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Society
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"Mr. Woodhouse was
fond of society in his own way."
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BLUE-STOCKING WIT
(from the Lady’s Magazine, May 1816)
THE Blue-Stocking Club is revived, and the conversationes are enlivened by puns and riddle-me-rees, brought by the ladies in their ridicules, ready cut and dried. The following were sported at the last assembly near Berkeley-square with éclat:---Lady Elizabeth S--------asked, “Why are Lord P---ts---m’s dashing pantaloons like two foreign towns?“ “Because,” replied the Hon. Miss B-----, “they are too long (Toulon) and too loose (Toulouse)!”. The same lively Countess sported another, viz. “Why does a waiter resemble a blood horse?” General T------n instantly said, “Because he runs for the plate!”
An Important Caution
(from the Lady’s Magazine, June 1816)
LADIES who are accustomed to wear their dresses extremely low in the back and boson, or off the shoulders, are particularly requested to beware of a person who has, for sometime past, frequented all places of pubic amusement, and many private parties. he is an elderly gentleman, of venerable appearance and correct manners; his constant practice, when he observes a lady dressed in the manner above described, is, with an almost imperceptible, and apparently accidental pressure of a little instrument which he carries in his hand, to imprint the following words upon her back or shoulders, ‘Naked, but not ashamed.’
The stain is like that produced by lunar caustic; washing will not remove it, and it becomes more visible by exposure to the air, so that nothing but a covering can conceal it. It is said that several ladies were marked last summer at Cheltenham, and various other places of fashionable resort; and that they cannot, even now, strip for company, without displaying this indelible badge of disgrace.
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Population
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ENGLAND- - - - WALES- - - - - SCOTLAND- - - ARMY, NAVY,&c. TOTALS - - - - |
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(taken from the Gentlemen's Magazine for December 1811.)
The System of Female Education
(from The Gentlemen’s Magazine for March, 1811)
(A Review of): An Enquiry into the best System of Female Education; or Boarding School and Home Education attentively considered. By J. I. Chirol, one of His Majesty’s Chaplains at the French Royal Chapel, St. James’s Place.
SO many books have been written on the subject of Female Education, that we are not surprised Mr. Chirol should think it necessary to apologize for adding to the number. But he observes that those publications which either treat of the advantages of education, or afford excellent materials for parents to work upon, are not calculated to answer the question, “which is best for Females, a School or Home education?” And where they treat of the general immorality of the age, he is of opinion they have not traced the evil to its source, which is boarding-school education. “To supply this great deficiency is the object of the present work; which as it not only points out the evil itself, but indicates its origin and prescribes the remedy, may be considered as possessing a species of novelty.” As the Author, however, professes himself superior to the vanity of introducing nothing but what is absolutely new, he has not scrupled to avail himself of the labours of others who have the same objet in view. To him “it has been constantly matter of the greatest astonishment, that a nation so renowned for good sense and sensibility, should have adopted a plan of female education diametrically opposite to both,” i.e. the boarding-school plan.
With respect to his arguments on this important subject, he assures us that they are derived “from the most minute investigation, the most respectable authorities, and an aggregation of incontrovertible facts, collected in more than five hundred schools, of every rate and description, from one end of the empire to the other,” and although he has scrupulously abstained from local or personal allusions, he has no hesitation in expressing his firm, unshaken opinion, that the best of them is good for nothing. As this will no doubt appear a harsh sentence, our Author qualifies it in the following manner: --- “Be it remarked that I pretend not to affirm positively, that there is no exception whatever, for many schools must certainly have escaped my notice; what I mean is, that I am not acquainted with one which is good for anything. It would, however, be a very singular circumstance, if, notwithstanding all my trouble, inquiries, expence, and impartiality, those schools which have been unintentionally overlooked were all precisely such as form honourable exceptions.” In this we cordially agree with our Author, and must acknowledge that if we had instituted such an inquiry, and found five hundred schools good for nothing, we should not have been inclined to go another step in the pursuit.
