The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Vol. 2 by Maria Edgeworth

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Do you recollect American Mrs. Griffith writing to tell me that Mr.
Ralston would come to see us, and my extreme disappointment at his
finding in Dublin that Miss Edgeworth was not at home, and so not going
down to Edgeworthstown, and not seeing Lovell's school? He has found us
out now, and Lady Elizabeth invited him here. He has travelled over half
Europe and is going to Spain; but upon my giving him a note to
Macintosh, with a draft upon him for five minutes' conversation, and
notes to some other celebrated people, he, like a sensible man,
determined to delay his journey on purpose to see them. Lady Elizabeth
has been so kind to ask him to dine here to-day, and commissioned me to
invite whoever I pleased to meet him. First we wrote to your brother,
but be could not come; and then to Dr. Holland, but he was engaged to
Holland House. In his note to me he says, "I have seen Mr. Ralston
several times, and have been greatly pleased with his ingenuousness,
acquirements, and agreeable manners." His father and mother are
grand--and what is rather better, most benevolent--people in
Philadelphia. Meantime I must go and write a letter of introduction for
him to Count Edouard de la Grange, who is just returned from Spain to
Paris, and may serve him. But I forgot to finish my sentence about the
invitations to dinner. My third invitation was to Mr. Calcott, the
painter, with whom we made acquaintance a few days ago. He has been more
civil than I can tell you, promising us his ticket for the Exhibition,
and preparing the way for our seeing pictures at Lord Liverpool's, Sir
John Swinburne's, etc.; so I was glad to have this opportunity of asking
him, and he breaks an engagement to the Academy to accept of Lady
Elizabeth's invitation.

Now I must "put on bonnet" to go to Lady Grey's. She is the most
touching sight! and Lady Elizabeth's affection and respect for her! She
has desired to see Fanny and Harriet to-day.

_Feb. 9_.

Like a child who keeps the plums of his pudding for the last, but who is
so tedious in getting through the beginning, that his plate is taken
away before he gets to his plums, _so_ I often put off what I think the
plums of my letters till "the post, ma'am," hurries it off without the
best part.

In my hurried conclusion I forgot to tell you that Mr. Ralston has
lately become acquainted with Mr. Perkins, the American, who has tried
experiments on the compressibility of water, the results of which have
astonished all the scientific world.

Wollaston, as Mr. Ralston affirms, has verified and warrants the truth
of these experiments, which have not yet been published. The most
wonderful part appeared to me incredible: under a great degree of
compression the water, Mr. Ralston said, _turned to gas_!

_Feb. 20_.

Lady Lansdowne was here yesterday while I was in town; she heard that
Fanny and Harriet were at home: got out and sat with them: very
agreeable. Lady Bathurst has been here, and Lady Georgiana: asked us to
a select party--Princess Lieven, etc.,--but we declined: could not leave
Lady Elizabeth. I do not know that there is any truth in the report that
Lady Georgiana is to marry Lord Liverpool: I should think not; for when
we were at Cirencester, Lady Bathurst read out of a letter, "So I hear
Lady Georgiana is to be our Prime Minister," which she would not have
done if the thing were really going on; and when I went to Lord
Liverpool's a few days ago, he was in deep mourning, the hatchment still
up on his house, his note-paper half an inch black border. If he were
_courting_, surely the black border would diminish, and the hatchment
would be taken down. I wish it were true, for I like both parties, and
think it would be remarkably well suited.

_Feb. 24_.

Yesterday Captain Beaufort walked here to see us, and then walked with
Harriet and me to Lady Listowel's, _ci-devant_ Lady Ennismore, looking
just the same as when we saw her at Kilkenny: excessively civil to us.
Two curious pictures there done by an Irish boy, or man, of the name of
Grogan, of Cork: one of these is an Irish wake; there is a great deal of
original humour and invention in it, of the Wilkie, or, better still, of
the Hogarth style.

But all this time you would be glad to know whether I am likely to have
a house over my head or not? it cannot be decided till Tuesday--8, or
12, Holles Street.

Yesterday we went to see Mrs. Moutray at Mr. Sumner's most comfortable
and superb house. She had been to see the poor Queen's pictures and
goods, which are now for sale: a melancholy sight; all her dress, even
her stays, laid out, and tarnished finery, to be purchased by the lowest
of the low. There was a full-length picture of her when she was young
and happy; another, beautiful, by Opie or Lawrence, standing screwing up
a harp with one hand, and playing with her little daughter with the
other.

_To_ MRS. RUXTON.

