Chapter 31

[231]Celia Fiennes:Through England on a Side Saddle, Introduction, pp. ix-xi.

[232]Celia Fiennes:Through England on a Side Saddle, p. 99.

[233]Ibid., p. 114.

[234]Between1767 and 1771.

[235]Celia Fiennes:Through England on a Side Saddle, p. 163.

[236]Ibid., p. 165.

[237]In Nichols:Literary Anecdotes, vol.IV, p. 139, is this statement: "From another of Miss Elstob's letters in the same collection [letters to Mr. Ballard] it appears that Dr. Hickes was her grandfather by the mother's side; a circumstance which may account for her proficiency, if not for the origin of her Saxon studies." I have not as yet found confirmation of this relationship. In the letters and dedications to him the brother and sister put forward no claim to relationship, and in the letter Dr. Hickes wrote in behalf of William Elstob and in those written in approbation of Miss Elstob's work, there is no indication that he was asking help for his grandchildren. TheDictionary of National Biographysays that Dr. Hickes "left no children," a statement slightly ambiguous, for while it conveys the impression that he had no children, it might be literally true even if Jane Elstob were his daughter, for she died about twenty-four years before he did. Nichols inLiterary Anecdotesspeaks of an Elstob pedigree "accompanied by another pedigree of Mrs. Elstob's mother." These were on a single leaf fastened into Richard St. George'sVisitation of the County of Durham(1615), among the MSS. of the Harleian Collection.

[238]Walker, John:Letters of Eminent Persons, vol.I, pp. 243-40; Nichols:Literary Anecdotes, vol.IV, pp. 112-40, "The Elstobs."

[239]Preface to Miss Elstob'sHomily on the Birthday of St. Gregory.

[240]Nichols,Literary Anecdotes, vol.IV, p. 130. "Dissertation on Letter Founders," by Edward Rowe Mores.

[241]Mr. Rowe Mores, inDissertation on Letter Founders, says of Miss Elstob: "In her latter years she was tutoress in the family of the Duke ofPortland, where we have visited her in her sleeping-room atBulstrode, surrounded with books and dirtiness, the usual appendages of the folks of learning. But if any one wishes to see her as she was when she was the favorite of Dr.Hudsonand theOxonians, they may view her portraiture in the initial G ofThe English Saxon homily on the birthday of St. Gregory." This portrait is repeated in hisGrammar.

[242]In the "G" of Gregorium is a portrait of Mr. Thwaites as St. Gregory. (Nichols:Literary Anecdotes, vol.IV, p. 131.)

[243]Letters of Eminent Men addressed to Ralph Thoresby, F. R. S.

[244]A new edition of thisHomilywas brought out by William Pickering, Leicester, 1839.

[245]Homily on the Birthday of St. Gregory, p. ii.

[246]ThisGrammaris "remarkable for being the first effort to present the study of Old English through the medium of modern English." (Adams, Eleanor N.:Old English Scholarship in England from 1566-1800, p. 92.)

[247]July 31, 1715, Mr. Hearne wrote to Mr. Hickes thanking him for his "excellently learnedThesaurus," and for Mrs. Elstob'sGrammar. He comments on her Preface as "judicious, learned, and elegant." He is particularly pleased with her remarks on the author of the "Dissertation on reading the Classicks, and forming a just stile." This gentleman was of St. Edmund's Hall and was always looked upon as a vain, flashy person. "I look'd upon him as the most unfit Person I knew of a Scholar to write upon this Subject.... His book hath been sufficiently ridiculed & condemned her by yebest Judges." (Hearne's Collections, vol.IV, p. 83.)