In handling the subject of this volume, the purpose of which our Readers may perceive is to put them out of conceit with female boarding-schools, our Author begins with some “clear and incontestable” principles for female education. He then demonstrates the “serious evils inseparable from boarding-school education,” with respect, 1; To the health of the body: 2. To the cultivation of the mind: and 3. To the improvement of the heart. He proves at the same time that these evils cannot exist in domestic education, answers the objections made to it, and lastly points out how domestic education may be carried on so as to produce the best effects.
In the Chapter on the “Principles for Female Education,” the Author remarks that there are two things more especially to be adopted as fixed principles in the education of girls. 1. Their constitution: 2. Their general destination. We do not mean to follow him step by step in what he offers in explanation of these principles, because, although we find some things expressed perhaps rather incautiously, there is much more which we can recommend to the serious attention of parents, and his chief arguments are certainly incontrovertible. When, however, we say that some things are expressed incautiously, our meaning must not be supposed to go farther than a gentle intimation that his female Readers may think him inclined to undervalue the sex. He observes, for instance, that “woman is physically less strong and robust than man, that her frame is more delicate, and the structure of her body more feeble, hence the almost incessant infirmities under which she labours.” This, in our opinion, is not consistent with fact. Women do not labour under “almost incessant infirmities;” and although we allow that they are less robust than men, we really believe that, taken collectively, they exhibit as many remarkable examples of health and longevity as men, and that, too, among the poorer and more laborious classes. But this difference of opinion is of less consequence than what follows ---
“It is also generally allowed, that her intellectual powers are as different from his, as her physical properties: hence her incapacity for intense application, and her little aptitude for the study of sciences. She thinks, but she can rarely meditate: she improves, but does not create: she feels more profoundly than man, but has not sufficient energy to depict her acute sensations.” We shall not extract more of these opinions; but these are enough to prove that the Author has formed a judgment rather too low, than too high, of the female capacity.
With regard to the destination of the sex, we agree with him, that “they compose one half of the species, and are destined to constitute the happiness of the other half.” About his there can be no great difference of opinion, and a proper education will undoubtedly prepare them to fulfill their destiny in the best manner. --- This brings our Author to his Chapter II. in which he points out the evils of Boarding-School Education. In this he asserts that, as far as relates to the three principal points, the health of the body, cultivation of the mind, and improvement of the heart, the best boarding-school is, at least, good for nothing; or, what amounts to the same thing, that it is not adapted either to the constitution or the destination of woman.
In Chapter III. he considers the subject of Health, under the heads of Food, Cleanliness, Exercise, Pure Air, Fire, Sleep, &c. in all which respects he endeavours to maintain that boarding-schools are grossly deficient; but in some instances he seems to rest too much on such reports as the following; that a young lady “declared she had seen forty girls fed for two successive days upon a single leg of mutton. Not that the allowance of food was absolutely limited in this case, but the calls of appetite were suppressed from shame.” Unless this had been a common case, it should not have been introduced.
In Chapter IV. on the Cultivation of the Mind, our Author reasons with more effect, as far as the contends that it is not in the power of governesses to pay so much attention to the children of a numerous school as is necessary to form their minds in many particulars. We hope, however, that the following character of Governesses and Teachers admits of many exceptions. “If we enquire, what situations these persons originally occupied, we shall find that many of them were only chamber-maids and common servants, who, by means of considerable assurance, and a little money, have raised themselves to their present condition. That assurance has succeeded; it has supplied all their deficiencies; or, rather, it has covered their gross ignorance and want of manners.”
“Some have been kept mistresses, cast off when the bloom of youth and beauty begins to fade. Placed in a situation of reputed respectability, they soon make their fortune, through the encouragement and patronage of their former protectors, who obtain a right of admittance to the young ladies committed to their care, and thus, not unfrequently, indemnify themselves with these, for the loss of the charms of their quondam mistresses.”
