Lady Morgan’s Memoirs
Journal entries: May-June 1825
Letters from Italy state that the tribunals of Austria
have just condemned to death Count
Confalonieri, the Marquis Pallavicini,
M. Castiglioni, Colonel Moretti,
and three young students. The crimes imputed to these individuals, who are held
in the highest esti-![]()
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mation in Italy, are not even looked
on as faults there, as, according to the letters alluded to, they consist only
in the explicit manifestation on their part of the aversion which all Italians
entertain for the domination of Austria as their country. My poor
Confalonieri! how little, when I knew him bright and
brilliant in Italy, did he dream of this day of darkness in store for him! Even
if his doom be commuted into carcere
duro, it will be almost worse than death.
May 4.—Received the affecting news of Dénon’s death, he was only ill
fifteen hours. He was nearly eighty.
Lord Archibald Hamilton is dead. I first
met him chez the Duchess of Sussex, 1811. He was then rather a
ci-devant, but an epitome of
rank and fashion. He was much in love with the sister of the Duchess
of Sussex. His mind was enlightened, his spirit independent, and
he was full of integrity. He was a man of kindly temperament, and he will be
much missed, especially in Scotland.
Journey to London.—Struck by the changed
physiognomies of the population—more intelligent-looking and less well
fed. Blessings of science and all-pervading illumination staring one in the
face at every mile through the Welsh mountains—their romanticism
disappearing—their civilization increasing.
St. Albans and its delicious abbey!
London.—Curious visitors—General Pepe, the Neapolitan chief, and all the
young revolutionary leaders of Piedmont and Lombardy,—the eldest but
twenty-![]()
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nine,—with me every day, and talking of
erecting a statue to me when Italy shall be free—hélas! Sir Robert
Wilson called on me; mild and interesting-looking; speaking
well, but with gravity; must have been, and indeed is still, very handsome.
General Pepe most affected of all the Italians I have
seen by the disasters of Naples. Lady Caroline
Lamb called,—quite comical, talking religion, and offering
me half-a-dozen of her Pages. Went to Miss
White’s assembly; found her in the midst of a brilliant
crowd, dying of the dropsy. Many persons presented to me of notoriety,
Washington Irving, author of The Sketch
Book; the Magnus Apollo of the bas bleus—Hallam, author of The Middle Ages. Moore (Anacreon) called to-day; said
“Murray raves of you,
not as an author only, entendez-vous, but as a woman.” When I told
this to Colburn, he looked aghast. I
said to him, “Colburn, I observed to
Mr. Moore, that I hoped my conquest would get me a
good price for my next book.” “Did you say
that?” exclaimed Colburn, in a pathetic tone.
His fear of his author, is like the Irish Quaker’s complaint, of
“somebody having taken his drumstick from him.”
Went to St. James’s Palace to see Mrs. Boscawen, the Queen’s
maid-of-honour. [The Mrs. Boscawen referred to was
Anne, daughter of General the Honourable George Boscawen, and grand-daughter
of Hugh, first Viscount Falmouth. She was
born in 1744, and died in 1831.] Found her niched in the old court garret with
a most fantastical little balcony, and terrace full of plants, flowers, and
foreign birds. She was de-![]()
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lighted to see me; talked of my
books, and offered me a bouquet in return for all the charming things she had
read of mine;—full of old court news, and of the King’s going to throw down her apartments;—could
talk of nothing else, and of her waylaying the King on his departure for
Ireland. Spoke of nursing him in his youth;—knew Mrs. Delany;—told me she had a great
desire to go to Lady Pepy’s
blue-stocking parties. Her companion is Miss
Tickell, descendant of the poet. Collation at St. James’s,
with Mrs. Boscawen;—went through the palace. I met
Mrs. Boscawen a fortnight after;—took up the
account of the rooms; she called Lady Cork
“her fellow-servant.” Miss
Porter, mild and unaffected; Mr. Place, the
Templar, worth all the rest;—Holland House, the school of political
corruption, spoilt all the young men;—Miss
Benger, tall, thin.
At Miss
White’s dinner;—Porson (not the author of the Parody)
and Milman were there;—W. Spencer reminded me he knew me at
Lisburne;—Mrs. Somerville, a
celebrated mathematician, young and prettyish;—Mrs. Marcett, the political economist, getting
hold of W. Spencer and preaching Christianity to him,
wishing him to go to church at Geneva, that he might be converted through the
pretty women;—General Church
there, it is well I had not Pepe with me!
