Autun is a considerable
town, with a large cathedral.

Sunday, \Mh. — The road from Autun to Em eland con-
tinues mountainous till reaching the great plain in which
Chalons stands, and which is all pasture and corn. We
slept at Tournus.

Monday, loth. — We hoped to be at Lyons between
four and five o'clock, but we were detained at St. George
de Eenand by finding postilions and no horses, and at
Ause by finding neither the one nor the other. At three
different posts we found neither the master nor mistress
at home, and at two they did not even live at the post :
one can easily suppose what frequent vexation and delay
this must occasion to travellers. At Ause we set out with
four wretched sick horses, mounted by I know not whom ;
before the long montee we all got out and walked, from
the impossibility of their dragging us up. At Limonest
again no horses. These delays prevented our arriving at
Lyons till late. At Lyons we went to the Hotel de
1'Europe, which was formerly the house of an individual
of large fortune.

Tuesday, \§th. — It rained last night, and continued all
this day without a moment's intermission, so that, how-
ever curious we were to see the ravages of the Kevolution
upon this magnificent city, we could not stir out. My
father found out a Mr. Fels, a little Swiss negotiant, long
settled and married at Lyons, to whom we had been
recommended long ago when we were first here, a civil,
little, quiet, intelligent man, who came to us in the
evening.

Wednesday, Ylth. — The rain continued with unceasing
obstinacy, but we were so afraid of leaving Lyons
without seeing anything of its present condition that we
sent for a hackney coach, and after going with Mr. Fels
to two or three shops, drove round the Place de Bellecour

208 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1302

and along the Quai du Bhone. Two sides of the Place
de Bellecour are reduced to a heap of ruins, and bring
forward, instead of its handsome fagades, the fronts of
the two streets that ran at its back. Of the arsenal upon
the bank of the Saone nothing remains but the outward
walls, and in many parts of the town similar ravages are
visible. But the destruction of buildings in this unfor-
tunate city is nothing and not worth mentioning in com-
parison to the destruction of men, of industry, and of
commerce, which it will be years before they can re-
establish, if ever. It is impossible to walk through the
streets of Lyons and not be struck with the miserable
appearance of the greatest part of the people, and most
especially of the women, nor to enter their shops and
magazines without being struck with their altered and

o o

reduced state, their small stock, and the absence of all
appearance of their former affluence. The whole town
seems yet terrassee with the dreadful blows it received ;
and careless, volatile, and thoughtless as French people
are, at Lyons, and Lyons only it is, that I have seen
the Eevolution has left a deep and lasting impression of
horror upon the minds of all orders of people. Well it
may ! Such particulars of horror as Fels gave us, him-
self having been eye-witness to such as one had before
hoped only existed in exaggerated accounts. This little
quiet man, after remaining at Lyons on account of the
person whom he has since married much longer than (as
being a Swiss) he need, was at last obliged to seek his
personal safety by concealment in a village near Lyons,
where he worked for six weeks as a journeyman car-
penter. All those young men who had taken up arms to
preserve the tranquillity of their town against the Terrorists
were, without any other forme de proces than reading
their names, shot, and all the older men who were of the
same disposition guillotined by dozens in a day. Two
hundred and nine of the young ones were chained to-

1802] DOWN THE RHOXE. 209

gether and fired at with grape shot in the Place de Belle-
cour, till nothing was to be heard but the cries of these
miserable people, requesting any friendly hand to put
them out of their pain.

* Oh Francia, Francis, vituperio delle grate ! '

Thursday, 18^ — The rain had at last ceased, but from
the bad account we heard of the roads and my father's
wishing to go by water, we determined to go down the
Eh one, and to start the following day. We took a long
and dirty walk in the streets and upon the quais. Lyons
is certainly a most beautifully situated town ; the views
from all the bridges of the high and rocky bank of the
Saone, covered with all sorts of picturesque stone build-
ings, intermixed with trees and vineyards, surpasses any-
thing I know elsewhere. The streets are in themselves
very narrow and nasty, but the two great rivers passing
through tj^e town prevent it from being close, and all the
quais are handsome.

Friday, 19^. — We went on board our boat from the
Quai du Saone at seven o'clock in the morning, with the
sun breaking through a fog and gilding in the most beau-
tiful manner in the world the buildings and the banks of
the river. It was an hour before we got clear of Lyons
and fairly into the Ehone, at a wooden bridge called De
la Perrache, just below the confluence of the two streams.
The fog cleared away, and it was a fine sunny day, but
between eleven and twelve a wind suddenly rose from
the south, which made the water rough and retarded the
motion of our loaded bark. Besides the carriage on board,
it had what they call a chambre ; the chambre is a space
covered over with rough boards like a tilt, and a piece of
gauze-like canvass thrown over, and in some degree keep-
ing the air out ; this with a plank put all round by way of
bench, and a good deal of straw in the bottom over the
loose planks, forms the whole furniture and accoutrements

VOL. II. P

210 MISS BEEEY'S JOUBNAL. [1802

of these most awkward barks. Nothing but their being in
constant use, and accidents seldom happening, could per-
suade one they were not the most dangerous of all convey-
ances ; but they never attempt to cope with any difficulties.
The moment the wind blew our boatmen pushed to shore,
and there we lay till between two and three, when the
wind lowered ; we then pushed out, but we had hardly
got into the current of the stream before we found the
wind as high as ever, and again, therefore, came to the
bank on the other side of the river near Givors, and
opposite a little wretched sort of ale or wine-house, used
only by the men and horses who drag boats up the river.
It was now three o'clock, and no appearance of the wind
lowering, we despatched the courier to Vienne to get a
carriage of some sort to convey us thither. My father,
tired of sitting in the boat, accompanied the courier Gibaud,
and they were nearly two hours and a half getting there ;
and so by the time Gibaud returned to us in the cabriolet
it was eight o'clock, an excessively dark night threatening
hard rain, the road so bad, so narrow, and so near the
Ehone that he had walked with a /allot at the horses'
heads all the way. We therefore resolved to remain
quietly in the coach all night, and to send Peter in the
cabriolet to my father with a note. We lighted our lamps,
ate some of our cold provisions, and then composed our-
selves for the night, that is to say, resolved two of us to
sleep and one to watch. Gibaud and the two boatmen
slept upon straw in the chambre of the boat. It rained
most part of the night. •

Saturday, 2Qth. — We all slept very quietly till four
o'clock in the morning, when, it being perfectly calm and
not very dark, I persuaded the men to set out again, and
we arrived at Vienne at half-past five, long before it was
light. One of the coach lanterns lighted us to the inn
near the waterside. Here we woke my father, who had
gone late to bed, and passed an anxious night, as Peter and

1802] TAIN. — TOURNOX. 211

the cabriolet had never arrived. This circumstance began
now to make us all uneasy, from the badness of the road
he had to pass, its nearness to the river, and the extreme
darkness of the night. As soon as it was light we de-
spatched a postilion to look for him : the postilion returned
about eight, and relieved us ; he had found the cabriolet
and Peter. The night had been so dark that the driver
would not go on, and they had stopped at some little
auberge. About nine the cabriolet arrived, but why the
driver would not start earlier this morning with poor
Peter, who was up at four o'clock, his entire ignorance
of French prevented our ever knowing. Vienne is most
picturesque from the water; a high stone quad or embank-
ment to the river, which is ascended in the middle and
on each side by a flight of steps under large stone arches.
A great Gothic cathedral, rising above the town, and moun-
tains covered with vines and picturesque buildings rising
again above that. The banks of the Ehone are beautiful,
well peopled from Lyons to this place, and yet I hope
never again to see them from the water. St. Vallier
Tain is a little village close upon the Ehone, with the
far-famed hill giving its name to the Yin de rHermitage
rising close behind it ; on the top of the hill is a small
building which was a hermitage. Opposite Tain is a
much larger town, Tournon, with a picturesque old
chateau belonging to the Prince de Soubise,* and now
a barrack for soldiers, and another very large building,
formerly a college of Jesuits,f and now a place of edu-
cation, where they pay about 40/. a year (according to
the information of our boatmen). Soon after we landed

* The old castle of the Counts of Tournon and Dues de Soubise is now
converted into the purposes of a mairie, tribunal, and a prison.

t The College Royal, originally founded by the Cardinal de Tournon, a
favourite of Francis I., 1542, and a few years afterwards, 1561, delivered
over to the Jesuits, in order to extirpate the seeds of Protestantism. They
maintained their post here, until the suppression of the order in 1766. It
next became an 6cole militaire, — See Murray's Handbook.

p2

212 MISS BEKRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

at Tain it blew a hurricane from the south and rained
most part of the night.

Sunday, 21st — Up early, hoping to have got to the
Pont St. Esprit to-night. At our vilest of all auberges
the people of the house squabbled with our stupidest of
all couriers about his bed, and they all went together by
the ears in the kitchen below with a noise enough to
deafen one, which prevented our going to bed for an
hour, and recommenced at four o'clock in the morning.
At six o'clock, when we were hoping to be off, the wind
and rain continued so violently that our boatmen said it
was impossible. We felt it was impossible to stay where
we were, and therefore set out to reconnoitre the other
inns. The Hotel de 1' Assurance had been the house of
the seigneur of the village, and to this the boatman
objected, saying the host was un coquin, and qu'il ne
fallait pas aller la. It was a large melancholy degarnie
looking house, the worse for the signs of having seen
better days, and a very bad-looking host, with two young
girls (his daughters), and a strange ill-looking man who
officiated as cook, were its only inhabitants. But, as we
found an apartment of three rooms opening into each
other and shut under one door, we ventured to remain
there, hoping to go on before night. But the wind con-
tinued high in our teeth, and torrents of rain fell, so that
not only proceeding further was out of the question, but
we literally could not stir out of our melancholy abode.
We opened the windows, and, when the rain allowed us
to see anything, sketched the Montagne de I'Hermitage
from our windows. At night I made Peter sleep in my
father's room with his pistols, and we met with no dis-
turbance. The beds and scanty furniture were wretched.

Monday, 22rcdL — At last we left Tain at seven o'clock in
the morning. We heard with regret that the Duchess
of Cumberland's boat had passed us about half an hour
before we set out. Thus what I had been so particularly

1802] AVIGNON. 213

anxious to avoid, knowing the inconvenience it would
occasion us, these delays, and the roguery of our boat-
men's master, who, I believe, desired them not to get be-
fore the boat in which he was himself, brought to pass ;
we did not succeed in getting to the Pont St. Esprit, with
good light, which is necessary there from the rapidity
of the stream under its arches. Stopped, therefore, at
Bourg St. Andiol, a little village on the same side of the
river, about four o'clock ; bad as the inn was, we were
certainly more comfortable than at Tain. At this and at
all these little towns and villages upon the banks of the
Ehone, I have observed a large cap of liberty hoisted
upon the end of a high Maypole, or on a church steeple,
or some other height.

Tuesday, 23rd. — The banks of the river near St. Andiol
low and not interesting ; the Pont St. Esprit and its town
most picturesque from the water, and a charming view of
both and of an old ruined fortress upon a hill. On each
side of the river, between the Pont St. Esprit and Avignon,
there are a number of most picturesque ruined castles, and
near the edge of the water some fine trees. Arrived at
Avignon : a fine warm November day. The Duchess of
Cumberland's boat had arrived about a quarter of an hour
before us. and she had not yet disembarked.

Wednesday, 24£/i. — Walked about the town : it looks
much the worse for the Eevolution. The people look
poorer, the shops worse, and the great houses shabby. A
most beautiful view from a rock in the middle of the
town, which rises abruptly from the Ehone, and on which
was situated the Legate's palace,* the cathedral,f and the
prison. The palace is totally gutted, the cathedral made

* Besides what it suffered at the Revolution, this edifice was, in 1814,
made the receptacle for some hundred Spanish prisoners. It has lately
undergone repairs, and has been modernised with bad effect. — See Murray's
Ilttntfbook.

t The palace of the Popes is now degraded into a barrack.

214 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso-2

a ruin (a most picturesque one it is) ; the prison remains,
and is probably more inhabited than ever. From this
height is to be seen the whole town below, the Ehone,
and the Durance, winding for many miles through a rich
and well-wooded valley bounded by fine mountains ; the
broken bridge of Avignon, and the fine castle, which was
a convent of Benedictines, upon an eminence at Villerieuve,
on the opposite bank of the Ehone.

Thursday, 2oth. — Finding the Durance (a post and
three-quarters from hence) was not passable, that is to
say, the trail (the rope and pulley from two poles) was not
re-established, and the sky threatening more rain, we de-
termined to go the same way the Duchess of Cumberland
had taken the day before, though it makes a difference
of no less than five posts in going from Avignon to Aix.

Crossed the two branches of the Ehone a la trail with-
out any difficulty. There is a low island between them,
much covered with trees, which had been all under water
two or three days before, and consequently this passage
of the Ehone could not then have been passable. There
is a rough paved road across the island from the one boat
to the other ; a high montee after passing Villeneuve, all
covered with olives (the first we have seen), and from
whence there is a fine extensive view. It is well for us
we had crossed the river, for it rained more or less the
whole way to La Foux (the little village opposite Eemou-
lin). Determined to go round by the Pont du Orard,
though a little out of the way, but well worth while, for
I know no ruin more imposing and more beautiful.

Friday, 2Qth. — Left La Foux at seven ; they would not
start sooner, pretending the roads were so bad they must
wait for daylight, but in fact because the posts upon this
road are so badly served that there are only horses and
men enough to carry the mail, and that travellers can
never be sure of getting the number wanted. For about
a league, near the banks of the Ehone, the road had been

1802] FROM BEAUCAIRE TO ORGOX. 215

three or four feet deep in water two days before, and had
deposited such oceans of mud and water and sand, that in
some places it was almost up to the naves of the wheels.
From Beaucaire to Tarascon the Eh one is crossed over a
bridge of boats, which leads to a causeway, and then over
another bridge of boats, all of which are dreadfully
jumbling, without any sort of railing, and would be posi-
tively dangerous in the dark. At Tarascon we arrived by
ten o'clock. Here again found no horses ; they were to
be back by twelve o'clock : we waited till twelve, till one,
till past two before they came, and it was three before
they were ready to set off with us. When we saw the
road we could not wonder at the delay : for the first hour
we went continually through water, sometimes up to the
horses' knees, sometimes up to their fetlocks, but con-
tinually walking through water — the road and the whole
flat country near it on both sides had been overflowed by
the Ehone. Arrived at St. Eemy with the last rays of
light : it is a good-looking open village, with large
trees in the street, which, after the little stinking walled
towns of this country, is remarkable.

Saturday, 27th. — Orgon is a walled village, beautifully
situated on a rock, at the bottom of which there is a rich
valley watered by the Durance. The road here bore
ma^ks of having been overflowed, as well as all the
adjacent fields, by the river, which the people of the
country call tres mediant, as it loads their fields with
nothing but gravel and stones, while the Ehone often
fattens them with mud. The whole country hereabout
js undone with the quantity of rain they have had within
this last month, after a long drought of nearly seven
months. Between Orgon and Pontroyal the road is
scarcely passable at a footpace, and portions of the road
entirely impassable between Pontroyal and St. Canat.
At this place the postilions are obliged to drive out of
the road into the fields ; and a great deal of rain having

216 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

fallen just before we passed, in one of these drivings off
and on the road, our carriage stuck entirely fast up to the
nave of the wheels in stiff mud, the middle having hit
upon the root of an olive tree. We all got out, and we
soon found it was vain for the postilions and their horses
to endeavour to move it : in the first attempt they made
they cracked the pole. Agnes and I therefore trotted
away as hard as we could to the village, luckily not above
a mile and a quarter off, for the road was monstrously
muddy, and it rained hard before we got half way there.
We immediately took possession of a very miserable little
inn, sending fresh post-horses back to the carriage to help
it out of its scrape ; in the meantime a muleteer passing
with a couple of mules had done the business. The
carriage arrived an hour after ourselves : the cracked pole
had to be mended. It rained hard, and we determined
to stay here at St. Carnal all night.

Sunday, 28th. — Arrived at Aix ; the road so bad that
we were obliged to walk the horses the whole way.
Country very pretty. Aix, like all the rest in the southern
part of France, bears melancholy marks of the neglect
and poverty into which it has fallen during the Eevolu-
tion : the pavement is so neglected that a carriage would
with difficulty get along some of the narrow streets ; many
of the handsome houses are quite untenanted, and others
look quite neglected, their proprietors (where they still
exist) living only in a corner of them. We had a letter to
M. d'Albertas, possessing one of these houses, and who, not
having emigrated, still possesses all they have chosen to
leave him of his fortune. His account of the situation of
all the upper order of people in the provincial towns most
melancholy : they live chacun de son cote as they can,
but sociability and comfort seem banished from among
them. The prefets and sous-prefets who are appointed
to the governments of the departments are for the most
part low, and all of them poor, and think of nothing but

1802] FROM AIX TO TOURVES. 217

enriching themselves while they can, and neglect in the
most shameful manner the districts they are appointed to
look after ; thus roads and bridges and towns are all
degraded, and nothing done to repair the neglect and the
ravages of ten years' Vandalism.

Monday, 2$th. — We heard so bad an account of the
roads to Nice, that we sent our trunks by a carrier to
lighten the stress upon the carriage.

Tuesday, 30th. — The road from Aix to La Grande
Pugere very picturesque and beautiful ; but from thence
to Tourves (two posts and a half) so excessively bad in
the way of mud, of stones, and of holes, that we walked
above half the way ; and, I believe, the carriage would
never have passed some of the mauvais pas but for the
aid of soldiers, who, being quartered all over the country
for the surety of the roads, accompanied us from one of
their posts to another, and supported the carriage and
helped it forward in any difficulty. When at last we got
to Tourves* it was four o'clock, and beginning to rain.
We were so heartily tired, corps et ame, with the road
we had gone through, and the thoughts of what remained
to us, that we put up for the night at the very dirtiest
Cheval Blanc that I ever encountered, and where I was
kept awake the whole night by a storm of wind and vio-
lent rain beating at the window, every drop of which I
knew would count against us on the road next day.

Wednesday, December 1st. — Left Tourves, the most
miserable village I have yet seen, at half past six. Having
found how useful the soldiers were, we took a party of
four with us from this place, and continued so to do
during the whole route. There was no difficulty in this,
as we found them at every change of horses, and they
have lately been accustomed to this business, and are very

* Tourves, a wretched town of 2,800 inhabitants in the Dtipartement de
Var. No inn. — Vide Murray's Handbook.

218 MISS BEKRY'S JOURNAL. [iso-2

serviceable. When we arrived at Brignolles by ten o'clock,
the postmaster told us we should find a little torrent
between that and Flassans, so swelled by the last night's
rain as to be impassable for several hours. Perhaps his
advice might be somewhat influenced by wishing to detain
us. But we resolved to stay here for the day. It was
well we did.

Thursday, 2nd. — Left Brignolles at seven o'clock.
Very fine morning. We had our side-saddle put on a
bidet of the poste, and rode and walked alternately the
whole way to Flassans. Being in the carriage was out
of the question, for after the first half league the road was
one continued broken-up pavement, or rather heap of
rocks, — how any carriage gets over it, I have no idea.
From Flassans to Luc we continued to ride and walk.
The day was delicious, the country beautiful, and had it
not been for the worry of having a carriage that one
expected to see broken every moment, I should have
thought the journey delightful. On leaving Luc the road
passes through a wood of olives, with a high mountain
on the left crowned by a romantic village and a castle
belonging to a M. de Corbel (or some such name), who
possessed a large estate around it. The castle was made
an entire ruin, and the property taken from him, in the
Eevolution. The postilion, my informer, added that he
had returned into the country, and had got back some
small part of his estate. Beautiful hills just before enter-
ing Vedauban, covered with pines and evergreen oaks,
which, in a sunny day like this, makes one entirely forget
winter.

Friday, 3rd. — We left Vedauban at six, in a drizzling
rain, continuing more or less the whole way to Muy,
nearly half of which we rode and walked. From Muy
to Frejus the road had been described as very bad and
difficult, and it justified its reputation, for worse to be
passable at all, I never saw. A stone bridge having been

1802] FREJUS. 219

carried away, the carriage was obliged to make a detour
of above a league across the country. We walked and
rode almost the whole way to a village within a league
of Frejus, from whence the carriage was to turn off the
road ; and here, taking one of our escort of soldiers to
show us the way, my father, my sister, myself, and Peter,
by the advice of our postilions, proceeded to Frejus on
foot. The road we had to go was, they said, a short
league. When we came to the broken bridge, we were
obliged to leave the road and pass along a bank with
water on each side, so narrow and so slippery with the
rain, that it was with great difficulty, and with laying
hold of the bushes or trees on one side of the bank, that
we kept our feet at all ; added to which, at certain dis-
tances, we had to pass over a sort of heads, made to keep
back a strong stream of water which was running below
our bank on the right hand from flowing into the fields
on our left. These heads were certainly not more than
twelve inches wide, and the water was on both sides of
them ! How I passed I know not, except that I knew I
could not remain where I was, and that it rained hard,
and that we were wet through shoes and boots. In some-
thing less than an hour we arrived at Frejus, the inn,
luckily, near the gate of the town. We were soon com-
fortable again, and the more so, that the carriage arrived
safe, and sooner than we expected. Frejus is a wretched-
looking old town, with an old ruined gate to it, and
situated about half a mile from the sea as the bird flies.

Saturday, kth. — Here we had intended to embark our
carriage to avoid all further risk on these impassable
roads ; and this can only be done at San Eafaelle,* a little
village upon the edge of the sea about a mile from Frejus ;
but there were no tolerably-sized vessels, no quay, nor con-

* Napoleon landed at this small port 1799, on his return from Egypt, and
embarked hence, 1814, for Elba. This is the birthplace of the Abbe" Sieyes.

Murray's Handbook.

220 MISS BERET'S JOURNAL. [isoa

venience for embarking anything. So, finding the Duchess
of Cumberland's two coaches had safely passed the moun-
tain two days before, we determined to venture also.
Walked to Frejus. Just without the town on the Aix side,
a very complete ruin of a Eoman amphitheatre,* the upper
rows of arches only being entirely destroyed. On the other
side of the town are great remains of an aqueduct,f which
brought the water from the mountains, and is very pic-
turesque in the landscape. Frejus, like all the other
towns in the South of France, having had its convents, its
seminaries, and its public buildings destroyed or shut up,
its pavement, streets, &c., entirely neglected, and its inha-
bitants reduced, exhibits an appearance of wretchedness
unknown in former, and, perhaps, worse times.

Sunday, 5th. — The morning threatened rain, but tired
with the delays of our journey, and knowing that every
drop that fell would make the rest of it more difficult, we
ventured to start early. The road flat for about a league
before ascending the Estrelles Mountains. It has been a
well-made mountain road, as it winds round several hills
and was not very steep ; but ten years' neglect, and the
degdt which mountain rains always make, have in many
places rendered it hardly passable. In some places no-
thing but having men to support the carriage would have
prevented it from overturning. The hills are everywhere
green with pines and rich underwood of a thousand beau-
tiful shrubs, such as arbutus loaded with fruit and flowers,
cistus, myrtles, and a variety of heaths, all growing per-
fectly wild, but no houses or huts, or marks of habita-
tion near, not even distant villages upon neighbouring

* Outside the walls of this small and dirty town, of less than 3,000 inha-
bitants, is the once-celebrated Forum Julii, founded by Caesar ; on the west
are the remains of a small circus, recently cleared out, far inferior in size
and preservation to those of Nismes and Aries. — See Murray1 8 Handbook.

t The most considerable Roman remains here are those of an aqueduct ;
it has been traced for more than twenty-four miles up the valley of the
Ciagne, whose clear water it conveyed to the town.

1302] CANNES. 221

hills. The post, upon the descent of the mountain, is a
single desolate-looking house, but surrounded by magni-
ficent chestnut trees. Everybody avoids sleeping there,
the accommodations are so wretched. It was occupied
by the French soldiers — a sergeant's guard of foot and
three gendarmes on horseback. We took with us no less
than seven men and a corporal to help us on the road,
and, Heaven knows ! they were no more than necessary at
the broken bridges. The descent of the Estrelle, I under-
stand, was always rough ; it is now nothing better than
a heap of rocks, over which by habit the horses pass, and
by chance may pull a light carriage after them without
breaking it, and this was luckily the case with ours ; but in
many parts we could not even ride, but got off and led or
drove on our horses. On reaching the bottom of the hill
we got into a sort of marshy bed of a small river, which,
like all the rest, has overrun. Arrived at Cannes,* a town,
or rather open village, prettily situated upon the sea-shore,
with fine wooded hills rising behind it. The inn, a little
new-built place, so immediately upon the sea that its noise
kept me awake. L'Isle de St. Marguerite,f to be seen from
the descent of the Estrelles, seems here close by, and is,
I believe, not above a league and a half from the nearest
part of the shore. It is a picturesque object with its castle
and a number of flat-topped pines, which look actually
growing out of the sea. In spite of being a good deal
tired with our day's journey, and our little inn chimney
smoking abominably, I could enjoy from the window a
brilliant red sun, setting in the Mediterranean and colour-
ing all the objects near the horizon with that purple and
blue peculiar to the South of France.

* Napoleon landed from Elba 1£ miles east of Cannes, in March 1815,
with an army of 500 grenadier guards, 200 dragoons, and 100 lancers with-
out horses. — Murray's Handbook.

t In one of the group of two isles called Le"rins, is a fort, once a state
prison, where the 'Man in the Iron Mask' was imprisoned (1686-1698).
The dungeon in which he was confined is still pointed out. — Ibid.

222 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1802

Monday ', 5#A. — Left Cannes very early. The road,
though good through the village along the coast, when
flat and sandy and requiring no repair, soon became too
bad to remain in the carriage. At every little ascent from
the level of the sea, the rain had made gullies that had
as usual carried away half the road, and in other places
it passed over rocks ; but while I live I never can forget
the charm of my walk about seven o'clock this morning,
with the same clear, glorious sun of the night before
rising again out of the sea, giving the most vivid colours
to the beautiful vegetation covering the rocks on which we
were walking, and lighting up with the most exquisite
roseate hue the sunny side of the distant snow-covered
mountains of the Col de Tende. This scene, the freshness
of the morning, the beauty of the plants, the colour and
sound of the Mediterranean, gently lashing against the
rocks below me — however ill I describe it — will remain
for ever on my mind, and has added one to my, alas !
too small stock of agreeable recollections. The whole
road from Cannes to Antibes is charming. On descend-
ing an eminence towards Antibes, one sees, at the same
time, Nice on the other side of a beautiful bay, backed
by its wooded hills, white villas, and high mountains.
Antibes is a regular fortified town upon a promontory
which forms one side of the bay. The inside of the town,
like the others — narrow streets, with all the best houses
ruined. As it is no longer a frontier town, there are few
soldiers here. From Antibes to Nice is four posts round
this beautiful bay. The road for the most part flat, and
fortunately not requiring much attention, for it has been
just as much neglected as ah1 the rest. About a league
from Nice is the wide and stony bed of the Var, a great
mountain torrent running in I know not how many
streams to the sea. At the beginning of the Eevolution,
the French built a wooden bridge over this to facilitate
the passage of their troops. It was a work of no great

1802] FROM ANTIBES TO NICE. 223

difficulty, and certainly of great use, but it was done in a
prodigious hurry, with wood cut down in a forest close
by, and used immediately. Little wonder, therefore, that
the violent rains of this last month, and the very violent
storm of wind and rain (which detained us on the Khone
the 21st of November), broke it down in two or three
places. Eepairing it, or anything else, is now out of the
question, though this is talked of, which is more than can
be said of the roads. Within this week three planks have
been laid over the broken places, upon which foot passen-
gers, with steady heads (for there is no sort of rail or
guard to them) may pass, and upon which we all did
pass, each taking hold of a man's arm. The carriage was
obliged to go down nearer the sea to pass where the cur-
rents were more spread and shallow, and then to be
dragged over loose stones and shingles. The view of
Nice, the high abrupt rock round which it is in a manner
built, its long faubourg stretched out along the bank
of the sea, and the wooded hills behind it, looked beauti-
ful. At last the carriage arrived, and with it above half-
a-dozen men, with poles in their hands and barefooted.
They had helped to pass it across the river, and not
being satisfied with the courier's offers of payment, fol-
lowed him to demand more, and at last took what we
offered. We continued our journey. Entered Nice by
tnis long scattered faubourg on one of the finest days
I ever saw. Lodged at the Hotel de York, in the Place
St. Dominique.

The deep impression made on Miss Berry's mind by the
walk of this morning and the wretched night at Tourves,
is thus spoken of by her many years afterwards : —

When we look back to the disagreeable circumstance in
which we have often been placed, and the painful sensa-
tions to which we have often been exposed, and then recol-
lect how many comfortable or, at least, easy hours we

224 MISS BERRY'S JOURXAL. [1302

have passed since, when the memory of these painful
moments have been entirely obliterated, it ought to
be a great motive of fortitude and patience in those to
come. I can call to mind a night passed at Tourves, a
miserable village between Aix and Nice, in the worst inn
I ever inhabited, after a day of much fatigue on the worst
road I ever passed, and when I expected every minute to
see our carriage broken to pieces ; — my companions both
sadly out of sorts and depressed by the prospect before
them ; myself necessarily uncertain how the journey,
when once accomplished, would turn out to any of us. I
can never forget arriving at this wretched inn, in a still
more wretched village, on a melancholy rainy evening,
the 30th of November 1802, and actually lying awake
ah1 night, in spite of my fatigue, from mere vexation
of mind. This was not quieted by the rain beating in at
my window, every drop of which I knew would count
against us in our next day's journey. I could think of
nothing cheerful, nor fancy any future pleasure ; and yet
three days afterwards, on the same journey, the charms of
an early morning walk, between seven and eight o'clock,
upon the rocky edge of the Mediterranean between Cannes
and Antibes, — the sun rising unclouded from that glorious
sea, and tinging the distant snowy mountains with the
most beautiful roseate hue, — the vivid green of the pines
on the nearer hills, the beauty and variety of the vegetation
immediately above me, the mild freshness of the morning
air in the middle of winter, — made an impression on my
mind, which at the time totally obliterated, and is certainly
now much oftener recalled than, the remembrance of the
night passed at the miserable Cheval Blanc at Tourves.

NICE.

Thursday, Sth. — Saw a sort of bustle in the Place St.
Dominique from our windows, and three coaches, all

1802] NICE. 225

voitures de remises, came out of our inn, and drove into
the Place ; and after making some short tour in the town,
the first coach, with two gendarmes on horseback trotting
in advance, then stopped at a house in the Place. I
enquired what this might mean, and found that the house
at which the carriages stopped was the Mairie ; that the
mayor's wife had lain in, and that the carriage preceded
by the two gendarmes contained the prefet, who was
going to stand godfather to the child. I saw him get out
in his prefet's embroidered coat, and he was shortly after
followed into the house by a number of trays carried by
traiteurs, which, I suppose, contained the collation that
was given him. This was between four and five o'clock.
Before six o'clock, the same three carriages proceeded up
another street to some church. There were a number of
little ragged boys about the door, who shouted when the
carriage drove off, because some money was thrown to
them. These little polissons, a few idle people who hap-
pened to be upon the Place, and a few soldiers from the
caserne which is next door, were the only spectators of
this no show. And this was all the ceremony of the ma-
gistrate of one of their principal towns going in state to
the second magistrate ! This will not do : oppressed as
the towns are, more than ever with taxes, their public
concerns and conveniences, such as roads, bridges, and
buildings shamefully neglected, and their church and their
nobles having nothing to assist them, they have not even
the amusement of those shows, and that sort of public
pomp, of which everyone, when its cost did not fall
immediately upon himself, felt proud, and which served
to amuse and gratify an idle people. They are now with-
out their old amusements, and with no new industry, ten
times idler than ever.

Tuesday, 14^. — Took possession of our house in the
faubourg. It had been furnished and inhabited by
General Morgan, who gave it up to us on our paying the

VOL. II. Q

226 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isoa

rent which he had agreed for, viz., 90Z. till the 1st of May.
The rent was enormous, considering the house, the style
of its furniture, &c.

The following letter, addressed to Mrs. Darner, gives
a somewhat more detailed account of the Miss Berrys'
first settling at Nice for the winter.

Nice, Thursday, 16 Dec., 1802.

I remember your telling me that you thought you should
feel comfortable and pleased at Strawberry if you could fancy
me quietly settled, or taking a quiet walk at Nice. Be comfort-
able and be pleased then, dear soul ! car enfin m*y void. After
all our scruples and regrets about the 901. — and mine, I assure
you, were many, — we have been obliged to give it. We found
we were eating up our heads (as they say of horses) at the
hotel. . . . Everything here in the house way is unfur-
nished ; the people always offer to furnish them for you, but
they do it very badly, plague you to death, and 'tis weeks before
you can get into them. This Gen1 and Mrs. Morgan were still
willing to let us have their house. . . . Graces a ses soins,
this is much better furnished than any other house here.
Mrs. M.'s idea was to make it as like an uncomfortable
English house as she could, and Agnes and I have had a world
of rummaging, and twisting, and twirling all the things about to
make the sitting-room and the rest of the house look comfort-
able, and I think at last we are very well lodged. . . .
The Chev1 de Chateauneuf, to whom the Dss of Devonshire gave
me a note, is not here, but as she likewise gave me the name of
his sister, a Mde de S* Agathe, I sent a civil note to her, with the
Dss's compliments, &c., which soon brought her to the hotel ; and
she turns out a prettyish, agreeableish sort of a young woman,
without affectation, and apparently not without cleverness, and
she brought a Mons. Eeynardi and her belle soeur, and two other
demoiselles ; in short, nous void faufilees in any society there
is at Nice. But these poor people have been all emigres, are
but lately returned, have lost more than the half of the little
they had, and can do nothing for anybody. However, we shall
like their society sometimes, if we can get them to come to us,
which I suppose in time they will. I spend my mornings most

1802] LETTER FROM MISS BERRY. 227

agreeably ; the beauties of this place rise upon me every mo-
ment. I really think that for one's own eating (as poor Ld
Orf. said) it is the very prettiest place I ever saw. The weather,
for the most part, since we came has been delicious ; it is now
cold, that is to say in the early morngs and eveng8, for in the
middle of the day nothing but the almanac calling it Decr could
possibly persuade me it was anything but May. I am so glad
to find that tho' my enthusiasm is gone, I am still animal
enough to feel this, ' in ogni fibro il sangue.' I continue most
comfortably well. . . . Would I could give half as good an
account of the other poor sick souls ! for Mrs. Ellis * nothing
more can be done. If she recovers it will be a miracle ; her in-
flammation baffles all attempts to reduce it, and she is now too
weak to admit of any. I sat with Ld Hervey near an hour yes-
terday ; and he seems to have little or no hope ! The poor Miss
Francis, too, I think is going on very ill. The D88 of Cumberland
is, they say, well except being lame. She is glad to see any-
body after two o'clock, and we shall go some of these days, as I
suppose she will like to see all the English. The walks here
are delicious, and I am going to get an ass's legs to save my own.
The worst of the place is everything being abominably dear,
which makes my father groan and think it less pretty than he
otherwise would. As for me, I am very sorry we cannot save
money here, but am resolved at least to enjoy it as much as I
can, and trust to you and Hoper f letting Strawb. well. The last
part of our journey F Avignon here cost enormously, f* being so
long about it and having an escort, and our baggage carried,
&c. ; otherwise my calculation of 2501. for the journey would
hav ) been considerably within the mark.

* Elizabeth Catherine Caroline Hervey, only daughter of Lord Hervey
and Elizabeth Drummond of Quebec, married Charles Rose Ellis, Esq.
(afterwards Lord Seaford) ; died 1803.

f Mr. Hoper is frequently mentioned in Miss Berry's journals as the person
on whom they relied for transacting business for them.

228 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL.

JOURNAL.
1803.

Entry for 1803. — Lady Ailesbury dies : we return to
England, September.

Nice, January 29#A. — In the night of December 31st,
a violent storm of thunder, lightning, wind, and rain took
place here ; from that time to this, now above three
weeks, we have not had more than four or five days
free from heavy and continuous rain. It is not cold, and
the few sunny days which we have enjoyed were such as
to make the shade agreeable. The night before last (Janu-
ary 23rd), the clouds that fell in rain in the plain fell in
hail or snow upon the nearest hills. To my feelings a
sudden and extraordinary degree of cold in the finest days
always takes place here about four o'clock, — that is to
say, just before the setting of the sun.

February 2nd. — On January 27th the weather cleared
up, and we had then four or five dry days.

In this month Miss Berry received the intelligence of
Lady Ailesbury 's death. As the wife of Marshal Conway
and the mother of Mrs. Darner, her name is so familiar to
the readers of Horace Walpole that her daughter's touch-
ing description of her own feelings on the occasion may
claim a place in Miss Berry's correspondence.

Tuesday morning, Jan. 18.

. . . My dearest, kindest of mothers expired yesterday
morning without a groan, even without a sigh ; her countenance
instantly became placid, and her fine features made her beauti-
ful in death ! Such, I am convinced, can be the end only of

1503] SCENERY ROUND NICE. 229

one possessing a virtuous mind and a conscience without
reproach ; and such a one, I am proud to think, was my
mother ! A scene more affecting, more impressive, than her
end, it was not possible to see. My grief is extreme, and much
as I ever thought I should regret this dear mother, I find that
regret deeper and more painful than I expected. All the ar-
rangements— every little improvement at Strawberry Hill — this
house — all (sometimes imperceptibly at the moment to myself)
tended wholly to procure her amusement and comforts ; and all
these have lost their value to me. But never more to behold that
benign countenance brightening up at the sight of me I this
does give me the feeling of an almost .broken heart !

Thursday r, IQth. — A long course up the valley upon the
mountains above the prefet's house, with Colonel Smyth
and Baron Trip.

Friday, llth. — To St. Andre. The road beautiful and
picturesque, but such as none but those used to scrambling
and narrow mountain paths could go. Colonel Smyth and
Baron Trip our guides, with the help of an ass, we walked
in all better than twelve miles,

Thursday, 2±th. — To the Vallee Obscure. It is a valley
with a small stream of water running through it, and
narrowed to a mere passage of the water between the
hills. These often rise on each side more than a hundred
feet above the stream, and in some places are not much
more than six or eight feet apart. We rode on through
this little stream about half a quarter of a mile, winding
between the perpendicular hills almost united at top by
trees and brushwood. The intention of our guide, General
Eeynardi, was to take us out at the other end, which
opens into a beautiful riant country ; but the peasants of
the environs said that the heavy rains of this winter had
brought down such large masses of earth and stones from
the sides of the hills that it was quite impassable. It is
about two hours' walk from Nice, the whole way beautiful,
by the villa of the Contessa da Casta and the Capucins'

230 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

Church. The day was delicious. In the Vallee Obscure,
between the hills, where the sun can never penetrate, the
cold was striking. Pretty little blue apaticas growing
upon the sides of the rock.

Sunday, 27th. — Every Sunday during Lent there is a
sort of fair held at the different churches near Nice — it
begins with Cimia. The road up to it was crowded with
people, and the Place before the church full of people
selling ah1 sorts of gilt gingerbread, figs, raisins, wine, &c.,
&c., but no other sort of commodity. There was a func-
tion in the church, which was full, and the people dis-
persed themselves about in groups in the fields and under
the olive trees, drinking the wine and eating the figs,
chestnuts, &c., they had brought with them. We observed
but one party who were eating meat, although there is a
general dispense for the whole country. The beau monde
of Nice all take a walk to these festins, as they are called,
upon the Sundays in Lent, and generally take that oppor-
tunity of calling on the way at the different churches, and
upon such of their friends as have country houses. The
proprietors are always there at these times, though
very seldom at any other. The weather delightful — but
one cold or rainy day from the llth to this date, March
2nd.

Sunday, March 27th.— These festins ended to-day with
one again at Cimia, very crowded, although the day was
unpleasant. Festins had been held at St. Bartlemi, before
the Capucins' Convent, on the Villafranca road ; and that
was by far the prettiest, as the people spread themselves
in little parties all over the rocky hill of Mont Alban, and
singularly enlivened the whole scene.

The weather this month dry, and till the 24th warm
and enjoyable.

Friday, April 8th. — Went to Falicore ; were above two
hours getting there. It is a cleaner little village, or bourg,
than any other I have seen ; view beautiful on every side.

1803] LENT AT NICE. 231

As we got off our horses and walked about the Place, the
whole town canie out to look at us, and among them the
three principal persons of the place, — the mayor, the cure,
and his nephew, the avocat. The cure turned out to be
an old acquaintance of General Eeynardi's,' who was with
us ; and he insisted so much upon our coming into his
nephew's house, and our taking a glass of wine, that we
were obliged to comply. The house was clean and com-
fortable for this country, and the wine, produced in a
bottle (containing at least half-a-dozen common-sized
bottles), most excellent white Muscat. We stayed with
them about half an hour; it was impossible not to be
pleased with their hospitality. It was Good Friday, so
that there was no eating going on among them. About
a mile and a half from Falicore, upon the bare and rocky
side of the hill immediately under Mont Can, they have
lately discovered a considerable cavern or grotto. One
descends into it by a ladder from the aperture on the side
of the hill ; it is lined with stalactites, which in several
places form little Gothic tabernacles, which, with a lamp
placed in or behind them, were really very beautiful,
though the colour of the stalactites was not very clear-
looking, and there is but one great detached column ; so
that I suppose to those much accustomed to visit grottos
(which I am not) this would be considered as but a mid-
dling one. The proprietor, however, a Piedmontese, who
bought some of the emigres' land, and possesses a house
at the foot of the hill, thinks far otherwise, and is having
stairs cut in the rock, and thinks, I believe, that he is to
make money by showing it to the strangers who come to
Nice. Our party consisted of General Eeynardi, Colonel
Smyth, Prince Louis Lichtenstein, and ourselves.

Saturday, 3(M. — After uninterrupted fair weather for
eight weeks, a violent thunder-shower fell in the night of
the 27th. To-day distant thunder was heard, and a vast
congregation of heavy black clouds hanging over the

232 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

mountains seemed to pour down rain, but on clearing off
they left Mont Can and all the lower mountains whitened
with hail. The cold in the plain here was almost as great
as we have ever experienced during the winter.

Tuesday r, May 3rd. — Left Nice. Madame de St. Agathe
and General Eeynardi accompanied us to the further side
of the Pont du Var. It is now passable for light carriages,
but the reparations have been made in a slight and slo-
venly manner — the gardefoux on the part that has been
repaired might be pushed down with a stick. Before we
had got above half way to the Pont du Var the two Princes
of Lichtenstein* and Comte Attems joined us. When we
had passed the Pont du Var, Madame de St. Agathe bid us
adieu, and, I really believe, with sincere regret. She is
an amiable, unaffected creature, with a good natural un-
derstanding, and had she seen more of the world she would
be very agreeable. At Antibes, we drove to the inn,
thinking the Lichtensteins would go no farther, but they
kindly proposed accompanying us to Cannes.

At Cannes we arrived at half-past three. The road near
the edge of the sea, from which the view struck me so
much in the winter, I again made on foot. The day was
an unlucky one for distant views, and for a last look at
the beauties of Nice ; heavy clouds hung upon the distant
hills, and the prospect was much involved in mist ; but
still this part of the road charmed me.

At Cannes the Lichtensteins bid us a most kind and
hearty farewell, and returned on their post-horses to Nice,
leaving upon our minds the impression of their being two
of the most agreeable, well-informed, unaffected young
men that we have met with for an age, to say nothing of
their distinguished military merit and ah1 they have both

* Prince Louis died, unmarried, in 1833. Prince Maurice died in 1819,
leaving three daughters now living — Princess L. Schwartz enburg and two
Princesses Lobkovitz.

1803] MADAME DE STAEL'S DELPHINE. 233

suffered, for their Emperor and their country in the late
war. They constituted our constant every-day society
for the last fortnight of our stay at Nice ; for though they
both occupied themselves much in the morning, they took
long rides with us in the afternoon, and came to us every
evening. Never idle, desceuvres, or wanting to get rid of
time themselves, I never lived in intimacy with any young
men so never a charge as with them. I quit Nice with
a regret, with a feeling of melancholy, which I hope I
shall ever experience at leaving any place where I have
spent five months quietly and comfortably, to say nothing
of regretting its exquisite natural beauties, which gained
upon me the more I became acquainted with them. To
cease to be in any place where one has been for five months
together, always appears to me a sort of death. One's
resurrection in the next place to which one means to go,
is uncertain as to its equal comfort, and has seldom (ex-
cept under very particular circumstances) the charm, the
ineffable charm, of intimite.

A few extracts from Miss Berry's correspondence at this
time have been preserved. The two following are from
letters addressed to her friend Mrs. Darner, with Mrs. D.'s
reply to the first :—

Nice, Jan., 1803.

. . . In spite of my headache yesterday, I contrived to read
nearly three volumes of Madame deStaeTs Del phine. As I conclude
it is long before this time in London, I need not tell you what it
is. It is certainly interesting — the great sine qua non of a novel.
It is well written, too, and there is much nice observation of the
affections of the human heart ; but much false and incongruous,
and still more, which has only been drawn from, and only applies
to, the corrupted and factieux societies of Paris. What chiefly
diverts me is the portrait of herself (of her character, I mean),
under that of Delphine, which she herself, I dare say believes is
a striking likeness, and likely to do her immortal honour ! The
attempt, nobody who knows her the least can avoid seeing ; but

234 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

were it as like, as it is ridiculously dissimilar to her life and
manners, it would be, by no means, I should think, a portrait that
one should choose to expose of oneself. Such pictures of the
passions I think hideous and fearful, instead of touching. Of
all the passions, I consider love as that which the least admits of
an exaggerated description. It is itself an exaggeration, and the
only method of profoundly interesting Sesames vraimentsensibles
is to keep the expression of it subdued, and to leave much to the
mind of your reader. How differently has Eousseau treated a
great passion, and a passion which leaves a ten times deeper
impression of its violence on my mind, than all the so-often
repeated struggles of Leonie and Delphine ; while the perfect
and admirable friendship which he contrasts with it, speaks peace
and consolation to the suffering mind, and points out the true
and only resource of a cceur aimant against the delirium of
passion.

London, Feb. 1803.

. . . You will see how much we agree about Delphine,
and how much we have both thought it worth occupying a por-
tion of the alas ! small sides of paper a letter can consist of, or
time be found to fill it. Delphine is certainly not an exact por-
trait of Madame de Stae'l in all senses ; but I think it quite
curious to see the soul (as I think it here does) of a person,
certainly one of genius, pervading a whole book, for so it is, —
ideas, opinions, passions all.

You do not know how much I admire what you say on love,
her love, I mean. I have ever with you thought such descrip-
tions of that passion put me in mind of the wrong end of a
magnet being placed to the point of steel. But Delphine and
Leonie will clatter through the world and carry crowds in their
vortex. The more they are abused, the more they will be fol-
lowed and studied, and even admired.

The following extracts from a letter of Miss Berry's
very young correspondent, Lord Hartington,* then only
thirteen years old, will not be without interest as to passing
events : —

* William Spencer Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, born 1790, suc-
ceeded his father as sixth Duke of Devonshire, 1811.

1803] LETTER FROM LORD HARTIXGTON. 235

Devonshire House, Jan. 30, 1803.

You cannot think, my dear Miss Berry, how much pleasure
your letter gave me ; everything you can say about Nice will
be news to me, as I have never had any correspondent there. . . .
I envy you very much upon your tall personable beast on the
mountains, whilst we (poor souls !) are shivering in great coats
by the fireside. We are certainly to go to Paris this summer.
Perhaps we shall meet you there on your way back. . . .
I will, if you like it, write a newspaper for you every week.
You can stop them as soon as you like. . . . Lord and Lady
Abercorn have had a play at the Priory. It was ' Who 's the
Dupe?' and 'The Wedding Day.' It was very well acted.
Lady Cahir * acted Lady Contest. The other actors were Pen f
and George Lamb,} Lawrence, § the two Mr. Maddocks, |j Lady
Charlotte Lindsay,H" Miss Butler and Mrs. Kemble.** Mamma
and my sister were there. There was no room for poor me : I
should like to have been there very much.

Andreossi came here the other night, and talked a great deal
about Bonaparte, and defended his cruelty in Egypt, which is
mentioned in Wilson's book on the war there. He said that it
was not true that he had ordered all the wounded to be killed,
for they took away numbers, and those few who were killed,
were past recovery, and that he did it out of humanity. My
aunt Besborough is to set out from Paris the 6th of next month.
Moreau has been to see her ; he makes no scruples of disap-
pro.Ing of the present government. My aunt asked him if he
was not afraid of Bonaparte killing him, upon which he said —
* Bonaparte est un tyran mais pas un assassin.' He said that

* Lady Cahir, afterwards Countess of Glengall.

t Hon. Penistone Lamb, son of Penistone, first Lord Melbourne, and
Elizabeth Milbanke, daughter of Sir Ralph Milbanke : died 1805.

t Hon. George Lamb, his brother, died 1834.

§ Lawrence (Sir Thos.), the celebrated artist.

|| The two Mr. Maddocks (brothers), Kentish gentlemen, well known in
society at this time. The name is preserved in North Wales, where, near
Bethgellert, a harbour was constructed by the elder brother, called Port
Maddock.

^[ Lady Charlotte Lindsay, daughter of the second Earl of Guildford,
eighth Lord North j married Lieut.-Col. the Hon. John Lindsay, 1800 ;
died 1849.

** Mrs. Brereton, daughter of Mr. Hopkins, prompter at Drury Lane;
married to John Kemble, the great tragedian, 1787.

236 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

he was not afraid of his banishing him, for he had the hearts
of all the army, and that he did not dare. ... I am afraid
you will be sadly tired with this long scrawl : I will write some-
thing more substantial when I get some news ; in the meantime,
I remain yours, ever affectionately,

HARTINGTON.

Extract of a letter from Sir Harry Englefield to Miss Ben^y.

Feb. 18, 1803.

. . . I have lived in town now over a month, as if I had
been at Nice or Pekin, and knowing little more of the world
here than you do. I have seen Lady Hertford once, but heard

very little, except that General Andreossi asked Lady Anne B •

who Miss Gribbes was, and was answered — * C'est la sozur de loi
du grand parleur.' * Some good French is also told of the
Duchess of Gordon, f who is giving continual balls and fetes at
Paris. ... I hear that Lady Palm.J is in very good health, and
when she sees her friends, which is but seldom, very tolerably
cheerful. Lord Minto saw her the other day at Broadlands,§
which, by-the-bye, has had a narrow escape from fire. The
furniture of one bedchamber was quite burnt. Sotheby medi-
tates a religious poem, with a reasonable spice of metaphysics
in it. As your roads are bad, I shall not attempt to send it
except by sea, and then I rather apprehend it may bring the
ships into a scrape, like Lord Elgin's brig which went down near
the Island of Cythera, laden with marble from the temples of
Minerva and Theseus, and all the journals and drawings made in
the Morea by these gentlemen who had surveyed the Thermo-
pylea and Platea, and a thousand places untrodden by European
Christian feet for many centuries ; the event is really a calamity
to all lovers of art and science. We Grecians have a new feast,
however. Aplay of Euripides or Sophocles or of their time (really
and truly) has been discovered at Moscow, and parts of it are

* Miss Gibbes was sister-in-law to the Right Hon. Charles Abbot (after-
wards first Lord Colchester), Speaker of the House of Commons.

t Jane Maxwell, Duchess of Gordon, called by Horace Walpole one of
the empresses of fashion.

J Mary, daughter of Benjamin Mee, Esq., married Henry, second Vis-
count Palmerston, 1783 ; died 1805. Lord Palmerston died 1802.

§ The seat of Lord Palmerston, in Hants.

1803] DISCOVERY OP ANCIENT MSS. 237

already arrived here. Dr. Burney has seen it, and has no doubt
qf its authenticity.* Then a Mr. Clarke has collected most
curious MSS. in the Levant, and brought them safe home. A
Plato of the ninth century, and several ancient songs with their
music.f I suppose the street organs -will soon be playing
Sappho's 'Lamentation,' Anacreon's ' Fancy,' Tyrtaeus' 'March,'
and Erinna's ' Hornpipe.' A propos of this, I suppose you
know that in the ' Mysteres d'Isis,' at Paris, there is an entire
ballet copied from the ' Obelisks ' — all the dancers are

You know how I respect Agnes' pencil. I am most happy to
hear that she continues to work ; I am sure she will improve,
for every touch gives power to the next. I wish you would lay
aside your chalk, and take to black-lead ; for chalk is a grimy
business, and at best is bad, and at worst is detestable. If you
would take pains, you would do extremely well. . . . My
neighbours here J go on most lovingly. Their affection seems
to grow with their growth, and fatten with their fat. He and

* No trace of this play is to be found. Whether the MS. which Dr.
Burney saw proved to he a fraud or a mistake must now he doubtful. Miss
Berry's correspondent was not likely to have heen misinformed as to some
such supposed MS. having heen in the hands of Dr. Burney, with whom
Miss Berry and her friends were well acquainted. The highest authorities
at Oxford, Cambridge, and the British Museum, to which may be added the
name of Mr. Grote (all powerful on such subjects) declare that no such play
exists to their knowledge, and no record of any such discovery at Moscow.
In 1782 an Homeric Hymn to Ceres was discovered at Moscow ; and a large
fragment of a play of Euripides was found at Paris by Bekkar in 1821 ; but
neither of these discoveries throws any light upon the work supposed to
have been sent here in 1803.

t In a letter addressed by Dr. Edward Daniel Clarke to the Rev. Robert
Matthews, dated 1802, he enumerates the various MSS. he has got : — ' In
Greek I have the works of Plato, the Lexicon of St. Cyril, a volume of
Greek poems, and two works on Ancient Music.' — Life of Edward D. Clarke,
by Wm. Otter, p. 517. In a letter from Dr. Clarke he says, ' Person is
all rapture and joy about the Plato ... he says it may be considered as
equivalent to the combined authorities of any two known MSS.' — Ibid.
p. 560.

It was in the Monastery of St. John, in the Isle of Patmos, that these
MSS. were discovered, and are now deposited in the Bodleian Library,
Oxford.

Prince of Wales and Mrs. Fitzherbert.

238 MISS BERET'S JOURNAL. [isos

0}d Q * attended a lecture the other day, read by a Professor

Aldini, on a hanged house-breaker. Galvanism made the dead
man open his eyes and grin extremely : they had a noble end
in view, but alas ! the doctor gave them no hopes. . . .

Extract of a letter from Miss Berry, but no mention of
the name of her correspondent : —

Nice, Feb., 1803.

All general principles of government of moral conduct, of
all species of reciprocal duties, must all be referable to the
instincts of nature and to moral truth.

These general principles, immutable, invariable as the Being
from whom they emanate, are to be modified in their appli-
cation to general use, or individual commerce. Thus in govern-
ments, or associations of men, the safety of the whole is to be
purchased by the loss or danger of some individuals — that is to
say, a power of protection, and consequently of punishment is
to be placed somewhere. From the nature of man, punishment
will be sometimes misplaced, and protection will be sometimes
abused, but still the principles upon which both act may be
true, consequently just. For justice is nothing else but moral
truth.

Try all human institutions, the principle of all govern-
ments, all commercial regulations by this rule, and it is easy
to convince oneself of its certainty, not by what may ~be built
upon it, but what has been experienced, from it. Try by this
rule/ the English government, the former French government,
the present. The principle of the first (the English govern-
ment), both in its civil and criminal administration, will be
found in perfect consonance with the above rule. See then, in
spite of the perversity of human nature, the incapacity of
ministers, the nullities of kings, the contagion of neighbouring
corruption, what it has resisted ! how it has survived the
general stroke of Europe ! what powers of self-preservation and
regeneration it has within itself!

The former French government, in its original principles, in
its tacit agreement between the governors and the governed,
was in opposition to every point of moral truth. In vain were

* Duke of Queensborough.

1803] EXTRACTS FROM MISS BERRY'S LETTERS. 239

its natural advantages — in vain the character of some few bril-
liant princes — the virtues of many distinguished citizens — with
everything that could, in fact, contribute to its natural tout-
puissance. By the falseness of principle in all its institutions,
and in its whole organisation, its former history presents nothing
to the eye of philosophy but a wretched combat between
depravity and folly. Look at its present history, that mar-
vellous page now open under our eyes, the same negligence of
moral truth in all the various pretended constitutions.

Extract of a letter from Miss Berry to a friend.

Nice, March, 1803.

I am reading over for the fiftieth time, I believe, the letters
of Madame de Sevigne. They always improve on me, and are
here particularly interesting. Here, where her immediate
descendants still remain ; here, in the neighbourhood of so
many of her scenes of action, her Provenpal phrases, and the
things to which she so often reverts. Do you know her as much
by heart as you ought to do ? It is amazing how constantly her
dme aimante, and all the various expressions it dictates, puts
me in mind of yours. It is the same manner of thinking and
feeling for everything that has to do with what she loves. In
short, it is the true pre-occupation and interest of real affection,
that first and best of sentiments ! more tender than friendship,
more sure, more composed, more satisfying than love.

Letter from Miss Berry to Mrs. Oreathead at Paris.

Nice, Tuesday, March 22, 1803.

. . . I have the pleasure of receiving your letter of the
llth, which makes me forget everything but a wish to hear and
see more of friends for whom, believe me, no silence, nor no
absence can ever cool our affection, or even lessen our interest.

The account you give of Paris is such as I expected from
what I myself saw of it last year. Had we been all there
together, I venture to flatter myself, you would have liked it
much better than either of us should separately. As it is, we
have given up all thoughts of it when we leave this place. . . .

240 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

I am always desirous to enjoy any part of what remains to me
of life by passing it in the society of such friends as yourselves.
Do, then, think of spending a part of the summer with us in
Switzerland. I have only mentioned Lausanne or Geneva as
the two places we all best know. But anywhere, where you
think you could be comfortable, I am sure we could make our-
selves so. I think I may venture to say we are not bad at this,
and at lieing that sort of society, the only really enjoyable to
rational people. I think we have in some degree proved this
here, where we found nothing but a parcel of English, none of
whom we knew, never meeting of an evening, nor in any other
way than in giving each other English dinners at English hours,
and declaring, and positively believing, there was no society of
any kind to be had at Nice. We could not believe this, and
soon found out the contrary ; made some very agreeable Nice
acquaintance ; declared off from the very first the English
dinners, which my father's age and habits of life enabled us
without offence to do. Made a soiree about once a week for
our Nice friends, some of whom are musical and all play cards ;
gave them a good supper, and soon found all the English most
willing and pleased to be asked to our parties, which have cer-
tainly been the best thing here in the way of society, and have
been once or twice gay enough to end in a little impromptu
dance.

1 have now only to add, that my health is so improved by
the winter I have passed here, that I am a different creature
from what you have seen me for the last two years in England,
and am capable of enjoying not only society, but long courses
in the exquisitely beautiful mountains which surround this
place. Agnes has been drawing a great deal. We long to
see Bertie* and all his wonderful works. . .

To Mrs. Greathead, Paris.

* Mr. Bertie Greathead (junior) evinced in boyhood an ardent taste for
pictorial art, portraits, and historical pieces of great merit. He visited
France during the short peace, for the purpose of improving his judgment
in his favourite pursuit ; and when others were made prisoners, Napoleon
permitted him to retire to Italy ; he was there seized with a fever, and died
in the twenty-third year of his life.

1803] LETTER FROM MRS. HOWE. 241

Extract of a letter from Mrs. Howe.

March 10, 1803.

. . . Another very great death happened on Tuesday morn-
ing— that of the Duke of Bridgewater. What I am going to write
will show what an immense property he has left behind him.
He has given about 30,000£. a-year landed estate to General
Egerton (now Earl of Bridgewater), and 600,000£. in money, all
this in his own disposal ; and 40,000£. to his brother, who is, I
believe, a clergyman. To Lady Louisa Macdonald and Lady
Ann Vernon each 10,OOQ£. To Lord Grower he leaves the navi-
gation, that is, the income of it ; the management of the con-
cern being put in trustees' hands ; his house in town all strictly
entailed (but to him for his life), the pictures, library, &c., as
heir-looms, and then to his second and younger sons suc-
cessively, and their sons, excluding whoever may be Marquis of
Stafford ; his intention being to make a new family, for who-
ever has it is to take the name of Egerton. Lord Gower's sons
failing, it goes through a long specified entail to the sons of his
three nieces. . . . Besides Lord Carlisle's and Lady Louisa's
younger sons, Lady Ann Vernon has eight or nine. The navi-
gation is reckoned a clear 74,OOOZ. a-year ; the last year it
produced 80,0001., and is supposed to be improving.

The same.

April 10, 1803.

Lord Gower sells his present habitation, and makes the late
Duke of Bridgewater's his town residence ; first building a fine
drawing and eating-room, &c. to the park, raised to the height
of the picture gallery and library, and moves the stables to
Cleveland Court; then over the coach narrow way called
Katharine-wheel Yard he throws a bridge, which leads to his
garden in the Green Park ; it will be a very complete business
when finished.

The same.

Thursday, May 19, 1803.

In our present situation with France, my dear Miss Berry, an
impatience to run over the papers relative to all that has passed
between the two (alas !) adverse kingdoms since the treaty of
Amiens, which were laid before the House of Commons yesterday,

VOL. II. R

242 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

is a natural impulse. ... As a war is now in a manner
begun, I guess it may cause you and yours to leave Geneva
very quickly, therefore am unwilling to defer till next week
writing my grateful thanks for your last finished the 29th of
April ; and calculating I have half-an-hour to spare, before I
need dress for the Queen's ball (her natural birthday), I am
glad to seize it, and thus make a beginning. ... Lord
Whitworth arrived in town last night, and probably General
Andreossi landed at Calais several hours ago. The King was
at the little theatre in the Hay market Tuesday evening, and
was received in the most flattering manner — ' God save the
King,' 'Eule Britannia,' and every allusion to the present
moment that could be seized upon, met the highest applause.

4 o'clock, Friday, May 20.

I need not say I am very well, my dear Miss Berry, when I
tell you I was not in bed till five this morning, and not in any
manner discomposed or too much tired ; but of course not up by
cock-crow. . . . Lady Douglas was at the ball, but neither
of her daughters ; no one below the rank of earl's daughters and
peeresses were there, except myself and one living in the house,
and the attendant upon the Princess Sophia of Gloucester.

JOUENAL.

Wednesday, May kth. — Left Cannes for Muy. The
morning, rain fell before we began to mount the Estrelles.
The new-fallen rain had laid the dust, and refreshed all
the beautiful shrubs with which the sides of the road are
covered ; the air was mild and calm, heavy clouds hung
upon the tops of all the mountains, and a solemn stillness
pervaded the whole landscape, which, together with the
wild and uninhabited look of these hills, gave it a most
impressive character.

Thursday, 5th. — At Flassans they gave us five miserable,
weak horses, which, on a hill by no means steep, abso-
lutely refused to draw. In vain the postilions swore
they would go on very well ; in vain they strove to make

1803] FLASSAXS. 243

them move, and, while they were half murdering them
with blows, wished us to sit in the carriage. That was
impossible ; we all got out, in one of the most pouring
rains I ever saw or felt. There was a wretched peasant's
hovel a little way off the road, to which we made as fast
as the wind and rain would allow us. Here, in a sort of
stable, I wanted to stay till the horses were up the hill.
They moved on a little, and the postilions hallooed to us
to get in. Again the horses would not move ; again they
were assommes de coups ; again we got out, and again we
made for our hovel, where we in vain endeavoured to
make the peasants lend or find some horses to help us.
They had none themselves, and the moment they knew it
was the post, nobody would interfere or stir a foot. At
last the wretched beasts moved up the hill, and we were
obliged, dripping wet, to follow them, the wind and rain
more violent than ever. The people told us there was an
inn on the top of the hill ; we insisted on the postilions
stopping tj?ere, meaning to change our wet clothes, warm
ourselves, and again try to persuade them to seek other
horses ; but in none of these points did we succeed. The
inn was a wretched grenier, with one fireplace, round
which a great number of noisy, strange, low sort of men
were sitting, who seemed very little disposed to make
room for us, — one man especially, who seemed a friend
of the postilions, was particularly anxious to assure us we
could get nothing there, and to force us out of the house.
We were literally wet to the skin, and our dripping great
coats made the bottom of the coach so wet that no partial
change could be of use. The postilions positively refused
to go on to Brignolles for other horses, and nobody else
would stir, though we offered to bribe them all. At last,
after losing three-quarters of an hour, we were forced to
get again into the carriage, with small hopes of being
dragged over the very bad road before us, when fortu-
nately we met the cabriolet of the post, with which we

244 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

changed horses, and at last arrived at Brignolles, and were
not the least the worse for this thorough wetting, and
sitting in wet clothes, which is so often supposed to be an
unavoidable cause of all sorts of ills.

Friday, Qth. — It rained ah1 night, and continued with
very short intervals the whole day. Between Brignolles
and La Grande Pugere my father and I walked a great
part of the way. One part was the worst and most dan-
gerous of the road from Nice to Aix, not excepting the
Estrelles. Arrived at Aix in a pouring rain, at seven
o'clock.

Saturday, 1th. — The incessant pouring rain determined
us to stay at Aix all day. We never stirred out of the
hotel, and amused ourselves in the evening, when it began
to grow fair, with drawing from the window.

Sunday, 8th. — Left Aix. We saw a cart embourbe
when we passed St. Cannat in the winter, and we found
another one in the same situation now. The people com-
plain of their roads, but are firmly convinced that the very
next week they are to be thoroughly repaired, — and so
they were six months ago. Bonaparte's government is
not one to repair roads for people who can do so well
upon the promise only of better ones.

Between the Font-National and Orgon is a large hand-
some chateau and park, belonging to a Mr. du Lubron
(or some such name). The park, which is very large, has
been laid open in the days of the Eevolution, and many
fine trees have been cut down and are still lying there.
The postilion was anxious to tell me that the owner lived
at another chateau in the neighbourhood, probably of a
very different sort from this, which is really a fine country-
seat. We arrived at Avignon on a very fine evening ; it
was Sunday, and all the public walks upon the outside of
the walls were full of gay, cheerful-looking people ; but I
lost all the pleasure I should otherwise have received from
such a scene, by Agnes being extremely unwell.

1803] AVIGNOX. 245

Avignon, though situated in a plain, presents itself well
from the number of high buildings, towers, &c., enclosed
within it, and from the extraordinary beauty of its walls,
which are in as perfect repair and look as new as if they
had just been built.

Monday^ $th. — Left Avignon. The road to Douzere
is along the valley of the Ehone, and often near its banks,
but the country on both sides looks much less beautiful
from the road than from the river, — and from the river
I sincerely hope never to contemplate its beauties again !
There are no olives north of Avignon ; from there to
Lorques the road is through rich pastures and comfort-
able looking villages. On this great Lyons and Mar-
seilles road I observed that between every post we had
three stops, one to change horses with some other car-
riage, and two for the breaking of* traces. Between
Mornas and La Palisse we met the Turkish Ambassador
and his suite, in two carriages with six horses each, upon
whom our postilions in vain exerted all their eloquence
to allow t^hem to change horses, and then revenged them-
selves by declaring ' qu'ils etaient des coquins, des voleurs,
des Turcs ; ' though it was two Frenchmen in the first
carriage, with the Ambassador, who absolutely refused
changing ; for the Turks, as may be supposed, knew nothing
about the matter.

At Orange we were detained, and employed our time
most agreeably in examining the Arch of Triumph,*
which stands on the right-hand side of the present road,
just out of the town. It is much more beautiful than I
had formerly thought ; and though it may have been
overcharged with ornaments, they are so beautifully
worked, the Corinthian columns are in such beautiful
proportion, and the end which has not been built against

* The date and destination of this arch are unknown; the received
opinion at present refers it to the reign of Marcus Aurelius and to his suc-
cesses on the Danube and in Germany. — See Murray's Handbook.

246 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

gives such a high idea of the sculpture of the Dacian and
other captive figures with which it was adorned, as makes
it still a fine example of Eoman, or rather Grecian, archi-
tecture.

A part of the wall of the amphitheatre* appears on
entering the town, but all beauty is now destroyed by its
being filled and built up with poor mean houses.

Tuesday, Wth. — Came in sight of the Rhone ; continued
for the most part along its bank. At Valence I thought
I had remembered the fronton of a very fine Gothic
church, and went in search of it, but in its beauty I was
quite disappointed. It is a plain, unornamented, large
Gothic church, with no fine front; but in a side chapel of
the middle aisle, hung with black cloth or paper, all
dropped with tears, are deposited the heart and entrails
of Pius VI., the poor pope who, after being expelled Rome
by the French, and dragged about from one town to
another, at last died at Valence, 1799. Over the door of
the chapel is written, ' Ici repose le coeur et les entrailles
du Pape Pie VI.' They are in a box set upon a high stool
in the middle of the chapel, the whole covered with black
velvet, and a triple crown embroidered upon it. Upon
examining the church we found they had at first been
placed in a less conspicuous situation, in a retired, out-of-
the-way chapel, and in a sort of wooden painted sarcopha-
gus, still bearing an inscription which marked what it had
been : ' Ici sont deposes le coeur et les entrailles de
Pie VI.' f

As soon as we turned off the great Lyons road at
Valence, and took that of Grenoble, the surrounding

* The interior has been cleared of the miserable hovels which filled it,
and whose tenants in some instances, burrowing like moles, had formed
cellars in the thickness of the walls, regardless of the risk of undermining
it and of being buried in its ruins. The removal of a hundred of these
cabins now enables the spectators to judge of the arrangement of the scene
on its inner face. — Murray's Handbook.

t The church contains a bust and bas-relief by Canova, to the memory of
Pope Pius VI. — See Murray's Handbook.

1803] ROMANS. 247

country became much more beautiful. The cultivation
between Valence and Eomans is remarkable ; the vines
for the most part are on espaliers, round cornfields, and
sometimes in a double row, which gives to every field
the look of what used to be called in England a ferine
ornee.

Romans* is a largish town, prettily situated on the
Isere, with a stone bridge. It has a great appearance
of commerce, bustle, and comfort. Tanning seems to be
the principal trade here. Upon a small stream running
into the Isere live a whole row of tanners ; many, I fancy,
employed in preparing the skins which are to be manu-
factured into gloves at Grenoble.

Wednesday, \\th. — From St. Marcellin the road beau-
tiful along the valley of the Isere, with magnificent and
varied shaped mountains on each side, immense walnut-
trees close by the road and in the fields, and. the richest
cultivation throughout the valley of com and vines,
everywhere trained upon echalas from either cherry or
maple treCs, planted at regular distances, and allowed to
grow only to a certain height.

At a village beyond, Tullins, close to a stone bridge, is
the largest growing tree I ever saw. It was an elm, of
the sort general in this countiy, but not the same as that
in England. Between Tullins and Voreppe, at a large
village, is a fine French garden belonging to the house of
a M. de la Mothe, of Grenoble.

Before I leave the neighbourhood of Romans I must
take notice of an anecdote relative to its present manners,
or rather morals, told me by the maid of the inn, an
active, clean, intelligent peasant woman. There are always

* At this place the last native prince of Dauphine", Umbert II., having
lost his only son, who leaped from his nurse's arms out of the window of
the castle of Mezard into the Isere, and was drowned, signed his abdication
1349, by which he resigned his domains to Philip de Valois, on condition
that they should be an appanage of the heir to the French crown, and that
he should bear the title of Dauphin. — See Murray's Handbook.

248 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

a good many soldiers at Komans, being in a plentiful
country. When the last demi-brigade of a regiment, whose
number I have forgotten, left the place to make room for
those we saw there, no less than eighty young women went
and declared their pregnancy to the municipality (which
by the present laws they are obliged to do), ' non compris
(as my informer said) les femmes qui appartenaient aux
chefs et aux officiers.' One need no longer wonder at the
immense armies of France ! She added that numbers of
women accompanied them above a league out of the town,
weeping and wailing at their departure, and carrying wine
and eatables for them.

Thursday, 12th. — Grenoble is a very cheerful, well-
built, busy-looking town, and all the streets that end
towards the river seem bouchee by the mountain which
rises directly behind the faubourgs, covered with vines,
and crowned by an old castle which formed part of the
former fortifications ; the wall of the castle was up the
steepest part of this mountain. On the other side of the
town, from the ramparts of the more modern walls, is the
most extensive view, and is equally romantic and beau-
tiful, bounded by high mountains of an endless variety of
outline, and on which some snow always lies, but finely
wooded and cultivated to a great height.

In the interior of Grenoble considerable improvements
are making ; such as the pulling down a number of build-
ings near the bishop's residence and near the prisons (an
old castle-like building) to enlarge the spaces around
them. The intendant's house, now occupied by the
prefet, faces a large garden in the middle of the town
open to the public. The Palais de la Justice, formerly
occupied by the Parliament, and now by the present
courts of justice, is a very old building (with a fa9ade of
about the time of Francis I.), once the palace of the
Dauphins, the ancient sovereigns of the country, annexed
to the Crown of France in 1349. Why or wherefore

1803] GRENOBLE. 249

these sovereigns were called Dauphins,* no tolerably ra-
tional or probable account is given : it is said that in the
Middle Ages one of their leaders, who had united and
possessed himself of several neighbouring little barbarous
baronies or states, first called the country Dauphinois and
himself the Dauphin of it, in memory of a wife called
Delphine, whom he passionately loved. Be this as it
may, there are at present in the museum at Grenoble four
or five curious heads carved in marble, with a sort of
crown or cap of state upon them, said to be portraits of
the Dauphins, and taken from the inside of the gateway
to their palace.

In the same Place, of which this palace forms a part, is
a very old church, called their chapel. It was with
many others shut up at the Eevolution, and has not been
opened since. The Eevolution, however, was never
carried to its most frightful excesses here. Most of the
families who had emigrated are returned. They are
much satisfied with their prefet, and it is certainly, of all
the towns, I have seen in France, that which bears the
least marks of any change for the worse. The great
commerce of the place is gloves, of which I fancy more
are made here than in all the rest of France. There are
few glove-shops, they being almost all wholesale dealers.
The one to whom we were addressed, however, a Mr.
Morans, had a great choice of every sort and colour ; in-
deed, I never saw so many made gloves together before.
We paid (and I suppose we were treated like English

* Dauphin was originally a title assumed by the Comtes de Viennois,
from which their territory was called Dauphine". The Count who first bore
the title was Guigues IV., who died 1142 A..D. It is conjectured that the
name arose from the figure of a dolphin as the crest of his helmet or device
on his shield. In 1349 Humbert II., the last Count Dauphin, by treaty
with Philip VI. of France, sold his rights in favour of Philip's eldest
grandson Charles, afterwards Charles V. Charles V. made his eldest son,
Charles VI., Dauphin, although there was no stipulation on the subject in
any treaty. His example was followed by successive kings of France.