“Others have, themselves, received merely a boarding-school education; and, from the loss of their husbands, embarrassed circumstances, or family disagreements, are compelled to have recourse to this vocation, which few, who are acquainted with its duties, would embrace from choice, or inclination; but which is the only one left for a woman, if we except that of a milliner or mantau-maker.”
“This being the general qualification of the Heads of our English seminaries, such is now their carelessness (I speak again with the persuasion that there are exceptions) that, being content with fancying themselves fine ladies, and merely issuing orders respecting the domestic concerns, they indulge in the arms of Morpheus till late in the morning; in sacrifice to Bacchus nearly the whole of the afternoon; and in scribbling wretched poems, and doleful love-stories in the evening: while the important duties of the school devolve entirely upon the teachers. And what is the general character of those teachers?”
“I am still under the necessity of speaking unpleasant truths. They are a set of people (very few indeed excepted) as ignorant and ill-bred as the governesses; people who think themselves very clever, when they are constantly finding fault, scolding and speaking in a harsh, rude, imperious manner; people who make their pupils suffer still more from their ill-humour, then they themselves suffer from the dull, monotonous, uncomfortable, and servile life which they lead in every respect; people who, if they feel a pernicious propensity (as is too often the case) to bestow an undue proportion of pains on those children, whose abilities and quickness point them out as most likely to do honour to the instructress, and to neglect such as are slow and backward in their progress, as if geniuses only were worthy of attention, are more at liberty to indulge that propensity than it can be done in domestic education; people who, by mean and dangerous condescensions, strive to ingratiate themselves into the favour of these young ladies, from whom they receive presents, in order to ensure a continuation of their liberality; or who, on account of services required and performed, are really to acquiesce in all their whims and caprices, and are, on the contrary, severe with all those from whom they have nothing to expect.”
“From persons so ignorant, so narrow-minded, and so dependent, what instruction, what cultivation can pupils receive?”
Chapter V. relates to the improvement of the heart, which the Author thinks so incompatible with boarding-schools, that he asserts they totally incapacitate girls for domestic life, nay, “for every situation which requires moral principles and virtue,” and that there “every natural defect is strengthened, and many new ones acquired.” The neglect of religious education in these seminaries has been noticed by Mr. Gisbourne, and is confirmed by our Author, who gives an account of a practice that is to us new, and we hope not general, that of obliging the pupils to read the Bible by way of punishment.
“But there is one species of punishment so particularly absurd and pernicious, that, if there existed no other objection against boarding-schools, that alone would be sufficient to make any sensible person despise and abhor them; I allude to the practice of giving the young ladies portions of the Holy Scripture to learn by heart..”
“Who, indeed, could believe it is possible, if it were not proved by too numerous facts, collected from schools of all descriptions, that Christian Governesses, who ought to inspire their pupils with a love of Religion, which is really so amiable, and the most precious gift that Heaven, in its infinite goodness, has bestowed on mankind, should do all that lies in their power, (although unintentionally, I trust) to render it an object of hatred, terror, and contempt!”
“If a girl, who has made use of any improper expressions, or has been guilty, either of pride, cruelty, immodesty, or a disregard of truth, were commanded to learn such passages of holy writ, as point out either some exemplary punishment inflicted by God on the particular fault she has committed, I should not find fault with such a method. It would be a lesson which would tend to deter her from relapsing into the same error, which would acquaint her with her duty, and impress upon her mind the importance of understanding to please God in her thoughts, words, and actions.”
“But, this is not the case in boarding-schools. It is by way of punishment that young ladies are made to read the Bible, and to learn certain portions of it; consequently no regard is ever paid either to the subject of it, or the nature of the fault committed. To select a few instances out of thousands: in one of the most reputable of those boarding-schools, a young lady, who had left her piano-forte open, was directed to learn the 69th Psalm. In another, the 37th chapter of Exodus was given to a girl eleven years old, for having stood too near the fire. In a third, a pupil, who had given a wrong pronunciation to a letter of a French word, was not permitted to leave the school-room till she had recited one of the Psalms for the day, and the 8th chapter of the first book of Chronicles.”
