A Book for a Rainy Day; or, Recollections of the Events of the Years 1766-1833Smith, John Thomas
History
A Book for a Rainy Day; or, Recollections of the Events of the Years 1766-1833
Smith, John Thomas
Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 18th century; Great Britain -- Social life and customs -- 19th century
[375] The Dowager Lady Amherst would appear to be Elizabeth,
daughter and co-heir of Lieutenant-General Honourable George Cary,
who married, 1767, Jeffrey, first Lord Amherst, Field-Marshal, who
died in 1797, aged 80. Lady Amherst died in 1830.--William George
Maton, M.D., dated his fortune from the day when he was approached
by an equerry at Weymouth as a person who might be able to name a
plant (_arundo epigejos_) which one of the royal princesses had
found. He was thus brought into the presence of Queen Charlotte,
and later became her physician extraordinary. Maton died on March
30, 1835, and was buried at St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields. There is a
tablet to him in Salisbury Cathedral.--Mr. Carr was Mrs. Garrick’s
solicitor, and was to be the next occupant of the famous Garrick
Villa at Hampton.
[376] Elizabeth Wright Macauley, novelist, actress, and preacher of
the gospel, died at York, March 1837, aged 52, in rather straitened
circumstances. Her London home was at 52 Clarendon Square, St.
Pancras. She published, in 1812, _Effusions of Fancy_, a collection
of poems consisting of the “Birth of Friendship,” the “Birth of
Affection,” and the “Birth of Sensibility.” In the last year of
her life she had travelled the country lecturing on “Domestic
Philosophy,” and giving recitations.
[377] At an earlier time the Abbey had been free to sight-seers,
but a wanton injury to the figure of George Washington in Major
André’s monument had led to the imposition of admission fees.
Not long after Smith’s encounter, Charles Lamb wrote his protest
against these fees, of which he says: “In no part of our beloved
Abbey now can a person find entrance (out of service time) under
the sum of _two shillings_.” Lamb’s complaint may have been rather
overstrained by reason of its incorporation in his bitter letter to
Southey in the _London Magazine_ for October 1823.
Free admission was given to the larger part of the Abbey under Dean
Ireland. Authorised guides were first appointed in 1826, and the
nave and transepts were opened, and the fees lowered in 1841 at the
suggestion of Lord John Thynne (Dean Stanley: _Historical Memorials
of Westminster Abbey_).
[378] The Rev. Thomas Rackett (1757-1841), Rector of Spetisbury
with Charlton-Marshall, Dorset. He was a musician, a naturalist, an
antiquary, and a friend of Garrick. He had been guided as a youth
by Dr. John Hunter. His daughter Dorothea married Mr. S. Solly of
Heathside, near Poole. She is mentioned on p. 290.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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