250 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isoa

strangers] 33 livres a-dozen for long gloves, white or
coloured, and 18 livres for habit gloves. It must, I fancy,
be a good trade. They give to the women who sew the
gloves (in almost every house in Grenoble you see women
thus employed) half-a-crown a dozen. For long gloves
it seems very little ; but, what is much more astonishing, a
very good workwoman will sometimes cut out and make
six pairs in a day, and commonly three or four pairs.

The museum at Grenoble, one of those established by
Government, is in the former convent and church of the
Jesuits. The pictures and statues have been but lately
brought, and are all finally arranged. The library is that
which belonged to the Jesuits. It remains in the same
room, and a very noble one it is. The pictures in another
large room, lighted by sky-lights, are few of them good.
Two curious portraits of Henry IV. and the Constable de
Lesdiguieres and his son, a little boy, afterwards killed by
a kick of a horse, brought from Vizille* his chateau, about
three leagues from Grenoble. They are evidently of the
day. The statues are chiefly casts from the antique sent
from Paris, as were likewise most of the pictures. There
is another room fitting up for natural history, and another
for bronzes and antiques. We saw the museum on a
day that it was open to all the world, and there was a
number of common people and soldiers walking about ;
and what entertained me not a little was an invalid soldier,
who was a sort of guard in the room to prevent children,
&c., touching things, without stockings, and in very
shabby regimentals, descanting as learnedly upon the
pictures, which he called Kaffaelle's, Guido's, &c., as the
best-dressed connoisseurs could have done, and seemed
to give perfect satisfaction to his hearers. The weather
so cold that we had fires in all our rooms.

* Chateau de Vizille partly destroyed by fire in 1825, was built between
1611 and 1620 by Lesdiguieres, the Protestant commander and governor
of Dauphine", under Henri IV.

1803] GRENOBLE TO CHAMBERY. 251

Friday, 13th. — Left Grenoble. From thence to Lum-
bin. On the left is a finely-cultivated bank, which rises
to the foot of a ridge of abrupt mountains ; and on the
right is the Isere, winding in various doubles along this
rich and much-wooded valley, the woods ascending about a
third part up the craggy and snow-covered mountains of
the Upper Dauphine, which exhibit the greatest possible
variety of outline. An excellent road passes through
a number of well-built comfortable-looking villages, and
by a number of country-houses with uncommonly pretty
gardens. Higher up upon the bank, and nearer the
abrupt wall of mountain, is a continued line of villages
and country-houses, almost touching one another, for a
distance of two posts and a half from Grenoble. The
picturesque cultivation of the vine, which I have already
described, the quantity both of fruit and walnut trees,
the great population, the habitable look of the houses,
joined to the romantic mountains, which everywhere
meet the eye and bound the view, makes the whole way
from Grenoble to Lumbin one of the most delightful
succession of landscapes I remember to have seen. This
route from Grenoble to Chambery, has during the war
been so little frequented, except by persons travelling en
voiturier, that the postmaster told us he and the other
postmasters had given in their dismission six months
before, and only remained till they could do better, or
see how matters would go after the peace. Between
Lumbin and Chaparrillan is a very pretty small penta-
gonal fort, upon the former confines of France and Savoy.*
Throughout Dauphine a number of new houses are build-
ing in all the villages, and it is impossible for any country

* Fort Barreaux, built by Charles Emanuel Duke of Savoy, in the pre-
sence of a French army, commanded by Lesdiguieres. On being reproved
by Henri IV. for allowing this to happen, he promised to capture it when
finished. He kept his word, surprising the fort by moonlight, 1598. It was
afterwards strengthened by Vauban. — Murray's Handbook.

252 MISS BEERY'S JOURNAL. [isos

to bear more evident marks of thriving, of great popula-
tion, and of admirable cultivation. Chambery seemed
neither the better nor the worse for its ' Frenchification.'
The palace, which I had seen formerly, was burnt down a
few years ago by an accidental fire (1798). Arrived at
Aix-les-Bains. The building of the baths is kept up in
tolerable order ; all inscriptions of how, and when, and
by whom it was erected having been carefully effaced.
It contains a number of separate baths for the douche,
but none of cold water, nor even the means of lessening
the heat of the natural temperature. The Eomans made
use of these waters, and considerable, though not very
interesting, remains of their baths (now subterraneous)
are to be seen in the garden and under the floor of a
room in the house of a physician of the place. These
remains have been very lately discovered. They consist
of a passage terraced for the water, and very neat tile
pipes through which the vapour passed. Under the floor
of the room enough remains to prove the baths had been
lined with marble.

On our return from our walk, we found our servants
in serious council over the carriage, yet standing before
the inn door. They had found the axle-tree cracked
and the fore bed quite split through. No time was to be
lost. A marechal was sent for. He examined it in
presence of, I believe, the whole town of Aix ; for in
France everybody is willing, indeed insist, upon giving
you their company and their advice upon all occasions.
He wanted, as usual, to make a job for his neighbour, the
charron, as well as himself. However, after much useless
conversation, he agreed to do it for a louis, to which I
added a promise of a trifle more, if the carriage was
ready to set off at ten o'clock the next morning.

Aix is a poor little town, and the waters now little
resorted to. But I should think in peaceful times it would
be likely to be otherwise, for their efficacy is consider-

1803] AIX TO GENEVA. 253

able ; there are neat public walks planted with that
attention which the old Government of Sardinia showed
in all its public concerns.

Saturday, 14^. — By the help of my bribe we con-
trived to get away from Aix before eleven o'clock. The
road to Douey through a green enclosed country, with
pasturage very like England. Beyond Eumilly it is upon
a fine levee round the side of a steep hill down to a bridge
over a torrent, the whole of which has been made within
late years by the French. The appearance of the country
of Savoy strikes me as much better, and in an improved
state of cultivation and comfort to what it was formerly.
From Douey the road has been neglected, and in winter
the postilions said it was almost impassable for such a
carriage as ours. They are so little accustomed to people
travelling post, that we had a world of plague at every
posthouse. We did not arrive at Geneva till ten o'clock
at night.

Sunday, 15^. — Walked to Sechecon. The situation dis-
appointed me, though with a garden 4own to the lake ;
but this end of the lake is much more tame than the
other.

The following extracts from Mrs. Darner's letters to
Miss Berry, show the anxiety now felt at the state of
affairs between England and France, and the solicitude of
those at home lest communication should be cut off from
their friends abroad : —

From Mrs. Darner to Miss Berry.

London, Saturday, May 14, 1803.

At last the courier is arrived, and the long doubtful business
decided which you will have known before this can reach
you. War is now inevitable, and to-morrow Andreossi leaves
London. There was no Parliament sat to-day. I have seen
many other wars begin — none, in my opinion, under such bad

254 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

auspices ! — remedy there is none. As to myself, you may
depend on it, that if I can come to you I will ; I shall learn by
your letters where you are to be, when you have settled your
plans.

Strawberry Hill, Monday, 16th.

... A message was sent to the Lord Mayor on Saturday to
announce war. Yesterday Andreossi still had not left London :
this, tho' some have drawn a favourable inference from it,
means nothing, by what I understand, and at this moment I
doubt not but that he is on his road. The communication, they
say, is to be made from the King to Parliament this day, and
made public immediately. I hope this post, at least, letters
will still go to Calais ; but how it will be in future no one knows ;
and I am sorry to say that this difficulty appears to me very
serious. I do not like to name all the ports that will probably
be shut to English vessels. You talk of going by Holland if I
come to you ; but Holland is so entirely united at this time with
France, that it is a thing understood here, that when the French
Ambassador leaves London, the Dutch Minister will follow, of
course, &c. &c. I feel, like my old friend, * / wish I was asleep!'
I do not mean wholly on the score of public matters, for war is
always interesting, and, tho' for the sake of humanity and for
every good reason, I wish it avoided, it is to me never dispirit-
ing. . . . The matter of letters, I do fear, will be a certain and
immediate evil on which one must count. I mean this altered
and lengthened course, for one cannot flatter oneself that packets
will be allowed to sail from Dover to Calais, tho' our Captain
Blake has such a thought, and talked of preparing such a plan,
if the two Governments could agree upon it for mutual con-
venience ; but I expect no such thing.

London, Saturday, May 28, 1803.

. . . Letters positively now no longer come by Calais, and the first
accounts were true. They, however, will probably come before
long by Hamburg, and I may hope to hear from you, tho' of
later dates, and more irregularly, I conclude. This being the
case, and at this moment little chance indeed, by any inter-
ference, of your obtaining leave to go by Calais and Dover,
either at Paris or here, I shall not be sorry to know that you
mean quietly to remain where you are till you hear what turn

1803] LETTER FROM MRS. DAMER. 255

things take ; and by what passed yesterday in both Houses con-
cerning a motion of Ld Fitzwilliam and one of Mr. Fox's, do
not still wholly despair of peace being restored — in which case
I need not say I should join you wherever you may be. What
I allude to is the very unexpected turn and tone of Mr. Pitt's
speech, tending to approve of the interference of Eussia, and
portending (joined to other circumstances), if it portends any-
thing, his coming into power with peaceable views. This,
together with what struck me this morning on reading the
debates, was what Ld Dover told me (who, poor man, is more
than ever tormented with his gout, but still keeps up his spirits),
and is, as you may guess, the receptacle for news, but it is
really, in the political way, news de la premiere main, and I
believe him very little prejudiced on either side.

Sunday morning.

To be sure my two brothers-in-law are sad cripples ! and to
save the D. of Eichmond, who so kindly, when he can, comes
to me, I went yesterday and dined with him ; he repeated what
I told you above, and had seen Mr. Fox himself, who had called
upon him ; on which I made no remark, but was glad to hear
the Duke spoke in favour of peace, &c. You have no idea of
the sensation what passed in Parliament has made ; it was
wholly unexpected, and has certainly revived the hopes of peace.
I wish only all this may not have come too late. Yet Pitt,
Fox, both nations and Buonaparte for peace, it will be hard if
a useless, cruel, and unjustifiable war should be continued.
Should this be the case, however, and that you still, after
proper deliberation, think you could with comfort and sufficient
absence of anxiety as to events that most certainly may take
place in this country; for on that subject there is but one
opinion, and it can be no secret, I mean an invasion ; much
as I dislike a long sea passage, I will come to you, and with you
take all chances. . . . Since I wrote this I have heard (I know
not how true) that letters still go by Calais, but that none are
allowed to come from France. ... It is reported that all Eng-
lish are stopped and confined that are now in France.

256 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

The same.
Strawberry Hill, Sunday, June 5, 1803.

. . . You must, in a very few days after the date of the last letter,
have heard that English are not all to be sent out of France,
but those of a certain description detained prisoners at war :
this news was known here by the 1st of June. . . I regret your
not having heard from our Chevalier, who could certainly
from Paris have given you intelligence as to what was going on.
I do not pretend to say that events, as they have turned out,
could by any have been entirely foreseen, but I think you have
not yet seen the political state of Europe in the light in which
it will shortly appear to you — and this I account for from your
having been so many months away, and wholly removed from
all means of forming your own judgment of things. The shut-
ting up ports against English vessels being a wise and political
measure, will, you may depend on it, be adopted to the utmost
possible extent by Bonaparte; official notice to this effect is
already come from Holland, where Mr. Lister is detained pri-
soner, and within reach, as one may call it; at this moment
only Hamburg remains to us. This train of ideas, which my
mind pursues with peculiar anxiety from your being absent,
and the difficulties in which, though perhaps not likely, it is
possible you may be involved, makes me earnestly wish you
were returned. . . .

The little remaining shadow of peace I mentioned has, I thiok,
wholly vanished. Mr. Pitt spoke yesterday against Ministry —
thought them in many things wrong, but that the confusion, a
change by loss of time for preparations, &c. &c., would now
make war not advisable. Lord Hawkesbury was in great anger.
Mr. Fox spoke — I believe it was little — and did not (nor I
conclude his friends) divide.

London, Sunday, June 12, 1803.

I hope you did not put your letter, as you intended, into the
Gferman post, as our packets now do not go to Cuxhaven, nor
can you, consequently, as things are, return that way. The
French army is at Bremen, with an intention, as it appears, of
occupying Hanover, and even Hamburg, tho' it is expected
some other arrangement, at least as to the latter, and the pas-

1803] LETTER FROM MRS. DAMER. 257

sage of the Elbe, &c., will take place between France, Prussia,
and Kussia ; but at present travellers are allowed to go through
France by applying to Paris for passports (such, of course, as
do not come under the late restriction), and to pass from Calais
to Dover. Vessels for the mails, which are allowed to take in
passengers, go regularly to and from these ports with a flag of
truce. On this you may depend, and take your measures
accordingly, for this moment ; but for the next it is impossible
to answer. ... I always fear you may be influenced in your
plans by a natural disbelief of what often must appear to you
(as it would to me) idle stories, though they are, may be, real
and certain facts. Should you determine to return, and through
France, I think you ought yourself to write to Perregaux for a
passport, and the moment I know you have made this determi-
nation I shall take care that he shall also be written to from
hence, to back your request and take every precaution for you
in my power. I think, also, in this case you would do well to
write to Mdme. Visconti, who was so kind and obliging to us ;
she very probably might assist you, were there any difficulty,
and I am persuaded would do it with pleasure

Tuesday, June 14.

Events crowd on faster even than I expected, and I grow
seriously uneasy about your not being here. Hanover is taken,
without resistance, and the Elbe shut up. This intelligence
came yesterday, by the first consul's own particular courier
(called Moustache), who also announced that the communi-
cation by Calais was to end on the 28th of this month. This
is not newspaper intelligence — it was told me last night by the
Duchess of Devonshire, who, either herself or Lady Elizabeth,
had seen Lord Hervey. The Duchess says that a voiturier
comes in eight days from Geneva to Calais; this, could you be
in time, and have your passports from Paris, would be very
easy, as you are only two perfectly unexceptionable women in
every way, and your father above sixty ; and to return home I
could certainly obtain a passport for Dover here for you. What
other intelligence the courier brought it is not known — possibly
some propositions of arrangement, but nothing has transpired.
The King came to town, and there was a council in consequence
of the arrival of this courier.
VOL. II. S

258 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

I wish to (rod you may have taken the advice I sent you in
my letter immediately after I saw Edwards, and now be on
your way through France ; but this I no way expect, and now
things change, and may change so rapidly, there is no giving
advice but in a general way. Would your reluctance to return-
ing to England had not been so great ! — not but that this reflec-
tion is suggested, I fairly allow, by events I perfectly knew
you could not foresee — nor could I. ... Do not trust this
or that person, but write yourself to the persons I mentioned
above, to Paris, and any others there you think of, and take
notice that neutral powers may not long continue so. ...

Supposing the passage from Calais to be actually shut for
English vessels by the 28th, I cannot see at all which way you
can return. For Heaven's sake, take the very best and surest
advice, and do not either hurry or delay, but act as prudence
may direct.

JOUENAL.

Saturday, May 28th. — Left Geneva by half-past eight, in
a hired carriage with three horses, leaving Gibaud behind
to get our coach from the coachniaker's, our clothes
from the washerwoman, and our gowns from the mantua-
maker's, and to wait till he received orders to follow with
them to Lausanne. At past twelve o'clock, the night
before, when we were all in bed and asleep, we had been
waked by Lord John Campbell * to communicate intel-
ligence he had received from some of the English at
Secheron, viz., that by a letter which Lady Donegal f
(who lodged there) had received from Lyons, they learnt
that the English were arrested there, and it was believed
the same order was to be received by the post the next
morning at Geneva, in consequence of which he, Lord
John, and his companion Mr. Eobertson, meant to leave

* Lord John Campbell, second son of John Duke of Argyll, born 1777 ;
succeeded his brother George William, sixth duke, 1839 ; died 1847.
t Barbara, daughter of Dr. Godfrey, born 1790; died 1829.

18C3] GENEVA TO LAUSANNE. 259

Geneva, and the rest of the English Secheron, before the
arrival of the post, that is to say, before eight o'clock the
next morning. I own, when my sister came up and woke
me, I was little inclined to credit intelligence coming in
so roundabout a manner, and advised her, without waking
iny father, to return quietly to bed and let us talk of it
next morning ; to which she unwillingly consented, but
went to my father early the next morning, when she com-
municated it to him ; she was so uneasy and anxious to
be gone, that soon after six she was a^ain with me. We

o * <— t

directly sent up for the master of the house, told him
de quoi il s'agissait, begged him immediately to get us a
carriage (for there was no time to enquire if ours was
finished), made our maid stuff what things she could into
one of the trunks, and with much hurry and much un-
comfortable bustle got off at half-past eight from the
door of the Balances, not indeed before the post had
arrived, but before any order it had brought to the
Prefet was communicated to the sentinels at the gates,
so that we passed without interruption of any sort, either
at Geneva or at Versay, the limits of tte French territory,
about a league and a half from the town, where there is
a barriere and a douane, although in the hurry of setting
out the servants left my letter- case behind, in which was
our passport. We stopped at Eolle from twelve o'clock
till three, and arrived at Lausanne by six o'clock. As no
less than three English families had left Geneva and
Secheron on the same day, and upon the same account
as ourselves, we found all the inns full, and got very
bad rooms on the third story of the least good of the
two bad ones at Lausanne. I had a violent headache by
the time I arrived, whioh was perhaps lucky, as it took
from me almost the power of every other thought but
that of getting a room and to bed as fast as I could,
instead of the melancholy retour one should necessarily
have made upon oneself returning to a town after an

82

260 MISS BERET'S JOUEXAL. [isos

absence of nearly nineteen years, which one had left in
the heyday of life, with a thousand brilliant prospects,
hopes, and ideas before one, all cruelly failed in a man-
que ed existence, and which at sober forty can never be
renewed !

Our old friend Miss Cerjat came to see us the instant
she knew of our arrival. Seeing her was a relief to me
from finding her so much less changed than I had been
led to expect from the various family distresses in which
she has been lately involved.

Wednesday, July 6th. — Went to the library of Mr.
Gibbon ;* it still remains here, though bought seven years
ago by Mr. Beckford, of Fonthill, for 950/. It consists
of near 10,000 volumes, and, as far as I could judge by
a cursory and (from its present situation) a very incon-
venient examination of it, it is, of all the libraries I ever
saw, that of which I should most covet the possession —
that which seems exactly everything that any gentleman
or gentlewoman fond of letters could wish. Although it
is in no particular walk of literature a perfect collection,
in the classical part perhaps less than any other, and in
the Greek less than in the Latin classics, still there are
good editions of all the best authors in both languages.
The books, though neither magnificent in their editions nor
in their bindings, are all in good condition, all clean, all
such as one wishes to read, and could have no scruple in
using. They are under the care of Mr. Scott, a physician of
this place, who made the bargain for Mr. Beckford with
Gibbon's heirs in England, and are placed in two small
and inconvenient rooms hired for the purpose, and filled
with rows of shelves so near as scarcelv to admit of look-

* The house of Gibbon and the garden have been much changed. The
wall of the Hotel Gibbon occupies the site of his summerhouse, and the
berceau walk has been destroyed to make room for the garden of the hotel ;
nothing but the terrace overlooking the lake and a few acacias remain.—'
Murray^ Handbook.

1803] LAUSANNE. 261

ing at the books on the back side of them. Mr. Beckford,
when last here in 17 9-, packed up about 2,500 vols. of
what he considered as the choicest of them, in two cases,
which he then proposed sendipg to England directly, but
which still remain in their cases with the others.

\\tti. — Mr. Glayre had a good house in Lausanne,
with a beautiful view, a good house in the country at
Eomain-Motier, about twenty miles from Lausanne, both
well furnished according to the ideas of the country, had
frequent company to dinner in Lausanne, besides evening
parties, and very often people staying at his house in the
country for weeks together; gave foreign wine at his
table whenever he had company, lived in every respect
well and at ease, kept four carriage horses (occasionally
working on his farm), having a library, buying some
books every year, denying himself no reasonable fancy,
and having a wife and two young children. He spent
800/. sterling a year !

N.B. — To this must be added the taxes to be imposed
by the new Government since the independence of the
Pays de Vaud from Berne, which cannot make a differ-
ence of 30/. a year.

This independent canton of Vaud, thinking itself so
happy to have escaped from what some silly heads of it
were pleased to call the tyranny of the canton of Berne,
will, I feel convinced, in a very short time, be united to
France by the general consent and desire of the rational
and thinking part of the community, and I think they
will do well for the real happiness and prosperity of their
country in desiring such union. The peasants, I believe,
have really gained by the abolition of the feudal and
seigneurial rights ; in short, by their revolution, made ex-
actly upon the model of the French as to putting down
arms, burning family papers, abolishing titles, liveries,
&c. &c. But the inhabitants of the towns, who were
formerly an industrious, sober, and (for the age they

262 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1803

lived in) simple set of people, are grown at once idle,
insolent, and corrupted, which sits infinitely worse upon
the dull grassier ete of the Swiss character than upon the
pert legerete of the French. The men, instead of thinking
of their trade, are hardly ever in their shops, but loitering
about in groups, talking the politics of their country, and
all looking after some place or some participation in their
government, for which their former lives have not qua-
lified them, and which their present duties, unless
neglected, must prevent their fulfilling. The women
consider liberty and equality as an equal right for every-
one to read novels from morning till night, which they do,
from the lowest servants to the first citoyenne in the
town. If ever anything could persuade one to consider
being taught to read as a disadvantage to the lower order
of people, it would be here, from the often vile, and always
absurd, use which is made of it. The frequent passage
and residence of French troops in their towns have in-
troduced much profligacy in their manners ; and as they
have looked up to the French as their models in every-
thing, so like them they seem to expect the monstrous
and impossible combination of well-ordered liberty in
government and idle profligacy in manners.

Their commerce, which was formerly considerable in
books, is falling to nothing, in spite of every living soul
in the town reading. They no longer print any good
works here, but draw their books from Paris, which,
greatly increasing the price, and everybody but the pea-
sants being impoverished by their revolution, nobody
buys, the novels go from hand to hand from the circula-
ting library with almost as little advantage to those who
let as to those who hire them. All the tradespeople
complain of having little to do, and yet they are neglect-
ful and dilatory in executing the smallest commission, and
have lost entirely all that prevenance of manner and wish
to oblige which most commonly exists where trade really

1803] LAUiJANNE. 263

r

flourishes or is increasing. Everyone being a burgess of
the town, he has certain pecuniary rights, amounting to
about five or six pounds sterling a year, such as so many
loads of wood furnished to them from the estates of the
town, which are considerable — about five thousand pounds
a year, and what was called la bourse des Pauvres^ about
1,400/. ; and when old or incapable of working, being pro-
vided for by the town (that is to say, placed at its ex-
pense in the hospital, or receiving their sustenance, fuel,
clothes, &c., from the town in their own houses), they
count too much upon this resource, and probably are
more anxious about the direction of their public estate
than their private affairs.

Their criminal justice was formerly administered by
the Supreme Council at Berne, and from the infrequency
of crimes and the emptiness of their prisons, one may
justly suppose was well administered. Now that their
justice is in their own hands, their prisons are full.
Nobody, indeed, is punished, because means are always
found to let the malefactors, whatever their crimes, escape
out of prison by the command of then friendly judges.
Their civil justice must grow still worse, and the degree
of partiality which was formerly supposed to interfere HI
causes where anything Bernois was a party, must have
been nothing in comparison to what must take place now,
when Jacques judges Jean, with all the little partialities,
little prejudices, and little piques, which it is not in the
nature of man to avoid in a small society of which he
himself forms a part. Add to this that the Government
of Berne was rich, and assisted its subjects in a variety of
ways (such as lending money to individuals for any con-
siderable undertaking, at one, one and a half, and two per
cent. ; having their granaries always full of salt and of
corn, which in case of scarcity were retailed at a moderate
price, &c.), while the Government of the Eepublique
Vaudoise, having nothing, can have neither public muni-

264 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1303

ficence nor private charities, and consequently the number
of poor, of real mendicants, I mean, among the labouring
classes, both in the towns and the country, is unexampled
in their former history. All these inconveniences, which
time seems more likely to increase than to diminish, con-
vince me that Buonaparte's moderation with respect to
this country (I mean the Pays de Vaud in particular) has
been merely giving them rope enough to hang themselves.
The inhabitants of the towns will rapidly fall into decay,
if not into discord, and there not being territory enough
for them all to become cultivators (to say nothing of con-
trary habits), the wisest among them will find it best
to associate themselves to a country more fertile in re-
sources than their own, and to give up their troublesome
independence for leave to participate in the brilliant
prospects of France. Nor, indeed, do I believe it possible
in the present age, in the present political order of things,
and with the present habits, wants, and wishes of man-
kind, to establish a small independent government without
any other means of aggrandisement than the progression
of national industry, particularly in a country like this,
close to France, and not locally separated from the con-
tagion of its manners, its errors, and its corruption, like
the little mountainous cantons of Switzerland, whose
various democracies were all settled in an age when a
total absence of the occupations of foreign commerce and
foreign relations, and the simplicity and paucity of their
own wants, made it no very difficult matter to be at once
a judge, a soldier, and a farmer, to have wit enough to
settle such differences as were likely to occur, strength
enough to till the field, and valour to defend it.

Saturday, 23rd. — Went to see the cathedral — a very
handsome large Gothic church, much enriched with
figures of no very good sculpture, but as perfect as the
day they were put up. The middle aisle of this church
is deformed with pews. Behind the choir are several old

1803] LAUSANNE CATHEDRAL. 265

monuments of their Catholic bishops, and one only of a
chevalier in a shirt of mail.* There are besides several
modern monuments to strangers who have died at Lau-
sanne. A handsome sarcophagus to the Princesse d'OrlofF,
a simple tablet to the memory of poor William Legge,
and another to that of Mr. Ellison, who died when
we were first at Lausanne in 1785. A monument, in-
tended, judging by the pedestal, to have been very
magnificent, to the memory of the first wife of Comte
Walmoden ; but before the monument was finished,
he married again, and it has never been put up at all.
There are, besides these monuments, simple tablets,
with arms, to many families of the Pays de Vaud. At
the time of their revolution, in their ridiculous Patriotic
Society, as it was called, the servile and contemptible
ape of all revolutionary follies of the French, they more
than once proposed destroying these monuments. They,
however, escaped everything but the rapacity of the
French soldiers, who, in some of their visits to Lausanne,
took away all the copper-gilt letters of which some of the
inscriptions were made.

Sunday, 24th. — Left Lausanne without the regret that
I could wish to have experienced at leaving so beautiful
a country, in which I had formerly spent many cheerful
days. But the disagreeable uncertainty in which we
have been living here for these last two months has
been such, that I felt rather glad it should come to an
end, even by the alternative of a long and tiresome
journey. The road between Lausanne and Meudon is a
continued ascent up the Jura.

Monday, 25/A. — Eoad from Payerne to Avenches, along
a pleasant cultivated valley. Avenches is an old walled
town. A Roman marble column, with a part of its base

* Otho of Gransom, whose ancestor, Otto de Grandeson, held several im-
portant offices in England, under Henry III. and Edward I. — Murray's
Handbook.

266 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

and entablature, remains in a garden on the right side of
the road.* No other Roman remains appear, but the
books say there are several. There is a pretty view of
the Lake of Morat before coming to Avenches. Morat,
situated on an eminence, is a good-looking old town, with
arcades in the streets like Berne. On the side of the road
formerly stood the nobly simple monument, erected to
the bravery of the Swiss in the defeat of the Bourguignons
[1476] ; but the French regiment de la Cote d'Or being
unfortunately quartered at Morat in the year 1798, nobly
destroyed it entirely, instead of, like real heroes, respect-
ing valour of every country. Nothing remains but a few
scattered bones among the weeds which mark the place
of the former enclosure. The approach to Berne is
marked by innumerable farm and country houses, scat-
tered over the hills, many guinguettes and gardens near
the roadside, and long avenues of trees up to the gates.
Our passport here was left in the hands of the police.
There seemed to be no French soldiers at the gates.

Tuesday., 26th. — Went to the cathedral. A very fine
Gothic building. Of the four windows of the tower,
three are of beautiful painted glass in mosaic patterns.
The fourth was destroyed by lightning about 150 years
ago, and has been replaced by plain glazing. Monuments
there are none whatsoever. There is an immense organ,
loaded with gilt ornaments in the very worst taste, put
up in a circular gallery of Grecian architecture at the
west end of the church, which takes off considerably from
its length. From the terrace, of which the cathedral
forms the boundary, on one side there is a fine view of
the river running almost immediately under it, the well-
wooded and cultivated hills of the environs, all dotted
over with villages and single houses, and beyond them
Alps on Alps rising in the distance. I cannot say how

* Corinthian column 37 feet high, on which the storks now build.

1803] BERNE. 267

much I was struck with the appearance of the streets
and buildings of Berne. Everything that belongs to the
public is well executed and well kept ; and all the private
houses in the principal streets are handsome. The pecu-
liar beauty of the stone walls with which the whole town
is built adds to this effect, as certainly do the arcades
under the houses. The piers also sloping outwards give
an appearance of regularity and solidity extremely pleas-
ing, while the superstructures are sufficiently varied in
their forms and ornaments to prevent sameness.

On leaving the town, after crossing the bridge over the
Aar,a long ascent from the other side is protected with head-
stone parapets, executed in the most solid manner by the
Government between the years 1750 and 1758, as a sort
of stone monument upon the top of the hill records. The
view from hence beautiful, and the Aar is seen winding
almost entirely round the town, and placing it on a penin-
sula. This happened to be market day at Berne, and
the great street in which the Faucon is situated was,
from before six in the morning, a perfect fair, with a row
of booths completely down both sides outside the arcades,
besides the herb and fruit market, which began the busi-
ness of the day. The booths were shops of all sorts, but
principally of wearing apparel, many with all the ribbons
and velvets, and bits of embroidery, which enter into the
composition of a Bernoise dress. Nothing, indeed, can
be more picturesque than the variety of female dresses
from the different cantons and districts of Switzerland, to
be seen in this market — more of them odd than graceful,
but all serving to make that interesting variety, the
absence of which one regrets in the appearance of a
people where there are no regular dresses for different
classes. Left Berne. The road through a cultivated
country with fine woods. The houses all constructed a
la Bernoise, which gives a great idea of comfort to a
farm-house.

268 MISS BERRY'S JOURXAL. [isos

Tuesday, 26 th. — Arrived at Soleure in the afternoon.
Our passport was taken at the gate by the French troops
upon guard there, with a promise to bring it to us that
evening. I wished to send for it, fearing any delay next
morning, but the waiter assured me no mistake could be
made, that the son of the landlord was one of the muni-
cipal officers who would viser the passport and send it.
Still the passport did not arrive, and in spite of the
waiter's assurances I began to be uneasy. I had seen in
our walk about the town more French soldiers, hussars,
and infantry, than in all the rest of Switzerland beside,
and I began to suspect that their will, whatever that
might be, would here be law. About nine o'clock, when
my father had already retired to his room, the municipal
officer begged to speak to me upon the subject of our pass-
port ; it had never been brought by the soldiers to his office,
but had been carried to the French commandant ; that we
were entirely in the power of the French military, who,
he added, were unfortunately his masters as well as ours.
Upon this I desired immediately to speak to the com-
mandant de la place, who luckily happened to be at
supper in the house, and I prevented my father from
going to bed, as his presence would be necessary to con-
stater his age. At last the commandant made his appear-
ance. He was a young man of about twenty-six or
seven, with a mild, gentlemanlike countenance, and
quiet composed manners. But never did I see such a
thorough concentrated hatred, such a deep settled desire
of revenge, expressed with such perfectly undisturbed
calmness, and by an apparently cold character, as by this
man against England. For once in my life I rejoiced at
the helplessness of my sex ; for the calm composure of
this young man in uttering the most abominable lies
about his treatment in England did so make my blood
boil in my veins, that nothing but my sex could have pre-
vented me being guilty of the signal folly of chastising him

1803] SOLEURE TO BASLE. 269

as he deserved, and consequently of making myself the
aggressor. The scene ended with his first accompanying
my father to the French general (Eppler), with whom
he said he must se combiner about the passport, and then
signing and sealing it himself, which, indeed, I believe,
neither he nor the general could avoid doing (though
they said otherwise), as my father was non compris in the
decree of arrestation in France.

Wednesday, 27th. — We left Soleure at five o'clock in
the morning, too happy to get out of the hands of
General Eppler and his commandant de la place. After
leaving Soleure, the country is less interesting and less well
cultivated than any part of Switzerland I have yet seen.
The town of Soleure has always been more montee a la
Franqaise than any other in Switzerland. The houses
and the people, particularly of the better sort, have more a
French than a Swiss air. It was always the residence of
the French ambassador, the only ambassador with which
the cantons were honoured. It is now the depot of all
the French military in Switzerland, amounting to seven
or eight hundred. From here, as the centre of the
country, they can send out bands to dictate to any other
part. Indeed, here they seem to have established them-
selves, and I believe it will be long before the poor Swiss
will be able to unkennel them from this burrow. They
will always find some reason for keeping here a body of
troops, and till such troops be removed, the Swiss will
never be able to call those reasons bad. Upon a prominent
rock, in the narrowest part of the valley, and just above
a village,* is a very picturesque old ruined castle, which
probably in former daysN commanded the country on both
sides. The approach to Basle is through a long avenue
of poplars. After taking possession of our apartment,

* Aussere Klus. Above it rises the ruined castle of Bipp (Castrum Pepini),
built by Pepin, Maire du Palais.

270 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

we were much pleased to see Peter enter the room. He
had arrived from Neufchatel, sent by Mr. MacCulloch
with a voiturier on a char-a-banc. He had put on the
man's clothes, and had slept at Soleure the night before,
as well as ourselves, but at another inn, and had luckily
known nothing of our being there ; for most assuredly,
had the vindictive commandant known of him as an
Englishman, or as one of our party, he would have been
stopped as a good exchange for a French grenadier.

Thursday, 28th. — The weather was now excessively
hot, and admitted of very little exercise. Determined to
stay at Basle till the next morning.

Went to the principal bookseller — a very good one ; to
Michel's great print warehouse, always entertaining ; to
the cathedral, a large handsome Gothic building, con-
taining the tomb of Erasmus, who died here — a plain
marble tablet, with an inscription in gilt letters. It is of
a nasty reddish coloured stone, which much diminishes
its effect.

After dinner, in spite of the heat, we went to the public
library, where, in several rooms under those containing
the books, are preserved a number of fine drawings and
some admirable pictures of Holbein. A portrait of
Erasmus, and another of his friend Amerbach (a juris-
consult of this place), to whom a large volume of Eras-
mus's MS. letters have been preserved ; a portrait of a
Swiss merchant in London, which, after being in various
different hands, has returned to the native country both
of the painter and of the person represented ; a portrait
of his own wife and two children — admirable. Among
other valuables are some very fine cinque-cento editions :
a book of devotion of Fust in the year 1464 ; of Cicero's
Epistles, without name of printer, in 1469 ; Erasmus's seal,
device, and many little remembrances of him are here
preserved together with the letters I have before men-
tioned, and a MS. of the ' Moria Encomia ' with Holbein's

1803] LETTER FEOM MRS. HOWE. 271

drawings upon the margin in pen and ink. An edition
of this has been published, with the drawings on wooden
plates, which give a very poor idea of the spirit of the
originals.

Friday, 29th. — Left Basle. In spite of the assurances
of our commandant at Soleure, that without his permis-
sion we should not be allowed to pass from Basle, not a
question was asked us, either on entering or on leaving it ;
nor, indeed, on the German side, did I see a creature to
ask it, except a few poor-looking Invalides, whom we over-
took in the street, going to take possession of the gate.
French troops and a French officer there certainly are in
Basle, but they are few, and take no direction of, or inter-
fere with, the municipality. Freyburg, the capital of the
Breisgau (the country by the late arrangements ceded
to Modena), is a small town, like most German towns,
with very wide streets, which sounds better than it looks.
The heat was so excessive that we were glad to pass
the rest of the day in the inn.

The following extract of a letter from Mrs. Howe
belongs to this period, though it is not said at what place
Miss Berry was able to receive her letters during their
homeward journey : —

July 11, 1803.

. . . Many fine folks have left town, but hitherto there has
not been a dearth of grand meetings ; and the three or four
balls at Devonshire House have kept the young people in
motion ; there have been, also, there several morning dances,
followed by a breakfast, by way of practising quadrilles. Lady
Elizth Foster brought some pretty music from Paris, and some
of the young ladies just come forth proved themselves excel-
lent dancers. The two Miss Monks * are counted the first

* Two daughters of Mr. and Lady Elizabeth Monk, the one afterwards
married to Sir Charles Paget, the other to Lord Oranmore.

272 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

performers ; and Caroline St. Jules,* though not quite such a
neat figure, is one of the best ; these three all got some lessons
at Paris. Lady Constance Maria Stanhope,f Lady Georgiana
Cecil,$ the two Miss Lowthers.§ Lady something Saville,|| Miss
Fitzroy,1F Lady Maria Fitzroy,** and Miss Conyers, all belong
to the set, and some more, whom I have forgot.

I trust your next letter will tell us what expectations you
have of returning to England : if you can procure passports
from Paris to bring you through France, it would be welcome
news indeed. I doubt that is not a reasonable supposition,
especially during the absence of the First Consul.

Saturday, 30th. — Left Freyburg between four and five,
to avoid the excessive heat. The country to Emendingen
is more interesting, and Emendingen is a gay-looking
little open town. Near Fresenheim is to be seen an
immense large building, a convent of Benedictines given
by France in the late arrangements to the order of Malta ;
but the Emperor, it seems, disputes the gift, and the right
of giving. Offenberg is a large bourg, quite as uninterest-
ing as the country in which it is situated. One is taken
to the churchyard to see an immense distant view of the
plain of the Ehine, and in it a spot which they tell you
is the Cathedral of Strasburg, just as I have seen a York-
shire squire show you with pride and delight the plain of
York, and assure you that in such a part of the cloudy
atmosphere which overhangs the whole he can discern
York Minster. On the outside of the walls — for all these
little towns in Germany have walls — we found a very
pleasant grass- walk, with little gardens coming down on

* Married to the Hon. George Lamb.

t Daughter of the Earl of Harrington, married to the late Duke of Bedford.
J Daughter of the Marquis of Salisbury, married to the late Lord Cowley.
§ Daughters of Lord Lonsdale.

|| Daughter of the Earl of Mexborough, married first to Lord Monson,
secondly to Lord Warwick.
11 Miss Fitzroy. (?)
** Daughter of the Duke of Graft on, married to Sir William Oglander.

1803] OFFENBERG TO RASTADT. 273

each side, very refreshing in the evening of a hot sum-
mer's day.

During the late war, OfFenberg was sometimes in
possession of the French, sometimes of the Austrians.
Sometimes one was posted at one end of the place, and
the other at the other, and they more than once fought
in the streets.

Sunday, 31st — From Oflenberg to Eastadt the same
sort of flat uninteresting country, rich in corn and vines.
The numerous villages, one and all, abominably paved,
looking neither comfortable nor picturesque. We arrived
at Rastadt by half-past ten in the morning, for the heat
was now so excessive that it was impossible to travel
above two hours after the sun was fairly up.

Eastadt is a small deserted town in a great plain, with
an immense palace, to which the town seems merely an
appendage ; and how or why anybody placed an immense
palace in such a situation without the previous induce-
ment of a great town, is difficult to imagine.* As the
palace is no longer inhabited (the Elector of Baden
residing at Carlsruhe), it is not much furnished ; indeed,
in the many visits paid by the French in the course of
the war, they took away almost everything that was
takable, so that when the French deputies and those of
the Elector of Mentz were lodged there at the time of
the Congress, furniture was sent from Carlsruhe. There
is some good tapestry from Flemish pictures, and the
room remains untouched which contains in glass cases
the Turkish spoils (saddles, daggers, scymitars, &c. &c.)
taken by Prince Louis of Baden from the Turks.

* It was built by the eccentric Margravine Sybilla, wife of the heavy Louis
of Baden, who fought against the Turks along with Prince Eugene. Two
congresses have been held under its roof: one in 1714, when Marshal Villars
and Prince Eugene signed a treaty of peace ; and the other 1798-99, termi-
nated abruptly by the murder of the French envoys. — Murray's Handbook.

VOL. II. T

274 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

There are, besides, in a gallery, and scattered over all
the apartments, a number of portraits of margraves and
margravines, to me excessively entertaining as the per-
fection of bad taste. Among other happy conceits of
some court painter, is that of representing some mar-
grave's family under the figures and composition of Le
Brun's ' Tent of Darius.' One must have seen the picture
to conceive its ludicrous effect, or the taste of the prince
who could order, or of the painter who could execute,
such comical ideas. The entrance to this neglected palace
is guarded by a few soldiers, and the apartments are
shown by a housekeeper whose dress and appearance is
more old-fashioned than her palace.

Walked to a manufactory of carriages, where one of
the partners spoke perfectly good English, although he
had not been in England for thirty years. The carriages
were neatly made as to the iron and wood work ; but the
springs awkward, the coupe bad, and taste entirely want-
ing ; the price about half ours in England.

The yet unexplained and inconceivable murder of the
two French deputies,* sent to the Congress in 1798, took
place within a quarter of a mile of the town, just at the
entrance into a wood through which the road to Stras-
bourg lies. The exact spot was shown to us from a ^sort
of look-out at the top of the palace.

Monday, Aug. 1st — We got to Carlsruhe before nine
o'clock in the morning, from Eastadt, three German miles.
The road is bordered the whole way with Lombardy
poplars, one of the most fatiguing and tiresome pieces of

* At the end of April, 1799, Bonnier, Jean Debry, and Roberjot left
Rastadt for Strasbourg. A snort distance from Rastadt, they were sur-
rounded, attacked, and dragged from their carriage. Bonnier and Roberjot
were murdered, Jean Debry escaped slightly wounded. All the papers
relating to their mission were seized by the assassins, who were suspected
to be the very hussars sent as their escort ; but the affair is wrapt in mystery
to this day.

1803] CARLSRUHE. 275

German pomp that I know, and which rather adds to than
amends the insipidity of a flat country. About a league
and a half from Eastadt, the road in the poplar avenue
being very sandy, the postilion left it and went across
fields. This, in winter, would not have been practicable.
Carlsruhe is a pretty clean-looking town, with many new
buildings going on. Like all German towns (in this part
of the world), the houses are low and the streets wide^
and they almost all have a reference to the Chateau, for
Carlsruhe is said to be in the shape of a fan, the Chateau
being at the point where the sticks unite — the sticks the
garden before the palace,, the building in. the Place opposite-
the edge of the mount, and the streets the different folds
of the mount. The Place is formed by a circular facade
of buildings supporting a colonnade, and the space between
is occupied by a parterre divided by high cut hedges,
making alleys wide enough for a carriage, the largest alley
exactly opposite the centre of the palace. The apart-
ments are handsome. Pictures there are none but family
portraits, much in the Eastadt style. From the top of
the tower, which the man who shows the apartments will
by no means allow you to escape, is to be seen the forest
behind the garden, cut into thirty avenues, all a perte de
vue, and all diverging from the palace as their centre.
The garden is pretty, in the English style, and is open to
the public ; in a little low sort of pavilion at the edge of
the wood there is a polisher of agates and other hard
stones, established under the immediate protection of the
court. Strangers are carried there ; the agates (which,
I believe, come from Bohemia) are really beautiful. We
saw many good-looking carriages in the streets, attended
by clean servants in handsome liveries, and were sorry
that our impatience to get to Frankfort prevented us from
staying longer, delivering our letter to Madame d'Edels-
heim, the minister's wife, and seeing the monture of a

T 2

276 MISS BERET'S JOUEXAL. [isos

German court, which is allowed on ah1 hands to be one
of the most agreeable of its sort.

Tuesday, 2nd. — The road to Durlach, for three English
miles, is one uninterrupted line of poplars. Bruchsal is a
large thriving town, with an immense palace, now belong-
ing to the Elector of Baden, but formerly to, and (I believe)
the residence of, the Bishop of Spire.* The country from
hence has much corn and vines, with pretty wooded hills on
the right hand, while the great flat valley of the Ehine
continues on the left. From Weisloch to Heidelberg the
country begins to be less uninteresting. Heidelberg is
the only .finely-situated town I have yet seen in Germany
upon this route. The Neckar, a pretty clear rocky stream,
runs through it, and the ground rises both immediately
behind the .town and upon the other side of the river ; the
lower part -of the hills clothed with vines, the higher with,
extensive woods.

The old castle, the residence of the Electors Palatine, is
in every point of view remarkably picturesque. Some
arched substructures supporting terraces give it at a dis-
tance the appearance of a Eoman ruin. But it is in fact
a building of the sixteenth or beginning of the seventeenth
century, and many parts of it more modern. The whole
is now in ruins, and without roof or windows, except the
chapel, which is still used for service. This magnificent
palace, which was added by different electors to the old
fortress that crowned the rock above the town, is certainly
one of the finest situations I ever saw. From a stone ter-
race before the principal front, you look down to the beau-
tiful near ground and to the valley of the Ehine towards
the left ; from another front you look up the winding
course of the Neckar. The masses of building are curious
and elaborate in their external ornaments. That on the

* This inanimate town of 7,200 inhabitants formerly belonged to the
Prince Archbishop of Spire, whose vast palace, now empty, stands near the
gate leading to Frankfort.

1803] HEIDELBERG. 277

front towards the court is covered with the sort of
pilasters, friezes, and flat-worked ornaments of the age of
our James L, and indeed was not unlike what I remem-
ber of old Somerset House. The other, which faces the
town, has the same style of ornament, but in the piers
between each window is a large niche containing a whole-
length figure in stone of the different Electors Palatine,
with their names and dates on a tablet underneath. The
execution of some of these statues is excellent. They
are portraits not only of the persons, but of the dress of
their time, and are as such extremely curious. One part
of the building joins on to a fine octagon tower of the old
fortress, which has been twice struck and is half destroyed
by lightning, together with a large portion of the more
modern building attached to it.

In a cellar of this chateau is the far-famed tun of
Heidelberg, constructed by the Elector Charles Theodore;
the initials of his name are in gold letters upon an es-
cutcheon on each end of it — for what purpose one can
hardly conceive. It was never full but once, has long
been quite empty, and will in all probability never contain
anything again, as it is out of repair, and would cost I
forget how many thousand florins to mend. When the
great King of Prussia once visited it, they put a small
cask of exquisite hock within, and piercing the great
tun drew out the wine, pretending the whole filled with
the same. There is a railing round the upper part of it,
within which twelve persons have dined. From its im-
mensity, and its not being hooped, but ribbed like a ship,
it gives one no idea of a barrel, and is more like the
bottom and stern of a vessel. Heidelberg, and the coun-
try immediately about it, was the scene of some of the
hottest actions between the French and Austrians during
the last war. At different epochs they alternately occu-
pied the town and disputed the possession of the stone
bridge over the Neckar. The gate which opens upon

278 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

this bridge, its two towers, the statue of the Elector upon
the bridge, and every part of its balustrades, &c. &c.,
nearest the town, are still covered with the marks of
bullets for the most part at the distance of a very few
inches. It was upon this bridge that Prince Maurice of
Lichtenstein was wounded, and his faithful dog Diane
wounded and lost. Heidelberg is a populous town with
a number of good-looking shops. The great church, used
now both by Protestants and Catholics alternately, is quite
bare. The quantity of grapes upon all the vines in this
neighbourhood, and indeed in all the wine country through
which we have passed, is something wonderful, and far
exceeds any remembered year of plenty.

Wednesday, 3rd. — Left Heidelberg at four o'clock ;
reached Darmstadt soon after eleven, even then overcome
by the excessive heat and dust. The inn afforded us but
little relief, with the sun basking upon it — no shutters,
no blinds, no anything but a white linen curtain to .defend
us from its power. Here we sat panting till the evening,
when we sallied forth with a guide, who, as usual, could
speak nothing but German, and our interpreter, to walk
about the town. The residence of the Landgrave is a
large old ugly melancholy-looking building, with a small
irregular court, and a large clumsy body of modern
buildings, not finished, but left in that most dismal of all
states, which, without appearance of habitation or com-
fort, does not even promise to become a picturesque ruin,
but remains with all its windows boarded up, a sad monu-
ment of the palace-building mania of German princes.
They do not show the apartments inhabited by the Prince,
therefore I conclude they are not worth seeing. Every-
where in the town are to be seen a number of clean well-
dressed troops. They are the principal trade, if not of the

town at least of the Landgrave, with whom as well as with

•
his cousin of Cassel, we have had many subsidiary treaties.

The garden of the palace is public ; it is laid out a I' An-

1803] DARMSTADT TO FRANKFORT. 279

glaise, with a shrubbery here, a winding walk there, and
a temple at every turn. I never saw a cut walk and a
parterre I should not have preferred to it. The theatre
of the court opens into it, and the interior of this is really
pretty ; and there are besides several rooms lately fitted
up with much simple elegance, used for suppers and
cards, &c. &c., when the theatre is turned into a ball or
concert room. There is a French bookseller here, with a
very good collection of French books. At Carlsruhe
the principal bookseller had very few but German and
the classics.

Thursday, 4th. — Left Darmstadt, passing through
a number of large farming villages, which looked neither
clean nor comfortable. They are all execrably paved,
have generally a dirty green standing pool, or some stream
of water not confined within proper bounds, and are
always the worst bits of road the carriage has to go over.
The roads within the domain of the Landgrave of Darm-
stadt are excellent, the barriers very frequent, but they
are cheerfully paid by all distant travellers. It is to be
observed that from Basle to Frankfort one does not pass
one single chateau or gentleman's country-house of any
sort or kind, or any country habitation in any of the
villages above that of a common farmer ; this could not
be the case in any route in France, Italy, or Switzerland,
and very much takes away both from the beauty and
interest of the country — open, flat, and generally sandy
roads through oceans of corn, often as far as the eye could
reach, diversified only by the culture of hemp, and near
the villages, with plantations of poppies, compose no very
charming prospects, and supply no very interesting recol-
lections to eyes and minds fresh from the beauties of Nice
and of Switzerland. Frankfort is a large populous Ger-
man town, with wide streets, and large houses having
often twelve and fourteen windows in front. The street
in which are the two great inns, the Maison Eouge and

280 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

the Empereur, may really be called magnificent from its
length, its breadth, and its being entirely composed of
large houses, one or two of which, recently built by rich
merchants, have handsome architectural fronts ; the older
houses have in general heavy grotesque ornaments about
the door (generally a porte cochere], and finely-flourished
and ornamented water-spouts projecting far into the street,
sometimes in the shape of dragons, lions, &c. ; for instead
of concealing this necessary appendage to the roof, they
seem to consider it as a happy occasion for enriching and
distinguishing the front. In other parts of the town there
still remain many old houses, with their first stories pro-
jecting over the ground floor, and painted on the outside
so as to conceal their being constructed only of what is
called in England post and pan.

Frankfort is a regularly fortified town, with a broad
ditch full of nasty stagnant water. Immediately without
the fortifications is a road for carriages planted with trees
on one side, and on the other side bordered with country-
houses of all sorts and sizes, many guinguettes, &c. &c., just
about as rural, as picturesque, and in as good taste as
the environs of Islington ; this road is full every evening
of people airing in carriages and on horseback. Frank-
fort has every appearance of an opulent place.

The banker Betteman has a very pretty country-house,
with a large garden, outside one of the gates. Here we
were invited two days after our arrival at Frankfort to
pass the evening. We went about eight o'clock, and
found between thirty and forty people assembled in the
garden. The women were, for the most part, great fat
heavy-looking persons, much overdressed, civil in their man-
ners, but not particularly accueillante to strangers. The
men, too, smacked prodigiously of a trading city ; and as
their conversation, when not addressed to us, was always
in German, we were not much the better for it. In
about an hour's time, most of the people retreated from

1803] FRANKFORT TO CASSEL. 281

i

the garden into the house. The principal apartment was
lighted up. Before we went away, between ten and
eleven, we walked over the house, and found I know net
how many rooms elegantly furnished, and quite full of
card tables. This house is the first in Frankfort. Young
Betteman himself has the air of a grand seigneur, giving
dinners and suppers to all the foreign princes and foreigners
of distinction passing through Frankfort.

Sunday, 7th. — Called upon Comtesse Degenfelt,to whose
husband we had a letter from Prince Maurice of Lichten-
stein. He is a very gentlemanlike, good-humoured young
man, at the head of the military in the Emperor's service
at Frankfort, for the purpose of recruiting, which both
the Emperor and the King of Prussia have the right of
doing in this free imperial city, which is guarded by
troops of its own — very clean, well-clothed men in a
uniform of blue, faced with white. With Comte and
Comtesse Degenfelt we took a drive along the bank of the
river, bordered the whole way with country-houses.

Monday, Sth. — The heat was so excessive in our Hotel
de 1'Empereur. The noise so great, being at the corner
of a street, we changed our apartments to a quieter
situation, and close to the principal bookseller's (Es-
linger).

Thursday, ~Llth. — Finding it impossible to get any
satisfactory information at Frankfort as to what route we
were to take towards home, and where we could cross
the water, and not receiving the letters which we hoped
before now would have followed us from Lausanne with
a permission to pass through France, we most unwillingly
set out before five o'clock this morning, to continue our
pilgrimage to Cassel. We made a marvellous long day's
journey — five German posts, or about fifty-five English
miles, in thirteen hours to Marbourg, where we slept.
It is for the most part chaussee, and the villages still
more comfortless-looking in Hessia than elsewhere. At

282 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

Birsbach a great deal of black dyeing is going on, and
some appearance of business. Geissen is a fortified town,
with a garrison of Hessian troops. About Marbourg the
country is beautiful, and the town itself situated on the
side of a hill, the top of which is crowned by a chateau,*
part of it modern, part more ancient. There is here a
university f or public school. The town consists of nar-
row streets, of odd old post-and-pan houses, built up-hill
and down, very picturesque in situation, and seen at two
leagues' distance on this road.

Friday, I2th. — At Wabern, an insignificant village,
there is a country palace of the Elector of Hesse for
shooting herons, which he never shoots, and where he
never comes. This one country-house, like a hunting-
box in England, is, however, the one only country-house
of any sort or kind that we have seen since we left Basle.

We found here a tolerably clean little inn, where, as it
was a rainy evening, we resolved to stay. A young
woman, some relation of the house, spoke English by no
means ill. Her father had been a Hessian sergeant, and,
serving in America, had married an American. The inns
in the little villages of Germany bear no proportion to
the badness of those in the great towns.

Saturday, 13^A. — The road from Wabern to Cassel is
an excellent chaussee. The country very pretty. There
is a steep ascent before entering the town of Cassel ; its
neat, broad, well-built streets and large Places are very
striking.

Sunday, "L4:th. — Mr. Brook Taylor, the English Minister,
whom I knew a little in London, called upon us. I asked
his advice about sending a messenger to Hanover, to beg

* The ancient caatle of the Landgraves of Hesse, a structure of the chival-
rous ages, now a prison, commanding a fine prospect. — See Mun-ay's Hand-
book.

t The University was the first founded in Germany after the Reformation,
1527.

1803] CASSEL. 283

permission from General Mortier* to pass through that
country to Hamburg, from which Mr. Taylor rather
wished to dissuade me ; but finding he had no other
reason for so doing but the dislike to ask anything of a
Frenchman, I resolved to despatch our courier the next
day with a letter I had already written.

Monday, 15^. — Went to the parade between nine and
ten o'clock. In the summer it is always in the park
behind the Orangerie, and the Elector comes there him-
self every Monday, and often twice a week. This morn-
ing he reviewed the 1st and 2nd Eegiments of Guards.
Nothing can exceed the clockwork regularity of their
movements ; no firing is ever allowed except at the great
reviews for about a fortnight in the spring, when all the
military are collected from the different small towns in
Hessia, in which they are usually quartered. Their
regimentals are very handsome (blue, with red facings and
with orange facings and silver Brandenbourgs), and their
whole appearance very clean and military. In short,
their Prince does nothing else, and thinks of nothing else,
and is, I believe, one of the greatest adepts in every
branch of the art of what is called ' German discipline.'
Nothing can exceed the fitness of the locale for such a
parade ; a large plain of fine short grass, bounded by a
high wood at one end, and by the gay buildings of the
Orangerie at the other : it really is one of the prettiest
military scenes that can be seen. The Elector himself

* Edouard Adolphe Casimir Joseph Mortier, Due de Trevise, born at
Cambray 17G8. He took part in the wars of the Revolution in 1791 ; he
accompanied General Marceau in the passage at Neuwied, in the campaign of
179C, and continued to serve with distinction throughout the whole reign
of Napoleon. In 1803 he was sent to Hanover, to command the French
army against that of England — an expedition which ended so unfortunately
to the arms of England, and placed Hanover into the hands of France. In
1814 he gave in his adherence to the Bourbons. In 1815 he was named by
Napoleon one of the newly created peers ; and on the second Bourbon
restoration he was excluded from the Chamber of Peers, but reinstated in
1819.

284 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

was on foot the whole time, and in every part of the line
followed by one or two aides-de-camp and one garde-du-
corps in an odd buff uniform, made something like what
we call ' an old English dress,' The Elector is a short
stumpy man of nearly sixty years old, with a veiy hard
ungracious countenance. In the evening drank tea with
Madame Butlar, wife to the Electress's charnbellan, to
whom we had a letter from the Comtesse L. de Werthem,
Madame Butlar being a Saxon. We afterwards walked
with her in the park and through the Orangerie, built by
the present Elector's father. It is never now inhabited
by the large orange-trees (which are placed on the
terrace), but is used as a sort of summer palace, some-
times by the Elector, and at present by the Electress.
The Orangerie consists of two enormous galleries suited
to the purpose for which it was built, with a high arched
passage forming a sort of hall in the centre, and & pavilion
in which are bedrooms at each end. One of the long
galleries is divided at present by large screens, making the
dining room and the salon. Balls, too, are often given
in one of these galleries, and supper in the other.

From hence we walked to the garden of Comte
Malke, the Grand Chambellan de la Cour, a small slip of
ground just above the bank of the river Fulda, laid out
in little serpentine walks and clumps of flowers a I'Anglaise,
pretty enough.

Tuesday, IQth. — Went to Madame Butlar's in the
evening; walked with her, Mr. Butlar, and Comte
Stotheim to see the bain de marbre, in one of the pavi-
lions of the Orangerie. It is magnificent of its kind — a
large square room panelled entirely with marble, and in
each panel a large bas-relief executed in white marble.
They were all done by an Italian,* whom the present
Elector's father brought with him from Italy. The bath

* Monnot.

1803] CASSEL. 285

has a cupola over it, supported upon coloured marble
columns — marble, in short, from beginning to end. From
hence we walked up the steep wooded bank of the park
by a very pretty winding' path, to Bellevue, the house
inhabited by the Elector when he resides in Cassel. It is
much more like a country than a town house, with a
pretty small English garden and a beautiful view of the
park, the Orangerie, and all the surrounding country.

Wednesday, Ylth. — In the morning to the picture-
gallery. It is itself a palace ; one room is entirely lined
with and contains a fine collection of Japan manufacture ;
the rest are hung with pictures, and there is also a long
gallery hung with pictures on both sides. It contains
many fine pictures, particularly portraits by Eembrandt
and exquisite works by Teniers and P. Potter ; a large
picture of Teniers, full of small whole-length figures — the
reinstating the Magistrature of Antwerp after they had
got rid of the Spanish yoke — the most graceful and in-
teresting of his works that I ever saw ; an exquisite
Vandeveldt, the Sands at Scheveling at low water, with
figures, &c., quite perfect in its way ; the finest flower
pieces by Van Huysen ; an excellent portrait of a woman
in white satin, by Titian.

Dined with Mrs. Taylor ; nobody but ourselves, his
secretary Mr. Heathcote, and a Mr. Dewer, an English
gentleman long resident here. Afterwards drove with
Madame Butlar in the park ; fine shady alleys and wind-
ing drives for carriages near a large piece of water, and
from thence to the pheasantry, where there are above
200 gold pheasants and as many silver ones. It is said
that the Elector, who does not like that anything should
be wasted, has them killed from time to time and sends
them to market.

Thursday, ISth. — To WiUiamshohe with Madame
Butlar. It is two English miles and a half from Cassel.
Nothing can be more magnificent than the appearance of

286 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isoa

the palace, the Chateau d'Eau, with its pyramid crowned
by the colossal Hercules, upon the top of the finely
wooded hill rising above the palace. In the midst of
this extent of wood the Lowenburg presents itself as a
half-ruined old German castle, standing upon an abrupt
heap of rocks ; it is approached by a winding drive
through the woods. On one side of the small court
within is the chapel, and on the other the apartments ;
they are, except two large round ones in the great
tower, little odd-shaped rooms, but all comfortable. The
Elector lived here while the palace below was building,
and now is here some part of every day in summer.
The view from the windows is very extensive, looking
over all Cassel and the surrounding country, but still the
Lowenburg is more beautiful to look to than to look from.
The wralk over these rocks to the menagerie, and from
thence to the palace, is extremely pretty, through what
they call an English garden, and what we should call
grounds. The chateau, with its two wings, is entirely
built by the present Elector, is of Grecian architecture,
the furniture in modern French taste. One wing is in-
habited by the Comtesse Stotheim and her children, and
the other contains a magnificent apartment for the recep-
tion of any foreign prince when on a visit to the Elector;
but during this Elector's life there is little danger of the
furniture being sullied by use ; it has never been occupied
but once ; and the same parsimony which leads him to
avoid the expense of making his Court attractive, leads
one to conclude his pavilion for foreign princes will not
often be occupied. The other pavilion is more fully and
constantly inhabited — the Comtesse Stotheim having had
no less than fifteen children by the Elector, four only of
whom, however, are alive. Immediately at the back of
the chateau and its wings is a large lawn with a broad
gravel walk for carriages, and it is surrounded by a large
English garden or grounds, and to my eye has the same

1803] CASSEL. 287

fault of rising immediately, like many of our bald Eng-
lish modern country-houses, from the grounds, without
sufficient architectural substructures arid approaches to
accompany and announce the building. After seeing the
Lowenburg and the chateau, and sitting under the trees
of an open grove, we were joined by Mr. Taylor, Mr.
Heathcote, and Mr. Marescotti, and dined at the inn
together. After dinner, Mr. Taylor having obtained per-
mission for the waters to play, we made the tour of the
grounds to see them. Carriages and horsemen are
allowed to go all over the grounds at Williamshohe,
keeping to the gravel road ; a permission that in England,
I fear, would be too much abused to be long admissible,
and which speaks well for the good behaviour of Germans,
considering that this Williamshohe is entirely a public
garden. The water sets a playing two or three stone
pipes in the Chateau d'Eau, of which I have heard much
better in Italy. The cascatelles falling in a thousand
little streams, gushing out from every part of a high
woody bank, formed upon the idea of the cascatelles at
Tivoli, are well contrived and have a good effect, as the
scene is wild and analogous. The Devil's Bridge, a
humble imitation of that in the Alps, is pretty enough
seen at a distance ; the broken aqueduct very good, the
situation well chosen, forming the only artificial ruin I
ever saw successful.

Sunday, 21st — Madame Butlar, Mr. Heathcote, and
Mr. Marescotti dined with us. In the afternoon Madame
Butlar, Mr. Heathcote, and I, drove again to Williamshohe
and walked about parts of the gardens I had not before
seen ; they are really beautiful. The waters played as
they do every Sunday afternoon, and there were a good
many middling-looking people wandering over every part
of the grounds. The Comtess Stotheim was in the gar-
dens with two of her children, their governess, and an
officer with her. Madame Butlar went up to her, and I

288 MISS BEKRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

had half-an hour's conversation with her. She is a large
good-looking woman, between thirty and forty, speaking
better English than French, but not much of either, with
very simple unaffected manners, and looking heartily
weary of the wretched metier of mistress to a dull prince.
She was a woman of no birth, to whom, at a very early
age, the Elector took a fancy and to whose wishes her
parents sacrificed her, with extreme reluctance (it is said)
on her part, She has since conducted herself well in
never interfering or doing mischief, or taking upon herself
in any way. During the residence of the Elector at Wil-
liamshohe, which is the whole summer, she occupies
one of the pavilions; when he comes to Bellevue (the
small palace at Cassel), she has a house near it on the
terrace.

Monday ', 22nd. — One of the two yearly fairs at Cassel
began this day. I was anxious to see it. When we had
got as far as Madame Butlar's, I felt so ih1 as to be obliged
to return home. Every symptom of a high fever showed
itself, and was increased in the course of the day by the
noise in the streets incidental to the fair, parties of
music playing eternally either before the door or in
the house. Anxious not to delay our journey, I beseeched
my sister to ply me every quarter of an hour with saline
draughts, and though the fever continued so high all
that day and night as to make my mind wander, yet
the next morning it was so much lowered that I was
able to be put into the coach and pursue our journey by
Gottingen to Hanover. Our courier, whom we had de-
spatched to General Mortier at Hanover, requesting his
permission to pass by that route, had returned with a
passport in full form, signed by Mortier for us and our
servants se rendant a Hambourg. We went from Cassel
by Munden to Gottingen. In cultivation, in villages,
and in the appearance of the people, the dominions
of Hanover have a decided advantage over every part of

1803] GOTTINGEN TO HAXOVER. 289

the north of Germany that I have seen. Gottingen is a
large town, with straight, wide, uninteresting streets. I
know not if there is anything fine about the university ; I
was too ill to attempt seeing it, but as all the young men
are in private lodgings in the town, and attend the profes-
sors at their own houses, there are no fine architectural
buildings for lodging either the one or the other as in the
English universities. In the principal street is a handsome
stone riding-house, erected, as the inscription says, by
George II., for the use of the students at the university.

Wednesday, 24#A. — Eimbeck, a very oddly built town,
with all the roofs projecting one over another, and orna-
mented with much carved wood. Within about a league
of Bruggen, the spokes of one of our fore-wheels became
loose, which obliged us to proceed at a foot's pace to the
Post, a single house half a mile from the village of
Bruggen. Here is a large country seat (the first we have
seen in Germany), belonging to M. de Steinberg, who was
Hanoverian Minister in London for a few months before
M. de Leuthe. He is now dead, but his widow inhabits
the chateau, unmolested by the French, not a single one
of whom we have seen, nor are to see (as they assure us)
till we reach Hanover. A vast deal of tobacco is culti-
vated between Cassel and this place.

Thursday, 25th. — Our broken wheel detained us till
two o'clock the next day. The two posts from hence to
Hanover are quite flat and good road. The appearance of
Hanover is not imposing at a distance ; it is situated in a
boundless plain, and presents nothing to the approaching
traveller but two or three brick towers of churches. The
streets through which we passed contained few fine
houses, or marked buildings of any sort.

The drive about the town in search of lodging was the
only opportunity we had of seeing anything of Hanover.
It was dark by the time we got settled, and I don't know
that it would have been thought prudent, as English'

VOL. II. U

290 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

travellers, to have exhibited ourselves much in the streets,
full of French soldiers. At the gates, surrounded by
French soldiers, not a question was asked. The carriage
was never even stopped, as is common in all German
towns, to enquire one's name and whither one is going.
We drove into Hanover in an English coach as we should
have driven into York or any other town in England. At
the inn no enquiry for our passport, no sending it to the
municipality. It was never taken out of my letter case
from the time we left Cassel till we arrived in London. I
thought it right, however, to send a note to General Mor-
tier from the inn, thanking him for the permission he had
given us to pass through Hanover, and accounting, by my
illness, for our not having used it sooner. We heard
there were a large number of French troops ; the streets
were full of them, but the most exact discipline was main-
tained, and that, and that alone, preserved the inhabitants
from ruin. General Mortier was lodged in the Duke of
Cambridge's house ; Leopold Berthier,* the Commissaire
General in the king's, which, it seems, nobody but the
king when at Hanover ever inhabited.

Immediately opposite our Hotel de Strelitz was a
handsome stone hotel, built round a court, which they oc-
cupied as some public office. I cannot say that we saw
at Hanover any marks of devastation, of houses aban-
doned, or any irregularities ; and all the horrible stories put
into our papers of the conduct of French troops upon their
first arrival, had not the smallest foundation of truth.

Friday, 26th. — After a very bad supper and paying
our bill — the very highest I have ever known in Ger-
many— we left Hanover before seven o'clock in the morn-
ing, and were probably the last English who passed
through it. I own I regretted being obliged to leave it

* Victor Leopold Berthier, brother to the Prince of Neufchatel and
Wagram, born 1770. He was a distinguished officer in all the important
campaigns from 1793 to 1806. He died at Paris in 1807.

1803] HANOVER TO CELLE. 291

without seeing something more of a place of which all
English people have heard so much, which is connected
with so many stories in the latter part of our history, and
which certainly by its natural attractions would never
induce a traveller to return to it. All the French infantry
were on foot, and the generate beating before we left the
town to collect them to attend the execution of three
soldiers who were to be fusilles that morning, at eight
o'clock for having in a squabble murdered a servant girl
in the street. The execution was to take place without
the town, and we saw numbers of the townspeople troop-
ing out to see it.

An excellent hard chausse'e between a row of bricks and
limes, on the road to Celle, ends at about a league and a
half from the town, and leaves one 'in sand literally more
than half way up the spokes of the wheels. An avenue of
wretched little birches is continued the whole way to
Schilderslage ; but the postilions avoid the road as much
as possible, and keep on one side upon a sort of black
heath. The whole road to Celle is through the same un-
fathomable land, marked by two rows of birch-trees,
which alone distinguishes it from the rest of the country ;
and their white shining bark must be very useful in
winter to guide wretched travellers on this immense
plain, for the most part deep black boggy earth, through
which carriages are always dragged at a foot's pace, and
those within may think themselves lucky that its unjolting
nature allows them to take refuge in sleep from its most
tiresome sameness and slowness. About a league from
Celle .the bog changes into a wood ; but the sand con-
tinues on every side, and the road in a straight line con-
tinues also. But upon the road one never is for an in-
stant, and often half a mile from it. The town of Celle
is approached by a pretty, gay-looking open faubourg ;
1,600 French soldiers, cavalry and infantry, are now quar-
tered there. The. horses of the cavalry are in the manege

292 MISS BERET'S JOURNAL. [1803

of the cMteau ; and the officers and men in the chateau
and in all the private houses. The chateau is a more
picturesque and castle-like building than most German
palaces : we did not go to see it, as it was the head-
quarters, and full of officers. In the principal church are
seen the monuments of the Dukes of Celle and of Bruns-
wick-Lunenburg — curious enough, being whole-length
marble figures of them and their duchesses, standing
upright in niches round the upper part of the choir. In
the vault beneath it, where are all their metal coffins, is
that of our poor Queen of Denmark,* who passed the last
years of her short and unfortunate life here. It is covered
with crimson velvet, and richly ornamented with ormolu ;
the whole as fresh as the day it was deposited. In the
public garden there is a marble monument to her memory ;
a wretched thing both in idea and execution, and now,
though enclosed within a rail, much degraded ; the copper
letters of an inscription on a shield having been taken
away, and the crown broken. The design of the group
is a figure descending upon clouds, and embracing an urn,
on which is a bas-relief head of the queen. A little boy
(her son, I suppose) is stretching up to throw flowers
upon it ; and another female figure holding an infant (I
suppose her daughter) to look at it — the whole miserably
executed.

Saturday, 27th. — Left Celle ; passed through Bergen
Yille.

Sunday, 28$. — Wille ; Haarburg to Hamburg, a two
hours' passage by boat.

Tuesday, 30th. — Hamburg, Pinneburg, Elmshorn.

Wednesday, 3 1st — Itzehoe, Hohenhorn, Heide.

Thursday, Sept. 1st — Heide, Friederichstadt, Huscom.

The inns are clean, and, without exception, fit places
for a night's lodging ; but tea, coffee, and bread and
butter are often the only things to be had.

* Matilda, sister of George III.

1803] ARRIVAL IN LONDOX. 293

Monday, 19^. — Left the 'Lark' packet in a pilot-
boat, which landed us in about an hour between two little
jetties a mile from the village of Southwold, to which we
walked.

Tuesday, 20th, — Southwold is three miles off the great
Yarmouth road. No post-horses nearer than Yoxford^
near Southwold. Appearance of Ipswich very pretty on
descending towards it.

Wednesday, 21st. — From Ipswich to London. Eoad
very good the whole way. We had left our coach on the
other side of the water, and came up in two hack chaises.
At Eumford, as usual near London, the horses execrable,
and quite knocked up by the time we got to town.

294: MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL.

1804.

THIS year appears very barren of either letters or jour-
nals. One sad entry appears in the little diary : ' Col.

engaged to marry Agnes. Engagement broken off

in the spring. Agnes dangerously ill.' The following
letter from Professor Playfair, addressed to Miss Berry,
belongs to this year : —

Cambridge, Sept. 28, 1804.

MY DEAR MADAM, — . ... I have been going about all day
looking at the curiosities of this ancient seat of literature and
science. Tho' I have no great fondness for English universities
(owing, you will say, to my hyperborean prejudices), yet I
cannot approach a place that has been so long the residence of
learning and philosophy without much veneration, and without
reflecting that I am now on one of those sacred spots, where the
light of truth was kept alive when it was nearly extinguished
over the whole earth. One must, however, regret that the
institutions which have answered so noble a purpose have not
kept pace with the improvement of knowledge, and do now not
unfrequently retard the growth of sciences, which in their
infancy they served so happily to nurse. In going into a great
library, it often occurs to me to take up some remarkable book,
open it by chance, and observe what turns up, as the truths that
thus casually are suggested to the mind often live long in the
memory. To-day, in the University library, I took up a book
on the history of astronomy, called 'Theatrum Cometicum,'
that is very scarce and very famous, and opened it to try the
above experiment. The chapter that turned up was ' De Causis
Cometarum,' and the first sentence was, * Causa cometarum
maxime universalis est Deus.' This truism was all I had for
my pains, and is the only piece of instruction that I am likely
to carry away from Cambridge. Some have perhaps gone away
with less. Such as it is I send it to Mrs. Darner and you, who

1804] LETTER FROM PROFESSOR PLAYFAIR. 295

will be at no loss to appreciate the voluminous compilation in
which it is contained. . . . Now that I am going far from
you, and for a long time, allow me to express to you the sense
I have of my good fortune in being permitted to rely on you in
the number of my friends, and after so many and so long inter-
vals to have met you always the same, or rather with a kindness
that time and distance seemed even to have increased. This
certainly is not fashionable friendship, and it must be ac-
knowledged that one of the persons who has delineated such
friendship the best, has practised it the least. Among my
obligations to you I must not forget the acquaintance of Mrs.
Darner, the liberality of whose mind, the good sense and sound
reason that dictates her opinions, are not less remarkable than
her elegance and taste. May I entreat you to present my
respects to her.