In this Chapter, while Mr. Chirol expatiates with warmth on the neglect of religion and morals in boarding-schools, he is obliged to allow that the evil arises in a great measure from the impossibility of attending to the dispositions and wants, in these respects, of a numerous school. Comparatively, therefore, it is easier for a mother to inculate these principles in her daughters at home: and the only question is, are mothers much more anxious on this subject than governesses? The practicability of giving education in any branch, is one thing; the inclination is quite another; and those mothers, to whom a religious education is a matter of indifference, if not of absolute neglect, will never be able to adopt our Author’s opinions of the evil of boarding-schools, nor will they feel much gratified with his Chapter VI. in which he examines, and endeavours to refute, the objections against private education. --- Yet this chapter we do not hesitate to recommend as the best in the book, more conclusive in its arguments, and more useful in its tendency. Indeed, where a private education is practicable (and there certainly are cases where it is not), we are clearly of the opinion that it has superior advantages; and that the remainder of this volume, which consists of “Directions for rendering private education easy to the Teacher, and beneficial to the Pupil,” contains many salutary precepts and much excellent advice to all classes. Upon the whole, although the Author will be thought rather inveterate in his prejudices against boarding-schools, the general train of argument employed is well deserving of serious consideration. The practice of sending young ladies to boarding-schools is so common in this country, and so completely established by fashion, that it may require more powerful arguments than are here employed to bring private education into general use; yet the Author’s motives are so amiable, and his treatment of the subject for the most part so judicious, that we are persuaded his labours will not be wholly lost.
POPULATION OF THE WORLD. (1824)
According to a Statistical Chart published in a Neapolitan Journal, the universal population of the Globe is 632,000,000, thus subdivided---172,000,000 in Europe; 330,000,000 in Asia; 70,000,000 in Africa; 40,000,000 in America; and 20,000,000 in other parts.
Estimate by approximation--In Europe, Births, per annum,
6,371,370; per diem, 17,453; hour, 727; minute, 62; second, 1.
Deaths, per annum, 5,058,822; per diem, 13,860; hour, 577; minute
66; second, 1.
In the entire universe--Births, per ann. 23,407,407; per diem, 64,130; hour, 2,672; minute, 148; second, 8. Deaths, per annum, 18,588,235; per diem, 50,927; hour, 2,122; minute, 135; second,7.
Persons arrived at the age of 100--In 1800, according to Larrey, there were at Cairo 35 individuals who had attained to the age of 100 and upwards. In Spain, in the last age, were to be seen at St. Jean-de-Page, a town in Gallicia, 13 old persons, the youngest of whom was 110, and the oldest 127; their ages made together 1,499 years. England is generally accounted to contain 3,100 individuals of 100 years old. At the commencement of the present century there were in Ireland 41 individuals from the age of 95 to 104, in a population of only 47,000 souls. In Russia, amongst 891,652 dead, in 1814, there were 3,531 individuals of from 100 to 132 years of age. In Hungary the family of Jean Kovin has furnished an example of the most extraordinary longevity. The father lived 172 years, his wife 164 years; they were married for 142 years, and the youngest of their children was 115.
Daniel Bernaulli calculated that the inoculation of the small-pox has been the means of prolonging human life by three years, and the new observations of Duvillard gave the same result from vaccination.
FASHIONABLES.
(from Bell's Weekly Messenger, August 26, 1798)
Tuesday his Royal Highness the Duke of Clarence compleated the 33d year of his age, on which occasion their Majesties received the compliments of the Nobility. The Royal family dined at Frogmore Lodge, and in the evening their Majesties gave an entertainment to a number of Nobility of both sexes.
Thursday afternoon, the Right Honourable the Earl of Elgin, Ambassador at the Court of Prussia, arrived at the Countess of Elgin's house, in Downing street, from Berlin. The Noble Earl is so much better in health that he is expected very shortly to return to Berlin.
