Brynbella, 3 December 1803.
When other things go pretty well, let us not, dear Mrs. Pennington, despair of the Commonwealth. If the Ministry cannot or will not take care of us, we must take care of the Ministry: and sure I am that hitherto History affords no example of a nation enslaved, whose inhabitants resolved to be free.
For the rest, I am ready enough to confess that unprecedented occurrences are, in these strange times, to be witness'd every day, and God only knows what may happen; yet I do surely hope and trust old England will never disgrace herself.... This famous Armada however, and its Xerxes, do not seem in haste to try the courage of their only opponents, tho' backed with the assistance of our old Allies, and gilt with the trappings torne from our Sovreign's immediate family and possessions. He will be right to say as Macduff does, "Within my sword's length set him,"[22] etc.... Mrs. Holman staid with us 8 weeks exactly, no more.... Her husband is writing for the Stage....
The Colonel's old Papa seems likely to outlive all he ever heard of in his youth, I think; the monarchy of France, the haughtiness of Spain, the papacy of Rome, the riches of Holland, the independence of Switzerland, and the prosperity of Great Britain. While one general pulse however keeps beating, my hopes will live, and beat too. Buonaparte's fate draws towards a dreadful Crisis, let him but come out, and our Admirals will give good account of him. Miss Thrales are at Broadstairs under Lord Keith's protection, who fears them not; they row out to sea for purpose of looking at the Wolves over the Water, and say it is an enormous preparation sure enough, but our sailors have no doubts of the event, and Mr. Gillon's letters are encouraging. He likes what has been doing in West India very well. Oh! how it must provoke the Tyrant of Europe to think he cannot likewise tyrannise in America.
The seizure of Alexandria too, proves the active secresy of our Government; and I remember Ministers who would have [been] much praised for such a step. Once more adieu, and do not despair of the Commonwealth.
Our plans must wait permission from above. If these Marauders come, home is the proper place to be found in: besides that my Master must see some weeks over before he becomes portable, and in those weeks!!! Oh Heavens! what is there dreadful in this world that may not happen before the 1st January 1804?
God preserve you, dear Mrs. Pennington, and have mercy on the anxious heart of your
H. L. P.
[22] Macbeth, IV. iii. 234.
Though the much-talked-of invasion still hung fire, the French were able to inflict some loss on England by the occupation of Hanover this year. On the other hand, many of the French and Dutch colonies in the West Indies fell into our hands, mainly through the energy of Sir Samuel Hood, who helped to capture St. Lucia and Tobago, with Demerara and other places on the mainland.
Brynbella, Thursday 5 Jan. 1804.
(Franked "Kirkwall.")
Enjoy your Ball, dear Mrs. Pennington, and be assured that all is at least as well with your particular Friendships as with that one great public Family to which we all belong.... Mr. Piozzi has weather'd this fit, and is come down stairs once again.... My own health will do all that is wanted from it, and as to wishing myself at Bath, I do not. Dr. Thackeray gallop'd over from Chester, and what he did afforded more immediate and visible relief than anything I could hope, more than I ever saw done either by London or Bath Physicians. There is besides one comfort in a country Doctor one can never have from a town one. They stay and sleep at your house, and have time to observe the progress of your complaint, and the power of their own medicines over it....
Shew Dr. Grey this letter.... I am all of his mind that England can be no better prepared for defence, or France for attack. 'Tis a grand Tournament, on the decision of which the world waits as composedly as it did 2000 years ago, when the plains of Pharsalia determined the names of their sovreigns. The issue of this contest will settle what Nation the others are to serve.... I do really wish the crisis was come now; for after the Dinner is once ready you know, be it little or much, it gets worse for waiting. Our Volunteers will make themselves work, if Buonaparte finds them none of the right sort. Let him once appear and we know who to turn our swords upon....
No. 11 Holles St., Tuesday, 6 March, 1804.
So many things have occur'd since I received your last letter, dear Mrs. Pennington, that this will of course be a long one. The King's illness and recovery, the continued talk of invasion, the widowhood of your fair friend, cydevant Honoria Gubbins, the correspondence of those French Noblemen so fêtè and so admired in Bath and Bristol, and these present conjectures concerning Sir Sydney Smith, fill every mouth, and render me still more enraged when toothach hinders my list'ning to such interesting circumstances.