I am, my dear Madam,

Yours sincerely,
j • • JOHN PLAYFAIR.

296 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

1805.

Entry. — Went to Scotland with Mr. Lockhart. At Both-
well* for three months. Eeturn to London in December
with Kobert.

It would appear by the following letter addressed to
Mrs. Cholmeley, that Miss Berry had at this time con-
ceived the idea of engaging herself in some regular em-
ployment that from its very labour would have given
repose to the over-activity of her mind ; but it is also
clear that the plan did not receive the sanction of those
friends whose opinion she valued, and that it was conse-
quently abandoned : —

North Audley Street, March, 1805.

First let me thank you, which I do most sincerely, for the
lively interest you take in my happiness and concerns, and for
the early consideration you have given to my plan. Your first
objection as to the light in which such a step would be con-
sidered by the world, and its consequent example to others, had
already presented itself to my mind, and is, alas! rendered
so forcible by the statements both of Mrs. Darner and yourself,
who see it exactly in the same light, that I fear I need not
(which would be easy) overcome your other objections. You do
me the justice to believe that regular and useful employment
would greatly increase my happiness. Be assured it would con-
stitute my happiness, such as alone at my sober time of life I
can hope to experience, and what, if I may judge from the
description of others, I never knew when young. But I have
neither a discontented nor a capricious mind. Eegular em-
ployment, however mechanical, and what many people would

* The seat of Lord Douglas.

1805] LETTER TO MRS. CHOLMELET. 297

call tiresome, provided always that it left me time for the
uncontrolled cultivation of my mind, would be to that mind
repose, restoration, and comfort, after the manner in which my
time is now frittered away by myself, because I have no suffi-
ciently strong motive to oppose to any intrusion on my attention
by others, because everyone seems to think they have an equal
right to what I don't appear to make any decided use of myself.
I was not born for indecision, and feel myself capable of making
an entire change in the disposal of my time and of my habits
of life, provided such change was satisfactory to my reason.
Passing day after day, therefore, between a garden, which has
ever been my favourite and my undiminished taste, and writing
accounts or letters of business, which would occupy my hands
only; engaged in the regular performance of duties, which
would be neither difficult nor irksome, and with a rational
motive for meeting and overcoming any inconvenience that
might occasionally occur — believe me, I should see nothing
either dull or dreadful in passing evening after evening uninter-
ruptedly, trimming my lamp, and recurring to and unravelling
the many pursuits after which my soul has thirsted, and of
which, in fact, I have never had but a hurried, imperfect, and
unsatisfactory taste. With this taste in the early part of my
life I endeavoured to content myself, because I felt my situation
imposed on me many duties, superior to learning languages, or
indulging in an unrestrained love of reading, because I hoped
I was then labouring for future repose and comfort. I have
gone on sacrificing the present for the future till no future
remains to me. Still I have spirit enough left, you see, to
resolve that no uncomforts of situation, no sufferings, shall ever
tempt me to any step that should throw me on the mercy of
the world, or add my name as an additional motive for preaching
up ignorance and meanness to my sex. Farewell ! You will see,
at least, by this letter that I am not obstinate in my own ways of
thinking ; and if you could know how much my mind requires
some resting-place in perspective, you would, perhaps, regret
even this being taken away from it.

Among Miss Berry's many literary friends was Miss
Catherine Fanshaw, the well-known authoress of the
riddle on the letter H., and of many other poems.

298 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. tisos

The following letter, with the playful verses that ac-
companied it, show that they were on terms of intimacy
as early as the year 1805.

The ode, supposed to be written by Miss Berry, was of
course the composition of Miss C. Fanshawe,* and the
receipt of it is acknowledged by Miss Berry in the same
spirit in which it was written : —

I return you your Ode, my dear Miss Berry, with many thanks,
and with all due apologies for having detained it so long.
Believe me, I no longer marvel at your enthusiastic admiration
of Gray, whose spirit you have most happily infused into your
admirable poem. Indeed, his own works could never charm me
so much, for you have had the art to compress into a small
compass his most valuable passages, and to give them an
interest, a decision and a dignity of subject which was wanting.

But it is where you venture to depart from your illustrious
model that you rise to the highest excellence, and acquire an
elevation and originality that, in my humble opinion, place
your Muse on a higher form in Parnassus than ever his could
claim.

The ' Price of the Hat ' is a figure absolutely new in poetry ;
and as to individual character, he could never have rendered it
with that truth and delicacy which we acknowledge in the por-
traits of yourself and Mrs. Clinton. If in so splendid a work I
could search for blemishes, perhaps one might be found in the
parody of two lines, which after all must ever remain inimit-
able : —

And they that creep, and they that fly,
Shall end where they began.

I little thought, when first suggesting to you the idea of com-
posing an Ode on the model of your favourite Gray, or when

* Catherine Fanshawe, co-heiress -with two other daughters of an
ancient gentleman's family. The three lived together. Besides her talent
for graceful pleasantry, whether in prose or in verse, admirable as a letter-
writer, a reader of Shakspeare, and as,a designer in almost every style. A
first-rate judge of art says her drawings and etchings are those of an artist,
&c. Too few of her poems have been published ; some appearing in a
volume, consisting of miscellaneous pieces by many authors, edited by
Joanna Baillie. — Vide Reminiscences of a Literary Life, by Miss Mitford.

1805] ODE BY MIS§ BEKRY. 299

you lamented at the Institution the delay occasioned by the
choice of a new bonnet, I little thought that you were going to
immortalise your name at my instigation. This glorious cir-
cumstance gives me a sort of property in the work, by which I
feel entitled to request that you would show it sparingly to the
few who may be worthy, and on no account distribute any copies
without the licence and authority of her who has the honour to
be, with sentiments of the most profound admiration, dear madam,
Your obliged and obedient

C. M. F.

Ode, by Mary Berry.

Lo ! where the gaily-vestur'd throng,

Fair Learning's train, are seen,
Wedg'd in close ranks her walls along,

And up her benches green !

Unfolded to their mental eye
Thy awful form, Sublimity !

The moral teacher shows —
Sublimity ! of Silence born,
And Solitude, mid * caves forlorn,'

And dimly-vision'd woes.
Or stedfast Worth, that inly great,
Mocks the malignity of fate.
Whisper'd Pleasure's dulcet sound
Murmurs the crowded room around ;
And Wisdom, borne on Fashion's pinion,
Exulting hails her new dominion.
Oh ! both on me your influence shed, —
Dwell in my heart, and deck my head !

Where'er a broader browner shade

The shaggy Beaver throws,
And with the ample feather's aid

O'ercanopies the nose —
Where'er, with smooth and silken pile,
Lingering in solemn pause awhile,
The crimson velvet glows —

300 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

From some high bench's giddy brink,
With me my Friend begins to think,

As bolt upright we sit —
That dress, like dogs, should have its day,
That beavers are too hot for May,

And velvets quite unfit.
Then Taste in maxims sweet I draw

From her unerring lip —
' How light ! how simple are the straw !

How delicate the chip ! '

Hush'd is the speaker's powerful voice,

The audience melt away ;
I fly to fix my final choice,

And bless th' instructive day.

The milliner officious pours

Of hats and caps her ready stores,

The unbought elegance of Spring; —
Some wide disclose the full, round face ;
Some, shadowy, lend a modest grace,

And stretch their sheltering wing.

Here clust'ring grapes appear to shed
Their luscious juices on the head,

And cheat the longing eye :
So round the Phrygian monarch hung
Fair fruits, that from his parched tongue

For ever seemed to fly.

Here early blooms the summer rose ;
Here ribbons wreathe fantastic bows ;
There plays gay plumage of a thousand dyes !
Visions of beauty ! spare my aching eyes 1
Ye cumbrous fashions I crowd not on my head !

Mine be the chip of purest white,

Swanlike, and as his feathers light,
When on the still wave spread :

And let it wear the graceful dress

Of unadorned simpleness.

1805] ODE BY MISS BERRY. 301

Ah frugal wish ! ah pleasing thought !

Ah hope indulg'd in vain !
Of modest fancy cheaply bought,

A stranger yet to Payne !

With undissembled grief I tell

(For sorrow never comes too late),
The simplest bonnet in Pall-Mall

Is sold for II. 8s.

To calculation's sober view,

That searches ev'ry plan,
Who keep the old, or buy the new,

Shall end where they began.

Alike the shabby and the gay
Must meet the sun's meridian ray,

The air, the dust, the damp :
This shall the sudden shower despoil,
That slow decay by gradual soil,

Those envious boxes cramp.

Who will, their squander'd gold may pay,

Who will, our taste deride ;
We '11 scorn the fashion of the day

With philosophic pride.

Methinks we thus in accents low

Might Sydney Smith address, —
'Poor moralist ! — and what art thou ? —

Who never spoke of dress !
Thy mental Hero never hung
Suspended on a tailor's tongue,

In agonising doubt :
Thy tale no fluttering female show'd
Who languish'd for the newest mode,

Yet dared to live without ! '

May, 1805,

302 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

To Miss C. Fanshawe.

North Audley Street, Sunday, May 19.

Mr DEAR Miss CATHERINE, — You should know how much I
love parody, as well as how much I admire Gray, to know how
much I am delighted with my own Ode. The little criticisms
you make upon it, you must allow me to say, I consider as dic-
tated by that jalousie de metier from which the best of us are
not entirely exempted. But, however, I shall be very anxious
to communicate to you any of my future productions, provided
you return them to me speedily with as entertaining a comment
as accompanied this Ode.

During Miss Berry's residence with her friends at Both-
well she took the opportunity of visiting a cotton-mill
established in the neighbourhood. The following detailed
account, as showing the regulations and arrangements in
force more than half a century ago in such establishments,
may not be without its interest; more particularly as,
through the courtesy of the present owner, a detailed
account of its present state (1860) is subjoined, thus
marking the progress and improvements in the mode of
conducting its operations : —

Tuesday, November 8th. — Walked to the cotton mill
upon the Clyde, just above the grounds of Both well, on
the opposite side of the river. Nine hundred persons
employed about it, of which about 100 are artificers of
various sorts, smiths, carpenters, &c., &c., to keep the
buildings and machinery in repair. The remaining 800
all employed in the various operations of making the
cotton ready for the weaver from the rough state in which
it comes home in bales. Of these 800, nearly 500 are
children from six to twelve or fourteen years old, and of
the remaining 300 there are many more women than
men. The children are for the most part apprentices,
bound to the manufacturer for six or seven years according

1805] COTTOX-MILL AT BOTHWELL. 303

to their age, for their food and clothing. After this time
is out, they either continue on to receive wages or go to
some other business. I am sorry I did not ask what pro-
portion of them continue on at a business of which they
must have had such a melancholy experience, for all these
children, as well as all their fellow labourers, are employed
fourteen hours a day, from six o'clock in the morning to
eight at night, of which time they are allowed an hour
for breakfast, from nine till ten, and an hour for dinner,
from two till three ; after which, they continue uninter-
ruptedly at work till eight at night. I need not com-
memorate their in general forlorn and squalid looks ;
they are, God knows, painfully enough impressed on my
mind. What a beginning, gracious heaven! for the
dawn of human animal life and human intellect ! A
number of these children are sent from the parishes in
London. They have just now thirty-six or forty from
the parish of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. God help them,
poor souls ! Never to be blessed with the fond endear-
ment of any creature caring for anything but their mere
existence and their labour, and condemned to pass the
playful years of childhood in a wearisome sameness of
employment, to which childhood is so particularly averse.
This subject has been so often enlarged upon, I did not
mean to have allowed my pen a line upon it ; but it is
impossible to have had it brought immediately under
one's eyes this very day, and not express one's feelings
somehow. In the mean time all such care is taken of
these children as perhaps in such a situation is possible.
They have a building where the parish children and
such as come to them from a distance are lodged, girls
and boys separately; they have porridge of oatmeal at
breakfast and supper, and broth and beef for dinner.
They have a master to teach them to read and write,
which is done after their work is over at night, and they
are carried to church of a Sunday. But what an idea of

304 MISS BERET'S JOUEXAL. [isos

that religion must these poor souls have, which coops
them up in a church for three hours to hear a (to them)
unintelligible Scotch sermon, on the only day they are
allowed the ' common air and common use of their own
limbs.' Oh man, man, man ! what ugly things in detail
are most of thy finest contrivances! The men and
women are in general all at piecework. The carders and
reelers — I mean those who attend the carding and reeling
(for everything here is done by machinery), are all
women ; they earn about ten shillings per week, the spin-
ners from fifteen to sixteen shillings per week ; these too
are almost all women, and have two children attending
the particular machine that each belongs to.

The women and girls that are at weekly wages, such as
those who tie up and sort the hanks of cotton thread
when spun, receive from six to seven shillings per week.
The men make from a guinea to two pounds per week. I
cannot say that in general the women looked unhealthy ;
they were for the most part young girls about and under
twenty, and some of them good looking. Some, on the
contrary, objects sadly disfigured by nature. They all
work, as in all manufactories, in large lofts, heated by
a large tin tube of steam, going the whole length of the
room, and giving any required degree of warmth ; it was
to-day most oppressive, when joined to the smell of the
cotton, of the oil of the machines, and of the people
working them. This, however, might certainly be avoided
considerably by letting in fresh air at the windows on
both sides, all of which open, but which the overseer
said they seldom used, and which were almost all shut to-
day, though the air was uncommonly mild without, and
most oppressingly hot within. I have said that the whole
operations here are done by machinery ; the whole is moved
by one great water-wheel 18 feet and 21 feet in diameter,
which turns several vast iron spindles, communicating
motion to all the endless wheels which spin six thousand

1805] COTTON-MILL AT BOTHWELL. 305

pounds weight of cotton thread in a week. A fifth part is
lost in the manufacture ; that is to say, to produce a thou-
sand pounds weight of cotton thread, a fifth part more of the
raw material is required. Part of this refuse, however, is
not perfectly useless, but is sold to be used up in coarse yarn.
The only operation done by the hand is picking the
cotton as it comes out of the bale quite clean ; after that
it is beat, carded, and spun, all by machinery, undergoing
six different operations before it is ready to be spun into
thread. The various multitude of leather straps upon all
the wheels of this immense machinery costs them between
three and four hundred pounds yearly in leather, and the
oil and candles consumed in lighting the lofts four hundred
pounds a-year. They are now going to have it lighted by
the new contrivance for consuming coal smoke. They
likewise at this manufacture dye cotton of a most beautiful
colour with madder ; they say such is the demand for it
that they could use twice as much madder as they can
get. The cotton yarn undergoes forty different operations
before it is made ready to receive the colour. The
number of people, which I have stated to be 900, em-
ployed in this great work, together with their wives and
children, the place to lodge them, and the persons neces-
sary to feed, clothe, and wash for them, compose a little
town — and so it is, in fact, becoming, with a row of
houses, two or three shops, &c. &c. — the only real foun-
dation of towns which the Empress of Eussia, with all
her greatness, in vain commanded, and Frederick II.,
with all his abilities, in vain coaxed.

The factory thus described is called Blantyre, situated
on the left bank of the Clyde, about four miles below
Hamilton, and continues to be worked by the same firm
as in 1805, viz. Messrs. Henry Monteith & Co.

The numbers at work in May, 1860, amounted to
1,061; their ages and employment as follows : —

VOL. II. X

306

MISS BERRY S JOUBNAL.

[1805

Males

Females

Total

under 18

above 18

under 18

above 18

Spinning-mills ....
Weaving factory
Dye works ....
Mechanics and labourers .

27
1
18
1

32
20
133
55

32
41
42

169
289
201

260

351
394
56

47

240

115

659

1061

The above numbers include only twelve children under
thirteen years of age ; the employment which required
so many of that class in 1805 having been long since
discarded. The system of binding apprentices was given
up about 1809, and the services of that class expired
altogether about 1816 or 1817. While that system con-
tinued it was observed, when terms of service expired,
that females generally remained in the factory working on
wages and binding themselves, while the males more
generally went forth into the world. This factory
appears to be considered a home by all who have been
employed in it, for they are free to come and free to go ;
there is no engagement of any kind on entering ; a
worker is permitted to leave without giving notice of any
kind — he has only to state his wish to the manager, who
gives him a line to the clerk to make up his wages,
which is paid immediately and no questions asked.

No children are now received from any parish work-
house, school of industry, nor any charitable institution
of any kind.

The hours of labour are now those prescribed by the
Factory Act, viz. : —

From 6 A.M. till 9 A.M. 3 hours
„ 9| „ „ 2 P.M. 41 „
„ 21 P.M. , 6 3i

5 days . 10^ „
Saturday.

From 6 A.M. till 9 A.M. 3 hours

hours

2 P.M.

41

^2 )>

60

180 5] COTTOX-MILL AT BOTIIWELL. 307

The buildings in which the cotton-spinning was carried
on in the year 1805 have remained very much as they
were, but by this introduction of improved machinery
the work in those buildings, as well as keeping the
machinery and buildings in repair, is now efficiently
carried out by 260 workers, of whom 201 are females
and 59 males.

The building of four stories, called the picking-house,
which existed in 1805, was destroyed by fire and has
been replaced by one not so high for other purposes, as
picking by hand has long been discontinued. The clean-
ing of cotton is now all done by machinery. The build-
ings in which the apprentices of former days were lodged
are now converted into warehouse stores, counting house,
and an armoury for the rifle-corps.

In 1809-10 a large building was added, capable of
holding 350 power-looms.

A gas-making apparatus was erected in 1814, by which
all the works are lighted ; and since 1843, all the dwell-
ing houses in the village, as well as the streets, have also
been lighted with gas.

In 1845 mechanics' shops and stores were erected.

A good school-house is kept up and efficient teachers
provided ; nearly two-thirds of the expense defrayed by
the company, and the remainder by the children in school
pence. Parents not connected with the works send their
children that they may participate in the advantages of
this school.

The children are taken to church by their parents to
whatever church they please. There are two Established
churches, two Free churches, one United Presbyterian
within twenty minutes' walk of the village ; besides which
the Methodists meet in the village school, and one of the
Free Church ministers delivers a sermon every Sabbatli in
the school-house, and from five to seven o'clock the
schoolmasters, assisted by the heads of families and others

x 2

308 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

as monitors conduct a Sabbath evening school in the school-
house, which is attended by 180 to 190 children. About
two-thirds of the inhabitants attend the Free and United
Presbyterian churches, the remainder are divided betwixt
the Established Church, Eoman Catholics, and Methodists.

The village belonging to the works in 1851 contained
a population of 1,280 ; there are now about 1,400, every
available house being occupied ; and were there a fourth
more houses added, they would be occupied as fast as
they could be built.

A considerable number of the workers come from
Both well, High Blantyre, and other adjacent places ; they
come in the morning and return again in the evening.
There are also a large proportion who come from aU the
coal and iron works, but at a greater distance. They
lodge in the village during the week, going home upon
Saturday, and returning again upon Sabbath evening.

There are occasionally a few who having natural physi-
cal defects could not otherwise gain a livelihood, can do
the light work of the mill very well.

isoG] LORD NELSON'S FUNERAL. 309

1806.
EXTEACTS FKOM JOURNAL.

Jan. 13#A. — I had determined immediately after seeing
it, to mark down the effect Lord Nelson's funeral should
have on my mind, and that of the people about me. I had
certainly hopes that it would have been more considerable
than it was, although I had little hope of its being con-
ducted with any real taste or solemn effect, knowing that its
conduct had not been entrusted to any persons of approved
taste themselves, or who would have summoned artists
to their assistance. On the water it was a crowd of
boats, in which the immense city barges only were con-
spicuous. It is much easier to set down upon paper the
regulations of a ceremony, such as that the boats of
the river fencibles are to line each side of the procession,
&c., than to give the effect of a procession so lined on the
water in the foggy atmosphere of the Thames. The
distance of time between the minute guns fired by these
river fencibles was too long to command continued atten-
tion, and therefore, I think, failed in their effect. The
music, too, was not sufficiently loud to have any effect at
all ; and the barge which contained his honoured remains
was neither sufficiently large nor sufficiently distinguished
to command the eye and the attention of every spectator,
which by some means or other it ought to have done. I
was looking over the wall of Lord Fife's garden, which
forms one side of Whitehall Stairs, so that I saw the
coffin in the very act of being landed ; saw it placed on
the bier on which it was borne to the Admiralty. The

310 MISS BERRY'S JOURXAL. [ISOG

only really impressive moment was that in which the
coffin first touched the ground. At that instant the sky,
which but a few minutes before had been clear, poured
down at once a torrent of rain and hail, and a sudden
gust of wind arose, the violence of which was not less re-
markable than the moment at which it took place. In an-
cient Eome, or in later days of modern superstition, such a
circumstance would have been recorded as the moment in
which his spirit sought its native sky, or as an omen of
future bad luck, from the instant his last remains quitted
that element on which he had so often triumphed.

On shore the whole ceremony was still less calculated
to gratify the feelings it naturally inspired, and in which
(to do them justice), not one of the thousands collected as
spectators but seemed to participate. Never was there so
decent, so quiet, so serious, so respectful a mob. Instead
of presenting to their eager eyes the surviving heroes of
Trafalgar, following the corpse of their illustrious leader,
the naval officers were all put into mourning coaches,
which immediately became equally uninteresting to the
spectators, whether they contained a vice-admiral or a
herald; indeed the heralds, from their dress, were the
only conspicuous persons. The sailors, too, of the ' Victory,'
the immediate witnesses of their Nelson's glory, who had
indignantly opposed the idea of transferring his corpse to
a frigate, and who had insisted on its remaining with
them in the ship, on whose deck they had seen him fall
— these sailors, instead of being allowed to surround the
coffin from which they had proved themselves so unwilling
to separate, were marshalled by themselves in another
part of the procession, without music, without officers,
without any naval accompaniments whatsoever. Although
few in number, and thus separated from everything that
would have added consequence to their appearance, such
was the impression that their serious, quiet, decent de-
portment made on the multitude, that they were repeat-

1806] DEATH OF MR. PITT. 311

edly and almost continually cheered as they passed
along. What a deep and lasting impression would the
whole of this ceremony have made on the minds of the
spectators, had the naval part of the procession, as well as
the military, been conducted on foot ; had the com-
panions of his glory and his danger, exposed to the
regards of their grateful and admiring country, immedi-
ately surrounded the car which bore his remains ; had
the whole been accompanied by appropriate music — one
band taking up the melancholy strain when another
dropped it ; and had the passage of the procession been
marked by the solemn tolling of the different bells. I
will not talk of the disproportions and perfect bad taste
of the funeral car, because good taste in forms I never
expect here ; but I did expect sufficient good taste in
moral feeling, not to have entrusted the conduct of such a
ceremony, the tribute of such a nation to such a chief,
as a job to the Heralds' office and their hireling under-
takers ! The only moment in which the mind the most
disposed to enthusiasm, could for a moment indulge
it (I speak not of the ceremony in St. Paul's, which I
did not see), was that in which the funeral car passed
Charing Cross. Here nothing could be seen on every
side but pyramids of heads, and every head uncovered,
from respect to the object, on which every eye was
entirely bent. One general feeling pervading a great
multitude must ever tend to the sublime.

Thursday, Jan. 23rd. — It was universally believed
that Mr. Pitt had died to-day, and everybody was talking
and reasoning upon his death as a fact. At seven o'clock
in the evening I stopped at Dr. Baillie's door to enquire if
he was returned from Wimbledon. He had left Mr. Pitt
there between three and four still alive, and Dr. Eeynolds
was to return there to-night. Baillie having left him,
proved to me that he thought the case past all hope.

312 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso6

Friday, Jan. 2±th. — Mr. Pitt died this morning at four
o'clock. This is certainly a great event for the country in
the present posture of affairs. Much curiosity and anxiety
was excited to-day and yesterday to ascertain the fact —
more, I think, than what may be called tender concern or
great regret for his loss. And yet I know not what politics,
or what party, can justify the not regretting the loss of
such a superior intellect, and such great talents, for
superior and great they were, although on the important
subjects to which they were applied it was not always
possible to approve either his principles or his conduct.
Perhaps his greatest errors originated from his early and
constant immersion in public business, and from his having
been always an actor, never a spectator of affairs. This,
perhaps, prevented his sufficiently recurring in his plans
and in his measures to those great first principles never
to be lost sight of by a really great statesman, and to be
deviated from as little as possible ; expediency and
necessity will always make that little enough.

In Miss Berry's work on ' England and France ' will be
found a far more detailed review of her opinion respect-
ing the character of Mr. Pitt and of the influence he
exercised on the politics of his country and the pur-
suits of his contemporaries.

The following extracts from Miss Berry's MSS. show
how strongly she felt the disadvantage of the light and
frivolous education she saw bestowed upon the youth of
her own sex, and with what bitter regret she witnessed
the mortifying discouragement which then, far more than
now, appears to have been given to all intellectual exer-
tions in women, whose leisure and abilities afforded them
the opportunity and means of mental cultivation and of
literary occupation and distinction.

1806] LETTER TO A FRIEND. 313

Extract from a Letter to a Friend.

London : Dec. 1806.

Desultory and heterogeneous reading is the great evil of all
young women. Our education (if education it can be called)
is nearly ended by the time that our minds begin to open and
to be really eager for information. When you men are sent to
college we are left (such of us as are not obliged to gain our
bread, or to mend our own clothes) to positive idleness, without
any object, end or aim to encourage any one employment of
our mind more than another. Our imaginations are naturally
more lively than yours, our powers of steady attention, I think
less than yours. What would you have us do ? Entire frivolity,
or any and every book that falls into our hands, are our only
resources; and though nobody is more aware than myself that
this sort of desultory reading during the first years of (mental)
life does often much mischief, and is attended always with a
great waste of time, yet it has at least this good effect, et scio
quod loquor, that a love of reading thus natural and thus in-
dulged is often a happy preventive in future life, against more
serious follies, more pernicious idleness, and it is to be hoped
may be counted upon as a real resource in those days when the
attractions of the world and of society fade as much in our eyes,
as our attractions fade in theirs.

EXTRACTS.

Considering the education given to women, and (according to
the present system) the subsequent and almost necessary idle-
ness both of mind and body, I am only astonished that they
are not more ignorant, weaker, and more perverse than they are.

All English women think it necessary to profess loving the
country, and to long to be in the country, altho' their minds are
often neither sufficiently opened, nor their pursuits sufficiently
interesting, to make such a taste rational.

A woman who is proud of being what is generally called a
woman of business is proud of endowments that would not
distinguish a banker's clerk. They are what every woman

314 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isoe

should be ashamed of not having, because every woman ^
have sufficient leisure to acquire them ; but of the possession of
which an intelligent mind can no more be nattered than with
the knowledge of the pence table.

The wrongs or the neglect which women of superior intel-
lect almost universally receive from men, are revenged by the
various evils which men almost as universally suffer from the
weakness, the folly, and the meanness of those whom they com-
monly prefer in the characters of their wives and friends.

On Imagination.

0 for the power of involving myself in fiction and throw-
ing aside (for the time at least) all the dull realities of life !
0 for the power of creating to myself a society of fancied
beings, with and for whom my soul might exert all its energies,
and indulge in all its enthusiastic affections. 0 for the power
of surrounding myself with faultless friends, faithful lovers, in-
formed minds, and elegant manners ! Rousseau possessed this .•
power, felt this desire, and it produced his Heloise. — To purchase
it at the price of his morbid feelings on every subject connected
with social life, would be paying too dear for it. But to what
delicate mind would it not be a treasure when separated from
the few, on whom it depends for comfort and support ?

1807] EEFLECTIONS. 315

1807.

Little Strawberry, April 29, 1807.

WHY do I feel a desire to register my feelings while
sitting quite alone in a deliciously warm sunny spring-
day, at the window of our drawing-room, looking up the
beautiful reach of the Thames which it commands, while
all nature is bursting into life around me, and the whole
landscape is becoming more and more vividly green every
hour ? I admire this lovely season as much as ever — I
enjoy it perhaps more. But how different are the feelings
it generates, the thoughts it induces, the ideas it inspires,
from those which the same scene, the same window, the
same season, produced ten years ago. It is not that I
regret them as more happy. On the contrary, my mind
at present enjoys a degree of calm (the first ingredient of
happiness) to which it was then a stranger. But it is a
calm purchased at the price of every animating hope, of
every desire of exertion, and it is secured by expecting
nothing from the future, and remembering much of the
past. What frustrated hopes, what unavailing exertions,
what fruitless sufferings, does that past recall ! Unembel-
lished even by any of those gay thoughtless moments
of youth, which, though often severely paid for, yet,
when viewed through the medium of distance, become
agreeable remembrances ; their folly or imprudence duly
expiated, their gaiety and the energy they excited re-
main to cheer and animate the sober dulness of advanc-
ing life. But to me these moments never existed ; to
me all was continued and never-ceasing exertion. Still

316 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso7

I laboured on, still every returning spring found me with
some plan of present exertion, or (still more difficult) of
present patient endurance, for the hope of securing future
comfort, future independence, future repose. But no
future exists to me now. I may idle away whole summer
suns, as I have done this, in reverie, without neglecting
any duty, overlooking any pleasure, or foregoing any
advantage.

JOUKNAL.

Monday, August 10th. — Went from Guy's Cliff to
see Warwick Castle, distance a mile and a half ; entrance
through a new low Gothic gate in the outer wall ; from
thence to the castle, the road winds through the solid
rock, making a wall on both sides, overhung with trees
and shrubs ; the inner enclosure of the castle bursts upon
one, beautifully presenting a double gateway (the real old
one) and two towers. That called Guy's Tower is, both
as to proportion, form, and colour of stone, one of the
handsomest I ever saw. It is a duodecagon, but the
angles so obtuse as not to be striking till near obser-
vation. The other tower upon the bank of the Avon is
singularly picturesque from the odd irregularities of its
construction, being part of it angular, part of it seg-
ments of circles in scallops, with strange projections on
the battlements, above which a part of the tower rises
considerably. The ground about the walls and towers,
and the space between the outer and inner court, is left
rough with broom and other wild plants, making an
exceUent foreground to such a building. In the inner
court all is smooth turf. The hall is magnificent in size,
but the panelling, newly painted like boxwood, in bad
taste. A fine suite of rooms, the whole length of the
castle towards the river ; a number of very fine pictures,
chiefly portraits by Vandyke, Rubens, and Kembrandt.

1807] VISIT TO WARWICK CASTLE. 317

The furniture extremely massive, and appropriate to the
place ; many old cabinets and tables of pietra dura and
other precious materials, besides the greatest quantity of
boule in all sorts of commodes, cabinets, candelabra,
tables, &c. &c., that I ever saw collected together ; the
chimney-pieces are all modern, all expensive high marble,
in the worst taste, of about thirty years ago. The win-
dows are large recesses, admitting a vast deal of light ;
an armoury is fitted up with a vast number of old and
curious arms of all nations, and all times, very hand-
somely and well arranged. There is a broad walk round
the walls, still very passable, and a good staircase in
Guy's Tower. I am to visit Caesar's Tower another
day, as we had already spent nearly five hours, poking
into every creek and cranny of the rest of this noble
castle. The Avon flows immediately under its walls ; the
walls connect with the mill belonging to the castle, and
in the same style of building with itself ; this has a weir
upon the river, forming a pretty though too regular a
cascade. Immediately above are the picturesque remains
of an ancient Gothic bridge, the middle arch entirely
carried away, and the side ones remaining overhung with
shrubs, furze, and other vegetation. About a quarter of
a mile's distance the river is crossed by a new Grecian
bridge of one arch, which, though not ugly in itself, is
misplaced, and destroys the harmony of the scene.

I see no place in this country of which the scenery
is to be compared with that of Guy's Cliff. Guy's Cliff
is so odd, so romantic, so cheerful, so enjoyable ! The
singular appearance of the various arches, caves, and
apertures of all sorts and sizes, in the perpendicular wall
of rock which forms the courtyard and faces the entrance,
contrasts so well with the open cheerful scene from the
drawing-room. The flowing Avon winds round a turfy
peninsula immediately below, while its course lower
down is bordered with alders and overhung by a group

318 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso?

of picturesque ash-trees, and higher up the stream is ar-
rested by a mill, and forms a cascade ; there the three
arches of the wheels peep out from under weeping wil-
lows and occidental planes ; one fine poplar towers
above the rest, and marks the farthest projection of the
stonework into the river ; and a foot-bridge over the water
to another group of trees, finishes the landscape, and gives
it all the charm of a beautiful foreground. Behind, the
country is seen rising into sloping fields, and tufts of
wood, and a most happily-placed country church backed
by one of these tufts, forms the horizon of a lovely
tranquil scene, and one most characteristically English.

Tuesday, ~\&th. — I am going in future to write a
journal — the entertainment I have received from those
of my friend here * has set me upon it. And yet why
begin a journal when more, much more, than half one's
probable life is past, ' and all the life of life ' certainly
gone for ever! I have hitherto avoided it, because I
felt ashamed of the use, or rather the no-use, I made of
my time — of the miserable minute duties and vexations
which at once occupied and corroded my mind — of the
manner in which I have let life slip by me, and missed
its present enjoyments, by always aiming at and acting for
some indefinite future.

But now that no future remains to me, perhaps I may
be encouraged to make the most of the present by
marking its rapid passage, and setting before my eyes
the folly of letting a day escape without endeavouring, at
least, to make the best I can of it, and, above all, without
making impossible attempts to mend or alter anybody
but myself.

Friday, 21st. — I have said that I am to write a journal
— why not then begin ? I shall have to record few days
spent more agreeably, more peaceably, more rationally
than during this last fortnight with our friends here, who,

* Mr. Greathead.

1807] VISIT TO WARWICK. 319

without fuss or bustle, or interfering with the use one
may wish to make of one's time, have every kind and
thoughtful attention to the amusement of their guests ;
without pomp or pretension, they have every comfort,
luxury, and elegance for enjoyment; and their conver-
sation, habits, minds, and manners are free from affecta-
tion, and not only please and satisfy, but attach.

Well, then, to begin. An effort it must always be, and,
therefore, the sooner it is got over the better.

Yesterday (Thursday, August 20th) I went with Mr.
Greathead to Warwick Castle. I soon found my friend
Mrs. Hume, the housekeeper, who was so much pleased
with this second visit that she left two other visitors to
accompany me everywhere. First, she would show me
the offices — fine arched vaults in the solid rock towards
the river. The ale-cellars require about 500/. worth of
malt to fill them. . They are not quite empty, but it is long
since the lord of this castle, from his various schemes
and extravagancies, has been able to live in any style
becoming it, or indeed to live here at all. After seeing
the offices to please Mrs. Hume, I went through the
dungeon at the bottom, to the leads at the top, of Caesar's
Tower, to please myself.

This singularly irregular and odd-shaped tower is un-
questionably the oldest part of the castle ; it is that which
must have guarded the passage of the river. There is
an excellent stone winding staircase from the bottom to
the top, besides a smaller one, which goes up to the
battlements only. Below the battlements, the tower con-
tains two rooms and two closets, with windows upon each
floor, and above the battlements is one large round arched
room, with four windows in it. The view from here is
very extensive. Lord Warwick wishes it fitted up as a
morning sitting-room for himself, and indeed, save the
number of steps, he could not have one more agreeable.
A few stone steps lead from it to the leaded top of the

320 MISS BEERY'S JOURNAL. [1307

odd little scalloped tower, which grows out of one
side of the large tower, and divides its angular from its
developed side — for so it literally is — though nothing but
a drawing can give any idea of it.

I went all over the leads of the double gateway. The
two towers contain eighteen rooms. By this time Mr. G.
joined me, and we walked through a gate to look at the
face towards the river, which is beautiful, the lower part
being all native rock, overgrown with vegetation of various
sorts. Then went up the mount to what is called the keep ;
but it is, in fact, nothing but the outer wall of the castle,
carried over a high artificial mound of earth, made by
the scooping out the ditch with two small watch-towers
at the top.

The real keep of this castle must have been Caesar's
Tower. After going up and down so many stairs, we
enjoyed sitting in the porch of the castle, and eating some
excellent fruit sent by our friend the housekeeper, who
with much difficulty was induced to accept the accustomed
fee at this place.

After dinner strolled with Mrs. Darner by the river side,
where the whole scene is deliciously inducive of quiet,
calmness, and repose.

After tea, Mr. Greathead, at my request, read to us his
translation in verse of Boccaccio's ' Lisabetta and her
Brothers.' I had once heard it before, eleven years ago,
at their house in Bryanstone Street, on an evening
memorable to me, for it was that on which I had at last
relieved my own mind and scruples, by confiding to my
second father, to Lord Orford, that in a few months, as
I then thought, I was to leave him for a still dearer
friend and a nearer connection ; and satisfied with hav-
ing acted up to the most scrupulous, the most romantic
ideas of the duties of friendship, I was indulging myself
in all the rational hopes and fair prospects which seemed
then to open to my still enthusiastic mind. Alas ! alas !

1807] VISIT TO KENILWORTH. 321

all too soon cruelly crushed, and since levelled with the
dust.

But whither am I roaming ? from Greathead's tale to
my own !

Friday, 2,1st. — Wrote to Agnes, scribbled a little in
this book, read a little of the ' Lamento di Cecco,' which,
liaving often heard of, I had never seen before. It is a
beautiful, simple, but not vulgar pastoral, in the Tuscan
patois ; but after the first three or four stanzas, not very
difficult to understand. If it were, there are notes, which
swell a poem of forty stanzas into a tolerable-sized quarto
volume ! Thank heaven, one is not obliged to read them,
for they seem to me the very model, or rather the cari-
cature, of those voluminous notes, corrections, first read-
ings, and comparings of all similar passages, in all possible
authors, which encumber without enlightening half the
best books one knows.

In the evening, conversation inexhaustible between the
Greatheads and us.

Saturday, 22nd. — Went with Mr. Greathead to Kenil-
worth. I was resolved to go there again, and have
another look at the castle and the beautiful village. The
village is above a mile long, and I went in search of
Charles's * mother, whom I found in a poor little cottage,
her three children just returned from gleaning. I
have a good opinion of her, from all her children (no
fewer than eleven) being able to read and write. We
went to the castle by the outside of the village. The
approach to it this way by far the most picturesque, and
the best for a general view. The largest rooms in
Leicester's building (those which Queen Elizabeth occu-
pied), I measured. They are only twenty-four feet by
twenty-six feet, as they now stand from wall to wall, but
must have been pleasant rooms with large shallow bay

* Probably one of Miss Berry's servants.
VOL. II. T

322 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [ISOT

windows.* The great hall, built by John of Ghent, must
have been a magnificent room, with two fireplaces yet
remaining, large windows in a recess, with a step up to
them, and a seat round them ; and at one end of the
room a large bay window on one side, and a smaller one
on the other. The panelling of stone remaining in all
the recesses of the windows and on the sides of the fire-
places is of very neat masonry.

From the castle we returned, through the village, to a
manufactory of combs,f which is here carried on to a
considerable extent, and the refuse of bone, horn, &c.,
goes to a sal-ammoniac and hartshorn manufactory in the
neighbourhood.^ Curious operation of cutting open the
horns and flattening them, by holding in tongs to a wood-
fire, and then putting them between thick iron plates,
which are heated and pressed together, with the pieces
of horn between them. The man we saw at this business,
which is very hot and fatiguing, will earn better than four
shillings per day, working fourteen or fifteen hours.

The horns for lanthorns § (after being cut open like
the others) pressed by a machine worked by a horse.

* There are differences of opinion as to Queen Elizabeth's apartments ;
some which now bear that name seem more like the apartments of
attendants. At the southern angle of the eastern side of the banqueting
hall, the oriel window with its little fireplace gives the appearance of a
small room, and this is by some called Queen Elizabeth's boudoir. This
can be entered, and is a favourite seat for the visitors to the castle. The
roof of the cellarage under the banqueting hall formed the foundation for
its flooring ; this is now gone, except under the oriel windows. One or
two of the old timber beams are all that remain to testify of floors in the
other apartments ; there are a few wooden stairs in an inaccessible part
of the large projecting staircase, and over some of the doorways the remains
of lath and plaster ; but this is all the woodwork now remaining, except in
the gate-house or stable.

t No longer there.

\ The comb trade is daily decreasing and has almost ceased to exist.' An
old inhabitant of Kenilworth, married, to one of the most wealthy of the
traders, can remember when her husband paid 100/. weekly in wages to
about thirty or forty workmen, including boys.

§ The horn was prepared for lanthorns, but sent up to London to be
made up.

1807] VISIT TO KEXILWORTH. 323

From the comb manufactory we traversed the green
scoop of a valley, round which a great part of this ex-
tensive village is built. In this valley is situated the
church and the remains of the abbey, which consists only
of a much-ruined gate-house and two or three pieces of
rough stone.*

The tower and great door of the parish church are of
the very oldest Saxon style, and from the wasted appear-
ance of the stone in comparison of the other ruins of the
place, must be very much older. Indeed, the door of
the church, both from its ornaments and from the soil
being raised full two-thirds of its original height, must be
of high Saxon antiquity.

The pastures into which this valley is divided are still
called the Abbeys, from having belonged to the abbey, and
are now traversed by a neat gravelled path, and adorned
by the largest and most picturesque wych elm f I ever
saw, and a noble ash J against the line of houses.

Everything about this village, and among other things
the alehouse signs, prove its antiquity. The ' Bear and
Eagged Staff' § certainly dates from the days of Leicester.
But the ' Two Virgins ' is of much greater antiquity.
The tradition of the place says that the house always
has been an alehouse ; and as the ' Two Virgins ' mean
the Virgin Mary and her mother Elizabeth, || we must
certainly suppose it established before the Keforrnation.^f

* There are still some remains of an abbey, a very beautifully arched
gateway, and two strong pieces of wall, standing in the Abbey fields. Part
of the old vaults was discovered in the new portion added to the church-
yard, which the Bishop of Worcester consecrated as new ground a few years
since. There is also a building close to the arched gateway supposed to
have been the hospice ; and the handsome west door of the parish church
which is evidently an insertion, is supposed to have been rescued from the
abbey ruin.

t Still standing. J No longer there.

|| St. Ann. § Still there.

^1 It has been supposed that this sign does not refer to St. Ann, but that
the second virgin is meant to represent Queen Elizabeth.

324 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isor

After visiting the house of which Mr. Greathead is direct-
ing the alteration for Mr. Lake,* we returned to Guy's
Cliff.

Sunday, 23rd. — I remained in my room the whole
morning reading Mr. Greathead's Journals, which let me
more into their every-day life, where they went, and
what they did while abroad, than a month's conversation
could do.

Monday, 24$. — Took leave of our kind friends here,
after having spent nearly three weeks with them, greatly
to my own satisfaction. Before breakfast, I had, in a
quiet solitary walk by the river side, taken a sort of leave
of the tranquil scene, and promised myself to return to it
whenever I could ; but this indefinite future has something
solemn in it ; and ceasing to be in one place, and rising
again in another, always gives me the idea of a sort of
death.

The day was showery, and a nervous headache pre-
vented my enjoying the set of postchaise ideas which
always take possession of my mind whenever my body
is set a-going upon wheels.

The inn at Woburn dirty and forlorn-looking, and our
sitting-room damp and cold.

Tuesday, 25th. — We were half an hour from the inn
at Woburn Abbey through the park. The approach very
handsome. At a sufficient distance is a great body of
building, low and like a pavilion, with two wings, con-
sisting of stables, a riding-house, tennis-court, &c. &c.
The whole appears like what it is, the complete establish-
ment of a great lord in this country, without any osten-
tatious display of ornament. The house within excellent ;
two complete apartments for summer and winter, both
looking equally inhabitable, though the family were not
there. Some remarkably fine pictures. Those in the

* This house was afterwards sold to Sir Charles Clifford, and subsequently
to William Amherst, Esq., since dead.

1807] VISIT TO WOBURff. 325

gallery we did not see, as the room was painting. Some
very fine Teniers, an exquisite Both, an admirable picture
(called by Keinbrandt, though not at all in his usual dark
manner), ' Joseph interpreting the Baker's Dream ;' the
' Countess of Bedford,' * mother to the beheaded Lord
Russell — charming whole length, by Vandyke.

Magnificent greenhouse. A space in the middle, in
which is an antique marble vase of monstrous dimensions,
supported by four antique marble columns, of which two
are beautiful Cipollina.

At the end of the greenhouse, a cabinet, elaborately
lined with marble and gilding, called the Temple, and
containing Nollekens' | bust of Mr. Fox, on a white marble
pedestal, with an inscription, surrounded by six other
busts of his most particular friends upon brackets — Lord
Howicke, General Fitzpatrick, Lord Lauderdale, Lord
Eobert Spencer, Lord Holland, and Mr. Hare.

One could have wished, for the honour of their public
principles, that the private characters of some of them
had been different. An inscription over the door says
that this temple to friendship, planned and begun by the
last Duke, was finished at his dying request by his brother.
A covered way of a quarter of a mile in length leads to
a Chinese dairy, much ornamented with china. It is in
Holland's showy but unchaste taste. Indeed, in most of
the things he has done here, I discovered the model of
all he since executed upon rather a smaller scale at Mr.
Whitbread's.

We were above two hours and a half at Woburn with-

* Anne, daughter of Robert Carr Earl of Somerset and Frances Howard
the divorced wife of the Earl of Essex, married William Lord Russell,
afterwards fifth Earl and first Duke of Bedford, 1637. She died 1684,
aged sixty-four.

t Joseph Nollekens, born 1737. A sculptor of some eminence, he was much
employed in the ' restoration ' of ancient sculpture. His best works were
his portrait-busts — he made 74 repetition marble busts of Pitt, and 000
plaster casts. His bust of Fox had scarcely inferior success. Died 1823. —
Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography.

.326 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isor

out seeing what is called the pleasure ground, which, in
almost ah1 fine places, I have long discovered is the least
pleasing part of the whole.

We drove for about two miles through the park to the
entrance from the Dunstable Eoad, which is now build-
ing, and from the scale on which it seems planned pro-
mises to be magnificent.

Arrived in North Audley Street. London does not
appear to advantage on returning from the country on a
fine summer's evening. I had the comfort of finding
Agnes looking well, and happy to get me back.

Saturday, 29th. — In the evening read a good deal of
the last Scotch Eeview. What they say of Mr. Hope,*
though he lays himself open to ridicule, is ill-natured and
often in bad taste. An excellent criticism upon Cobbett's
weekly journal, exposing, in the clearest manner, his
shameful inconsistencies, or rather direct contradiction of
his own opinions, both of men and measures, within this
last five years, and holding up upon true Whig prin-
ciples our real defects and real misconduct, without seek-
ing to palliate or defend either the one or the other, and
only wishing them to be considered as they are, and not
confounded with preposterous exaggeration in the minds
of the people. But alas ! the people read Cobbett, and
will never read the Scotch Eeview.

I have felt uncommonly well for these last two days.
The good effects this health, which I so seldom enjoy,
has upon my temper, my spirits, and my views, can only
be equalled by my gratitude to Heaven for it.

Sunday, 30$. — Windhamf extremely admires the

* Household Furniture and Internal Decorations executed from Designs.
By Thomas Hope. Folio.

t William Windham, of Felbrigg, Norfolk, horn 1750, one of the dis-
tinguished statesmen and orators of his day. In 1788 he was one of the
managers of the impeachment of Warren Hastings. He continued to act
with the Whig party till the division in their ranks caused by the opinions
on the French Revolution, when he took part with Burke. In 1794 he

1807] VISIT TO COOMBANK. 327

Scotch review of Cobbett, with whom he says he is out
of all patience ; although, by the bye, Windham is the
only one of his violent favourites that he has not as yet
violently abused. Horner supposed to be the author of
the review. I don't doubt he is.* Went at half-past
ten to Mrs. Bouverie's. Lord Clifden, arrived from Ire-
land the day before ; Mr. Falkner and one of his
daughters, Lady Julia Howard, Sir F. Vincent, Mrs.
Spencer, and Mr. Eogers. Everybody anxious for news
from Copenhagen, and few liking entirely to speak out
their sentiments. My fears I own are great.

Monday, 31st. — Began to clear out that Augean stable,
our lumber room. From the accumulated dust of fifteen
years I came out like a chimney-sweeper, and almost
choked with dust.

Tuesday, September 1st. — Drove with my father to
Hogmore Lane to make enquiries after the Princess Sophia,
upon her mother the Duchess of Gloucester's death.f

Tuesday, 8th. — Mr. William Eobertson called. He was
at Lisbon during the earthquake in June last. He had
experienced two before in the East Indies — this by far
the most violent. The old people at Lisbon who remem-
bered that of 1755 all agreed that this shock was as
violent ; but not being repeated, nor of long continuance,
did little damage. No lives lost but by those whose
terror made them jump out of windows, &c. &c.

Wednesday, 9th. — Set off for Coombank.J Lord

joined the ministry of Pitt, as Secretary of War, till 1801. la 1804 he again
united with Fox, and took office with ' all the talents ' till their ejection in
1807 ; and during the remainder of his career sat on the Opposition benches.
Died June 1810.

* It was Lord Jeffrey, and not Mr. Horner, who wrote the article.

t Maria Walpole, second natural daughter of Sir Edward Walpole and
of Mary Clement, married in 1759 to the Earl of Waldegrave. Lord Walde-
grave died 1763. Lady Waldegrave married in 1766 Prince William Henry
Duke of Gloucester, who died 1805.

J Coombank, in Sandrish parish, was anciently possessed by the Islays,

328 MISS BEKKT'S JOURNAL [isor

Frederick Campbell received me with his usual cheerful-
ness of manner. It was a bad day, and the house, in
spite of the many good pictures and other things in it,
struck me as more uncomfortable than ever. Dr. Vyse,
the Bishop of Peterborough (who married his sister) and
Mr. Cayley, a lawyer from London, dined with us. In
the evening came the Bishop's wife and four other
women ; good sort of dressed-up country-town ladies, of
whom in a single evening one can make nothing. So I
sat and worked and listened to the Bishop, who, thougli
by no means brilliant, amused me with recounting a cir-
cumstance which happened to him very soon after he took
orders, while reading the service before a large congrega-
tion in Hartingfordbury Church. The lesson for the day
was the fifteenth chapter of the first book of Samuel
where, reproaching Saul, he says, ' Wherefore do I hear this
bleating of sheep and lowing of oxen ?' At the moment
he uttered the words ' bleating of sheep,' a great bell-
wether began baaing just below the pulpit, to the irresis-
tible diversion of his audience. Sheep were feeding in
the churchyard, and one of them had strayed unobserved
into the church.

Thursday, 10^. — Went in the morning to Tunbridge
to call upon the Bishop, Mrs. Madan, &c. at Dr. Vyse's
parsonage, a thoroughly comfortable and indeed elegant
house of the kind, and appears to advantage in going to
it from Coombank, which I think unites every possible
discomfort. I went at Coombank with the housekeeper

and afterwards by the Ash family, who, about fifty or sixty years since, sold
it to Colonel John Campbell, afterwards Duke of Argyle, whose third son,
Lord Frederick Campbell, is now owner ; his father having given him this
estate during his own lifetime. The house, which consisted of a centre,
with square projections or wings at each angle, was partly destroyed by an
accidental fire, when Lady Frederick Campbell was burnt to death. Philipott
says that ' not many years since, in digging near Come Bank, were discovered
many Roman arms of an antique shape and figure.' — Beauties of England
and Wales, By Edward "Wedlake Brayley, vol. viii. p. 1319. Published
1808.

1807] ARRIVAL AT TUNBRIDGE WELLS. 329

into the bedroom where Lord and Lady Frederick slept
before the horrible catastrophe of the fire.* Nothing
can be more frightful and curious than the aspect it pre-
sents. Without being actually burnt in any one part,
except about three or four feet of the floor, just near the
dressing-room door, the whole is perfectly black and
scorched and shrivelled up with the effects of the fire,
the turpentine all sweated out of the paint.

The fatal dressing-room must have been on fire above
four hours, but the flames only burst through the, at last,
consumed door of the dressing-room when the maid at a
little before five o'clock in the morning made a draught
of air by opening the door of the bedchamber.

The miracle of this poor soul Lady Frederick f having
been thus actually burnt to ashes in a house of which one
single room alone was destroyed, is only made the more
wonderful by examining the spot and hearing the report
of everybody who was there, and can only be accounted
for, by her having fallen into a fit with her head in the
candle, and thus having been perfectly insensible before
the fire attacked her. Both her sisters having died in fits
makes this the less unlikely.

Saturday, ~L2th. — Eeturned to North Audley Street.

Tuesday, 15^. — I went with Mrs. Darner to Wedge-
wood, where I had not been for three or four years. His
blue and white ware, made in imitation of china, better
than the Colebrook Dale of the same sort ; the patterns in
better taste and the white clearer.

Wednesday, I&th. — Left North Audley Street for Tun-
bridge Wells, with our own horses ; arrived at Tunbridge
by the finest of moonlight nights, after one of the finest of

* The fire took place the 25th of June in this year.

t Lady Frederick Campbell was sister to the late Sir William Meredith,
and had first married Eajl Ferrars, from whom she was divorced for ill
usage, and who was afterwards executed at Tyburn for the murder of his
steward. — Beauties of England and Wales. By E. W. Brayley, vol. viii. p.
1319.

330 MISS BERRY'S JOURXAL. [1807

bright autumn days. We drove to our house under
Mount Zion, and walked to Lady Donegal's. Charles
Moore* there, and Lord Ellenboroughf and his son.

Friday r, 18th. — I dined at Lord Ellenborough's ; carried
with us Mr. Moore and Miss Godfrey ; J the party besides,
Lady Donegal and General and Mrs. Boss.§ Lord Ellen-
borough quick and clever in conversation.

Sunday, 20th. — After dinner strolled on the common ;
it is the charm of this place to be able to do this at any
hour of the day, without hat or gloves, and in any way
you please, without observation or comment. Lady
Donegal, Miss Godfrey and C. Moore drank tea with us.

Monday, (2~Lst — Drove out with Miss Godfrey and
Agnes to Bridge Green, and then walked to the bank of
rock just behind it. It is a continuation of the shelf of
rock which forms all the variously denominated rocks in
the neighbourhood of Tunbridge, by peeping above the
soil in different places. These are very picturesque ; they
are a rabbit warren, with trees dropped in all the fissures
of stone, and a birch wood at the top of the bank.

In the evening to a party at Mrs. Jones's : two card-
tables of old women at play, and a room full of girls, with
a thin sprinkling of boys, not knowing what to do. We
carried Lady Donegal and her sister with us, and had C.
Moore and Lord Ellenborough to talk to. But my head
was heavy and oppressed, and I felt, and often now
feel, my former exertions in society perfectly intolerable
to me.

Thursday, 24^. — In the evening a small party at the
Horsleys. Lord Ellenborough's conversation very lively

* Charles Moore, son of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

f John Law, born 1750 ; Attorney -General, 1801 ; Lord Chief Justice,
and created Baron Ellenborough, 1802. He married in 1789, Anne, daugh-
ter of Captain George P. Towey, R.N. ; died 1818.

J Sister to Lady Donegal.

, § Daughter of Sir Robert Gunning, of Horton, co. Northampton 5
married, 1795, to Major-General Ross.

1807] CARRIAGE ACCIDENT. 331

and amusing upon law matters ; curious anecdotes on
Lady Strathmore's subject.

Friday, October 2nd. — Drove out with Lady Ellen-
borough, Lord Ellenborough and Lady Donegal. In re-
turning, I saw a whiskey break down, a woman fly out on
one side, and a man dragged from under the wheels, as I
thought, on the other. I mentioned as quietly as I could,
not to frighten poor Lady Ellenborough in the weak
state in which she is, that I thought a bad accident had
happened, and that we had better stop. She was in-
stantly for turning about, which I was much against,
believing that she would certainly see what might be too
shocking to weak nerves. Lady Donegal and I got out
of the barouche and ran as hard as we could to the
broken carriage, about 500 yards behind. The lady,
who was Mrs. Montolieu, had escaped entirely unhurt,
and the young man, who was her son (a cripple both in
arms and legs), had only a cut lip and a bleeding nose.
He is at ah1 times incapable of moving without two men
to help him, which made me suppose I had seen him
dragged a stiffened figure from under the carriage.
They were put, after many refusals and apologies, into
the barouche with Lady Ellenborough and Lady Donegal,
and Lord Ellenborough and I walked back to Tunbridge
together. The day was very fine and the walk very
pleasant ; Lord Ellenborough has plenty of conversation,
and, though his mind is a coarse one, his language and
expressions are sufficiently free from that fault.

Sunday, kth — Expected Prince Staremberg to breakfast.
Instead of him came a special messenger despatched from
town at six in the morning, to say that a courier had
arrived and he could not come. I could not regret it,
for my head was very unfit for the sort of exertion which
his gaiety requires.

Went with Lady Ellenborough and party to Harrison's
Lake, a very pretty piece of water, surrounded by wood

332 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso7

and having a sort of low pavilion in which are two good
rooms built on its edge for fishing. It was a place I had
never seen or even heard of before.

The weather delicious ; a warm sunny summer day
from morning till night.

Wednesday, 1th. — Drove out to Busthall Common ;
walked across to Lower Green, a hamlet of a few houses,
picturesquely situated, where Agnes and I drew till rain
came on.

In the evening we went to Lord Ellenborough's, where
were collected almost all the company in the place, and
among the rest Lord Erskine,* who had arrived the
night before at the rooms. Lady Donegal and I played
whist with Lord Ellenborough and Lord Erskine. I
don't know which of the four plays worst.

Tuesday, 13£/i. — Went in the morning to Stoneland
Park,-j- the old seat of the Dorset family, and where the
Duchess J and Lord Whitworth are now living. We were
on a drawing expedition with Lady Donegal.

Wednesday, 14dh. — Went out again upon a drawing
expedition with Miss Godfrey on a fine autumn, or rather
summer, day ; beginning with a misty morning, it was
quite hot at mid-day, and the beauty of everything seen
in such weather quite enchanting.

Mr. Amsinck, the master of the ceremonies here, dined
with us ; the only one of his kind I ever saw very like a
gentleman, and not at all a coxcomb.

Thursday, \bth. — Went again on a drawing expedition
with Lady Donegal. Went to Langton Green and looked
at the cold bath, where there are the remains of hewn

* The Hon. Thomas Erskine, second son of Henry David fifth Earl of
Buchan, became Lord High Chancellor in 1806, and created Baron Erskine ;
died 1823.

f The former name for Knole.

$ Arabella Diana, daughter of Sir J. Cope, Bart., married the third Duke
of Dorset, who died 1799 ; and afterwards Charles late Earl of Whitworth
(extinct), and died 1825.

1807] KETURN TO LONDON. 333

stone steps, and yew hedges of an old public garden,
which this was in the days of Charles II. ; the cold bath
beautifully clear ; it is in a large, half-ruined room ; a pea-
sant's family now inhabiting what was the dressing-room.

Saturday, ~\.lth. — In the morning I walked with Lady
Donegal. Some serious talk with her. Whenever she
talks en tete-a-tete upon serious subjects, she shows an
excellent right-thinking mind and a kindly affectionate
heart, without any affectation either of sentiment or
talents, while in both she is far above the common order
of women. Had she lived more in intellectual society, she
would herself have been superior ; as it is, she is more,
she is amiable and beloved, and has the gaiety of mind
which proceeds from a consciousness of deserving it.

Monday, \§th. — Finest autumn day possible. Left
Tunbridge Wells. Lady Donegal and Miss Godfrey sat
with us at breakfast, walked up the hill with us, and
then took leave with a kind, hearty, and, I believe, on all
sides, sincere farewell. Arrived in North Audley Street ;
our house looking very clean and comfortable, and most
spacious after the nutshell we have been living in.

Saturday, 24:th. — I saw Dr. Baillie, which my now
long indisposition induced me to do before I left town.
He is very rational, kind, and sensible — pities my com-
plaints, but is by no means sanguine in his hopes of
removing them.

Strawberry Hill, Tuesday, 27th. — Lord and Lady*
Glenbervie, Miss Stirling, and Mr. North dined here. I
began looking over Madame du Deffand's papers.

Wednesday, 28th, — Went in the morning to Eichmond.-
Called on Mrs. Dundas ; her daughter, whose foot had
been cut off exactly six weeks before, was sitting cheerful
and happy upon the sofa, a different creature both in

* Catherine Anne, daughter of Frederick second Earl of Guilford and
eighth Lord North, married, 1786, to Sylvester Douglas Lord Glenbervie ;
died February, 1817.

334 MISS BERRY'S JOURXAL. [iso?

appearance and in spirits, from what we had seen her in
the summer. The operation has been performed at her
own earnest request, and her behaviour was so heroic as
quite to overcome Home, the surgeon who performed it.

Friday, 3Qth. — I began sorting and looking over
Madame du Deffand's papers. In the evening began
reading the ' Life of Clarendon.'

Tuesday, 3rd November. — I worked at Madame du
Deffand's papers the whole morning, without walking out.
I never can tear myself away from what I am about.

Saturday, 7th. — Sat still reading Madame du Deffand.

Sunday, 8th. — In the evening Lady Petre and Lady
Glenbervie, Mr. North, and Miss Sterling. We played
chess against Eobert in a laughing manner. Mr. North,
as usual, very agreeable.

Tuesday, 10th. — I was too unweU to dine down stairs.
Prince Staremberg dined with Mrs. Darner and my father.
He read to them, for the first time, his little piece
' Melcom,' and another little piece, a monologue, called
' Le Parleur Eternel,' which he had received from Paris.

Wednesday, 11th. — At Madame du DefFand's letters, and
did not stir out. In the evening I read aloud ' Clarendon's
Life.'

Monday, 16th. — Alone ah1 day. Eead ' Clarendon's
Life ' aloud in the evening.

Thursday, 19th After dinner read aloud some of

Madame du Deffand's letters.

Saturday, 21st. — Went into Pope's back-garden, and
saw the devastation going on upon his quincunx by its
now possessor, Baroness Howe.* The anger and ill-
humour expressed against her for pulling down his house
and destroying his grounds, much greater than one would
have imagined.

* Sophia Charlotte Baroness Howe, of Langar, daughter of Admiral Earl
Howe, widow of the Hon. Penn Ashton Curzon (who died 1797 ), and after-
wards married, 1817, to Sir J. Wathen Waller.

1807] PRINCE STAREMBERG. 335

Sunday. 22nd. — At two o'clock Prince Staremberg
came. He came immediately into my room, and we sent
for Mrs. D. We had not seen him since the arrival of
the messenger from France. He spoke to us in detail,
and in perfect confidence, of everything that had been
proposed de part et d'autre. As far as it has hitherto
gone, he has conducted himself as well as possible, and
had such a commission been sent to any one (whatever
his abilities) less well acquainted with England than
himself, he would be already gone, and all hopes over.
If our Ministry * don't embrace with openness and sin-
cerity this offer of negociation, they will never have
another made them. Pray Heaven they may be suffi-
ciently aware of the state of Europe to be convinced of
the truth of this, and all the dreadful consequences that
hinge upon it ! I own I doubt and deprecate the extra-
vagance of their demands, so much have our brilliant
naval successes, and our factitious commercial prosperity
hitherto blinded all middling heads as to our real situ-
ation.f

Monday, 23rd. — A dismal, rainy, and to me melan-
choly day, for I was out of humour with myself. A
number of little circumstances lately have served to con-
vince me that my manner is often tranchante, my voice

* The Duke of Portland's administration was at this time in power. Mr.
Canning was Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from March 1807 to
October 1809. Amongst the principal members of the Duke of Portland's
cabinet were Mr. Percival, Lord Eldon, Earl Camden, Lord Hawksbury,
Lord Castlereagh, Lord Mulgrave, and Earl of Westmoreland.

t Offers of mediation on the part of Austria had been made during this
year ; and at this time Prince Staremberg had received orders to get the
British Government to pledge themselves to a desire for peace. Early in
1808 he received instructions to urge the British Government to send two
plenipotentiaries immediately to Paris to arrange the preliminaries of a
peace. This proposal was, for various strong reasons, rejected by Mr.
Canning, and the Prince was therefore obliged to immediately ask
for his passports. Prince Paul Esterhazy, afterwards for many yeara
ambassador in England, was at this time First Secretary of Legation in
London.

336 MISS BEREY'S JOURNAL. [1807

often too loud, and my way of meeting opposition un-
conciliating. All these circumstances are exactly the
contrary from what they ought to be, to make me what
I wish, and what alone I can be, at my time of life. It
is odd that I, who have been always thinking of growing
old, and have such clear ideas of what alone can make a
woman loved and amiable after her youth is past, what
her views and manners should be, and what can ensure
her any degree of consideration — it is odd, I say, that I
should fall into the very faults I am the most aware of,
and put myself into the situation I have always depre-
cated ; but it is not too late, and at least I am not too
old to mend.

In Madame Neckar's ridiculous Eemains, published by
her husband, are some of the very best rules and advice
for the manners and conduct of a woman no longer young
in society. I will read them again. They always strike
me as most justly conceived.

Thursday, 2Qth. — Walked about the garden at Little
Strawberry Hill. My greenhouse looks well. Eead
Madame du Defland's letters in the evening.

Friday, 27th. — Spent a part of the morning at Little
Strawberry Hill in my greenhouse. Eead Madame du
Deffand in the evening.

Monday, 30^. — In the evening, Madame du Defiand's
letters.

Tuesday, December 1st. — Left Strawberry Hill, after
spending five weeks there very comfortably and quietly.
North Audley Street for the first time felt cold after the
great logs and extreme warmth of Strawberry.

Sunday, Qth. — Prince Esterhazy sat with me a long
time, and we had a very rational and interesting con-
versation about Staremberg and his present situation ;
Esterhazy's sentiments always marking a good under-
standing and an excellent heart.

Sunday, 2Qth. — Sir Edward Carrington, Mr. Turner,

1807] ' MESSE DE MIJOJIT.' 337

and Mr. Churchill called, and the two Lords Balcarras
and Lady Charlotte Lindsay.

Thursday, 24#A. — I was obliged to keep our long-
promised engagement to a messe de minuit and a reveillon
at Prince Staremberg's. Agnes was unequal to going ; so
with a fatigued mind, very ill-disposed towards gaiety of
any sort, I went between ten and eleven with Mrs. Darner.
We found there of womankind only Madame de Pompies
and Madame de Lape, two Frenchwomen, whose names I
have so often heard from him, but whom I never saw before,
or have any great inclination ever to see again, though
as Frenchwomen there was no sort of awkwardness in
our thus first meeting and passing an evening with them
in a small society. Soon after arrived Victorine, dressed,
and looking her very best, and soon after her Catalani *
and her husband, who filled up the time before the messe
began with singing in high spirits anything that came
into her head. The messe was said in a room below, and
we two mecroyantes, Mrs. D. and I, remained in the
drawing-room with four of the men, who had not finished
their party at whist. Afterwards we had supper, at which
we all assisted, to the number of about sixteen or seven-
teen, and I was not at home till half-past two.

* Angelica Catalani, born near Rome 1783. Her voice was remarkable
even at twelve years old. She made her de"but on the stage at Venice in
her fifteenth year. Her first appearance in England was in 1806, and she
remained here till 1814. Her last appearance in England was 1824, and in
1827 she retired altogether. Died at Florence, 1849.

VOL. II.

338 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

1808.

Saturday, January 9th. — In the evening went to Drury
Lane. ' The Wonder.'* Elliston very poor in Felix, and
Mrs. Jordan bringing out too often her oyster-woman
notes in Violante, which destroys all the effect of her
otherwise captivating voice.

Tuesday, \§th. — M. de Starlimburg called to say that
the messenger he expected on Thursday next had arrived
yesterday, having left Paris only on Saturday — that he
brings him positive orders to leave the country im-
mediately ; that he sets off to-morrow, and war, intermin-
able war, is the consequence, f

Wednesday 20th. — Came home early, expecting M. de
Staremberg, who had promised to see me before he went,
between five and six. He came, and a very melancholy
few moments we passed together. He is a good, honest,
honourable man, whom one cannot know intimately
without being attached to. I sent a little Scotch pebble
ring by him to dear Madame de Staremberg.

Thursday, 2&th. — Mr. WhitbreadJ called on me. Eead
my paper while he sat with me.§ Praised it as extremely
clear and succinct. We talked over the subject. Curious

* ' Wonder ! A Woman keeps a Secret.' By Susannah Centlivre. Born
1667 ; died 1722.

t Vide note to Nov. 22, 1807.

J Samuel Whitbread, Esq., son of a wealthy "brewer ; born 1758 ; married
Lady Elizabeth, daughter of the first Earl Grey, 1789 ; came into Par-
liament the following year ; was a zealous adherent of Mr. Fox, and continued
a steady supporter of the Whig party ; conducted the impeachment of
Lord Melville ; died by his own hand, July 1815, during a fit of mental
derangement. — Hose's Bioy. Diet,

§ To what paper Miss Berry refers does not appear.

1808] ' THE WANDERER.' 339

details about the influence of poor Mr. Fox's illness upon
the latter part of the last negociation.*

Went to the play. ' The Wanderer ' (the story of
the Pretender), under Swedish names. Very interesting
from situations, but very poorly written.

After the play, went to Lady Donegal's, where came
Colonel Eustace, f Lord Hutchirison'sJ aide-de-camp, who
has been with him constantly at the Prussian and Eussian
head-quarters since he left England, in November, 1806.
Curious details of the Eussian army — never able to col-
lect more than seventy thousand men — opposed by a
hundred and seventy thousand French. The Eussians
totally without surgeons, hospitals, or drugs. Duke of
Brunswick, received the wound in his eyes which killed
him, in his coach.

Sunday, %\st. — Eead through Eoscoe's pamphlet and
Spence's § ' England Independent of Commerce.'

Wednesday, February Wth. — At past eleven o'clock
went to Devonshire House. Catalani singing in the saloon,
Sapio accompanying. She had all her diamonds on, and
entirely eclipsed Lady Harrowby, who was standing by
her at the harpsichord.

Friday, 12^. -—Went to dine at Mr. Knight's, in Soho

* { In 1806 some pacificatory messages were interchanged between the
French and English Governments, but it is probable that on neither side
were they were very sincere.' Fox died at Chiswick in September 1806. —
Imp. Diet, of Univ. Siog.

f Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Eustace, son of General Eustace, was on
Sir Ralph Abercrombie's staff and accompanied him to Holland ; he went
with Lord Hutchinson afterwards to Russia, and followed the Russian army
during the whole of the campaign of the French invasion of Russia. He
was in constant employment for many years, and became secretary to the
Duke of York when commander-in-chief. Died at Geneva, 1844.

J John Lord Hutchinson, brother of first Earl of Donoughmore, a distin-
guished general officer in the army, succeeded Sir Ralph Abercrombie in the
command of the army in Egypt, and created Baron Hutchinson for his
services in 1801 ; he died unmarried in 1825.

§ William Spence, author of a work on the ' Causes of the Distress of the
West India Planters,' ' Agriculture the Source of the Wealth of Britain,'
1808 j 'The Objections to the Corn Bill refuted.'

z 2

340 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

Square.* The party : Lord and Lady Oxford,f Mr.
telton,;!; Mr. C. Moore, Mr. Eogers, and Mr. Lawrence,^
the painter, || and Mrs. Darner. Looked over drawings,
&c. &c. till near eleven o'clock.

Monday, \hth. — Dined at Mr. Angerstein's, with Mr.
and Mrs. W. Locke, General Moore, &c. General Moore
very entertaining in his account after dinner of the Queen
of Naples at Palermo, and his conversations with her,
by which I find that neither time nor misfortunes have
altered her from what I knew her twenty years ago.

The following letter from Lord Erskine must relate to
his pamphlet, written in 1797, ' On the Causes and Con-
sequences of the Present War with France.' ' This pam-
phlet had an unprecedented sale, there being no less than
forty-eight editions of it printed within a few months.'
( Watts 's Dictionary.) It is probable that the recent failure
of Austrian intervention had produced some conver-
sation between Miss Berry and Lord Erskine, which gave
rise to his sending her a copy of his pamphlet, with his
interesting account of the manner in which it was com-
posed.

February 21st, 1808.

MY DEAR MADAM, — I send you the Pamphlet I alluded to
last night ; it was written on slips of paper in the midst of all
the business which I was engaged in at the time — not at home,
but in open court whilst the causes were trying. When it was
not my turn to examine a witness or to speak to the Jury, then
I wrote a little bit ; and so on by snatches ; as there was not a
moment to be lost in the crisis of folly which characterised,

* Payne Knight, Esq.

t Edward Harley, fifth Earl of Oxford j married, 1794, Jane Elizabeth,
daughter of Rev. James Scott.

J Hon. William Henry Lyttelton, afterwards third baron Lyttelton, bom
1783, married Lady Sarah Spencer 1813, died 1837.

§ Samuel Rogers the poet, author of ( Pleasures of Memory,' ' Italy/ &c. ;
born 1763, died 1855, in his ninety-third year.

|| Afterwards Sir Thomas Lawrence, the first portrait-painter of his time ;
born 1769, died 1830.

1808] LORD ERSKIXE'S LETTER. 341

almost as much as at present, our unhappy country. You will
not be surprised, therefore, at its incorrectness. I had not a
moment to amend the text, much less to correct the press in
the different editions ; and since I have had leisure to look it
over, I have only remarked that I have no more merit in my
observations as a politician, than would belong to a medical
man who should pronounce that a person under an unremitting
course of a slow poison would come by it infallibly to a premature
dissolution.

I have the Honor to be

Your faithful Humble Serv*,
EESKINE.

JOURNAL.

Tuesday, 23rd. — Went to the play. ' Kair ; or Love
in the Desert ' — perfect, complete, and unintelligible non-
sense from beginning to end, with some pretty painted
scenes. The farce was Bannister and Mrs. Jordan in
Jobson and Nell.* Her Nell is incomparable, but she
was not in high spirits.

Thursday, March 3rd. — Dined at Mrs. Blair's with
Mrs. Fox, Mr. Eogers, Mr. Brougham,f Mr. Mercer,J
Mrs. Blair's own family, &c.

Agnes and I went to Catalani's, where was a party of
thirty or forty ; I think, except Mr. and Mrs. Trevor,
Miss Tate, and ourselves, there was not another com-
moner in the room. While the music was going on, a
supper was preparing below stairs, which we eat by the
nose, each separate dish, and the whole together, in the
room above.

Friday, ±th. — In the evening went with Lady Shaftes-

* 'Devil to Pay.' t Afterwards Lord Brougham.

J George Mercer, afterwards George Mercer Henderson, Esq. of Fordel
iji Fifeshire, a property which he inherited from his aunt, the wife of Sir
Philip Durham Henderson.

342 MISS BEERY'S JOURNAL. [isos

bury and Lady B. Ashley,* to Lady Abercorn'sf — a great
drag-net assembly, twenty women to one man.

