The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Volume 1Edgeworth, Maria
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The Life and Letters of Maria Edgeworth, Volume 1
Edgeworth, Maria
Edgeworth, Maria, 1768-1849; Novelists, Irish -- 19th century -- Biography
I have had a most agreeable letter from my darling old Mrs. Clifford;
she sent me a curiosity--a worked muslin cap, which cost sixpence, done
in tambour stitch, by a steam-engine. Mrs. Clifford tells me that Mrs.
Hannah More was lately at Dawlish, and excited more curiosity there, and
engrossed more attention, than any of the distinguished personages who
were there, not excepting the Prince of Orange. The gentleman from whom
she drew _Cælebs_ was there, but most of those who saw him did him the
justice to declare that he was a much more agreeable man than Cælebs. If
you have any curiosity to know his name, I can tell you that--young Mr.
Harford, of Blaise Castle.
_Feb. 1810._
My father has just had a letter from your good friend Sir Rupert George,
who desires to be affectionately remembered to you and my uncle. His
letter is in answer to one my father wrote to him about his clear and
honourable evidence on this Walcheren business. Sir Rupert says: "I must
confess I feel vain in receiving commendations from such a quarter. The
situation in which I was placed was perfectly new to me, and I had no
rule for the government of my conduct but the one which has, I trust,
governed all my actions through life--to speak the truth, and fear not.
Allow me on this occasion to repeat to you an expression of the late
Mrs. Delany's to me a few years before she died: 'The Georges, I knew,
would always prosper, from their integrity of conduct. Don't call this
flattery: I am too old to flatter any one, particularly a grand-nephew;
and to convince you of my sincerity, I will add--for which, perhaps, you
will not thank me--that there is not an ounce of wit in the whole
family.'"
"Oh how my sister would like to see this letter of Sir Rupert's!" said
my father; and straightway he told, very much to Sophy and Lucy's
edification, the history of his dividing with sister Peg the first peach
he ever had in his life.
_March 2._
Have you any commands to Iceland? My young friend Mr. Holland proposes
going there from Edinburgh in April. Sir George Mackenzie is the chief
mover of the expedition.
This epigram or epitaph was written by Lord I-don't-know-who, upon
_Doctor_ Addington--Pitt's Addington--in old French:
Cy dessous reposant
Le sieur Addington git:
Politique soi-disant,
Médecin malgré lui.
_March 19._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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