The Life and Letters of John Gibson Lockhart
Chapter 18: 1837-43
John Gibson Lockhart to Maria Edgeworth, 12 April 1837
“London, April 12, 1837.
“Dear Miss
Edgeworth,—I am sure you will be very sorry, in the midst
of your own distresses, to hear that my wife, so far from answering your
174 | LIFE OF J. G. LOCKHART. | |
kind letter, has not been for many weeks able to read
one. She has gone through a six weeks’ severe treatment for a liver
complaint, and, though the doctors think she has now overcome the disease, the
utter prostration of strength in which the cure has left her is most deplorable
to witness. I had not heard till I read your letter of the grievous affliction
you have sustained in the loss of Mrs.
Fox. Indeed, for a long while I have been hardly in the world or in
the way of hearing anything. I shall inform you of Sophia’s progress by-and-by; and meantime beg you to
believe that your approbation of my book, should it be so fortunate as to receive it when completed,
will afford me far greater satisfaction than I could draw from all the
applauses of all the world that did not, like you, know and love Sir Walter Scott.—Ever, my dear
Miss Edgeworth, yours most truly,
Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849)
Irish novelist; author of
Castle Rackrent (1800)
Belinda (1801),
The Absentee (1812) and
Ormond (1817).
Sophia Fox [née Edgeworth] (1803-1837)
The daughter of Richard Lovell Edgeworth and Frances Ann Beaufort; in 1824 she married
Captain Barry Fox (1789-1863) of the 97th Foot.
John Gibson Lockhart (1794-1854)
Editor of the
Quarterly Review (1825-1853); son-in-law of Walter
Scott and author of the
Life of Scott 5 vols (1838).