Saturday ', bth. — Mr. Grell, Mr. Mercer, and Colonel
Murray dined with us. In the evening came Mrs. D. and
Sir H. Englefield. We had a great deal of drawing,
talking, and laughing.

Sunday, 6th. — Went after church to Mrs. Darner's.
Found Lord Dorchester^ had died of an apoplectic fit
that morning at ten o'clock. Went to Lady Elizabeth
Whitbread's, where was a meeting of a great many of
the party.

Tuesday, 8th. — In the morning I had a long and in-
teresting conversation with Mr. Thornton§ about the prin-
ciples of the Methodists, and about his father and educa-
tion.

Wednesday, $th. — I went in the evening to Mrs. D.
Eead ' Marmion,' just come out, to her.

Thursday, 1(M. — Eead some more of ' Marmion.'

Monday, 14#A. — Began reading the 'Odyssey' of Homer
in Pope's translation. Delighted with it.

Friday, ~L8th. — Breakfasted at nine o'clock with only
Mrs. Benwell, Dr. Hind, and Mr. Loveday. Went before
ten, we three in our carriage, and the three gentlemen in

* Barbara, Countess of Shaftesbury, daughter and heiress of Sir John
Webb, Bart., of Oldstock House, co. Wilts. Lady Barbara Ashley,
daughter of the above and of Anthony Ashley, fifth Earl of Shaftesbury,
married, August 1814, to the Hon. William F. Spencer Ponsonby, third son
of Frederick third Earl of Bessborough, created Lord de Mauley in 1838 ;
she died 1844.

t John James, ninth Earl of Abercorn, married, 1800, his third wife Anne
Jane, eldest daughter of Arthur second Earl of Arran and widow of Henry
Hutton, Esq.

J Sir Guy Carleton, first Lord Dorchester, aged eighty-five, a distinguished
general in the American war.

§ Mr. Henry Thornton, second son of John Thornton, a merchant, one of
the leading characters of the ' Clapham Society ; ' for more than thirty years
a member of Parliament ; a voluminous writer on moral, religious, and po-
litical subjects ; a man of universal liberality and benevolence. — Vide JEdin.
Rev., July 1844.

1808] DK. HIND MARRIED. 343

another, to St. George's Church. Got out at the vestry
door. Here the ceremony of registering the marriage
was performed by the clerk, who then assisted Mr. Love-
day in putting on canonicals. We went immediately into
the church, where there was not another creature but
ourselves and the clerk. The ceremony over, we returned
to North Audley Street, where a second breakfast, &c.
was set out ready for us in the back drawing-room. At
Pen's earnest desire, nobody but themselves were asked
to partake of it. Soon after twelve they set off for their
own future habitation at Tendon, in Sussex.*

Monday, 21st. — In the evening with Lady Charlotte
Campbellf to the Argyll Eooms. Got there near twelve.
The concert was just over. Dancing soon after took
place in the long room, fitted up with boxes at the end,
and meant to be used as a theatre. All the rooms prettily
fitted up. A long debate in both Houses made a great
scarcity of men. The supper, upon tables for about eight
people each, in a large low room below stairs.

Wednesday, 23rd. — In the evening, a large party at
home. Gow, the Scotch fiddler, a second fiddle, and a
harp, came to us at half-past nine, and played some Scotch
airs to my father. Afterwards, when more people came,
I proposed a reel to Lady Charlotte Campbell, and began
with her myself, to set the others a-going, and then, in
the same way, a country dance ; but the English people,
as usual, were shy, though there were four or five
excellent couples standing by. Fifty people — nineteen
women and thirty-one men — came ; twelve supped in the
back room, and six or eight in the front room ; everybody
seemed pleased, and some men who came late were not

* The bride was Mrs. Benwell ; the bridegroom Dr. Hind.

t Charlotte Susan Maria, daughter of John fifth Duke of Argyll ; mar-
ried, first, Colonel John Campbell ; secondly, Rev. Edward Bury. Lady
Charlotte Campbell was attached to the household of the Princess of
Wales, and is known to the literary world as the author of several works of
fiction. Died, 1861.

344 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

gone at two o'clock in the morning. Gow's music cost me
three guineas.

Saturday, 26th. — Dined at Mr. Samuel Turner's with
Mr. Alexander Baring * (the author of the pamphlet on the
Orders in Council), Mr. Sharpe the M.P. and twelve other
people. I sat between Mr. Baring and Mr. Sharpe. Mr.
Baring is rather a heavy-looking young man, with a hesi-
tating manner ; but seems very clear in his ideas and un-
assuming in his manners. Mr. Sharpe I have often seen
before ; he is clever, but I should suspect of little real
depth of intellect.

Sunday, 21th. — Went in the morning after church to
Mr. Gell'sf house in Chapel Street. Found there Mr.
Morritt, Sir J. Hall,J and Lord Selkirk. § Looked over
some of his drawings and plans of the Parthenon. All
went together to Lord Elgin's Marbles. A second view
delights one still more than the first, but the cold exces-
sive.

Thursday, 31st. — Went in the morning to the British
Museum with Lord Frederick Campbeh1 and Mrs. D. to

* Alexander Baring, born 1774, second son of Sir Francis Baring, suc-
ceeded his father as head of the great commercial house in the city ; created
Baron Ashburton, April 10, 1835 ; died 1848.

t Afterward, Sir William Gell, a -well-known archaeologist, born 1777.
He was sent on a mission to the Ionian islands in the beginning of the cen-
tury, and knighted on his return in 1803. His first work was the ' Topo-
graphy of Troy,' published in 1803 ; his next, ' Geography and Antiquities
of Ithaca,' in 1807 j and in 1810, ' The Itinerary of Greece, with a Commen-
tary on Pausanias and Strabo.' Sir William Gell accompanied the Princess
of Wales, as one of her chamberlains, when she left England in 1814 ; he
quitted her service on account of his frequent attacks of gout, as he alleged
when examined as a witness on her behalf in the House of Lords in 1820,
but continued to reside in Italy. His other works were the ' Itinerary of
the Morea,' ' Pompeiana : the Topography, Edifices, and Ornaments of
Pompeii ; ' in 1823, the ' Narrative of his Journey in the Morea ;' and lastly,
in 1834, ' The Topography of Eome.' He died at Naples, 1836.

J Sir James Hall, Bart., of Douglas, born 1761 ; married a sister of the
Earl of Selkirk ; wrote a work on ' Gothic Architecture ; ' rendered great
services to geological science. Died 1832.

§ Thomas fifth Earl of Selkirk, born 1771, died 1820.

1808] THE TOWNLEY MARBLES. 345

see the new wing and the disposition of Mr. Townley's
Marbles,* and the things taken by our army in Egypt. I
think them, on the whole, well placed ; some of Mr.
Townley's are exquisitely beautiful, though much less
wonderful and imposing than the battered remains at
Lord Elgin's. The sarcophagus brought from Alexandria,
and covered outside and inside with figures and hierogly-
phics, called, I know not why, the, ' Tomb of Alexander,'
by far the most beautiful and stupendous piece of Brescia
I ever saw, with the most vivid colours in the largest
pieces, f

Dined at Sir P. Francis', J with Lord § and Lady Keith, ||
Miss Elphinstone,^" Mr. Elliot, Mr. Trevor, &c.

In the evening Miss Tate and Catherine Frances sung
two or three songs beautifully.

Friday, April 1st. — Went to Mr. Knight's and Naldi
Libboni, the Chevalier, and some of the Cornewalls,** sang,
and admirably well. A much larger party than usual,
but it is impossible to warm that room, with its iron roof
and skylights.

Saturday, 2nd. — Took a long walk. Met Mr. Windham,
who accompanied me, and was very agreeable. In the
evening at a pleasant party at Lady Donegal's. Anacreon
Moore sang a great deal — his old things, all the prettiest.

Sunday, 3rd. — At eleven I went to Mrs. ViHiers's,f f

* Mr. Townley's collection was bought for the British Museum in 1805
for the sum of 28,200£ — Cunningham1 s London.

t Parliament granted 35,000/. for the purchase of the Elgin Marhles.

J Sir P. Francis, the supposed author of the Letters of Junius ; born 1740,
died 1818.

§ Lord Keith. The Hon. George Keith Elphinstone, created Baron and
Viscount Keith for his distinguished services as a naval commander, died
1823.

|| Lady Keith, eldest Miss Thrale.

1[ Afterwards Countess de Flahault ; daughter of Lord Keith.

** Daughters of Sir George Cornewall, Bart., of Moccas Court, Hereford-
shire.

tf Hon. Mrs. Villiers, daughter of Admiral and Lady Mary Forbes, mar-
ried to the Hon. J. C. Villiers, afterwards Earl of Clarendon.

346 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

where was an assembly in the lower apartment — like all
her parties, a great many fine ladies, and all the fine men.
A man in boots and a round hat, very drunk, walked in
from the street to the middle of the first room, and was
turned out by the gentlemen, and pushed out by the ser-
vants from the hall. At the street door he drew a
sword from a stick, and was poking about with it, when
Henry Bouverie broke it short off, and the watch carried
the man, whoever he might be, to the watch-house.

Thursday, 7th. — I went to Lady Caroline Lamb's.*
An immense assembly. We came away at half-past
twelve, and walked beyond the Admiralty to the carriage.
Many of the company were not away till near three, and
the Prince of Wales and a very few persons supped below
stairs in Lady Melbourne's apartment, and were not gone
till past six. Sheridan of the number, who was com-
pletely drunk.

Saturday, 9th. — Went to the play, c The World ; ' less
bad than most modern comedies, because aiming, at least,
at character, and EUiston acting admirably a character
evidently taken from Belfield, in Miss Burney's ' Cecilia.'

Monday, llth. — Went to Harcourt House. Saw both
Lord and Lady Harcourt.f The latter quite amusing in her
attempts at being easy I In vain ; she never can, in spite
of all her endeavours, for a moment drop the hoop and
lappets ! The house an exact French hotel, but dirty
and wanting to be brushed up, and looking no more
comfortable, than its inhabitants.

Tuesday, 12th. — Went to Little Strawberry.

Wednesday, ZQth. — It froze last night hard, and some
of the snow still lies upon the ground. At night finished

* Lady Caroline Lamb, daughter of third Earl of Bessborough ; born
1785, married to the Hon. William Lamb 1805, died 1848. Author of a
novel called ' Glenarvon.'

f George Simon Harcourt, second Earl and Viscount Harcourt ; born
1736, succeeded his father 1777; married, 1765, Elizabeth, daughter of
George Lord Vernon ; died 1809.

1508] ASHE'S TKAYELS. 347

Miss Warren's novel * by galloping over half the pages ;
human patience could not regularly wade through a series
of adventures without ensemble, of violent situations
without interest or probability, and of characters all
equally pious or equally profligate. The author is, I dare
say, an excellent good creature, but she had better do any-
thing than endeavour to pourtray her fellow-creatures.

Thursday, 21st. — Worked at my French Letters most of
the morning. In the evening began reading Ashe's f
'Travels in America,' in the north-western settlements,
behind the United States.

Friday, 22nd. — The weather continues cold, stormy,
and rainy. Worked at the Letters. In the evening
Ashe's Travels again. They are, I think, very entertain-
ing in spite of an abominable style, which aims at being
fine writing, without being grammar and without being
English. But the wonderful country he describes makes
every account of it which one sees and feels is written on
the spot, very interesting.

Saturday, 23rd. — I began botching out some sort of
preface to the Letters.

Sunday, 24:th. — Worked at my preface in the morning.
A cold wet day. Not at church. Sir Thomas Liddell J
called. In the evening, after dinner, I read aloud the
sketch of my preface, and finished the evening with
Ashe's Travels, which are very entertaining.

Tuesday, 26th. — I watched the gardener sow all the
annuals in all the flower-borders, which kept me out with
my wheelbarrow in the garden till past three o'clock ;
then stuck to my French Letters.

* 'Conrade, or the Gamesters.' Novel by Caroline Matilda Warren. Pub-
lished 1806.

t Thomas Ashe, Esq., travelled in America in the year 1806 for the pur-
pose of exploring the rivers of Alleghany, Monongahela, Ohio, and the
Mississippi, and ascertaining the produce and condition of their banks ; pub-
lished 1808. He was the author of many other works. — Watts's Dictionary.

J Afterwards Lord Eavensworth,

348 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

Wednesday, 27th. — Very cold. Worked at the French
Letters. In the evening Mrs. D., and Ashe's Travels.
Letters as usual.

Sunday, May 1st. — A beautiful warm sunny May day.
Went to P. Staremberg's to see poor Cliff, little George's
nurse, who remains in the house. I know few things
more melancholy than to visit the empty house of inti-
mate friends, where one has passed many many days in
cheerful company. A thousand recollections immediately
rise to one's memory, from which everything tiresome, or
dull, or disagreeable, has vanished with the intermediate
time, and nothing but what is charming (and consequently
the more to be regretted) remains, But recollections of
past comforts or pleasures may certainly be reckoned,
however melancholy, among the pleasures of this life. I
never shun them.

In the evening, Ashe's Travels as usual.
Tuesday, 3rd. — Dined at Lady Melbourne's. Went up
to the top of the house with Lady Caroline Lamb to see
her little boy asleep, who a very few hours after was
seized with fits and his life despaired of. He is too big of
his age — only eight months.*

TJiursday, 5th. — Saw Lady Harriet Cavendish.f She
brought us the first report of the horrible shipwreck of
poor Lord Eoyston in the Baltic.^ From that instant one
could think of nothing but Lady Hardwicke having
arrived in town late the night before to meet such dread-
ful intelligence, and perhaps still more dreadful doubt, for
some doubt there was of the names of all the persons

* George Augustus Frederick Lamb, only son of the late Lord Mel-
bourne ; born August 1807 ; died 1836.

t Daughter of the Duke of Devonshire, afterwards Countess Granville.

J Lord Royston was shipwrecked at sea on the 7th of April by the
stranding of the ship Agatha, of Lubeck, in a storm, not far from Memel.
Lord Royston would have been twenty-four years old had he lived to the
7th of May. He had been four years absent from the country. — Annual
Register,

1803] MRS. GEANT. 349

that had perished. I instantly sent a note to Lady
Charlotte Lindsay. She had not a ray of hope. At
two o'clock I left town again. I felt quite glad to be
here. Of my former vivacity and eagerness I have not a
tithe part, though quite enough for my age and situation ;
the world, when one knows it well, is a dull business.
Whereas the dull business of the country, particularly at
this season, has something quiet, soothing, and at the
same time occupying, in it. At least I feel it suits me
more than ever it did before.

Friday, 6th. — Eead my French Letters. Mrs. D. and
I finished Ashe's Travels.

Saturday, 1th. — I worked in my greenhouse all the
morning. Agnes arrived from town. She had seen
Lady C. Lindsay, and heard from her everything that
was to be heard of the poor Hardwickes. God help
them !

Tuesday, "LOth. — I began reading aloud Gell's ' Ithaca.'*
Wednesday ^\.\th. — In the evening, Gell's 'Ithaca.'
Saturday, 14£/i. — My plants moved out of the green-
house, and I, as usual, heartily fatigued with helping to
place them. Walked in the evening into the meadows
by the river-side, and did nothing all day but enjoy the
beauty of the season.

Sunday, \%>th. — Another delicious day. Walked to
church. Called at Sunbury — Sir John Legarde's — a re-
markably pretty villa, close upon the bank of the river.
Walked round the shrubbery and garden with Lady
Legarde, and Mrs. Grantf (the writer of ' The Letters from
the Mountains'), who is at present their guest. Her
figure and manners awkward, but not the least vulgarity

• Published in 1808.

f Mrs. Grant, of Laggan, Inverness-shire (her maiden name was Campbell),
the author of various poems and other works ; ' Letters from the Mountains '
being the real correspondence of a lady between the years 1773 and 1803. —
Watts 's Dictionary.

350 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. tisos

in her manners or conversation. She had heard of us
somehow or other, and said she was much pleased to
make our acquaintance. We saw Sir John just before
we were going away, in his wheeling-chair. His legs are
perfectly helpless, and this before he is fifty years old !
He has a handsome lively countenance.*

Tuesday, 17th. — My day spent as usual — a good deal of
gardening and idling, and a little reading of my French
Letters. Bead in the ' Times ' the confirmation of the
wreck and positive loss of Lord Eoyston.

Saturday, 21st. — Went to Eichmond. Sat half an
hour with Madame de Cambis. She happened to be in
good humour, and I made her talk of Madame du
Defland and old French times, and she was very enter-
taining. From her I went to Lady Di Beauclerc,f
and carried her the novel I promised her. Heard that
Konald would certainly set out for Portsmouth that
night. In the evening read my French Letters.

O */

Sunday, 22nd. — Wrote something that will serve either
as preface or avant-propos to the Letters.

Thursday, 26th. — Finished Madame du Deffand's vo-
luminous correspondence with Lord Orford, having marked
such letters as I might select to re-select for publication.
From so many, enough, and more than enough, may
certainly be taken from each year.

Friday, 27th. — In the evening began selecting the first
year of the Letters, and marking passages.

Thursday, June 2nd. — I began reading aloud Mr. Fox's
historical work, in the beautiful large-paper copy which
Robert Ferguson has given me.

Friday, 3rd. — I continued reading Fox's work. It is

* Sir John Legarde, Bart., married, 1802, Jane, daughter of Henry
Aston, Esq. Sir John died two months after this visit, and was succeeded
by his brother.

t Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of Charles Duke of Marlborough,
married Topham Beauclerk, 1768.

1808] JOANNA BAILLIE. 351

very well to read it once out ; but it suggests so much
thought, and so many new views of things, that I shall
read it over more than once to myself in a very different
manner from what I am now doing.

Thursday, 9th. — Dined at Lady Donegal's with Agnes.
Philippa (Godfrey), Charles Moore, and Anacreon Moore
at dinner. I praised highly the two poems (' Corruption'
and * Intolerance ') that I had been reading in the morn-
ing, before the author (little Moore), without knowing it.
After dinner he owned the fact, and was much pleased
with my unsuspicious praise. Moore sang.

Friday, Wth — Between eleven and twelve I walked to
Grosvenor Street to see Joanna Baillie; then to the
Hardwickes. I saw them all, literally all, except little
Charlie, who is returned to school : first, Lord Hard-
wicke, who controlled himself, but soon left me; then
Catherine * and Caroline, f With Catherine I was much
affected, for I was very unwell, and unable to contain my
feelings ; nor was it necessary with her. With Lady
Hardwicke 1 feared it would ; but this was not the case.
As soon as I came up to her, she threw herself into my
arms, and wept as heartily as myself. It is a great relief
to me having seen them all ; but I left them with my
eyes swollen out of my head, and quite unfit to go any-
where but to Lady G. Morpeth, to whom I could say
what I had been doing.

Saturday, 11th — In the evening I read ' Corruption'
and ' Intolerance ' aloud.

Sunday, 12th. — Drove with Phil. Cayley to Eayman's
Castle ; walked through the meadows, crossed the Eich-
mond ferry, and straight up the hill, which Phil. Cayley
had never seen, and which has always new beauties even
to those much accustomed to it. The door of the Star
and Garter (now shut as an hotel), being open, we

* Lady Catherine Yorke, afterwards Countess of Caledon.
t Lady Caroline Yorke, afterwards Countess of Somers.

352 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

walked in, and a civil quondam servant of the house
showed us the rooms. Dismal history from the woman
of the foolish man who made these great additions tojthe
former house ; — ruined himself and died in prison; his
wife, seeing that all was going wrong, became insane,
and died before him.

. The following extract of a letter from Mr. Greathead
to Miss Berry belongs to this date. This is the first
mention of the infancy of Leamington. Its present state
has fully justified Mr. Greathead's sanguine views : —

Guy's Cliff, June 13, 1808.

. . . . I ought to tell you that if you have a mind to
make a fortune by speculations at Leamington Spa, I am your
man : by the foot, by the yard, by the rood, or by the acre. I
will let you land for garden ground, sell you stone, or sell you
clay ; you shall have salt water, or fresh water, anything you
please ; for if we could but get you and Agnes into the under-
taking, what a place should we make of it ! Cheltenham should
expire with envy, and Bath itself turn pale ....

Tuesday, 21s£. — Went to Lady Shaftesbury's ball — a
very fine ball. The first quadrille began soon after
twelve.

Lady B. Ashley
and

<D Mr. Delme, g

•B o

-g

8 S

js3 5

Miss Johnston

and
Mr. Keppel Craven.

The ladies were uniformly dressed, and very prettily,
in white and silver. They danced admirably, without
mistakes or boggle whatsoever. Lady Barbara really

1808] FETE AT WIHBLEDOX. 353

danced better than anybody I ever saw, either here or
at Paris. The second quadrille was —

Lady M. Lowther
and

The Marquis of Tweedale. w

J2 >> I

"a I I f

^ — to- § M

s n- g- i

g S <*

Lady C. Lowther ?

and
The Marquis of Hartington.

It was less well danced, but without mistakes. Every
creature was standing up upon chairs and benches to
see these quadrilles. There was a most magnificent
supper for 400 people below stairs.

Friday, 24:th. — Mr. Thornton's breakfast at three
o'clock. The Duchess of Brunswick and the Duke of
Gloucester there ; dined with about eighteen in a sepa-
rate tent. The Duchess of Brunswick not so like either
to the King or late Duke of Gloucester as I expected.
They say the likeness is more in her manner of speaking.

Thursday, 30th. — In the evening I read ' Barillon's
Letters ' in Mr. Fox's Appendix.

Saturday, July 2nd. — Between two and three o'clock
set out for Wimbledon. A fine sunny day ; scene beau-
tiful ; all the London world there. Dined in a tent.
Lady Eosslyn, Mr. Eogers, Lord Erskine, Price (father
and son) *, and Charles Stuart (Blantyre), &c. joined us ;
Mr. Windham came, and had a talk with us.

The Spanish Deputies f were at the fete, and Lord
Holland, who speaks Spanish, was doing the honours to
them. The Viscount Materosa, on whose subject our

* Sir Uvedale and Sir Robert Price.

t In May 1808, deputies were sent from Spain to England to solicit suc-
cour, and to arouse the popular sentiment in favour of the Spanish cause. —
Art. from Ed. Rev., p. 306.

VOL. II. A A

354 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

newspapers are so fertile, a little fair, fattish lad. One
of the others Don — de Vega, a good olive-coloured look-
ing Spaniard, with large grave black eyes ; but none of
them seem to have at all the tournure of people of rank.
They are probably provincial nobles, or what we should
call country gentlemen, who perhaps have never seen
Madrid in their lives ; but not the less enemies to the
French and the affronting usurpation of Bonaparte.

Sunday, 17th. — Spoke to General Moore in Bond
Street ; welcomed him from Sweden *, and sent my
hearty wishes along with him to Spain, whither I believe
he is going immediately.

Tuesday, ~L$th. — Arrived at Guy's Cliff; received at
this prettiest of places with the hearty welcome that
particularly belongs to the owners. I felt only sorry I
was going to quit it so soon. In the evening, Frederick
North f, and with him Frederick Douglas, arrived from
Wroxton, in their way to a tour through Ireland.
Frederick North is always entertaining to the head, but
less gratifying to the heart ; and in this is much inferior

«/ C-?

to his sisters, who are often quite as agreeable as himself.
Wednesday, 20th. — Walked before breakfast alone,
entirely round Guy's Cliff, into every hole and cranny of
my last year's haunt, sitting down several times near the
river, and I admired it more than ever. Mr. Greathead
was making the same round at the same time with F.
North ; but I avoided them, and indulged in solitude,
particularly grateful just now to my mind, which, either
from the weakness of my late illness, or ' glooms congenial'
to it, is much depressed, — and I enjoyed the sort of
tranquil quiet melancholy which crept over me at Guy's

* A land force of 10,000 men, under the command of Sir John Moore,
was sent in the month of May to assist Sweden against a combined attack
from Russia, France, and Denmark. On the 17th of May this army reached
Gottenburg, but was not permitted to land.

+ Frederick North, afterwards fifth Earl of Guildford.

1808] COLESHILL HALL. 355

Cliff. I left it this day with the very agreeable impression
of a place to which no one unpleasant remembrance is
attached, and where I wish to find myself again.

Mr. Greathead went with us as far as Kenilworth, to
show me Sir J. Lake's house, with which he has indeed
done wonders, and much more than ever I expected.
Here we parted. We continued our route to Coleshill,
seventeen miles from Warwick, to Mr. Palmer's. Their
house is the vicarage at the end of a large village-town.
Inside it is comfortable, but horrible red-brick and very
ugly on the outside.

Thursday, 21st — Walked in the morning with Mr.
Palmer and Miss de Visme to Coleshill Hall, a very
old house belonging to Lord Digby. It came into the
Digby family in the reign of Henry VII. [? Henry III.],
being part of the confiscations of Simon de Montfort, and
was mentioned then as an old house. It has, according
to the fashion of those days, a large hall on one side the
.entrance, with a buttery-hatch and a gallery over it,
communicating to the upper part of the house. At one
of the entrances to the hall hangs, by a chain, a large
whetstone, which has been there time immemorial, and
certainly proves great antiquity in that part of the house.
The rest consists of small uninteresting rooms, and a
gallery of no imposing dimensions, now entirely falling
to decay, and uninhabitable, though there are still some
remnants of furniture. The park, from which all good
timber has been cut down, is let to a farmer for grazing ;
and Lord Digby, to whom it belongs, lives entirely at
Sherborne Castle, in Dorsetshire.

Friday, 22nd. — Left Mr. Palmer's, and took the route
of Lancaster and the Lakes. Stopped at Lichfield to see
the Cathedral. Its front is fine, with its two spires, and
with the number of figures and tabernacles for figures
with which it is ornamented, and a very handsome
window of tracery over the great door. The inside of a

A A 2

356 MISS BEERY'S JOURNAL. [isos

Gothic cathedral with three aisles must always be fine.
This is less beautiful than Lincoln, though about the
same size, and has few old monuments in it. The choir
is the longest I remember to have seen. The whole
presents itself well from the Close, which is well kept,
and has handsome houses in it.

In the Cathedral are two cenotaphs exactly alike, and
in no very good taste, to Johnson and to Garrick, with in-
scriptions in gilt letters so put on that one cannot read
them ; and another, executed by some Staffordshire lady,
to Lady M. W. Montague, celebrating and thanking her
for bringing inoculation into Europe.

From Guy's .Cliff to Lichfield is a very flat uninteresting
country, with no fine trees or any outline of horizon.
After Lichfield it improves, especially about Wolseley
Bridge. Then come a number of noblemen's seats, with
woods, which much ornament the face of the country.
The road winds about Trentham* for a considerable time.
In going to Newcastle-under-Lyme, we turned a mile out
of our road to see one of the great potteries, of which
this part of the country is the centre. It was Spode's —
a very great one — above 400 persons employed. We
saw all the various operations of common and fine porce-
lain, and amongst others that most curious one of
stamping on the blue and white patterns — done by ap-
plying to them a print upon very thin prepared paper,
which, after it has left its impression upon the cup,
saucer, &c., is rubbed off entirely with common water,
without deranging the impression. The country from
this side Wolseley Bridge, where the manufactures com-
mence, is very populous, and all the villages and towns
black with the coal-smoke of the number of furnaces.
Between Wolseley Bridge and Stone, at Eugeley — a very
pretty neat village — is Lord Curzon's house, prettily

* Seat of the Duke of Sutherland.

1808] NEWCASTLE-UNDER-LYME TO PRESTON. 357

surrounded by wood * ; and further on, Lord Anson'sf
and Lord Talbot's more extensive grounds and woods J
make a fine appearance. At Sandon, between Stone and
Newcastle, Lord Harrowby has nearly finished a column
to the memory of Mr. Pitt, on an elevated sort of terrace
near the road. Stone is a dirty-looking little town.
Newcastle little less black. The whole of this manu-
facturing country, and particularly about the potteries
which lay between and about Stone and Newcastle, is
prettily waved and wooded, dotted all over with houses,
and would be pretty, were it not disfigured by the smoke
of the furnaces, and the ugly shape of the houses — little
new square boxes of the reddest brick, with roofs just
fitting them like the lids of snuff-boxes. They are build-
ing everywhere, and all the towns and villages increasing.

The roads through Staffordshire and Cheshire, which
we entered at Congleton, and left at Warrington, are
good, and this part of Cheshire is a rich enclosed
pasture country, well-wooded, with comfortable-looking
villages and fine cattle, neatly-thatched cottages and
well- cultivated farms. At Warrington one again enters
the manufacturing regions ; and Warrington is a large,
dirty, black, bustling, narrow-streeted town, with a
number of canals on all sides. Wigan and Chorley are
of the same description — full of furnaces, cotton-mills,
steam-engines, and foundries.

Saturday, 23rd. — Left Newcastle in the morning. The
road from Warrington to Chorley is a positive chemin
ferre, paved with round stones. At Wigan, much coarse
muslin and much of the Lancashire sheeting is made. At
Chorley, got rid of red brick ; and an immense number of
new small houses, and almost villages, built and building,
all stone. Fine views, bounded by an horizon of hills,
and intersected by canals. Arrived at Preston.

* Hagley. f Shugborough. t Ingestre.

358 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

Sunday, 25th — Preston is a handsome town, with a
wide, well-built street and a large square market-place, in
which are two curious old houses, one of wood and the
other of stone, both, I should think, dating before Eliza-
beth.

Preston is much blackened, like all the towns of this
part of the country, with coal smoke.

Garstang is a small town, and near it a number of
manufactures, smoke and black. The castle (the fortress
of John of Ghent's ducal capital) stands nobly on a height
at the end of the town. The gateway tower is very fine ;
the keep and two other square towers remain, and are
united together and with the gateway tower by modern
buildings in the same style of architecture. It is the
county gaol, and admirably clean and well kept. The ar-
rangements made on Mr. Howard's plan — sixteen pri-
soners the greatest number that can be in any one divi-
sion, that division having a yard to itself, water in the
midst of it, and each prisoner having a separate clean
whitewashed cell and bed. No irons put on to any, even
felons, that are not refractory. There are in the prison
now, including debtors and those undergoing the punish-
ments of imprisonment for different lengths of time, no
fewer than 260 persons, of which above a hundred are
felons, including eighteen women. Of this hundred,
forty-five are to take their trial at the ensuing assizes
next month. Of this amazing number for a county gaol,
the neighbourhood of Manchester and Liverpool is given
as a reason, and, I fear, a very sufficient one. The late
riots among the manufacturers have likewise increased it,
as six or seven of the principal ringleaders are there for
trial. Still, the number is sad for a single county.* We
went all over the prison with a very civil, intelligent

* The number of prisoners in Lancaster Gaol in May, 1860 : — Debtors,
79 ; untried criminals, none ; tried criminals, 58 : making a total of 137.

1808] KENDAL TO AMBLESIDE. 359

gaoler. Among the prisoners for trial next month is a
merchant worth above seventy thousand pounds, for the
supposed poisoning of his housekeeper. He was (by the
equality of our laws) in one of the above-mentioned yards
with several other felons, but remains always within, and
carefully avoids showing himself.

At Burton, a clean white village ; it being Sunday, the
Volunteers of the place were drawn up before the inn, and
very good-looking, clean, stout lads they were.

Kendal is a picturesque town of white rough-cast
houses, scattered about a green valley, with a fine horizon
of hills. Took an evening walk upon a sort of quay to
the stream, from whence is seen a view of the old castle
situated upon the top of a green knoll. Being Sunday,
the whole scene was enlivened by groups of people walk-
ing about.

In the principal street, all houses on the left side have
large open entrances, through which one sees gardens
climbing up the sides of a hill, very like many small
towns in Switzerland.

Monday, 2oth. — Left Kendal for Ambleside. The road
winds through a variety of highly cultivated valleys, and
a constantly changing horizon of distant mountains.
About eight miles from Kendal we first came in sight of
Winder-mere, with its beautifully curved shores, green
cultivated banks, and wooded islands. It is pretty, ex-
cessively pretty, and if it had never been compared to
the lakes in Switzerland would be more so. But this
comparison has just a similar effect to declaring some
well-written modern play to be very like Shakespeare —
it recalls all the sublime perfections of the model, and all
the weakness of the copy. We passed through the vil-
lage of Bowness, and continued our route five miles along
the borders of the lake, sometimes intercepted by trees,
sometimes, as at Lowood, close to the shore, and unin-
terruptedly beautiful. The inn at Lowood is a single

360 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

house. The valleys and rides about Ambleside must be
delightful, and the mountains at this end of the lake are
much more considerable than at the other.

In the evening Miss de Visrne and I took a little
scrambling walk up the glen to a mill for turning bobbins
for the manufacturers of Manchester, &c.

Tuesday, 2Qth. — Miss de Visme and I took advantage
of a fair gleam to walk up to a very pretty fall of water,
called Stockhill Force. The glen is well wooded, and
the fall is finely broken into two streams by a large mass
of rock covered with trees, and fantastic roots making
their appearance on every side.

Just as we were stepping into the coach to go to
Keswick, a chaise with Mr. Law and his friend Mr.
Pakenham (Lord Longford's brother) drove up to the
door. We invited them to follow us as fast as they
could. At Eydal went to see the waterfall near Sir
Daniel Flemming's. There, caught in such heavy rain that
we were forced to seek shelter in some cottages near Sir
Daniel's gate, and a more comfortable scene than the
inside of all the cottages exhibited I have not seen in this
part of the world. The one we now entered was that of
a mere labourer, with a young wife and three children ;
it had every necessary comfort. The good woman was
making girdle-cakes of oatmeal (here the bread of the
poor) over a fire of fern, by which we dried our clothes.
We were nearly half an hour in her house, occupying her
fire and in the way of her work, and yet she and her
sister-in-law would hardly accept a trifle for their hospi-
tality. Here Mr. Law and Mr. Pakenham came up with
us. The rain was unabating, so we continued our route
to Keswick, passing round the side of Grasmere.

I was more pleased with Leathe's Water, another small
lake which had a singularly quiet and pastoral character.
Perhaps on a fine sunny day I might have preferred
Grasmere ; but the solitary unenlivened character of

1808] KESWICK. 361

Leathe's Water associated itself better to the grey quiet
wet evening in which I saw it.

Before we came to Leathe's Water, in a valley under
Helvellyn, down the side of which many torrents were
tumbling, one was so impetuous that on arriving at a
little roadside alehouse, we found the people all watching
the violence of this gill, over which a water-spout (no
uncommon thing among these hills) had burst, and brought
down such a quantity of water, that the bridge, some
hundred yards off, was entirely covered by the torrent
that was flowing over as well as under it, that the para-
pets were forced down, and they knew not if the bridge
had not given way. Here two travellers in a whiskey
were already stopped, and here Mr. Law and Mr. Paken-
ham again came up to us. I did not think there was a
chance of our passing for many hours, if then ; but the
two men in the whiskey having got over, and the land-
lord and five or six other men promising to help us, we
sent the coach first, and our three selves followed in
Mr. Law's hack chaise ; he and Mr. Pakenham wading
through the water by us. We all arrived safely on the
other side the torrent, and reached Keswick soon after
8 o'clock P.M.

Wednesday, 27th. — Between nine and ten o'clock went
upon the lake with Mr. Hutton, the guide, in his boat.
We were rowed down the side of the lake, by Mr. Pock-
lington's house, in whose ground is a beautiful cascade,
called the Barrow Fall. The water falls in two lengths ;
and as one can see it from below, at the middle, and from
above, and can approach quite close to its edge, it is par-
ticularly enjoyable.

Mr. Pocklington's taste in architecture is certainly much
less perfect than in waterfalls. He has built no less than
three houses on the borders of this lake, all, one uglier
than the other.

The island at the Keswick end of the lake he bought

362 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

some twenty years ago for 300/., and sold within these
ten or twelve years for 1700/. — so enormously is the
value of land raised upon the borders of these lakes ; two
acres of pasture were sold last year in the neighbourhood
of a gentleman's cottage for 320/., and land in the same
circumstances is sometimes let for seven and eight pounds
an acre.

We rowed to Lodore, first passing close to one of the
wonders of this lake, the Floating Islands, which .occasion-
ally come up — literally come up, for its appearance is
of two or three acres of coarse short grass which had
been long submerged. The surface is just above the
water, and its sides under water seem in places as if rent
away from a steep bank of earth, the water being several
fathoms deep immediately at its edge.

For twenty-five or thirty years none of these had
appeared, till within these last three or four years. The
one we saw had come up only just a week before.
They talk of the lake being in great agitation without
any wind at the time of the production of these islands,
and that they are always the forerunners of broken bad
weather. A strong mephitic smell, too, is said to issue from
the ground, if pierced when it first makes its appearance.

Lodore is an occasional torrent, falling between the
very high cliffs, beautiful, half covered with wood and
vegetation, and having deeply worn the great masses of
rocks over which it- falls. We saw it luckily with a very
sufficient quantity of water. It never falls in a sheet or
large body, but bounds from rock to rock in a most
striking and picturesque manner.* A chaise was waiting

* Here it comes sparkling,
And there it lies darkling ;
Now smoking and frothing
Its tumult and wrath in, •
Till in this rapid race

On which it is bent,
It reaches the place

Of its steep descent. — Smdhcy'ls Fall of Lodore.

1808] LODORE. — ULLSWATER. 363

to carry us up Borrow Dale, whose jaws, as the rocky
hills at its entrance are called, form a principal part of
the beauty of this end of the lake. Borrow Dale is
really grand. It is the first of this scenery that I have
thought so. A very passable mountain road leads to the
Bowden Stone, a great mass of rock, which at some
distant period the frost and wet have detached from the
left-hand hill. Here there is a cottage or two, and a very
fine rugged mountain view on every side. Let nobody
who comes to the lakes miss Borrow Dale, nor the fine
view of the lake with the background of Skiddaw.

It poured of rain before we got back to the alehouse
at Lodore.

We continued our row along the lake, passing by the
little bay which Lord W. Gordon has beautifully orna-
mented, but which is shut out from the rest of the world.
Nobody is ever allowed to land, under all sorts of penal-
ties to the boatmen. Set off for Penrith.

Thursday , 28th. — Mr. Law and Mr. Pakenham breakfasted
with us, and we started in two hired chaises for Ullswater.
A boat was in readiness for us, and in about two hours and
a half it carried us the whole length of the lake. Here, at
the commencement of Patterdale, we found another little
country inn. Two carriages were already before us. A
neat clean bedroom was all they had to offer us, and it
was well we got possession of that, for there arrived after-
wards no less than four other carriages full of people.
Some were obliged to walk in the garden, while others
dined in the rooms ; and yet, in spite of all this, the good
woman of the house gave us an excellent dinner, without
hurry, confusion, or ill-humour. I am much pleased with
what I have seen of the character of these peasants.
They are civil and obliging in their manners, willing to
enter into discourse, intelligent about the scenes around
them, and, I think, by no means imposing in their de-
mands.

364 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1808

The chief beauty of Ullswater is the abruptness with
which many of the fells go into the lake, but is much better
seen from the shore than from the water itself. We arrived
late at Penrith, and I had the comfort of hearing from
my sister.

Friday, 29^. — Breakfasted at Carlisle, and arrived at
Moffat between eight and nine in the evening.

The enormous long stage of twenty-one miles between
Longtown and Lockerby is now divided into two. It is
quite remarkable the great difference in the appearance,
habits, and manners of the people, and of their houses
between Carlisle and only twenty miles from it in Scot-
land, and this without any wide river or chain of mountains
to separate them. The division is only by a little insignifi-
cant stream about three miles from Longtown.

Saturday, 3(M. — Left Moffat. Took the road to
Lanark. The road by the fall of Corra Linn is three
miles out of the straight road to Lanark, and is a steep
descent into the glen, where runs the Clyde, and where
stand the great cotton-mills. We then drove into very
beautifully- wooded grounds along the high bank of the
river, belonging to Lady Eoss. The whole river pre-
cipitates itself into a rocky sort of recess, well overgrown
with wood on all sides, and is well worth seeing, though
much less romantic than Lodore. In the Glen we passed
the enormous cotton works, where above 1,500 persons
are employed, and which of itself, with the habitations
and shops necessary for the workpeople, make a town.

Lanark, about a mile or two distant, is small and in-
significant, with a large dirty Scotch inn.* The descent
on leaving Lanark, down to the bridge over the Clyde,
is beautiful, and the whole road for seven or eight miles
afterwards along the high bank of the river, a most
charming drive. Lord Grlencairn's house is most happily

* The population of Lanark (burgh), is now calculated at 5,305.

1808] HAMILTON PALACE. 365

placed on the opposite side of the stream, and its little
turrets and half-Gothic appearance admirably suited to
its situation. It is a new house added to an old one,
and I admired its effect, illumined with an evening sun,
throwing light and shade on all its little projections, and
shining on its gilded vanes. It was nine o'clock when
we reached Hamilton, and I felt impatient to get on to
Bothwell,* where I knew I should be anxiously expected,
though I hardly nattered myself I should meet with so
warm a reception as that I received from every indi-
vidual of the family.

Friday, August 5th. — In the evening, loitered near
the house, in admiration of the moon, most singularly
beautiful at this place, where it silvers the whole reach of
the Clyde, is again caught through the trees, and most
picturesquely reflects on the towers of the old castle.

Monday, 8th. — Went to Hamilton Palace with Lady
Douglas f and party to see the house. Some of the por-
traits (whole lengths) are admirable, and this duke and
his son have brought there a considerable collection of
really good Italian pictures. Amongst those in the gal-
lery is one of the late Duchess of Argyll J (I believe by
Gavin Hamilton), which, without being a good picture,
gives an exquisite idea of her beauty. The head greatly
resembles that of the Venus de Medici, not in adjustment,
but in features. It is, of all the ill-arranged, awkward,
melancholy great houses I ever saw, the very worst.

Sunday, l±th. — Sat till dinner-time in Lady Douglas's
dressing-room, reading old letters to her grandmother,
the Duchess of Argyll, from her mother, Mrs. Warburton,
and to Lady Greenwich§ from the Duchess of Queensbury

* Seat of Lord Douglas.

t Lady Douglas was sister to Harry third Duke of Buccleugh; mar-
ried, 1783.

t Elizabeth, daughter of John Gunning, Esq.

§ Caroline, daughter of John second Duke of Argyll, created Baronness
of Greenwich, 1767 ; married, first, Francis, son of Duke of Buccleugh ;

366 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

and several other persons. Eemarkable form and ex-
pressions of respect in the letters of Mrs. Warburton to
her duchess daughter.

Friday, l$th. — In the morning, drove to Douglas
Park, between four and five miles from here, belonging
to a Mrs. Douglas, a young widow. The place uncom-
monly pretty. The grounds and garden are a peninsula,
round which the river Calder, a mountain stream, runs
over shelves of rock, and through high well-wooded
banks. A bowling-green, surrounded by very tall fine
old limes, which, from the growth of trees in this country,
must be 200 years old. No remembrance is preserved
of their being planted. In the evening Lady Douglas
proposed a walk, though all the colours of the prospect
were buried in one twilight tint. When we came in
sight of the cottage, the reason for our walk was cleared
up — its little pediment was prettily lighted up with
coloured lamps, among the fresh green fern-leaves with
which the front of the pediment was tastefully covered,
and joining on to the honeysuckles which flaunt up its
pillars and about its sides. The inside, too, was lighted
with pretty little transparent lamps ; upon the table two
large flower-pots, and the tea set out with the cottage
tea-things. It was very pretty, and well suited to the
place. I should not forget that in the middle of the little
pediment, over the porch, was my cypher, in a flowery
transparency, which Caroline * herself had traced.

Colonel Cadogan f, who had been fishing here all day,
joined us at tea. I regretted for the young ones that
there was not more company, both to admire their taste
and add to their gaiety ; but they seemed not to want it,

secondly, Charles Townshend, second son of William Viscount Townshend.
She died 1794.

* Hon. Caroline Douglas, daughter of Lord Douglas ; married, 1810, to
Captain, afterwards Admiral, Sir G. Scott.

t Colonel Cadogan, probably Hon. Henry, Lieutenant-Colonel 71st
Foot; born 1780; killed in the" battle of Vittoria, 1813; son of first Earl
of Cadogan.

1808] LETTER TO JOAXNA BAILLIE. 367

and for myself, I was as much pleased and surprised as
any child could have been.

Saturday, 2Qth. — Walked on the other side of the
water to my little favourite ravine, just under the remains
of Blantyre Priory ; again admired its singular beauty,
and the grandeur of its parts, though the whole thing
is only a narrow gully. The day and the spot were so
delicious for loitering about, that I began cutting my
name on the bark of a tree in the ravine, while the
others sat by. The view of the Bdthwell ruins from the
Priory is beautiful.

Joanna Baillie was born at the Manse at Bothwell,
which explains the allusions in the letter addressed to
her by Miss Berry, dated August 23rd, 1808 : —

Bothwell Castle, Tuesday, 23rd August, 1808.
DEAR JOANNA, — You and I have crossed over and figured
in, in an odd way this last year. I wish there had been any
setting and footing together, in the course of our jigging about.
—I now in Scotland, and you in England — I yesterday at
Millheugh, and you perhaps at Little Strawberry Hill. What
a pretty place Millheugh is ! I walked all down the rocky bed
of the river below the bridge, and crossed over the stepping
stones and back again, merely for the pleasure of doing it —
and then went all round the house at Millheugh and to the
wooden bridge which looks at the little cascade up the green
walk by the side of the stream. We saw not a human creature
either to welcome or forbid us their premises, which being all
open, we committed no trespass. I tried the echoes with some
lines of Basil ; but they were dumb, and only muttered in
return for your name something about muslin at Glasgow, a
pattern of a handkerchief, and some stories of the poor in the
village. Your heroic muse should have taught them better in
such a romantic spot.

I have been over, too, at my own dear little ravine at
Blantyre ; and if you go there again, you will see Berina (my
name in Arcadia) cut upon one of the largest trees by my own
fair hand on the 20th August, 1808.

To J. Baillie.

368 MISS BEREY'S JOURNAL. [isos

The following letter from Miss Berry is addressed to
her cousin, Robert Ferguson, Esq. : —

Letter on Spain.

Bothwell Castle, August 26th, 1808.

. . . . I cannot say that I dare, even yet, allow myself
to be very sanguine about tbe Spaniards. Could we hope that
their present enthusiasm would last, were it in its nature to be
permanent, I should be certain that they were invincible.
But I dread its wasting away, and being worn out before the
innumerable hosts and the atrocem animum of Bonaparte,
undirected as their feelings are by any great superior intellect,
and unconcentrated on any one really interesting object. For
nothing but a first burst of sentiment in a people, moved al-
most to madness by insult, can possibly elevate any of their
own wretched royal family into such an object. If they
assemble immediately a general Cortes, and if there is a suf-
ficient dose of intellect and a public spirit in the nation to
adapt their old separate forms of liberty, to their present
situation, and to consolidate them in a mass, whose momentum
may prescribe any terms to the chief, who or whatever he may
be, that they shall set over them, they may certainly succeed in
so neutralising monarchical power as to make it a harmless,
if not a useful, instrument in the hands of a Ferdinand. But
all this seems to require peace and leisure. How they are to
bring it about amid, the din of arms I know not, and I tremble
to think. Yet after all the political wonders of every sort,
which we have seen in our day, nothing will surprise me ; and
perhaps this violent shake is necessary to bring forward those
thinking heads, as well as active arms, that, nursed in the
shade of obscurity, have been preparing themselves for situa-
tions to which they will be found equal.

To Robert Ferguson, Esq.

Saturday, September 3rd. — In the evening Mr. Morritt*

read to us one of Massinger's plays (' The Duke of Milan ').

Monday, bth. — A letter from Mrs. D. told me of

* John B. S. Morritt, Esq., owner of Rokeby, and the friend of Sir
Walter Scott.

1808] VISIT TO HAMILTON. 369

the victory gained by our troops at Lisbon over the
French, adding to it some melancholy recollections
which such news was sure to recall to her mind as well
as mine. I was occupied with it all the day, but per-
haps such recollections, when time has softened the
bitterness, ought to be counted rather amongst our
pleasures than our sorrows.

We drove with Lord Webb Seymour * to Douglas
Park to see the bridge, said to be Eoman, which crosses
a small river at the bottom of the garden. It is a single
arch, and much too narrow for any sort of carriage.
Mr. Morritt thought that it was really a Eoman work ;
I would rather bet that it was not. In the evening Mr.
Morritt continued reading the ' Duke of Milan.' He
reads very well, and Massinger is not easy to read.

Tuesday, 6th. — We went, the same party as yesterday,
to Hamilton, to see the pictures. Lord Archibald had
arrived the day before, and wished to see us before our
departure. In the evening Morritt began reading another
of Massinger's plays, 'The Fatal Dowry,' from which
Eowe has taken the story of ' The Fair Penitent.' The
characters of the father and the husband in ' The Fatal
Dowry ' are infinitely more interesting than in 'The
Fair Penitent ; ' but the events and the catastrophe are
badly drawn, and the wife detestable.

Wednesday, 1th. — In the evening there was dancing
and music, and they had all sorts of ridiculous dances.
They played at false acting, Morritt reciting Antony's
oration upon Caesar's body, and I making the gestures ;
all which made us laugh not a little. Then they played
all sorts of other ridiculous tricks, and in all this Lord
Webb is as eager, as amusing, and as entirely occupied as

* Lord "Webb Seymour, son of the tenth Duke of Somerset ; born in
1777 ; died, unmarried, in 1819; held in high estimation and regard by the
literary and political society of that day.

VOL. II. B B

370 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

he would be in the deepest discussion. He dances, he
performs antics, and plays the fool with great vivacity,
and at the same time with imperturbable gravity.

Extract of a Letter from Miss Berry to the Hon. Mrs. Darner.

Both-well Castle, September, 1808.

. . . Lord Webb Seymour staid with us till Friday last.
He is a charming creature, from the perfect and elegant sim-
plicity of his manners and the liveliness and activity of his
mind upon all subjects ; for he dances, and plays conjuring
tricks, and plays the fool with the same interest and eagerness
that he has in science and philosophy ; only if he would not
so doat upon disquisition ! upon mental dissections, and above
all, upon accounting for everything which it is only necessary
to feel, and feel he does, on all the great subjects of politics,
taste, &c. exactly as he ought.

Saturday, 10th. — Lord and Lady Eosslyn* arrived at
four o'clock, accompanied by Mr. Brougham and two
brothers of Lord Blantyre — Charles, the advocate, and
William, who is in the service — and the aide-de-camp,
Captain Morland. Lord Eosslyn gave me a letter to read
from Captain Adam to his father, praising the conduct of
Eonald at Vimeira in the most satisfactory manner. I
went away to read it, which I did not do without tears.

Sunday, 11th. — I wrote to my father with the account
of Eonald.

Wednesday, l^th. — Had a long conversation with
Playfair. He seems to take a lively interest in all that
relates to us.

Friday, 16th. — A walk with Lady Douglas and Play-
fair. He examined and brought home some pieces of
stone, from the environs of the cotton mill, upon
which he made experiments in the evening with

* Sir James St. Clair Erskine, second Earl of Rosslyn, a general officer in
the army, succeeded his uncle in 1805 ; married in 1790 to Henrietta
Elizabeth, eldest daughter of the Hon. Edward Bouverie.

1808] WALTER SCOTT. 371

Lord Douglas. It appears to me that Playfair has
succeeded very well here, both with the lady and with
the lord of the mansion.

Monday, \§th. — There was a servants' ball in the even-
ing, when everyone danced except myself and Caroline,
who played upon the tambourine or the triangle all the
evening. The ball lasted till midnight. The news of
the Convention* at Lisbon has arrived.

Thursday, 22nd. — I read to Lady Douglas my sketch
of a preface for the Letters, .with which she seemed well
pleased. Finished reading ' The Tale of the Times,' a
novel which, like most other novels, begins better than it
finishes. In the evening, Caroline, Fanny,f Miss Eobert-
son, Mdlle. de Lally, &c. &c. and I went to the farm,
where in the granary was a fete, that they call in this
country a ' keam,' in England a ' harvest-home dance.' I
expected that the peasant men and women dancing the
dances of the country mixed together with the servants of
the house, would have pleased me more, but they have no
grace whatever, nor the men even any choice with whom
they dance, provided they could run about and make
themselves hot in executing a thousand steps of a ' reel ; '
it seems perfectly indifferent to them who is their vis-a-
vis, and the spectators are only occupied in looking and
watching the moment when they could join in it them-
selves. This ball is given by those whose harvest is all
carried, and I think that Lord Douglas's granary ought to
have been better arranged, and less ill-lighted for a fete,
which these poor reapers expect from every proprietor.
The great and rich ought to take a pride in making it
a little more brilliant than others.

Thursday, 29th. — Walter Scott came to dinner.

* Convention of Cintra, signed and concluded at Lisbon August 30.
t Hon. Frances Elizabeth Douglas, daughter of Lord Douglas ; married,
1826, to William Moray Sterling, Esq., of Ardoch.

B B 2

372 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

Friday, 30th. — I had a long conversation with Walter
Scott at breakfast. I sat for the last time for my por-
trait.

October 3rd. — Miss Berry left Bothwell for Edinburgh.

Thursday, 1th. — Stopped at Melrose. The ruin is only
a few steps from the inn. It is of great beauty, but now
spoilt by the parish church, which is built into a part of
the interior, with a modern roof placed against the fine
Gothic columns, and supported by arches constructed upon
a different plan to the ancient arches. They are now
building a new church on the other side of the town, and
as soon as it is finished they are going to pull down the
modern edifice in the interior of the ruin. It is in this
Abbey that Walter Scott imagined that the Enchanter,
Michael Scot, lived, and where he makes him consulted
by Deloraine, in his poem, ' The Lay of the Last Min-
strel.' The cicerone, a very intelligent man, showed us
Alexander III.'s tomb, upon which the poet supposed
that the Enchanter and Warrior sat.* I was very glad to
have seen this very ornamented Gothic ruin.

Arrived at Minto. Found Lady Mintof and her
sister in the library. The gentlemen were Playfair, Wal-
ter Scott, Mr. Eliot of Wells, The Castle Spectre, and
three young Scotch lawyers and reviewers, by name
Erskine, Murray, J and Thompson, § and the eldest son of
the house Gilbert. We talked agreeably enough after-
wards. Walter Scott, as usual, narrating, whilst Play-
fair and Lady Minto and I listened.

They sate them down on a marble stone,
(A Scottish monarch sleeps below)
Thus spoke the monk in solemn tone. — Canto 2, v. xii.
f Anna Maria, eldest daughter of Sir George Amyand, sister to Sir George
Oomewall, Bart., and to the Countess of Malmsbury; married, in 1777,
Gilbert Elliot, first Earl of Minto.

% Afterwards Lord Murray, judge of the Session.

§ Thomas Thompson, Esq., Keeper of the Records in Edinburgh, and well
known there in literary society.

1808] LETTER PROM LORD W. SEYMOUR. 373

In the middle of October 1808 Miss Berry returned to
London, and her Journal for the rest of the year furnishes
little worth extracting.

On Poor Marriages.

October, 1808.

I found my old friend and playfellow in a small uncomfort-
able house, surrounded by a number of ugly, ill-mannered
children, and a silly, idle husband. The smallness of their for-
tune depriving her children of those means of education which
she has not in her power to supply, and depriving her husband
of those means of expense which can alone hope to conceal and
make passable in the world, a character like his. The same
smallness of fortune, crowding them inconveniently altogether,
makes their manners hardly amiable to each other, and not at all
so to their friends. This is a sad picture of what is commonly
called a love marriage upon a small fortune, but which / call
an ill-judged, inconsiderate union formed between two persons
incapable of the invigorating influence of a really great attach-
ment, and perfectly unequal either to meet, or to make the best
of the ills they entail on themselves, and on their children
— persons who would both of them have been much more really
happy in a connection where their transient taste had been less
consulted, and their permanent convenience more. Life must
not be considered (as I have known many willing to consider
it) as a party of pleasure, in which, if your companions can
contrive to make themselves entertaining and agreeable for a
few days, while engaged in the same pursuit, it is all that can
be required of them. In the acceptance of a companion for
life, attention must be had to the many days of difficulty, dis-
tress, and sickness which c flesh is heir to,' and from which no
situation can be exempted. M. B.

A Letter from Lord Webb Seymour to Miss Berry.

Edinburgh, November 7, 1808.

You must neither expect a witty letter, though you are a
lady to whom I would write one, if I could; nor a pretty
letter, though you are a lady to whom I could write one, had I
time ; but this is to be a plain matter of business letter.

374 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isos

Sheldon, the Professor of Anatomy to the Royal Academy,
is lately dead, and an active canvass for the situation is going
forward. Among the candidates is Mr. Charles Bell,* a person
for whom I feel considerably interested, from the manner in
which I hear him spoken of by some friends, whose good
opinion I think a strong recommendation. Now, though you
are not a painter, or a sculptor, or a Member of the Eoyal
Academy, yet, as you have a good deal to say among painters,
and sculptors, and Members of the Eoyal Academy, and Com-
missioners in the Fine Arts, I must believe your favour and
support to be of importance to Mr. Bell. As to his good life-
actions, I understand that he bears a high reputation as a sur-
geon and anatomist, as he has made the connection of anatomy
with the fine arts his particular study. Of his attention to
this point, you may have had an opportunity of judging, if
you have met with a work he published a few years ago on
* The Anatomy of Expression in Painting.' As the production
of a young man, it may be in some respects deficient ; but I
believe it to contain many ingenious and just observations.
Mr. Bell appears to be a deserving man on every account, and
I conceive that any service you might do him would not be
misplaced. If, upon enquiry, you find there is another candi-
date better qualified, I should no longer beg your assistance in
the cause of Mr. Bell.

The post is going, so I must say adieu.

Yours truly,

WEBB SEYMOUR.

* Afterwards, Sir Charles Bell, an eminent physiologist and surgeon;
born at Edinburgh, 1774. In 1806 he removed to London ; in 1811 he
published his celebrated work on the ' Anatomy of Expression.' He made
important discoveries on the physiology of the nervous system, and is con-
sidered to have laid the sure foundation of all subsequent knowledge of
nervous physiology. Married, 1811, Marian, daughter of Charles Shaw, Esq.,
of Ayr ; died, 1842. — Imp. Diet. Univ. of Biog.

1809] MR. LONGMAN, THE PUBLISHER. 375

1809.

Saturday, January 1th. — Mr. Longman, the publisher,
came to speak about my French Letters. We settled about
the number of volumes, their size, and the arrangement of
the subject. I read my preface and parts of the life to
him. With both he appeared much pleased — more than
I expected. As to the price he would give me for the
MS., we agreed he should speak to my friend Edwards,
and that I would be satisfied with whatever he arranged
for me.

Friday, 20th. — It snowed again hi the night. I went
to the City to Mr. Longman's, to take him the Letters to
be transcribed for the printers. Paternoster Eow, where
he lives, and all the small streets in the City, are almost
impassable from the quantity of snow, which lies in heaps.
With much difficulty, I approached his door in the
carriage.

Saturday, 21st — I was awoke by the drum announcing
a fire in our neighbourhood. Notwithstanding cold and
illness, I could not resist going to the window, where I
saw that the fire was neither very large nor very near.
I heard in the morning it was St. James's Palace,* the
side which looks upon the park. I heard by a letter that
Sir John Moore's army in Spain was re-embarked.

Monday, 23rd. — This morning, whilst at breakfast,

* The fire broke out in the apartments of the Duke of Cambridge, at St.
James's Palace, the whole interior of the south-east angle, fronting Marl-
borough House, was entirely destroyed. — Annual Register.

376 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isog

General Abercrombie * came in, in an agitated manner, to
ask if we had heard any news ; that it was said that there
had been an affair in Spain, and that Moore f was killed.
He left us to ascertain the truth, promising to let me
know what he heard. In a quarter of an hour I received
the confirmation of the sad news in a bulletin, sent to Mrs.
Darner by one of her neighbours, and which she for-
warded to me. In less than an hour, Abercrombie him-
self returned, his lips quivering with agitation, and drops
of perspiration standing on his temples, notwithstanding
the intense cold. The deep and manly grief with which
he felt the death of his friend, and the disasters of our
forces, though victorious, affected me extremely.

Wednesday, February 1st. — In the evening, met Mr.
Thornton from the House of Commons, where they begin
to deal with these strange affairs of the Duke of York. J

Tuesday, 21s#. — This morning I went to the Temple to
Mr. Lysons',§ to see some very ancient MSS. of the time
of Henry IV., Edward IV., and Eichard HL, &c. &c., of
which he is the depositary, as ' Keeper of the Eecords in
the Tower.' Ah1 these papers he has brought to light, and
is going to arrange and explain them in a very satisfac-
tory manner. They are of great interest, both for the
history of the country and for the character of the kings.

* General Sir John Abercrombie, second son of Ralph first Lord Aber-
crombie, died, unmarried, 1817.

t Sir John Moore was the son of Dr. Moore, author of 'Zeluco,' 'Edward,'
and various other works, born at Glasgow in 1761 ; entered the army at the
age of fifteen ; he was wounded in Corsica 1790. In 1796 he was Brigadier-
General in the West Indies, under Sir R. Abercrombie. In 1797 he was
employed in Ireland during the rebellion. In 1799 he went on the ex-
pedition to Holland, where he was severely wounded. Was sent to the Me-
diterranean, and again wounded at Alexandria. On his return to England,
he was made a Knight of the Bath. In 1808 commanded an army in Spain ;
fell under the walls of Corunna, January 16, 1809.

| Charges concerning Mrs. Clark.

§ Samuel Lysons, a writer on British Topography and Antiquities, born
in 1763, student in the Middle Temple, and his brother Daniel published
the earlier volumes of the ' Magna Britannica.' Died 1819.

1809] THE BURNING OF DRURY LANE THEATRE. 377

Friday, 24th. — In returning from Mr. Bouverie's in
Grosvenor Square, we first perceived the burning of Drury
Lane Theatre, which began to light up all the windows
on the opposite side of the Square. From the third story
at home we could see the flames, though we had not the
least idea from whence they came. Behind our house it
was so light that we could see to read, and the whole
atmosphere was so red with flames, that everybody
thought his neighbour on fire ; and what was still more
extraordinary, people thought the same at Twickenham,
twelve miles from the fire. Our gardener woke up in a
fright, and thought, from the light, that it was from some
part of the new house. Between twelve and one o'clock,
Mr. Cholmley arrived from the scene of action, to tell us
all he had seen.

Tuesday, March 2nd. — We passed an agreeable even-
ing at the Argyll Eooms. At eleven o'clock there were
but few people ; but before the end of the burletta,
which was very well sung, the theatre was well filled.
Afterwards, at past midnight, everyone took their places
at the round tables, arranged in two rooms for a cold
supper, and after supper some people began to dance in
the room where the theatre is, and which is cleared of
the benches the moment the petite piece is over, and
makes a very pretty ball-room. We found there some
ladies and a good many gentlemen of our own acquaint-
ance.

Wednesday, 8th. — We stayed at Mrs. Bouverie's till
midnight, to hear news from the House of Commons,
where they were discussing the Duke of York's affairs.
Eeceived a note from Eonald and Whitbread. Not the
least hope of a division this first night.

* The flames burst out at eleven o'clock at night. In less than a quarter
of an hour it spread in one unbroken flame over the whole of the immense
pile, extending from Brydges Street to Drury Lane, so that the pillar of tire
was not less than 450 feet in breadth. — Annual Register.

378 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isoo

Saturday, 2bth. — Dined at Sir John Stanley's.* After
dinner arrived the Miss Fanshaws, Ways, and some other
people. Went to Mr. Knight, where we found Catalani,
the Corne walls, and Mercer singing. Catalani predonneed
several airs delightfully with Mercer.

Friday, April 28th. — In the morning I saw Joanna
[Baillie]. She stayed nearly an hour with me. I read to

her my ' Notice upon Madame du D 's Life,' with

which she was so pleased that I could not but feel very
much flattered. I afterwards went to Walter Scott's,
where I saw his wife for the first time.

Wednesday, May 3rd. — Went to Mrs. Montague's ball.
The large drawing-room making a very good ball-room.'!'
Everybody comme ilfaut la, except the opposition.

Tuesday, 9th. — This morning I had a very satisfactory
visit from the Bishop of Eodez.| He will come to me one
morning in every week, that I may consult him upon niy
difficulties. . . . Went to the Exhibition of Water Colours,
where I stayed till nearly five o'clock. These artists in
water colours, in my opinion, have not made much pro-
gress since last year. There is one (Eeinagle) § who
surpasses all the others. After him comes Varley || in
landscape, and Hopley in figures.

Wednesday, Wth. — Called at Lady DonegalTs. Soon
after Agnes arrived, saying that there was a Mr. Long
who wished to speak to me upon business, and that she
had brought him with her. I went to the door to see

* Created Lord Stanley of Alderley, 1839 j died 1850.

t Montague House, Portman Square.

J Colbert, Bishop of Rodez.

§ Philip Reinagle, born 1750, and his son Ramsay, born 1772, both artists
of German origin, and of some eminence as painters in landscape, portrait,
and animal painting. They both exhibited in the Royal Academy as early
as 1787. It was probably Ramsay Reinagle who exhibited in water
colours.

|| John Varley, an eminent water-colour artist, born about 1777. He was
a man of eccentric character, and made no secret of his pretensions as an
astrologer. Died 1842.— Rose's Siog. Diet.

1809] THE PRINCESS OP WALES. 379

who it was, and found it was Prince Staremberg, but so
disguised * that he could hardly be recognised. He had
rather a long beard below his chin and a black wig. In this
disguise he had crossed Holland, and had come over in a
fishing-boat, which brought him to Aldborough in Suffolk,
where he landed between one and two o'clock this morn-
ing, and he was with us between two and three o'clock
in the afternoon. He stayed till four o'clock, when he
was to see Mr. Canning. In the evening he returned,
after having dined with Mr. Canning, in the same travel-
ling costume.

Friday, 12th. — This morning I had the Bishop of Eodez
with me for nearly two hours. I read to him my preface
and my ' Notice on the Life, &c. &c.,' with which he was
well pleased, saying it was impossible to give a more
faithful picture of the person whom he had known during
the latter years of his life in great intimacy.

Tuesday, 30th. — Dined at Sir George Beaumont's. Sat
by Sir George. Lamentable the manner in which a man
of his turn of mind and great accomplishments speaks of
the character and genius of Buonaparte, the distressing
circumstances of Europe and ourselves in the present
moment making him perfectly blind to the capacity which
has wrought such wonderful changes, which, whether
ultimately for the better or the worse, has very little to do
with the argument — thinks Cromwell a greater man.

Wednesday p, 31st. — At half-past ten went with my
sister and Miss Godfrey to Mr. Hope's.f The Princess
of Wales had dined there, and stood godmother to his
second son. She was holding a circle in the first drawing-
room when we came in. Soon afterwards all the world

* This disguise must have been rendered necessary by the difficulty of
crossing Holland, and not that Prince Staremberg had come on any secret
mission to England. His credentials were presented in due form on his ar-
rival, and he resumed his post he had quitted the preceding year as Austrian
Ambassador to the Court of England.

t Henry Hope, Esq., the author of ' Anastatius.'

380 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso9

went to the statue gallery, where was dancing, late in
beginning, as usual. Princess of Wales desired Lady
Sheffield * to present me to her. Talked for a minute or
two of the Lockes. I stood by her chair till somebody
else came up, and I got away. I don't think she was
taken with me, as she saw, when I did not suppose she
did, the mien which I made to Lady Sheffield when she
first proposed it to me — the presentation — which I
changed for a proper Court face the moment I saw her
looking, and the thing inevitable. The last dance before
supper she danced herself with Lyttelton.f Such an
exhibition ! but that she did not at all feel for herself,
one should have felt for her ! Such an over-dressed, bare-
bosomed, painted eye-browed figure one never saw ! G.
Eobinson said she was the only true friend the Prince of
Wales had, as she went about justifying his conduct.

Thursday, June 1st. — Went with a party to the ball in
Argyll Street for Mr. Amsinck's benefit. The ball very
full, and much like a race ball, with a number of people
one knew, and a number more one never saw before.
Went into one of the low boxes. Sir H. Englefield and
Lord Webb Seymour with us. We sat at our ease the
whole night, looking on upon the world.

Saturday, 3rd. — Went between two and three o'clock
to Lady Glenbervie's J breakfast at the Pheasantry. The
day was very fine, and the breakfast pretty. The Princess
of Wales there, and the party she named. The rest
of the company all Lady Glenbervie's neighbourhood.
The Princess had a hot dinner in the library. The rest
of the company a cold one, under two large tents or

* Lady Anne North, second daughter of Frederick second Earl of Giiil-
ford (Lord North, the minister of George III.)? married in 1798 to Lord,
afterwards Earl, of Sheffield. She died in 1832.

t Afterwards Lord Lyttelton.

I Lady Catharine Ann North, married to Sylvester Douglas, Lord Glen-
bervie, 1789.

1809] A MASQUERADE. 381

tarpaulins, which had a pretty effect in the wood. . Slept
at Strawberry Hill.

Wednesday, 1th. — Mrs. Cholmleyand two of her daughters
and Walter Scott breakfasted with us. Shortly after came
Sir G. and Lady Beaumont, Eobert Walpole and Lady
Louisa Stuart, and Sir W. Pepys and F. Cholmley. Some-
body was to read Joanna Baillie's tragedy, * The Family
Legend ; ' this somebody was obliged to be me, as nobody
else knew her hand, or had ever seen the play. I read
the first three acts, Cholmley the fourth, and I again the
fifth. It had a vast effect upon Walter Scott, and one
that was very pleasing, from the evident feeling of one
poet for another.

Thursday, 8th. — In the evening I dressed myself like
an old peasant woman — a dress and masque which I had
possessed some time — and went with Mrs. Bouverie to a
masquerade at Mrs. Chichester's, in Harley Street. We
went at half-past twelve, and got in easily, but the noise
and vulgarity of the masques, and not seeing one face
unmasked that we had ever seen before, made our party
immediately pull off ours and give up the idea of any
amusement. The crowd, which at first was not great,
increased, but it was impossible to increase the noise.
We were, in less than an hour's time, joined by Agnes,
as a housemaid, Miss Godfrey in my monk's dress, and
Lady Donegall unmasked, from LadyLansdowne's,* where
they had left many masks, much company, and plenty of
room. We were all introduced to the lady of the house
by Lady Donegall. It was the dullest thing of the kind
at which I ever assisted, though certainly the noisiest and
fullest of characters, such as they were.

Wednesday, 14<A. — Dined at Mrs. 's ; a dinner of

fifteen people, of whom my only acquaintance was Skef-

* Wife of John Marquis of Lansdowne, relict of Sir Duke Gifford, of
Castle Jordan, Ireland.

382 MISS BEERY'S JOURNAL. [1309

fington,* who I found afterwards was the wit, the bel-
esprit, I'aigle de la societe \ \ Two ladies joined after
dinner in extolling the endowments and even personal
appearance of Skeffington.

Friday, 16$. — In the morning went to the Exhibition
with Lady G. Morpeth. Portrait of Sir G. Beaumont's
mother excellent. Wilkie's two pictures, and another by
Bird,f a man who follows his steps, all that I remarked
as very good.

Thursday, 22nd. — Went with Lady Georgiana Morpeth
to George, the silk mercer's, through all the dirtiest streets
of London, and round by Covent Garden Theatre, of
which the immense walls, but more immense scaffolding,
is really curious. After dinner walked with my father
and sister to the fields between Paddington and Bays-
water. The haymaking, a beautiful warm quiet evening ;
we sat for some time on the cocks of hay, which I really
enjoyed, but in how melancholy a manner, Heaven, who
sees within my soul, alone can know !

Monday, 26th. — Went to Mr. Hope's, at the Deepden,
near Dorking. The place pretty, with great capabilities,
from the irregularity of the ground, but wants much
doing to it. A narrow glen or hollow, with high banks
and fine trees ; excellent place for a flower-garden, where
the present one is ill-arranged. Looked over drawings in
the evening.

Tuesday, 27th. — Drove with Mr. and Mrs. Hope to the

* Afterwards Sir Lumley St. George Skeffington of Skeffington Hall,
County Leicester. He was the author of some dramatic pieces. None of
his writings were published, but the songs in the ' Sleeping Beauty ' — a
melodrama of his composition — the eccentricity of his dress and appearance
(black ringlets, cheeks covered with rouge, peculiar hat and coat, top boots,
&c.) furnished to Gilray a subject for caricature. From some cause or other,
he lost his fortune, bis property was sold, and he was forced to live within
the rules of the King's Bench.

t Edward Bird ; born 1772, he began as a painter of tea-trays, but soon
rose to some eminence as an artist in subjects of low life. He afterwards
attempted, with much less success, great historical pictures. Died 1819.

1809] VISIT TO WOTTON PARK. 383

Eookery, a place belonging to Mr. Fuller (a banker), about
four miles off. There is a considerable lake, and a very
pretty walk round one side of it, through noble beeches,
and the wood on all sides hanging picturesquely over it.
At the farm, the largest and finest witch-elm I ever saw.
Again looked over drawings in the evening.

Wednesday, 28th. — Drove with Mr. and Mrs. Hope to
Wotton Park, Sir Frederick Evelyn's.* Pretty retired
place, situated in a bottom, where two finely-wooded
little valleys meet, a small stream running in each of
them. An old brick in-and-out country gentleman's
house, the outside covered over with all sorts of different
verdure, and among the rest with an apricot-tree. A fine
display of flowers, from whence the ground had formerly
risen in the regular stages of an old garden, quite up to
the wood. A beautiful jet tfeau yet remains, and above
it steps of green turf. The family were all walking in
the garden when we stopped to look at it from the
barouche. They invited us in, and we walked round a
most luxuriant flower-garden, which was in all the gor-
geous display of the present season.

Thursday, 29th, — Left the Deepden.

Saturday, July 1st. — Mr. Playfair dined with us ; after-
wards drove with him and Miss Godfrey to the upper
gate of Kensington Gardens, and walked entirely round ;
the evening was delicious, the walk very enjoyable. Just
in front of us was Lord Paget,f four of his children, and
his brother, the General, who lost an arm at Oporto. £

Friday, 7th. — Went to Lady M. Fordyce's. The
Princess of Wales there, and a great assembly above stairs.
Lady C. Lindsay met us on the staircase, and made us go
into the room below, where the Princess was surrounded

* Sir Frederick Evelyn, married a daughter of William Turton, Esq., of
Staffordshire. Died 1812.

f The late Marquis of Anglesey.
J General Sir Edward Paget.

384 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL.

by her usual court — Sir W. Scott,* Windham, Lord Henry
Fitzgerald,f Brownlow North J Lewis, § Sir H. Englefield,
Gill, Craven, &c. &c. We sat in a corner talking to such
of them as were not employed and Lady Glenbervie plea-
santly enough for above an hour. The Princess very
graciously bowing and smiling to us both, and, luckily,
no more.