[248]An interesting fact in connection with the publication of theGrammarhas to do with the type. Some years after the printing of theHomilythe house of the printer, Mr. Bowyer, was burned and all the Anglo-Saxon type was destroyed. They could not have printed theGrammarhad not Lord Chief Justice Parker provided the funds for cutting new type. In 1753 Mr. N. Bowyer, son of the printer of theGrammar, sent this type, as a curiosity, to Mr. Edward Rowe Mores with this letter: "I make bold to transmit to Oxford, through your hands, the Saxon punches and matrices, which you were pleased to intimate would not be unacceptable to that learned Body. It would be a great satisfaction to me if I could by this means perpetuate the munificence of the noble Donor, to whom I am originally indebted for them, the late Lord Chief Justice Parker, afterwards Earl of Macclesfield, who, among the numerous Benefactors which my father met with, after his house was burnt in 1712-13, was so good as to procure those types to be cut, to enable him to print Mrs. Elstob's Saxon Grammar. England had not then the advantage of such an Artist in Lettercutting as has since arisen: and that as my father received them from a great Patron of Learning, his son consigns them to the greatest Seminary of it." (Nichols:Literary Anecdotes, vol.II, pp. 355-59.) In 1768 Mr. Edward Rowe Mores presented these punches and matrices to the Society of Antiquaries, and the Reverend Mr. Pegge at that time communicated to the Society some account of William and Elizabeth Elstob. (Archæologia, 1804, vol.I, p. xxv.) The difficulty in getting good type is shown by the following letters: May 19, 1713, Mr. Robert Nelson wrote to Mr. Wanley: "Pray do me the favor to write out the Saxon characters for Mr. Bowyer, as you have kindly promised; despatch in this affair is of great consequence because my Lord Chief Justice Parker does intend to assist towards repairing this misfortune by giving him a set of press letters, and is very uneasy that he is not ready to begin his friend's book which requires these characters to perfect it." (Anecdotes of Bowyer, p. 493.) Mr. Wanley said that he wrote out the letters in the most exact and able manner that he could "But it signified little; for when the alphabet came into the hands of the workman (who was but a blunderer) he could not imitate the fine and regular stroke of the pen; so that the letters are not only clumsy, but unlike those that I drew. This appears byMrs. Elstob's Saxon Grammarbeing the book mentioned by Mr. Nelson." (Ibid., p. 498.)

[249]Nichols:Illustrations of Literary History, vol.I, p. 804.

[250]Ibid., vol.IV, pp. 211-12.

[251]Nichols:Illustrations of Literary History, vol.IV, p. 213.

[252]Nichols:Ibid., vol.I, p. 804.

[253]Dr. Hickes also wrote strongly in favor of Miss Elstob's work in his manuscript Preface toOrosius. (Nichols:Literary Anecdotes, vol.IV, p. 132.)

[254]Hearne's Collections, vol.IV, p. 87.

[255]Ibid., vol.IV, p. 93.

[256]Nichols:Anecdotes of Bowyer, p. 48.

[257]Nichols:Literary Anecdotes, vol.IV, pp. 125-27.

[258]Hearne's Collections, vol.V, p. 271.

[259]Ibid., vol.V, p. 337.

[260]Ibid., vol.V, p. 358.

[261]The folio manuscripts of Miss Elstob'sHomiliesare now preserved among the Lansdowne Manuscripts in the British Museum. SeeBibliothecæ Lansdownianæ, nos. 370-74, andBibliothecæ Harleiana, vol.I, p. 323, no. *27.

[262]Hearne's Collections, vol.VI, p. 255. Mr. Rowe Mores said that Miss Elstob had once had a genteel fortune, but that she had "pursued too much the drug called learning, and in that pursuit failed of being careful of any one thing necessary."

[263]"The learned Saxonist, Mrs. Elstob, was one, among many others, who about this period [1714] experienced the new Bishop's bounty." (Nichols:Illustrations of Literary History, vol.III, p. 227.) Mr. Thomas Seward, Bishop of Lichfield, knew Miss Elstob and was one of the contributors to her support. (Nichols:Literary Anecdotes, vol.IV, p. 135.)

[264]Nichols:Literary Anecdotes, vol.IV, p. 137.

