The Journal to Eliza and Various letters by Laurence Sterne and Elizabeth DraperSterne, Laurence
General
The Journal to Eliza and Various letters by Laurence Sterne and Elizabeth Draper
Sterne, Laurence
Draper, Elizabeth, 1744-1778; Novelists, English -- 18th century -- Correspondence; Sterne, Laurence, 1713-1768 -- Correspondence
Of other letters by Mrs. Draper, thirteen are now owned by Lord Basing
of Hoddington, a descendant of Mrs. Draper’s uncle, Richard Sclater.
These letters, which are said to relate mostly to family affairs, have
not been procured for this collection. But their tenor may perhaps be
inferred from the letter dated Tellicherry, April 1769, which is here
printed from the autograph copy in the British Museum. Though the name
of the man to whom it was addressed is left blank, the contents show
that he was a friend of the Drapers who had retired from the service and
returned to England. The letter presents a portrait of Mrs. Draper, not
the blue-stocking but the sensible wife who has resolved to adjust
herself to the humdrum and drudgery of official India. Her husband, she
says, has lost his two clerks, and so she is “maintaining his
correspondence for him.” Quite remarkable, too, as her good sense, is
the knowledge she shows of the intrigues and blunders that culminated in
the troubles with Hyder Ali, then besieging Madras and striking terror
throughout South India.
Mrs. Draper’s career in India is brought to a close by the letters
written on the eve of her elopement. Now in private hands at Bombay,
they were published, with an introductory essay, in the _Times of India_
for February 24, 1894, and in the overland weekly issue for March 3,
1894. In the first of them Mrs. Draper gives “a faithful servant and
friend”—one Eliza Mihill—an order on George Horsley, Esq., in England
for all her jewels, valued at 500_l._ or more. Accept them, the generous
woman writes, “as the best token in my power, expressive of my good will
to you.” Of the Mr. Horsley, one of Mrs. Draper’s closest friends, who
had gone to England for his health, a pretty character-sketch was made
two years before in the long letter to Mrs. James. To him she addressed
a brief impassioned note—the second of the series—explaining what she
has done for Betty Mihill and what she is about to do for her own
freedom. The third letter, which is to her husband, in justification of
her conduct, was composed under great agitation of mind, as she was
awaiting the moment of the last perilous step. Her pearls and silk
clothes she left behind, taking, of all her ornaments, only the picture
of Betty—“my dearest girl,” far off in England.
For Mrs. Draper after her escape to England, material is scant. There is
really nothing very trustworthy except an undated letter to Wilkes the
politician, thanking him for a “French volume” and beseeching him to
cease from his flattery. This letter, of which the original is in the
British Museum, is here printed from Mr. Fitzgerald’s copy. A degrading
anecdote of Combe’s is omitted, as it seems more likely to be false than
true. We conclude with the eulogy on Eliza by the Abbé Raynal, the
second ecclesiastic to be startled out of propriety by that oval face
and those brilliant eyes.
W. L. C.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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