Saturday, Sth. — At near three o'clock went in Lane's
carriage with him, Lord W. Seymour, and Mrs. Lockhart,
to Lady L. Macdonald's || breakfast. It was a fair day.
The place is small, and not very pretty at East Sheen,
and there were too few people, which made it dull. Our
party was conducted to breakfast by Miss Macdonald into a
summer-house, where the other convives were the Duchess
of Beaufort, Lady Harrowby,^]" Puysegur,** Lord A. Ham-
ilton,^ Edward Montague,^ Lady Anne Hamilton, §§
and the eldest Beckford. Before six we had had enough
of the breakfast. Lady Donegah1 and Mr. Windham
joined us in the evening at home. Had some very agree-

* Afterwards Lord Stowell.

f Son of first Duke of Leinster.

I B. North, son of the Bishop of Winchester.

§ Mathew G. Lewis, familiarly called Monk Lewis ; born 1775. ( The
Monk,' a novel, was written when he was only nineteen, in ten days, at
the Hague, where he was residing as attache". He was the author of the
well-known ballad of 'Alonzo the Brave,' and of the 'Tales of Terror,'
' Romantic Tales,' the ' Bravo,' &c. : and of the dramas of the ' Castle
Spectre,' the ' East Indian,' and ' Timour the Tartar.' His Journal of
' A West Indian Proprietor ' was published after his death. Died at sea in
1818.

|| Lady Louisa Macdonald, daughter of Granville, second Earl Gower,
married 1777 to Right Hon. Sir Archibald Macdonald, Chief Baron of the
Exchequer. Died 1827.

H Daughter of Earl Gower, by his second wife, Susannah Stewart,
daughter of Earl of Galloway.

** Puyse"gur, probably the Chevalier de Puysegur who came to London
in 1806, and remained till 1815. Well known in English society.

f| Lord Archibald Hamilton, son of Archibald ninth Duke of Hamilton,
bom 1769, died 1827.

\\ Edward Montague, eldest son of Mathew Montague, Esq., afterwards
Lord Rokeby, born 1787, died 1847.

§§ Lady Ann Hamilton, sister to Lord Archibald.

1809] VISITS TO NURSERY GROUNDS. 385

able conversation with Windham. Just after I went to
bed, the drums beat for a great fire in Conduit Street,
which so waked and hurried one's spirits, that I slept
little. Mr. Frederick North's * house completely burnt
down.

Monday, 10th. — In the morning Miss Murray called.
I went with her to Bath House.f Curious the state of
perfect neglect in which Sir William Pulteney had lived
in it till his death. All in disorder now, and it will be
long before the present Sir James gets it furnished by the
way in which he goes on. The dining-room is done, and
very handsomely fitted up by Morell. Mrs. D. came in
the evening from Strawberry Hill ; and Mr. Price, Lord
Webb Seymour, and Prince Staremberg. Lord Webb
leaves town to-day. His going is a loss. He is rational
and conversable, a lively fresh mind, and, in short, very
unlike other people.

Tuesday, ISth. — Went in the morning with Mr. Play-
fair to see the two panoramas of Cairo and of Dublin.
That of Cairo admirable. The sandy arid look of the
country so well given, and contrasting so remarkably
with the green fringe of land on each side the course of
the Nile. The near buildings — many of them picturesque
and well painted. The interior of the city of Dublin is
an ugly subject, but extremely well done, and giving a
perfect idea of a meaner dirty-looking London.

Monday, 24:th. — Mr. Thornton drove me in the morn-
ing to Thompson's nursery ground at Mile-End, where
we spent a long time going over the whole garden. From
there we went to Lodige's nursery at Hackney. More

* Hon. Frederick North, afterwards fifth Earl of Guilford.

t Sir William Pulteney, created Earl of Bath 1742 ; died 1764, s. p.
His niece, Henrietta Pulteney, married Sir James Murray, who took the
name of Pulteney. She was created Baroness and Countess of Bath, died
1808 ; Sir James died 1811. The house was afterwards bought and rebuilt
by Alexander Baring, first Lord Ashburton. It still retains the name of
Bath House.

VOL. II. C C

386 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL.

fine plants there than at Thompson's. Eeturned with two
enormous nosegays.

A letter from Lord Webb Seymour to Miss Berry
belongs to this month : —

Worthing, Sunday, July 16, 1809.

Though the cliffs and the olive groves and the mountains of
Nice are strongly contrasted with the beach at Worthing, the
recollection of the coast I so lately visited, does not prevent
me from finding considerable delight in this. I am feeding on
the purest air and on pleasing dreams, inspired by the sea-
breeze and the murmur of the surge. Even after having seen
the Mediterranean, you must have admired some of the seas
that we have had within these few days, just ruffled by a gentle
breeze, and reflecting the brightest azure of our climate.

On Friday I was at Brighthelmstone (I hope you like its
long name), to pass a day with Mrs. Spencer, and found her as
agreeable as ever. One day with a friend in that way is worth
a hundred scraps in London. In London one page of the book
is forgotten before we have an opportunity of looking at the
next ; and you and I must meet at Bothwell or Tunbridge, or
some other place in the same style, before we can hope to put
the mark much farther forward.

Mrs. Spencer returned to London on Saturday. She is very
anxious to see Mr. Playfair, and I promised to request you to
make them acquainted.

I hope you will congratulate Playfair for me and for your-
self, upon his late grand publication — a Peerage, in five
volumes, at ten guineas a volume. Lord Galloway, whom I
met at Brighthelmstone, makes it a rule never to subscribe to
any book, but an application some time ago from a person of
the name of Playfair — a name, too, followed by sundry scien-
tific titles and dignities — induced him to relax his rule in
favour of the celebrated Edinburgh Professor, who declared
that he was going to enlighten the world by his speculations
on gules argent and lions rampant, and addressed himself to
different peers for their patronage, as well as for private
sources of information. At length the work appeared, and I
found Lord Galloway grievously disappointed by the trifling

1809] THE POET BARLOW. 387

stuff and fulsome flattery with which the production of this
profound man abounded. His brother, Edward Stewart, had
indeed ventured to raise a doubt whether it was the Edinburgh
Professor who was the author of this work, and I was appealed
to for the decision of the question. The book, it seemed, Avas
a bad one, so I denied that our friend had any concern in it ;
but had peers and pedigrees been properly treated, of course I
should have felt it a point of delicacy to refer to better
authority before I stripped off at a blow the reputation to be
derived from five ten-guinea volumes. I saw the Lockes of
Norbury at Brighthelmstone. Mrs. S. regretted that their
absence from Norbury deprived her of the pleasure of seeing
you there. Did you ever see that wonderful beauty of a little
girl of hers ?

Yours ever sincerely,

W. S.
Eemember me to all friends.

August — I have been reading a strange poem — the
' Columbiad ' of Poet Barlow.* Who or what he is I
know not, except that he is an American, deeply imbued
with all the bad taste and all the prejudices which belong
to his nation, in its present state of society. His language
is not English — at least, is full of words which the English
language, in its Eastern domain, does not acknowledge.
His verses are full of obscurity, and still fuller of the
most ridiculous alliterations and the r6ughest cacaphonias.
Yet I have been amused at this first American attempt at
an epic, with all its faults, all its vulgarisms, all its bar-
barous names, all its prejudices, and all its false reasoning.
It is full of ideas, embraces an endless variety of subjects
— past, present, and to come. Sets one a thinking, some-
times justly, but oftener to detect and wonder at its

* Joel Barlow, an American poet, born at Reading, Connecticut, in 1755 ;
he was the son of a farmer. In 1787 his greatest poem, ' The Vision of
Columbus,' appeared, and was dedicated to Louis XVI. In 1808 he en-
larged and republished it under the title of ' Columbiad.' In 1811 he was
appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the French Government. Died near
Cracow 1812.— Imp. Diet, of Univ. Biog.

c c 2

388 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL.

commonplace mistakes, and the conceit with which so
many false and romantic doctrines are brought forward
and dwelt upon. Among others, that of the perfectability
of the human race, the approach to which is supposed
to be advanced and hastened by the cultivation and im-
provements of America ! The country at present perhaps
the lowest in the scale of moral education, the farthest
from that intellectual character and perfection which such
a system supposes. Still, represent this idea of the per-
fectability of our nature as you will — even in the uncouth
alliterative verses of Joel Barlow — still it is a beautiful
dream ; still it is a reverie in which benevolent and in-
telligent minds will delight to indulge ; still the sup-
position of an indefinable, though not an interminable,
perfection must conduce to raise, dignify, and ameliorate
man.

Sunday, 6th. — After church I went to Lord Howe's,
and sat some time with Mrs. Howe, carrying her Play-
fair's problems, with which she was delighted. She goes
to-morrow to Sir William Pitt's, in Hampshire, for
three months. I always part with her with regret for so
long a time. Go when she will she leaves not her fellow
behind her, at past eighty-seven, which she is.

Strawberry Hill, Monday, 1th. — Princess of Wales,
attended by Lady 'Charlotte Lindsay, came here to see
the house at three o'clock. Mrs. Darner had received
notice two or three days before, that she was to be thus
surprised — for a surprise it was to be, and no trouble
given. She knew we were here, and asked for us. We
joined the party in the Holbein room. The Princess
talked a great deal more than she looked at anything,
and seemed pleased to have more people to talk to ; the
pictures, &c., of the house, and observations on them,
came merely to fill up gaps and give new matter for dis-
course. She was in her very best manner, and her con-
versation is certainly uncommonly livery, odd, and clever.

180D] ROYAL PARSIMONY. 389

What a pity that she has not a grain of common sense !
not an ounce of ballast to prevent high spirits, and a
coarse mind without any degree of moral taste, from
running away with her, and allowing her to act inde-
corously and ridiculously whenever an occasion offers!
Were she always to conduct herself as she did here to-day
she would merit the character of having not only a remark-
ably easy and gracious manner, but natural cleverness above
any of her peers that I have seen, and a good many have
at different times fallen under my observation. After-
walking over the house, she was carried into the library,
where refreshments were prepared. Of these she did
not taste, but proposed our all sitting down, which we
did for about half an hour, then departed with a thou-
sand thanks to Mrs. Darner, and shaking us all by the
hand. She had with her the little boy whom she brings
up. Some poor body's son at Deptford,* and whom she
would do well to put to school, but does very ill to take
about with her during his holidays. She is not of a
disposition to want either the amusement or endearing
tenderness of a child ; and, after all that has been said of
her, one may easily guess what may be said of this little
boy about seven or eight years old. She talked much of
Gell, who seems at present in high favour ; much of Jeuzie,f
whom she really seems to value as she deserves.

Tuesday, Sth. — Lady Glenbervie called in the morning
to propose to Mrs. Darner from the Princess to share a
box at Covent Garden Theatre with her ; that is to say,
have it on opera nights. This is an arrangement nobody
will make with her. But how ridiculous, how ill-managed
and mean in this extravagant and spending country, that
a Princess of Wales should not be able to have a box at
the national theatre to herself — that the King should not
give a sum yearly, and have so many boxes for the use of

Austen. f ^rs- William Locke.

390 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL.

his family ! The evening was fine, and I went through
Twickenham churchyard, and settled in my own mind
upon the place where I should like a stone to be placed,
and myself deposited near it. It is a cheerful church-
yard, and the place I have chosen near that beautiful view
of the river, the group of poplars, and the opposite bank,
which I have always so much admired, and at which I
stood this evening for nearly a quarter of an hour in
quiet and solitary enjoyment, gilded as it was by a beau-
tiful evening sun. To-day I have felt better than for
months past, and considered the churchyard and every
idea connected with it just as I could wish to do, and as
every rational mind ought to consider everything con-
nected with their release from this existence, whose pro-
longation after the middle of life nothing but particular
circumstances can render desirable.

Monday, \kth. — I worked at my French Letters all
the morning. In the evening read aloud the account of
General Moore's campaign in Spain. What an account
it is ! What an idea does it give one of his character in
every respect, aud what treatment did he receive — what
a situation was he put in ! What abilities did he exert
to rescue himself and his army ! What suffering he un-
derwent, and, after all, to seal them with his blood !

Wednesday, IQth. — Agnes and I went to Lady Stuart's
Lodge, in Eichmond Park, by appointment, to see her son
Charles,* and to hear his accounts both of Spain and
Austria. For, since I saw him at Lady Spencer's break-
fast on the 2nd of July, last year, he has been over almost
all Spain, and a very considerable part of Austria. He gives
me a melancholy account of the wounds of poor Louis
de Lichtenstein, in the battle of Eatisbon. He must now,

* Son of Lieutenant-General the Hon. Charles Stuart, K.B., and of
Louisa, daughter of Lord Vere Bertie, and grandson of Lord Bute, the Mi-
nister ; born 1779 ; married Lady Elizabeth Yorke in 1816 ; created Lord
Stuart de Rothsay, 1828 ; died 1845.

1809] LETTER FROM PROFESSOR PLAYFAIR. 391

in all human probability, be for ever incapacitated for
serving, and this to a hero at twenty-nine ! When we
lamented to Charles Stuart how much he must have suf-
fered within this last twelve months, he owned he had
been very well amused too ; that the two flights which
he had witnessed and shared in, from Madrid and from
Vienna, were very entertaining. His is an active, pene-
trating mind, which, I dare say, while busily employed,
does not feel too much to be prevented treating the world
like the French philosopher, ' avec le sarcasme de la gaiete*
et 1'indulgence du mepris.'

Friday, 25th. — We all three drank tea at the Duchess
of Montrose's.* Nobody there but herself and three
daughters — fine, civil, and cheerful-looking girls — and the
only boy, much younger than any of them. They are in
Prince Staremberg's house, and the room in which we
have all spent so many evenings and so much time ! with
a work-table in the middle of it, so much the same, and
so much altered, made us all melancholy.

The following letter from Professor Playfair belongs to
this date. The extraordinary energy and clearness of
mind possessed by Mrs. Howe, at the advanced age of
eighty-seven, seems to have interested and surprised him
greatly :—

Edinburgh, Aug. 25, 1809.

MY DEAR MADAM, — I am sure, from the way in which Mrs.
Howe has set about resolving the problem, that she will
succeed in it easily. I have hardly met with anything more
singular than the ardour and acuteness of this lady at so
advanced a period of life. It is a phenomenon worthy to be
recorded in the history of the human mind, the more that it

* Caroline Maria Duchess of Montrose, daughter of the fourth Duke of
Manchester. The three eldest daughters were Lady Georgiana Graham,
married the late Earl of Winchelsea, 1814; Lady Caroline Graham ; Lady
Lucy, married, 1818, the late Lord Powis j Lord Graham, present Duke of
Montrose, b. 1799.

392 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1509

throws a cheerful gleam over that portion of life that is so
' dark and unlovely.'

To Mrs. Howe's impatience to be set right, and my own
mistakes in setting her wrong, I have great obligation, as they
have procured me the pleasure of hearing from you sooner than
I should have otherwise have done. I only wish that in addition
to what you have said, you had mentioned your health ; there is
no subject whatever in which I feel more interest : nothing in
which I should rejoice more than to have good accounts.

As to myself, I stood the journey very well, and continue to
get stronger every day, but I shall always have great pleasure
in recollecting that I am to date my recovery from my visit to
Strawberry Hill.

No wonder that your politics, as you say, are gloomy ; the
nation is in that unfortunate situation that the success of its
arms do no service either to itself or its allies. Of what use
is Sir Arthur W.'s very brilliant and dear-bought victory, but
by the honour it reflects on British valour ? The taking of a
small smuggling town is accompanied with neither glory nor
advantage. And the breaking of the armistice by Austria por-
tends, I fear, the total annihilation of that power. The Pope
has excommunicated Buonaparte. Does Austria trust in the
effect of what was once so terrible to herself, or does she trust
in the effect of our great expedition ? They are weapons
nearly of equal force.

Lord Frederick is here, in perfect health, activity, and spirits.
Sir William Scott, who is living also at Dumbridge, is much
with him. I am going with them to-day to see the bones of
the sea-snake, which are now here ; and likely to create a good
deal of dispute among anatomists, as to the species of animal
to which they belong.

I must entreat to be remembered to Mrs. Darner and Miss
Agnes.

Yours, with sincere attachment,

JOHN PLAYFAIR.

Saturday., September 2nd. — Went at two o'clock, by
appointment, with Lord Webb Seymour and with Miss
Colernan, to Bow Street, Covent Garden, to see the front
of the new theatre — very handsome, plain Grecian doric,

1809] THE DUKE OF BEDFORD'S STATUE. 393

but the pediment in the centre strikes me as not suffi-
giently extended for the extent of the front ; the basso-
relievos not sufficiently large for the large flat space in
which they are placed, and the statues in the niches at
each end of the front too small, both for their niches and
for the place of those niches. The composition of the
two basso-relievos do not tell their own story, and are
not well grouped, although particular . figures are good.
Then to Eussell Square to look at the Duke of Bedford's
statue. I like it much. The head is admirable, both in
the manner in which it is treated and its extraordinary
likeness. The drapery, his robes, managed without affec-
tation as well as any Eoman toga. The drapery of the
legs only I did not like ; they have a sort of thin twisted
trouser all round them, exactly like what belongs to the
Phrygian dress, and which has certainly nothing to do
with the robes of an English duke. The pedestal is
granite, with bronze basso-relievos — handsome. The
basso-relievos and the figures of the Seasons at the corner
of the pedestal are ill seen, from not being able to walk
round the statue.

Thursday, 1th. — Went with Sir H. Englefield to Fogg's,
the china shop. Some of the finest pieces of Indian china
I ever saw, and two beautiful dessert services of old
Sevres. Both sold as well as most of the other pieces of
Sevres in the same room to Lord Gywdyr — one of the sets
for 600/. Two China pagodas in this shop, most splendid
pieces of porcelain, at least seven feet high, standing on
the ground.

Saturday, 9th. — Went with Prince Staremberg and
Mrs. Darner to Astley's. Well enough entertained. ' The
Arab,' a pretty set of scenes, with a combat at the end,
in which twelve real horses appear upon the stage. Were
the stage larger, it would be a better spectacle ; as it is,
it is very well managed.

Tuesday, 12?A. — In the evening went to the Hay market

394 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1309

with Prince Staremberg and Mrs. Darner. Pieces : ' The
Voice of Nature,' ' Of Age To-morrow,' and ' Killing no
Murder.' The first is neither more nor less than the
judgment of Solomon enacted by a king of Sicily. The
hero (not King Solomon) was well acted by Mr.
Young, and the heroine not badly by Mrs. Gibbs. The
house was very full, and with very good company.

Sunday, 11th. — In the evening Lord Webb Seymour
came to bid us farewell. He sets out for Scotland to-
morrow morning. He parted with us kindly, almost
affectionately. How my heart thanks anybody for this
sentiment, and how much more from one so distinguished
by his intelligence and amiable simplicity of manners !

Monday, 18^. — Breakfasted early with my father and
sister, who set off for Tunbridge.

Tuesday, 19^. — Prince Staremberg gave an accurate
and amusing account of the opening of the new Covent
Garden Theatre the night before. Not a single word of
either play or farce heard.* The actors all went on as if

* In consequence of the expense attending the building of the new thea-
tre, it was found necessary to augment the prices of admission. One shilling
on the boxes, and sixpence on the pit. After five nights of noise and riot,
Mr. Kemble shut up the house, and submitted the accounts to a committee
of gentlemen. On reopening the theatre, however, the disturbances recom-
menced, and in addition to the other noises was an accompaniment of coach-
men's horns, trumpets, dustmen's bells, and watchmen's rattles. Many
came with the letters O.P. in their hats and upon their clothes, and joined
in the notable O.P. dance, as it Was called, which consisted in an alternate
stamping of the feet, accompanied with the regular cry of ' O.P.' in noisy and
monotonous cadence. The proprietors lost their temper. A pugilistic corps
was imprudently introduced into the pit, and disgraceful fights ensued. Mr.
Clifford, a barrister, appeared in the pit with the letters O.P. in his hat.
Brandon, the boxkeeper, procured his apprehension as a rioter, and carried
him before a magistrate, by whom he was discharged. Mr. Clifford indicted
Brandon for an assault and false imprisonment, in which indictment Bran-
don was cast. The proprietors were now obliged to make a compromise
that the boxes should continue at 7s., and the pit be restored to the old
price, 3«. 6d. The dismissal of Brandon was loudly called for and complied
with. He was afterwards reinstated in office, and the customary routine
restored. — Annual Register.

1809] THE " 0. P." ROWS. 395

to an attentive audience. No serious damage done to the
house. Walked at six o'clock to dinner at Mrs. Buller's ;
Cosway, and Eobert Clifford the company in the evening.

The modest pomp of about politics, the state of

the ministry, his anger with Eobert Clifford about Lord
Chatham, and his confused bothered arguments to me,
very amusing for a single evening.

Wednesday, 20^. — Mr. Mathew Montague called upon
me. More than half an hour's conversation with him
on politics and the curious state in which his friend
Percival and the rest of his associates in the Ministry
find themselves at present — Mr. Canning * declaring he
will be Prime Minister, and lead the House of Commons
or nothing, and wanting Mr. Percival to be Chancellor,
and go up to the House of Lords, Mr. Percival declaring
that his conscience and his attachment to the King pre-
vent this, as it would be throwing the King into the
power of Mr. Canning, whom he (the King) hates. To
what is this poor country reduced from the mere lack of
superior abilities ! At three o'clock set out for Lady
Button's, Moulsey Hurst.

Thursday, 21st. — Walked to Lady Tancred's,f which
joins this place. It is a pretty small house, which she

* It had been for some time apparent that the Duke of Portland could not
remain at the head of the Ministry, and Mr. Canning had put forward
his claims for that post. He laid a foundation for this arrangement by
affirming the principle that the head of the Ministry ought to be in the
House of Commons. This, as he considered, reduced the question to a
choice between Percival and himself, and he asserted his claims to a pre-
ference over Percival. The King and the Cabinet did not concur in this
view ; and, therefore, on the receipt of the Duke of Portland's answer, Mr.
Canning having failed in procuring the removal of Lord Castlereagh and in
becoming the successor of the Duke of Portland, lost no time in resigning his
office. — Administration of Great Britain from 1783 to 1830. By Right Hon.
Sir G. C. Lewis. From this state of things arose the quarrel between Lord
Castlereagh and Mr. Canning, that occasioned a hostile meeting on Putney
Heath, on the 21st Sept., 1809.

t Henrietta Lady Tancred, wife of Sir Thomas Tancred, daughter of
Rev. Offley Crewe; married 1805; died 1837.

396 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [ISOD

has fitted up very elegantly. Her sons lives with her.
Dined with Sir Thomas * and Lady Button. His conver-
sation always remarkably sensible, and liberal-minded,
and to the purpose.

Saturday, 23rd. — Walked with Lady Tancred to the
church of the village of West Moulsey, and from thence to
a house on a common, which, upon enquiry, I found in-
habited by my old acquaintance Thomas Pitt,f whom we
met when first in Italy. He is now a widower, with a
daughter grown up, and three tall sons. I made Lady
Tancred call with me upon him, but he was out. In the
evening, he and his daughter and sons came and drank
tea at Sir Thomas Sutton's. He is just what he was — a
quiet, regular, sensible man.

Extract of a Letter from Professor Play fair to Miss Berry.

Eleg House, Oct. 5, 1809.

... I have been much delighted with Mrs. Howe's solu-
tion of the question about the bees. That which is contained
in her second note is a perfectly accurate and scientific investi-
gation. It is not a little wonderful that a lady leading a
fashionable life should in the most active and vigorous state of
her mind have acquired such a skill in the abstract methods of
algebra as to be able to solve such a question. That at Mrs.
Howe's age she should be able and inclined to take the trouble
of doing it, is no less surprising than it is pleasing to observe.
I must request you to transmit her the enclosed note. This
must be a time of great agitation, I think, with you in London
and its neighbourhood ; the concussion reaches us at this distance
very forcibly. The misconduct of all our expeditions and the
duel of two Cabinet Members have filled up the cup of the iniquity
of the present administration. I hope Lords Or. and Gr. will not
think of a coalition ; that would only weaken and disgrace them.
You ask me about the author of the article ( Eeform ' in the last
number of the ' Edinburgh Eeview.' The article is by Jeffrey

* Sir Thomas Sutton, Bart., of Moulsey. Baronetcy extinct 1813.
t Vide Journal of 1783.

1809] KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE.

himself, and is in all respects, I think, worthy of the praise you
bestow on it. ' Lord Valentia ' is not in this nor will be in the
next, unless Miss Agnes, whose idea of the book was perfectly
just, will favour us with a critique on it. I have got a report
on the progress of science for the last nineteen years made to
Buonaparte last year, that I intend to give some account of it
in the next number.

Monday, October 2nd. — Returned to London.

Sunday, 8th. — Went to Wimpole.

Wednesday, 18th. — Set out with Lady Catherine and
Lady Elizabeth Yorke* in the chariot and four, and
Lord Hardwicke on horseback, soon after ten, for Cam-
bridge. Walked to King's College Chapel. The small
towers on the outside very light and beautiful. The
inside struck me much more than it did in the year 1786,
when I first saw it.f I did not feel so much the want of
the intersecting arches of aisles as I remember I did then.
It is disfigured by an organ-loft of the worst style of Henry
VIII. ; sort of sprigged pilasters. The painted glass win-
dows very fine. The east window, though very large, not
remarkable for the beauty of its tracery. Walked through
the two squares of Trinity ; the first from the street, with
the fountain in it, large, spacious, cheerful, and, I think,
as striking as the Wolsey Square at Christ Church, in
Oxford. In the chapel on one side of this square is the
statue of Sir Isaac Newton. J The head and the thought-
ful expression of the whole figure really admirable. One
regrets that such an artist was confined to the representa-
tion of such drapery as a silk gown. The hall of Trinity
a fine building. The servitors still dine there. Sir Isaac
Newton's picture at the head of the hall, and again in the
combination room. Saw the kitchen, in which seven

* Married, 1816, to Sir Charles afterwards Lord Stuart de Rothsay.
t In Horace Walpole's letter of June 30, 1789, he reproaches Miss Berry
with not sufficiently admiring King's College Chapel.

J By Louis Francois Roubillac, a native of Lyons. He died in 1762.

398 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. . [isog

persons are employed. Immense roasting apparatus, but
did not look altogether very clean. Second square of
Trinity a more modern building. One side of it entirely
library, with windows both ways. This library is sup-
ported upon four rows of Tuscan pillars.

Thursday, 19^. — Set out at nine o'clock in the coach
with Lord Hardwicke, Lady Catherine, and Lady Eliza-
beth, for Newmarket, twenty-three miles from hence. The
whole way from Cambridge the road passes through the
ugliest country that can be imagined. Newmarket Heath
is entered by a turnpike at what is called the Devil's
Ditch, a high mound, with a deep ditch of turf below,
extending for several miles, of which no account is given,
and which is in fact a curious antiquity. The Heath is
equally bare and open upon all sides, with nothing to
break the horizon but Ely Cathedral, seen at the distance
of ten or twelve miles. The inn is almost opposite what
are called the rooms, where men only meet, and which
have rather a handsome entrance of three arcades from the
street, and in this street Tattersall was selling horses by
auction, and all the young men, whose faces one knows
in London, were walking about, as well as all the fathers
of the turf, such as Sir Frank Standish, Sir Charles Bun-
bury, &c. &c. It had the oddest effect possible to see so
many figures one hardly ever sees out of London, walk-
ing about in a sort of village-town, for Newmarket is no
more, with the exception of some good houses. About
one o'clock ah1 these men mounted their horses, and pro-
ceeded towards the Heath, half a mile from the town.
We followed them in the carriage, with many other car-
riages, and Lord Hardwicke on horseback. The scene of
so many horsemen and a good many people on foot, all
trooping the same way, very gay and pretty. When
they got upon the Heath, it is so vast that they seemed
only like small groups upon it. It was said to be a day
of little sport. But four races were run : two subscrip-

1609] NEWMARKET EACES. 399

tions, for each of which six horses started ; and two
matches. But the style in which all this is managed here,
the rapidity with which one race follows another, though
on different courses — that is, on different parts of the
Heath — the scene at the betting post, one of which
belongs to each course, and is the only permanent thing
upon it, for the ropes are immediately moved, and the
winning post (a little machine upon wheels) is moved
from one to the other. All this was new and entertain-
ing to me. Between each race all the men and ah1 the
carriages are collected at the betting-posts. Just before
the horses start, the carriages take their places near the
ropes, and the crowd on horseback disperse from the post.
As soon as the horses are past, all the men follow them
to the rubbing-house to see them rubbed down, and
their clothes put on. These rubbing-houses, stables, &c.
&c., are little insignificant buildings, which occupy no
space and take off nothing from the extreme bareness of
the Heath. Stand there is none. The ladies are all in
their carriages. There were more than I expected to
see there. The fashionable custom at Newmarket is, to
have the plainest carriage and liveries possible, and the
gentlemen all to be mounted upon shabby-looking rips of
horses. The races were over between three and four,
and we returned to Wimpole much pleased with our day.
Wednesday, 2bth. — Another beautiful day. At eleven
o'clock the country people of the two neighbouring
parishes of Wimpole and Arlington came trooping across
the park to the kitchen-door to receive the portions of
beef, mutton, cold baked meat pies, bread and ale, which
Lord Hardwicke gave to every family upon occasion of
the day, the king having reigned fifty years, which very
unwisely Government chose to make a jubilee. A jubilee !
in the present situation of the country, both externally
and internally ! Lord and Lady Hardwicke had intended
that all the peasants should have been feasted together

400 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isog

before the house, for as every person was to do something
to celebrate this sad jubilee, it would have been very
wrong, thinking, as he does, of the Ministry to have been
behindhand. The report of the Princess Amelia's death
made them change this intended festival for the distri-
bution above mentioned. It was done in the most regular
manner. The cook having made allotments of the bread
and meat, according to the numbers in the family, one
from, every family came up, and received not only enough
to give one hearty meal, but enough to essentially better
the diet of the moderate ones all the week. The Lady
Yorkes and I were on the lawn before the door, seeing
the people coming and going with their portions, and
their cans and pitchers, and pails of ale. The appear-
ance of the people in general was comfortable, though
some very ragged and dirty. It was curious to ob-
serve the great and decided difference of industry and
sobriety in exactly the same situation in life, some labourers
with wife and two children upon twelve shillings a week,
perfectly tidy, and, though darned and patched, clean and
comfortable ; others, on the same wages, hanging in dirty
tatters. By one o'clock it was all over, and the people
enjoying the bounty at their own fireside. In the even-
ing there was a supper in the kitchen for all the workmen
employed about the house ; and in the housekeeper's
room, for the bailiffs, gardener, their wives, &c. &c.

Friday, Zlth. — Waked at last free from fever, and with
a feel of health which I have not experienced for these ten
days past. The weather a positive summer day. Drove
with the Lady Yorkes to two villages. In the first, Harleton
(called Alston), is a pretty old church with handsome win-
dows and an old little tower, besides the great tower, of
which the use is not apparent. A very good monument in
this church of the family of Fryer, in Charles I.'s time, con-
taining three large kneeling figures and one cumbent, all
well carved in alabaster and coloured, the whole within

1809] THEODORE BEZA. 401

an arch, supported by two posts of caryatides, and in
perfect preservation. At the other village, Haslingfield,
we went over the old manor house, for the last sixty
years inhabited by farmers, but which had been the manor
house of the Wendys, a family extinct in the male line in
1637; there are several good monuments of them in the
church, especially of the last of the family, a Knight of
the Bath, in the dress of Louis XTV.'s time. The manor
house was surrounded by a moat. There is a date cut
on stone in one of the chimney-pieces of 1555, which
belongs to Queen Mary's time.

Friday, November 3rd. — The Lady Yorkes and I drove
in the jaunting car down the avenue, two miles and a half
long. Never was there such an unmeaning avenue ; it
ends in nothing, not even in a gateway, for the entrance to
it from the road is on the side. The trees, of which there
are two rows on each side, and between which is the road,
are none of them good, though planted in the days of Lord
Oxford, and half way down is a round piece of water
(five acres), which can only be perceived from the garrets
of the house as the ground rises between. It is no longer
used as the approach to the house, and is separated into
fields by hurdles and gates.

Saturday, kth. — Went with Lord Hardwicke and his
daughter to Cambridge. Stopped at the public library,
a separate building between the schools and the Senate
House, contains about 100,000 vols., rich (they say) in
Bibles — not so, I think, in early printed books — the first
in 1460, but there are few of them very perfect, and
in fine condition. The oldest MS. of the fourth century,
given by Theodore Beza,* ' The Four Evangelists.' Some

* Theo. Bezas, or de Beses, born 1519, in Nivernois, of considerable emi-
nence as a writer. At the instigation of Calvin, he continued the version of
the Psalms in French, begun by Calvin ; and in 1659 a Latin version of the
New Testament, and was the author of many other works. lie was a dis-
tinguished advocate of the Protestant faith. Died at Geneva 1005, aged 87.
VOL. II. D D

402 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso9

good prints, fine impressions of Eembrandt, but not a
complete set. The library of Trinity, a fine large room,
with a hideous modern-painted window, contains about
30,000 vols., with a small fund for buying more ; but all
these libraries are without fireplaces or any means of
warming them, and seem but inconvenient places for real
study, without paper, pens or ink, or anybody to look for
the books wanted. Masters of Arts are allowed to take
any they may want to their own rooms, or even out of
Cambridge. In this library is a very curious dried man,
from the cave in the Island of Tenerifie, which has the
property of thus drying up the human body. It is in a
glass case ; the skin appears completely tanned upon the
bones, the hair is still on the head, and the teeth in the
jaws.

Monday, 6th. — Eeturned to North Audley Street.

Letter to Joanna Baillie.

Wimpole, Nov., 1809.

Mr DEAR JOANNA, — What are you doing ? and where are you
doing ? Troth, say you, if you had wanted to know, you would
have enquired sooner ; and troth, if I had been doing better
myself, so I should, answer I.

I have been here a month with people that I love, in a com-
fortable family-circle, surrounded by every comfort and every
luxury of life, and sitting in a library — such a library ! as
would —

Make those read now, who never read before ;
And those who always read, now read the more.

Yet even thus situated, with the perfect command of my
own time and nothing to fatigue me ; if I were to tell you how
little use I have been able to make of all these advantages ;
if I were to reckon up how many days in this month I have
enjoyed the free and unembarrassed use of my own faculties ; I
should make you, as well as myself, melancholy, and therefore,
as this is a good day with me, I will say no more about it.

1809] MR. ORME, THE PUBLISHER. 403

My last and only letter from you was on the 8th, from
Cotswold. You had been seeing Oxford, which I was delighted
to find had impressed your mind, exactly as it had always done
mine. During my stay here I have been to Cambridge, which
I had seen in a slight manner so long ago as to have almost
entirely forgotten. It cannot vie with the magnificent groups
of Oxford. But it has one College which may rival, if not
surpass, Christ Church in picturesque beauty, and one point of
view in which it appears singularly adapted for the seat of calm
contemplation and learned ease. I fear the evil-minded will
say, the calm is often unaccompanied by contemplation, and
the ease unaccompanied by learning. Still I must ever love to
see such great means brought together, and such assistance
offered to both, and must ever feel a degree of exaltation of
mind in places dedicated for so many centuries to the cul-
tivation of the noblest and most distinguished faculty of human
nature ; perhaps, too, a little spark of sexual vanity creeps in
with the wonder one cannot help feeling at men enjoying such
advantages and doing so little, and women labouring under
such disadvantages doing so much. This, my dear Joanna,
regards you more than any other female now living. Go on
then and prove to them, that poetry, at least, is as independent
of sex as of rule ; that it is a spark of ethereal fire kindled on
earth once in an Age, which Shakspeare alone has described,
and with which you are enlightened.

M. B.

To Joanna Baillie, from Wimpole, Nov., 1809.

Sunday, \§th. — Looked over all the three vols. of
Madame du Deffand's letters, published at Paris, which I
got yesterday ; sketched the little alteration necessary to
be made in my preface and life.

Monday, 2Qth. — In the evening Charles Stuart (Bute)
sat with me till twelve o'clock. We talked over politics,
on which, particularly foreign ones, he is better informed
than anybody, has seen more, and judges better.

Wednesday, 22nd. — Saw Mr. Orme, Longman's partner,
with whom I settled several particulars about my publi-
cation.

D D 2

404 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [iso9

Thursday, 23rd. — Worked hard at my 'Life,', and the
arrangement of the notices to be taken of the Paris pub-
lication.

Saturday, 2oth. — I spent the whole day in my garden
and greenhouse, completely enjoying myself and forgetting
everything but the pots I was arranging and the roots I
was transplanting, my mind in repose and my body in
activity ; but I never regret a day like this.

Wednesday, 29th. — In the morning saw J. Baillie, after-
wards worked at my Letters. Before ten set out for
Kensington. When we arrived the Princess had not come
out of the dining-room. In about ten minutes she ap-
peared with Lady Charlotte, and no other ladies. Her
manner very gracious and civil ; announced her appoint-
ment of Lady Charlotte Campbell to us as her Lady of the
Bedchamber, in place of Lady Sheffield. The gentlemen
soon followed her from the dining-room ; they were Lord
Henry Fitzgerald, Mr. Ward,* Mr. Gell, Mr. de Puysegur,
and Colonel Lindsay. The only break in conversation
was looking at Colonel Lindsay's model of a new sort of
telegraph. At twelve we supped in her own little morn-
ing room, looking full of litter, and very comfortable.
Conversation flagged a little ; however, the Princess sat
until half-past one, then rose, wished us a good night,
and we were at home before two.

Monday, December ±th. — A long visit from Stuart.
Advised him to go into Parliament, where his great know-
ledge of foreign affairs is so much wanted. He does not
wish and has no thought of it from feeling no talent for
public speaking, and thinking (falsely, I think) that it
would take him away from his profession, which he
likes.

Tuesday, bth. — A long talk with Mr. Orme (Longman's
partner) about the printing, the quantity, and the form

* Hon. John William Ward, afterwards Lord Dudley and Ward.

1809] ASSEMBLY AT THE PRINCESS OP WALES'S. 405

of the French Letters. Soon after, a long visit from my
bishop, with his notes to another cahier of the said Letters.
Eead to him my additions to the ' Life,' &c. &c. Inter-
rupted by the arrival of Lord Hartington, to whom I had
promised to be at home. His happiness at his sister's *
marriage quite charming.

Saturday, $th. — Dined with the Princess of Wales at
Kensington at seven o'clock. Company, only Lord Henry
Fitzgerald, Mr. Gell, ourselves, and Mrs. Lisle, in waiting.
Mrs. Lisle a sad aid to the Princess in entertaining her
company, not having a word to throw at a dog — but the
Princess wants no aid. Dinner went off very well ;
servants sent away and dumb waiters. Dinner and dessert
good, but plain, served upon the magnificent plate of the
Prince of Wales. In the evening, nobody else came.
The Princess talked of the apartments above stairs, and
proposed our looking at them. Luckily not a very cold
night. We all wrapped up, and, taking two candles only
with us, sallied up-stairs. The royal apartment very
handsome, both in size and fittings up ; furniture, properly
speaking, there is at present none. In the first room,
some of the finest cork models I have ever seen, of all
the principal ruins of Eome, and in all the rooms very
fine pictures, as far as we could judge by the light of our
two glimmering candles, carried in different hands. Supper
on the table when we came down, and nearly one before
we got away.

Monday, ll^A. — At home ah1 the morning. In the
evening, at ten o'clock, we went to the Princess of Wales'.
Meant to be an assembly. Princess Sophia of Gloucester
there. Some eight or ten old women and Lady Harrowby,
Lady Shaftesbury and her daughter, Mrs. C. Locke and
the two Churchill girls. The only men Lord Westmore-

* Lady Harriet Cavendish to Lord Granville Leveson Gower, afterwards
Earl Granville.

MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1809

land, Mr. Manners Button, Lord H. Fitzgerald, and the
two Churchills, father and son. Much later came Mr.
Edward Montague * and Delme. Princess played at a
round table with Princess Sophia, &c. &c. Delme and
Lady Barbara, Mrs. Locke, and the Churchill girls danced
reels, &c., in the saloon. The table dejeu in the dining-
room.

Monday, 18th. — Busy all the morning. Saw Mercier,
the printer, and gave him the first two years of the Letters
to print.

Tuesday ^ \$th. — Went to Co vent Garden. In Prince
Staremberg's box. This was the first night of the
theatre's being quiet after the late disturbances. Between
the play and farce one man in the pit produced a placard,
the object of which was to restore Brandon, and he was
supported by a man who spoke from the upper boxes ;
but both their voices were soon overpowered, and all was
perfectly quiet again. The house full. Play, ' Merchant
of Venice,' abominably acted, except Charles Keinble,
who did Bassanio well.

Wednesday., 2Qth. — Out in the morning in the carriage.
Great crowd in St. James's Park, seeing the first audi-
ence of the Persian ambassador at the Queen's house.

Sunday, 24:th. — Lady Harriet Cavendish married this
evening at Chiswick. Quodfelix faustemque sit !

The following thoughts on language, and the melancholy
reflections on time gliding on, belong to this year : —

On Language.

Oct. 30, 1809.

Mitford, in his ' Enquiry into the Principles of Harmony in
Language,' decidedly advises adopting the Italian mode of pro-
nouncing Latin, and the Athenian mode of pronouncing Greek,
as that most nearly approximating the ancient mode, and most

'•* Son of Mathew Montague, Esq., afterwards Lord Rokeby.

1809] THOUGHTS OX LANGUAGE. 407

likely to make us sensible of the harmony of their verses. (See
page 270 et passim.)

He notices the marvellous critical and grammatical learning
of the modern Greeks in their ancient language, which has
been uninterruptedly cultivated and taught to all persons pre-
tending to education, ever since it was actually the common
language of the people. (See page 276.)

In confirmation of what he says as to the acuteness of the
modern Greeks in those perceptions of meaning, independent of
reasoning, I remember with astonishment the depth and meta-
physical niceties of a certain Petrarchi, a modern Greek, who
gave me in some months' teaching, the few, and now almost
forgotten, ideas I ever had of that exquisite language.

This Petrarchi was, in all other respects, a singularly slow,
dull, stupid man, holding in contempt all other languages and
their literature, and above all others the Latin, to which he
never would allow my ignorance to help itself with an allusion
or a reference. But in reply to my enquiries as to the use of
the different parts of the Greek verb, what wonderful and pro-
found application of the action of the mind in thought, or the
powers it meant to express ! What nice disquisition of the
different tenses ! What feeling, imperceptible to others, of the
exact measure of passion, or of action expressed by those
tenses in which no English scholar, no Porson, no Parr, no
Knight, could follow him, and in which, to say the truth, I
much doubt if the organs of perception of a northern people,
either of mind or body, would ever have allowed them to be
sensible !

Time gliding on.

The stream of time seems now to carry me along so rapidly,
that I already approach the brink of the great ocean of eternity
into which that stream is hurrying to lose itself. I feel so near
disappearing with it, that I would fain catch at some idle weeds
as my bark glides by, to mark my passage.

How heartily do I and my fireside shake hands, when we
meet alone at night after an evening passed in any sort of com-
pany ; for alas ! however agreeable that company may be, to
have been in it, is now, to me, much more enjoyable than being

408 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1309

in it. Solitude broken by a book, and reverie when I can in-
dulge in it, are very real enjoyments. The rest is merely
desirable to give a zest to these. And so life glides by me !
I no longer make an attempt to mark its course, and aware of
the extreme rapidity with which it passes, feel the consolation
of knowing that I shall not long be oppressed, even by the
painful sense of my own insignificance.

1810] VISIT TO THE PRINCESS OF WALES. 409

JOUKNAL.
1810.

January ±th. — In the evening, Mrs. D. and Mr. Stuart,
whose conversation was most entertaining on the history
of Spain. His information, clearness, memory, and judg-
ment on matters of history are quite admirable.

Sunday, 1th — At ten o'clock went to the Princess of
Wales ; Princess Sophia of Gloucester there. C'est tout
dire as to the dulness of the party. The Princess knows
not what to say to her, nor she to the Princess, who at
the same time cannot indulge in her usual flights and con-
versation. The only women were (besides Mrs. Lisle and
Lady Carnarvon in waiting) Duchess of Leeds,* Lady De
Eos,f Mrs. C. Lock, and ourselves ; the men — Lord Grey,
Brougham, Lord W. Somerset, and half a score more
young ones, who could have not thought it royal sport
The Princess asked us to stay supper, but not being well
I got off.

Monday, 8th. — Waked, feeling well — a feeling for which
no creature that walks this suffering earth can be more
thankful nor more prone to enjoy than myself. Worked
hard at my Letters all the morning.

Thursday, llth. — Went to Strawberry. Walked over
to Little Strawberry : found everything out of doors in
excellent winter order and looking quite pretty ; but every-
thing at Twickenham now wears, to me, a melancholy

* Catherine, daughter of Thomas Anguish, Esq., widow of Francis
Godolphin, fifth Duke of Leeds ; married 1788 ; died 1837.

t Charlotte Fitzgerald Baroness de Ros, daughter and heir of the Hon.
Rohert Boyle Walsingham. wife of Lord Henry Fitzgerald; died 1831.

410 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isio

aspect : its charms are no longer for me. Well, this,
however, is not a real evil : the mind, if otherwise un-
encumbered, will get the better of these feelings, and turn
to other sources of amusement or occupation ; while the
memory of Twickenham will perhaps afford more un-
alloyed pleasure than its actual possession.

Of the publication of Madame du Deffand's Letters at
Paris, to which Professor Playfair alludes, Miss Berry
gives the following account, in her preface to the work
she edited : —

' Madame du Deffand bequeathed to Mr. Walpole the
whole of her MSS. papers, letters, and books of every
description, with a permission to the Prince de Beauvau
to take a copy of any of the papers he might desire,
before he conveyed them to Mr. Walpole. This per-
mission Mr. Walpole suspected he had extended to the
substraction of some of the original papers.'

' To this permission,' Miss Berry adds in a note, ' was
probably owing the publication of three volumes of
Madame du Deffand's Correspondence, which lately ap-
peared at Paris ; the originals of almost all of which are
in the Editor's possession.'

JOUENAL.

Saturday, I3th. — Worked at my French Letters all
morning ; at five o'clock set off for Chiswick.

Sunday, 14#A. — Sat with the Duchess and Lady Geor-
giana : an interesting conversation, in which her excellent
heart and plain unaffected good sense shone forth.

Sunday, 21st. — Went to dinner at Kensington. Not one
of the intended party but ourselves could come : instead,
we had Lyttelton, Douglas, Kinnaird,* Sir Eobert Wilson, f

* Brother to the late Lord Kinnaird, banker in Westminster ; died 1830.

t General Sir Robert Wilson was the son of Benjamin Wilson, the
painter, born 1777. He was engaged in active service in the army from
1793 to 1812, and was then appointed British Commissioner at the head-

1810] LADY HARRIET LEYESON GOWER. 411

Lord H. Fitz-Gerald, and ourselves — Lyttelton always a
host of spirits and conversation ; the party by no means
dull. Supper ordered at half-past eleven ; we caine away
at one.

Wednesday, 3Ist. — Called on Lady Harriet,* whom I
saw for the first time in her own house : it is beautifully
fitted up in real comfort and much good taste.

The following letter from Professor Playfair belongs to
this period : —

Edinburgh, llth January, 1810.

MY DEAR MADAM, — I long very much to hear how you are
and what you are doing, and must entreat that you will have
the goodness to tell me as soon as you conveniently can. A
publication which I have just seen gives me a good deal of
solicitude, as I know not how far it may interfere with your
intentions. I mean the letters of Madame du Deffand, just
published at Paris, containing letters of D'Alembert, Mon-
tesquieu, Renault, &c. You have no doubt seen it ; many of
the letters are extremely interesting, and some of them, I think,
can hardly fail to be the same that are in your collection. I
feel very much interested to know how this matter stands.

I suppose you are now in town enfamille. Much interesting
discussion about public affairs must soon take place. What
think you is to be the result ? Will the inertness and apathy of
the public prevail over all other considerations, and support an
administration unparalleled for ignorance and weakness : or is
the nation to be at length roused to a sense of its danger ?

I shall write to Mrs. Howe in a day or two, and send her
some problems.

JOHN PLAYFAIR.

P.S. — Lord W. Seymour, in whom I know you to take an
interest, is now here ; he is much better, but I think has not
recovered his former strength or activity.

quarters of the allied armies. In 1816 he was concerned in the escape of
Lafayette. His conduct at the funeral of Queen Caroline led to his dismis-
sal from the army in 1821, but he was reinstated in 1825. From 1818 to
1831 he was M.P. for South wark; from 1842 to 1849 Governor of Gibraltar;
died in London, 1849. He was a writer of several interesting works on
military subjects.

* Lady Harriet Leveson Gower*

412 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isio

Tuesday, February 13^. — At home all the morning,
working at my Letters.

Friday, ~\.6th. — In the evening we went at half-past ten
to Lady Cholmondeley's. A great assembly, with the
Persian Ambassador.

Friday, 2 3rd. — Went to the play ; in Mrs. Kemble's
box. ' The Free Knights,' and ' The Budget of Blunders.'
The first a sort of Sadlers Wells pantomime, but interest-
ing, and Young's acting admirable. 'The Budget of
Blunders ' all old blunders, but laughable from being well
acted. Got the first proof from Juigne, the new printer.

Wednesday, 28th. — Finest spring day that ever was felt,
which was lucky, for it was the fast day appointed, and
consequently a day of feasting and rejoicing to all the
lower orders of people. After church, Agnes and I
walked in Hyde Park. In my life I never saw it so full
of walkers.

Saturday, March 3rd. — I dined at Lord Ellenborough's.
Company almost the whole of the former ministry : Lord
and Lady Grey, Lord and Lady Lansdowne, Lord Gren-
ville, Mr. Thomas Grenville, Lord John Townshend, Lord
Holland, Duke of Norfolk, Lord Hartington, and Lord
Ellenborough ; himself the greatest speaker.

Sunday, kth. — At one o'clock went with Mrs. D. to Mr.
Hoper's, to stand godmother, with her, to his little girl.
Clergyman kept us waiting till near three, from the num-
ber of communicants there had been at St. James's Church
— above 300 ; this accounted for by the number of people
obliged to qualify, as it is called, for offices, and commonly
doing so at this church. In the evening a party at home,
which turned out more numerous than we expected, for
we had forty-three people.

Sunday, \Sth. — Went at half-past eleven to Kensington
Chapel, to hear Sydney Smith preach.* The sermon upon

* The Rev. Sydney Smith, born 1771, died 1845. He was one of the

1810] REV. SYDNEY SMITH. 413

' Toleration ; ' very excellent in its general principles, and
in the light in which Christianity ought to be considered.

Saturday, 31st. — Mr. Sydney Smith with rne in the
morning, looking critically over my Preface and Life.
Much mended by his observations, upon which I am to
work, and I set to it as soon as he was gone.

Tuesday, April 3rd. — Lord Aberdeen, the two ladies,
and myself, went to their box at Covent Garden. The
play, ' The Beggars' Opera,' not only most execrably sung
and acted, but the best parts cut out ; but whether from
carelessness or propriety I am at a loss to know.

Wednesday, 4th. — In the morning called on J. Baillie,
to whom I gave a good lesson, which she will not profit
by. Sat a long time with Mrs. Hope; always good-
humoured and unaffected. Hope and she the image of
domestic comfort and good understanding.

Thursday, 5th. — Lady Ellenborough called for me to
go to Mrs. Hope's. An enormous assembly ; the whole
house open, and the Princess of Wales there. Very civil
to me, although I had excuses to make. All the men at
the House of Commons, which sat till half-past seven
o'clock, and voted the commitment of Sir F. Burdett to
the Tower.

Friday, 6th. — Went at eleven o'clock to Brook Street,
to Mrs. Bouverie's. Found the whole of Berkeley Square
and Bruton Street illuminated ; several windows having

three or four literary friends who first started the ' Edinburgh Review.' His
eminence as a writer upon various subjects was great. His kindness and
charity were a blessing to the poor by whom he was surrounded; his warmth
of heart, the clearness and depth of his understanding, and his brilliant conver-
sation, made him the most genial of social companions, the most cherished
guest of every society he entered. His abounding wit and playful humour
were always founded on good sense and on practical wisdom, and he was often
apparently so amused himself with the comic combinations that sprang from
these sober foundations, that, as the bright thoughts came bubbling forth
in words, he enhanced the amusement of others, by his own frank mirth.
To have enjoyed the society of Mr. Sydney Smith must be regarded as a
privilege never to be forgotten, but stored with other memories of departed
joys.

414 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isio

been broken. On my return to North Audley Street,
between twelve and one o'clock, every house in Grosvenor
Square likewise illuminated, and a few boys and rabble
at the corners of some of the streets, calling ' Hats off,'
and ' Burdett for ever.' All quiet in North Audley Street,
and no lighting. Sir F. B. not gone to the Tower, and
resisting the order.*

Saturday, 1th. — Soon after two o'clock went out with
Agnes. Drove down Berkeley Street into Piccadilly, and
passed Sir F. B.'s house twice. The Horse Guards were
now patrolling before it, and the people, and for the far
greater part very decent people, in peletons only in the
street. From Piccadilly we went to St. James's Square,
and passed Lord Castlereagh's house, in which there was
not a pane left, and one or two of the lower window
frames broken in. The window shutters were all shut,
and many people looking at it. After sitting some time
with Lady Hardwicke we came again into Piccadilly, but
the crowd had become so great, both of carriages and
people, that we turned up Dover Street. No passage was
now allowed by the Horse Guards up Berkeley Street,
and the people were crowding down to Piccadilly in
every direction, and every window and the tops of the
houses crowded with people, in expectation of seeing him
pass to the Tower. But his resistance continued obstinate,
and the Government, with a folly, improvidence, and
weakness worthy of them, had never supposed resistance

* Veneris, 6° die Aprilis, 1810. — "Whereas the House of Commons has
this day adjudged that Sir Francis Burdett, Bart., who has admitted that
a letter, signed 'Francis Burdett,' and further part of a paper entitled
' Argument,' in Cobbetfs Weekly Register, of March 24, 1810, was printed
by his authority (which letter and argument the said House has resolved to
be a libellous and scandalous pap^r, reflecting on the just rights and privi-
leges of the said House), has been thereby guilty of a breach of the privi-
leges of the said House. The House of Commons hath thereupon ordered
that the said Sir Francis Burdett, for his said offence, be committed to His
Majesty's Tower of London.

1810] ARKEST OF SIR F. BURDETT. 415

possible, and were totally at a loss how to meet it. The
whole of Saturday the people again pelted everybody in
Piccadilly, and in the evening, in various parts of the
town, betrayed a disposition to rioting, and to insisting
upon lights ; why, or wherefore, neither themselves nor
any mortal could tell. Our street and all above it re-
mained quite quiet. At half-past nine we went to Lord
Dunmore's. Here we sat till past eleven, when I went to
Bruton Street, where I found them again illuminated,
though all was quiet; and in Grosvenor and Berkeley
Squares detachments both of Light Horse (the 13th) and
Foot Guards, and three pieces of artillery were stationed
— in the south corner of Grosvenor Square and the north
of Berkeley Square. Everybody saying that now it was
impossible Sir F. B. could be touched till after Monday,
when the House would meet and come to a decision.

Sunday, 8th. — Saw Mr. Hatchet, who lives at the cor-
ner of Clarges Street ; he reported Piccadilly to be full of
people, but free from outrage, owing to the presence of
the Horse Guards ; the people, however, getting into the
Green Park, had pelted them through the iron rails, upon
•which a troop was dismounted and marched by with their
bayonets fixed on their carabines, through the little gate
into the Green Park, and driving the people without mis-
chief to the walk on the other side of the pond, and keep-
ing that next the street clear. I walked to Lady G. Mor-
peth's, with whom I sat an hour ; it was a cold dry day,
and the streets were uncommonly full, but no apparent
disposition to rioting or anything more than general curi-
osity, and a general fabrication and belief in lies at the
corner of every street.

Monday, 9th. — A hard rain, which continued all night,
had helped to disperse the mob and keep all quiet in the
streets last night. The rain continued the whole of this day.
The first thing we heard in the morning was that Sir F, B.'s
house had been broken into by the civil power, that is

416 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isio

to say the police officers, at six o'clock in the morning, and
that he was then on his road to the Tower in a hired
coach-and-four, escorted by a strong party of cavalry and
Light Horse. He was carried up Bond Street so far, and
along Conduit Street and by Portland Street to the New

O w

Koad, the Lord Mayor having declined admitting his pas-
sage with troops through the City. The crowds in Bond
Street, Oxford Street, &c., were great, in spite of the con-
tinued rain, but no mischief ensued, and he was safely
lodged in the Tower, and received there by Lord Moira at
half-past eleven o'clock. Lord Moira got quite safe back,
the crowd in the streets pulling off their hats, and being
civil. But the cavalry on their return, especially the
Horse Guards, after long bearing the insults of the people
in the most exemplary manner, at last, in the narrow lanes
of the City, fired some of their pistols and carabines,
which killed two persons and wounded several others. It
continued raining hard and continually the whole day,
which considerably helped to drive home the idlers and
the lookers on, of which every great mob in a great
town is half composed. Sir Thomas Sutton called in the
morning to inform us of Lord Moira* having got to the
Tower quietly at half-past ten before his prisoner, and
then again to tell us of his safe return. In the evening
the town was quite quiet ; there were some patrols of sol-
diers in the streets, but the cannons were moved out of
the squares, and everything at the west end of the town
was tranquil, to which the continuous rain in some degree
contributed.

Wednesday, Ilth. — Saw Mr. Sydney Smith in the
morning ; went over again my Preface and Life ; adopted
almost all his corrections ; expressed with much warmth
and sincerity my thanks to him. I believe he was pleased,
but I have not known him long enough for him to know

* Afterwards Marquis of Hastings, constable and chief governor of the
Tower j died 1836.

1810] DEATH OP THE HON. C. YORKE. 417

me. In the evening to Mr. Whitbread's ; a large meeting
of all the party, and very agreeable.

Sunday, 22nd. — Walked off to St. George's Church ;
the church very full, and the sermon by Mr. Hodgson,
whom I went to hear, excited my attention.

Sunday, 29th. — Saw Dr. Baillie in the evening ; he had
been sent for to Wimpole, and was going next morning at
five o'clock.

Monday, 3(M. — Soon after eleven arrived the fatal let-
ter from Agnes, brought by Dr. Baillie, announcing poor
Charlie's * death at Wimpole the day before. The Lord
have mercy on his mother ! few things out of my own
family could, on her account, more heartily affect me.
While Agnes's melancholy letter lays before me, and my
mind is full of what at this moment the wretched parents
of this poor only boy are feeling, the carriages are rolling
by in hundreds to Lady Hertford's music and Mrs. Beau-
mont's ball ! But this is human life ! I know it, and have
had enough of it.

Thursday, May 3rd. — About nine o'clock Mr. Mon-
tague told me he had left Wimpole that day, and had
persuaded them all to come to town, and that they would
certainly arrive that night.

Friday, ±th. — In the morning went down to St. James's
Square with Agnes, and the poor afflicted souls had in-
tended seeing me as well as her, but I thought it better
not to-day.

Saturday, bth. — We went again down to St. James's
Square in the morning, and I saw and sat with them all.
It was a sort of relief to my mind, for I found them bet-
ter than I expected, that is to say, their grief of that ten-
der saint-like kind, which it is a comfort to share and to
be shared. This evening they are to go to Lady A. Bar-
nard's little place at Wimbledon, merely to avoid the

* Hon. Charles Yorke, died in his thirteenth year.
VOL. II. E E

418 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isio

number of people who would want, and whom they could
hardly refuse seeing them.

Friday, llth. — In the morning went by myself to Wim-
bledon. Much more comfortable than I expected it;
was a good day with Lady Hardwicke ; both she and he
had been occupied with the sheets of the French Letters I
had sent them, and with my Preface. They both talked
to me a great deal about it ; had made little corrections,
&c.

Thursday, 17th. — At home all morning ; saw Mr. Long-
man ; perfectly content with what I have been doing, and
very civil about everything that depends upon him. At
ten went to Lady Liddell ; * few people there ; poured in
by hundreds, all the north, and many from every other
point of the compass before twelve, when we went to
Lady Shaftesbury's, luckily almost next door in Portland
Place. The dancing began immediately : first, an English
dance ; then two quadrilles, admirably well danced ; high
benches round the room, upon which everybody mounted.
Then another English dance ; and then Miss Montgomery
danced a Bolero, and Lady Barbara immediately after-
wards the Tambourine dance, which was really admirable.
The ball, upon the whole, both with respect to numbers,
lighting, company, dress, and dancing, one of the most
brilliant I ever saw in London.

Friday, ISth. — Went to Barthelrnan's concert with Lady
Ellenborough. The party, Lord and Lady Ellenborough,
Lord and Lady Dunmore, Lord Sidmouth, sat together
very comfortably. The Handel part of the concert fine.
The Hanover Square Eooms quite full of persons, not one
of whose faces I had ever seen before. At the end of the
first act I went away, and walked down the whole length
of the room with Mr. Eogers, through rows of people, all
well or expensively dressed, who had paid half a guinea
for their tickets, such a place is London !

* Wife of Sir Thomas Liddell, afterwards Lord Ravens-worth.

1810] RELEASE OF SIE F. BURDETT. 419

Tuesday, 22nd. — Soon after one o'clock went to Sloane
Street, to call for Lady Charlotte Lindsay, to go to Lady
Buckinghamshire's* Venetian breakfast. We went on by
ourselves to Lady Hood's f house, next door to the break-
fast, from whence we proceeded with her. The house,
spacious, clean and pretty, the garden looked pretty, filled
with young and gaily-dressed people dancing, some of
them in masks, and many in dominoes, for this was the
notion of a Venetian breakfast ! The eating part of it
was luckily quite h PAnglaise, good bread and butter, tea
and coffee, &c.

Thursday, June 21st. — All the streets full of com-
mon people, moving about in all directions to see
Sir Francis Burdett's coming out of the Tower.
Went in our carriage down to Piccadilly just as
the procession, with its innumerable attendants, were
passing, and therefore turned directly into the court of
Devonshire House, and, going up a ladder from the stable
to the roof next Sir F. Burdett's, saw at our ease the
enormous troops of * unwashed artificers ' who accom-
panied on foot a long train of shabby carriages, and
squadrons of people on horseback, which formed the pro-
cession, in which Sir F. Burdett was not, having gone
quietly from the Tower by water to Putney, and from
thence to Wimbledon, to the great disappointment of his
followers ; a third part of whom, it is said, left the proces-
sion before it left the City. The numbers that remained,
joined to the spectators, certainly could not be less than
150,000 people ; I mean the number that we saw in the
whole length of Piccadilly. There were three shabby
open carriages, drawn by men, and filled with other men,
who were violently applauded and huzzaed. We none
of us knew any of them by sight, but were told Mr.

* Albinia, daughter of Lord Vere Bertie, and granddaughter of the first
Duke of Ancaster ; married Earl of Buckinghamshire, 1757 ; died 1816.
t Wife of Sir Samuel Hood, afterwards married to Stuart Mackenzie, Esq.

£ E 2

420 MISS BEERY'S JOURNAL. [isio

Waithman was in one of them. After they had passed and
huzzaed before Sir F. Burdett's house, they dispersed by
the other streets of Piccadilly.

Tuesday, July 17 'th. — Went to Lady EUenborough's.
Soon after eleven we set out for Deptford ; Lord Ellen-
borough, myself, and Mr. Pakenham, in their coach and
four, and Lady Ellenborough and the rest of the party in
two other carriages. An almost perpetual string of car-
riages of one sort or other the whole way to Deptford.
We had cards to go into the Victualling-office Yard.
From thence we walked into the Dockyard ; the crowd
on foot there excessive. With all our gentlemen, and Mr.
Towey, a Commissioner of the Victualling-office, at our
head, we could with difficulty make our way good, into
the covered seats set apart for tickets from the Lords of
the Admiralty and the Commissioners, on each side the
slip where the ship was.* We were at last placed very
near the end. The ship went off five minutes before two
most majestically, though we were too near her to see
much of the effect in the water. The river was crowded
with boats, and when this enormous ship drove for a
minute or two with the tide, before her anchors held her,
she must have sunk some of the boats, which were as
thick as they could lay around. But one person, that I
could hear, was drowned. The Princess of Wales was upon
the water in a green-covered barge, steered by a post
captain. Sir William Eule, one of the Surveyors of the
Navy, took us on board the King's yacht (that has always
been at Weyinouth) ; it is now in dock. A fine maho-
gany and gilded thing, really very handsome ; but gilt
blocks look somehow so inappropriate for use, that they
seem too misplaced to please. The crowd of common
people and their wives and children, upon the deck of this
vessel was great, and nothing but authority and great

* The ' Queen Charlotte,' 120 guns.

1810] LAUNCH OP THE ' QUEEN CHARLOTTE.' 421

names in the yard could obtain leave for the cabins being
opened to our party.

Friday •, 2(M. — Sat to work, and transcribed all the
many errors the accurate eye of Lord Hardwicke had
discovered.

Monday, 30 th. — Went by appointment with Eobert to
Grafton Street, to consult with Mr. Thornton about the
library he proposes adding to his house. The architect
with him — a Mr. Hopper ; his ideas in some respects
good.

Thursday, August 2nd. — Received my copies of the
Letters from the bookseller.

To Mrs. Cholmeley.
Strawberry Hill, Tuesday, 7th August, 1810.

I have just been writing a line to Mr. Sydney Smith to inform
him that a copy of Madame du Deffand's Letters awaits his
orders, and to beg that as soon as he has cast his eye over the
vols., that he will lend them to you. . . . The preface and life
you will, I hope, be curious to read as my writing. You will
tell me truly how they strike you. Even Sydney Smith said he
never knew any one who bore cutting and slashing so well. . . .
You mistake in supposing both our houses on our hands. Little
Strawberry has been let ever since the 1st July, to Dr. Bell, a
Prebendary of Westminster. But these yearly lettings answer
so ill, and are such a continual source of trouble and vexation
to me, that I mean to seek letting it upon lease. ... If we
obtain not as much for the year, as we now get for six months,
we shall be rich by the change, and every such change is abso-
lutely necessary to be made in these days, when our privations
are at least as great as other people's. The term of our yearly
job horses being out, we have none at present, and heaven
knows when we shall be able to take them up again, while
horse-hire and everything else augments in price every day. In
spite of all my determinations not to allow money, or consi-
derations about it, to wrong the remainder of my life, it is
impossible not to be sometimes plagued, and sometimes melan-
choly both with what one does, and what one does not do. We

422 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isio

have at present the happiness of having with us our friend and
cousin, Mrs. Bannister (Basleton), whose husband has kindly
allowed her to fly up for a month to see Agnes. The rational
cheerful happiness of her well-ordered mind, in her union with
a sensible man who knows her value, and who doats upon her,
is really quite a consoling view of existence, and her having so
well deserved the quiet comforts she enjoys by all her former life
and sufferings, allows one reasonably to hope they will last.

JOUKNAL.

Tuesday, 14^A. — Eeceived the two notes for a hundred
pounds each for my book, from Longman, payable six
months hence.

Thursday, IQth. — I worked hard at restoring all the
Du DefFand papers into their original box, which is to be
left here.

Saturday, 18th. — Walked over with Bab and my father,
after breakfast, to Little Strawberry. The garden full of
small fruits, which the tenants do not seem to destroy.
My flower-garden overgrown with weeds. I was begged
to go in and see Dr. Bell, which I did, and found the poor
little deaf old man sitting in the drawing-room, unable to
take exercise, and starving of cold because he could not
think of having a fire in August !

Saturday, 2bth. — The Princess of Wales had announced
herself to Strawberry Hill at five o'clock ; she did not
arrive till half-past six o'clock. She had with her only
Lady Charlotte Campbell, though she had said she meant
to bring with her two or three gentlemen. She had
waited for Mr. Gell and Mr. Craven,* who had mistaken
the day. We had a cold dinner, as it was supposed to be
luncheon only. The Princess was very lively, though the
company was certainly not very amusing for her. She
remained long at table, then walked and sat in the garden,
and afterwards looked at some books of engravings ; and

* Hon. Keppel Craven, son of William Lord Craven ; born 1779.

1810] VISIT TO HAM HOUSE. 423

was sufficiently amused to remain till twelve o'clock,
instead of leaving at half-past nine when the carriage was
ordered. The Princess talked a great deal to me, and, as
the company was so small, I exerted myself to keep up
the conversation, and to respond to her gracious manner.

Tuesday, 28#A. — We went to Ham House. The house
and the gardens are in the old style ; that is to say, the
style of Charles II., and belonged to the Duke of Lauder-
dale,* who married an heiress, Countess of Dysart, in
her own right. There are a great many portraits, some
of them very good, and several charming little pictures of
the Flemish school ; much old furniture, and some can-
delabras in silver, chased to perfection. I was much
pleased with the house and its situation, surrounded as it
is by large avenues of trees, with its terraced gardens, and
its great bowling green ; and it needs only to cut down a
few trees to enjoy a most smiling scene, yet as perfectly
quiet and secluded as if the house were placed in the
furthest county from London.^

Friday, 31st. — During the night there was a clap of

* John Maitland, second Earl of Lauderdale, was created Marquis and
Duke of Lauderdale 1672. He married first, Ann, daughter of Lord Home,
secondly, 1671, Eliza Countess of Dysart, relict of Sir Lionel Tollemache,
Bart. ; died 1682.

f The description of a visit to Ham House from the pen of Queen Char-
lotte, addressed to one of her own family, may be of some interest to the
reader. The spelling, capital letters, &c., are retained, as in the original
letter : —

' I am to thank My dearest .... for a very Kind Letter I received yes-
terday, & wished to have answered it immediately, but was prevented doing
it by a Visit to Ldy Caroline and M™ Darner at Ham, where we were
received most kindly in Every Sense. This little retreat is quite a little
Earthly Paradise, The House stands in a Green Field Incircled by Most
Magniticant Trees all Planted by the late Grl Carpenter, A Gravel Walk
goes all Round the Shrubbery and also round another Field which goes to
the end of Ham walks, there they keep three Cows the produce of their
Milck is sufficient for their Establishment. The House consists below Stairs
of a Small Hall, Drawing Room & Dining Room & a Small Parlour which
is Lady Portarlingtons Painting Room when she inhabits the House. The
Drawing & Dining Room are entirely furnished with Lady Portarlington's
Paintings Consisting Chiefly of Copies after the Old and most Famous

424 MISS BEKRY'S JOURNAL. [isio

thunder which awoke and frightened everybody, and I
above all, who am always, to my shame, afraid of thunder.
It was a single clap, which seemed to be immediately over
London, but which really fell at Kensington, near the
palace. Several panes of glass were broken by the per-
cussion of the air ; and a large tree, near the entrance to

Masters. A Picture of Her Mother in a Turkish Dress, one of the Present
Lrd Bute, & one of Sr Charles Stewart are those not done by Her. From
the Salle de Companie You go into the Gardens where under the Shade of
the finest Trees possible You may save Yourself from the Violence of the
Sun. Above Stairs there are upon the Best Floor four excellent Bed
Chambers, & M" Darner assures me that the Attics are good & the
Offices also. We Dined at three & had to the Honour of M™ D.'s House-
keeper & Cook as Elegant & good a Dinner as if a Cordon Bleue had
directed it, we were very Chearfull & a little after four we drank Coffe ;
the Rain having ceased Ldy Caroline wished to shew me from Ham walks
the View of the Biver & likewise that of Lord Dysart's Place & as She
has been favoured with a Key She offered to carry us there, we walked &
most delightfull it was there, & saw not only the House, but all the Beau-
tifull Old China which a Civil Housekeeper offered to show us. It is so
fine a Collection that to know & admire it as one ought to do it would
require many Hours, but when all the Fine Paintings, Cabinets of Excellent
Workmanship both in Ivory & Amber also attrack Yr Notice Days are
required to see it with Advantage to oneself. The House is much altered
since I saw it by repairing & tho' the Old Furniture still remains it is now
kept so clean, that even under the Tattered State of Hangings & Chairs
One must admire the good Taste of Our forefathers & their Magnificence.
The Parquete" Floors have been taken up with great Care, Cleaned & re-
laid & in order to preserve them the Present Lord has put Carpets over
them, but of Course not Nailed down. I saw this time also the Chapel
which is so dark & Dismal that I could not go into it. Upon the whole the
Place remaining in its old Stile is Beautifull & Magnificent both within &
without, but truely Melancholy. My lord is very little there since the
Death of His Lady for whom He had the greatest regard & attention.
We returned by six to Ham, and left Our Hostesses & Ldy Cardigan immedi-
ately, we were back time enough to Dress before the Kg returned from
London, & I had before that a Visit from Augustus [Duke of Sussex], who
sets out to Day to join the Prince, but means to see Oxford & Blenheim in

His way. And now my dearest I know of no more to entertain

you for to Day, & if I have succeeded in giving You but a Quarter of an
Hours Amusement I shall be amply rewarded, but the greatest reward You
could give me, & the best News from Y' Part of the World would be that
of Yr being better which I hope will soon be attained by Fresh Air, and in-
hailing the Soft Sea Breathe. This is the Constant Prayer & wish of

Yr affectionnate & Friend,

« the 7th Sep1* 1809.' < CHARLOTTE.

1810] A THUNDER STORM. 425

the Princess of Wales's apartments, was half torn up. Sir
Harry Englefield, Eogers, Gell, and Keppel Craven, who
went out the instant supper was over at the Princess's,
were surrounded with a blue flame, which serpentined in
a thousand little zigzags of fire ; and the noise of the
thunder afterwards sounded like the largest pieces of
artillery fired off in their ears. They all felt deafened for
a time, and then quitted their carriage, and, expecting
the continuance of the storm, re-entered the Princess's
apartments ; but in less than an hour the sky was perfectly
clear and covered with stars.

Saturday, September \st — Notwithstanding the storm
last evening, the morning is hotter than ever. The ther-
mometer yesterday and to-day was up to 86 and 89.

Saturday, 8th. — I went to Kensington, to Lady C.
Campbell, to take Madame du Deffand's Letters to the
Princess. The Princess, who came into her ladyship's
room, thanked me in the most gracious manner possible.
She remained talking with me for more than an hour, and
invited me to dine with her to-day, but I was furnished
with an excuse, which she accepted ; I was going into the
country, and she took leave of me, saying a thousand
amiable things, and begging me to remember her, and to
preserve her in my ' good graces.'