Mr. Fox having finished his tour, is returned to his beautiful and rural seat at St. Ann's Hill.
Mr. Burton, the King's Counsel, has obtained the promise of the first seat in the Court of Exchequer, in consequence of his having waved his pretension to the Chief Justiceship of Chester.
WATERING PLACES.
(from Bell's Weekly Messenger, August 26, 1798)
The Sea-shore on the Sussex Coast is crouded beyond example; Brighthelmstone overflowing with new faces daily; and that Bourne [East], from whence most travellers return, not able to contain half the respectable families who seek its calm repose. At the head of fashionables here are Lord and Lady George Cavendish, Marchioness of Bath, Lady Calthorpe, &c. &c.--Hastings likewise exhibits an aquatic melange, where mankind, in all ranks, shapes, and sexes, are packed as close as the most accommodating of them could wish for: here the facetious Jack Bannister, and a few other bon vivants, are laying off the vulgar tarnish of their Margate trip; for at Hastings, be it known, that his Worship the Mayor permits no ACTORS to visit his precincts in any other character than that of private gentlemen!
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(from Robert Southey's "Letters from England," written in
1807)
THE ENGLISH migrate as regularly as rooks. Home-sickness is a disease which has no existence in a certain state of civilisation or of luxury, and instead of it these islanders are subject to periodical fits of what I shall beg leave to call oikophobia,* a disorder which physicians are perfectly well acquainted, though it may not yet have been catalogued in the nomenclature of nosology.
In old times, that is to say, two generations ago, mineral springs were the only places of resort. Now the Nereids have as many votaries as the Naiads, and the tribes of wealth and fashion swarm down to the sea coast as punctually as the land crabs in the West Indies march the same way. These people, who have unquestionably the best houses of any people in Europe, and more conveniences about them to render home comfortable, crowd themselves into the narrow apartments and dark streets of a little country town, just at the time of the year when instinct seems to make us, like the lark, desirous of as much sky-room as possible. The price they pay for these lodgings is exorbitant; the more expensive the place, the more numerous are the visitors; for the pride of wealth is as ostentatious in this country as ever the pride of birth has been elsewhere. In their haunt's, however, these visitors are capricious; they frequent a coast some seasons in succession, like herrings, and then desert it for some other, with as little apparent motive as the fish have for varying their track. It is fashion which influences them, not the beauty of the place, not the desirableness of the accommodations, not the convenience of the shore for their ostensible purpose, bathing. Wherever one of the queen bees of fashion alights, a whole swarm follows her. They go into the country for the sake of seeing company, not for retirement; and in all this there is more reason than you perhaps have yet imagined.
The fact is, that in these heretical countries parents have but one way of disposing of their daughters, and in that way it becomes less and less easy to dispose of them every year, because the modes of living become continually more expensive, the number of adventurers in every profession yearly increases, and of course every adventurer's chance of success is proportionately diminished. They who have daughters take them to these public places to look for husbands; and there is no indelicacy in this, because others who have no such motive for frequenting them go likewise, in consequence of the fashion,--or of the habits which they have acquired in their younger days. This is so general, that health has almost ceased to be the pretext. Physicians, indeed, still send those who have more complaints than they can cure, or so few that they can discover none, to some of the fashionable spas, which are supposed to be medicinal because they are nauseous; they still send the paralytic to find relief at Bath or to look for it, and the consumptive to die at the Hot-wells; yet even to these places more persons go inquest of pleasure than of relief, and the parades of pump-rooms there exhibit something more like the Dance of Death than has ever perhaps been represented elsewhere in real life.
To a Lady's Fan
(from The Gentleman's Magazine for March, 1810)
|
GO, happy Fan! the
fair attend, When tales of woe salute her ear, When press'd too closely by the crowd, There, while thy slender form she holds, The voice that in a whisper dies, Whene'er she soars on Pleasure's
wings E. P. |
Manners in London
(from The Gentleman's Magazine for January, 1812)
Mr. URBAN, Jan. 5.
