William Godwin: his Friends and Contemporaries
Ch. IX. 1797
William Godwin, Journal, June 1797
“June 3, Sa.—Tour w. Montagu: sleep at Beaconsfield.
„ 4, Su.—Wycombe: breakfast
at Tetsworth: dine at Horseman’s, Oxford, w. Porter,
Mossop, and 3 Swans: Woodstock: sleep at Chapel House.
„ 5, M.—Shipston: Welsburn:
breakfast at Morley’s, Hampton Lucy, w. C. Parr; dine at
Boot’s, Atherston nr. Stratford, w. Parr, Morley, Bradley, and
Philips: Henley: sleep at Hochley
House.
„ 6, Tu.—Breakfast at
Birmingham: Walsal: dine at Caunoc: Stafford: tea, Stone: sup at Etruria, w.
Br. Allen and ladies.
„ 7, W.—Hobbes’s ‘Human Nature’ p. 14. Dine at
Mrs Wedgwood’s, w.
Miss Ja. Willet: ride to Chesterton w. Montagu.
„ 8, Th.—Hobbes, p. 26. View the Pottery: Theatre,
Stobe, ‘School for
Scandal’ and ‘Catherine.’
„ 9, F.—Hobbes, p. 32, fin. Navigate the Tunnel:
ladies dine.
„ 10, Sa.—‘Life of
Hobbse’ pp. 20. Ladies dine: ride to Newcastle and Burslem w. Montagu.
„ 11, Su.—‘Leviathan’ p. 14:
‘Logique par
Condillac,’ p. 30: Bailly, ‘Sur
les Sciences,’ p. 50: Ride to Trentham w. J. & T.
Wedgwoods and Montagu.
„ 12, M.—‘Leviathan,’ p. 24,
(chap. 6.): Bailly, p. 76. Dine at
Mrs Wedgwood’s w.
Miss Willet junior.
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“June 13, Tu.—Breakfast at Uttoxeter: dine at Derby; call on
Mrs Darwin: sleep at
Burton-upon-Trent.
„ 14, W.—Elford, walk w.
Bage: dine at Tamworth:
Bage calls: sup at Bage’s w.
Davis.
„ 15, Th.—Coleshil: breakfast
at George in Tree: dine at Hatton w. Wynns: walk to Kennilworth w. Montagu.
„ 16, F.—Guy’s Cliff:
Coventry Fair: dine at Dunchurch: Daventry: sleep at Northampton.
„ 17, Sa.—Wellingborough:
breakfast at Thrapston: dine at Mr Robt. Montagu’s, Brampton: tea,
Holworthy’s w. Miss Wants.
„ 18, Su.—Breakfast and dine
at Mrs Montagu’s: see Hinchinbrooke House:
Huntingdon: sup at Jones’s, Cambridge, w.
Woodhouse.
„ 19, M.—Breakfast at
Otter’s: dine at Gunnings Ichleton: sleep at
Sawbridgeworth.
„ 20, Tu.—Breakfast on Epping
Forest: Polygon; Fenwick calls:
A. Pinkerton at tea.
Lancelot Baugh Allen (1775-1845)
The son of John Bartlett Allen; educated at Westminster, Trinity College, Cambridge, and
Lincoln's Inn, he was master of Dulwich College and a London police magistrate.
Robert Bage (1728 c.-1801)
English novelist and paper manufacturer; his six novels were influential in their
time.
Jean Sylvain Bailly (1736-1793)
French astronomer elected president of the Third Estate (1789); he was guillotined during
the Terror.
Elizabeth Darwin [née Colyear] (1747-1832)
The illegitimate daughter of the second earl of Portmore; she first married Edward
Sacheverel Chandos-Pole, and became Erasmus Darwin’s second wife in 1781.
John Fenwick (d. 1823)
Radical author, improvident newspaper editor, and close friend of William Godwin. His
The Indian: A Farce (1800) was produced at Drury Lane.
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
English political philosopher and man of letters; author of
Leviathan (1651) and other works.
Basil Montagu (1770-1851)
An illegitimate son of the fourth earl of Sandwich, he was educated at Charterhouse and
Christ's College, Cambridge, and afterwards was a lawyer, editor, and friend of Samuel
Romilly, William Godwin, and William Wordsworth.
Catherine Jane Parr (1782-1805)
The youngest daughter of Samuel Parr; she died of tuberculosis.
Samuel Parr (1747-1825)
English schoolmaster, scholar, and book collector whose strident politics and assertive
personality involved him in a long series of quarrels.
Sarah Wedgwood [née Wedgwood] (1734-1815)
The daughter of Richard Wedgwood, a wealthy merchant; in 1764 she married her cousin the
potter Josiah Wedgewood.
Thomas Wedgwood (1771-1805)
Chemist and third son of Josiah Wedgewood; he was the patron of Godwin and Coleridge and
of his former tutor, Sir John Leslie.
John Wynne (1778 c.-1836)
Of Plas Newydd in Denbighshire, the son of Robert Watkin Wynne, MP; he was a pupil of
Samuel Parr with whose daughter he eloped in 1797.