Wednesday, I2th. — I saw Mr. Hope, to whom I had to
talk upon the subject of the decorations of Mrs. D — -'s
theatre, and to ask his advice about Mr. Thornton's
intended library.

The following letters, from Colbert, Bishop of Kodez,
Professor Playfair, Mr. Cambridge, Mr. Hope, and Mr.
Eoscoe, bear testimony to the impression made on them
by the manner in which Miss Berry had executed her
arduous task as editor of Madame du Deffand's Letters,
and as author of the preface and notes, which added so
much to the interest of the work : —

426 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isio

Londres, le 3 d'Aout, 1810.

J'ai recu hier au soir, Mademoiselle, un gros paquet avec une
petite lettre attachee a 1'enveloppe. J'ai ouvert 1'un et 1'autre
avec 1'empressement de la curiosite, et en presence de plusieurs
personnes.

La petite lettre etoit de vous, et m'annoncoit le magnifique
present que vous m'avez envoie. Elle etoit charmante cette
lettre, pleine de bontes ; j'en etois confus, et cependant ma
modestie n'a pas resiste a la tentation de la montrer a mes amis.
Us 1'ont tous jugee,comme moi,digne de toute ma reconnoissance.
Je ne merite pas la centieme partie de tout ce que vous m'y
dites d'honnete et de flatteur. Et pourquoi m'avez-vous offert
ce magnifique don? N'etois-je pas deja assez honore, assez
heureux d'avoir pu manifester un peu de zele et de bonne
volonte pour le succes d'un objet qui vous interesse et qui est
interessant par lui-meme ? Eeprennez done vos remercimens ;
mais je garde 1'ouvrage comme votre bienfait, une marque
honorable de votre bienveillance et de votre amitie.

En parcourant les volumes, j'ai ete en general content de
1'impression, quoi que le n ombre des erratas soit considerable,
et je ne doute pas du succes de 1'ouvrage. Je m'attens de la
part des imprimeurs a plus d'exactitude dans une seconde edition.
Quant a 1'ouvrage meme, je regrette que 1'on y ait laisse subsister
quelques taches. Je ne releverai que les epigrammes qu'on lit
dans le 2 volume, pages 385, 386, 515, et 516. Elles peuvent
faire de la peine a des personnes bien cheres aujourd'ui a tout
bon Francois. Mais il est trop tard d'en faire a present 1'obser-
vation.

Quoi qu'il en soit, Mademoiselle, recevez mes respectueuses
actions de graces, disposez de moi dans toutes les circonstances
de ma vie ou j e puis vous servir utilement ; ne pensez jamais a
me remercier, et songez que je serai toujours flatte que vous
daigniez m'employer a promouvoir vos louables vues. Ce sont les
sentimens bien sinceres de votre fidele serviteur

F. S., Ev. DE Ex Z.

Edinburgh, 22nd Sept., 1810.

MY DEAR MADAM, — I have had the pleasure of your letter,
and since, of the Letters of Madame du Deffand, which last
arrived safe by the mail three days ago. Accept my best
acknowledgments for both. I have had little time yet to look

1810] TESTIMONIALS. 427

into the Letters ; the preface is excellent, very well written and
very judicious. The notes bespeak that great familiarity with
the characters and persons who figure in the book, which cannot
be acquired by reading, and are the result of living and con-
versing in the first circles both in France and in this country.
I find a great deal of amusement and interest in the few
letters I have yet read ; yet I am not sure that the book will
be so generally interesting as it deserves to be ; its popularity, I
think, is likely to be confined to a part of the fashionable and a
part of the literary world, the part of each that takes a parti-
cular concern in the society and literature of France, or of what
was the society and literature of that country. You do not, I
am persuaded, expect more than this, and this I think you
cannot fail to have.

I have been a great wanderer this summer, though my route has
not lain far to the south. I made a visit to the Giant's Cause-
way, with which I was extremely delighted ; though from descrip-
tion and drawings, I found I had conceived a tolerably exact
idea of the structure ; yet the impression from the greatness
and magnificence of the objects could not be anticipated but
by an imagination much more powerful than mine. From the
Giant's Causeway I went to Dublin, and returned much de-
lighted with all that I had seen, and with most of those whom I
met in Ireland. Since that, I have been in the north of Scotland
on a short excursion, and have now begun to prepare seriously
for the academical winter, which begins unfashionably enough
in November. If all is well, I hope to see you in May.

Some weeks ago I saw Miss Phil. Godfrey, who was here on
her way to Ireland with Lady Kingston. She is very agreeable ;
I hardly ever had an opportunity of hearing her speak before,
but her conversation is very pleasing.

I will say nothing of public matters, which seem to go on as
bad as possible, but in the affair of Walcheren we have wit-
nessed the utmost degradation that the country ever experienced,
and anything short of that infamy, is to be reckoned a kind of
prosperity. Among private evils, the death of Lady Rosslyn is
one of the most melancholy I have known. How does Mrs.
Bouverie bear up ?

A most amiable and charming woman, Mrs. Apreece,* who

* Jane, daughter of Charles Kerr, of Kelso, Esq., married, first, to Shuck-

428 MISS BEKRY'S JOURNAL. [isio

has been with us in Scotland for near a year, is just returning
to the south, greatly to our sorrow (to mine certainly very much) ;
she is extremely desirous of becoming acquainted with you ;
she is a great friend of some of your friends — Mrs. Clifford par-
ticularly— and so I hope you will early be able to meet. She
will not be in London till February.

What shall I say about Mrs. Howe ? nothing but that I am to
write her in a post or two a letter full of problems and apologies.
I wish you could sometimes, especially now that you are relieved
from the duties of publication, find time to write me a line or
two in the winter. You do not know what a treat your letters
are to me. Be kind enough to remember me to Miss Agnes,
Mrs. Darner, and Mr. Berry.

Yours, with the most sincere and affectionate attachment,

J. PLA.YFAIR.

Extract of a letter from Mr. Cambridge to Miss Berry.

Twickenham Meadows.

. . . . I was about to take up my pen to you to express
the pleasure and satisfaction we have just experienced in the
perusal of your * Life of Madame du Deffand,' which does great
credit to your judgment and feeling. The plain and clear re-
presentation you have given of the mischiefs of French manners,
and the sufferings she endured from the want of those consola-
tions which religious impressions are so well calculated to
furnish, to infirmity and old age, will do more to recommend
religion to your readers, than any more direct argument on the
subject could do. This sketch of yours reminded me strongly
of some of Sir Joshua's single heads, so much and so justly
admired for their simplicity and truth. I only regret you have
not taken a larger canvas and introduced a greater variety of
figures and objects. But it was the success of his single figures
which led that great painter on to his Ugolino.

Extracts of a letter from Mr. Hope.

MY DEAR Miss BERRY, — Your preface I devoured the moment
I got it. I have since not despatched, but finished your life,
with the highest relish for the ease of its style, and the pro-
burgh Ashby Apreece, Esq., and afterwards, April 1812, to Sir Humphry
Davy. Sir Humphry died May 1829.

1810] TESTIMONIALS MR. HOPE. 429

found reflections and just estimate of Madame du Deffand's
own character, and that of her age and society which it con-
tains. I now feast upon your notes, and a delightful treat they
are. Avec une telle sauce on mangerait. . . No matter
what, I read all out to Louisa, who owes you the whole of the
few moments of enjoyment she feels at this period of anxious
expectation, and desires me most warmly to thank you for
them. I regret your wire-wove copies having been spoilt, be-
cause it is a disappointment to you. To me the two lines
inscribed on the title page render my little copy what no sheets
of gold could equal. . . .

What a labour those notes must have cost you, notwithstand-
ing il y parait si pen, and yet they preserve the true character
of notes — subordinate to the text; explaining, sometimes cor-
recting, and never eclipsing it by a disproportionate length.

From Mr. Roscoe to Miss Berry.

DEAR MADAM, — It was not possible that your obliging note
of the 26th could have arrived at a more welcome moment ; in
fact, I may almost be said to have past the last ten or twelve
days in your society; for having been confined to the house
by indisposition, my chief pleasure has been the perusal of
Madame du Deffand's Letters with the notes, together with Lord
Orford's correspondence, which, of all the books in our language,
is the best calculated for the study of a convalescent, and I
really believe is better than most of the physic in the pharma-
copoeia. On the table before me lay the beginning of a letter
intended to thank you, for the four elegant volumes which I
some time since received, although I have scarcely till this in-
terval of leisure, had time to look into them. These letters
seem to me to be curious and interesting, but they open the
way to other reflexions than the author herself was ever aware
of. What these are, I need not inform you. The judicious
and excellent notes which accompany them show that you have
considered them in their proper light, and that you are as well
aware as I am, that the horrible depravity, selfishness, insin-
cerity, and licentiousness, which, under the example of the
French monarchs, had infected all the higher ranks of society,
and impoverished and enslaved the nation at large, could have
no other result than that which has actually taken place.

430 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [mo

As to Madame du Deffand herself, I have some doubts
whether we shall so nearly agree. She is a true Frenchwoman,
with great penetration and shrewdness, but little discretion;
great pretence to sentiment, but wholly without a heart —
witness her conduct with respect to Voltaire, whom she pro-
fessed to esteem and admire above all her other friends, but
whose death she has noticed with the utmost indifference, and
whose yet warm ashes she insulted with a wretched witticism.

Mad. du Deffand was sick in mind all her life, and could
never discover the cause. Mr. Walpole, her true friend, seems
from time to time to have given her some good advice, which
she had the philosophy to take in good part, as a patient receives
a bottle of physic, the contents of which be resolves never to
swallow. Her disease was vanity ; her opiate, admiration ; and
as this, like other opiates, requires an increased dose, she be-
came miserable when she could not obtain it. How happy it
would have been for her if, instead of depending on the opinion
of others, she had relied on herself; chastised her mind; im-
proved her understanding — naturally so capable of it ; viewed
the present and the future, not through the glass of fashion, but
with the eye of reason ; and whilst she enjoyed the calm and
temperate pleasures which even her situation afforded, have
looked forwards with hope and confidence to a better state. But
retirement was not fashionable ; good sense was not fashionable ;
sincerity was not fashionable ; religion was not fashionable ;
and morality still less so ; in short, it was the fashion to turn
everything that is truly estimable in public and private life into
ridicule ; and Mad. du D. had the assurance to sing, in the pre-
sence of the King of Sweden, her Chanson des Philosophes,
little thinking that such outrages upon decency were only the
dreadful notes of preparation for those horrible calamities, which
were so shortly to ensue.

It would however be unjust to Mad. du D. not to acknowledge
that the easy and unaffected style of her letters must ensure the
approbation of the admirers of the best models of French com-
position, and that the succession of important personages who
pass in review before her, will amuse those who like to contem-
plate the shadows of fallen greatness.

If I have been pleased with your notes on Mad. du Deffand,
I am delighted with the favourable opinion you have so kindly

1810] TESTIMONIALS — MR. W. ROSCOE. 431

expressed of my collection of tracts on the war. In proportion
as those who avow such opinions are few, the approbation they
express is dearer to the feelings of an author ; besides, the ladies
of the present day are so warlike, that it is really extraordinary
to find one, who has retained the clear and unprejudiced use of
her understanding amidst the attempts that are made on all
hands to confound right and wrong, and to persuade us that no
other nations have either a right to think for themselves, or to
be happy in their own way.

To talk over these subjects with you, and for once in my life
to visit the real ' Castle of Otranto ' before I go to meet its late
possessor, would, I assure you, give me great pleasure — a pleasure
which I do not yet wholly despair of obtaining. Lord Orford's
character improves upon me every time I read his works. His
wit is universally acknowledged; of his political sagacity and
foresight he has left many very striking proofs ; but, above all,
there are so many instances of a kind and beneficent disposition,
and such an enlarged and impartial solicitude for the good of
others, without the least affectation or pretence, that I cannot
but venerate his memory ; and in this sentiment find an addi-
tional motive of assuring you how truly I am,

Dear Madam, your obliged and faithful friend,
And very obt. sert.

W. EOSCOE.
Allerton, 30th Dec., 1810.

JOUENAL.

Monday, September 24$. — Arrived at Guy's Cliff. We
received the heartiest of welcomes from our two friends
here. Nobody staying in the house.

Tuesday, 25$. — Walked all round the place after
breakfast, and Mr. Greathead showed us all the alterations
he has made in the house, which render it one of the
most comfortable gentleman's houses I know. The out-
side, too, is managed with great taste ; and a little excres-
cence is a beauty instead of a deformity. Mr. and Mrs.
Wilmot dined here — two young people living within two
miles of this place ; she a very pretty woman.

432 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isio

Wednesday r, 26^. — At one o'clock we went to Lea-
mington, to see the new houses building and to be built
on Mr. Greathead's land — land of which he has sold three
acres for 1,200/. an acre, or 5s. a yard. The houses are
all building by an associated company of people at War-
wick, who have subscribed and are expending 50,000£.
here. The houses now building are in rows, like any
street in London, and are in the very worst taste possible,
though upon land gently rising from the old village,
through which the high road passes, and which might be
very pretty. Our friend has nothing to do with the build-
ing ; he can lay no such restrictions or commands as his
excellent taste would dictate, without losing the opportu-
nity of making that money of his land which he has
expended to his more solid comfort at Guy's Cliff. Other
land, still nearer the old village, has been sold for build-
ing at 15s. a yard, or at the rate of 3,500/. an acre, at this
place, which is fast rising into a considerable town and
watering-place.* The two Misses Williams and their
brother dined and slept here. They are the son and
daughters of the clergyman in this neighbourhood. One
of the daughters is entirely blind ; she is very cheerful
and handy, and consequently interesting, and they all
seemed well informed.

Friday, 28th. — Mr. Greathead and Mr. Williams rowed
Agnes and me down the river to Warwick Castle. The
navigation down the Avon is very agreeable ; a quiet
stream overshadowed with broad alders, and flowing
through a country of quiet sylvan beauty.

Sunday, 30#A. — Went to Milverton Church. An ex-
cellent sermon from Mr. Lane, (?) on the true spirit, and
in the true spirit of Christianity.

Monday, October ~Lst. — We all dined at Kenilworth
with Sir James and Lady Lake. Sir James Lake's house

* The population of Leamington at the last Census was estimated at
15,724.

1810] VISIT TO STONELEIGH. 433

very pretty of its size, entirely of Mr. Greathead's con-
trivance ; to me, who saw it as it was bought, it is won-
derful. The purchase-money for it and fourteen acres of
land, was 2,000/. The house, its alterations, and fittings
have cost 5,000/.

Wednesday, 3rd. — Waked low and ill, and would will-
ingly not have dined out, but Mr. Greathead wished it.
I went with them to Mr. Parke's, at Warwick, a great
worsted—spinner, who is likewise a sort of agent and
banker to Greathead, and one of whom he has a high
opinion ; seems a sensible intelligent man, is a dissenter,
and much in the Whig party at Warwick. He was
cruelly persecuted at the time of the Church-and-King
riots at Birmingham. I liked the plain unpretending
manner of living of the Parkes.

Saturday, 6th. — Greathead, my sister, and myself went
to Stoneleigh, about four miles from hence. We passed
the house or abbey, as it is called, from an abbey for-
merly on the site of the present clumsy house, and drove
on to the park. Before we entered we met our acquain-
tance Mrs. Leigh (whose husband* is to succeed to this
place after the present incumbent), -and the old incumbent
himself, and Mr. Eepton, planning future improvements ;
very probably, like the Irishman's, for the worse. They
gave us a key to the park, but we continued on foot, and
were led by Greathead to the most beautiful parts of the
most beautiful woodland scenery. The Avon, which
runs through it, is here in some parts a pretty rippling
trout stream, with such magnificent oaks hanging over it
as mine eyes never before beheld ; and in others it has
steep sandy banks, covered by the same magnificent trees,
which in this park are in every state and stage of growth,
of full vigour, and of natural decay, producing every

* James Henry Leigh, Esq., of Adelstrop, afterwards of Stoneleigh ; born
1765 ; married, 1786, the Hon. Julia Judith Tvrisleton, eldest daughter of
Thomas Lord Saye and Sele; he died 1823.
VOL. II. F F

434 MISS BEKKY'S JOURXAL. [isio

possible accident of woodland scenery. Many of the oaks
measured by Mr. Greathead are twenty-seven and twenty-
nine yards round. If this park shows some marks of
4 neglect, it is, at least, unspoiled by improvement. After
our walk we returned to the house, and saw the principal
rooms on the ground-floor of one of the worst-contrived
large houses of fourteen windows in front I ever saw;
most of the rooms are oak boxes, floored and lined with
oak, of which one may have too much, though I love it.
We met Mrs. Leigh and her party on our road home.
Mr. Eepton (whom I had never seen before), fired off an
exceeding fine complimentary speech to Agnes and me
from the window of the carriage. The Leighs possess
12,000 acres, in the parish of Stoneleigh alone, of
excellent land, much under-let at 30s. an acre, and in
the county of Warwick, not less than 22,000 acres, upon
which, certainly, 50,000/. worth of wood might be cut
down — I don't say without injuring, but positively doing
good to the estate. What a magnificent possession of
real wealth ! It has been long thrown away upon people
who have done no good, encouraged no improvements,
employed no fine arts, collected nothing ; there is not even
the pretence to a library in the house ; and the present
possessors, an old clergyman and his old sister, are
perfectly encumbered with the wealth, to which they
succeeded at a late period of life, and which obliged them
to leave a comfortable parsonage, where they had passed
their best years.

N.B. — The whole of the timber on the Leigh estates
in Warwickshire has been valued at 1,000,000/. sterling.

Tuesday, 9th. — Agnes and I walked with Mr. Great-
head, after breakfast, to Warwick, to see Mr. Parke's
manufactory, which he had offered to show us, and which
I visited rather out of compliment to him than from any
pleasure to myself; for machinery I never comprehend
except in a model ; and manufactories, upon a near in-

1810] WARWICK CHURCH. 435

spection, are always disagreeable. This is for spinning
worsted, for knitting and weaving. It differs but little
from cotton-spinning ; the fleeces are cleverly washed
between rollers. About 500 people, men, women, and
children, are here employed ; and the whole machinery
all over the building moves by a steam-engine of 24-horse
power, which can be stopped at once by pulling a single
string like a bell-handle.

After seeing the manufactory in all its detail, we went
with Mr. Parke and his sons to Warwick Church: I
wished to see the spot where poor Bertie * is deposited.
There is, as yet, no memorial of him on the stone which
covers the family vault, and where mention is only made
of Samuel Greathead, his grandfather, and Peregrine
Greathead, his father's elder brother, who died when a
lad.

The Lady Chapel, as it is called, in this church (the only
part that escaped fire some years ago), is beautiful, and
kept almost in too good repair, for it and all its monu-
ments are gilt and coloured up, perhaps too much ; 40/.
a year is left for this purpose. A very fine tomb, with
figure in complete armour of brass, and covered with a
sort of cradle of the same metal, of Beauchamp,f Earl of
Warwick. A fine and much-ornamented tomb, with
cumbent figures of Leicester, Queen Elizabeth's favourite,
and his wife ; and a little cumbent figure of an eldest son
of an Earl of Warwick, called upon the inscription, ' an
Illustrious Impe,' admirably sculptured.

In the middle of the old chapter-house is the tomb
of Sir Fulke Greville, erected by himself during his life,
with the inscription upon it of ' the friend of Sir Philip
Sidney.'

Saturday, 13$. — We took a long scrambling walk, over

* Bertie Greathead, Esq., son of Mr. Greathead, of Guy's Cliff,
t Beauchamp, Earl and Duke of Warwick, died in 1445, when the duke-
dom became extinct.

436 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isio

hedge and ditch, and turnip and stubble fields, to a
shepherd's cave, cut in the rock, and to the drooping well
upon the edge of the Avon, to which, three years ago,
Greathead had carried me by water. The blind Miss
Williams, who was one of our company, got marvellously
over everything, with no more assistance than the rest of
us, and with much cheerfulness.

Sunday ', \kth. — I went to Melverton Church with the
Greatheads, and stayed and took the Sacrament with
them, which I always prefer doing in a quiet country
church, than in the bustle of a London one.

The blind Miss Williams played much of Handel's music,
and afterwards Greathead read Clarke's travels to us.

Sunday, 2~Lst. — In the evening the two young Parkes
came up, and we traced upon a map the route of a bro-
ther of Mrs. Parke (a captain of a coasting vessel, who
has just escaped out of a French prison at Auxonne, and
came round by Prague, and then by the Baltic home). He
and his companion were forty-six days on their journey,
walking on an average thirty miles a day, and, till they
got far out of France, sleeping in the fields.

Monday, 22nd. — At ten o'clock we took leave of our
kind friends. We have spent a month with them most
agreeably, with the additional charm of fine weather.
Before breakfast I had gone to Greathead in his room,
where he always reads before breakfast : here we had
a little serious talk about his affairs and prospects, which
he considers in the most rational, manly, and respectable
way. He then in the most kind and flattering manner
recommended some stiff theological reading, as occupa-
tion worthy, as he said, of my active mind. I gave him
simply and entirely my creed, and the only reason why I
feared such reading might not sufficiently interest my
mind, viz., because I have no doubts to solve, and my
entire and perfect confidence in the dispensations of an
all-merciful Creator, makes all lesser points, all subsequent

1810] LETTEE TO MB. GKEATHEAD. 437

arrangements, wonderfully indifferent to me. I cannot
much interest myself in the truth of this or that dogma,
or the authenticity of this or that story. Whether true
or false, they can in nothing shake my faith, my hopes,
and my conviction. He entirely entered into, agreed, and
was satisfied with what I said, but still repeated his wish
I should read upon that subject.

Saturday, 27th. — Went to town.

Sunday, Nov. kth. — Called on Mrs. Howe ; found her
looking thin and in very low spirits about the melancholy
state of the Eoyal Family, but otherwise quite herself and
well. Met Lady Donegal!, her sister, and mine, going
down to the Queen's house to make enquiries.

Monday, 5th. — The post brought us a letter from
Eonald, with the account of his father's death on Wednes-
day morning last.

Miss Berry's feelings on this occasion are detailed in
her letter to Mr. Greathead, who had recently lost a
friend.

North Audley Street, Sunday, llth Nov., 1810.

Mr DEAR FRIEND, — I was intending to write to you when I
received from Anne Turner,* two days ago, the account of your
poor old friend's sudden decease. . . . My trust and hope in
yours and Mr. Gr.'s rational minds convinces me that as soon as
the first shock is over, you will both feel with what a singularly
enviable exit this good old soul, full of years and honour, has
been blessed, out of this suffering world. In the house of her
friend and adopted child, with every possible attention, kind-
ness, and comfort about her, she enjoys life to the last moment,
goes to bed in perfect health, and awakes (for waking only one
can call it, when her appearance does not justify even the sup-
position of a struggle at parting) in another state of existence,
for which her conduct in this had duly prepared her. Such is
indeed the enthusiasm so beautifully described by Pope —

* Anne Turner, daughter of Dr. Turner, of Curzon Street, an intimate
friend of the Miss Berrys.

438 MISS BEEEY'S JOUENAL. [i8io

May death answer, that tender frame destroy
In some soft dream, or ecstasy of joy ;
Peaceful sleep out the Sabbath of the tomb,
And wake to rapture in a life to come.

This I am sure will, after a short time, have its due effect upon
you, but it can neither alter the feelings nor raise the depression
of the moment . . . Alas ! my good friend, you needed not
all this, in addition to the worldly cares which have lately so
unmeritedly fallen upon you. Would to heaven I could in any
way contribute to the alleviation of your feelings ! You know
that death has lately visited our family, but with a very differ-
ent aspect from that he put on to your good old friend. My
uncle was seized yesterday fortnight, suddenly, while dressing
for dinner, with an attack both of palsy and apoplexy together ;
from the first the medical people said there was no hope; he
remained all Sunday totally insensible, and as if asleep. On
Monday he recovered, in a degree, his speech and senses ; he did
not know that Sunday was passed, but asked much for Eobert,
spoke kindly of him, and was anxious to see him. This happi-
ness he was denied, for he expired on the Wednesday morning.
. . . Ronald was with him at the time of the seizure, but the
express he sent for his brother only got to him in Yorkshire on
the Tuesday, so that the news of his father's death met Robert
in Edinburgh . . . The state of public affairs, and the me-
lancholy situation of the Royal Family, were it not for one's own
private concerns, one should think sufficiently agitating. The
King's determined illness, its probable event, and all its con-
sequences, must, in one way or other, interest every mortal, and
either by oneself or one's friends, cast a degree of uncertainty
over everybody's plans. A regency, in all cases the worst pos-
sible edition of the government it administers, hangs over our
heads, in circumstances o* particular difficulty and danger, and
certainly without a single countervailing advantage to meet them.

The letter from Sir Wm. Gell, at Lisbon, was on its
way to Miss Berry at this period.

From Sir W. Gell to the Miss Berrys.

November 9, 1810.

MY DEAR LADIES, — Though I am not aware that I can say any-
thing which will entertain you on the very dark and gloomy

1810] LETTER PROM SIR W. GELL. 439

day on which you receive this epistle, yet I have a fancy for
writing to you; so pray call for a candle, for 'tis too dark to see
without, and try to get through it. You have, as I am just in-
formed, heard from my companion the events of our voyage,
and your imaginations can easily supply the horrors attending it,
as well as the delight of getting on shore with a fine clear air and
roasting sun after the operation. Lady Charlotte will also give
you some hints which I sent to her on my first arrival. Since
that time I have been to the wars — if wars they can be called,
for at present the situation of our army is that of country
gentlemen in houses which look as if the inhabitants had built
them on purpose for the occasion, and kindly left them to us.
I went with Captain Beresford, the brother of the grand mar-
shal, in one of those delectable carriages which I have described
to my Lady Charlotte. A person in a large cocked hat, in royal
livery, drove, and another was mounted behind. The distance
may be about twenty-three miles, and about half way we had a
relay of more monsters and fresh mules. Here, in justice to the
Portagooses, I must stop to say that they are by no means
the monsters represented by your friend ' the black-eyed,' for
he would be a fright even here. On the contrary, the 'Gruese
have fine eyes, very intelligent countenances, and the most beau-
tiful teeth in the world ; besides which, they are very civil and
obliging, and all the horrors related of them and their persons
belong only to the rich and great. After this episode, I
must tell you that such a system of ups and downs never was
undergone. Take a newspaper and crumple it in your hand —
that is a map of the country. Then the roads are large stones
with large holes between them, and sometimes a descent between
two rocks not wide enough to admit the carriage, yet with all this,
and more horrors than can be descried, the mules crept along
very well, and the carriage jumbled after them just as if it had
been ever so good. In about six hours we arrived at Capateria,
Marshal Beresford's, twenty-two miles. It is a lone house by
the road side, covered with tall trees, and remains a lone house
in appearance, though there are fifty people in it and around it,
from the nature of the place. It was my good»£»rtune to meet
with Lord Wellington, the greatest man in his day, at dinner,
the very first day. He is no other than a Bonaparte, so strong
a likeness, but with better colour ; and more animation and

440 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [mo

merriment I never saw. He has none of the airs of a great man
at the head of 100,000 men — all life and good humour. I also
met El Marquis Komana,* whom I very much wished to see, and
was quite astonished to find how well, first of all, he talks Eng-
lish, and afterwards, what a fund of information, not to say
learning, the little wretch has. I talked a great deal to him,
and called on him the next morning. As to his figure, such a
gig was never seen — a little yellow tailor, smothered in waist-
coat lapels, with a blue coat bordered with broad gold lace, very
full at top, and coming below to a very narrow waist, the pic-
ture of one's great-grandfather. He is very lively and good-
humoured, and entirely without humbug. In the morning the
Marshal lent me a nag on which I visited the lines and fort, for,
be it known to you that our people are invisible to the French,
having ridges in front, and occupying in general villages and
quintes or garden-houses on the west of it, some miles distant.
These ridges are so high that we overlook the French in all
parts, but they lie dispersed in tents, generally in different parts
of the country below. Junot's camp is, as I think, five or six
miles distant, though our advanced sentries and theirs speak.
The consequence is, that they cannot attack us without several
hours' previous notice, in any force. Our people are quite con-
fident, and this is certain, that the French are at least twice
outnumbered by the allies for the present. Their communica-
tions are and have been long entirely cut off, and they have no
means of sending any intelligence of their situation, as the mes-
senger has always been intercepted. The last, a Portuguese,
who spoke Spanish well, and who agreed for the promise of a
colonelcy to undertake to carry a despatch. What is singular,
a deserter told us this at Marshal Beresford's, and yesterday I
heard just such a man had been taken with a letter about his
commission to that effect. Upon the whole, the situation of
things is quite the reverse of what is imagined in England.
You would think Lisbon as quiet as any place could be with
operas and plays every night ; but the camp is a still more

* Marquis de la Romana, general in the war of the Spaniards against
Napoleon. He was the first to suggest the idea of arming the peasantry, and
forming the guerillas. In this way, as well as by his personal services in the
field, Romana played an important part in maintaining the independence of
Spain. Died 1811. — Popular Encyclopaedia.

1810] ILLNESS OF GEORGE III. 441

curious species of tranquillity ; everybody seems to do as they
like ; people ride all over the country ; many officers come to
Lisbon. Lord Wellington goes to Mafra and gives a grand
dinner and ball, and in short all seems like peace ; but, I believe,
underhand, everything is so well settled, foreseen, managed, and
planned, that every one knows what is to be done at a moment's
warning, and under all possible circumstances. I returned on
horseback, and had an opportunity of seeing the wonderful
strength which nature and art have united to form our system
of defence, should even our first line be broken. Not a turn of
the road but you find two or three hills, each mounted with
guns, placed in forts bearing upon you in all directions. Lisbon
is certainly a better place than Madrid or any city in Spain, and
more like Italy. The language is too shocking a corruption of
Spanish ' os Reis de Portugal nao sao tdo (non sono tanto)
absolutes como os de Hespanha.' In this specimen nao sao
tdo are pronounced nawn sawn tawn, as much like a cat as pos-
sible, and your friend Sousa is called Soysa. The plays are very
entertaining, and the singing in them very good. The gro-
tesque dancing, too, I really believe the best in Europe ; we go
almost every night to something of the kind. To-night 'II
Barbiere de Sevilla,' a most capital buffo, Varancio, or some such
name. The Queen of Spain had a passion for him, so we are
persuading him to come to England to try his fortune. Pray
tell Mercer it is very absurd of him not to come, as both his
brethren are here. Douglas Mercer, by-the-by, who ought to
be at Cadiz, chose to come here, and got two fingers broken ; but
he is now almost recovered of that, and looks very well ; we see
him almost every day. Adieu. — Most truly and affectionately
yours,

ANACHARSIS.

Adml. Berkeley saw a play, * The death of Captain Cook,' in
the Isles of the Hottentots.

Monday, 12th. — Walked with Lady Donegall and her
sister through the park to St. James's, to enquire after the
King ; the names written down in the presence chamber,
and the Lord in Waiting (Lord C. Spencer) sitting in the
room. Nobody with him when we went in, and not a
great crowd in the other rooms.

MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isio

Tuesday, 13th. — Walked to St. James's : the crowd
great in all the rooms, and a stream going up and
down stairs, chiefly men. Saw a number of people I
knew.

Thursday, 15th. — Accepted Mr. Hope's proposal of
going with him to Brighton.

Saturday, 17th. — Mr. Hope came soon after eleven. It
was a fine sunny day, well calculated to raise one's spirits
when travelling comfortably in a chaise and four. But I
was out of spirits with myself. My companion, always
acute and intelligent in a tete-a-tete, was another circum-
stance in my favour ; but all did not do. We arrived at
Brighton in the dark and the rain at half-past five.

Tuesday, 20th. — We drove to the West Cliff. The ex-
tent of Brighton along the cliff to the Crescent, the fur-
thest houses on the East Cliff, cannot be much less than
two miles. Went to the play ('The Kivals,' and the
4 Agreeable Surprise'), which had been bespoken. The
house was more than three parts empty ; and the company
in the Prince's box, which is always given to the lady who
bespeaks the play, talked so loud by way of being so very
genteel, that one could hardly hear the players.

Friday, 23rd. — Walked with Mr. Ward;* his obser-
vations are always acute, often droll. But there is nil
grande in that man ; and with a keen and too accurate
observation of the littlenesses and vanities of others, he
is, if I am not much mistaken, overcharged with both
himself.

Sunday, 25th. — In the evening had some conversation
with Mr. Grattan. His manner is singular, with much
action, and his pronunciation, without being Irish, so very
foreign that nobody at first could possibly take him for a
native of these islands ; his language is good, however,
and his choice of words figurative, and out of the com-

* The Hon. John William Ward, son of Viscount Dudley and Ward j
created Earl of Dudley in 1827 ; died 1833.

1810] THE ONLY CHURCH AT BRIGHTON. 443

mon way ; but his manner upon the whole in society is
much more odd than pleasant.*

Monday, 2Qth — Went with Mrs. Hope to the church on
the hill above the town. It is crowded with tablets and
monuments within, and tombstones without ; in short, the
town and its inhabitants have fairly outgrown their church,
for there is but one here.f

Wednesday, 28th. — Had a long talk with Lord and
Lady Conningham on horseback, and met Du Cane, just
arrived. Questioned him about the King of Sweden, who,
immediately after his landing, had been brought to his
father's house. Went to Mrs. Grattan's,| where there was
music by the Miss Burgoynes and Miss Grattans, and all the
people assembled, who I have seen here, and the Trevors,
who are just arrived. Mrs. Grattan, from lameness, is
always seated, but a more pleasing woman of past fifty,
both in appearance and manner, I never saw. She has
been a beauty, an expressive beauty of that sort of which
age never can obliterate the traces, and has a manner of
speaking particularly sweet and interesting, without the
smallest tincture of affectation. As to her husband, from
having seen him only in company, which does not draw
him out, the singularity of his manner is still with me
more prominent than his agreeableness in conversation.

The Princess of Wales's kind letter of enquiry after her

* The Rt. Hon. Henry Grattan, born 1746. In 1772 he was called to the
Irish bar. In 1775 he took his seat in the Irish House of Commons, and
from that time his life was identified with the history of Ireland. In 1805
he sat for Malton in the English House of Commons. He died in 1820 ;
his remains were interred at Westminster Abbey. On moving the writ to
fill the vacancy occasioned by his death, Sir James Mackintosh described Mr.
Grattan as one of the few individual men whose personal virtues were
rewarded by public favour, and as one as eminent in his observances of all
the duties of private life as heroic in the discharge of his public obligations.

f There are now at Brighton eighteen places of worship connected with
the Established Church.

| Henrietta Fitzgerald, descendant of the Earls of Desmond, married
Henry Grattan, 1782. — Imp. Diet, of Unto. Hiog,

444 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [mo

friends, Mr. and Mrs. WHI. Locke, who had just sustained
the loss of a child, was received and answered by Miss
Berry at the close of her visit to Mr. and Mrs. Hope.

From the Princess of Wales to Miss Berry.

Kensington Palace, Nov. 26, 1810.

My anxiety is so great on account of the poor Lockes, since
the melancholy event of the death of their youngest child, that
I am induced to commit, perhaps, an indiscretion in intruding
on your leisure hours, my dear Miss Berry ; but trusting to
your usual good nature, and our sentiments concerning them
being so congenial, you will comprehend my solicitude. I in-
trust into your hands, and to your sound judgment, the manner
how best to convey from my part everything that is kind and
soothing to them : consolation it is impossible to offer them on
such a painful occasion, but it is time alone that can cure so
great an affliction.

Let us waive this melancholy topic, and rejoice together at
the happy prospect of our beloved Monarch's recovery. We
may now trust that that storm which passed over our heads will
be dispersed for a number and number of years ; it must be the
fervent wish of every individual, but especially that of one of
his first subjects.

I look forward with great pleasure to the period which will
enable me again to enjoy your agreeable society.

I wish to be remembered to Mr. and Mrs. Hope ; and do me
the justice to believe me, for ever,

My dear Miss Berry,

Your very sincere and affectionate,

C. P.

P.S. — I am much shocked and grieved at the melancholy
event of poor Lady Aberdeen.* I trust that she will feel no
bad effect from this sad disappointment, for nobody deserves
more respect and admiration than she does, by those who have
the happiness of being intimately acquainted with her.

* Catherine Elizabeth, eldest surviving daughter of John James first
Marquis of Abercorn. She died February, 1812.

1810] REPLY TO THE PRINCESS OP WALES. 445

From Miss Berry to the Princess 'of Wales.

Brighton, 27th Nov., 1810.

MADAM, — I have conveyed to Mr. and Mrs. Locke * the senti-
ments of which your Royal Highness has honoured me with
being the interpreter. They must themselves express their
gratitude, and the high sense they entertain of your Royal
Highness's benevolent solicitude. I confess I could use no
words at once so impressive and so soothing as those of your
Royal Highness. I am happy to say that Mrs. Locke's health
has not suffered by her constant, painful, and unwearied atten-
dance on her children, and that the remaining twof are entirely
recovered. This I have been obliged to content myself with
hearing by report, and by notes that have passed between us,
for I have been under such strict quarantine here by Mr. and
Mrs. Hope, from the dread of a possibility of infection to their
children, that I have only had two short interviews with William,
and that in the open air. ... I have had the happiness to
find myself here, Madam, surrounded by some of your Royal
Highness's most devoted admirers. Mr. Ward, Sir W. Drum-
mond, Mr. Rogers, Lord and Lady Aberdeen, are those with
whom I have been living ; and, though last, not least, my kind
hosts Mr. and Mrs. Hope, who desire me to express to your
Royal Highness their gratitude for the honour of your enquiry
after them. Mrs. Hope has, I think, quite recovered her health
here. Her best comfort, under the loss of her little girl, is the
daily improvement of your Royal Highness's little godson, who
is really one of the finest children of his age I ever saw. Lady
Aberdeen, I am happy to say, is going on as well as possible,
after her very unexpected confinement. . . . Lord Aberdeen
certainly bears his disappointment remarkably well. . . . The
sentiments which your Royal Highness expresses upon the pros-
pect of his Majesty's recovery, must be those of everyone worthy
the happiness of being his subject, by having a due sense of the
blessings of his reign. . . .

I have the honour to be, Madam, your Royal Highness's most
grateful and most obedient Servant,

M. B.

* Mr. and Mrs. William Locke, of Norbury.

f Mr. William Locke, drowned in the Lake of Como ; and Elizabeth,
married, 1822, to the Lord Wallscourt.

446 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isio

J 0 U E N A L.

Thursday, Nov. 29$. — Eeturned to London.

Tuesday, Dec. 4$. — Went to Wimpole.

Wednesday, 5$. — Walked to the garden, and to the
dairy and the farm. Somehow or other, the garden is
never in very nice order here : the dairy is not much
more finished than when I was here last year. Poor
souls ! no wonder that everything has been at a stand
lately, and that nothing goes on with the same heart as
formerly !

Saturday, 8$. — Began cutting down the trees, and
clearing away about the reservoir, the only building in
real good taste about this place. It is like a Eoman
sepulchre, and will look well when no longer choked up
with trees — two beautiful yews behind and a fine cedar
in front excepted.

Thursday, 13$. — Left Wimpole, and returned to
North Audley Street. In the evening Mr. Thornton
came, at ten o'clock, and told us what had been doing in
the House of Commons.

Saturday, 15$ — Lord Hardwicke brought the news of
Lucien Bonaparte and all his family having landed at
Falmouth * from one of our frigates, which brought them
from Malta.

Sunday, 16$. — Walked with Lady Donegall down to
the palace. Very few people there, and still fewer
women.

* If Lord Hardwicke's information was right, Lucien and his family must
have re-embarked for Plymouth : — l Dec. 18. — Lucien Bonaparte, his
family and suite, landed this afternoon at the Victualling Office, Plymouth,
and proceeded to the " King's Arms," accompanied by Sir Robert Calder
(the Port Admiral), General England, Lord Boringdon, and several naval
and military officers. Lucien is described as a man about fifty, of pale sallow
complexion, intelligent countenance, and gentlemanlike appearance, accom-
panied by his wife, " a stout handsome woman," and by his five daughters
and two sons.' — Annual Register. It was on this occasion that they visited
Saltram, the seat of Lord Boringdon, afterwards first Earl of Morley.

1810] MRS. CHOLMELEY'S DEATH. 447

Thursday, 27th. — Lady Charlotte Lindsay called. We
walked down to the palace ; no crowd there. Lord
St. Helens in waiting, and giving up almost all hopes —
of senses, I suppose, was meant.

Monday, 3lst. — Lord Aberdeen called upon me in the
morning, and promised to come from the House of
Commons and tell us what was doing; which he did, but
at past twelve, when we were all gone up-stairs. He
wrote down the divisions in his carriage, and sent them
up. I felt quite well all day, which I have not done
since my attack at Wimpole, and blessed Heaven that
the last day of the year ended in health and cheerful-
ness.

It was in the course of this year that Miss Berry lost
her friend and correspondent Mrs. Cholmeley. The fol-
lowing extract from some reflections on the year thus
alludes to that event, though without the precise date of
its occurrence.

Mrs. Cholmeley 's death recalls to me in a melancholy
manner many passages in my own past life, and forcibly
reminds me how little of that life probably remains
to me. This, God knows, I call not melancholy, but
consoling. ... I became acquainted with her in the
year 1785, when I was twenty- two, and was just returned
from having been plunged for two years into the great
world of Europe, from the most perfect retirement in
England.

448 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isn

,.; JOURNAL.
1811.

Tuesday, January 1st. — After we were gone up-stairs,
Harrot * brought me up a paper, with the division in the
House of Commons of thirteen against the ministers, on
the proposed restrictions of the Kegency,f and said Mr.
Thornton was in the drawing-room. I went down ; the
fire was out, and he looked, in his great coat, the picture
of cold and fatigue, yet we had a talk on politics of near
half an hour. The Duke of Cumberland, that arch in-
triguer, has been tampering with him, and persuaded
him to vote against the ministers, those very ministers
which this Duke of Cumberland intrigued to bring in.

Extract of a Letter from Miss Berry to Charles Stuart, Esq.,
H.B.MSs Minister Plenipotentiary at Lisbon.

London, 2nd Jan. 1811.

The enclosed might have gone under cover to Admi Berke-
ley, or might have found its way without any cover at all ; but I
have chosen to plague you with it, that I might at the same
time recall myself to your memory, and tell you that if your
presence is as much wanted in Portugal as your absence is
regretted here, we shall never get you home again.

* Harrot was the name of Miss Berry's maid.

t Mr. Percival (first minister), Mr. Ryder, Lord Castlereagh, Lord Sid-
mouth, Lord Westmoreland, Lord Melville, Lord Eldon, Lord Liverpool, &c.
This defeat of ministers was on an amendment, moved by Earl Gower,
to the Fifth Resolution respecting the Regency, being that which gave to
the Queen the care of the King's person, and the power of appointment and
removal of persons in the several offices of the household, and proposing
also that a Council should be appointed to advise and assist her Majesty. —

Hansards Debates.

1811] DEFEAT OP MINISTERS. 449

Perhaps you think (considering only the importance of the
business) that we are here all intent on the affairs of Portugal,
impatient for the arrival of a mail from Lisbon, aDQ hanging
with fearful expectation upon the event of this last struggle for
the expiring liberties of Europe — upon this last stand against
the conqueror of the western world, &c. &c. You are quite
mistaken, we are thinking of nothing but regencies and restric-
tions, whether by bill or by address, and one half of us are as
triumphant this morning at having beaten the ministers last
night by a majority of thirteen, as we should have been if you
and Lord Wellington, tarn arte quam marts, had beaten
Massena.

To say the truth, I have a notion that this defeat of ministers
is somewhat of a ruse de guerre on their part. I know that
the Prince of Wales three days ago intended to keep them all
in, and I rather suspect that this knowledge prevented what
the sailors call a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether.
However, they have managed their matters very ill, as usual,
for the Prince is now, or pretends to be, much affronted. They
are all to resign as soon as the bill is passed, and they say their
resignations will be accepted. But, at all events, these 'delays,
whether intended or not, may very possibly put an end to any
regency and any restrictions.

By what I hear to-day, I expect that just as the Prince is
ready to step into his new title, the King will be ready to govern
us just as he has done before, and will be declared by his phy-
sicians well enough, that is to say, mad enough, to wish to
retain the government.

Saturday, bth. — Before dinner, Matthew Montague, Sir
John Sebright, and Lord Hardwicke met here. Matthew's
account of one of the divisions in the House of Commons
most laughable.

Sunday, Qth. — Had a long conversation with Mr S.
Turner in my room on the subject of the report of the
Bullion Committee. His ideas have on some points cleared
up, and on some confirmed, my own. But the subject is
more involved in difficulties than one at first imagines,
from the very extraordinary circumstances in which the

VOL. II. G G

450 MISS BERKY'S JOURNAL.

very extraordinary times have placed commerce, as well
everything else, and therefore it requires a more steady
and frequent recurrence to first principles to keep one's
understanding clear.

Extract of a Letter from Charles Stuart, Esq., to Miss Berry.

Lisbon, 9th January, 1811.

. . . . I am sorry the public attention is directed rather
to parish business in England than to the observation of the
events which are going forward in this country. It is not
Portugal merely we are defending, but we are training and
forming an army accustomed to war on the great scale, and on
whom we probably shall one day rely for the security of our
firesides, though to most people that is a more interesting
subject than it is to me, whose fireside is always in some other
part of the world.

On this ground I should be sorry that any change in England
induced people to give up the game here. We have a fair equal
chance, and if the new or the old minister will allow us to
fight it out, I am very well convinced that we shall get through
the business, more honourably and more advantageously than
we have any reason to expect. I hope you will not be uneasy
about the brothers and husbands, and cousins, whose fate
would depend on this determination : such considerations usually
have more influence in ladies' politics than any calculations of
the chances attendant on the different contingencies which may
occur.

Saturday, I2th. — Dined at Mrs. Darner's with M. De
Brehan, the Frenchman who has brought her the present
of a fine cup and saucer from the Empress Josephine.*

* In the work entitled ' Queens of Society,' before alluded to as misrepre-
senting the reception of Mrs. Darner at Paris in 1802, this gift of porcelain
is also affixed to a wrong date. Mrs. Darner is there mentioned as visitino-
Paris in the year 1779, when ' she was introduced to the beautiful and
witty Josephine Beauhamais, then a leader of fashion in that city, and their
acquaintance had ripened into friendship,' that ' she heard no more of Jose-
phine till one day a French gentleman called upon her with a fine piece of
porcelain cind a letter of introduction from the First Consul's wife ; that
Napoleon was anxious to conciliate the Whigs, and that Mrs. Darner set out

1811] M. DE BRfiHAM. 451

He appears by his conversation and manners, which are
unaffected, to be something above the rank of an upper
servant — a decent person employed in commissions, &c.
He comes here with a great order to Lee and Kennedy,
for plants for the said Empress ; whether he brings a
liquidation of her long account with them, I know not.
He has a mother and an uncle settled here, who live
together at Hampstead. The uncle is no other than that
M. de Montier or Monstier, who was the first French
agent to motive the peace of 1783, before Reyneval was
sent here. He crossed from Dieppe to Gravesend as was
intended, but by stress of weather was allowed to land at
Margate. He, or anybody else leaving France for this
country, must have a particular passport, signed twice by
the Emperor's own hand.

Tuesday r, ~Lbth. — Found Miss C. Fanshawe at home ;
half her formality, I believe, depends upon the family to
which she belongs. We are half of us the creatures of
circumstances ; or rather, the half-marred, half-made crea-
tures of circumstance.

Wednesday, Iftth. — Went to Little Strawberry.

Saturday, 19<A. — Upon the terrace before my little
green-house the sun was quite warm, and all the double
violets upon the bank ready to blow ; how occupied and
happy I could be for many an hour in such a scene ! but
I am quite aware that in my particular circumstances I
have nothing to do but to leave it, and forget it as soon
as I can.

Monday, 21.<tf. — Lady Charlotte Lindsay proposed from
the Priory our acting with them, which I begged her in
the most civil manner to refuse on my part, my health
alone a more than sufficient apology : but if it were not,

for Paris after the Peace of Amiens, &c.' It appears that the French gen-
tleman's visit was nine years after Mrs. Darner's visit in 1802, -when she had
little reason to be flattered by the reception given to her by the First Consul
and his wife.

G G 2

452 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isn

I should never think of enlisting in their troop for a
thousand reasons — distance, time, expense, trouble, and
exhibition to all London at Easter. Besides there is a
time for every thing.

Friday, February \st. — Went at nine o'clock to Ken-
sington to the Princess of Wales'. Princess Charlotte had
dined there, and I was anxious to see her. We found her,
the Princess, the Lady Charlotte Campbell (in waiting),
Miss Garth, Miss Hayman, Lady de Clifford, and Sir
William Drunimond,* playing at a round table at a foolish
sort of game, of calling the cards by the name of Niny-
cumtwit, or something like that. Princess Charlotte was
seated by her mother, who named us to her, and said to
us, ' My daughter.' I sat down by the Princess ; she
whispered something to Princesss Charlotte about me;
she answered immediately, ' I know it, I know it ; she is
a great friend of Mrs. Howe.'

A finer girl of fifteen one seldom sees, with an open
lively countenance, and well-cut expressive features ; fair,
like all her family, but without having a fine complexion,
or at present any colour, for by some inconceivable mis-
management at the time she had the small-pox, it has
muddled her complexion, destroyed in part her eyebrows,
and left several decided marks about the end of her nose.
I dare say there is hardly another person in the kingdom,
who within these last fifteen years has suffered as much
by the small-pox, which only shows the old story, how
much the children of princes are neglected and ill-treated.
Her mouth is like the Prince of Wales's, without having
however much sweetness, and her eyes are by no means
as handsome as her mother's. She is lively, animated,
and laughing ; told Sir William Drumrnond, who was on

* Rt. Hon. Sir William Drummond, formerly Ambassador to the Court
of Sicily, the author of a ' Review of the Governments of Sparta and Athens,'
1 The Satires of Persius,' &c., also of a work, for private circulation, in which
he treated some of the histories in the Old Testament as allegories.

1811] PRINCESS CHARLOTTE. 453

the other side of her, to go on with what he was saying,
for she liked nothing so much as politics ; then got into a
talk with Lady Charlotte Campbell, about being afraid of
the dark and ghosts, and dismal stories ; told a good one
herself, and then made me tell her the story of Lillo's*
'Fatal Curiosity,' which Lady Charlotte mentioned, and
which she had never heard of before. Soon after ten
o'clock her carriage was announced, and away she went,
very cheerfully, having kissed her mother, shook hands
with Lady Charlotte, &c., and bowed to us. And thus is
this girl, now a woman, who in three short years may be
called to reign over this country, with all her senses
awake, eager and curious about everything and every-
body, sent away with her governess, and during the

hours not spent with her, she has Mrs. to form her

mind, manners, and disposition ! Alas ! poor Princes,
one and all, can you ever be pitied enough, or even
judged with common justice under all the disadvantages
you labour? True, this poor thing is taught music, and
taught Latin, neither of which will certainly be of much
service to her in governing this country, in detecting folly
and knavery, in surrounding herself with talents, and
above all, in acquiring truth and stability of character.
She knows no creature, but the Royal Family and their
attendants ; she has never yet seen a play or an opera ;
and whenever she is her own mistress, what must be her
first idea but to satiate herself with pleasures, which
every other girl of fifteen is beginning to appreciate at
their just value, provided they are not entirely new to
them.

We remained to supper ; nobody joined the party, but
Lord Aberdeen and the Hopes, who did not arrive till
twelve o'clock, though asked at nine o'clock, which the
Princess remarked. The Princess, though lively at supper,

* George Lillo, a dramatic writer, son of a Dutch jeweller ; born 1693 j
died 1739.

454 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isn

and talking a great deal to me about her memoirs, which
in joke she said I should publish, &c., is pensive, and not
in her usual spirits, says she has the second-sight, and
sees a great deal that is coming, nothing that anybody
expects, and a great deal that nobody thinks of.

Saturday, 2nd. — Went to the play — ' Cato ' — in Mrs.
Kemble 's box. I have always particularly, and in spite
of all abuse of it, loved the piece ; it both interests and
affects me, which magnanimity ever does. Kemble acted
well. Young particularly so, in the short part of Portius ;
C. Kemble well in Juba ; Syphax, by a man of the
name of Egerton, who had no idea of the poetry he was
repeating.

Friday, 8th. — To Mrs. Sotheby's, where was a sort of
blue-stocking assembly, misses and their mammas with-
out end, so pleased to carry them to a rational house, and
unite pleasure and wisdom together !

Sunday, 1 Oth. — Lady Charlotte Lindsay called for me
in the Princess's carriage to go to dinner, and we took up
Puysegur at Monsieur's house in South Audley Street,
The party at dinner were : Lord Gower,* Lord Charlemont,
Mr. and Mrs. Hope, Mr. Lewis, and Sir H. England;
Lady Glenbervie and Miss Hayman in waiting. The
Princess did not look ill, but really was so. The men all
went away sooner or later, and nobody remained to
supper but myself and Lady Charlotte Lindsay. The
Princess quiet and low, but, to give her her due, not out
of humour.

From Sir W. Gell to Miss Berry.

Lisbon, Feb. 2, 1811.

MY DEAR FRIENDS, — If, as Plutarch says, you really wish for us
back again in England, your hopes stand some chance of being
realised, for we have this day taken measures for bringing about
that desirable event — an event chiefly rendered necessary by the

* The late Duke of Sutherland.

1811] LETTER FROM SIR W. GELL. 455

total disorganization of the system of finance which seems to
have affected us both at the same moment. . . . So many
lies are invented on the subject of our situation here, and we are
in general so completely in the dark on the subject of who, how
many, where and when, that I shall give you what I have seen
myself before I proceed -to the reigning lies of the day. Ro-
mana is dead, and we went in the procession to his burial. He
was, perhaps, the only learned man in his country, and I believe
the only person in the Peninsula who had information sufficient
to guide his judgment beyond the mere events of the day. He
was a very good scholar — a thing quite unheard of in Spain ; he
was very well read in history, and if he was not a good general,
which I very much doubt, there is no hope of a better among
the survivors. Moreover, a person who with a small army and
confined resources can preserve himself from any serious defeat,
with 20,000 enemies in the country, for the space of two years,
cannot be so very bad a commander as the English would repre-
sent him. I took particular pains to get acquainted with him, and
think I never saw a person of whom one has heard so much, with
so little of the humbug grandissima about him. The history of
Romana being concluded, I shall proceed to inform you that the
last lie from Cadiz says the French have so far raised the siege,
that only 6,000 men remain there, and that we have it in con-
templation to blow them and their works up together. It will
be the first time since the revolution that the French have spent
a whole year upon a siege and got nothing but their labour for
their pains. A blind shell, that is a shell filled with lead to
make it heavier, will just reach over the walls into the herb-
market at Cadiz. This, however, requires so much powder, and
burying the gun in the earth, that no gun can last long with
such treatment, while the shell does little mischief, being directed,
as Aristotle observes, so high in the air that it falls down per-
pendicularly, and can only kill at most one person at a time,
and this, if indeed anyone is hit, is at the expense of five to six
pounds a shot. It appears, however, very possible that our ship-
ping might easily be annoyed in the harbour. As to Junot'a
death by a shot in the face, you may perhaps hear of it before
this reaches you. It was at first certain ; then quite false ; then
absolutely verified ; then a lie again; and now remains uncer-
tain, only this being known, that a person, supposed Junot, was

456 MISS BERET'S JOURNAL. [1811

hit in the face by a musket-ball, and fell from his horse. We
have taken several letters which were to have been delivered to
the French. One from Mrs. Junot, at Ciudad Eodrigo, says to
Junot, ' I have just produced a son, which I am glad of, be-
cause it will please you. As to your ever establishing yourself
at Abrantes, the hope does not seem likely ever to be realised,
so I shall set off for Paris, as the sight of ten men per day car-
ried past my window to their graves makes me melancholy ;
and if I go to Salamanca, as you recommend, they tell me I
shall see not fewer than forty burials every day.' Some of those
passages which relate to private concerns, Lord Wellington has
copied for Junot in his own hand, and added congratulations on
the birth of the son, so that Junot must answer in his own
hand, which Lord Wellington knows well, and thus expects to
find out whether he is killed or dangerously wounded, or unhurt.
As to what you see in newspapers about the starvation of the
French at Santarem a fortnight ago, that is all false ; indeed,
the event alone is a sufficient contradiction. Two or three days
ago, however, it was suspected that the enemy was weakening
his forces at Santarem by degrees, and Marshal Beresford went
up the left bank of the Tagus to see that Abrantes was secure
from any coup-de-main they might attempt if they retreated
by that city. Upon the whole, though there is not apparently
the smallest chance of any great overthrow of the French under
Massena, they do not seem likely to be able to do anything
against us, while they certainly are diminishing very rapidly in
numbers throughout the Peninsula. Perhaps you have heard
that since the war broke out 500,000 men have passed this way
through Bayonne ; and this account, compared with the state-
ment of the French force in Spain up to December, 1810,
shows that 280,000 have been somehow or other disposed of in
this country, and this is their own account of the business,
while they certainly have not a foot of land beyond what their
army occupies, and even their armies have no communications
unless it be on occasions where it is worth sending 5,000 or
6,000 men as an escort, for their letters are perpetually falling
into our hands. Neither prisoners nor deserters now seem to
come in to us quickly ; indeed, desertion is difficult from the
nature of the French position, but a great deal of this has been
much magnified, as it appears that the French have lost only

1811] LETTER FROM SIR W. GELL. 457

1,500 men in the whole year by desertion, while we have
lost 480 ourselves. I believe there are very few instances of
the Portuguese deserting. This is I think all I know at pre-
sent. As to climate, we have had sixty-four of bright sunshine
and about twelve of heavy weather. We intend to be in Eng-
land about the latter end of this month ; indeed, I shall this
day begin to pack up. . . . My health has so much im-
proved by the assistance of M. Husson, that I am become an
absolute nuisance in company from the riot I make. Indeed,
Craven was asked the other day whether I was not an idiot.
Luckily, my finances do not keep pace with my wits, and gene-
rally keep me down two or three steps lower than I should other-
wise be, which saves me from becoming quite intolerable. I
keep sighing for riches, but ' nobody coming to marry me, no-
body going to die,' must be my motto. Tell Lady Char not to
write, for I am coming to hear it all myself so soon as possible,
and to take my waiting with her Ladyship. . . . You have
spent the whole of the annuity I allowed you out of the rents of
my estate in Eldorado.* Never mind, we are all ruined ; we
will fit up my sister Agnes's room this spring, and then we will
make Mr. Berry perfectly miserable by effecting a thorough re-
form in his apartment.

Hope did very ill in not giving me a commission to buy old
plate for him. We have it here for its weight in dollars, and
beautifully solid in appearance, whereas the manufacture con-
sists of a thin plate of silver, which is thumped and bumped
into a variety of flowers and patterns with punches and mallets.
Under these awful impressions I take my leave, assuring you
all of my highest consideration, and of the delight with which
I shall come again to set an example of morality and piety to
your family in North Audley Street. There is no room for pic-
tures, besides which an inundation of Vandals is now ascending
the stairs. So adieu, my dear friends, with best love to dear
Mrs. Darner, for whom I bring a little chip of marble, to see
whether it is good for statuary, and of which there is plenty
here. Most affectionately yours,

ANACHARSIS.

* Mr. Gell alludes to some furniture procured by Miss Berry-, either for
their own use or for his, and about which they had corresponded.

458 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isn

JOURNAL.

Sunday, February 24:th. — At three o'clock I went with
Mrs. Apreece* to Mrs. Siddons', at Westbourne. Mrs. Sid-
dons received me, as she always does, in a manner which
flatters my internal vanity ; for she has the germ of a
superior nature in her, though burnt up by the long-con-
tinued dram of popular applause — ' Datus in theatro ' —
which I know nobody who has ever withstood. Mrs.
Apreece, in our journey there and back, entertaining.

Tuesday, 26th. — Augustus Fosterf and Lord Morpeth
called. They had been to the Prince's levee ; great
crowds, splendid liveries, and hussars of all colours. He
very gracious, but speaking little to anybody. It began
at or before two o'clock, and was over soon after four.

The following interesting correspondence between Pro-
fessor Playfair and Miss Berry shows from whence sprang
the suggestion of the work on a comparative state of
manners ; and, though not literally adopted by Miss
Berry, was no doubt the origin of her future work on
'The Comparative View of Social Life in France and
England.'

Edinburgh, 1st January.

MY DEAR MADAM, — It has long been determined that the
letters of Mad. du Deffand shall be subjected to the ordeal of
the 'Edinburgh Eeview,' but I do not believe that Rhadamanthus
Smith will be the judge appealed to on that occasion. At all
events, you may be sure that your note will be attended to. At
one time I was afraid that the review of Mad. du D. must have
come forward in the last No., which would have occasioned it to
be done in a hurried way, and not nearly so well as I hope it
may be in the next No. which comes out, or at least ought to
come out, in February. You may expect to see your own work
as an editor, meet with great commendation (indeed, I think it

* Afterwards married to Sir Humphry Davy,
f Son of Lady Elizabeth Foster.

1811] LETTER FROM PROFESSOR PLAYFAIR. 459

cannot meet with too much); whether you will so much ap-
prove of the reviewer's opinion of Mad.du D. or of Lord 0. 1 am
not quite sure ; this, however, I think I can say, that the tone
of the review will not diminish the curiosity of the public, or
their desire to be acquainted with the book.

To your questions about Scots law and Scots lawyers, I do not
believe that I know enough of the matter to give any satisfactory
answer. It is certainly to be regretted if the profligacy of
English manners find a shelter or defence in the ruder and
more imperfect legislation of another country, but it seems to
me that it is not the law of this latter country that is so much
to be blamed as the morals of the former.

That the laws of every country must be general rules, admit-
ting of no exception, is unavoidable, and that the applications
of such general rules to particular cases must often produce in-
justice, and must often shelter criminality, is a truth of which
every country and every age have been unfortunate enough to
afford many examples. I do not see any more than this in the
instance of Lord , &c.

Your questions about refer to matters that I know

nothing of, but they considerably awaken my curiosity, and will
make me try to be informed. At all events, however, I think
I know the answer that I would be disposed to make if you
would draw from them or such like instances, any conclusions
against Scotland in general. The sophistry by which people
support their prejudices in the case of national character, and
many others it were easy to name, seems to me to be this. (Do
not be alarmed at the word sophistry ; I do not think you are a
person to be deceived by anybody's sophistry but your own, and
against one's own sophistry I fear nobody is proof.) In every
country there is a considerable quantity both of good and evil
which it is impossible not to remark. When there are any
prejudices already existing against the country, all the good is
set down to the account of individual or personal character, and
all the ill to the account of national and general character.
Thus, by particularising the one and generalising the other, a
picture is made out that seems to be quite like nature and
perfectly copied from the truth, and at the same time quite con-
formable to all the prejudices already entertained. Now give
me leave to say that I have often observed you doing exactly

460 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isn

what I have now described ; that is, when you met with good
people or good things in this country, which might by chance
now and then occur, you would immediately ascribe it, as you
probably was very right in doing, to individual merit of some
kind or other ; but when the bad occurred, which it would do,
G-od knows, but too often, you put all this down to the score of
that unhappy nation, composed of Celts and Goths, which extends
from the Tweed to the Ultima T/iule of the North. The feelings
of a good mind, that takes an interest in good people, and forms
attachments to them, are thus gratified, and, at the same time,
national prejudice is kept up and wars strengthened. You have
a mind, give me leave to say, very superior to all the prejudices
which it is of most importance to overcome. To the great idols,
as Bacon calls them, to which so much worship is paid all over
the world, you never bend the knee ; but there are one or two
smaller images which you seem to take pleasure in paying a
little more respect to than is fairly their due. They are pre-
judices of no great account, I allow, and hardly of any moment
at all in the estimation of the soundness of mental attainment ;
yet, even from these I would wish that your mind was entirely
free. One is naturally most interested in the perfection of that
which is already excellent.

You asked my opinion before on another subject — the manner
in which you may employ your leisure in some literary occupa-
tion. When I received your former letter, in which this question
was put, I happened to be with Lord W. Seymour, and I took
the liberty of stating the matter to him. The idea that occurred,
and that he was the first to suggest, was, that the manners of
some Age distinguished in the history of our country, would
make a good subject for you to study and give an account of.
The manners, for example, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth as
compared with those of the present day — I mean, of the fashion-
able world ; or, perhaps the time of Queen Anne might be still
better; there are ample materials for it, and the thing cannot be
well done but by one who is properly acquainted with the
fashionable world at present, and who has been in it, with all
the observation and thorough acquaintance with it which we
know you to possess. This seemed very good to us both, and
the sort of reading into which it would lead you would be of a
pleasant nature, not too intricate or laborious for enjoyment.

1811] LETTER TO PROFESSOR PLAYFAIR. 461

Since that, on thinking over all these things by myself, it has
occurred that biography may offer good subjects for you.
Eminent persons of either sex, who, though well known, are not
so well known in the details of private life as they deserve to
be, are good subjects for biographical memoirs or sketches, more
or less particular, as circumstances might direct. What think
you of some subject of this kind ? Your short account of Mad.
du Deffand is a proof of how well you would succeed in such a
subject. It is written with a great deal of force, good sense,
and good taste. I would be glad if you would write me on this
subject.

K. Fergusson is here just now on his way to town. . . .
I learn that he thinks of living at Rait li ; that he finds himself
left with considerable encumbrances, and by no means rich. . . .

What a business in the political world ! At last, it would seem
that common sense is to prevail, but by a very small majority.

I understand Mrs. A. Apreece is either in London or is to be
there soon, and I am very glad to think that you will certainly
become acquainted.

I should like to know if you approve of either of the subjects
above mentioned.

With best wishes, many years and happy ones, I remain, my
dear Miss Berry, your respectful and affectionate Friend,

JOHN PLAYFAIR.

To Professor Play fair.

Feb., 1811.

How shall I thank you for so kindly taking the trouble of
suggesting to me some employment for my useless time ? I have
thought much upon the two ideas you mention. But want your
clear head to debrouiller them a little more before I can fix
upon, or indeed fairly judge of either, and measure it with my
own force, or rather, with my own weakness. Of reading and
reference I am not afraid, as I read very quickly, and have
several kind friends who would help me to the books I have not.
But no biography at all within my sphere occurs to me. The
other plan you mention might, I should think, in capable hands,
be made very entertaining. . . • I have had for many years
an idea, at times, wandering about in my head of something in
English like les caracteres de la Bruyere. I don't mean either
a translation or an imitation, but merely an adoption of his

462 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isn

arrangement, and I have by me a number of scraps written with
a view to this, some arranged and more not arranged, under a
selection of the heads into which he has divided his work.
Whether any of this stuff could be worked up into something
else, or if it be worth preserving at all, I have honestly and
truly no idea. When you come to town in May (as we are led
to hope), you will perhaps take the trouble of running over
some of it and telling me ; as it is a part of no whole, I have not
yet a parent's partiality for it. I can myself see a thousand
objections to anything built upon or recalling to memory La,
Bruyere. First, the perfection of the work itself, which one
cannot hope to approach ; next, the extreme facility with which
the world would construe such a work into individual satire,
and the difficulty which one might sometimes have oneself to
avoid it. In short, I want somebody wiser than myself, both to
tell me what to do, and how to do it ; and then comes ever and
anon headache, triumphant for two or three days together, and
so absorbs my existence, as not only to make all occupation at
the time impossible, but to damp all confidence, and destroy all
projects for the employment of the hours left me.
Your friend Mrs. Apreece is to pass the evening with us to-
morrow. Agnes was much pleased with her conversation and
manner, and I hear of her agreeableness from all quarters. She
will soon probably, like the rest of the world, be too much en-
gaged in the dissipation of this great town to have as much
time to bestow upon real society as she would wish.

The latest news of Eobert is that he was this day elected of
the Alfred Club, for which there were 314 candidates, and
only eight vacancies ; he was very desirous of filling one of
them, and we were very glad to be able to secure him a number
of votes.

Of politics it is quite impossible to speak. Come and see
them : talking about them is in vain, for all arguments, and
principles, and projects are overthrown. I feel myself convinced,
by this last turn of the wheel for the present ministry, of two
or three probabilities which all parties equally disclaim at
present, but which, nevertheless, we shall see take place, except
something much more wonderful should occur, than the Prince
becoming attached to these people, who will flatter and wheedle
him, and discover talents and virtues, and then such filial piety

1811] LETTER FROM HON. KEPPEL CRAVEN. 463

in him ! ! ! St. James's Square and Pall Mall to-day were full
of the carriages of the Privy Council, who were in a body at
Carleton House, to administer to him the oath prescribed by
Parliament ; and on Tuesday next, it is said, he opens the two
Houses, but I have a bet he does it by commission. In the
mean time the King is almost well again — that is to say, just
mad enough to desire to reign, which he will do, so much like
his son, and his son so much like him, that the happy country
will never know the difference. Farewell ! it is high time to
recollect that you have something else to do than read my
letters. . . . Remember me affectionately, and with many
thanks, to Lord Webb, if near you ; and believe me, with the
sincerest regard and gratitude, your attached friend,

M. B.

P.S. — The admirable lesson you give on national prejudices,
I really think will prevent me ever exposing myself on the
subject again. It is no excuse to say that these prejudices were
first instilled, and then strengthened by a chain of unfortunate
circumstances. . . . But I ought to have known how to
resist the series of unfavourable impressions to which I own,
with shame, having yielded.

From the Hon. Keppel Craven to Mws Berry.

Lisbon, Thursday, March 7, 1811.

MY DEAR Miss BERRYS (for I mean to address you both at
once), — I feel very reluctant in writing to you, being conscious
that our friend Anacharsis must have told you everything that
ever happened to us both while he was here, and nothing very
much worth recording having occurred since his departure, un-
less it is the retreat of the French, which has actually begun, so
much so that all our divisions are ordered to move, and Lord
Wellington's head-quarters were yesterday morning at Santarem.
Further we knew ijot, but suppose that the news of the arrival
of our reinforcements (which took place on Monday) must have
urged the enemy to this step, or that of General Graham having
arrived at Seville, which is said to be the case ; but this last
piece of intelligence I give you only as a report. I am the very
worst person in the world to retail news, for I generally receive
it incorrect and report it false. After this declaration you must
judge what degree of credit you may attach to that I have given

464 MISS BEERY'S JOURNAL. [isii

you. Sir J. Yorke and his fine squadron came in on Monday,
and I fancy sail again to-morrow. He would not come and
anchor under the town, as there is really scarcely room in the
Tagus ; but I wish he had, merely to surprise the Portuguese with
the sight of seventeen sail of the line so near to them. We have
had an exact representation of summer ever since Gell's depar-
ture, which has increased my stock of health to that degree that
I am afraid of an apoplexy, but am going to guard against such
an accident by a little sea discipline. My cousin Frederick
Berkeley, who has lately been appointed to a troop ship, is going
in a day or two to Oporto, to fetch some Portuguese recruits,
and has asked me to be his companion in that cruise, which I
have promised, as it will be a convenient opportunity of seeing
Oporto, and there is at present nothing to be done at Lisbon,
the theatres and balls having all closed since the commencement
of Lent, and all my friends having galloped off to the army on
Tuesday evening. Some were so kind as to leave me the charge
of settling their accounts and packing up their baggage, by which
agreeable employment I was taken up the whole of yesterday.
I hope to be back in less than a fortnight, and then have a week
to prepare for my own departure for England, which I mean, if
possible, to take place by the first of next month, and, Deo
volente, to embrace you (for that is a privilege of all travellers)
by the 15th of April.

. . . Charles Stuart is a most delightful person, as you
well know ; he lets everybody turn his house topsy-turvy, and
his dinners are quite delightful, as they possess the fundamental
requisite for promoting agreeable conversation, I mean being
well dressed ; and then he never minds anyone's costume, so I
indulge in the luxury of fancy dress, which is strictly forbidden
at the Admiral's ; besides which they last a very short time, and
you may come in and go out whenever you please — in short,
there never was so amiable a minister.

. . . Do you know St. Hermenegild"? He was son to
Leovigild, king of the Longobards, and brother to Prince
Recavedus. He married Evarinta, a beautiful Catholic princess,
and lived in the woods with her. His father, who followed
the Arian Schism, sent a furious priest, called Ebbalinus, at
the head of an army to seize him and bring him back, and the
said minister found this holy pair in devout meditation on the

1811] FROM MR. CRAVEN". 465

top of a hill, which hill walked away the instant the soldiers
tried to mount it, leaving in its stead a chasm full of flames.
However, the prince returned of his own accord to his father,
who, by the instigation of the priest, put him to death, which
was announced to him by the Holy Ghost. At first it had been
agreed to thrust him into the king's menagerie, but there the
lions licked his feet, and quite treated him as a brother. So his
head was cut off; notwithstanding which he went up to heaven
with it on, dressed in a very handsome white robe, with a palm
in his hand, in a cloud more beautiful and transparent than any
of Mr. Orme's screens, surrounded by cherubims and angels
playing on various instruments, and singing a chorus composed
by Marus Portogallo. All this happened last Sunday, and you
might see it to-night again were you going with me to the
Portuguese Theatre, where these martyrdoms take place twice
every week, in presence of a numerous and pious audience, who
show their piety by clapping of hands and cries of Bravo.

. . . Pray have the kindness to remember me most par-
ticularly to Mrs. Darner. You cannot conceive how much I
regret her giving up Strawberry Hill, for I must ever remember
with pleasure the happy rainy days I occasionally passed there;
our embarkations, disembarkations, eating strawberries, the wet
grass that adorns the Bay of Biscay, and the terrific adventure
of my boat, driven by a gale of wind into Mr. Somebody's gar-
den. Let me live in hopes that the younger Strawberry will
give me an opportunity of repeating those scenes of rural feli-
city. Oh dear! I had forgot among them the ready-made shoes
of Richmond, the surviving pair of which I gave away a few
days ago, in still a very serviceable state.

My kindest regards to Mr. Berry, whom I hope to find in
excellent health. Do you know what saudades means ? (don't
read sausages) because it is the most comprehensive word in any
language, and there is a flower called so in this place which I
want to carry to England.

Adieu ! expect to see me walk into your comfortable drawing-
room some very cold Spring morning somewhere about a month
hence.

Believe me, most sincerely and affectionately,
Your faithful

R. K. CRAVEN.

VOL. II. H H

,466 MISS BERRY'S JOURXAL. [mi

JOUKNAL.