TO prevent others making the same mistakes with me on their first visit to London, from not understanding on cards of invitation the fashionable mode of making one hour pass for another, and the epithet of small to mean quite the reverse of the usual acceptation; I beg to communicate that an invitation to dinner at six o'clock must be understood at the soonest to be meant for seven, as till that hour the ladies cannot have finished their toilets.
Soon after my arrival in town, I was asked to make one of a small select party, which, from the limited number, promised to be most agreeable; but, finding the apartment for receiving the company, which by the bye was spacious, crowded in every part, I began to think I had mistaken the day, and had obtruded myself to make one of a great assembly to which I had not the honour of being invited. The lady of the house, however, soon set my mind at ease by welcoming me to her house, and hoping that , small as the party was, it might prove agreeable.
At another time I was asked by a lady at whose house the best company in town are to be seen, to partake of a public breakfast. No hour being mentioned on the card, and judging that late London hours might naturally make breakfast-time rather later than with us in the Country, I delayed my setting out till mid-day. When I arrived, a servant informed me that if I wished to see the Lady of the house, he believed she was not yet stirring--"That," said I, "is impossible; for I am invited this very day to breakfast with her"--"Lord, Sir!" says the porter, "the breakfast hour is from 4 to 5". I was more astonished than ever at this distribution of time; which not suiting the craving of my appetite, I found it necessary at a neighbouring hotel to make a hearty dinner previous to my partaking of her Ladyship's splendid Breakfast.
A CONSTANT READER.
Search for the Picturesque
(from Robert Southey's "Letters from England," written in 1802)
There is another way of passing the summer which is equally, if not more fashionable. Within the last thirty years a taste for the picturesque has sprung up;---and a course of summer travelling is now looked upon to be as essential as ever a course of sprint physic was in old times. While one of the flocks of fashion migrates to the sea-coast, another flies off to the mountains of Wales, to the lakes in the northern provinces, or to Scotland; some to mineralogize, some to botanize, some to take reviews of the country,--all to study the picturesque, a new science for which a new language has been formed, and for which the English have discovered a new sense of themselves, which assuredly was not possessed by their fathers. This is one of the customs to which it suits the stranger to conform. My business is o see the country,--and, to confess the truth, I myself caught something of this passion for the picturesque, from conversation, from books, and still more from the beautiful landscapes in water colours, in which the English excel all other nations.
To the lakes then I am preparing to set out. D. will be my companion. We go by way of Oxford, Birmingham, and Liverpool, and return by York and Cambridge, designing to travel by stage over the less interesting provinces, and, when we reach the land of lakes, to go on foot, in true picturesque costume, with a knapsack slung over the shoulder.--I am smiling at the elevation of yours, and the astonishment in your arched brows. Even so; it is the custom in England. Young Englishmen have discovered that they can walk as well as the well-girt Greeks in the days of old, and they have taught me the use of my legs.
ARRIVALS
(from The Bath Chronicle, May 11, 1785)
B A T H, Wednesday, May 11.
| ARRIVED HERE, Lady Welles, Sir Herbert Parkington and Son, Dr. Haly,
Rev. Mr. B. Cary, Rev. Mr. Bruce, Rev. Mr. Collinson, Lee, Col. Cayler, Capt. Winter, Capt. Drew, Mr. Mrs. and Miss Rigby, Mr. and Mrs. Meyler, Mr. and Mrs. Tremayne, Mr. and Mrs. Westbrooke, Mr. and Mrs. Strutt, Mr. and Mrs. Brown, Mr. McNaughton, Mr. Miller, Mr. Everard, Mr. Thornton, Mr. Iron, Mr. Rolfe, Mr. Betts, Mr. Lushington, Mr. Griffith, Mr. Halifax, Mr. Farqueson, Mr. Whalley, Mr. Ward, Mr. Sandford, Mr. Kuhff, Mr. Read, Mr. Brockholes, Mr. Forster, Mr. Chapman, Mr. Needham, Mr. Gotobed, Mr. Fitzgerald, Mr. Newman, Mr. and Miss Mackreth, Mr. and Miss Perks, Mrs. C. Selwyn, Mrs. Ford, Mrs. French, Mrs.Allanson, Mrs. Fermor, Mrs. Oliver, Mrs. Morris, Mrs. Wilmot, Miss Hare, Miss Moore, Miss Maund, Miss Crewe, &c. &c. |
PLAN TO REPRESS DUELLING
(from The Gentleman's Magazine for July, 1810)
Mr. URBAN, July 9.