Never was there a moment more favourable for rusticated folks like myself to pick up opinions, facts, etc., and fill my little bag. But Lord St. Vincent's ill-timed ill health is among the things I should like to fling out of it.
Dear Mrs. Siddons is in great beauty this year: her Zara was never more passionately admired. The Kembles look happy too, and so do Miss Lees; but when I was introduced to Mr. Cumberland at Lord Deerhurst's dinner yesterday, I did not know him, nor he me. The public will not however fail to recognize him, I suppose; he tries them in a new Play very soon. Poor Holman is—— poor Holman!!! and everybody seems grieved at his double disappointment.
Miss Thrales are well and gay; Mrs. Mostyn plump and pretty,—so are her sturdy little boys.... Oxford will be rendered a fine amusing place for the gay fellows by Mrs. Lee's accusation of the Gordons: it was always a good place for those who liked looking over books, conversing with scholars, etc. We staid two days there on our journey to London, for me to make my respects to the Eleusinian Ceres; but she, alas! was gone to the other House, as the Players say, Lord Elgin, who sent her over, being a Cambridge Man.
The weather has been very odd this year. We enjoyed Spring at Brynbella, where birds were singing, and trees coming out, every day before we came to Town for the Winter. It has snowed and blow'd, and hail'd and rained, ever since, I think; and the Thames looked all in a storm to-day from dear Lady Orkney's beautiful apartments at Chelsea....
The King had a slight return of his malady in January. On his recovery Addington, who had lost his majority, resigned, and Peel succeeded to the Premiership in May.
Sir Sydney Smith had been appointed in 1803 to a small squadron acting under Lord Keith off the coasts of Flanders and Holland. He now seems to have been watching the French preparations for invasion. Lord St. Vincent's suffering was probably more mental than physical. His exposure of the gross corruption prevalent in the Naval Administration had drawn down upon him a storm of abuse and misrepresentation, in which even Pitt joined.
Holles St., Monday Ap. 16, 1804.
Dear Mrs. Pennington's beautiful letters shall lie no longer unacknowledged. Mr. Parsons brought me the first.... Dr. Gray came to see us since that, for the first time, but his appearance spoke happiness, and his conversation unaltered friendship to you and to ourselves. He is a good man, and he liked our little Boy, who was at home just then for Easter Holidays.... As to dear Lady Orkney, she takes her lodgings on a Milestone, I believe, for there is no catching her, Town or Country.... Lady Hesketh will be amused to hear that the people who have seen her cousin Cooper's snuff-box, or the seat his favourite Mary sate in, cry "Touch me, touch me, that you may say you have touched the person who sate in Mrs. Unwin's chair, or handled Cooper's snuff-box." This is all good, is it not? for Mr. Hayley.
Cumberland's Play keeps the stage, in spite of younger wits who wanted people to laugh at the Author instead of the Comedy; but Mrs. Abingdon and I,—veterans like himself,—are glad that he succeeds; for as she expresses it, "He has a graceful mind."
Miss Lees and we have met twice or thrice, but either the Life of a Lover, Sophia's new novel, is not out, or I have not seen it. Holcroft's Paris, and Miss Edgeworth's Popular Tales are the only books found in windows, on toilettes, etc.
No tales of wonder, and such are not hers, can equal the death of Le Duc D'Enghien, or the apprehensions seriously entertained at present for Mr. Drake, British Ambassador in Bavaria, and our good friend, as you remember.... He married Miss Mackworth, and now we expect him to be hanged, as he surely will be, poor Fellow! if Buonaparte catches hold of him. These are novelties at least, though not novels; yet few romances would have ventur'd such an incident....
Mrs. Mostyn is full in feather, and high in song, as the folk say who keep Canary Birds, and her immense Aviary put me in mind of the phrase. She has three very sturdy Boys beside. De Blaquieres, Kirkwalls, all Holles Street I believe, dined with her yesterday, and among the rest my gay Master, and his and your
H. L. P.
Harriet, wife of Sir Thomas Hesketh, was a daughter of Ashley Cowper, the uncle of the poet. The latter died in 1800, and his biography by his friend William Hayley was published 1803.
In 1803 Sophia Lee gave up the school at Belvidere House, and devoted herself to writing. Her first important work, published the following year, took the shape of six volumes of letters, entitled The Life of a Lover.