Saturday, March 9th. — A man standing in the pillory*
in Oxford Street, at the end of our street, completely
knocked me up, never having seen the operation before.
I looked out of the window for the instant that the
wretched man was putting in, and for one instant after-
wards, when he was assailed by such a shower of every
sort of mud, filth, and horrors, as to give every part of
him and the machine one and the same hideous composi-
tion. The horror of seeing a wretched, degraded being,
already exposed to the scorn and contempt of the multi-
tude, thus treated by beings like himself; and to see the
human form thus vilified, and human creatures — and
those mostly women — thus treating it, seized upon my
irritable nerves in such a manner as almost to give me
what in my life I never had before — an hysterical affec-
tion between crying and screaming. We both fled from
the window, and took refuge in my back room, to hear
as little as we could of the noise of the crowd. It was
over, thank heaven, at one o'clock, and nothing should
ever bribe me to see such a sight again.

Sunday, Wth. — Went to church. Afterwards walked
to Lady E. W., who is going, I think, fast into
methodism, or melancholy of some sort or other.
Afterwards to Mrs. Howe's. It is good, after having
seen a mind like the first, to have the taste of it
put out of one's mouth by such a mind as Mrs. Howe's
at eighty-seven.

Monday, \\th. — Agnes called for me soon after ten,
and we went together to Lady Elliot's ; a true assembly,
with all the ' my ladies,' and all their daughters in London,

* The pillory was abolished as a punishment in all cases except perjury,
56 George III., 1815-16. The pillory was totally abolished by Act 1 Viet.
c. 30, June, 1837. The last who suffered this punishment at the Old Bailey
was Peter James Bossy, for perjury, June 24, 1830. — Haydn's Diet, of Dates,
p. 506-7.

1811] MADAME CATALAN!. 467

on one side of the question at least ; for of the opposition
there was neither woman nor man, except one or two of
the very young sprigs of assembly-goers.

Thursday, 14^. — In the evening to Mr. Grattan.
Catalani, her husband, and a horrible sister of his, had
dined there. She had sung a good deal before we came,
and sung two little things afterwards, expressly for me.
Mrs. Grattan always charming in her manner,, and he,
with whom I had a good deal of conversation about
Haslem's* book on madness, &c., always entertaining and
clever, in spite of his odd manner and still odder enun-
ciation. But they don't understand society in their own
house. She cannot move about to settle it, and he takes
it as it comes. In this very small party all the women
were sitting round the door of one of the two rooms,, and
all the men in the other.

Friday, ~L5th. — In the evening went to Lady Spencer'sf
before ten o'clock. An assembly in the drawing and
billiard rooms of all the aristocracy of opposition, and
of every Grenville, male and female, in the world.
The rooms are uncommonly handsome ; in the old style
of carving, gilding, and crimson damask, than which
nothing invented since is handsomer. Everybody seemed
pleased. Everybody piqued themselves upon coming
early, and it is to be repeated every Friday. Lord Har-
tington begged me to give him a little party on Wednes-
day next, the fast day. Agnes went to Mrs. Davenport's,
where Tramazzini was singing.

Saturday, \§th. — I had heard from Lord Stafford, at
Lady Spencer's the night before, that the 'Scotch Eeview,'
with the criticism upon ' Madame du Deffand's Letters,'
was out ; and this morning, before I got my own, Lady

* William Saunders Haslem, M.D., author of the ' Inquiry into the
Causes of the Extraordinary Addition to th» Number of the Insane/ pub-
lished in 1811.

t Lavinia, daughter of first Earl of Lucaii, married, 1781, to George
John, second Earl of Spencer, died 1831.

H H 2

468 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isii

Donegall sent me a copy she had got early. I ought to
be much content, and I am. Praise and blame often
appear slight to me, which strike others in the light of
very decided and satisfactory praise. Blame, or notice of
faults, there is none ; so of that I cannot complain. But
I am fastidious, when I ought only to be thankful.

Miss Berry had certainly reason, on the whole, to be
satisfied with the articles that appeared in the two leading
reviews on her editorship of Madame du DefFand's Letters ;
yet it is not to be wondered at that she felt the praise by
no means equal to the pains she had bestowed on her
task, and the labour it had cost her. But such is the
natural position of the editor of another person's writings.
It may be a work of patience, of research, of candour, of
judgment ; but it is not an original work, and has no
claim to the fame which may be attached to the author
whose writings he has thus been the means of bringing to
light. Such parts of the articles as related to the editor
herself are here given, that the reader may see she had
at least won the approbation and respect due to her
diligence, discretion, and knowledge of the subjects re-
quired for her work.

Edinburgh Review, February 1811.

The circumstances of this publication are greatly in its favour,
the editor having left nothing undone that could elucidate the
text, or throw light on the persons and incidents to which it
refers. This was highly necessary, and a task at the same time
of no inconsiderable difficulty. The society of Madame du
Deffand consisted of a great variety of persons, who though
conspicuous and well known at the time when they lived, yet to
us foreigners, at the distance of forty years, must many of them
require to be introduced with some historical detail. In this
respect, the editor has anticipated the wishes of the reader, and
has furnished him, very concisely and clearly, with all the infor-
mation he can desire, concerning the persons and events that

1811] MADAME DU DEFFAXD. 469

are passing before him. This undertaking was in fact more
arduous than at first appears, requiring qualifications which
neither editors nor authors are always in possession of; as it
could be executed by no person who had not lived in the best
society both of France and England, and was not well acquainted
with the history and manners of the fashionable world in both
countries. One might have looked long in vain for one possess-
ing these requisites among the grave and learned bodies from
which the ranks of scholiasts and commentators are usually
recruited.

Then follow extracts from the Letters, with the re-
viewer's comments, winding up with the concluding
passage upon the work and its editor.

We must now take leave of Madame du Deffand, which how-
ever we cannot do without saying, that in our opinion her
correspondence makes a valuable addition to the mass, not very
considerable as yet of printed letters, perfectly natural and
unaffected, and visibly never meant for publication. The editor
deserves well of the public on this account, and still more on
account of the judicious and enlightened observations with
which the text is illustrated.

Quarterly Review, May 1811.

To the letters of the Marquise du Deffand and Mr. Horace
Walpole are prefixed a preface, and a life of Madame du
Deffand, by the editor. They are written in an excellent tone,
and in a style temperate, chaste, and purely English. With
much knowledge of the world, they evince a spirit of candour,
corrected by a strong judgment and sound principle, and are
evidently the production of a mind enlightened and vigorous,
polished alike by extensive reading and by intercourse with the
best society. The most important parts of Madame du DefFand's
character are here accurately estimated, and placed in their just
point of view. Her good qualities are not exaggerated, nor is
the depravity of her heart disguised by a misplaced delicacy.
On the whole, we have read these prefatory pieces with great
satisfaction, and in offering this testimony to the merits of an

470 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isu

anonymous writer, we cannot avoid expressing a hope, that a
second opportunity may be soon given us of performing so
agreeable a duty.

In spite of the just spirit in which Miss Berry was
reviewed in the ' Edinburgh ' and ' Quarterly,' it is clear
that comments were passed upon her undertaking in the
society in which she lived, which justified her view of
the desire shown at that time to check all literary efforts
in women. The extract from Mr. Mat. Lewis's letter,
published by Lady Charlotte Bury, together with Lady
Charlotte's own remarks, show that Miss Berry's view on
this subject was shared by other ladies.

Extract from a Letter of M~ 0. Lewis to Lady Charlotte Bury.

Holland House, Dec. 9th, 1810.

I have galloped through two volumes of Madame du Deffand's
Letters, and with much amusement, though the anecdotes are in
themselves of no great value. . . . Have you read these letters ?
You know, of course, that they were edited by your friend Miss
Berry, who has also written the preface, the life, and the notes,
all of which are most outrageously abused by many persons,
though, in my opinion, without any just grounds.*

* Note by Lady Charlotte Bury on Mr. Lewis's letter, written some years
later, after the appearance of Miss Berry's later work : — ' It would be diffi-
cult to account for this outrageous abuse were it not an established fact that
all women who meddle with literature, especially those in the higher ranks
of life, place themselves in a pillory, at which every impertinent idler con-
ceives he has a right to throw his rotten eggs. Miss Berry has, however,
established her reputation as an authoress in spite of all detraction. Her
" Comparative View of Social Life in England and France" is assuredly one
of the best written and most comprehensive views of the subject which can
issue from the press, and combines all the tact of woman's feeling with the
strength and terseness ascribed to male intellect alone. This work, so
superior to the ephemeral fictions of the day, has obtained for her the sober
and lasting suffrage of the public, the affection and admiration of a wide
circle of friends, which it has ever been her privilege to call her own, and
their pride to bestow.'

1811] THE PRINCE REGENT. 471

JOUKNAL.

Friday, March 22nd, 1811. — Went, about eleven, to
Lady Hertford's. We did not get in till near twelve,
when the Regent had not arrived from dinner at Lord
Cholmondeley's. He came soon afterwards, while we
were in the outer room, and we saw the whole ceremony.
A circle was immediately made, and the Regent, the
Dukes of Clarence, Cumberland, Cambridge, and Glou-
cester, were all in it at the same time. The Regent
looked wretchedly, swollen up with a muddled com-
plexion, and was besides extremely tipsy — gravely and
cautiously so. I happened to be a good while in the
circle ; and he at last gave me a formal grave bow, with
Kensington legible on it.

In general, he speaks much less, both to men and
women, than he did — it is the fashion of the day with
him. Did not get away from Lady Hertford's till very
near two o'clock — the Prince still there.

Thursday, April 4th. — Went to Lady Derby's. The
same enormous crowd of all sorts of people that her
assemblies always are — the Regent there ; I was in his
eye some time, but no notice taken.

Friday, bth. — At three o'clock went to Devonshire
House, to a practising of waltzes, as it was called. It
was, in fact, a morning dance, with a cold dinner in one
of the back drawing-rooms — the dancing in the saloon.
It was pleasant enough.

Sunday, 7th. — In the morning I went to the Chapel
Royal with Lady Tancred. After having been driven
from post to pillar for places, we got two seats in the
aisle, close by the singing boys, and heard the Bishop of
London read the Communion Service very unimpres-
sively, and the Archbishop of York preached a very
gentlemanlike, sensible sermon, but one to which it
was quite impossible to pin one's attention, for want of

472 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isii

something to warm and interest one. The music ex-
cellent, though I think some part of the service better
set in the York Cathedral. The Chapel Eoyal shame-
fully small for the domestic chapel to the King's first,
and indeed only, palace in London ; and the way in
which money is not only taken, but extorted, by every
doorkeeper, disgraceful.

Tuesday, 9th. — In the evening several people came.
Sydney Smith's spirits at supper quite marvellous.

Wednesday, I0th. — Went to Mrs. Beauclerc's,* where
was a small party — of women only ourselves, Lady
Harriet [Leveson Gower] and Lady Georgiana [Morpeth,]
Lady Harrowby, and Mrs. Locke. The old Duchessf was
in one of the rooms. I had much talk with her about
Madame du Deffand. with whose letters she is delighted,
as having known all the society and persons mentioned.

Sunday, 14zA. — I did not go to church in the morning,
but had a long and interesting conversation with Thorn-
ton, about his views and plans, which I completely
entered into, and should be too glad if I could anyhow
second. After five, went to the Magdalen. We got
-there early, before the chapel was a third part full ; but
before the service began it was full in every part, con-
taining, I suppose, at least six or seven hundred people.
.Everything about it very decent, and well kept and
ordered. It was well lighted up with no less than
ninety-six spermaceti candles. The preaching not good;
the singing of the hymns and psalms from the women
behind the high screen of green stuff, which entirely hides
.them from the audience, agreeable and affecting ; indeed,
I think the Evening Hymn always so. One or two of
the voices were very sweet, and the rest did in chorus.

* Emily Charlotte, daughter of Sir William Ogilvy and the Duchess of
Leicester ; married, 1799, to Charles George Beauclerk, son of Topham and
Lady Di Beauclerk.

t The old duchess was probably the Duchess of Leinster, daughter of
Charles, second duke of Richmond.

1811] LETTER FROM PROFESSOR PLAYPAIR. 473

From Professor Playfair.

Edinburgh, 17th April, 1811.

MY DEAR Miss BERRY, — . ... I am very much disposed
to think well of the work you propose to employ yourself in,
and indeed to prefer it to either of the plans which had oc-
curred to Lord W. and myself. Sketches of character of the
kind you propose would give exercise to the powers of discri-
mination which (allow me to say it) you eminently possess, and
to that turn for elegant and concise delineation of which you
have lately furnished such good examples. I would, therefore,
have you think seriously of this ; it will afford you a pleasant
occupation, and some day I hope afford pleasure and instruction
to your friends and the public at large.

I am in the next place to make my confessions to you, and
to tell you that I am the author of the review of M. du D.
I am sorry that it did not fall into better hands, or what I
regret more, that I could not do it better myself. Though I
had a good deal of time allowed me, things turned out so that
I was much hurried in the end. Then I was perplexed not a
little by the great number of things that I admired in the
letters, and in my wish to quote a great deal, became bewil-
dered, and did not quote many of the things that are best. I
have a greater admiration of the force, vivacity, and nature of
the letters than I have anywhere expressed. I need not say
that I very much admire the work of the editor ; my admira-
tion of that I thought it necessary to keep down, and to say
much less than I felt. Soon after the publication of the letters,
a review was sent from London, or rather a part of one, for it
was not nearly complete, and though it was evidently the work
of a person friendly to you, there seemed so little esteem of the
book in general, and of the peculiar excellences of Mad. du
D.'s style, that I instantly, on obtaining Jeffrey's consent, deter-
mined to try what I could do. 1 am conscious of having suc-
ceeded but very indifferently, but there was some danger that
another person, at least not so desirous of succeeding well,
might be employed. Nobody took a greater interest in the
review than Professor Stewart : he suggested many remarks, and
if I have after all produced a thing of so little value, that fault
is my own, not that of my friends.

474 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isii

I hope you see a good deal of Mrs. Apreece, and like her
society in London as well as we did in Edinburgh. I hear from
her sometimes. She mentioned that you suspected me to be
the author of the review.

My intention was to have been in London in the beginning
of May ; it answers better, however, for Lord John Russell, who
lives with me, and means to go to town at the same time,
that the journey should be put off to June. Early in that
month I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you in North
Audley Street. I shall request to be permitted to introduce
Lord John Russell to you ; he is one of the most promising
young men I have ever met with. I shall not be able to
make my stay in London so long as I would wish.

Farewell, my dear madam, and believe me to be, your sincere
and attached friend,

JOHN PLAYFAIR.

Saturday, 20#A. — I walked out with Lady Hardwicke
in the shrubbery, to be told, by Catherine's desire, that
her fate is fixed. I was surprised, having no idea that
they had been much acquainted. I rejoice as it is
pleasing them all, and as the person in question* is a man
that Lady Hardwicke can marry, as well as her daughter
— a thing absolutely necessary with her darling Cathe-
rine.

Monday, 22nd. — Tittenhanger. Drove to St. Albans,
about three miles off. We called on Lady Spencer, who
was not in the country. From thence we went to the
Abbey church, for so it was, and as large as a cathedral.
There is a great deal of very fine Gothic ornament
applied to the walls of a very old Saxon church, a part
of which remains in its primitive Saxonity. The tomb
of Humphrey, the good Duke of Gloucester, very fine,
but there is another much finer; and indeed, on the
upper part, the most beautiful proportioned Gothic pierced
work I ever saw, viz. the chapel tomb of an Abbot

* Lord Caledon.

1811] KENSINGTON GARDENS. 475

Eamrudge. Rams are scattered all over the friezes,
followed by the Gothic letters nidge, to give his name.
The stone of this, and all the ornamented parts of this
church, from Caen in Normandy. Why this ? I know
not.

Saturday, 27th. — Went at eleven o'clock, with my
father, to Little Strawberry Hill. In spite of business
I had to do or to think of, I took a melancholy round of
the place by myself — recalling a thousand things and a
thousand scenes to my memory. My melancholy at
quitting this little place is always extreme ; and now
that I have no longer any hold in the neighbourhood,
and that this is let for a twelvemonth, probably longer,
in spite of all the trouble and expense it saves me, of
which I must rejoice to be quit — the bidding adieu to a
home at Twickenham can never be without a melancholy
pang.

Sunday, 28th. — Went with Mrs. Locke to Kensington
Gardens. They were as full as possible. Neither she
nor I saw a single face that we knew, till we met Lord
Aberdeen, and Mr. Ward, who joined us. The complexion
of the company in these gardens is altered since I was
there of a Sunday — always crowded with middling
people, yet all the fine ladies used to come and show off
their charms to the admiring mob ; but now they have
nothing to admire but one another.

I dined at Mrs. Apreece's ; the party, Sydney Smith,
Jeffrey, Malthus, Mr. Chinery, Mr. and Mrs. Tighe, and
A. Turner. I sat by Malthus, and had a good deal of
conversation with him — interesting, when one gets over
his painful manner of speaking from wanting a palate to
his mouth, and having had a hair-lip — not, however, at
all unpleasant in appearance.

Tuesday, May 1th. — Dined at Eogers's. After dinner,
Thomas Moore sung a good deal — his own Melalogue —
a thing with words of his, set to old music, which had

476 MISS BEEKY'S JOURNAL. [isii

been rehearsed on the stage at Dublin — something in the
style of Collins's Ode. I thought little of it, although he
both rehearses the words and plays the music admirably.

Sunday, 12th. — The finest summer day. I went to
church, and, at three o'clock, to Kensington Gardens.
Never went near the crowd, which was enormous, and
gay and beautiful at a distance. The smell of the grass
and flowering shrubs, from the recent rain, and the
freshness and luxuriance of everything, perfectly beauti-
ful. Such a lucky combination of weather and season
does not often occur in an English spring. I have seen
years without a single day and moment in them like this.

Tuesday, 14^A. — Went to see West's picture at the
British Institution in Pall Mall, and to the water-colour
drawings in Bond Street, West's picture is a fine com-
position, and has very fine parts in it ; in the back
ground he comes in with his iron outline and his mistiness
as usual. At the water-colours little real good, but
Eichter's things, which have twice the genius of Heaphy's
in the same style.

Friday, 17 th. — In the morning I went to Lady Charle-
mont, at Nollekens',* who is modelling a bust of her, —
badly enough as to real taste and expression. Looked
over all his things. The statue of Mr. Pitt, for the Senate
House at Cambridge, very like. In the evening we went
to the Marcets'jf in Eussell Square, where Eacine's tragedy

* Joseph Nollekens, a celebrated sculptor, bom 1737, R.A. in 1772, died
1823, in the eighty-sixth year of his age, leaving a fortune of nearly
£200,000.— Rose's Eiog. Diet.

t Dr. Marcet, a learned physician and experimental philosopher, born at
Geneva, 1770, educated at Edinburgh, practised in London. He retired
from his profession on coming into a fortune, in 1820 was elected Incumbent
of the Council and Honorary Professor of Chemistry in the University of
Geneva ; died 1821.

Jane Marcet, wife to Dr. Marcet, daughter of Mr. Haldimand, a
wealthy Swiss merchant settled in London, born 1769. Her earliest work
was ' Conversations on Chemistry,' followed by ' Conversations on Political
Economy/ 1816, pronounced by Mr. Maculloch to be 'on the whole the best

1811] VISIT TO JOANNA BAILLIE. 477

of ' Berenice ' was acted by a Mr. and Mrs. Lullin, and
three other persons whose names I could not make out.
None of them French. Mr. Lullin is a Genevois, and his
wife an Englishwoman ; consequently they all spoke with
an accent, and none of them had the true recitation of
French dramatic verse ; but as they acted with a con-
siderable degree of feeling and unction, and as Mrs. Lullin
is a very pretty woman, with a charming speaking voice
and a great expression of softness, it was interesting, and
sufficiently well done to make one admire the beauty of
Eacine's most French tragedy.

This, I was glad to see, was the feeling of the whole
English audience, which consisted principally of the most
fashionable young people in town.

After ' Berenice,' Mr. and Mrs. Lullin gave us ' Defiance
and Malice,' really very well.

Saturday, 18th. — I went with Joanna Baillie to Hamp-
stead, to remain till Monday. Dined before four, and
went out upon the Heath. Sat for above two hours in a
delicious fine evening ; afterwards read over together ' The
Two Martius,' * and criticised them, and likewise some of
my other scraps, which I think Joanna liked less than I
expected.

Sunday, 19th. — Sat by the fire the whole day. Joanna
Baillie gave us her drama upon Hope to read ; it is only
two acts, and I was soon through it. Very poetical, and
much fancy, as all her things have ; but this did not equal
my expectation — how high it was I know not. It is cer-
tainly a sufficiently dramatic story, but not dramatically
managed.

introduction to the science that has yet appeared.' Mrs. Marcet wrote on
various other subjects, and is entitled to the lasting gratitude of her
numerous readers for the patience and skill with which she disentangled the
difficulties of various branches of science, and rendered their study com-
paratively easy. Died 1858.

* This piece, often alluded to in Miss Berry's Journal, was never pub-
lished, and there is no trace of the MS. amongst her papers. — ED,

478 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isii

Monday, 27th. — In the evening to Lady Hertford's ; an
enormous assembly ; all the Princes.

Wednesday, 29th. — Went to Lady Stafford's. We got
into chairs in St. James's Street, the string of carriages
was so long. 1,500 cards had been issued, and yet it did
not make a positive crowd in that great house,* except
near the circles where the Prince stood.

Thursday, 30th. — Went with my sister to Kensington.
A numerous ball ; the Princess mighty gracious. I had
a long and almost an affecting conversation with her,
because for the first time she seemed to feel her own
situation, while she continues very good-natured to
others.

Saturday, June 1st. — In the evening to Mrs. Siddons's,
at Westbourne Farm. Went before ten o'clock. The
whole house was illuminated, on the outside with coloured
lamps, and in the inside with candles, and every bush in
the garden with lamps. In short, it was the prettiest
little Vauxhall that could be, and a vast many people
there. After staying very agreeably for about an hour,
went to Kensington. Music at the Princess's, and about
thirty people supped together.

Saturday, 8th. — Went to Lady Cork's.f A curious
party, where, by way of something to do, she had had
Th el wall J reading Milton's ' Invocation to Light,' so
abominably as to amuse or shock all the company.

* Cleveland House, since pulled down and replaced by Bridgewater House,
the residence of the Earl of Ellesmere.

t Mary, daughter of first Viscount Galway, second wife of Edmund,
seventh Earl of Cork. Lord Cork died 1798, Lady Cork, 1840.

1 Thelwall, a miscellaneous writer, political agitator, and lecturer on elo-
cution, born 1764, son of a silk mercer, apprenticed to a tailor, he was then
articled to an attorney, but abandoned that profession and embraced litera-
ture as a profession. He became a member of the London Corresponding
Society, and of that of the Friend of the People. He was tried for high
treason with Home Tooke and Thomas Hardy in 1794, defended by Mr.
Erskine, and acquitted. In 1801 he became a lecturer on elocution, taking
pupils to cure stammering and defects of speech. Amongst other works he

1811] THE PRINCESS OF WALES. 479

Sunday, Qth. — Dined with the Princess of Wales at
Blackheath. Dining-room, a la Gothique, very pretty,
but the rest of the house in abominable taste. After
dinner, the Princess walked with me in the garden, and
fell into talking of her own story, with which she began
from her early youth, and continued in detail to the epoch
of her marriage, and in still greater detail since. Every
circumstance of the Prince's behaviour to her at and after
their marriage ; every circumstance of the contrivances
for getting her out of Carlton House ; his character,
which she knows perfectly ; the Queen's, which she
abhors, and whom she believes to be her greatest enemy;
her own father's and mother's, &c. &c. In short, after
coming in to get some tea and put on a shawl, she
resumed her walk and her talk to me till past one in the
morning. Luckily, it was the finest moonlight night that
ever was.

Thursday, 13th. — Dined at the Princess of Wales's, at
Kensington. After dinner, the Princess walked out with
me on the gravel walk before the windows, and resumed
the conversation of Blackheath, drawing me into a window
and asking me if I had thought upon the conversation we
had the other day. I am not altogether so well satisfied
with this one as with the other. It seems to me that she
has more to fear.

Wednesday, 19^. — Promised to dine at Kensington.
Found nobody but Lady Glenbervie ready dressed for
the Eegent's fete in the evening. At eight Lady Glen-
bervie set off, leaving us three alone with the Princess,
and without any hope of being able to get away till
she came back. I took upon myself the office of
Dragon, and declared we must all four keep together the
whole evening, for fear any stories were to be made of

wrote f Poems in the Tower and in Newgate,' ' The Tribune,' ' Political
Miscellanies,' 'A Letter on Stammering,' 'The Peripatetic,' and 'The
Daughter of Adoption,' a novel ; died 1834. — Rose's liiog.

480 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [mi

any of us the next day, on the only evening in the year
when the Princess was without any of her ladies.

We first walked in the gardens, which had a number
of people in them ; then the Princess played a great deal
on the piano, in a manner to convince one she had played
very well, but had been out of the habit of playing.
Afterwards we talked of her and her education, and her
various and curious governesses, &c. &c., till near twelve
o'clock, when we supped, and in half-an-hour afterwards
arrived Lady Glenbervie, who had very cleverly done her
business at the fete, seen everything but the supper, and
gave us a very good account of everything she had seen.
But the Princess kept us so long hearing it that we were
ah1 exhausted, and it was past two o'clock before we got
home.

Monday, 24?A. — Went to see Carlton House, which
remained with its decorations, and the servants in their
state uniforms, and the Yeomen of the Guard in every
room.

The crowd was great at the gateway, and we should
have had much difficulty of getting in, if Lady Ellen-
borough had not sent for Sayer, one of the Bow Street
officers, who was cap-in-hand to the chief-justice's
kdy.

Within the house, too, the crowd was great, but not
such as to impede one another, except in the doorways ;
all the servants were uncommonly civil and attentive in
accommodating the people, and making them go the right
way. The house is magnificent, and the Gothic green-
house or conservatory, where the Prince supped, though
ridiculous for the purpose it was built for, certainly made
a most beautiful and richly-ornamented supper room. All
the plate was still upon the table, and all the magnificent
gold plate upon the sideboard, in three ranks, at the top
of the room, behind where the Prince sat ; all the knives,
forks, spoons, &c. &c., yet spread upon it, and so few

1811] BALL AT DEVONSHIRE HOUSE. 481

people to guard and watch it, as really was creditable to
the honesty of John Bull.

The temporary rooms in the garden are immense, and
admirably contrived, and I dare say when lighted up
must have been very handsome.

Wednesday, 26th. — To the ball at Devonshire House.
The ball brilliant, from all the women having on their
Carlton House gowns, and many their feathers. The
Prince there ; he passed me in the drawing-room when
there were only a few people. I was standing by Lady
Elizabeth Whitehead, and just behind Lady Melbourne, to
whom he spoke, but avoided letting his eye fall upon me.
So I am satisfied that Kensington sticks in his throat, and
qu'il se venge des grands sur les petites.

Thursday, 27th. — Left London to go to Danesfield.

Saturday, 29th. — Went in Mrs. Scott's barouche to
Park Place. Instead of driving up, as formerly, to the
house to see Park Place, carriages turn up by the
Horse Shoes, Lord Malmesbury having bought all the
intervening land. • It is impossible to describe the melan-
choly I felt at again finding myself at Park Place. We
entered it by the kitchen garden, and from thence into
the little flower-garden, where several recollections totally
overcame me. They needed not the additional melan-
choly which the forlorn, the neglected, the ruined look of
everything gave them. Had I known nothing of the
inhabitants I could have sworn, only from seeing the
place, that they cared little for the country. Poor Park
Place ! how changed in every particular ! The alterations
made in the inside of the house are, I think, not good.
The furniture of the library is certainly improved, for
there is a fine collection of books in it ; a folio edition of
all the Greek and Latin classics, probably having belonged
to Hermes,* besides very fine copies of all the diplomatic
books, dictionaries, foreign topography, &c. &c. I shall

* Mr. Harris, father of the first Lord Malmesbury.
VOL. II. I I

482 MISS BERET'S JOURNAL. [mi

probably never see it again, nor do I wish it ; lest the
image of it in its present state should derange and confuse
my former recollections of its beauties, its comforts, its
inhabitants, and my last winter visit there, when I vainly
hoped for and looked forward to happiness within my
grasp ! We returned by Medenham Ferry. Close by
the ferry house is the abbey, which belongs to Mrs. Scott.
There is a good room for drinking tea in ; the rest in a
sort of ruin, except that inhabited by the woman who
takes care of it. The rooms that are said to have been
occupied by Wilkes, Paul Whitehead, &c., members of
the famous or infamous club that met here forty or fifty
years ago, are such rooms for size and convenience as no
luxurious debauchers would condescend to inhabit now.*
There are remains in the room called Wilkes's of a large
cradle, in which it is said he slept. From Medenham a
beautiful drive of a mile, through hayfields belonging to
Danesfield. In the evening I read out to them, but my
spirits had not at all recovered Park Place.

Extract of a Letter to Mrs. Darner.

Danesfield, June 30th, 1811.

I was at Park Place yesterday. It had rained much in the
night, and was a gray, damp, melancholy day, suiting well with
the feelings I carried to it. Never did I see a place which,
without being much altered, is so perfectly changed, so triste,
so comfortless ! Everything is neglected : the seats all falling
to pieces, the trees overgrown in some places and in others
dead and left standing, the poor little flower garden with its
fountain dry and its borders flowerless, its little arcades over-

* This club consisted of twelve members ; the motto (from Rabelais)
over the grand entrance was ' Ce queje voudras.' Although the club became
notorious, and their disgusting profanity was well known, it proved no bar
either to the reception of the members in society or to the advancement in
the State of Sir Francis Dashwood, the founder, who officiated as high
Priest, and who became Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Sandwich, First
Lord of the Admiralty, and Wilkes everything that the sober citizens of
London could make of him.

1811] MRS. SHERIDAN. 483

grown and broke, and the thorn, tree in the middle let to spread
over the whole space. Oh, how every step of it affected me !
I saw you and 0*H. sitting under this thorn tree in its trim days,
and myself having left you merely to enjoy the delicious sensa-
tion of knowing you were expressing for me every sentiment
I could wish to inspire. I saw him following me into the laurel
walk, and in giving me a letter (which I had accidentally
dropped) in a joking manner, first convincing me of the seri-
ousness of the sentiment I had inspired. I sat down at the
end of the library, and saw your form at the bottom, on a
ladder, arranging the new-placed books, and the look you gave
and recalled, when you found us sitting at the other end of the
room, just where you had left us when you returned again to
your work .... I am so glad I have seen Park Place
once, in spite of all the melancholy it inspired,, but I should be
sorry to see more of it.

JOUKNAL.

Wednesday, July 3rd. — Eeturned to London.

Thursday, l\th. — Went to Lady Cork's ; a great assem-*"\
bly in her upper rooms, which are very prettily furnished,
particularly the boudoir, opening into the conservatory.
The Prince there, and all the world ; and a numerous
world is still in London. There were some masks, and
some people singing, and Mrs. Billington at a piano-forte. |

Thursday, Aug. 1st. — I saw Mrs. Sheridan* by appoint-""
ment in the morning, at her own house, about poor
Kichardson. Curious conversation on the subject of her
husband and their pecuniary necessities. She cannot get
101. to carry her out of London. Spoke and acts most
kindly about poor Eichardson.

Friday, 2nd. — Went to Mrs. Villiers', where was a
regular ball of all that remained in London of dancers,
and much the usual tapisserie of the walls of a ballroom ;
the Dowagers Eutland and Essex, Lady Clare, &c. Mrs.

* Miss Esther Jane Ogle, daughter of the Dean of Winchester, married
to Mr. Sheridan, 1796.

11 2:

484 MISS BERET'S JOUENAL. [isn

Sheridan (to my utter amazement), after the conversation
we had had the day before, was waltzing away there, the
gayest among the gay. What happy versatility of mind !
But, after all, what skin-deep gaiety !

Saturday r, 3rd. — Sat for a long time with Lady Georgi-
ana Morpeth ; the first time I have seen her since her
father's death. She was, as always, most right-feeling ;
and I parted with her, as I always do, with sincere affec-
tion and regret.

Sunday, kth. — Went to Tunbridge Wells.

The following letter, addressed to Lady Georgiana
Morpeth, on the subject of the position to which her
brother had succeeded by his father's death, is one of the
many proofs in Miss Berry's writings of how justly she
appreciated the duties attached to the possession of
honours and power : —

Tunbridge, 9th August, 1811.

MY DEAREST Gr , — What you say is what the anxious

mind of true, real and deep affection must necessarily feel of
any person, however amiable, at his age, placed in his trying,
or to use his own just expression, awful situation ! for awful it
is to the thinking mind, as comprising at once the power and
the occasion of being nobly distinguished among men, or in
spite of all the lace and fringe of life, to link to that order of
beings, whose sentiments high birth cannot ennoble, whose
heart the blessed power of doing good cannot warm, and whose
character can never rise to their station. The more I think of
my friend Hartington, the more I feel confirmed in my first
ideas on his subject, that the being so early called to the per-
formance of great, serious, and varied duties, will confirm all
the good qualities we have already known in him, and steady
and settle his character. But not to feel anxious about him for
the next year or two, is to be either incapable of appreciating
his present virtues, or insensible to his future success.

Saturday, -10$. — Dined at Mrs. Tighe's. The party
consisted of Miss White,* Mr. Ward, Mr. Luttrell, and

* Miss Lydia White, well known in the literary society of her time.

1811] MEMOIRS OF MRS. HUTCHINSOX. 485

myself. Mr. Luttrell entertaining, and Mr. Ward rather
more serious, and therefore more agreeable than usual.
But his manners are bad, and with a sort of affectation
of worldism, smell most strongly of never having been
in any other world than that of London.

Wednesday r, Sept. kth. — Tunbridge Wells. At twelve
o'clock we set out for Hever Castle ten miles from hence.
The view from the little castle (for it is smallj surrounded
by the moat in good preservation, and filled with water),
is charming. Still more interesting is the inside, which,
in spite of an ugly new staircase and other disfigurements,
has remained as it was in the time of Sir Thomas
BuUeyny the father of Anne Bulleyn. It is now the
habitation of a large farmer. The large dining-room is
as it was, with its buttery, its large table, and some
cupboards certainly contemporary. There is also a
gallery at the top of the house, with the old woodwork
and old ceiling. The little court remains unchanged ; and
the great oaken entrance-door under the tower is studded
with thick nails, and is probably as old as the date of
Edward IK

Extract of a Letter from Miss Berry to Mrs. Darner.

Tunbridge, 1811.

I read a great deal every morning, and indeed often of an
evening ; I don't know if any good will come of it, it does not
seem yet to have cleared my head as to any use I can make of
it. But in the meantime, I am more delighted with Mrs.
Hutchinson * than with any book I have read for an age. She
was a really superior woman, both as to head and heart. Her
description and account of her husband's attachment to her, is
the truest, the most elevated and admirable picture of love and
true affection from and to a superior mind that can be imagined.
It fills up every line of that ideal picture long ago traced by

* ' Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson,' by his wife, Lucy, daughter of Sir
Allan Apsley, born 1620. The Memoirs were not published till 1806,

486 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isn

imagination, and now -engraved by reason on my heart. And
in the sad certainty of never meeting with it, I feel better
pleased with myself to suffer from its absence, than to be unable
to comprehend or to deny its existence. Farewell, or I shall
grow romantic.

Tuesday, 24;th. — We set out for Mayfield with Lady
Charlemont, Mrs. Abercrombie, Mrs. Gordon, and my
sister. A pretty village, with a fine ruin of an ancient
palace or residence of the archbishops of Canterbury ;
the most modern part is still inhabited by farmers. Mrs,
Tighe, Miss White, Mr. Abercrombie, and Mr. Tierney
accompanied us on horseback.

Wednesday, Oct. 2nd. — Drove, with Mr. and Mrs.
Gordon and Lady Erroll, to Tunbridge Castle. I had no
idea of the beauty of the ruin, nor of the goodness of
the house that they have added or attached at the side
of one of the towers, between which is the grand
entrance-gate. The enclosure of the castle down to the
river is a lawn and a shrubbery. It is at present to let ;
and we went all over it, Mr. Gordon having some idea of
taking it.

Sunday, 27th. — Agnes and I went to Mr. Blake's,* to
see his drawings, which are admirable. He sketches in
every style, and always well. I never saw a more perfect
amateur.

Wednesday, 30th. — Eeturned to London.

Sunday, Nov. 3rd. — In the evening with young Law,
who talked to us with great intelligence of Sicily, where
he has been spending five months.

Monday, kth. — In the evening Mrs. Darner. I read
Alfieri in Italian — but what Italian ! so stuffed with
Tuscanisms, so fraught with words immediately derived

* The late William Blake, Esq., of Portland Place and Danesbury Wel-
wyn. His remarkable talent for drawing has been transmitted, and in a still
higher degree, to his daughters, whose works have excited the greatest
admiration, both in private and at the Amateur Exhibitions.,

1811] LETTER FROM PROFESSOR PLAYFAIR. 487

from the Latin, that it is hardly to be recognised as the
language of Boccaccio, Machievelli, and other Italian
classics.

From Professor Playfair.

Edinburgh, 21st October, 1811.

MY DEAR MADAM, — I intended to have written you a very
long letter, but a problem I have been engaged on this morning
has made me forget the time till it is hard on the hour when
Sir John Sebright's frank will lose its efficacy. . . .

Have you been able to follow out anything of the plan of
reading and writing that we talked of?

After leaving London, I stayed for a week at Woburn, and
set out from thence with Lord J. Russell on a tour through the
manufacturing and commercial towns in the West of England.
This turned out very interesting, and took longer time than I
had foreseen. Since I got home I have been kept so close at
work printing a text-book of Natural Philosophy, that I only
got leisure enough to visit Raith in the course of the last fort-
night. Sir John Sebright and I, who have become great friends,
went there together. The party we found there, though large,
was exceeding pleasant, and I think, on the whole, there cannot
be a pleasanter house than Raith now is. Every thing goes on
well. . . .

I have been very much amused and entertained by Sir John
Sebright ; he is quite a singular man ; of a powerful understand-
ing, irregularly instructed, but possessed of much information,
great knowledge of the world, and a familiar acquaintance with
a vast number of subjects that lie quite out of the way of most
people. . . .

I hope you have been admiring the comet, who is certainly
one of the most splendid guests that ever made a visit to the
solar system.

Yours, my dear Miss Berry, with the utmost affection and
esteem, JOHN PLAYFAIR.

Wednesday, ~L3th. — Before four o'clock Lady C. Lindsay
came to North Audley Street in the Princess of Wales's
carriage, to carry me to Blackheath. We arrived there
soon after five o'clock. The Princess received me with

488 MISS BERKY'S JOUENAL. [mi

all possible kindness. After talking more than half an
hour, Lady Charlotte took me to my apartments, con-
sisting of two rooms, and a third for my maid. We
dined before seven o'clock. The Princess, Lady Char-
lotte, and myself in a small dining-room. We after-
wards went down stairs to the drawing-room, which
opens into the greenhouse ; a very warm and comfort-
able room. We talked a great deal, and separated before
one o'clock.

Thursday, 14#A. — I awoke with a bad headache. The
Princess came to Lady Charlotte immediately after break-
fast, and seeing that I was not well, begged I would
remain quite quiet all the morning, telling me to ask for
whatever I wished to have. I retired to my own com-
fortable room till seven o'clock, when I was well enough
to go to dinner, and to spend the evening with the
Princess, who was in good humour and very talkative.

Friday, Ibth. — The Princess came in while we were
breakfasting, and proposed a walk in the garden. Dr.
Burney* dined and stayed here in the evening, and we
had much good conversation. The Princess of Glou-
cester and her brother dined with the Duchess of
Brunswick, and called upon the Princess in the afternoon.

Saturday, IQth. — The Duke of Brunswick came to
see t the Princess ; she afterwards stayed talking for so
long in Lady Charlotte's room, that we did not dine till
eight o'clock. The evening, again, long conversation till
half-past one o'clock.

Sunday, Vlth. — Very fine winter's day. The Princess,
Lady Charlotte, and I went to Lea Church ; the parish
of George Locke is a mile from here. Small country
church, in a charming situation. After church we went
into his house : the prettiest parsonage, with the gayest
and most agreeable view. His wife was ill, and could

* Probably Dr. Charles Burney, son of Dr. Burney, well known for his
works on music.

1811] PRINCESS CHAELOTTE AND HER MOTHER. 489

not see the Princess. From there we went to the
Princess's kitchen garden on the Heath, where she has a
pavilion with two or three rooms furnished, commanding
a magnificent view on both sides. After luncheon we
walked under the wall of Greenwich Park, which is a
sort of Sunday promenade, where one sees a great many
people — of common people the most part, not recog-
nising the Princess.

Monday, 18^. — Next morning, after breakfast, I had
by chance a tete-a-tete conversation with the Princess in
Lady Charlotte's room. It was chiefly on the subject of
idle frivolous correspondence that people would keep up
with her. She had in her hand a letter of which she
was speaking. We were all dressed before three o'clock
for the reception of Princess Charlotte, who was to dine
with her mother. Princess Sophia of Gloucester arrived
just before, with Miss Dee : then Princess Charlotte with
Lady de Clifford. She is very much grown and improved
in figure since I saw her last January at Kensington. I
don't know whether her face is improved ; her mouth is
less pleasing and less resembling her father's than it was ;
but her bust is perfect; her head not too large, and
well placed ; has much intelligence in her countenance,
though the expression is not very agreeable ; her walk is
dreadful, but I think it is only girlish affectation, which
wih1 cure itself. We dined by daylight — seven women,
and not one man ; an unheard-of thing at the Princess's.
After dinner we went down to the drawing-room, and
there stayed till past seven o'clock, when the Princess
Charlotte and her governess went away. Princess Sophia
and her lady went with the Princess of Wales to the
Duchess of Brunswick, and I departed for London.

Tuesday, Dec. 3re?. — We went, at two o'clock, to see
Thornton's library, at which they are at this moment
working. It is, of all the ideas of interior decoration,
the most extraordinary ; it is a Greek temple, like one

490 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [mi

of those at Paestum, placed in the interior of a room,
against the walls of which the books are arranged, and
between which walls and the columns of the temple one
can pass to the two ends. In short, it is the ideas of
Gell, Hope, and Mr. Hopper (the architect employed),
mixed and confused by the orders of our friend Thorn-
ton, who has not a single idea of his own upon these
subjects.

Thursday ', oth. — Went to Brighton.

Friday, \%th. — Went with Lady Charlotte to hear the
military band in the Prince's Pavilion. Luckily, we only
heard two pieces, for the noise of so many loud instru-
ments in a room (the dining-room) which could hardly
hold them, was not a remedy for my headache. After
the music, having an order, we saw the apartments of the
Pavilion. All is Chinese, quite overloaded with china
of all sorts and of all possible forms, many beautiful in
themselves, but so overloaded one upon another, that the
effect is more like a china shop baroquement arranged,
than the abode of a Prince. All is gaudy, without
looking gay ; and all is crowded with ornaments, without
being magnificent. The interior of the stables is im-
posing, though badly arranged for the comfort of the
horses, and will only accommodate sixty beneath this
large building. The riding house, which is attached to
it, perfectly suits its purpose, and is, I think, likely not to
be finished, though it is the only part of the habitation
of the Prince which deserves preservation. He ought to
have a tennis court of the same size, making a pendant
to the riding house.

Saturday, ~L4tth. — Eeturned to North Audley Street.

Tuesday, 24:th. — Went to Wimpole with the Charle-
monts.

Wednesday, 25th. — Went to the dairy, and to see the
Gnu, the animal that Lord Caledon had brought for Lord
Hardwicke from the Cape. It is the most singular animal

1811] THE GNU. 491

that I have ever seen, larger than an ass of this country,
resembling no other in particular ; having two immense
horns and a ferocious look, though doing no harm. It
is a female, and comes from a mountainous country far in
the interior of Africa, at the north of the Cape.

492 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isi2

1812.

Wimpole. — Wednesday, January ~Lst. — Went with Eliza-
beth * to the school. The children have always a dinner
on New Year's Day. It was in the school upon forms
arranged as tables. The children behaved themselves
very well, and after dinner we begged the schoolmistress
to relax her discipline and allow a little talking. We made
the children sing, and the most perfect happiness beamed
upon forty-five young and innocent faces, f

Friday, 3rd. — Eeturned to London.

Tuesday, 14fA. — Drove with Lady C. Campbell to
Blackheath. We found the Princess, who received me
in the most gracious manner possible. Poor Charlotte
was so overcome with fatigue, that I was left tete-a-tete
till half-past seven o'clock, when we separated to dress, I
almost dead with so much talking. The toilette of the
Princess is always so rapid, that it was impossible not to
keep her waiting a few minutes. Lady Charlotte joined
us at dinner, and the evening passed very agreeably.

Wednesday, 15 th — A fine winter's day. We did not
see the Princess till luncheon at four o'clock, and from
that' time till seven o'clock we remained in conversation ;
then dinner, and again conversation till nearly one
o'clock.

Thursday, ]&th. — I remained quietly in my room till
three o'clock, when the Princess sent for me to take a

* Lady Elizabeth Yorke.

t The desire to promote both the education and the recreation of the
children of the poor has happily now become almost wholly universal in
this country ; but not the less honour is due to those who early in the cen-
tury formed a small minority, but who set the example and took the lead in
that good work.

1812] PRINCE OF WALES'S LETTER. 493

walk to Mr. Angerstein's house. After luncheon went
with the Princess to the Duchess of Brunswick, to whom
she presented me, and with whom I had a long talk.
The Duchess sat in her arm-chair in the middle of a fine
large drawing-room, the Princess on one side, and I on
the other. She invited me to dine with her the next
day ; but the Princess telling her that I was obliged to
return home, insisted that we should dine there this day,
to which the Princess consented, and there we were in
our walking dress talking till five o'clock, when dinner
was served. It was a tolerable dinner, with German
dishes, that they forced me to taste. At half past six we
took coffee, and returned to the Princess's. After half an
hour's conversation, separated to dress for the Princess's
dinner, from which she did not excuse us, though it was
an impossibility to eat again. Evening passed as usual.

Friday, \lth. — Returned to town.

Thursday, February 13th. — I had a long and very
agreeable tete-a-tete with the Duke of Devonshire. He
thinks so well, so sensibly, and has so good a heart, that
he always gives me pleasure when he talks openly.

Sunday, 16th. — It is already known, and they were
talking at dinner of the letter which the Prince of Wales
has written to the Duke of York,* telling him that he
should keep the same ministers after the 18th of this
month, when all restrictions would cease, and he would
govern completely as King. ,

Wednesday, 26th. — The morning at Devonshire House,

* The Prince's celebrated letter to the Duke of York, announcing his in-
tention of retaining the Tory administration, and thus renouncing the Whig
party, whom he had hitherto regarded as his own political friends, created
great indignation, and amongst other satirical poems gave rise to Moore's
Parody of the Letter, beginning —

' At length, dearest Freddy, the moment is nigh,
When, with P-rc-v-1's leave, I may throw my chains by ;
And, as time now is precious, the first thing I do
Is to sit down and write a wise letter to you.'
—Moore's Works, vol. v. p. 223.

494 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1812

where I found the Duke in his library with the Marquis
Douglas and George Neville, who were looking over his
beautiful books. The Duke accompanied us into the
dining-room to see the new pictures, and he then told me
of the legacy old Cavendish * had left him — nearly
7,OOOJ. a year.

Tuesday, March 3rd. — In the evening I went in
Kemble's box, where we found his wife, to see ' Julius
Caesar ' — Kemble playing the part of Brutus, and Young,
Cassius, admirably well.

Wednesday, 4th. — In the evening went to the Ancient
Music. We found places near to Lord and Lady Derby,
and were not far from the box where the Eegent was,
accompanied by the Dukes of Cumberland and Cam-
bridge, and two or three other directors, and the faithful
Lord Yarmouth. He only spoke to Lady Albemarle and
Mrs. Howe.

To the Countess of Hardwicke from Miss Berry.

North Audley Street, Monday, March 16, 1812.

You will find me with a new friend in your Square, Lady
Castlereagh, who has been so civil, and so successful in curing
me of the toothache, that I am going to a small party to her

* Henry Cavendish, son of Lord Cavendish, cousin of the Duke of Devon-
shire, died March 1810. He left property to the amount of one million two
hundred thousand pounds. Seven hundred thousand pounds he bequeathed
to Lofld G. Cavendish, two hundred thousand pounds to the Earl of Bess-
borough, and other legacies to the Cavendish family. He was a most emi-
nent chemist and natural philosopher ; he was conversant with every part of
Sir J. Newton's philosophy, the principles of which he applied near forty
(now ninety) years ago to an investigation of the laws on which the pheno-
mena of electricity depend ; he ascertained, in 1766, the extreme levity of
inflammable gas, now called hydrogen gas ; he discovered the composition
of water by the union of two airs ; laid the foundation of the modern system
of chemistry, &c. &c. He died at the age of seventy-nine. Sir H. Davy, in
pronouncing a high eulogium on him, said, ' Since the days of Sir J. Newton
England has sustained no scientific loss so great as that of Cavendish. . . .
His name will be an immortal honour to his house, to his age, and to his
country.'— Ann. Regis, for 1810.

1812] LETTER TO THE COUNTESS OF HARDWICKE. 495

house this evening, and am asked to all her suppers. You see
I am creeping over to the Ministerial side. However, to save
appearances and my principles, if I can, I am going afterwards
to your favourite Lady Caroline Lamb, who has some sort of a
party down at Whitehall, to he in the way of hearing an early
account of what is going on in the House of Peers on Lord
Boringdon's motion, which, by the way, I believe, is put off. I
have no time to talk to you about this motion. I was present
when he started the first idea of it at dinner, at Devonshire
House, on Monday se'nnight, which people smiled at, and
nobody replied to. But however odd the motion, I should not
be at all surprised, by what I have since heard, of it being com-
pletely a manoeuvre of Lord Wellesley and Canning, and if it
led to turning out Percival and his immediate adherents.

The author of the versification of the letter is little Anacreon,
not avowedly, but certainly. You must see likewise a certain
vision, said to be by Lord Byron, as well as some lines on the
Princess Charlotte's tears at the far-famed dinner, and the
triumph of the whale in the * Examiner ' of last Sunday. The
prose squibs and abuse are endless. People begin to look grave
about the license taken ; but it is not yet, near as great as that
at the end of Charles II. 's reign was ! . . .

Thursday, \$th. — Went to Lady Castlereagh's, where
there was an assembly entirely of ladies. There were only
three men in the room when we arrived. All the male
world was in the House of Lords to hear the motion of
Lord Boringdon.* Near midnight we went to Melbourne
House to Lady Caroline Lamb. They were at supper.
Lady Holland with fifteen other ladies waiting the arrival

* Afterwards created Earl of Morley. The object of Lord Boringdon's
motion was to move an address to the Prince Regent beseech ing him to form
an efficient administration that should be so composed as to unite the con-
fidence and good will of all classes. He represented that in the present
state of Ireland, no such confidence could be enjoyed by any administration
whose characteristic principle was to resist a dispassionate consideration of
the civil disabilities, under which His Majesty's Roman Catholic subjects
there still laboured. Lord Grimstone moved an amendment which was in
effect an expression of perfect satisfaction with the conduct of affairs since
the commencement of the Regency. The amendment was carried by a
majority of 93. — See Annual Register, 1812.

496 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1812

of the gentlemen from the Houses. An hour passed
before they came. All opposition en masse, and all the
Canning party, himself excepted, with a fallen look, after
their cheval de bataille, Lord Wellesley, had entirely failed
them at the hour of need, not having chosen to open his
mouth.

Wednesday, 2bth. — The Princess of Wales had settled,
on Saturday last, to come and see us this morning in
town. At four o'clock we sat down to table in the little
drawing-room. It was a beautiful day. The sun shone
out, and everything appeared very bright and very cheer-
ful. The Princess seemed much pleased with the com-
pany and the luncheon, and fatigued no one, for at
half-past five she returned to Blackheath.

Thursday, April 2nd. — Went to Lady Glenbervie's ;
Lord Byron was there, and I had a quarter of an hour's
conversation, which, I own, gave me a great desire to know
i him better, and he seemed willing that I should do so.

Thursday, Qth. — I had a great deal of private conver-
sation with the Princess, when I found her much more
reasonable on her own affairs, and much more capable of
listening to reason than usual. She begins to understand
that she must be prudent, and that prudence alone will dis-
arm her enemies — at least she has no other course to take.

Sunday, 12th. — I went to church, and afterwards took
Lady Cornewall * to pay a visit to Catalani in her hermi-
tage at Brompton. It is a small house with a drawing-
room, decorated with French tapestry, and all the gilding,
yellow, crimson, and looking-glasses that could be crammed
into it.

Wednesday, \bth. — We went to Kensington ; dinner of
twenty-two people ; Canning and several of his friends
and his set. In the evening there was an assembly, many
of whom, and we amongst others, were invited to supper.
The Princess was melancholy ; I never saw her so beat
* Wife of Sir George Cornewall.

1812] LORD BYRON. 497

down. She made me sit by her side for a long time ;
twice she tried to speak and could not, her voice always
failing her. It was the recollections that were revived
by the company, and not the public affairs, I am quite
sure, by the answers she made upon what I said of the
politics of the day.

Saturday, May 2nd. — Left ' The Two Martius ' at Sir
G. Beaumont's.

Sunday, 3rd. — Dined at Mr. Montague's with Lord
and Lady Hardwicke, and Lady Elizabeth, Lord and Lady
Elliott, &c., and Mr. Peel. The latter, he who spoke so
well in the House of Commons, has a very agreeable
countenance.

Thursday, 7th. — At the end of the evening I had half
an hour's conversation with Lord Byron, principally on
the subject of the Scotch Eeview, with which he is very
much pleased. He is a singular man, and pleasant to me,
but I very much fear that his head begins to be turned
by all the adoration of the world, especially the women. _j

Friday, 8th. — Had a long conversation with Sir G.
Beaumont in the morning upon poetry, &c. With all his
natural taste, he is strangely misled by the dogmas of
Coleridge, Wordsworth, &c.

Monday, ~Llth. — At dinner with my father and sister
I received from Mrs. Locke a card which had been sent to
her, and upon which was the wonderful news of the assas-
sination of Mr. Percival in the lobby of the House of
Commons. I began by doubting it, but a moment after
our servant said he had heard it from Mr. Villiers's * valet.
Directly after dinner Agnes went to Lady Donegal], and
I wrote to ask Mrs. Villiers about it. The Villiers' had a
large dinner, and I saw several persons arrive who ought
to be well-informed. I received from them complete
confirmation of the report. We went early to Mrs. G.

* Hon. J. C. Villiers, afterwards Earl of Clarendon, lived in North Audlej
Street.

VOL. II. K K

498 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1812

Lamb's, where there was young Macdonald, Mr. Morrice,
and two or three other people who had been in the
House of Commons, and afterwards at the examination
of the assassin,* who had not attempted to escape. Later
in the evening Lords Lauderdale and Grey arrived, who
had both been with the Address of the Lords to Carlton
House. This deed, though horrible, is unfortunately one
of all countries, and is not without its parallel even here.
But that which is not so is the manner in which the
populace took it, who surrounded the Houses of Parlia-
ment. They appeared so very little shocked.

Tuesday 1 12th. — After breakfast I received a note from
Lady Charlotte, asking me ah1 I had heard and thought
of the assassination.

Thursday, 14<A. — Drove as far as Spring Gardens,
having passed through the crowd of carriages from the
two Houses, who were taking their Address to the Eegent
on the subject of the assassination of Percival.

Saturday, 16$. — Went to Mrs. Gordon, where there
was an excellent assembly, and delightful music. The
four sisters, f Naldi Tremazzani and two Portuguese.

Thursday, 21st — I heard from Lady Grey £ herself that
the Commons were up, and that they had left the Ministry
in a minority of four upon the question of their own inca-
pability. In all my life I had never been more astonished.

* Bellingham.

t The five sisters, Mrs. Peploe, Viscountess Hereford, Mrs. Frankland
Lewis, Lady Duff Gordon, and Miss Cornewall, were all celebrated for their
musical talents.

J Mr. Stuart Wortley submitted to the House a motion for an Address to
the Prince Regent, praying his Royal Highness to take such measures as
might be best calculated to form an efficient administration. The motion
was in fact for a vote of want of confidence in the administration about to
be formed. The previous question was moved and lost by four, and Mr.
Wortley's motion was carried. Mr. Wortley then moved ' the Address should
be carried by the whole House.' Mr. Yorke moved the previous question.
Mr. Wortley then withdrew his motion, and moved that the Address should
be presented by members of the Privy Council sitting in Parliament. A divi-
sion ensued. Ministers had a majority of two. — Hansard.

1812] THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE. 499

Wednesday, 2Tth. — I got ready to go to Blackheath
with Lady Charlotte Campbell. We found the Princess
sitting under an elm tree near the house; there we
remained talking nearly an hour. At dinner Sir James
Mackintosh, Sir H. and Lady Davy, Mr. and Mrs. G. Locke,
young Burney, and Campbell the poet.* The first and the
last I saw for the first time. I am charmed with the
first, and not at all with the latter ; he appears to think
too much of himself. Sir J. M. conversed very well
upon literature, upon his travels, &c., has a quiet manner,
and without the least affectation.

Thursday, 28th. — In the evening the Princess read to
us ' Amelie de Mansfeldt.'f

Friday, 29*A. — The Princess Charlotte and Lady de
Clifford arrived just as we finished our drive. We all
sat down to dinner without making any toilette. The
young Princess was very gay, very talkative, in very
good humour, and very — , all one could expect from a
young girl of sixteen, very quick and very lively, and
very ill brought up. After dinner she played all sorts of
things upon the piano;. Her musical memory is astonish-
ing. As to her looksr she has grown and improved since
I saw her in November ; with rouge she would be really
striking, but she does not walk any better, and has not
dignified manners. She left between nine and ten o'clock.
The Princess then continued reading ' Amelie de Mans-
feldt.'

Tuesday, June 2nd. — Called on Lady Georgiana and
then on Lady Harriet I saw quite well from my conver-

* Thomas Campbell, the poet, born at Glasgow in 1767 ; author of ' Lore
and Madness,' ' Caroline,' ' Pleasures of Hope,' which latter work placed
him at once in the front rank with the poets of the age, ' Lochiel's Warn-
ing,' f Gertrude of Wyoming,' and many other poems. In 1802 he became
secretary to Lord Minto. In 1806 the King granted him a pension of 200/.
a year. He continued his literary labours till towards the close of his life.
Died at Boulogne 1844.

t By Madame de Cottin.

BX*

500 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [is 12

sation with the latter how the political negotiation was
going on.

Wednesday, 3rd. — Went to Lady Georgiana ; met Lady
Harriet and had a conversation with her in another room
upon the politics of the day or rather the morning, because
it changes two or three times a day.

Thursday, ktli. — We went at three o'clock to Sir H.
Davy's house to meet the Princess of Wales, who was
coming to take herself, and to see taken, the Imperial Gas.
I had never before seen its wonderful effect, of which I
had formed but a very imperfect idea. Davy had taken
it, and Sydney Smith, Sir J. Mackintosh and Lady C. Camp-
bell, and the Princess. The dose administered to the
latter was so small that the effects were only visible in the
eyes and upon the complexion, but upon the others it
was an excitement, a vivacity, in fact a wonderful intoxi-
cation of three or more minutes, astonishing ! and so
delightful to themselves that they wished to retake it,
and could not and would not desist from imbibing the
dose which was destined for them, so long as the slightest
breath remained.

Friday, V2>th. — Went in the morning to Lady Harriet,
where I found Lord Granville. We were all three agreed
upon the conduct of the Ministers, or rather the oppo-
sition. Went to Lady Spencer's, A large party (for her).
Lords Camden, Grey, and every one on the opposition
side laughing with very bad grace.

Sunday, \kih. — At eleven o'clock we took Sir J. Mackin-
tosh with us to Kensington to hear Sydney Smith preach
in the Palace Chapel. The Princess had begged of us to
come to her in her gallery ; she was delighted to see Sir
J. Mackintosh, whom she did not expect. After church
Sydney Smith came in to luncheon, and then we went to
see the great apartment, one part only being open and
many of the pictures displaced. We all took leave of the
Princess ; Sydney Smith went to Holland House, Sir J.

1812] G. COLMAN THE YOUNGER. 501

Mackintosh walked with us across the garden. At half-
past ten we went to Miss Johnstone's,* where there was
good company and music. I found Mrs. Siddons there,
who repeated to me in a corner alone the verses that she
was going to recite on her farewell to the public ; they
are by her nephew Twiss,-)- and I thought them in good
taste.

Monday, 15th. — Called by appointment on Sir G. Beau-
mont to meet Colman, J and read with him ' The Two
Martius.' As Sir George had told him that it was written
by a woman, I owned myself to be that woman, exacting
at the same time the secrecy which every manager of
a theatre grants and keeps faithfully. I read the piece :
he stopped me each time where he thought something
piquant could be added, and all his observations were
like a master of the art. He took away the little piece,
with full permission to make any alterations he liked : he
proposed returning it to me with his ideas upon the
alterations, so that I could make them myself. I went
with Agnes to Lady Hertford : the crowd was as usual.
The Regent and three or four of his brothers, only one
or two of the Opposition ; the greater part were not even
asked.

Wednesday, 24#A. — I went to Devonshire House to see
the library of the late Dr. Dampier, Bishop of Ely, which
the Duke had just bought of his heirs for 10,000/. The
books are still on the floor in one of the drawing rooms.
These books, with those which he is now buying at the

* Afterwards Countess St. Antonio and Duchesse Cannizzaro.

t Horace Twiss, Esq.

J George Colman the younger, born 1762. He was educated for the
bar, but his father's affairs demanded his assistance, and he undertook the
charge of the Haymarket Theatre : this brought him afterwards into serious
difficulties. He lived for many years within the ' rules ' of the Fleet, from
which he was rescued through the interest of the Duke of York, who got
for him the office of Licenser of Plays. He was the author of many plays,
poems, &c.

502 MISS BEKKY'S JOURNAL. [1312

Duke of Eoxburgh's sale, will make one of the best
libraries in the country.

Friday, 2Qth. — We dined with the Princess at Ken-
sington. The company : Lady C. Lindsay, Lady C.
Campbell, Mr. Lewis, Sir H. and Lady Davy, Sir J.
Mackintosh, Sir H. Englefield, Mrs.* and Miss Pole, Lord
Glenbervie and Campbell the poet, who was to read his
first discourse upon Poetry, which he had delivered at the
Institution ; he did so during the evening with very good
effect. At dinner, Lewis gave out a thousand betises
upon the subject of poetry, pretending that he found
Homer and Virgil wearisome. Campbell's discourse ap-
peared to be made expressly to punish him and to expose
the inaptitude of these heterodox opinions. Poor Lewis
was in a very bad humour, and did not know where to
hide his head during the reading, so he pretended to be
sleeping.

Monday, 29^. — I went to the theatre in Lady
Spencer's box, to see Mrs. Siddons take leave of the
public.

Thursday, July 9th. — We went to Lady Buckingham-
shire, to what she called a Venetian dejeuner, Heaven
knows why ! There were a great many masks, several
hired, I think, from small theatres, because there were
few, if any, masked as they ought to be. There were
tents, lotteries, and fortune-tellers in the garden. In fact
it was Bedlam let loose, but very amusing and very pretty
—a hot summer's day.

Monday, ~L3th. — Walked at Chiswick with the Duke,
from whom I obtained in part the papers f I wished for.
Wednesday, 15th. — At nine o'clock in the evening we
went to Lady Hardwicke's for their play ; I went to the
green-room to assist in rouging, &c. The theatre was
brilliant, really the prettiest private theatre I have ever

* Hon. Mrs. Wellesley Pole, afterwards Lady Maryborough,
t Lady Russell's letters.

1812] VISIT THE PRINCESS OF WALES. 503

seen. The audience numerous and very well placed.
The Eegent and the Princes, who were expected, did not
come, except the Duke of Gloucester ; the Regent sent to
say that he hoped to be there by ten o'clock, but not to
expect him.

Friday, 17 th. — In the evening at Lady Hardwicke's,
I to be audience, Agnes to be behind the scenes. There
was a great deal of company. The Princess arrived
before ten o'clock ; also the Princess Sophia and the
Duke of Gloucester. At half-past one o'clock we went
down to a superb supper ; 140 people supped there.

Saturday, 18^/i — It was a beautiful day. The Princess
had desired me to be at Kensington by two o'clock.
Lady Hardwicke and her two daughters came on a visit
of etiquette to the Princess, who received them in her
dressing gown. She afterwards talked much and for a
long time on the subject of her position vis-a-vis the
Princess Charlotte, and of the ungracious reception she
met with on her visit to her daughter at Windsor, this
day week, the llth of the month, and of the visit she had
received the day before yesterday from Lord Liverpool,
and of all that passed ; but as I intend to put it all to
paper, it is useless to write more here.*

Monday, 2Qth. — The Princess of Wales came at two
o'clock to take me to Blackheath. We found young
Burney to meet us. Before dinner, I had a long tete-
a-tete conversation with the Princess about her situation,
and what she will do, who she will choose for the new
lady that she is going to take instead of Mrs. Lisle, who
has resigned in a manner hardly fitting, as she has been
only six weeks in service. At nine o'clock we set out,
the Princess, Lady Charlotte Lindsay, Lord Henry [Fitz-
gerald], and I, in her landau, and returned to London,
passing by the way of Lady C. Campbell's, which in-

* This paper is not to be found, and was perhaps never written.

504 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1812

creased the distance at least three or four miles. The
lightning which began near Lewisham threatened a storm,
and put me into a state of mind very little fit to amuse
a Princess ; but she knew my weakness, and without
sharing it, showed me all possible attention to relieve my
ridiculous fears.

Thursday, 23rd. — LadyHardwicke and Elizabeth called,
and we thought of many arrangements for the evening.
I was tormented with a hundred notes to ask Lady
Hardwicke for places. I showed them all to her, and
always obtained what they asked. A quarter before ten
o'clock we went to St. James's Square with Mrs. Tighe.
She, I, and Mr. Ward were placed on the third form
from the stage. Agnes behind the scenes. At ten o'clock
the Eegent came with the Duke of Clarence, the Duke
of Cumberland, the Due de Berri, and the Due de Bour-
bon, with whom he had dined at the Prince de Conde's
at Wimbledon. The Eegent gave his arm to Lady
Hardwicke, and sat in the first row beside her and his
two brothers at his side. The two French Princes in the
same row, on the other side of the middle. The Sultana
was sitting behind, and would not come forward. The
Eegent, as well as his two brothers, was very attentive to
the performance. The actors were so frightened at their
august audience that they never acted so badly, and had
recourse more than once to the prompter, which never
happened to them before, and they were in despair behind
the scenes — so my sister said ; but nobody discovered it
but those who had seen their more perfect acting on last
Friday. At half past one o'clock the Eegent and his
brothers went to supper, foUowed by all the company,
except the French Princes, who went away. Lady
Hardwicke sat by the side of the Eegent, then the Duke
of Clarence next, then Lady Hertford, the Duke of
Cumberland, and Lady Conyngham, &c. &c. The propor-
tion of elderly ladies at the table was too large. At the

1812] THE BATTLE OF SALAMANCA. 505

end of the same table, by the side of Lord Hardwicke,
sat the Duke of Norfolk and Lord Erskine. The Prince
spoke to the Duke of Norfolk, but made no sign of re-
cognition to Lord Erskine.

Tunbridge Wells. — Wednesday, August bth. — I was at
the hotel dining with Lady Milbanke, her daughter, Mrs. -7
Hervey, and Mrs. and Miss Chaloner. Lady Milbanke's
daughter * appears to have a great deal of mind, and she
is said to have a good deal of information, and is not at
all affected.

Monday, 10th. — I walked for nearly an hour with
Miss Mercerf upon the Common, where we had a long con-
versation about the Princess Charlotte. She told me the
manner in which the Prince conducted himself towards
her, and upon the subject of her intimacy with Princess
Charlotte. She has not put her foot in the Princess's
house since Easter.

Monday, 17th. — The news of Lord Wellington's splen-
did victory,^ which has been so much talked of, has at
length arrived, Lord Buckingham § having received the
despatches during the night, had sent one to each library
on the Pantiles, where everybody saw them, and were
talking of the news. In the evening there was a general
illumination. The Pantiles were decorated very prettily
with branches of oak mixed with flowers and laurels.
I had often heard of the beauty of an illumination at
Tunbridge, but it very much surpassed my expectations.
The effect of Mount Sion from the Common, with its
rows of houses raised one above another, and all lighted,
would have been beautiful, but for the bonfires which they
are in the habit here of making, by lighting furze upon

* Afterwards married to Lord Byron.

t Daughter of Lord Keith, now Comtesse de Flahault Baroness Nairne.
I Salamanca.

§ Marquess of Buckingham, born 1753, twice Viceroy of Ireland, in 1782
and 1787. Died 1813.

506 MISS BEKEY'S JOUBNAL. [1812

the Common in various places. It produces a grand
effect of light, but the smoke prevented our seeing the
illumination of the village. The evening was perfect for
such a fete — quite fine, without a breath of wind.

Monday, 24^7*. — I went to Lady Wellington's,* the
new Marchioness. She appeared to have suffered a great
deal from the uncertainty which everybody had been in,
for more than a fortnight, and she spoke with an enthu-
siasm and a worship of her hero which was truly edifying.
She goes to London to-day to be present when the Te
Deum is sung in the Portuguese ambassador's chapel in
honour of the victory.

Worthing. — Friday, September &h. — Drove to Broad-
water, a village about a mile distant from Worthing.
The church is very old, has belonged to an abbey, and
there is also a fine monument erected to the family
De la Warr, who formerly possessed a great deal of the
country round. It is spoiled by white-wash, but deserves
to be restored.

Sunday, ^th. — Drove with Lady Dudley f in her carriage
and six horses as far as Shankbury. It is the highest of
the South Downs, from which there is a splendid view on
all sides. The extraordinary clearness of the day per-
mitted us to see it in a manner that does not happen
three times a year. We returned through the village of
Sompting, the prettiest I have seen in these suburbs,
situated upon the rising Downs, shaded by fine trees, and
having a view of the sea across pretty meadows, termi-
nating each side by woods.

Thursday, 10^. — Went to Tunbridge Wells.

Saturday, October 3rd. — I set out to see Knowle with
Mrs. Pole in her landau and four horses, and with Lady

* Hon. Catherine Pakenham, third daughter of Edward Michael Lord
Longford, married 1806 ; died 1831.

t Julia Lady Dudley, second daughter of Godfrey Boseville, Esq., of
Gussthwaithe, Yorkshire.

1812] THE FRENCH AT MOSCOW. 507

Burgh ersh * and Charles Bagot.f The carriage took us
to the door of the house. The outside is very beautiful,
like Oxford Colleges ; the first court much resembles
Oriel College. All is well kept. The inside does not
correspond with the outside, or rather does so, too much,
because the inside too much resembles the interior of a
college for a nobleman's house. Long narrow galleries,
badly lighted, and small rooms not en suite. There is not
a single room in which one felt it would be possible to
establish oneself comfortably. The apartment which the
family occupy, and which all the preceding families have
occupied, is au rez de chaussee, and could perhaps be snug,
but there is no comfortable furniture, nor even furniture
enough. There are some very good portraits by Vandyke,
by Sir A. More, and Jansen ; but many to which they
have given any names they pleased. There are several
of Sir Joshua Eeynolds' in the most perfect preservation.
Amongst others, ' The Fortune-Teller ' and * The Counts
Ugolino.' I had a higher idea of the latter than I have
upon a second view. The figures do not group well.
Ugolino and the second son are on one side the picture,
and the three other sons on the other side. The painter
has tried to unite them by a kind of wall or enclosure of
stone, which, to my mind, has not succeeded ; and the
head of the old man is the head of the old beggar, of
whom it is, in fact, the portrait, but it is a portrait and
nothing else.

Friday, $th. — Walked on the Pantiles, read the news-
papers, which contained the extraordinary letter of Lord
Cathcart announcing the great defeat of the French, and
their nineteenth bulletin dated Moscow ! ! ! J One might

* Daughter to Mrs. Wellesley Pole.

t Hon. Sir Charles Bagot, married, 1806, to Mrs. Wellesley Pole's
daughter.

f The battle of Borodino (called by the French Moskwa) was claimed as
a victory by both sides. Seven days after the Russians were singing Te
Deum for their victory, the French entered Moscow.— Ann. Reg.

508 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1812

be almost amused at the Ministers being credulous enough
to believe all, and then to let all their credulity appear.
Their friends thought to make their excuse by saying
that the French bulletin was false ! !
_ Friday, 23rd. — Returned to North Audley Street.

Tuesday, November 10th. — I went to Lady Crewe's,
who gave a sort of luncheon dinner, to which we were
invited, to meet Dr. Burney and his sister Madame
D'Arblay.* They were neither of them there. When we
entered a dozen ladies were sitting around the fire with
Miladi. Lawrence, the painter, the only gentleman. Dr.
Burney was ill and could not come, but at last Madame
D'Arblay arrived. I was very glad to see her again. She
is wonderfully improved in good looks in ten years,
which have usually a very different effect at an age when
people begin to fall off. Her face has acquired expression
and a charm which it never had before. She has gained
an embonpoint very advantageous to her face. We did
not talk much about France ; but with her intelligence
there was a great deal she could tell, and much she could
not, having a husband and a French establishment, to
L which she was to return after the winter.

Monday, %3rd. — In the evening we went to the play
at Drury Lane in Mr. Coutts's box. The new theatre
has the finest form that I have seen here, or perhaps
elsewhere. The proscenium is superb, though wide, for
the arrangement of the scenes, and the exits and entries
necessary on the English stage. The ornaments in
front of the boxes are well devised — gay and brilliant
without being gaudy.

Thursday, 2Sth. — The Princess's carriage came with
Lady C. Lindsay. We set out on a thorough November
day, and at four o'clock we found the Princess with the
luncheon still before her. We stayed talking with her till

* Miss Burney, authoress of ' Evelina/ ' Cecilia/ &c.

1812] LETTER FROM HON. R. K. CRAVEN. 509

seven o'clock, when she dismissed us to dress. I was
ready in ten minutes, yet she was already at table when
I went down. The evening passed as usual, talking till
nearly one o'clock.

Friday, December 4th. — I went again with the Hard-
wickes to see the gas lights. The proprietor's house was
all lighted with it for us to see. After having well studied
the effects, we went down in the ceDar, or rather the
kitchen, of the house to examine the furnaces, &c. &c.

Sunday, \%th. — I have had a long visit from the Duke
of Devonshire. I talked to him about his papers, and
showed him the arrangement that I have made of those
which are curious. He was so pleased, and so well
understood the assistance that I could be of to him, whilst
amusing myself in making the researches that I wish for
now, that he has promised to entrust to me a quantity
of letters of last century that have not been arranged.