Ugo Foscolo dined with us at
Mrs. Brown’s;—full of
paradoxes,—hated Italian music,—cried over my Irish song;—his
account of his novel Jacopo Ortis, all time;—was six times
more in love than he described;—defended England’s conduct to
Italy;—cried down the Whigs for originating the present system. He ![]()
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despised the society du bon
ton of London;—it only gave him the trouble of
writing apologies.
Went with Lady
Caroline to Miss
White’s.
London, Bury Street, St James.—June
15.—Yesterday’s campaign we had thousands of Italians who came to
pay their devoirs, amongst others,
Castiglione, as handsome as ever;—the
Marquis de Prie, a very elegant young man. At seven
o’clock we set off to our dinner-party at the
Macneil’s. The company were, the Hon. Charles Brownlow, M.P., who made the
famous Protestant speech a little while ago; Mr. and Mrs. Horace Twiss, the nephew to John Kemble; Mr.
Douglas Kinnaird, brother to Lord
Dunsaney; Mr. Edwards, son
of Lord Kensington, and Miss Alexander, daughter of the Bishop of Meath. A few people came in the
evening; we left at past eleven o’clock, and set off for Lord Listowel’s Kensington Gore, which we
did not reach till near twelve. Their company had left, and they were all
dressed themselves to go to a ball; we staid a little time, and then went on to
Lydia White’s, and although it
was long past twelve, we found the invalid lying on her couch in the midst of
her party; Sidney Smith, of the Edinburgh,
and the wit, par
excellence. What a difference in the political
thermometer? our dinner red-hot orange, and our soirée of the coolest green, where it was not blue!
June 17.—To-day, dinner at Lady Cork’s; there never was anything to equal the
splendour of her entertainments and her rooms. In the evening we went on to
Lydia White’s, thence to
Mrs. Burton’s.
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Carlton House was on fire the other night; there was
one roomed burned, but they succeeded in extinguishing it before it did any
more mischief.
The King was in the
house at the time, and he held a levee the next morning.
I saw a warming pan at Strawberry Hill, the other day,
which had belonged to Charles II.; there is
on it the following motto, “Sarve God and live for
ever;”—the date 1660—the period when his love for
Barbara Palmer, afterwards Duchess of
Cleveland, was in its first bloom.
Nathaniel Alexander, Bishop of Meath (1760-1840)
Educated by Samuel Parr at Harrow and Stanmore, and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge; he
was Bishop of Clonfert (1801), Down and Connor (1804), and Meath (1823). He was an Irish
privy councillor.
Elizabeth Ogilvy Benger (1775-1827)
Literary hostess who published poems, novels, biographies and translated Klopstock's
letters. William Jerdan describes her as a companion.
Anne Boscawen (1744-1831)
The daughter of General George Boscawen; she was Maid of Honour to Queen
Charlotte.
Hon. George Boscawen (1712-1775)
The brother of the admiral; he was educated at Eton, pursued a military career, and was
MP for Penryn (1743-61) and Truro (1761-74).
Sir Richard Church (1784-1873)
He was colonel of Greek troops in the Ionian Islands (1812-15), a Neapolitan general, a
leader of the Greek insurgents in 1827, and of the Greek revolution of 1843.
Henry Colburn (1785-1855)
English publisher who began business about 1806; he co-founded the
New
Monthly Magazine in 1814 and was publisher of the
Literary
Gazette from 1817.
Count Federico Confalonieri (1785-1846)
Italian nationalist and a leader of the 1821 rebellion against Austrian rule, for which
he was imprisoned for twelve years.
Mary Delany [née Granville] (1700-1788)
Courtier, letter-writer, and friend of Jonathan Swift; she introduced Fanny Burney to the
royal family.
Dominique Vivant de Denon (1747-1825)
French diplomat who painted portraits and managed collections of gems and medals; he
published a libertine tale,
Point de lendemain (1777), and
Travels in Sicily and Malta (1789).
Ugo Foscolo (1778-1827)
Italian poet and critic who settled in London in 1816 where he contributed essays on
Italian literature to the
Edinburgh and
Quarterly
Reviews.
