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 must hop, skip, and jump as I can from subject to subject. Mr. and
Mrs. Moilliet took us in the evening to a lecture on poetry, by
Campbell, who has been invited by a Philosophical Society of Birmingham
gentlemen to give lectures; they give tickets to their friends. Mr.
Corrie, one of the heads of this society, was _proud_ to introduce us.
Excellent room, with gas spouting from tubes below the gallery. Lecture
good enough. Mr. Campbell introduced to me after lecture; asked very
kindly for Sneyd; many compliments. Mr. Corrie drank tea, after the
lecture, at Mr. Moilliet's--very agreeable benevolent countenance, most
agreeable voice. We liked particularly his enthusiasm for Mr. Watt; he
gave a history of his inventions, and instances of Watt's superiority
both in invention and magnanimity when in competition with others.
Mr. and Mrs. Moilliet have pressed us to come again. Mr. and Mrs. Watt,
ditto, ditto. Mr. Watt almost with tears in his eyes; and I was ashamed
to see that venerable man standing bareheaded at his door to do us the
last [Footnote: It was the last. Mr. Watt died a few months afterwards.]
honour, till the carriage drove away.
I beg your pardon for going backward and forward in this way in my
hurry-skurry. I leave the Stratford-upon-Avon, and Blenheim, and
Woodstock adventures, and Oxford to Honora and Fanny, whose pens have
been going _à l'envie l'une de l'autre_; we are writing so comfortably.
I at my desk with a table to myself, and the most comfortable little
black stuffed arm-chair. Fanny and Ho. at their desks and table near the
fire.
"We must have two pairs of snuffers."
"Yes, my lady, directly."
So now, my lady, good-night; for I am tired, a little, just enough to
pity the civilest and prettiest of Swiss-looking housemaids, who says in
answer to my "We shall come to bed very soon," "Oh dear, my lady, we
bees no ways particular in this house about times o' going to bed."
_To_ MRS. RUXTON.
GROVE HOUSE, KENSINGTON GORE,
_March 1819._
We arrived here on Saturday last; found Lady Elizabeth Whitbread more
kind and more agreeable than ever. Her kindness to us is indeed
unbounded, and would quite overwhelm me but for the delicate and polite
manner in which she confers favours, more as if she received than
conferred them. Her house, her servants, her carriage, her horses, are
not only entirely at my disposal, but she had the good-natured
politeness to go down to the door to desire the coachman to have George
Bristow always on the box with him, as the shaking would be too much for
him behind.
Yesterday we spent two hours at Lady Stafford's. I had most agreeable
conversation with her and Lord Stafford, while Lady Elizabeth Gower
showed the pictures to Honora and Fanny.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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