Tuesday, 15iA. — Went to Wimpole.

These letters, received during the year 1812, being a
narrative of the tour to the East by Mr. Gell and Mr.
Craven, have been placed in order at the end of the
year, in preference to placing them according to the
dates.

Eleusis, Atticshire, Thursday, Feb. 27, 1812.

MY DEAR FRIENDS, — You will be quite mistaken if you faacy
that the pleasure of dating a letter from Vaghi Colli, Ameni
Prati, is my chief inducement for writing, a very rainy day
you will allow to be a much better occasion, but the best of all
is that I have meant to do so for this long time past, and now
that I see no immediate possibility of dispatching my per-
formance' to England, I can no longer refrain, and so I shall
begin with informing you that the whole mission is at a dead
standstill. We are at present at Athens waiting for our firman,
which we expected to find there, and without which there is no
balm in Gilead, or digging at Samos, Ephesus, Sardis, or poking

510 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1312

for spangles in the Pactolus. We thought at first of going to
Smyrna, and waiting for it there, but there are robbers at
Sunium and French privateers throughout the Archipelago ; so
we have sent the vessel we had hired to know from the Smyrna
consul what we are to do, and are now waiting its return in
trembling expectation ; and in the mean time are come to
Elucidate the mysteries of Ceres. I wish I could give you a
bird's-eye view of our present apartment and also sketches of
our different positions. Grell is sitting on the floor making a
map of this place, and fighting the splashing of the rain that
beats in upon his paper through the only window we can suffer
to have open. I am sitting on the opposite side of the fire, on
my own bed, my table consisting of a pair of blue trowsers
bundled up into an inclined plane, that I may catch the few
rays of light that are to be had, and at the same time the many
fleas which appear inclined to read this letter. At my feet sits,
or rather lies, Mr. Bedford, in one of those painful attitudes
that make one feel the cruel inconvenience of one's own legs.
He is mending the fractures of broken columns, architraves,
which are scattered in all directions about this village, by
drawing them in a perfect state, such as you will see them in
when published by the Society of Dilettanti. Then our other
artist, Mr. Gandy, is in the distance, trying in vain to make a
lai-ge writing desk lie flat and steady on the top of a small
round trunk. The perspective is filled up by avenues of pots
and pans, garlands of onions, and draperies of dusty cobwebs.
The Albanian peasant to whom the mansion belongs occa-
sionally comes in to see what he can steal, under pretence of
making up the fire, in doing which he generally involves us in
a cloud of smoke and dust for some minutes ; but think not it
was always thus, for till this day the weather was so fine, that I
shaved every morning on the flat roof of our neighbour's house,
where we also had our breakfast ; and we found it so warm in
our perambulations, that a sudden thought struck us, and we
spontaneously left off cravats, and I have had some notion of
dismissing other cumbersome articles of dress. Anacharsis will
have it that this place is very pretty : I maintain it is only
agreeable and cheerful, and gives one perfectly the idea of
Proserpine gathering anemones, the beauty and quantity of
which is to this present time something quite astonishing.

1812] LETTER FROM HON. R. K. CRAVEN. 511

I conclude that you are all in London, and if so, Sir Harry
or Lady Charlotte have probably told you all our adventures
previous to our arrival at Athens — such as the festivities of
Zante, our risks and perils in a gunboat, our shipwreck on a
desolate island, our being shot at by an Etolian savage, our
bathing at Patras, our visit to the Bay of Corinth, and finally,
our eating pancakes for breakfast. We are the only Englishmen
just now in the town of Minerva, but there are four Northern
artists, that is Germen, as Gell calls them, two of which call
themselves Barons. Us mangent un coffre et rotent autour de
la table with great effect, especially in Italian, where molto

i^Pi C\ r^P'YtP

j jj and molto , stand always for much skin and pain ;

but they are very unassuming urbane persons in other re-
spects. We have besides Mr. Fauval, the French Consul,
who is the original c'est moi qui Vai decouvert, and conse-
quently very entertaining. The country about Athens is by no
means so beautiful as most of the other parts of Greece which
I have yet seen, and the present town is, moreover, placed on
the wrong side of the citadel, but it is worth coming all the
way from England to see the temple of Theseus only. In point
of landscape, nothing can exceed Zante in all its parts, which is
an eternal garden, but will soon be spoilt by the English — I
mean as a residence. You have both been enough abroad to
know what nuisances one's countrymen are unless they are as
agreeable as one's own self, which never happens ; which re-
minds me of what rascals the Greeks are. Oh ! you can
imagine nothing like their lying, thieving, cheating, overreach-
ing, intriguing, caballing and plotting. With that it is very
difficult to keep angry with them long, as they are never
ashamed or enraged at being detected in their iniquities, and
their gaiety is never at all impaired by your reproaches, and as
they are all equally bad, you cannot help employing them the
next time they come with a smiling face.

Gell is quite furious at my finding time to write, never con-
sidering that he passes whole mornings in taking angles to form
half a map, while I scramble about doing absolutely nothing ;
though I believe I have really found out the gap through
which, as my servant calls it, the devil took away that Princess
to h — I. It is quite surprising what an enthusiasm has seized

512 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [1312

all our D'rumsticks for antiquities, and with what avidity they
undertake the most laborious journeys over rocks and precipices
in search of broken columns, when they perhaps would grudge
carrying a note from Albany to Portland Place. One of them
passes his life in digging for our artists, and was so overjoyed
at having part of a peppermint, which you would never guess
to mean a pediment.

By the bye, I believe Ceres, or her descendants the Greek
saints, have great objections to have their monuments examined
and turned about by English hands, for Gell and his servant
were stopped in a research of that kind by an unknown but
threatening voice which bade them 'dig no more;' and the
latter dreamt of it, and woke us all by hallooing aloud : for my
part I have seen the shades of Ceres and Proserpine, and I
expect more visions. Talking of visions, I am tormented by
bad dreams, and one of them is that Lady C. Campbell is dead ;
it has returned so often that it begins to make me unhappy, and
I long to return to Athens for no other reason than the hope of
getting rid of it.

This place is entirely inhabited by Albanians or their grand-
sons, and these have the prettiest dresses you can imagine. I
went into one of their cottages yesterday to see a boy that was
ill of an intermittent fever, and the child of the house, about a
year and a half old, seeing something strange in a dark dress
(their's are always white), began to scream ; when its grand-
mother, to pacify it, told it I was a dog, and began patting and
coaxing me, which so encouraged the brat that it came up to
me and made doggish noises at me, and wanted to put some
bread into my mouth, which you will allow was quite a new
adventure and mentioned in nobody's travels.

Grell has had two fits of the gout since we left England, but
the Eau Medicinale has cured him. As to me, I never was so
well in all my life, not even when I wrote my name so often on
the wall at Florence, which you afterwards saw, which was the
beginning of our acquaintance.

Eleusis, Sunday, March 1.

Good fortune has sent the Frederick stein frigate into the
Pira3us, not to take us to Smyrna as we expected, but to carry
this to Malta, where it is going with dispatches ; so to-morrow
morning I ride off to Athens to see the captain and commit my

1812] LETTER FROM THE HON. KEPPEL CRAVEN. 513

letter to his care. We learn that Frederick North is at Ohio,
his nephew, Mr. Douglas, gone to Eussia, and Cockerell the
architect reaping Ionian antiquities long before us. Poor Grell
is not quite as well as I wish, and I apprehend a return of gout.
It is quite English March weather, with rain and hail, but
though in a mud cottage, we have excellent fires, and when it
holds up, it is so fine and summery that I walked yesterday
eight miles to the top of a horned mountain, and bathed in the
sea when I returned, finding it so hot. .

I must now take my leave of you, quite delighted at finding
a chance of the letter going. Anacharsis sends all manner of
loves to both of you and Mr. Berry, to whom you will please to
give my kindest regards. Also say a thousand kind things for
us both to dear Mrs. Darner, and if you ever meet the ' mode-
rate horror,' tell her I often think of her.
And believe me, dearest friends,

Yours most sincerely and affectionately,

R. K. CRAVEN.

From Sir Wm. Gell to the Miss Berrys.

Smyrna, May 7, 1812.

MOST AGREEABLE PEOPLE, — You are always so kind and so
amiable to me that you stand instead of father, mother, and
family to me, and your house instead of an at-home in the
country, and that is my excuse for writing to you as if by my
writing I prevented you from forgetting me amidst the gaieties
of London. We are at length arrived at Smyrna, not, indeed,
much the worse for wear, but some three months later than we
intended, on account of the horrors we have been submitting
to on account of the pirates and Mainiote thieves, who cut
off noses and ears by way of the least harm that can happen
to you, and who have, except for armed vessels, completely
cleared the Archipelago from everything like a sail or an oar.
We have done, however, a great deal, though we have not done
one single thing we were sent about; for instance, we have
entirely discovered and put on a new footing the Temple of
Ceres at Eleusis, we have restored a Temple of Diana Propylaea,
which people never dreamed of, and we have completely arranged
the Propylaea as large as those of Athens, without wanting a

VOL. II. L L

514

MISS BEERY'S CORRESPONDENCE.

[1812

single member. All this is much better than the Asiatic busi-
ness in point of interest ; so this is a plan of it, for you and
Mrs. Darner : — 1, Temple of Ceres, about 180 feet square, with
a portico of twelve columns in front ; what think you of that ?
5, a portal of the Corinthian order ; 2, the Propylsea, the inner
ranges of which are Ionic ; 3, a great pavement ; 4, the Temple
of Diana Propylsea ; 6, 6, 6, wall of the peribolus. All these
things are of white marble, and we are ready in between thirty
• nd forty plates. There is something for you. We think of

going hence to Sardis in a few days, but the Turks are levying
troops, and therefore the shops are shut for fear of the said
gentlemen helping themselves to what suits them, and all for
nothing, so we cannot get what we want. We have reports of
plagues, which I don't, however, see much reason to believe in,
though I am certain Sir Harry will send for a doctor the instant
he hears of anything from Turkey. The worst thing I now
hear of, is of the Aga of Denislen, who commands the cities of
Laodicaea, their Apolis and Aphrodisias, and who is now in so
violent and outrageous a state of rebellion that nothing can touch
his feelings. We are now trying to negociate him through
other rebels, his friends, but I have as yet heard of no results.
At all events I shall do something, and have not the least doubt
of Samos and Sardis, Patara and Telmissus. They threaten
me with the plague at Tralles, in addition to the terrible Aga of
Denislen, who, if he cannot be calmed, will jockey me out of
four of my places. I must inform you, however, that the
restorers of temples, as they thought after Vitruvius, who have
published the Dilettanti work, are considerably blown up, and
are accused of having searched so little that they have falsified

1812] LETTER FROM SIR W. GELL. 515

the temples, particularly that of Bacchus at Teos, most cruelly.
Mr. Cockerell, I understand, says the building is quite of another
shape from that represented. The truth is, the thing was not
understood in those days ; however, we shall probably see what
truth there is in this. We know that the Dilly have published
Ceres at Eleusis with six columns, and we know that we find
twelve, and that it was like a Moorish mosque, all supported
with pillars, dotted about like the mosque at Cordova. This
country is exquisitely beautiful and well wooded; the town
I do not much patronise. The English are, I think, rather
gone down in the world since my last visit to these countries.
The Dardanelles expedition and Egyptian have done us no
good, though Miss Agnes and the Talents planned them. And
I shall seal to you with a seal I bought, which was that of
one of the Persian satraps slain at the battle of Talavera
— I mean Marathon. I don't think we shall be home before
March 1813, when I hope you will all have good fires to receive
us. We have had here the worst winter ever known ; it snowed
three or four hours one day at Athens, and was cold for six or
seven. I have had ninety gouts, and drunk half my cellar of
Husson. Moreover, I got it three or four times by going up
mountains to make a map of the sacred way from Athens to
Eleusis, which ' though I say it as should not,' is by far the
best map ever yet seen of any country, which I mention to you
in private, that you may have the penetration of discovering its
merit, for of course among the fine architectural drawings, an
unfortunate map will make no figure at all, though it cost me
a great deal of trouble and gout, and, moreover, between sleep-
ing and waking, always gave me deep ravines and glens in my
knees and ancles all the time I was laid up. I hope you will
not be wicked enough to omit writing to me at this place, which
I see by my instructions are our head-quarters ; and as Lady
Hardwicke has recovered the art of speaking, and is therefore
no longer fit to represent the sign of the 'good woman,' I
beg you will present me most piously to said Lady and her
Lord. Pray don't suffer Mr. Berry to set the room to rights,
or to prevent the lighting of the fire, for I am sure you are
all dying of cold. Adieu ! my dears ; I kiss Miss Agnes be-
tween the eyes and salute the curls which adorn your head
when you are in a gala dress. I would send something kind

1 L 2

516

MISS BERRY'S CORRESPONDENCE.

[1812

to the Marchioness of Davies Sl, and to Mr. Moore, who would

* have lent me his carriage if I dared. Ah, Mrs. Harrot, who

came from the garret when your mistress laughed at the Italian

A THEEMIAN LADY.*

in my letter, remember how you cheated us out of the York-
shire pudding twice, and expect not a fig from Smyrna.

Your ever affectionate,

ANACHAKSIS.

Pray remember me most cordially to the Daughter of
Phidias.

* ' What is beauty but a name ? ' — that is, observe the beautiful Lady
of Thermia, an island at which we anchored. ' Beauty when unadorned
's adorn'd the most,' — that is, if people wear red silk stockings stuffed at the
ancles with cotton, put on fifteen jackets and flounces all of different colours,
they must look like feather-beds and walk like geese. There is a beauty for
you who enslaves all beholders at Thermia.

1812] LETTER FROM SIR W. GELL. 517

From the Same to the Same.

Cnidos, July 3, 1812.

This letter ought to be addressed to all lovers of retirement,
for there is not a soul except our own party or its adherents
within three hours, which may indeed be all the better for us,
as the whole country has the plague, from Pergamo to Attalia.
We have voyaged in pursuit of Dillydandyisms, sometimes with
and sometimes without success, for the last two mouths, in little
boats ; and as our course was southward, and a strong N. wind
called Meltame blows all the summer, we have always termi-
nated our trips in a very short time ; but that is not all : the
Asiatic terra firma is plagued, the islands will not receive you
for fear of the plague, you have French privateers in all the
gulphs,and behind every rock you are in danger of pouncing upon
the Mainiote pirates, — so that I don't know whether it will be
possible to avoid such a series of plagues, or jockey such a
variety of thieves. At Samos, one of our objects of research,
we lived three weeks in a magazine near the ruins, but the
temple has only half of one column standing, and the brutes of
the place would not let us dig ; in spite of which, however, we
have a temple about 350 feet long, ten columns by twenty of
the Ionic order, near seven feet diameter ; we have a sacred way
from it to the city ; and we have a large city, the walls of which
are very perfect, with an agora, of which we have made out
something with ornaments, something new, and the remains of
the great mole which was 120 feet high. We came to Samos
from Scio, where, oh ! ye gods, what millions of gardens and
picturesque towers in them, and orange and lemon flowers with-
out end ! Thence Craven departed to Constantinople, where he
will be lucky enough to be presented by or with Mr. Liston, who
just arrived in time. We should now expect him to return to
us, but think between all the crossings and jostlings we have
had in a very zigzag course, the pirates, privateers, and the
plague, he will be a full month in finding us out. From Samos
we took our boat and sailed towards Cos, with a strong wind,
which would have just carried us to Gaithronisi, into the mouths
of the thieves, had we not met with a boat which had just
escaped them. We immediately turned about, and were going
to give up Asia entirely, and retire to Delos till the plague was

518 MISS BERRY'S CORRESPONDENCE. [1312

over, but we had scarcely reached the Cape of Trogylium, under
M* Mycale, when a strong breeze sprang up again and tore us
along to windward of the robbers, across the mouth of the
Meander, to the port of the Jeronta, or the oracle of the Bran-
chidse, near Miletus. This was a little corner peopled by
Athenians and Salaminians, where they kept a kind of guard
against infection, though not very strictly. There we examined
the temple of Apollo Didymseus, of which the ruins are stupen-
dous ; the columns are Ionic, but the Dilettanti have published
their capitals ; however the height, and plan, and almost everything
else were wanting. How the late mission did not manage to
give more details we could not conceive. We set to work,
therefore, and can now give you views, a map of the place, a
plan, section, elevation, and the order complete ; besides digging
up all but one of the statues, which are the oldest specimen of
sculpture in Greece, with the Boustrophedon inscription, which
is ibis, on one of them. We have
drawn and measured the whole set
of these gentry, and as they are in-

i vi • • .1 r i i T i. 11 u

valuable in point of style, I shall be
much obliged to you to communicate

the account of them to Mr. Knight, and those who are or may
be concerned in the second volume of Statues by the Dilly's,
as they will make a very prominent figure in the same. That
with the inscription has lost its body, but there are several others
much more Egyptian than Greek. As to the temple, it was
one of the largest in the world, and the heap of ruins, though
only three columns are standing, is wonderful. It had ten
columns by twenty-one, was not quite so broad as that at Samos,
but a little longer ; there were five or six rows of columns sixty-
four feet high, between the front and the Pronaos, all which we
have established, and the whole disposition of the pilasters
within ; some of the same are given in the first volume of the
' Ionian Antiquities.' The columns are about seven feet diame-
ter, but being so very tall one can only wonder that any remain.
The ornaments are very elegant, but the marble is not so fine
as the Athenian, and the whole gives one the idea of being built
for the benefit of the first earthquake instead of being erected
for eternity, like those of European Greece. We sailed from
Jeronta to Cos, where we remained only two days, and then

1812] LETTER FROM SIR W. GELL. 519

went to Halicarnassus (Budrom) on the opposite coast of Caria,
where the Bey kept guard against the plague. It is a most
beautiful spot, and the tomb of Mausolus I have no doubt is
now converted into the foundations of the castle, which is a
picturesque building of the time of the Knights of Rhodes.
From Halicarnassus we sailed in about three hours to this place,
Cnidos, Capo Crio, or Takir Boroun. One would not have ex-
pected that anything dedicated to Venus should have so com-
pletely changed its nature as to have become the Cold Cape, as
it is now called. The place is the most curious one ever saw,
but very convenient for trade or defence, if its inhabitants could
have lived without eating, for there is no cultivable ground in
sight, yet the city must have been very large. The island is
defended toward the sea by the most magnificent precipices I
ever saw. The walls and towers are tremendously strong, and
nothing can exceed the beauty of the ports or the magnificence
of the city seen from the island ; where, besides many terraces
of the most ponderous masonry, you have in sight a theatre of
white marble between two terraces, on one of which we have a
Doric portico of more than fifty columns, 300 feet long, over-r
looked by a Corinthian temple of white marble, and on the other
side a terrace, with what I have not yet discovered. We are
living in holes and corners, among ruined Greek churches
and bushes ; but upon the whole the place is not unpleasant,
as the wind is constant and furious, so that we don't die of heat,
as we otherwise should do. In the winter Capo Crio must be
the devil of a place ; and certainly the sea which flies over it
now, must then have draggled poor Venus most woefully. She
really might be said to rise out of the froth of the sea here, for
the spray almost reaches us, and coming round the corner, I
never saw anything so frightful as the rocks, so terrible as the
whirlwind, or so torn into dust as the waves.

July 6.

Animals, which the sun invigorates at first, die of too large a
dose — a moral reflection upon the grasshoppers, and locusts, and
fleas. The former have lived upon my pantaloons, and the
latter upon me for some days ; but the sun has now silenced
completely the singing and skipping of the whole party, and
they are giving up the ghost and drying up, post haste, in all
quarters. Yesterday we broiled to the tombs which adorned the

520 MISS BERRY'S CORRESPONDENCE. [1512

sacred way. The great people must have had the plague, there
are so many ; and a great deal of money, they are so solid ; and
have been very fine fellows, for most of them are styled heroes.

It saves a great deal of ex-
pense in paper to say they were
some thus, and others plain
towers, with massy cornices and
the sarcophagus within. We
have found a temple of the
Ionic order, very small but very
beautiful ; but upon the whole we have every reason to believe
ourselves cruelly indebted to the Komans for our specimens of
architecture here. We have had a visit from the Aga, and as
he fell in love with my sword, which I could not spare, I gave
him some pistol barrels, with which he rode off on a mule, too
happy, having disentangled with much labour his Tartar panta-
loons from the bushes and stones. They are made of about
forty ells of thick sky-blue cloth. He brought us two or three
lambs ; some yaunti or sour milk, like milk and lemons ; some
Kaimak, which is a thick edition of the film on boil'd milk, very
good in tea ; and he sent us as many people as we want to dig
at Venus, Apollo, and Neptune, so that upon the whole he was
of great use ; besides telling all his people to bring us what we
wanted. The natives are all Turks ; they are very quiet, and
sit at the distance of fifty yards from our dens or tents to see us,
not rushing in as the Greeks do. There have been people from
a great distance to see the Milords, and they all bring a present
of cucumbers, melons, or whatever they are possessed of, for
which presents, however, we are glad to pay them, for the near-
est village is an hour and a-half, and the Agao village, who
makes good Kaimak, is four or five. The Cnidian post not being
regular since the battles of Issus and Arbela, I shall, I hope, send
this from Ehodes. N.B. — On the 16th I had the gout, and
was laid up ; the consequence was an earthquake ; so as it was
very doubtful whether my ruin would stand without any assist-
ance at all, I bounced out at the first shock. The jackals eat up
the sheep, Mr. Bedford fell ill of an ague, and so we proceeded
to Ehodes, where I now write this on the 19th. No news of
Craven, so I give him up for the voyage, as we shall proceed to
Maori, and to consult the oracle at Patara immediately.

1812] LETTER FROM THE HON. KEPPEL CRAVEN. 521

From the Hon. R. K. Craven to Miss Eerry.

Constantinople, Wednesday, July 8.

MY DEAR FRIENDS, — I am much tempted to defer the writing
to you for some days, in order that I may impress your minds
with awe by dating from Mount Olympus, where I am going ;
but I reflected that you might, at the same time, be alarmed
by an idea that I might have become an eternal inhabitant of
that elevated region, and I prefer addressing you as an humble
Christian to the vanity of shamming demigod. This letter
ought to be very classical, for it will be conveyed by the ( Argo,'
but I fear I can only make it commonplace, being induced to
write by the certainty of its reaching you in safety, and not
costing much more than it is worth. I have been here exactly
three weeks, which are more than enough to satisfy curiosity,
and perhaps too much to be pleasant, as there is no place I
should so much dislike as a residence, notwithstanding its na-
tural beauties, which I acknowledge to be unique. Mr. and
Mrs. Listen made their entree about ten days since, and the ex-
minister, Mr. Canning,* returns to England in the ship that
brought them out, which was not allow'd to come up higher
than the Darningneedles ; the rest of their voyage being per-
form'd in open boats, in which Her Excellency slept every night
with the common sailors ; but don't think I mean to be scan-
dalous, her august spouse being also of the party. That is the
only mode of conveyance at this time of year, and is probably
the most eligible as well as agreeable, for the north wind pre-
vails so constantly, that a voyage in anything but row boats
would be a never-ending undertaking, and this only lasts four
or five days.

I have been divorced from the learned mission ever since the
26th of May, when they sail'd from Scio to Samos, and are
since gone to Khodes and such parts of the coast of Asia Minor
as the plague will allow them to examine. This said plague
broke out at Smyrna the very day after we left it, and there are
some feeble reports of its being here — that is, there have been
what are term'd a few accidents in the Turkish town ; that is,

• Now Lord Stratford de Redcliffe.

522 MISS BERRY'S CORRESPONDENCE. [1812

people dying without any apparent cause but the will of God.
You need, however, not be the least alarm'd, for this letter will
be quarantin'd, and fumigated very often before it reaches
North Audley Street, which I calculate to be in about three
months. The moment I have visited the abode of the gods, I
shall set off in quest of my earthly companions, though I have
not the smallest idea where I shall light upon them. I visited
Mitylene and the Troad in my way here. At the former place,
I was all but stoned to death by Sappho's descendants, who
would insist upon it I came from Smyrna with the plague ; and
I was obliged to fly for protection to the Bishop, who was very
gracious, and gave me a wooden spoon to scratch my back ;
which reminds me that Mrs. Forasti, a great lady at Zante, when
Mrs. Airey, the Governor's wife, complain'd of cold, stirr'd the
coals of the brazier with a silver tea-spoon she drew from her
pocket. Such are the primitive manners of Ionian dames. I
have seen the Sultan twice. He is like Lord Aberdeen, and
looks dignified in pale melancholy. You would long to steal
all his horse's trappings to make sofa-covers of the saddle-
cloths, and necklaces of the bridles ; but what Miss Agnes would
absolutely die of, in a transport of embroidery is the bazaar for
handkerchiefs, which is, indeed, enough to turn the most stoic
brain. I have never ventur'd but once in it. You may hear
of the Seraglio and St. Sophia, and the Seven Towers ; but
nothing is to be compared to the said bazaar, except it is the
two caps which1 are always carried immediately after the Grand
Signor when he rides out. You must not imagine that I am
deck'd out in Oriental finery, like Lady Hester Stanhope. I
preserve my independence and European over-alls. She dis-
plays hers by Turkish trowsers, and rides a la Mameluke on a
fine Arabian given her by the Pacha of Cairo, with an alarming
number of pistols in her girdle. The fashionable place here
for the summer is a village call'd Buyukdere, which is anything
but retired ; at the same time better than this, and with some
sort of society, as there are the Foreign Ministers, two of which,
the Spanish and Neapolitan, are really extremely pleasant,
though the former talks of the bagues de la mer. Here there
are nothing but Dragowomen, very ill calculated to support the
credit of their husbands' employments, if one is to judge from
their silence. Count Italinsky is arrived by way of Russian

181-2] LETTER FROM THE HOX. KEPPEL CRAVEN. 523

Minister ; but peace is not yet signed, and the prisoners of war
not released from the arsenal here, so there are some sceptics
on the subject. Our ambassadress is a very good-natur'd sort
of person ; but I am very much alarm'd about her, since I have
read that there is a fountain on the sea-shore in Thrace which
has the singular property of causing the ewes that drink of it
to produce black lambs. The boats that come from the Darda-
nelles usually stop at every fountain they come to, and should
Her Excellency have tasted of this prolific stream, I leave you
to judge of the consequences ; for, putting aside Mr. Listen's
feelings on the subjects, it will be such an example to the corps
diplomatique. I wish you were here, that I might take you
to the Cumberland tea-gardens, under the shape of a shiosque
at a spot call'd les Eaux douces, which I think you would
admire almost as much as the original, and where you would
get some very thick coffee without cream or sugar, and some
pipes, both which are acknowledged to be infinitely superior to
tea and bread and butter. Mr. Liston's private secretary is a
Mr. Turner, whom I wanted to be brother to your Miss Turner,
though not agreeable enough to belong to her. Pray tell
her so, with my kind remembrance and wishes that she were
here to nurse me under the sufferings of a red-hot coal, which
Miss Agnes once had on her back, but which is fixed on the
back of my neck, and yields not to poultice or plaster. People
say it has saved my life, and that I ought to be very glad ; but
I really am very sorry, for I don't sleep, and I wish you would
cure it. After Brousa I am going to Mt. Athos, and fancy I am
going to Thessalian Tempe and Thermopylae ; but the fact is, I
am going to hunt for Gell, without whom I am a fish out of
water. If a mouse eats your bag of salt, it is a bad omen ; also
if you have two bags of gall, or your liver is meagre and un-
usual, you will wage war with great energy and violence ; but
if you meet a person with one eye bigger than the other, you
must spit three times in his bosom. These are the results of
my present studies, which you may communicate to any anti-
quarian you please. My best regards wait upon Mr. Berry,
and pray, pray say a thousand kind things for me to Mrs.
Darner, and believe that I am ever your very affecte and sincere

E. K. CRAVEN.

524 MISS BERRY'S CORRESPONDENCE. [isi-2

From Sir Wm. Gell to the Miss Bei^rys.

Vathi, Samoa, Nov. 26, 1812.

Of all people I really think the amiable Queens of North
Audley Street were the very last from whom I expected a letter,
when my bug-puzzlers or curtains were untied this morning
to admit a packet of letters from Smyrna, where the plague is
not furious at present. It is probable that, when I wrote last
to you, it was from Capo Crio or Cnidus, and in that letter I
must have given you the history of the pranks of the Dilettanti
up to that time. We have left nothing to be done at Patara ;
but tombs, and not temples, and theatres of Eoman times
(Vespasian) are the chief objects of curiosity there. As to the
Oracle of Apollo, there is nothing by which it can be traced, nor
are there any remains of sufficient antiquity. Telmissus was
certainly no more than a fortress, nevertheless it was a large
one, and the theatre of great size. There are no other remains
except tombs cut in the rocks, which are curious, but I can tell
you little of it, as I was so ill I could not stand when I was
there, and kept my bed for two months afterwards at Ehodes,
to my sorrow and the irreparable loss of the learned world. It
was in vain we tried to get inland ; the plague always pre-
vented us, and the privateers kept the sea so well, that with the
north wind, which did not change till the middle of October,
it would have been impossible to escape. However, no time was
really lost, for Messrs. Bedford and Grandy made a voyage to
Myra in Lycia, whence they brought home the richest collection
of tombs, good, bad, quizzical, and clockcasical ever seen, which
I hope we shall have published. At length, however, we got to
Samos, and having discovered an opening on the continent
without the plague, though it was only three hours off, we
resolved on a push for Aphrodisias, if possible, as well as Mag-
nesia on the Meander. In order to effect this, and not to have
our return intercepted by this happy malady, I found the only
way would be to send one of the artists one way, and one the
other. It fell to Mr. Gandy's lot, therefore, to procure the true
and genuine Aphrodisiacs for the Society. To mine and Mr.
Bedford's the introduction to the world of the celebrated and
much-longed-for temple of Diana Leucophryne at Magnesia
Neckclothia Pennytrumpettata ad Mseandrum. I do assure you

181-2] LETTER FROM SIR W. CELL. 525

there is not a grain of magnesia on the spot at present. The
temple, however, is beautiful, and only the greatest treasure
possible to artists, being cited for certain peculiarities by Vitru-
vius. It is about 100 feet by 200, 8 columns in front and 15
in flanks of a most beautiful Ionic, -4 feet 7 in. in diameter.
Among the novelties are the Amazonian Ladies on the frieze.
The Amazons are ridiculously little till they jump from their
steeds, when they become the most strapping heroines possible.
As these ladies are perishing entirely by their own ambition, one
is not so much concerned to see them generally torn off their
horses by the hair, as if they had been more civilized personages.
Now, I shall tell you neither how we lived in a mill and
then in a baker's shop in the rainy season, neither of which
had tight roofs, nor will I regale you with an attempt to sub-
stitute curricles for horses, which were drawn by two black
buffaloes, which I suppose are yet on their way home, as they
went so slow. I never saw them but at first setting out, for all
these things either become known, or are not worth knowing.
I shall give you an account of Aphrodisias. First of all, you
pass through Ouzel Hissar, where only 30,000 people died of
the plague last year, and then going twice as far to the crossing
the Meander as the distance hitherto given by travellers, you
go four times as far as they have called it from thence to
Aphrodisias. The people are great drunkards, both Mussulmen
and Mussulwomen, and there are 400 houses among the ruins
of as many more. They care neither for the devil or Dr.
Solomon, so that the Mission had to pay for whatever they
measured. The situation is a pretty plain watered by a river,
which, from an inscription, I suppose the Timilus. In the
middle of the city is a small hill, round the base of which run
walls, built of odds and ends of temples, Cupids, giants, Glauci,
columns, festoons, and common stones. This beautifully regu-
lar work was, I conclude also from an inscription, the work of
Constans or some of those tasteful emperors whose medals show
their zeal for the arts. The temple of Venus is destroyed, but
of white marble equal to, if not really Parian. The order Ionic,
with 6 columns in front by 13. N.B. The names of the sub-
scribers on each. It would be good if you could get rid of
certain plinths under the bases ; but it was built in Roman
days, when plinths were thought improvements. In front of

526 MISS BERRY'S CORRESPONDENCE. [1812

the temple is a Propylaeum of the Corinthian order, but alas !
this has twisted columns. Eound the temple is an enclosure
about 700 feet long, by half that breadth. This is also formed
of Ionic columns, but full of defects. There is a theatre
very much ruined, and a circus very perfect. Inscriptions of
athletse and conquerors at all kinds of nose-pulling, from all
parts of the world, abound. The place must have grown up
from some extraordinary miracle committed by the goddess,
and by some knowing priest contriving the games. The fact is
poca cosa vale per Marie, though people have said so much of
it. Nevertheless, a great number of columns yet standing
justify the accounts of travellers who have called it magnificent.
From what I see of the country, the more you go inland, the
less of Greek and more of Roman will be your fate ; so that I
regret but little that the Plague and Co. prevent our seeing
Hierapolis, and as to Laodicaea, it was entirely Romanissimo.
Every fragment Mr. Grandy found at Gruzel Hissar (Tralles) was
decidedly Roman ; and as to Sardis, though there is a great
temple, the columns are buried more than half, so that to make
out plan, order, or elevation would have cost twice the capital
of the Dandy's. Magnesia is worth all Asia. Indeed, we are
now very rich in drawings, really richissimi. We are coming
home post haste, if that can be haste which talks of 3,000
miles by sea, and a certain quarantine of forty days, wherever
we go. We believe we shall manage, through Zante, to cheat
some of the imprisonment, and to find a passage. Our business is
over, and we are only here till H.M. brig * Kite ' comes to know
our fate. In the meantime, I have the pleasure of an ague for
my amusement, in consequence of our last trip and more of one
cold day here. The bustle in the clouds seems, however, now
over, and serenity is, I hope, reestablished in the atmosphere
for some weeks. We were above six months without rain, but
of course we have now had a good dose of it, which, I suppose,
will do till February or March. Pray remember me most
kindly to the Daughter of Phidias. I shall walk in to your
house one very cold day in March, till which time, believe me,
my dear good friends,

Your most affectionate

ANACHAESIS.
Mr. Craven sends his duty.

1813] MISS BERRY RETURNS TO LONDON. 527

JOUENAL.
1813.

Wimpole, Friday r, Jan. 1st. — I went to the school-feast
at two o'clock with Lady Hardwicke's two daughters,
and assisted in helping fify-three mortals, boys and girls,
from three years old to twelve, with plum-pudding, meat
pies, and roast beef. The quantity that the children eat
is astonishing ! After dinner the prize for work done by
each child in the course of the year was given, — the girls
for needlework and boys for knitting stockings, &c. In
my life I never saw a happier assembly ; the little ones
who had done nothing received each of them a penny.
There were also prizes for those who wrote the best,
and who hemmed the best, to which I had the honour
of contributing.

Thursday, 1th. — The little Krumpholz left this morn-
ing for London, where she is going to be married very
suitably. She was much overcome last night at leaving
this house, which has been her home ever since she was
thirteen years old, when Lady Hardwicke took charge of
her, for the sake of music and speaking French with her
daughters. She was the daughter of the husband of the
famous harpist, Madame Krumpholz, by a former mar-
riage. An orphan, without father or mother, the Duchess
of Bourbon took charge of her, had her educated in a
convent, 'and at the commencement of the Eevolution
wisely found her another protectress.

Tuesday, \Wi. — Eeturned to London.

528 MISS BERET'S JOURNAL. [isis

From Sir U. Price to Miss Berry.

Foxley, January 19, 1813

Here is a most flaming ode on the burning of Moscow, &c.,
which the author humbly lays at your feet. When you have
recovered from your first enthusiasm, I beg you will exercise
your cooler judgment, and send me your criticisms. It will be
a strange thing if there should be one spark of fire in this ode of
mine, considering the time and circumstances of its birth : it
was composed almost entirely sub Dio and sub Jove frigido,
and ancle deep in snow ; for it was exactly during the fortnight
or three weeks that the snow lay on the ground before Christ-
mas. I was then very busy, marking and cutting in a wood at
some distance ; and sometimes I drew forth my hacker (for I
carry my Durindana in a scabbard), and sometimes my paper ;
now gave a coup de liache, and then a coup de crayon ; and in
this manner ' I built the lofty rhyme.' Thus far, indeed, the
state of the weather and the ground might be of use to me, as
I could paint dal vero (tho' heaven be praised, from a very
diminutive scale), the icy blast, the trackless snow, the piercing
cold, &c. You will immediately see that as far as metre goes,
I had Gray's Bard in my eye, ' Numeros,' — I wish I could add,
* animosque secutur.' This subject is certainly a very fine one ;
the principal actor one of the most extraordinary men ' that
ever lived on the tide of times,' the burning of Moscow one of
the most extraordinary, unexpected, and striking events that
ever took place, and the motives and consequences not less so.
Had Gray been living, and in the full possession of his powers,
he could have made a noble ode ; but you know that poetry is
not my metier, and that, as Voltaire once chose to say of him-
self, ' Je ne fais que de la vile prose.' After all, if I did not think
this bold attempt of mine had some merit, I should not send it
to you ; and if you should think it worth showing to any of your
poetical and critical friends, do not at first tell them whose it is,
but let them guess. I may, perhaps, be well taken in by this
request, and you may write me word that one guessed Parvus
Pybus, another, Sir James Bland Burges, and a third did
not think the thing worth guessing at at all. You will, of
course, show it to Mrs. Darner, and I hope she will not be dis-
pleased with the Finale; which, by the by, will confine the

1813] LETTER TO THE COUNTESS OP HARDWICKE. 529

guessers, should there be any, to a narrow choice. I sent an
early copy to Fitzpatrick ; and Rogers happening to come in at
the moment, he could not resist showing it him : I have since
altered it a good deal, and as Rogers had seen the first sketch, I
have sent him this new, and I hope improved, edition. He and
Fitzpatrick are the only persons out of my own family to whom
the secret (which indeed is none), has been told. One circum-
stance mentioned in these verses is strikingly confirmed by what
my nephew Ld Tyrconnel was an eye-witness of : he saw the
late governor of Moscow set fire to his own magnificent palace.
You may happen to have seen in the papers that Ld Tyrconnel
has been with Admiral Tchesagoff : it is an odd circumstance,
though certainly not of a lyrical kind, that the parson of my
parish was the man who married this amphibious hero to a
daughter of Commissioner Proby's ; and, to finish the history,
the ceremony was performed at Paddington. The only person,
besides Mrs. Darner, to whom I wish you to show my verses, is
my friend Sir Harry Englefield : make him guess and criticise.

Most truly yours,

U. PRICE.

From Miss Berry to the Countess of Hardwicke.

North Audley Street, Sunday, 21st February, 1813.
. . . I wish what you say upon the letter of the Princess
of Wales had been on any other subject ; it is so just, so clever,
so well expressed, that I should like to have given you the
credit of it with a certain number of people and passed it off as
my own with others ; but upon this subject I hear as much and
say as little as I can (I mean without any affectation of silence),
for fear of being supposed to know more than I do. It was
reported yesterday that at the Council held on Friday, to which
many Privy Counsellors not Cabinet Ministers were summoned,
among others, little Abbot, that it had been determined not to
adopt any measures upon the Princess's letter. That the Chan-
cellor* had absolutely refused going over the old business again.
One shall know in the course of to-day if this is true. If it is
(I mean that no fresh investigation is to be proceeded on), the
Princess may well consider it as a triumph (pray Heaven she
bears it with moderation ! ) ; for after the manner that all the

# Lord Eldon.
VOL. II. M M

530 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL.

ministerial people, and all the people speaking their language,
have lately expressed themselves of her, and of their own diffi-
culties, for these last two years, in restraining the Prince from
taking active measures against her, it is quite impossible to
suppose they would not now indulge the P. if it were in
their power. . . . The report is, that all idea of proceeding
against her, either upon old or new griefs, is abandoned ; and
that the Prince's ill-humour is such, that neither ministers nor
servants know what to do with him. . . .

P.S. — Sir H. Davy, who was here last night, desires me to
tell you that the nymph Fiorina, whom he was expectiDg to
arrive from Wimpole to his longing arms by the waggon on
Saturday (what a sinking in poetry !) is not yet come, and he
begins to be uneasy about her. . . .

Sunday, March 21st. — Lieutenant-Colonel Campbell
and I set out for Blackheath : we found Miss Knight with
the Princess. She was visibly touched by the manner in
which we met her and kissed her hand : the tears were in
her eyes. Afterwards she reseated herself and was very
cheerful.

Monday, 22nd. — In the evening we had a little party
of seventeen people for music, which passed off very
agreeably. After the music they waltzed ; they imitated
the opera-dancers, and then acted proverbs in pantomime :
in short, it so chanced they were really gay and amused
themselves.

Saturday,. 27th. — We arrived at Blackheath at five
o'clock. I saw the Princess in the garden. We walked
a little while; she perceived that I was not well, and
begged I would not dress. On going down to dinner I
was surprised to find Lady Percival and her son, a boy of
fourteen years old. Whilst we were at dinner the Duke
of Brunswick came to speak with his sister about their
mother's will. They retired to the drawing-room, and we
remained with the second course before us for nearly an
hour. Afterwards the Princess and Lady Clara were

1813] LETTER FROM HON. KEPPEL CRAVEN. 531

engaged in making a sketch of a letter and an envelope
to all the executors of the late Duchess, as she had named
seven.

From the Hon. R. K. Craven to the Miss Berrys.

From durance vile

In Malta's isle. 3rd of April, 1813.

DEAREST FRIENDS, — The inclosed should have charmed your
longing eyes some two months ago, as you will see by its date,
but only arrived here a few days since ; Gell will not write it
over again, indeed, he has not time, though people in quaran-
tine have a tolerable share of that commodity on their hands ;
but there are maps to correct, sketches to finish, journals to
revise, for this is, we hope, our last resting place, and to-morrow
sails the packet; so I have burnt my former envelope, and
hastily substitute this scrawl : the other was more legible and
more worthy of being read, as it contained an account of Mr.
Curius' house at Samos, with all its concomitant horrors in the
shape of bugs, Greeks, spoilt children, and tame rabbits, all
things unknown in our present abode, where there is but one
engine of terror, viz., the plague, but that terrifies the people
in the town much more than us its next-door neighbours. We
shall be about a week longer, and then let loose upon the
streets of Valetta to find a passage to England. Frederick
North says being in quarantine is the pleasantest state of
existence in the world, that it is like the gout without the pain
of it, which is a refinement I don't understand. You must not
mind Gell's letters being stabbed, it is the fashion with all
epistles from the Levant. I need not say we are in all haste to
get home, and throw ourselves at your feet ; we think of you
every day at dinner, because they send us so few peas from the
inn, and you are always so lavish of them. We have been
delayed everywhere — at Athens very pleasantly; at Corinth,
very much the contrary ; at Patras, odiously ; at Zante, very
well, because there is a most amiable Governor, and an elysium
of orange groves: that Zante is a spot of peculiar grace and
loveliness, and makes one long to be romantic and very young,
neither of which I have felt for many years. I have no news,
except the Queen of Sicily's pranks, which the papers will tell
you of. The Concannons are here — did you know them ? They

M If 2

532 MISS BERET'S JOURNAL.

have wandered over Italy, of which their account would make
you weep. Imagine no carriages at Naples, and every soul in
Florence drowned in tears. ... I hope you mean to be very
kind to us, for we shall feel very shy at reappearing in the world,
especially me, who am undergoing the noviciate of a downright
entire wig, which makes me feel as if I had sham calves.

I find I can talk of nothing but myself, but consider we are
in the lazaretto, dans cet affreux palais de la vengeance, ou
respirent a la fois le crime et 1'innocence, that is, perfect health
and all manner of pestilence, with which

I ever remain, your very obliged and affectionate friend,

E. K. CRAVEN.

Monday, April 12^. — At one o'clock Agnes and I went
to the Bayswater Gate, in Kensington Gardens, to see the
City bringing their address to the Princess.* The crowd

»/ o o

around the palace was great and kept increasing every
moment, people here flocking through all the walks of the
garden in file and in crowds, all coming to increase the
enormous circle around the palace on the side of the
Princess's apartment. Seeing the impossibility of getting
nearer before it was too late, we left the garden by the
little gate of the palace, and passing through the Duke
of Kent's court, got into Lady Charlotte Lindsay's apart-
ment. Arrived as far as the little drawing.room, we
found nothing but preparations for a dinner of eight or
ten people, but hearing sounds in the next room, I knocked
at the door, and a voice, which I recognised to be that of
the Princess, called out to us to come-in. We found the
Princess with her three ladies and Miss Hayman,all dressed
and eating in haste, awaiting the arrival of the Lord Mayor.

* At a Common Hall convoked on the 2nd of April, an Address to the
Princess was moved, and, notwithstanding some opposition, carried almost
unanimously. It stated ' the indignation and abhorrence ' with which the
Livery of London viewed ' the foul conspiracy against the honour and life
of Her Royal Highness, and their admiration at her moderation, frankness,
and magnanimity under her long persecution.' This address sprang from
the report of certain members of the Privy Council upon the conduct of the
Princess, and the discussion to which this report gave rise in Parliament.

Ann. Reg.

1813] DEPUTATION TO THE PEINCESS OF WALES. 533

When the Vice-Chancellor St. Leger announced that the
Lord Mayor was approaching, the Princess went down
with the ladies, and we at their tail, to the dining-room
of her apartment, where she was to receive. After she
was placed with her ladies, and Miss Hayman, and her
Chamberlain, they opened all the shutters to allow the
Princess to be seen by the immense crowd collected in the
gardens. They applauded tremendously, and showed every
possible mark of good- will towards her. At last, after a
good half hour, the Lord Mayor and four Aldermen,
accompanied by more than 150 Liverymen, came in and
advanced towards the Princess. The applause at this
moment was so great and so noisy, that they were obliged
to threaten the crowd outside to shut the windows if they
were not more quiet : this threat obtained a respectful
silence. The town clerk (in the absence of the recorder)
read the address very well ; and the Princess read her an-
swer also very well, though at the beginning the sentences
were rather too long and difficult for her to pronounce
well. She began in a low voice, which afterwards grew
stronger. In the last part, where she spoke of her daughter,
&c., she expressed herself with a good deal of feeling,
and seemed to be moved, which had a very good effect,
as well as the deliberate manner with which she dwelt
upon that part in which she spoke of the rest of the Eoyal
Family. After the address and answer, the Lord Mayor,
the Aldermen, and the Liverymen kissed her hand, and
went out by the little room (where we were) to join their
carriages in the Duke of Kent's court. When they were
all gone, the crowd outside called so loudly for the Prin-
cess, that her ladies begged of her to show herself at the
middle window, and then at the doors, and then at the
two ends of the apartment : this she did, accompanied by
her ladies and conducted by her chamberlain, and, having
curtsied to the people, immediately retired. I never saw
a crowd that better deserved to have its wishes gratified,

534 MISS BERET'S JOURNAL. [isis

for it was not a common mob, but workmen, small trades-
people, mixed with well-dressed people, and conducting
themselves perfectly. After this ceremony, which was
really touching from the ardour of the people to show
their good-will towards her, the Princess crossed the
apartment, taking me by the arm to go back to Lady
Charlotte's little drawing-room. We there found dinner,
the guests being her four ladies and we two, Mr. St. Leger
and Mr. Fox, who arrived during the speeches. After
dinner took leave of the Princess, finding the carriage
at Bayswater Gate ; sorry only to leave the gardens so
soon on such a fine evening, enlivened as they were by
groups of people, in addition to the crowd which had sur-
rounded the palace.

n Wednesday, May 12th. — I went to Lady Davy's in the
evening. There were seventy or eighty people there :
amongst others Miss Edgeworth,* who was my object. She
is very small, with a countenance which promises nothing
at first sight, or as one sees her in society. She has very
winning manners. She received with much warmth what
I said of my desire to see the author of her works, and of
all the obligations that I felt in common with all our sex
towards one of her genius. She said a great many pretty
things of all she had heard of me, and of my society ; but
feeling that I did not deserve them, it had little effect
| upon me, and had hardly the power of raising me for a
Ljnoment from the depression into which I have fallen.

Monday, 24th. — In the evening was the question of the
Catholic Emancipation Bill, the first clause, which gave
the Catholics admission into Parliament, was lost by a
majority of four votes.

Tuesday, 2bth. — Went with Lord and Lady Charle-

* Maria Edge-worth, daughter of Richard Lovell Edgeworth ; born 1767.
The well-known author of many popular works adapted to the understand-
ing of all ages, and whose memory is entitled to the gratitude of those who
in their childhood have profited by her power of combining and conveying
to others instruction and amusement ; died 1849.

1813] THE PRINCESS OF WALES. 535

mont * to Blackheath to see the Princess. She was much
more lively than the last time -I saw her ; spoke with the
greatest pleasure and impatience of being established in
town, and of her certainty now of having a house there.

Wednesday, 2Qth. — We went to Mrs. Marcet's to see
4 Spartacus ' played by the Lullins and Eegnier, who alone
remained of the last year's troup. ' Spartacus ' has all the
defects with which we reproach French tragedy : long
expositions, recitals of the effect of passions rather than
the effects themselves, though there are some fine parts,
strong sentiments, some striking couplets, and the denou-
ment, which has a grand effect. Madame Lullin played
even better than last year. They gave afterwards
' Defiance et Malice ' very well.

Saturday, 29th. — Supped at Lady Davy's with the
Princess; there was only Lady Charlemont and Lady
Charlotte Lindsay, besides ourselves, and the gentlemen
were Lord Byron, Mr. Grattan, Lord Lansdowne, Sir J.
Mackintosh, Mr. Mackenzie, Mr. Stuart of Glasserton, and
Lord Charlemont. The Princess was tired body and
mind, and as she confessed herself, nothing less than
intoxicated with the applause that she had received at
the Opera.f

Tuesday, June 1st — Drove with the Duke of Devon-
shire, in his curricle, to Chiswick, where he showed me
all the alterations that he was about to make, in adding
the gardens of Lady M. Coke's house to his. The house
is down, and in the gardens he has constructed a mag-
nificent hot-house, with a conservatory for flowers, the
middle under a cupola. Altogether it is 300 feet long.
The communication between the two gardens is through

* Earl of Charlemont ; married, in 1802, to Anne, daughter of William
Bermingham, Esq., of Ross Hill, Galway.

t ' At the Opera the other night, every person stood up when the Princess
entered the house, and there was a burst of applause.' — Lady C. Bury't
Diary.

536 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isis

what was the old greenhouse, of which they have made a
double arcade, making the prettiest effect possible.

Thursday, 3rd. — Walked to Miss Edgeworth's, who
we found sitting at breakfast with her father* and step-
mother, f We heard he would not allow his daughter to
go to see the Princess of Wales Tuesday last, because he
and his wife were not invited. The little woman herself
is always amiable, always natural, intelligent, and sensible.

Tuesday, 29th. — In. the evening we had a few people
at home ; and Madame de Stael, who came, talked, ques-
tioned, and went away again like a flash of lightning, or
t rather like a torrent.

Monday, July bth. — The grand breakfast at Carlton
House was given to-day, so all the world was out of doors.
The largest part of the company assembled at three o'clock,
not to separate till four o'clock to-morrow morning — that
is to say, having been present at a fete which will last
thirteen hours.

Wednesday, lih. — I went to see the illumination J of
Lord Dudley's house, § which was very beautiful. All
these three days, or rather nights' of illumination have
been in the finest weather ; a rare thing in this country.

Friday, Sth. — Went in the morning to see the Indians,
who performed some juggling tricks in Pall Mall. I was
very much amused. The figures, dress, language, and the
movements of these two men, all transport one into
another quarter of the globe ; their skill seemed almost
supernatural.

Tuesday, 20th. — To-day is to be the grand fete at
Vauxhall, so much talked of, in honour of Lord Wel-
lington's victories. At ten o'clock I started with Mrs.

^o1

* Richard Lovell Edge-worth, born 1744, died 1817. He wrote with his
daughter Essays on Irish Bulls, on Education, and various other works,
f Mr. Edgeworth's fourth wife.
J For the battle of Vittoria.
$ Dudley House, in Park Lane.

1813] FETE AT VAUXHALL. 537

Montague in a coach, and Mr. Knutzen, the Norwegian,
for my cavalier, and Mr. Tisdale* as her's. Before Carlton
House the carriage stopped, and what was my horror
when I saw that we had already got to the tail of the
carriages, which extended from Pall Mall to Vauxhall !
We were obliged to be patient ; I was too thankful to
think I was not in our own carriage, and to know that
the horses and the coachman that we had were amongst
the best in London. All the skill of the coachman and
the strength of the horses were necessary to draw us
out : there never was such a confusion of carriages, with-
out order, without soldiers, or any precaution whatever
against the accidents which must inevitably happen in
such an assemblage. At length, after two hours on the
road, and many very perilous moments, we got out of the
carriage, about half a mile from Vauxhall, as the only
means of getting there at all. There never was a fete
(even in this country) at which it was so difficult to
arrive, with so little to tempt one to stay, and from which
it was so impossible to get away."!* The stewards who
had dined there, and were walking about with their
wands of office, could do nothing for those that belonged
to them. For the most part of the people there was no
means of eating, drinking, or sitting down. We were
able to do the latter ; but when at half-past three in the
morning we wished to leave, the crowd was for a few
minutes terrible, and after getting through it, we had to
walk for more than a mile to join the carriage. They
will not catch me at such a fete in this country again.
This has cost more than 10,000/., and they had either
the carelessness or the meanness not to pay the toll-gate,

* Son of the Countess of Charleville by a former marriage.

t This account affords a striking contrast to the arrangements now made
when large crowds are expected to assemble, and particularly on that
remarkable occasion, within the memory of all, the opening of the Crystal
Palace in Hyde Park, 1851.

538 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [isis

so that each carriage was stopped for fourpence. They
say that 13,000 persons were present — I do not be-
lieve that. The decoration was brilliant, without much
taste ; the fireworks not better than usual, but repeated
three times during the evening.

Wednesday, 2\st. — We saw Madame de Stael this
morning at her own house, who very much amused us
with her ideas of English society. She will soon be dis-
gusted with it : I have always prophesied that.

Thursday, 22nd. — Went to Little Strawberry.

Friday, 23rd. — We went in the morning for a short
time to the late Mr. Walter's* house, where they were
selling all off by auction. The magnificence of the drawing-
room furniture is very great. It is only in this country
that the editor of a paper could live at such an expense.

Sir William Gell had just returned at this time .to
England, and was thus cordially welcomed by the Miss
Berrys : —

From Miss Berry to Sir William Gell.

Twickenham, 24th July, 1813.

You can never be half so glad to see us as we shall be to see
you. In short, all your particular friends have agreed among
themselves that they cannot do without you ; so never think of
being allowed to go to Phigalia again, except you travel like a
Tartar prince, with your whole horde about you.

When we shall see you here Heaven knows, for you will be
one of the great lions of London yourself; and you have just
come in time to save Mde. de Stael's life, who certainly would
have roared herself to death in another week.

When you will be allowed to go and show yourself at the
country fairs I know not, but I am not without hopes that you
will, ere it be very long, break away from your keepers, and
give us a look of you here.

We have a snug little den prepared for you. I am ready
with a hearty embrace, Agnes with another, accompanied by a
continuation of the old dispute, as good as new, Penelope's

* Editor of the Times newspaper.

1813] THE PRINCESS OF WALES. 539

suitors, and endless, like her own web — and * then Mrs. Harrot
descends from her garret,' to make you such a pudding as shall
put all other puddings to the blush, not to mention an Alderney
cow, which we have hired on purpose to give you as much milk
and cream as you like, hot and hot.

And now farewell, for lions have as little time for reading as
for writing letters.

JOUKNAL.

Sunday, 2&th. — About four o'clock the Princess arrived
very unexpectedly with Lady Charlotte. She had luncheon,
stayed and talked till nearly five o'clock, when she was
obliged to take Gell to Brandenberg House to dinner.
The Princess is melancholy, and almost in ill humour,
now seeing more nearly the truth as to her position.

Saturday, 3lst. — We dined early, to go on the water
from six till past nine o'clock : it was a delicious evening,
and the scene at Bichmond in great beauty. Here the
large ship, the Navigation Barge, filled with people,
stopped for some time. We rowed, with a hundred other
boats also filled \vith people, around the barge, on board
of which they were dancing and playing music.

Tuesday, August 3rd. — Whilst Agnes and my father
were taking tea, the Princess of Wales arrived, with Lady
Charlotte Lindsay, Gell, his sister, and the little Willy.
There was nothing to be done but to give them some
tea and coffee. The Princess is always in good humour,
and takes all in good part when she falls in like a shot.
She took a short walk in the garden, and returned about
ten o'clock to Kensington.

Thursday, 19th. — Lady Glenbervie and Lady Charlotte
Lindsay came this afternoon. We were under the beeches
with them when the Duchess of Devonshire arrived, with
Madame de Stael, her daughter, and Mr. Foster, in a
barouche. We sat together under the trees, and after
Lady Glenbervie and Charlotte were gone, Madame de

540 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL.

Stael related to us for nearly an hour the works that she
thought of writing, three to be published during her life-
time, and one after her death ; all that with a detail and
a rapidity truly amusing.

Miss Berry's letter to Lady Hardwicke gives a lively
description of the last few weeks spent at Little Straw-
berry.

Letter to Lady Hardwicke.

September llth, 1813.

Where are we, and what have we been about ? Why we have
been keeping a guingette (Anglice, a hedge ale-house), to which
I have assigned the sign of the * Cat and Bagpipes,' where
everybody has seemed to take it for granted that they were sure
to find * Tea and coffee,' * Hot roast and boiled every day,' and
1 Dinners dressed on the shortest notice.' Certainly our custom
in the chance line has been great, to say nothing of our beds
having been always ' slept in the night before*

Thus have passed the six or eight weeks which I had destined
to quiet reading, to Charles the Second, the Duchess of Cleve-
land, and many such worthies !

But we are now shortly going to a retreat which we shall
certainly find sufficiently retired — I mean N. Audley St. Our
business here in the public line, however great, has not, as you
may suspect, been profitable, so that we cannot make any fur-
ther excursions enfamille this year. We have, however, much
enjoyed our sojourn at this pretty little place, which was never
in greater beauty.

Parting with it, however necessary, and however I have wished
it, will be a pang — parting with it for seven years ! — for more,
much more, than ever to me ! N'en parlons plus. ' Quite the
contrary.' Let me tell you that Madame de Stael sticks to her
intention of coming to you the middle of November — that I
stick to my intention of meeting her, and that Sir J. Mackintosh,
who in October is going, not fox-hunting, but paper-hunting, to
the Duke of Leeds, in Yorkshire, intends meeting us both at
Wimpole on his return, — if you and Lord Hardwicke do not for-
bid these banns. Long before that time I trust you will have
drunk your fill of Malvern. By the bye, drinking puts me in
mind of four ridiculous lines, being an account of the travels of

1813] LETTER FROM MADAME DE STAEL. 541

the learned Person, which Sir J. Mackintosh repeated to us the
other day, and which I send to Lord Hardwicke : —

f I went to Strasbourg to get drunk
With that learned Grecian Brouncke ;
And then to Leipzig to get drunker
With that more learned Grecian Brouncker.'

Upon which Madame de Stae'l exclaimed, (Ah ! que c'est joli ! '
an application of the word which amused me almost as much as
the lines.

The said Stae'l is still at Eichmond till the end of the month,
when her torrent of words and ideas will no longer flow into the
Thames, but turn its course towards London, and then to Lord
Lansdowne's, and then into Staffordshire, and then — ' To Nova
Zembla and the Lord knows where ; ' but still she sticks to being
at Wimpole the middle of November.

I trust and hope long before that time to have better accounts
of your voice ; but if you must still be deprived of it, there can-
not certainly be a more convenient visitor to a dumb woman
than Madame de Stae'l.

The Dowager Duchess of M. is very much one of the women
whom a friend of ours calls virtuous by patent. But she has
very much the manners of a lady, which neither her patent for
virtue, nor even that of nobility, gives.

The following letter from Madame de Stae'l to Miss Berry
appears to have been written from some country house : —

Jeudi, 23 Sept.

Je vous dirai bien sincerement que votre lettre m'a fait un
grand bien. J'ai besoin de vous donner toute la confiance de
mon coeur ; et cette amitie, qui n'a point de secrets ni de soup-
cons, est tout a fait n^cessaire a mon bonheur. Je prefere votre
esprit, votre caractere, tout vous enfin, aux autres, et je vous
prie de me permettre de compter sur vous comme vous devez
compter sur moi. Cette declaration, plus franche que celle des
Al lie's, etant faite, je reviens a mes interets du jour. Vous dinez
chez moi dimanche, et je reviens demain. Je ne sais pas si
ma fille communiera ou non samedi, c'est le ministre de la
paroisse qui doit en decider. II y a ici Lady Cowper, Lady

542 MISS BERET'S JOURNAL. [isis

Caroline, les maris de ces dames, Mr. Nugent, Mr. Ward.
Lady Besborough est partie ce matin, et Lord Melburne nous a
quitte, quoiqu'il fut assez bien apprivoise avec moi. Y a-t-il des
nouvelles de la paix ou de la guerre ? Vous concevez de quel
interet cela est pour moi. Entre les Cosaques et le Corse, je
vois bien peu d'espoir de liberte pour la France, et je ne sais
que souhaiter, inais je sais tres-bien que craindre. Aimez-moi,
je vous prie, avec indulgence a de certains egards, parce que
vous avez su faire plus de sacrifices que moi; mais ce qui
ajoute a votre merite c'est que nos caracteres ont plus d'analogie
que nos actions. Adieu. Tachez done de guerir ces maux de
tete. Voyez Farquhar ; il me traite. Adieu.

JOUENAL.

Saturday, September 18th. — We signed with Alderman
Wood the agreement for our pretty little house for seven
years at one hundred and fifty guineas a year, he paying
the taxes, repairs, and every other expense. It is very
little for property in this neighbourhood, and in such a
good situation. After going round the garden, &c., we
told him he could take possession after Wednesday next.
I wish that the Wednesday were passed, because adieux
are always sad.

Wednesday, 22nd. — Eemoved to London. It was fine
— I was very glad, bad weather would have increased
the sadness of our adieu to Little Strawberry. I took a
turn round the enclosure quite alone. The recollections
that my walk brought to mind were all melancholy.
During twenty- two years that I had owned it, I had been
but little happy ; still though I left it with regret, I told
myself that this separation was necessary : I had long
wished for it, as that would save us from an expense and
from cares which weighed down upon us, and which in-
creased more arid more every day. That the last two
months had perhaps been the greatest enjoyment that I
had ever had in the place, because I was almost sure of

1813] MADAME DE STAEL. — CCBRAX. 543

being quit of it. I said to myself all that, I felt the truth
of it, but notwithstanding I suffered, and should have
felt sorry if I had not suffered.

Saturday, October 2nd. — In the evening Agnes and I
went to Sir J. Mackintosh's, where Madame de Stael had
dined ; we found there the Davys, Ward, Lord Byron,
Malthus, Curran * the famous Irish advocate, and some
other men. Madame de Stael appropriated as usual
Curran, though Sir James tried and succeeded in making
the conversation more general. Curran's conversation is
eloquent, but without taste.

Tuesday, 5th. — Saw Lord Webb Seymour. In the
evening we went to Madame de Stael, where there was a
very agreeable society of about half-a-dozen ladies and
twenty gentlemen. One should never have said, in looking
at the company yesterday, that one was in London in the
month of October. London would be really delightful if
it was never fuUer than at the present time.

Wednesday, 6th. — Dined at the Princess's. The Prin-
cess joined less in the conversation than I ever saw her
before.

Saturday, $th. — At dinner we had Sir H. and Lady
Davy, Mrs. Darner, Lord W. Seymour, and Frederick
Douglas. In the evening, Madame de Stael and her
daughter, the two Kawdons, Mr. and Mrs. Gordon, Mr.
Mercer, Mr. Ward, Dr. Kinnaird, Mr. Boswell, the Coun-
tesse de Palmella. A very good little society, where
Madame de Stael and Ward talked a great deal and very
well.

Monday, l~Lth. — I went to Madame de Stael f in the

* James Curran, born 1750. He was regarded as one of the leading
Irish patriots ; greatly distinguished by his oratory in the stormy debates of
the Irish House of Commons, and by his strong opposition to the union of
Ireland with England ; died 1817.

t ' . . . S'il fait mauvais, ne sortez pas, et donnez-moi seulement la
consolation de votre socie'te' des que vous le pourrez. Ma fille eat aussi bien
qu'une rougeole puisse la pennettre.'

544 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL.

morning, knowing that her daughter had the measles.
I conversed quietly and agreeably with her for half an
hour.

Tuesday, \§th. — Eeturning home from dinner with
Madame de Stael, I found a man sleeping upon the door-
steps ; our servants called to the watchman to take charge
of him. The threshold of the door was all covered with
blood, which had been running from the wounds in his
head. The poor man had been ill-treated in the streets,
he had knocked loudly at our door for assistance, having
seen a light. At last the watchmen carried him away
upon a stretcher, that I made them make of a door which
our men had given them.

Sunday, 31st. — Dined at Kensington with Lady Glen-
bervie and Lady Charlotte ; the other visitors were
Douglas Kinnaird and Mr. Lewis. The Princess was in
good humour, but not very cheerful, and appearing to
find her situation more hopeless, without the death of one
of the two, — which is very true.

Saturday, November Qth. — I have seen the best of the
illuminations for the great success of the allies in Ger-
many. Carlton House was very brilliant, the Admiralty
and all the Government Offices, the Ministers' houses,
and the houses of other official men, but the illumination
is not at all general, and though this evening (Saturday)
there were a great number of people in the streets,
towards Pall Mall and Whitehall there was not the least
confusion, and in our quarter perfect tranquillity.

Wednesday, 17th. — In the morning I saw Ward for a
moment, and afterwards I was with the Princess for an
hour at her house.* It is anything but a palace, but the
situation is good, and she is certainly better lodged than
I have ever seen her elsewhere.

Wednesday, 2&th. — They fired the guns for the re-
establishment of the British Government at Hanover, and

* Connaught Place.

18T3] LETTER TO LADY GEORGIAN MORPETH. 545

in the evening we heard the news of the taking of St. Fe
in France by Lord Wellington.

TJiursday, 25th. — At nine o'clock in the morning the
guns were fired for the news of the preceding evening,
and again between three and four, for the arrival of the
news of the taking of Dresden by the Allies. No one
ever remembered the guns being fired three times in
thirty-six hours, as it has now happened.

From Miss Berry to Lady Georgiana Morpeth.

November 25th, 1813.

MY DEAR GL, — I have appeared very ungrateful in not sooner
thanking you for your letter of the 30th from Castle Howard ;
but I have the old, tiresome, but alas I too real excuse of such
health, as actually eats up three parts of my existence. I am
consequently left with but a fourth part of the time which people
possess for the business, the amusements, and the idlenesses of
life. This makes me live in a perpetual vain attempt to do
more than is possible.

The retirement of London, in which I thought I was going
to do so much after the dissipation of Twickenham, has turned
out, as London always does to me (except during what is called
the season), so agreeable, so much good society, and one could
so well enjoy it, that I have had just as little time to myself as
I had in the country.

The Stael left Richmond much about the same time that we
left Twickenham, and wherever she is, there will society be also
— if it is to be had within ten miles a la ronde. Except during
her visit to Bowood, and now that she is for a week at Middle-
ton,* she has been constantly in town, giving very agreeable
dinners and soirees, with two or three women and half-a-dozen
men — dont ette se charge toute seule.

She is always entertaining, and I, who know her so much and
so well, will add always good-natured, and never mechanic.
Ward and she will amuse you. She thinks him handsome, and
d'un joli tourneur. I tell her she has undertaken two miracles,

* Seat of the Earl of Jersey, in Oxfordshire.
VOL. II. K N

546 MISS BEEBY'S JOUENAL.

to make him poli envers les femmes, et pieux envers Dieu.
And there is no saying, if they go on, what her success may be.
En attendant, they make very good company for other people.

Among the agreeables, we have had Lady Harrowby in town
for some weeks.

JOUKNAL.

Wednesday, Dec. 1st. — We both of us dined with the
Princess in Connaught Place, the first time that she has
given a dinner in her new house, which is still all upside
down. The company consisted only of Gell and Craven,
who arrived in town to-day. Lady C. Campbell and
Lady C. Lindsay in waiting. The Princess was particu-
larly melancholy, wept when speaking to me of herself,
confessing herself entirely overwhelmed with her situation
and her prospects for the future.

Tuesday, 1th. — Dined at Lord Stafford's with Madame
de Stael, her daughter, and her son, Sir James and Lady
Mackintosh, &c. In the evening more guests, making a
very agreeable soiree. At dinner the conversation rather
flagged. Madame de Stael was not excited enough ; it
appeared to me that she only wanted that to be as bril-
liant as usual, though she had to-day received the news
of the death of Comte Louis de Narbonne. One must
acknowledge that one could not lose an old lover more
gaily, as it was said of Charles the Vllth of his kingdom.

Saturday, llth. — At nine o'clock in the evening I went
to Madame de Stael's. The Duke of Sussex, Lord and
Lady Liverpool, Lord Harrowby, and several diplomats,
had dined there. In the evening other ladies arrived,
Lady Stafford and her daughter Mrs. G. Lamb, &c.

Sunday, 2Qth. — Dined at Madame de Stael's with Sir
James and Lady Mackintosh, Mr. Ward, The Comte Pal-
milla, Mr. Sharp, and her own family. A very agreeable
dinner: two or three artists in the evening.

Wednesday, 29th. — Dined at the Princess's : there were

1813] LETTER PROM SIR UVEDALE PRICE. 547

only Mr. Craven, Little "Willy,* and a young playfellow of
his, and Lady Orme : these dinners become insupportable ;
the dulness makes me almost ill in the course of a long
evening, only interrupted by the Princess singing with
Mr. Craven, which is a screeching of which no idea can
be formed without hearing it.

From Sir Uvedale Price to Miss Berry.

Foxley, December 18th,1813.

. . . . I want your assistance in making some inquiries,
which, as you may suppose, relate to the work about which I
am very busily employed. I have never told you exactly what
it was to be, and as I feel sure that you take the same interest
in my productions that I do in yours — scribetur tibi forma
loquacitur ; and, indeed, something of the kind is necessary by
way of preface to the inquiries. If our two publications should
happen to come out at the same time, we shall produce them
under similar titles, for mine is intended to be a * Comparative
View ' of the different opinions respecting visible beauty ; other
kinds of beauty will of course be often considered, but chiefly
in the way of illustration. Hogarth's ' Analyses of Beauty ' is, I
believe, the first book written in our language on the subject,
and, as far as I know, in any other. Many things in it have
been laughed at, and are open to ridicule ; but it contains a
number of just and original observations, and Burke's theory is
in a great degree taken from it, though he has not acknowledged
hi§ obligations. The principal writers, after these two, are
Knight, Dugald Stewart, and Alison, at least I know of no
others. Alison's theory is at present the most popular ; partly I
believe from its being very flattering to the spiritual part of our
nature, and partly from its having been very highly spoken of,
and very ingeniously explained and illustrated, in the ' Edinburgh
Eeview ' of 1811. I will not say, as Knight said to me in one of
his letters about Burke's theory (giving one a strong hint that
he should serve mine the same sauce), * If I do not cut up " The
Sublime and Beautiful " root and branch, set me down for a
blockhead.' The risk is too great in case of failure ; for an
author of nice sensibility should be less afraid of having his head
* William Austen.
2 N 2

548 MISS BERRY'S JOURNAL. [ms

laid on the block, than of having the block fixed to his head. I
will venture to say, however, that, if I am not strangely mis-
taken, Mr. Alison's theory will be found on examination, in
many essential points, more like the baseless fabric of a vision
than the strong-based promontory. You will not suppose from
this that I deny, or do not feel and acknowledge in its fullest
extent, the powerful influence of association ; I only question
the exclusive influence which has been attributed to it, and by
that, something may be allowed, where visible beauty is con-
cerned, to form colour and physical qualities. Fitzpatrick, in
that exquisite poem I once read to you, has settled the matter
most judiciously, and one might almost think that he had these
metaphysicians in view when he makes the Soul say to the Body,

Yet trust me, I'm willing to waive all dispute ;
For though certain grave doctors, by few understood,
Think they flatter me much when they call you a brute,
Those who wish to divide us can mean us no good.

So much for my preface ; now for the inquiries. The review
was made on a late edition of Alison ; my remarks on the first
in 1790; and I believe that there was none between the two.
This I could wish you to inquire ; and also whether in the last
edition there is much that is entirely Dew, or whether there are
many essential alterations. The other inquiry I wish you to
make is of a more extensive kind. I believe I am acquainted
with most of the English authors who have written on the sub-
ject in question ; but I do not know of any who have expressly
written on it in French. You are likely to know whether there
be any such treatise, or anything worth notice mixed with other
matter ; and if you should not, your friend Madame de Stael,
though she may not have turned her mind particularly to objects
of that kind, is very likely to know what has been written on
them, and perhaps you will get what information you can for
me. I never happened to be in company with her, and I thought
myself very unlucky, particularly as Spencer asked me to meet
her one evening at his house. I remember that Mdme. Moreau
was likewise to be there. You may very well ask what could
keep me away. I am almost ashamed of saying it was a con-
cert, which, in spite of my passion for music, I should have
given up, but it was not only a very choice one, but one to which

1813] LETTER FEOM SIR UVEDALE PRICE. 549

Lady Douglas was, as a great favour, allowed to carry me. In
the way there she gave me an excellent account of a conversa-
tion she had overheard between Madame de Stael and Lord
Erskine. I have not yet seen ' L'Allemagne ; ' but your letter is
full of it, and Lord Holland, in one of his, asks me, Have you
read ' L'Allemagne ' ? ' Du bruit de Bajazet mon ame importunee '
can have no rest till I have read it, and I have no doubt of the
pleasure it will give me. She is certainly a very extraordinary
woman, even when one considers the stock she comes from, and
how highly bred she is, for thinking and writing.

Upon reading a few days ago in the papers an account of the
Queen of Naples' magnificent reception at the Ottoman court,
it occurred to me that the Grand Signior might have taken a
fancy for her. She carries me back to Naples, and brings to my
mind her last exploit there, and the blot, the only blot in Nel-
son's character, when he gave his sanction to such abominations,

Against his better knowledge, not deceived,
But fondly overcome with female charm.

END OF THE SECOND VOLUME.

LOHDOK

VBINTBD BY SrOTTISWOODX AND CO.
HBW-STMBT BQUABB

DA Berry, Mary

536 Extracts of the journals

33A2 and correspondence from the

1895 year 1783 to 1852

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