8 HOLLES STREET, _March 9_.

We are comfortably settled in this good central situation. We were last
Monday at a select early party at Mrs. Hope's. The new gallery of
Flemish pictures given to Mr. Hope by his brother is beautifully
arranged.

I have had the greatest pleasure in Francis Beaufort [Footnote: Brother
of the fourth Mrs. Edgeworth.] going with us to our delightful
breakfasts at Mr. Ricardo's--they enjoy each other's conversation so
much. It has now become high fashion with blue ladies to talk Political
Economy, and make a great jabbering on the subject, while others who
have more sense, like Mrs. Marcet, hold their tongues and listen. A
gentleman answered very well the other day when asked if he would be of
the famous Political Economy Club, that he would, whenever he could find
two members of it that agree in any one point. Meantime, fine ladies
require that their daughters' governesses should teach Political
Economy. "Do you teach Political Economy?" "No, but I can learn it." "O
dear, no; if you don't teach it, you won't do for me."

Another style of governess is now the fashion,--the _ultra-French_: a
lady-governess of this party and one of the Orleans' or _liberaux_ met
and came to high words, till all was calmed by the timely display of a
ball-dress, trimmed with roses alternately red and white,--"Garniture
aux préjugés vaincus." This should have been worn by those who formerly
invented in the Revolution "Bals aux victimes."

Yesterday we breakfasted at Mrs. Somerville's, and sat in her
painting-room. Left her at one o'clock, and went by appointment to
Lansdowne House. Lady Lansdowne quite affectionate to Fanny and Harriet;
had fire and warm air in the superb new statue saloon on purpose for
them. Mrs. Kennedy,--Sir Samuel Romilly's daughter,--came in, invited to
meet us, very pleasing manners. Mrs. Nicholls,--Lady Lansdowne's
niece,--"I like that you should know all I love."

Then we went with Captain and Mrs. Beaufort to Belzoni's tomb,--the
model first, and then the tomb as large as life, painted in its proper
colours,--a very striking spectacle, but I need not describe it; the
book represents it perfectly.

Next door to the tomb are the Laplanders, the man about my size, at
work, intently, but stupidly, on making a wooden spoon. The wife was
more intelligent: a child of five years, very quiet gray eyes. In the
middle of the apartment is a pen full of reindeer,--very gentle and
ravenously eager for moss, of which there was a great basket. This moss,
which they love as well as their own, has been found in great quantities
on Bagshot Heath.

We went one night to the House of Commons: Mr. Whitbread took us there.
A garret the whole size of the room--the former chapel--now the House of
Commons; below, _kitcats_ of Gothic chapel windows stopped up appear on
each side above the floor: above, roof-beams. One lantern with one
farthing candle, in a tin candlestick, all the light. In the middle of
the garret is what seemed like a sentry-box of deal boards and old
chairs placed round it: on these we got and stood and peeped over the
top of the boards. Saw the large chandelier with lights blazing,
immediately below: a grating of iron across veiled the light so that we
could look down and beyond it: we saw half the table with the mace lying
on it and papers, and by peeping hard two figures of clerks at the
further end, but no eye could see the Speaker or his chair,--only his
feet; his voice and terrible "ORDER" was soon heard. We could see part
of the Treasury Bench and the Opposition in their places,--the tops of
their heads, profiles, and gestures perfectly. There was not any
interesting debate,--the Knightsbridge affair and the Salt Tax,--but it
was entertaining to us because we were curious to see and hear the
principal speakers on each side. We heard Lord Londonderry, Mr. Peel,
and Mr. Vansittart; and on the other side, Denman, Brougham, and
Bennett, and several hesitating country gentlemen, who seemed to be
speaking to please their constituents only. Sir John Sebright was as
much at ease as in his own drawing-room at Beechwood: Mr. Brougham we
thought the best speaker we heard, Mr. Peel next; Mr. Vansittart the
best language, and most correct English, though there was little in what
he said. The Speaker, we were told, had made this observation on Mr.
Vansittart, that he never makes a mistake in grammar. Lord Londonderry
makes the most extraordinary blunders and _mal-à-propos_. Mr. Denman
speaks well. The whole, the speaking and the interest of the scene
surpassed our expectations, and we felt proud to mark the vast
difference between the English House of Commons and the French Chambre
des Députés. _Nevertheless_, there are disturbances in Suffolk, and Lord
Londonderry had to get up from dinner to order troops to be sent there.

_To_ MRS. EDGEWORTH.

8 HOLLES STREET, _March, 1822_.

Your brother Francis is kind to us beyond description, and lets us take
him where we will; he dined with us at Mrs. Weddell's,--this dear old
lady copied last year in her seventy-second year a beautiful crayon
picture of Lady Dundas,--and here we met Lady Louisa Stuart, Mr. Stanley
of Alderley, and many others.

