The next letter is addressed to Miss Hannah More's house, Barley Wood, but has been re-directed to Hotwells.
Brynbella, 31 July 1803.
Such is the present situation of everybody and everything, that even your lovely description of Nature and her beauties, in some place which you, dear Mrs. Pennington, call Bower Ashton—but of which I never heard in my life before—fail to detain my mind from events in prospect, and near prospect now, of enormous importance indeed.
Poor Jane Holman, cydevant Honourable Miss Hamilton, is running hither for refuge from murder and massacre. She has written to-day to bid us expect her every moment; and though the ground is covered with wavy corn, and the trees are loaded with apples, pears, and all useful fruitage, my heart at this instant feels more bent on their defence than on their admiration.
I defer'd writing till the time that your letter gives me leave to suppose you are under the half sacred roof of a Lady, to whom, if we direct in Europe, it will find the destined way. Present me with truly respectful attention where I wish so sincerely never to be forgotten; and in return I will enclose you some Impromptu verses, which I threw across the table to Mr. Piozzi last Monday. We had no company ... only one friend from Denbigh, and the Parson of the Parish, who translates Miss More's admirable stories into Welsh, for benefit of his poor and ignorant parishioners. But here are the lines to Gabriel Piozzi, 25 Jul. 1803.
Accept, my Love, this honest Lay,
Upon your twentieth Wedding Day.
I little hoped that life would stay
To hail the twentieth Wedding Day.
If you're grown gouty, I grown gray,
Upon our twentieth Wedding Day,
'Tis no great wonder; Friends must say
Why 'twas their twentieth Wedding Day.
Perhaps there's few feel less decay
Upon a twentieth Wedding Day:
And many of those who used to pay
Their court upon our Wedding Day,
Have melted off, and died away
Before the twentieth Wedding Day.
Those places too, which, once so gay,
Bore witness to our Wedding Day,
Florence and Milan, blythe as May,
Marauding French have made their prey.
If then of gratitude one ray
Illuminates our Wedding Day,
Think, midst the wars and wild affray
That rage around this Wedding Day,
What mercy 'tis we are spared to say
"We have seen our twentieth Wedding Day."
If Helen Williams, ever lovely, and once so beloved! is looking towards England now in preference to France, it is a great testimony to our Island's felicity and honour. For such suffrage is not mean, and Helena has had experience of both nations, since she published that little book in which she charged our Londoners with harshness, avarice, and want of feeling, because they suffer'd some Monsieur de Fosseè to wear straw boots. The Londoners' behaviour now does them vast credit in the opinion of all thinking people, and Mr. Bosanquet's speech will doubtless be handed down to posterity as giving [a] great example. Should not you be struck with the sight of a Metropolis you lived so long in, fortified against hostile force? It would to me bear an extremely awful appearance....
Mrs. Mostyn is said to meditate her return to the rustics of N. Wales, who will receive her as if she came to confer on us both benefit and honour. Such is the consequence of that lofty conduct which forces people into their places, as the Ton Ladies call treating their humble servants with distant and scarce lukewarm civility. Well! those who take the other way are worse used in this world, and I suppose will stand no better in the next for directing to Miss White instead of plain Sarah. I cure every day of some prejudice or other....
The short-lived peace had come to an end, the English Ambassador quitting Paris on 12th May, and the old scare of invasion was at once revived. Mrs. Holman was flying from Ireland, always a likely landing-place for a French expedition. After a quarrel with the management of Covent Garden, her husband had, for a time, transferred himself to the Dublin Theatre, and subsequently took up farming.
The verses, at any rate as to their form, are modelled on those written by Dr. Johnson to celebrate her own thirty-fifth birthday, and which will be found in Hayward's Autobiography, i. 31-2.
The reference to Helen Williams was evidently occasioned by Mrs. Pennington having communicated the contents of a letter received from her early in the month, in which Helen justifies her journey to Switzerland in company with Stone, as previously mentioned. After expressing her regret at hearing of the death of Maria Siddons, and offering condolences to the afflicted father and mother, she proceeds:
"Mrs. Piozzi's heart is then changed towards me! I am afflicted to hear it, because I cannot cease to love her. If she could look into my heart she would be very sorry for her error: she would not, I am sure, be willingly unjust to any one. Yet I should have conjectured, I own, that having suffered so much from calumny herself, she would have been slow to believe ill of others!"
Saturday, 5 Nov. 1803.
(Franked "Kirkwall.")
Our correspondence has languished miserably of late, dear Mrs. Pennington, but though your letters may be unacknowledged, they cannot be forgotten....
I have heard ... how much notice you attracted from the Duke of Cumberland, while he was remaining in or near Bristol, and heard it with a great deal of pleasure. Indeed I ever thought it a consolatory circumstance to live where a Royal Family is established, and posessing a large stake in the country one inhabits. They are the most likely people to be active in protecting it; and the present situation of affairs in England, added to the exemplary conduct of our British Princes, makes me cling closer to my old opinions.
We have had the Duke of Gloucester's son in this Country; he spent some time at Llewenny Hall, and Lady Orkney came here herself to insist on my dining with him there. But Mrs. Holman was just come from Ireland, and I would not leave an old friend for a young Prince, you may be sure. His behaviour was much admired wherever he appeared.
The festivities that have since taken place on account of Lord Kirkwall's birthday, and his Baby's christening, had us for sincere admirers. It was a pretty sight to see the four generations of an ancient and noble family all in one room so: the Marquis of Thomond kissing his great grandson, and dancing himself at the Ball.
I hope Buonaparte will not disturb our happiness in this Country, which never looked more beautiful....
We have got a Clergyman to our mind besides, and Mr. Piozzi has permitted me to pick up all my poor old Ancestors' bones, and place them in a new vault under the church, which he kindly repairs, and floors, and beautifies at no small expence. So here is a fair given account of my long silence.
Ernest Augustus, fifth son of George III, afterwards King of Hanover, had been created Duke of Cumberland 1799; he was now in command of the Severn District. The Duke of Gloucester was William Henry, third son of Frederick, Prince of Wales. His son, William Frederick, known as Prince William of Gloucester, Colonel of the 1st Regiment of Guards, was appointed Lieutenant-General in 1799.
The four generations at Llewenny Hall were: (1) Murrough (O'Bryen), Earl of Inchiquin and first Marquis of Thomond, who had married Mary, Countess of Orkney. (2) Their daughter and heir, Mary, now Countess of Orkney, who married the Hon. Thomas Fitzmaurice of Llewenny. (3) Their eldest son John, Viscount Kirkwall, who married, 1802, the Hon. Anna Maria de Blaquiere. (4) Their infant son, born 1803, Thomas John Hamilton, afterwards fifth Earl of Orkney.