It is rather remarkable, that the Laws of England, and almost every civilized nation, should be averse to Duelling; and it is still more remarkable, that amongst civilized nations alone this absurd practice should exist. Those who adopt this mode of settling differences in defiance of the law, I well know, have too little sense remaining to be dissuaded from the custom, by any arguments against its impiety; but I am surprized that gentlemen do not banish such a practice, when they see it so frequently resorted to by the vulgar; for it is a well-known though ludicrous circumstance, that many shopkeepers have lately given and received challenges in imitation of gentlemen!
It becomes an imperious duty for the Legislature to enact a law to check this vice, as the existing acts are by no means calculated to do this effectually. The growing evil will never cease to be a torment to society, till we have some such summary mode of punishment as the following: viz. That if two persons escape from a duel with their lives, they should both be confined in a mad-house, since the motive which they fought from is to be considered as nothing but temporary madness; and, lest their paroxysm should again break out, this confinement should extend during the term of their lives: and in the event of one of the combatants falling in the field, the murderer should in every circumstance, be hanged.
Yours, &c. S. H. C.
(from The Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1810)
Mr. Butler, in speaking of the Marquis*, introduces some curious particulars relating to his having contributed strenuously to the suppression of duelling. The plan alluded to originated with M. Olier; which we heartily recommend as worthy of imitation in this country, where, we are sorry to say, duelling is too much encouraged by the petulant and presumptuous transgressors of politeness and urbanity, the two strongest and most powerful protectors of the peace of society. M. Olier proposed an association of gentlemen, whose valour was established beyond a possibility of suspicion, and the they should each sign an agreement to be afterwards verified by oath, obliging themselves never to accept or send a challenge, or serve as seconds in a duel. The Marquis of Fenelon had the strength of mind to head this set of worthy men, and thus brave the taunts of rash pretenders to true courage. Conde remarked to him, "A person must have the opinion which I have or your valour, not to be alarmed at seeing you the first to break the ice on such an occasion." Mr. Olier had the satisfaction to receive the instrument fully attested on the Sunday of Pentecost, in the church of St. Sulpice at Paris, and in the presence of a full congregation assembled to witness the noble resolutions of these friends in genuine honour.
* The Marquis de Fenelon
BLUE STOCKING SOCIETY
(from the "Gentleman's Magazine" for April, 1811)
MR. URBAN, April 15.
IF you and your Correspondent W. B. (p.239) think that “Sir Wm. Forbes’s character of Mr. Stillingfleet and History of the Blue Stocking Club would be a treat to many of your Readers,” it is a pity that you should not be furnished with it, when it may be done with so little trouble. I will therefore copy it from his “Account of the Life and Writings of Dr. Beattie,” vol. 1. pp. 209, 10, 11. note, with the addition of a few trifling articles, which I will place within brackets. Yours &c. J. B.