Yesterday we went the moment we had swallowed our breakfast,--N.B.
superfine green tea given to us by Mrs. Taddy,--by appointment to
Newgate. The private door opened at sight of our tickets, and the great
doors and the little doors, and the thick doors, and doors of all sorts,
were unbolted and unlocked, and on we went through dreary but clean
passages, till we came to a room where rows of empty benches fronted us.
A table on which lay a large Bible. Several ladies and gentlemen entered
and took their seats on benches at either side of the table, in silence.

Enter Mrs. Fry in a drab-coloured silk cloak, and plain borderless
Quaker cap; a most benevolent countenance,--Guido-Madonna face,--calm,
benign. "I must make an inquiry,--Is Maria Edgeworth here? and where?" I
went forward; she bade us come and sit beside her. Her first smile as
she looked upon me I can never forget.

The prisoners came in, and in an orderly manner ranged themselves on the
benches. All quite clean, faces, hair, caps, and hands. On a very low
bench in front, little children were seated and were _settled_ by their
mothers. Almost all these women, about thirty, were under sentence of
transportation, some few only were for imprisonment. One who did not
appear was under sentence of death,--frequently women when sentenced to
death become ill, and unable to attend Mrs. Fry; the others come
regularly and voluntarily.

She opened the Bible, and read in the most sweetly solemn, sedate voice
I ever heard, slowly and distinctly, without anything in the manner that
could distract attention from the matter. Sometimes she paused to
explain, which she did with great judgment, addressing the convicts,
"_we_ have felt; _we_ are convinced." They were very attentive,
unaffectedly interested I thought in all she said, and touched by her
manner. There was nothing put on in their countenances, not any
appearance of hypocrisy. I studied their countenances carefully, but I
could not see any which, without knowing to whom they belonged, I should
have decided was bad; yet Mrs. Fry assured me that all those women had
been of the worst sort. She confirmed what we have read and heard, that
it was by their love of their children that she first obtained influence
over these abandoned women. When she first took notice of one or two of
their fine children, the mothers said that if she could but save their
children from the misery they had gone through in vice, they would do
anything she bid them. And when they saw the change made in their
children by her schooling, they begged to attend themselves. I could not
have conceived that the love of their children could have remained so
strong in hearts in which every other feeling of virtue had so long been
dead. The Vicar of Wakefield's sermon in prison is, it seems, founded on
a deep and true knowledge of human nature,--"the spark of good is often
smothered, never wholly extinguished."

Mrs. Fry often says an extempore prayer; but this day she was quite
silent while she covered her face with her hands for some minutes: the
women were perfectly silent with their eyes fixed upon her, and when she
said, "you may go," they went away _slowly_. The children sat quite
still the whole time,--when one _leaned_, the mother behind set her
upright.

Mrs. Fry told us that the dividing the women into classes has been of
the greatest advantage, and putting them under the care of monitors.
There is some little pecuniary advantage attached to the office of
monitor which makes them emulous to obtain it.

We went through the female wards with Mrs. Fry, and saw the women at
various works,--knitting, rug-making, etc. They have done a great deal
of needlework very neatly, and some very ingenious. When I expressed my
foolish wonder at this to Mrs. Fry's sister, she replied, "We have to
do, recollect, ma'am, not with fools, but with rogues."

There is only one being among all those upon whom she has tried to make
salutary impression, on whom she could make none,--an old Jewess. She is
so depraved, and so odiously dirty that she cannot be purified, body or
mind; wash her and put clean clothes on, she tears and dirties them, and
swarms with vermin again in twenty-four hours. I saw her in the kitchen
where they were served with broth: a horrible spectacle, which haunted
me the whole day and night afterwards. One eye had been put out and
closed up, and the other glared with malignant passion. I asked her if
she was not happier since Mrs. Fry had come to Newgate. She made no
direct reply, but said, "It is hard to be happy in a jail; if you tasted
that _broth_ you'd find it is nothing but dishwater." I did taste it,
and found it was very good.

Far from being disappointed with the sight of what Mrs. Fry has
effected, I was delighted. We emerged again from the thick, dark, silent
walls of Newgate to the bustling city, and thence to the elegant part of
the town; and before we had time to arrange our ideas, and while the
mild Quaker face and voice, and wonderful resolution and successful
exertions of this admirable woman were fresh in our minds, morning
visitors flowed in, and common life again went on.

