[!-- Note Anchor 14 --]Note 14: Anna Laetitia Aikin (1743-1825).—Ed.
[!-- Note Anchor 15 --]Note 15: George Robert Fitzgerald, commonly known as "Fighting Fitzgerald," from the number of duels in which he took part, was a man of good family, noted alike for his gallantry and recklessness. A fracas which was the result of his distasteful attentions to Mrs. Hartley, a well-known actress, had made him notorious in 1773, some years previous to his introduction to Mrs. Robinson. His life, which was one of singular adventure, ended on the scaffold, he being executed for murder in 1786.—Ed.
[!-- Note Anchor 16 --]Note 16: Mrs. Abington, a distinguished actress who, at the age of seventeen, had made her first appearance at the Haymarket Theatre, some six years before the author of these memoirs was born.
[!-- Note Anchor 17 --]Note 17: Later she gave birth to a daughter, named Sophia, who lived but six weeks.—Ed.
[!-- Note Anchor 18 --]Note 18: Mr. Robinson was educated at Harrow, and was a contemporary of Mr. Sheridan.
[!-- Note Anchor 19 --]Note 19: This gentleman's name is Hanway, the person mentioned in the former part of this work as Mr. Robinson's earliest friend.
[!-- Note Anchor 20 --]Note 20: Writing of this time, Miss Hawkins states that Mrs. Robinson was "eminently meritorious: she had her child to attend to, she did all the work of their apartments, she even scoured the stairs, and accepted the writing and the pay which he had refused."—Ed.
[!-- Note Anchor 21 --]Note 21: Georgiana, wife of the fifth Duke of Devonshire. The duchess was not only one of the most beautiful, vivacious, and fascinating women of the day, but was likewise an ardent politician. Whilst canvassing for the election of Fox, she purchased the vote of a butcher for a kiss, and received from an Irish mechanic the complimentary assurance that he could light his pipe at her eyes.—Ed.
[!-- Note Anchor 22 --]Note 22: George Hobart, third Earl of Buckinghamshire, who had a passion for dramatic entertainments, and for a time became manager of the opera in London.—Ed.
[!-- Note Anchor 23 --]Note 23: Richard Brinsley Sheridan was at this period in his twenty-fifth year, and had entered on his mismanagement of Drury Lane Theatre. He had already written "The Rivals," which had not proved a success on its first appearance; "St. Patrick's Day, or the Scheming Lieutenant," a farce; "The Duenna," a comic opera; but he was yet to write "A Trip to Scarborough," and "The School for Scandal."