Records Of A Girlhood Volume 1 (1 Of 2) - Frances Ann Kemble (sad books to read TXT) 📗

That An

     Earthquake Had Been Felt Along The Coast Near Dover. A---- Says The

     World Is Coming To An End. We Certainly Live In Strange Times, But

     For That Matter So Has Everybody That Ever Lived.

 

[In The Admirable Letter Of Lord Macaulay To Mr. Ellis, Describing The

Division Of The House On The Second Reading Of The Reform Bill, Given In

Mr. Trevelyan's Life Of His Uncle, The Great Historian Says Horace

Twiss's Countenance At The Liberal Victory Looked Like That Of A "Damned

Soul." If, Instead Of A Lost Soul, He Had Said Poor Horace Looked Like A

_Lost Seat_, He Would Have Been More Accurate, If Not As Picturesque.

Mr. Twiss Sat For One Of Lord Clarendon's Boroughs, And The Passage Of

The Reform Bill Was Sure To Dismiss Him From Parliament; A Serious Thing

In His Future Career, Fortunes, And Position.]

 

Volume 1 Chapter 19 Pg 132

     I Must Now Tell You What I Do Next Week, That You May Know Where To

     Find Me. Monday, The King Goes To Hear "Cinderella," And I Have A

     Holiday And Go With My Mother To A Party At Dr. Granville's.

     Tuesday, I Act Belvidera, And _Afterward_ Go To Lady Dacre's; I Do

     This Because, As I Fixed The Day Myself For Her Party, Not

     Expecting To Act That Night, I Cannot Decently Get Off. Lady

     Macdonald's Dinner Party Is Put Off; So Until Saturday, When I Play

     Beatrice, I Shall Spend My Time In Practicing, Reading, Writing

     (_Not_ Arithmetic), Walking, Working Cross-Stitch, And Similar

     Young-Ladyisms.

 

     Good-By, My Dear H----. Give My Love To Dorothy, If She Will Take

     It; If Not, Put It To Your Own Share. I Think This Letter Deserves

     A Long Answer. Mrs. Norton, Chantrey, And Barry Cornwall Have Come

     In While I Have Been Finishing This Letter; Does Not That Sound

     Pretty And Pleasant? And Don't You Envy Us Some Of Our

     _Privileges?_ My Mother Has Been Seeing P----'S Picture Of My

     Father In Macbeth This Morning, And You Never Heard Anything

     Funnier Than Her Rage At It: "A Fat, Red, Round, Staring, _Pudsy_

     Thing! The Eyes No More Like His Than Mine Are!" (Certainly, No

     Human Eyes Could Be More Dissimilar); "And Then, His Jaw!--Bless My

     Soul, How Could He Miss It! The Kemble Jawbone! Why, It Was As

     Notorious As Samson's!" Good-By. Your Affectionate

 

                                                                FANNY.

 

Lady Eleanor Butler And Miss Ponsonby, The Famous Friends Of Llangollen,

Kept During The Whole Life They Spent Together Under Such Peculiar

Circumstances A Daily Diary, So Minute As To Include The Mention Not

Only Of Every One They Saw (And It Must Be Remembered That Their

Hermitage Was A Place Of Fashionable Pilgrimage, As Well As A Hospitable

Refuge), But Also _What They Had For Dinner Every Day_--So I Have Been

Told.

 

The Little Box On The Stage I Have Alluded To In This Letter As Mrs.

Siddons's Was A Small Recess Opposite The Prompter's Box, And Of Much

The Same Proportions, That My Father Had Fitted Up For The Especial

Convenience Of My Aunt Siddons Whenever She Chose To Honor My

Performances With Her Presence. She Came To It Several Times, But The

Draughts In Crossing The Stage Were Bad, And The Exertion And Excitement

Too Much For Her, And Her Life Was Not Prolonged Much After My Coming

Upon The Stage.

 

Lord And Lady Dacre Were Among My Kindest Friends. With Lady Dacre I

Corresponded From The Beginning Of Our Acquaintance Until Her Death,

Which Took Place At A Very Advanced Age. She Was Strikingly Handsome,

With A Magnificent Figure And Great Vivacity And Charm Of Manner And

Conversation. Her Accomplishments Were Various, And All Of So Masterly

An Excellence That Her Performances Would Have Borne Comparison With The

Best Works Of Professional Artists. She Drew Admirably, Especially

Animals, Of Which She Was Extremely Fond. I Have Seen Drawings Of Groups

Of Cattle By Her That, Without The Advantage Of Color, Recall The Life

And Spirit Of Rosa Bonheur's Pictures. She Was A Perfect Italian

Scholar, Having Studied Enthusiastically That Divine Tongue With The

Volume 1 Chapter 19 Pg 133

Enthusiast Ugo Foscolo, Whose Patriotic Exile And Misfortunes Were

Cheered And Soothed By The Admiring Friendship And Cordial Kindness Of

Lord And Lady Dacre. Among All The Specimens Of Translation With Which I

Am Acquainted, Her English Version Of Petrarch's Sonnets Is One Of The

Most Remarkable For Fidelity, Beauty, And The Grace And Sweetness With

Which She Has Achieved The Difficult Feat Of Following In English The

Precise Form Of The Complicated And Peculiar Italian Prosody. These

Translations Seem To Me As Nearly Perfect As That Species Of Literature

Can Be. But The Most Striking Demonstrations Of Her Genius Were The

Groups Of Horses Which Lady Dacre Modeled From Nature, And Which, Copied

And Multiplied In Plaster Casts, Have Been Long Familiar To The Public,

Without Many Of Those Who Know And Admire Them Being Aware Who Was Their

Author. It Is Hardly Possible To See Anything More Graceful And

Spirited, Truer At Once To Nature And The Finest Art, Than These

Compositions, Faithful In The Minutest Details Of Execution, And Highly

Poetical In Their Entire Conception. Lady Dacre Was The Finest Female

Rider And Driver In England; That Is Saying, In The World. Had She Lived

In Italy In The Sixteenth Century Her Name Would Be Among The Noted

Names Of That Great Artistic Era; But As She Was An Englishwoman Of The

Nineteenth, In Spite Of Her Intellectual Culture And Accomplishments She

Was _Only_ An Exceedingly Clever, Amiable, Kind Lady Of Fashionable

London Society.