Three or four of these visitors were very agreeable, Sir Humphry Davy,
Major Colebrook, Lord Radstock, and Mrs. Scott,--Mrs. Scott of
Danesfield, whom and which we saw when at Lord Carrington's. The
Bellman.

_April 3_.

Fanny and Harriet have been with me at that grand exclusive paradise of
fashion, Almack's. Observe that the present Duchess of Rutland who had
been a few months away from town, and had offended the Lady Patronesses
by not visiting them, could not at her utmost need get a ticket from any
one of them, and was kept out to her amazing mortification. This may
give you some idea of the importance attached to admission to Almack's.
Kind Mrs. Hope got tickets for us from Lady Gwydyr and Lady Cowper; the
Patronesses can only give tickets to those whom they _personally know_;
on that plea they avoided the Duchess of Rutland's application, she had
not visited them,--"they really did not know her Grace;" and Lady Cowper
swallowed a camel for me, because she did not really know me; I had met
her, but had never been introduced to her till I saw her at Almack's.
Fanny and Harriet were beautifully dressed: their heads by Lady
Lansdowne's hairdresser, Trichot: Mrs. Hope lent Harriet a wreath of her
own French roses. Fanny was said by many to be, if not the prettiest,
the most elegant looking young woman in the room, and certainly
"elegance, birth, and fortune were there assembled," as the newspapers
would truly say.

Towards the close of the evening Captain Waldegrave came to me with Mr.
Bootle Wilbraham, who has been alternately Wilbraham Bootle and Bootle
Wilbraham, till nobody knows how to call him: no matter for me, he came
to say he was at our service and our most devoted humble servant to show
us the Millbank Penitentiary whenever we pleased. He is a grand man, and
presently returned with a grander,--the Marquis of Londonderry, who by
his own account had been dying some time with impatience to be
introduced to us; talked much of _Castle Rackrent_, etc., and of
Ireland. Of course I thought his manner and voice very agreeable. He is
much fatter and much less solemn than when I saw him in the Irish House
of Commons. He introduced us to jolly fat Lady Londonderry, who was
vastly gracious, and invited us to one of the four grand parties which
she gives every season: _and_ it surprised me very much to perceive the
rapidity with which a minister's having talked to a person spread
through the room. Everybody I met afterwards that night and the next day
_observed_ to me that they had seen Lord Londonderry talking to me for a
great while!

We had a crowded party at Lady Londonderry's, but they had no elbows.

_April 4_.

I recollect that I left off yesterday in the midst of a well-bred crowd
at Lady Londonderry's,--her Marchioness-ship standing at her
drawing-room door all in scarlet for three hours, receiving the world
with smiles; and how it happened that her fat legs did not sink under
her I cannot tell. The chief, I may say the only satisfaction we had at
Lady Londonderry's, while we won our way from room to room, nodding to
heads, or touching hands, as we passed,--besides the prodigious
satisfaction of feeling ourselves at such a height of fashion, etc.--was
in meeting Mr. Bankes, and Lady Charlotte, and Mr. Lemon behind the door
of one of the rooms, and proceeding in the tide along with them into an
inner sanctuary, in which we had cool air and a sight of the great
Sèvres china vase, which was presented by the King of France to Lord
Londonderry at the signing of the peace. Much agreeable conversation
from this travelled Mr. Bankes. We heard from Lady Charlotte that her
entertaining sister, Lady Harriet Frampton, had just arrived, and when I
expressed our wish to become acquainted with her, Mr. Bankes exclaimed,
"She is so eager to know you that she would willingly have come to you
in worsted stockings, just as she alighted from her travelling carriage,
with sandwiches in one pocket and letters and gloves stuffing out the
other."

Enter Mr. and Mrs. Hope. Mr. Hope, characteristically curious in vases,
turned me round to a famous malachite vase which was given by the
Emperor of Russia to Lord Londonderry--square, upon a pedestal high as
my little table; and another, a present of I forget who. So, you see, he
has a congress of vases, _en desire-t-il mieux_?

Many, many dinners and evening parties have rolled over one another, and
are swept out of my memory by the tide of the last fortnight: one at
Lady Lansdowne's, and one at Mrs. Hope's, and I will go on to one at
Miss White's. Mr. Henry Fox, Lord Holland's son, is lame. I sat between
him and young Mr. Ord, Fanny between Mr. Milman (the Martyr of Antioch)
and Sir Humphry Davy (the Martyr of Matrimony), Harriet between Dr.
Holland and young Ord: Mr. Moore (Canterbury) and old-ish Ord completed
this select dinner. In the evening the principal personages were Lord
James Stuart and Mrs. Siddons: she was exceedingly entertaining, told
anecdotes, repeated some passages from _Jane Shore_ beautifully, and
invited us to a private evening party at her house.

