Streatham, where I lodged during Cecy's danger *; and I would not go into London for fear of encountering Piozzi's eyes somewhere. So I only stopped at Pepys' house for an hour, close to Hyde Park, and away to Bath again, where one curious thing befell me, and but one. You have heard of many severities shown me, now hear of one man like yourself. My maid came to me half-alarmed, half-pleasant somehow, and said: 'I have had a king's messenger sent to me, Madam; but here's the letter, and the man is gone again. I offered him money, but he had orders to take none.'

"The letter said:

"MADAM,- Let nothing add to your present pain, as no one surely deserves so much happiness. Your letter is gone safe; I transmitted the amiable contents to Mr. Piozzi, who will receive it in due time; but you should be careful not to send another packet unpaid for, unless you would direct it to me. Your signing no name, and dating, forced me to peruse every word of a letter in three languages which no one could so have written but Mrs. Thrale, to whom I wish all that such merit and virtue, &c. &c. &c.

"JACKSON,

"Comptroller of the Foreign Post Office.'

"He had directed the letter to my maid!

We left our cards with this gentleman as soon as

*Yet he wrote to commend her going there.-Letters, vol. ii. p. 255.

we were married, of course, and he made us a fine dinner and a grand entertainment, and I saw for the first time my kind friend and admirer, Mr. Jackson. Poor fellow! he soon died, but not till Mr. Piozzi had sung with his daughter, and given him all the pleasure he was capable of receiving in the last stage of life, and a miserable state of health,"

FOREIGN TOUR.

"PREVAIL on Mr. Piozzi to settle in England."-Johnson, July 8, 1784; Letters, vol. ii. p. 376.

Dr. Johnson's advice corresponded exactly with Mr. Piozzi's intentions. He was impatient to show Italy to me and me to the Italians, but never meant to forbear bringing his wife home again, and showing he had brought her. Well aware of the bustle his marriage made, it was his most earnest wish that every doubt of his honour and of my happiness should be dispelled; so that whilst our ladies and Madame D'Arblay, that was Miss Burney, and Baretti, and all the low Italians of the Haymarket who hated my husband, were hatching stories how he had sold my jointure, had shut me up in a convent, &c., we made our journey to our residence in Italy as showy as we possibly could. All the English at every town partook of our hospitality; the inhabitants came flocking, nothing loth, and we sent presents to our beautiful daughters by every hand that would carry them. Miss Thrale was of age by now, and I left Miss Nicholson, the bishop's grand-daughter, whom they appeared to like exceedingly, with them, but she soon quitted her post on observing that they gave people to understand she was a cast mistress of dear Piozzi, who

never saw her face out of their company, except once at a dinner visit.

But I have not told you our parting. That I resided at Bath, these letters are a proof; that my residence was a wretched one, needs no asserting. Insults at home, and spiteful expressions in every letter from the guardians, broke my spirits quite down; and letters from my grieving lover, when they did come, helped to render my life miserable. I meant not to call him home till all my debts were paid; and my uncle's widow, Lady Salusbury, had threatened to seize upon my Welsh estate if I did not repay her money, lent by Sir Thomas Salusbury to my father; money in effect which poor papa had borrowed to give him when he was a student at Cambridge, and your little friend just born. This debt, however, not having been cancelled, stood against me as heiress. I had been forced to borrow from the ladies; and Mr. Crutchley, when I signed my mortgage to them for 7000l., said: "Now, Madam, call your daughters in and thank them; make them your best curtsey," (with a sneer) "for keeping you out of a gaol." He added 500l. or 8001. more, and I paid that off as alluded to*; but Doctor Johnson knew how I was distressed, and you see how even he had been writing!!

Will you wonder to hear how ill I was? After much silent suffering, Doctor Dobson, who felt for me even to

Dr. Johnson wrote to Mrs. Thrale, London, April 19th, 1784 :— "I am sensible of the ease that your repayment of Mr. Crutchley has given: you felt yourself genée by that debt: is there an English word for it ? ”

tears, left me one evening in the slipper bath, and I suppose ran to Lady Keith, and spoke with some severity; for she came into the room with him, and said, "The doctor tells me, Madam, he must write to Mr. Piozzi about your health; will you be pleased to tell us where to find him?" "At Milan, my dear," was the faint reply, "with his friend, the Marquis d'Araciel (a Spanish grandee); his palace, Milan, is sufficient direction." "Milan" exclaimed they all at once, for not one word had ever passed among us concerning him or his destination. "Milan!' So Doctor Dobson, I trust, took pen and ink, and the next day I was better. Miss Thrale declared her resolution to go to their own house at Brighthelmstone, and I entreated permission to attend them. Short journeys, change of air, &c., helped to revive me, and Miss Nicholson went with us to Stonehenge, Wilton, &c. in our way to Sussex, whence I returned to Bath to wait for Piozzi. He was here the eleventh day after he got Dobson's letter. In twenty-six more we were married in London by the Spanish ambassador's chaplain, and returned hither to be married by Mr. Morgan, of Bath, at St. James's Church, July 25, 1784.*

* A copy of the certificate was found among her papers:

"Anno Domini 1784, die vero 23 Julij, nullo impedimento detecto, rite in matrimonio conjuncti fuere Gabriel Piozzi, et Hester Lynch Thrale, præsentibus notis testibus Aloisio Borghi, Francisco Mecci, et Angelica Borghi.

"Pr. me RICHARDUM SMITH.

"Nous Jean Balthazar d'Adhemar de mont Falcon des premiers Comtes souverains d'Orange; Monteliman, Grignan, &c., gouverneur des villes et Châteaux de Dieppe, grand Bailly d'epée