[265]Letters of Mrs. Delany, 1st Series, vol.I, p. 263. Mrs. Chapone was evidently a gifted letter-writer and it is with a sense of great loss that we read of the accidental burning of many of her letters in 1860. (Letters of Mrs. Delaney, 1st Series, vol.I, p. 263 n.)

[266]Letters of Mrs. Delany, 1st Series, vol.II, p. 31.

[267]Ibid., vol.II, p. 14.

[268]Letters of Mrs. Delany, 1st Series, vol.II, p. 18.

[269]Ibid., vol.II, p. 56

[270]A fullLifeof Miss Elstob is much to be desired. In Ballard'sLetters, in the Letters of many contemporary antiquaries and Saxon scholars, especially Dr. George Hickes, and in manuscripts at Bulstrode, there must be many further sources of interesting information concerning her life and work. Especially would Mrs. Chapone's letter be a valuable contribution.

[271]Allibone'sDictionary of Authors.

[272]Bruce, James:Lives of Eminent Men of Aberdeen;Chalmer's Dictionary;The Gentleman's Magazine, vol.XVII;Anecdotes of Bowyer, p. 556.

[273]Footnote 1:Notes and Queries, 2d Series, vol.XI, p. 101.

[274]Baker:Biographia Dramatica, vol.IV, p. 212.

[275]Gnest:Some Account of the English Stage, vol.III, p. 461.

[276]The Gentleman's Magazine, March, 1735.

[277]Lowndes:Bibliographical Manual.

[278]Notes and Queries, 2d Series, vol.XI, pp. 101-02.

[279]Lounsbury:Studies in Chaucer, vol.III, p. 242.

[280]The statutes of this Society were dated May 27, 1736. In December Mr. Alex. Gordon wrote, "We are every day increasing both in number and in members either conspicuous for their quality or station, or learning and ingenuity." But constant difficulties arose between the Society and book-sellers. No plan tried proved satisfactory to both parties. By 1765 the finances of the Society were practically exhausted, and in April, 1746, the Society came to an abrupt close, after a starving and not very productive ten years. (Nichols:Anecdotes of Bowyer, pp. 134-38.)

[281]Miss Emily M. Symonds says of the author of theAnecdotes: "Lady Louisa Stuart inherited her grandmother's tastes for literary pursuits. That this taste was discouraged by her family is a real calamity, as all will agree who are familiar with theSelections from her Manuscripts (Essays and Verses), and theLetters to Miss Clinton. Her sketch of the family of John, Duke of Argyll, is a biographical gem, and her youthful letters read as if they had been written by one of Jane Austen's most charming heroines. Her satire is so sweet-tempered that it is evident she likes her victims none the less for her laughter, while her common-sense philosophy, with its sub-acid flavour of gentle cynicism may be studied with advantage even in these enlightened days. A glimpse of Lady Mary's daughter and granddaughter may be obtained from theDiaryof Miss Burney, who met the two ladies at Mrs. Delany's in 1787. Lady Bute, she records, with an exterior the most forbidding to strangers, has powers of conversation the most entertaining and lively where she is intimate. She is full of anecdote, delights in strokes of general satire, yet with mere love of comic, not insidious ridicule. She spares not for giving her opinions, and laughs at fools as well as follies, with the shrewdest derision. Lady Louisa Stuart, her youngest daughter, has parts equal to those of her mother, with a deportment and appearance infinitely more pleasing; yet she is far from handsome, but proves how well beauty may be occasionally missed, when understanding and vivacity unite to fill up her place.... They seem both to inherit an ample portion of the wit of their mother and grandmother, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, though I believe them both to have escaped all inheritance of her faults. On the occasion of another and later meeting Miss Burney writes: 'Lady Bute and Lady Louisa were both in such high spirits themselves, that they kept up all the conversation between them with such a vivacity, an acuteness, and an observation on men and manners so clear and so sagacious, that it would be difficult to pass an evening of greater entertainment.'" (Symonds, Emily Morse:Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Her Times, p. 537.)

[282]Symonds, Emily Morse:Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Her Times, p. 4.