We have become very intimate with Wollaston and Kater, Mr. Warburton,
and Dr. and Mrs. Somerville: they and Dr. and Mrs. Marcet form the most
agreeable as well as scientific society in London. We have been to
Greenwich Observatory. You remember Mr. and Mrs. Pond? I liked him for
the candour and modesty with which he spoke of the parallax dispute
between him and Dr. Brinkley, of whom he and all the scientific world
here speak with the highest reverence.

We went yesterday with Lord Radstock to the Millbank Penitentiary, where
by appointment we were met by Mr. Wilbraham Bootle. We had the pleasure
of taking with us Alicia and Captain Beaufort. Solitary confinement for
the worst offences: solitary confinement in _darkness_ at first. There
are many young offenders; the governors say they are horrid plagues, for
they are not allowed to flog them, and they are little influenced by
darkness and solitary confinement: oldish men much afraid of it. The
disease most common in this prison is scrofula; and it is a curious fact
that those who work with their arms at the mills are free from it, those
who work with their feet at the tread-mills are subject to it.

Adieu. I must here break off, as Mrs. Primate Stuart has come in, and
left me no time for more. The Primate has recovered, and has set out
this day with his son for Winchester, to see some haunts of his youth,
takes a trip to Bath, and returns in a few days, when I hope we shall
see him.

_April 6_.

I left off in the Millbank Penitentiary, but what more I was going to
say I cannot recollect; so, my dear mother, you must go without that
wisdom. All that I know now is that I saw a woman who is under sentence
of death for having poisoned her sister. She appeared to me to be
insane; but it is said that it is a frequent attempt of the prisoners to
sham madness, in order to get to Bedlam, from which they can get out
when _cured_. One woman deceived all the medical people, clergyman,
jailer, and turnkeys, was removed to Bedlam as incurably mad, and from
Bedlam made her escape. I saw a girl of about eighteen, who had been
educated at Miss Hesketh's school, and had been put to service in a
friend's family. She was in love with a footman who was turned away: the
old housekeeper refused the girl permission to go out the night this man
was turned away: the girl went straight to a drawer in the housekeeper's
room, where she had seen a letter with money in it, took it, and put a
coal into the drawer, to set the house on fire! For this she was
committed, tried, convicted, and would have been hanged, but for Sir
Thomas Hesketh's intercession: he had her sent to the Penitentiary for
ten years. Would you not think that virtue and feeling were extinct in
this girl? No: the task-mistress took us into the cell, where she was
working in company with two other women; she has earned by her constant
good conduct the privilege of working in company. One of the Miss
Wilbrahams, when all the other visitors except myself had left the cell,
turned back and said, "I think I saw you once when I was with Miss
Hesketh at her school." The girl blushed, her face gave way, and she
burst into an agony of tears, without being able to answer one word.

Yesterday we breakfasted at Mrs. Somerville's, and I put on for her a
blue crape turban, to show her how Fanny's was put on, with which she
had fallen in love. We dined at Mrs. Hughan's, [Footnote: Jean, daughter
of Robert Milligan, Esq., of Cotswold, Gloucestershire.] niece to Joanna
Baillie: select party for Sir William Pepys, who is eighty-two, a most
agreeable, lively old gentleman, who tells delightful anecdotes of Mrs.
Montague, Sir Joshua, Burke, and Dr. Johnson. Mrs. Montague once
whispered to Sir William, on seeing a very awkward man coming into the
room, "There is a man who would give one of his hands to know what to do
with the other." Excellent house of Mrs. Hughan's, full of flowers and
luxuries. In the evening many people; the Baillies, and a Miss Jardine,
granddaughter of Bruce, the traveller. We carried Sir William off with
us at half-past nine to Mrs. Somerville's, and after we had been gone
half an hour, Mr. Pepys, a _young_ man between forty and fifty, arrived,
and putting his glass up to his eye, spied about for his uncle,
discovered that he was gone, and could not tell how or where! Miss
Milligan, sister to Mrs. Hughan, told him Miss Edgeworth had carried him
off. His own carriage arrived at eleven, and carried Mr. Pepys, by
private orders, not knowing where he was going, to Mrs. Somerville's. We
had brought Sir William there to hear Mrs. Kater sing and play Handel's
music, of which he is passionately fond. It was worth while to bring him
to hear her singing, he so exceedengly enjoyed it, and so does
Wollaston, who sits as mute as a mouse and as still as the statue of a
philosopher charmed.

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