 

Of Lord Dacre It Is Not Easy To Speak With All The Praise Which He

Deserved. He Inherited His Title From His Mother, Who Had Married Mr.

Brand Of The Hoo, Hertfordshire, And At The Moment Of His Becoming Heir

To That Estate Was On The Point Of Leaving England With Colonel Talbot,

Son Of Lord Talbot De Malahide, To Found With Him A Colony In British

Canada, Where Arcadia Was To Revive Again, At A Distance From All The

Depraved And Degraded Social Systems Of Europe, Under The Auspices Of

These Two Enthusiastic Young Reformers. Mr. Brand Had Completed His

Studies In Germany, And Acquired, By Assiduous Reading And Intimate

Personal Acquaintance With The Most Enlightened And Profound Thinkers Of

The Philosophical School Of Which Kant Was The Apostle, A Mental

Cultivation Very Unlike, In Its Depth And Direction, The Usual

Intellectual Culture Of Young Englishmen Of His Class.

 

He Was An Enthusiast Of The Most Generous Description, In Love With

Liberty And Ardent For Progress; The Political As Well As The Social And

Intellectual Systems Of Europe Appeared To Him, In His Youthful Zeal For

The Improvement Of His Fellow-Beings, Belated If Not Benighted On The

Road To It, And He Had Embraced With The Most Ardent Hopes And Purposes

The Scheme Of Emigration Of Colonel Talbot, For Forming In The New World

A Colony Where All The Errors Of The Old Were To Be Avoided. But His

Mother Died, And The Young Emigrant Withdrew His Foot From The Deck Of

The Canadian Ship To Take His Place In The British Peerage, To Bear An

Ancient English Title And Become Master Of An Old English Estate, To

Marry A Brilliant Woman Of English Fashionable Society, And Be

Thenceforth The Ideal Of An English Country Gentleman, That Most

Enviable Of Mortals, As Far As Outward Circumstance And Position Can

Make A Man So.

 

His Serious Early German Studies Had Elevated And Enlarged His Mind Far

Beyond The Usual Level And Scope Of The English Country Gentleman's

Volume 1 Chapter 19 Pg 134

Brain, And Freed Him From The Peculiarly Narrow Class Prejudices Which

It Harbors. He Was An Enlightened Liberal, Not Only In Politics But In

Every Domain Of Human Thought; He Was A Great Reader, With A Wide Range

Of Foreign As Well As English Literary Knowledge. He Had Exquisite

Taste, Was A Fine Connoisseur And Critic In Matters Of Art, And Was The

Kindliest Natured And Mannered Man Alive.

 

At His House In Hertfordshire, The Hoo, I Used To Meet Earl Grey; His

Son, The Present Earl (Then Lord Howick); Lord Melbourne; The Duke Of

Bedford; Earl Russell (Then Lord John), And Sidney And Bobus Smith--All

Of Them Distinguished Men, But Few Of Them, I Think, Lord Dacre's

Superiors In Mental Power. Altogether The Society That He And Lady Dacre

Gathered Round Them Was As Delightful As It Was Intellectually

Remarkable; It Was Composed Of Persons Eminent For Ability, And

Influential Members Of A Great World In Which Extraordinary Capacity Was

Never An Excuse For Want Of Urbanity Or The Absence Of The Desire To

Please; Their Intercourse Was Charming As Well As Profoundly Interesting

To Me.

 

During A Conversation I Once Had With Lady Dacre About Her Husband, She

Gave Me The Following Extract From The Writings Of Madame Huber, The

Celebrated Therëse Heyne, Whose First Husband, Johann Georg Forster, Was

One Of The Delegates Which Sympathizing Mentz Sent To Paris In 1793, To

Solicit From The Revolutionary Government The Favor Of Annexation To The

French Republic.

 

"In The Year 1790 Forster Had Attached To Himself And Introduced In His

Establishment A Young Englishman, Who Came To Germany With The View Of

Studying The German Philosophy [Kant's System] In Its Original Language.

He Was Nearly Connected With Some Of The Leaders Of The Then Opposition.

He Was So Noble, So Simple, That Each Virtue Seemed In Him An Instinct,

And So Stoical In His Views That He Considered Every Noble Action As The

Victory Of Self-Control, And Never Felt Himself Good Enough. The Friends

[Huber And Forster] Who Loved Him With Parental Tenderness Sometimes

Repeated With Reference To Him The Words Of Shakespeare--

 

    'So Wise, So Young, They Say, Do Ne'er Live Long.'

 

But, Thanks To Fate, He Has Falsified That Prophecy; The Youth Is Grown

Into Manhood; He Lives, Unclaimed By Any Mere Political Party, With The

More Valuable Portion Of His People, And Satisfies Himself With Being A

Good Man So Long As Circumstances Prevent Him From Acting In His Sense

As A Good Citizen. Our Daily Intercourse With This Youth Enabled Us To

Combine A Knowledge Of English Events With Our Participation In The

Proceedings On The Continent. His Patriotism Moderated Many Of Our

Extreme Views With Regard To His Country; His Estimate Of Many

Individuals, Of Whom From His Position He Possessed Accurate Knowledge,

Decided Many A Disputed Point Amongst Us; And The Tenderness