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
The other day we had a visit from a Mrs. Coffy--no relation, she says,
to your Mrs. Coffy. She looked exactly like one of the pictures of the
old London Cries. She came to tell us that she had been at Verdun, and
had seen Lovell. From her description of the place and of him, we had no
doubt she had actually seen him. She came over to Ireland to prove that
some man who is a prisoner at Verdun, and who is a life in a lease, is
not dead, but "all alive, ho!" and my father certified for her that he
believed she had been there. She knew nothing of Lovell but that he was
well, and fat, and a very merry gentleman two years ago. She had been
taken by a French privateer as she was going to see her sons in Jersey,
and left Verdun at a quarter of an hour's notice, as the women were
allowed to come home, and she had not time to tell this to Lovell, or
get a letter from him to his friends. She was, as Kitty said, "a comical
body," but very entertaining, and acted a woman chopping bread and
selling _un liv'--deux liv'--trois liv'--Ah, bon, bon_, as well as Molly
Coffy [Footnote: Mrs. Molly Coffy, for fifty years Mrs. Ruxton's
housekeeper.] herself acted the elephant. She was children's maid to Mr.
Estwick, and Mr. Estwick is, my father says, son to a Mr. Estwick who
used to be your partner and admirer at Bath in former times!!
_To_ C. SNEYD EDGEWORTH, IN LONDON.
EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _April 1810._
I do not like Lord Byron's _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_, though,
as my father says, the lines are very strong, and worthy of Pope and
_The Dunciad._ But I was so much prejudiced against the whole by the
first lines I opened upon about the "paralytic muse" of the man who had
been his guardian, and is his relation, and to whom he had dedicated his
first poems, that I could not relish his wit. He may have great talents,
but I am sure he has neither a great nor good mind; and I feel dislike
and disgust for his Lordship.
_To_ MISS RUXTON.
EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _May 1810._
Now I have to announce the safe arrival of my aunts and Honora in good
looks and good spirits. My father went to Dublin to meet them. I am
sorry he did not see the Count de Salis, [Footnote: The Count de Salis,
just then going to be married to Miss Foster, daughter of Mr.
Edgeworth's old friend and schoolfellow, the Bishop of Clogher.] but he
was much pleased with Harriet Foster, which I am glad of; for I love
her.
To MRS. RUXTON.
EDGEWORTHSTOWN, _June 21, 1810._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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