Lady Morgan’s Memoirs
Sir Thomas Lawrence to Sydney Owenson, 21 December 1810
December 21, 1810.
My evil genius does haunt me, my dear madam, but not in
your shape—on the contrary, I believe that it takes you for my good one,
for it is very studious to prevent my seeing you. To morrow I cannot, Sunday I
cannot; but I will make it as early in this ensuing week as my distractions
will admit.
“Doldrums and bother”
are weak terms for ladies of your invention—at least, they touch not my
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of misery. You tell me that any hour will do,
because the Duchess of Gordon and Lord Erskine are satisfied with the likeness. It
is because they are enemies of my reputation. The former because I once (as she
fancies) painted an arm or a finger too long or too short in her
relation’s* picture. The latter, because I neglected to make an animated
beauty of a dead wife (but good faith and forgetfulness of this fact, I beg of
you); but still I have a great respect for him, and will try to think better of
the drawing that he has liked. “Striking and
beautiful” is certainly a most liberal translation of “flagrant and inveterate”; but Miss Butler’s connections are always on
the favorable side. If she knew but how to quiz, she would be very captivating.
I have seen Mr.
Campbell,† who is more anxious than you are for the
meeting. But I will tell you of his admiration, delight, impatience, &c.,
&c., &c., when we meet, which I repeat shall be as soon in the next
week as possible.
I remain, my dear madam,
Most truly yours,
PS. I have written in haste, emulous of the restless
rapidity of your hands; but it is Scrub’s imitation of Archer—you have a happy insolence of scrawl that I
never yet saw equalled.
Thomas Campbell (1777-1844)
Scottish poet and man of letters; author of
The Pleasures of Hope
(1799),
Gertrude of Wyoming (1808) and lyric odes. He edited the
New Monthly Magazine (1821-30).
Thomas Erskine, first baron Erskine (1750-1823)
Scottish barrister who was a Whig MP for Portsmouth (1783-84, 1790-1806); after defending
the political radicals Hardy, Tooke, and Thelwall in 1794 he was lord chancellor in the
short-lived Grenville-Fox administration (1806-07).
Jane Gordon, duchess of Gordon [née Maxwell] (1748-1812)
One of London's most prominent hostesses; in 1767 she married Alexander Gordon, fourth
duke of Gordon. She was active in Tory politics and married three of her daughters to
dukes.
Sir Thomas Lawrence (1769-1830)
English portrait painter who succeeded Joshua Reynolds as painter in ordinary to the king
(1792); he was president of the Royal Academy (1820).
Lady Jane Manners- Sutton [née Butler] (1779-1846)
The daughter of James Butler, ninth Baron Cahir; in 1815 she married Thomas Manners
Sutton at Baron's Court, the residence of the Marquis of Abercorn in County Tyrone.
