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look after the demise and the legacy [leg I see]; but he must stay away till I have put my house in order.*

"On the day following the date of this letter, which was the last I received from Mrs. Piozzi, I called at the Castle and Elephant at Bath, and found her and Mrs. Pennington. She was in high spirits, joking about the l. e. g. She dined with my father and sister, at No. 7 Russell Street, and was throughout the evening the admiration of the company, amongst whom were Mrs. Pennington, the lady so often mentioned in Anna Seward's correspondence as the beautiful and agreeable Sophia Weston; Admiral Sir Henry Bayntun, G. C. B., a distinguished naval officer at the battle of Trafalgar; Mr. Lutwyche (Mr. Lutwyche's house in Marlborough-buildings was celebrated for its hospitality, and as the resort of all the most agreeable society at Bath. Mrs. L. was the daughter of Sir Noah Thomas, a baronet and distinguished physician); and Mr. Conway, the actor, who was held in high estimation for his excellent private character. He fell overboard and was drowned on his passage from New York."- Sir J. Fellowes.

EXTRACTS

FROM

THRALIANA" AND "BRITISH SYNONYMY."

MISCELLANEOUS EXTRACTS FROM "THRALIANA."*

Miss Sreatfield. I have since heard that Dr. Collier picked up a more useful friend, a Mrs. Streatfield, a widow, high in fortune and rather eminent both for the beauties of person and mind; her children, I find, he has been educating; and her eldest daughter is just now coming out into the world with a great character for elegance and literature. 20 November, 1776.

19 May, 1778. The person who wrote the title of this book at the top of the page, on the other side, - left hand, in the black letter, was the identical Miss Sophia Streatfield, mentioned in "Thraliana,” as pupil to poor dear Doctor Collier, after he and I had parted. By the chance meeting of some of the currents which keep this ocean of human life from stagnating, this lady and myself were driven together nine months ago at Brighthelmstone; we soon grew intimate from having often heard of each other, and I have now the honor and happiness of calling her my friend. Her face is eminently pretty; her carriage elegant; her heart affectionate, and her mind cultivated. There is above all this an attractive sweetness in her manner, which claims and promises to repay one's confidence, and which drew from me the secret of my keeping a "Thraliana," &c., &c., &c.

Jan. 1779. Mr. Thrale is fallen in love really and seriously with Sophy Streatfield; but there is no wonder in that she is very pretty, very gentle, soft, and insinuating; hangs about him, dances round him, cries when she parts from him, squeezes his hand slyly, and with her sweet eyes full of tears looks so fondly

These extracts reached me after the preceding sheets were printed off.

in his face,*

and all for love of me, as she pretends; that I can

hardly, sometimes, help laughing in her face. A man must not be a man but an it, to resist such artillery. Marriott said very

well,

"Man flatt'ring man, not always can prevail,
But woman flatt'ring man, can never fail."

Murphy did not use, I think, to have a good opinion of me, but he seems to have changed his mind this Christmas, and to believe better of me. I am glad on 't to be sure the suffrage of such a man is well worth having: he sees Thrale's love of the fair S. S. I suppose; approves my silent and patient endurance of what I could not prevent by more rough and sincere behavior.

20 January, 1780.- Sophy Streatfield is come to town, she is in the "Morning Post" too, I see (to be in the "Morning Post" is no good thing). She has won Wedderburne's heart from his wife, I believe, and few married women will bear that patiently if I do; they will some of them wound her reputation, so that I question whether it can recover. Lady Erskine made many odd enquiries about her to me yesterday, and winked and looked wise at her sister. The dear S. S. must be a little on her guard; nothing is so spiteful as a woman robbed of a heart she thinks she has a claim upon. She will not lose that with temper, which she has taken perhaps no pains at all to preserve; and I do not observe with any pleasure, I fear, that my husband prefers Miss Streatfield to me, though I must acknowledge her younger, handsomer, and a better scholar. Of her chastity, however, I never had a doubt; she was bred by Dr. Collier in the strictest principles of piety and virtue; she not only knows she will be always chaste, but she knows why she will be so. Mr. Thrale is now by dint of disease quite out of the question, so I am a disinterested spectator; but her coquetry is very dangerous indeed, and I wish she were married that there might be an end on 't. Mr. Thrale loves her, however, sick or well, better by a thousand degrees

"And Merlin looked and half believed her true,
So tender was her voice, so fair her face,
So sweetly gleamed her eyes behind her tears,
Like sunlight on the plain, behind a shower."

Idylls of the King. — Vivien.

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