[283]The Letters and Works of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu(Bell, 1887), vol.II, p. 240.

[284]Ibid.,LXXVI. Lady Louisa gives the later history of these ponderous black books saying that they survived the wear and tear of a century through the protection of an excellent person who had been Lady Bute's attendant before her marriage, and a part of the family ever after. "Her spectacles were always to be found in Clelia and Cassandra, which she studied unceasingly six days of the week, prizing them next to the Bible and Tillotson's Sermons; because, to give her own words, they were all about good and virtuous people, not like the wicked trash she now saw young people get from the circulating libraries."

[285]Symonds:Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Her Times, p. 7.

[286]Spence's Anecdotes, by Singer (Ed. 1820), p. 232.

[287]Montagu, Lady Mary:Works, vol.I, p. 40.

[288]Ibid., vol.II, p. 403.

[289]Montagu, Lady Mary:Works, vol.II, p. 5.

[290]Symonds, Emily Morse:Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Her Times, p. 201.

[291]Ibid., p. 169.

[292]Letters and Works, vol.II, p. 41. The debate referred to was on the conduct of the Spanish government, and took place on Thursday, March 1, 1739. Mrs. Pendarves, afterwards Mrs. Delany, gives the following slightly different account of the matter: "Lady Westmoreland ... and the Duchess of Queensberry, Mrs. Fortescue and myself, set forward for Westminster, and got up to the gallery door without any difficulty. There were thirteen ladies more that came with the same intention. To tell you all the particulars of our provocations, the insults of the doorkeepers and our unshaken intrepidity, would flourish out more paper than a single frank would contain; but we bore the buffets of a stinking crowd from half an hour after ten till five in the afternoon without moving an inch from our places, only see-sawing about as the motion of the multitude forced us. At last, our committee resolved to adjourn to the coffeehouse of the Court of Request, where debates began how we were to proceed? It was agreed amongst us to address Sir Charles Dalton (gentleman usher of the Black Rod) for admittance. The address was presented, and an answer returned that whilst one lady remained in the passage to the gallery, the door should not be opened for the members of the House of Commons, so we generously gave them the liberty of taking their places. As soon as the door was opened, they all rushed in, and we followed."It is of interest to compare the events of this attack on the House of Lords with two similar attempts to affect legislative action in the seventeenth century. In 1643, when some peace propositions had been under consideration in the House of Commons, but had been finally abandoned, the women of London, with white silk ribbons in their hats, went in great numbers to the House bearing a peace petition. The House sent out a deputation of three or four members to meet them, mollify them, and induce them to return home. Rushworth recounts the further progress of the affair:"But the women, not satisfied, remain'd thereabouts, and by noon were encreased to five thousand at the least; and some men of the rabble in women's cloaths mixt themselves amongst them and instigated them to go to the Commons door and cry 'Peace, Peace,' which they did accordingly, thrusting to the door of the House at the upper stairs head; and as soon as they were pass'd a part of the Trained Band (that usually stood sentinal there) thrust the soldiers down and would suffer none to come in or go out of the House for near two hours. The Trained Band advised them to come down, and first pulled them; and, afterwards to fright them shot powder. But they cry'd out 'Nothing but powder,' and having brickbats in the yard threw them apace at the Trained Band, who then shot bullets, and killed a ballad-singer with one arm that was heartening on the women, and another poor man that came accidentally. Yet the women not daunted, cry'd out the louder at the door of the House of Commons, 'Give us these traitors that are against peace that we may tear them to pieces, give us that dog Pym.'"This "Female Riot" had a disastrous end. When Waller's troopers went by with his colors in their hats, the women snatched some of the ribbons, calling the men Waller's dogs. The troopers defended themselves, at first with swords "flatways," but later cutting so furiously over hands and faces that most of the women fled. The few who remained were later dispersed by a troop of horses.