Henry Hallam (1777-1859)
English historian and contributor to the
Edinburgh Review, author
of
Introduction to the Literature of Europe, 4 vols (1837-39) and
other works. He was the father of Tennyson's Arthur Hallam.
Lord Archibald Hamilton (1770-1827)
The second son of Archibald, ninth duke of Hamilton (d. 1819); a Whig MP for Lanarkshire
from 1802, he was a supporter of Charles James Fox and radical causes.
John Philip Kemble (1757-1823)
English actor renowned for his Shakespearean roles; he was manager of Drury Lane
(1783-1802) and Covent Garden (1803-1808).
Charles Kinnaird, eighth baron Kinnaird (1780-1826)
The son of George Kinnaird, seventh baron Kinnaird; he was Whig MP for Leominster
(1802-05) before he succeeded to the title. He was the elder brother of Byron's friend,
Douglas Kinnaird.
Lady Caroline Lamb [née Ponsonby] (1785-1828)
Daughter of the third earl of Bessborough; she married the Hon. William Lamb (1779-1848)
and fictionalized her infatuation with Lord Byron in her first novel,
Glenarvon (1816).
Jane Marcet [née Haldimand] (1769-1858)
Daughter of the Swiss banker Anthony Francis Haldimand; in 1799 she married Alexander
John Gaspard Marcet. She published scientific textbooks, works for children, and
Conversations on Political Economy (1816).
Henry Hart Milman (1791-1868)
Educated at Eton and Brasenose College, Oxford, he was a poet, historian and dean of St
Paul's (1849) who wrote for the
Quarterly Review.
Thomas Moore (1779-1852)
Irish poet and biographer, author of the
Irish Melodies (1807-34),
The Fudge Family in Paris (1818), and
Lalla
Rookh (1817); he was Byron's close friend and designated biographer.
Lady Augusta Murray (1768-1830)
The daughter of John Murray, fourth Earl of Dunmore; in 1793 she married Prince Augustus
Frederick, Duke of Sussex in contravention of the Royal Marriage Act. They lived together
until 1801.
John Murray II (1778-1843)
The second John Murray began the
Quarterly Review in 1809 and
published works by Scott, Byron, Austen, Crabbe, and other literary notables.
Barbara Palmer, duchess of Cleveland [née Villiers] (1640-1709)
The daughter of William Villiers, second viscount Grandison (1614-1643) and mistress of
Charles II, who granted her the title in 1670. Her sexual adventures were detailed in
Delarivier Manley's
The New Atalantis (1709).
Guglielmo Pepe (1783-1855)
Italian general and liberal who served under Napoleon and fought against Austrian rule in
1848.
Elizabeth Pepys [née Dowdeswell] (1748 c.-1830)
The daughter of William Dowdeswell; in 1777 she married Sir William Weller Pepys, first
baronet; they were members of the Streatham and Blue Stocking circles.
Jane Porter (1776-1850)
English novelist, sister of the poet and novelist Anna Maria Porter (1778-1832); she
wrote
The Scottish Chiefs (1810).
Sydney Smith (1771-1845)
Clergyman, wit, and one of the original projectors of the
Edinburgh
Review; afterwards lecturer in London and one of the Holland House
denizens.
Mary Somerville [née Fairfax] (1780-1872)
Mathematician and science writer, daughter of Admiral William George Fairfax (1739-1813)
and friend of Ada Byron; she spent her later years in Italy. She was twice married.
William Robert Spencer (1770-1834)
English wit and author of society verse. He was the son of Lord Charles Spencer, second
son of the third duke of Marlborough, educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford. Spencer
was a friend of Fox, Sheridan, and the Prince of Wales.
Elizabeth Anne Tickell (1781-1860)
The daughter of the poet Richard Tickell and the singer Mary Linley; her uncle was
Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
Horace Twiss (1787-1849)
Lawyer, poet, and biographer; he was MP for Wootton Basset (1820-30) and Newport
(1830-31) and author of
St Stephens Chapel: a Satirical Poem
(1807).
Lydia White (d. 1827)
Born in Wales, the “Miss Diddle” of Byron's “Blues” held literary conversazione at her
house in Park Street; Walter Scott and Samuel Rogers were among her admirers.
Sir Robert Thomas Wilson (1777-1849)
Soldier, author, radical Whig MP for Southwark (1818-31), and diplomat; he wrote
History of the British Expedition to Egypt (1802) and was governor
of Gibraltar (1842).
