THE AUTHOR OF “EVELINA” IN SOCIETY:
SHE VISITS BRIGHTON AND TUNBRIDGE WELLS.
[Fanny's circle of acquaintance was largely extended in
1779, in which year she was introduced to Mrs. Horneck and
her daughter Mary (Goldsmith's “Jessamy Bride”), to Mr. and
Mrs. Cholmondeley, to Arthur Murphy, the dramatist, and best
of all, Richard Brinsley Sheridan and his beautiful wife.
The Hornecks and the Cholmondeleys she met at one of those
delightful parties at Sir Joshua Reynolds's house in
Leicester Square,—parties composed of the wisest and
wittiest in English society of the day, though nowhere among
the guests could there be found a man of more genuine worth
or more brilliant genius than the mild-mannered host. Mrs.
Horneck had been a noted beauty in her younger days, and
she, as well as her two lovely daughters, had been painted
by Sir Joshua. The elder daughter, Catherine (Goldsmith's
“Little Comedy”), was now (1779) Mrs. Bunbury, wife of Henry
Bunbury the caricaturist. Mary, the younger, was at this
time about twenty-six years of age, and was subsequently
married to Colonel Gwynn, whom we shall meet with in Fanny's
Diary of her Life at Court. Goldsmith, it is said, had
loved Mary Horneck, though the ugly little man never
ventured to tell his love; but when he died, five years
before her meeting with Fanny, the Jessamy Bride caused his
coffin to be reopened, and a lock of hair to be cut from the
dead poet's head. This lock she treasured until her own
death, nearly seventy years afterwards.
Mrs. Sheridan's maiden name was Eliza Anne Linley. There is
an interesting notice of her in Fanny's “Early Diary” for
the month of April, 1773. “Can I speak of music, and not
mention Miss Linley? The town has rung of no other name
this month. Miss Linley is daughter to a musician of Bath, a
very sour, ill-bred, severe, and selfish man. She is
believed to be very romantic; she has long been very
celebrated for her singing, though never, till within this
month, has she been in London.
“She has long been attached to a Mr. Sheridan, a young man
of great talents, and very well spoken of, whom it is
expected she will speedily marry. She has performed this
Lent at the Oratorio of Drury-lane, under Mr. Stanley's
direction. The applause and admiration she has met with,
can only be compared to what is given Mr. Garrick. The
whole town seems distracted about her. Every other diversion
is forsaken. Miss Linley alone engrosses all eyes, ears,
hearts.”
The “young man of great talents” was, when Fanny first met
him, already renowned as the author of “The Rivals” and “The
School for Scandal.” His wife's extraordinary beauty has
been perpetuated in one of Reynolds's masterpieces, in which
she is represented as St. Cecilia, sitting at an organ. Her
father seems to have fully deserved the character which
Fanny gives him. In 1772 Eliza, then only nineteen, ran away
to France with young Sheridan, who was just of age, and, it
is reported, was privately married to him at the time. They
were pursued, however, by old Linley, and Eliza was brought
back, to become the rage of the town as a singer. Her lover
married her openly in April, 1773, and thenceforward she
sang no more in public.
Fanny's account of her visits to Tunbridge Wells and
Brighton will recall, to readers of her novels, the
delightfully humorous descriptions of the society at those
fashionable resorts, in “Camilla” and “The Wanderer.” Mount
Ephraim, at Tunbridge Wells, where Sophy Streatfield
resided, will be recognized as the scene of the accident in
which Camilla's life is saved by Sir Sedley Clarendel.—ED.]