It is of interest to compare the events of this attack on the House of Lords with two similar attempts to affect legislative action in the seventeenth century. In 1643, when some peace propositions had been under consideration in the House of Commons, but had been finally abandoned, the women of London, with white silk ribbons in their hats, went in great numbers to the House bearing a peace petition. The House sent out a deputation of three or four members to meet them, mollify them, and induce them to return home. Rushworth recounts the further progress of the affair:

"But the women, not satisfied, remain'd thereabouts, and by noon were encreased to five thousand at the least; and some men of the rabble in women's cloaths mixt themselves amongst them and instigated them to go to the Commons door and cry 'Peace, Peace,' which they did accordingly, thrusting to the door of the House at the upper stairs head; and as soon as they were pass'd a part of the Trained Band (that usually stood sentinal there) thrust the soldiers down and would suffer none to come in or go out of the House for near two hours. The Trained Band advised them to come down, and first pulled them; and, afterwards to fright them shot powder. But they cry'd out 'Nothing but powder,' and having brickbats in the yard threw them apace at the Trained Band, who then shot bullets, and killed a ballad-singer with one arm that was heartening on the women, and another poor man that came accidentally. Yet the women not daunted, cry'd out the louder at the door of the House of Commons, 'Give us these traitors that are against peace that we may tear them to pieces, give us that dog Pym.'"

This "Female Riot" had a disastrous end. When Waller's troopers went by with his colors in their hats, the women snatched some of the ribbons, calling the men Waller's dogs. The troopers defended themselves, at first with swords "flatways," but later cutting so furiously over hands and faces that most of the women fled. The few who remained were later dispersed by a troop of horses.

[293]On her return she brought nineteen volumes of this journal which she entrusted to her daughter. Lady Bute kept them under lock and key, occasionally reading passages from them, and once allowing her daughter, Lady Louisa, to read the first portions. Before Lady Bute's death the manuscript was solemnly burned as a sacred duty to her mother's memory.

[294]Montagu, Lady Mary:Works, vol.II, p. 211 n.

[295]Montagu, Lady Mary:Works, vol.II, p. 314.

[296]Ibid., vol.I, p. cxxvii.

[297]Montagu, Lady Mary:Works, vol.II, p. 236.

[298]Ibid., vol.II, p. 239.

[299]Montagu, Lady Mary:Works, vol.II, p. 252.

[300]Cibber:Lives of the Poets, vol.IV, pp. 4-22.

[301]Reprinted in 1725 asA Stage Coach Journey to Exeter.

[302]Vol.I, pp. 205-13.

[303]Vol.IV, pp. 302-07. (Conversation between Steele as "Don Phœbo" and Mrs. Tofts.)

[304]The Tatler(ed. Aitkin), vol.IV, p. 242 n.

[305]Cibber:Lives of the Poets, vol.IV, pp. 146-63.

[306]Whicher, George Frisbie:The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood(Columbia, 1915), p. 2.

[307]"Whereas Elizabeth Haywood, Wife of the Reverend Mr. Valentine Haywood, eloped from him her Husband on Saturday the 26th. of November last past, and went away without his Knowledge and Consent: This is to give Notice to all persons in general, That if any one shall trust her either with Money or Goods, or if she shall contract Debts of any kind whatsoever, the said Mr. Haywood will not pay the same." (Post Boy, January 7, 1721. Quoted by Mr. Whicher, p. 3.)

[308]In 1723, at Drury Lane, she played "Mrs. Graspall" in her own comedy,A Wife to be Lett. In 1715, six years before she left her husband, she had appeared as "Chloe" in Shadwell's adaptation ofTimon of Athens.

[309]A complete bibliography of Mrs. Haywood's works is given by Mr. Whicher in hisLife and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood, pp. 126-204.

[310]Gosse, Edmund:Gossip in a Library; "What Ann Lang Read," pp. 161-69.

[311]Whicher:The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood, p. 13.

[312]See section on"Novel-Reading Girl."

[313]Whicher, G. F.:The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood, chap.V, "The Heroine ofThe Dunciad."

[314]Whicher, G. P.:The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood, p. 22.It may be noticed that late in the century several women were successful printers and publishers. "Mrs. Munelly was a printer in White Fryars; and publisher ofThe St. James's Evening Post, a very old newspaper, the precursor ofThe St. James's Chronicle" (Nichols'sLiterary Anecdotes, vol.III, p. 467.) "In April, 1775, Mrs. Baskerville, who had carried on the printing business of her husband, announced that business for sale, but she continued the business of letter founding in all its parts." (Ibid., vol.III, p. 459.) "William Caslon, whose foundry was of great repute, died in 1778, leaving the business to his widow. Her merit and ability in conducting a capital business during the life of her husband, and afterwards till her son was capable of managing it, can only be known to those who had dealings with that manufacturer. In quickness of understanding, and activity of execution, she has left few equals among her sex." (Ibid., vol.III, p. 357.)

[314]Whicher, G. P.:The Life and Romances of Mrs. Eliza Haywood, p. 22.

It may be noticed that late in the century several women were successful printers and publishers. "Mrs. Munelly was a printer in White Fryars; and publisher ofThe St. James's Evening Post, a very old newspaper, the precursor ofThe St. James's Chronicle" (Nichols'sLiterary Anecdotes, vol.III, p. 467.) "In April, 1775, Mrs. Baskerville, who had carried on the printing business of her husband, announced that business for sale, but she continued the business of letter founding in all its parts." (Ibid., vol.III, p. 459.) "William Caslon, whose foundry was of great repute, died in 1778, leaving the business to his widow. Her merit and ability in conducting a capital business during the life of her husband, and afterwards till her son was capable of managing it, can only be known to those who had dealings with that manufacturer. In quickness of understanding, and activity of execution, she has left few equals among her sex." (Ibid., vol.III, p. 357.)

[315]Ibid., chap. 7, "The Domestic Novel."

[316]Pope, Alexander:Works(Elwin and Courthope), vol.VII, p. 177.

[317]Pope, Alexander:Works(Elwin and Courthope), vol.VII, p. 191; vol.III, p. 243.

[318]Swift, Jonathan:Works(ed. Scott), vol.XVII, p. 359.

[319]Swift:Works(ed. Scott), vol.XVII, p. 367. Letter to Countess of Suffolk, p. 371.

[320]Ibid., vol.XVII, p. 306.

[321]Ibid., vol.XVII, p. 342.

[322]Ibid., vol.XVII, p. 353.

[323]Ibid., vol.XVIII, p. 168.

[324]Swift:Works: (ed. Scott), vol.XVIII, p. 147.

[325]In 1754, at a sale of 150 pictures belonging to Dr. Mead, a picture of "Mrs. Barber the poetess, in Water Colours," brought only 1l.9s., the next lowest price paid for any picture. (Notes and Queries, 5th Series, vol.II, p. 107.) Mrs. Barber suffered from severe attacks of gout and she had been one of Dr. Mead's patients.

[326]Swift:Works(ed. Scott), vol.XIX, pp. 5-9.

[327]"There being then but one Man-Midwife in the Kingdom my Father made himself Master of That useful Art, and practised it with great success, Reputation and Humanity." (Mrs. Pilkington:Memoirs, vol.VII, p. 12.)

[328]Mrs. Pilkington:Memoirs, vol.I, pp. 27-29.

[329]Brookiana, vol.II, p. 123.

[330]Clarke, Adam:A Bibliographical Dictionary, vol.VI, p. 142.

[331]Mrs. Pilkington:Memoirs, vol.I, p. 46.

[332]Swift to Lord Bathurst, October, 1730:Works(Elrington Ball), vol.IV, p. 169, note.

[333]Craik, Henry:Life of Swift, vol.II, p. 189.

[334]Mrs. Pilkington:Memoirs, vol.I, p. 132. Swift:Works(ed. Scott), vol.XVIII, p. 171.

[335]Mrs. Pilkington:Memoirs, vol.I, p. 135.

[336]Ibid., vol.I, p. 119.

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