“Mrs. Elizabeth Robinson, daughter of [Matthew] Robinson, Esq. of Horton in Kent, (and of West Layton in the county of York, whose eldest son Matthew Robinson Morris succeeded to his English baronetage and Irish peerage of his cousin the late Lord Primate Rokeby) and wife of Edward Montagu, Esq. of Denton Hall, Northumberland, and Sandleford Priory, Berks, [son of Charles, fifth son of Edward, the first Earl of Sandwich.) Inheriting from nature a genius for literature, she had the good fortune to meet with an able director of her early studies in the celebrated Conyers Middleton, D. D. who was married to her grandmother [Sarah, daughter of Thomas Morris, Esq. and widow of Robert Drakes, Esq. of Cambridge,] with whom she lived. Under his tuition she acquired that learning, and formed that taste, which was so conspicuous throughout the whole of her subsequent life. Mrs. Montagu had early distinguished herself as an author, first, by three Dialogues of the Dead, published along with Lord Lyttleton’s; afterward by her classical and elegant “Essay on the Genius and Writings of Shakespeare;” in which she amply vindicated our great National Dramatist from the gross, illiberal, and ignorant abuse, thrown out against him by Voltaire. The elegance of her manners, the brilliancy of her wit, and the sprightliness of her conversation, attracted to her house those who were most distinguished by their learning, their taste, and reputation as literary characters.
This society of eminent friends, who met frequently at Mrs. Montagu’s for the sole purpose of conversation, differed in no respect from other parties, but that the company did not play at cards. It consisted originally of Mrs. M., Mrs. Vesey, Mrs. Boscawen, and Mrs. Carter, Lord Lyttleton, the Earl of Bath (better known as Mr. Pulteney), the Hon. Horace Walpole, the classical owner of Strawberry Hill, afterward Earl of Oxford, and Mr. Stillingfleet. The society came at last to contain a numerous assemblage of those most eminent for literature in London, of who visited it. Of these distinguished friends, Mrs. Vesey, though less known than Mrs. M. was also another centre of pleasing and rational society. Without attempting to shine herself, she had the happy secret of bringing forward talents of every kind, and of diffusing over the society the gentleness of her own character. She was the daughter of [Sir Thomas Vesey, Bart. Bishop of Ossory, father of Lord Knapton, and grandfather of Lord Viscount De Vesey,] and wife of Agmendesham Vesey, Esq. a gentleman of Ireland, who in his earlier years had been the friend of Swift. Mrs. Boscawen was the [daughter of Evelyn Glanville, Esq. and ] widow of the gallant admiral of that name, a woman of great talents, and, though unknown to the literary world, acceptable to every society by the strength of her understanding, the poignancy of her humour, and the brilliancy of her wit. She died [25 Feb.] 1805, at the advanced age of 86. Mrs. Carter, the learned translator of Epictetus, and the author of a volume of poems of very considerable merit, is now the only original surviving member, at the age of nearly 90. But the gentleman to whom this constellation of talents owed that whimsical appellation, the “Bas bleu,” was Mr. Stillingfleet, a man of great piety and worth, the author of some works in natural history, and some poetical pieces in “Dodsley’s Collection.” Mr. Stillingfleet, being somewhat of a humourist in his habits and manners, and a little negligent in his dress, literally wore grey stockings, from which circumstance Admiral Boscawen used, by way of pleasantry, to call them the ‘Blue Stocking Society;” as if to indicate that, when these brilliant friends met, it was not for the purpose of forming a dressed assembly. A foreigner of distinction hearing the expression, translated it literally “Bas bleu,” by which these meetings came to be afterward distinguished.
Mrs. Hannah More, (the excellent author of “Strictures on Female Education, Thoughts on the Importance of the Manners of the Great to general Society, and as an Estimate of the Religion of the fashionable World,” with other pieces,) who was herself a distinguished member of the Society, has written an admirable poem with the title of the “Bas bleu,” in allusion to this mistake of the foreigner, in which she has characterized most of the eminent personages of which it was composed. The concluding part of her prefatory memorandum to the poem is so very apposite to my present purpose, that I cannot resist the temptation of inserting it here.
“May the Author be permitted to bear her grateful testimony, which will not be suspected of flattery now that most of the persons named in this poem are gone down to the grave, to the many pleasant and instructive hours she had the honour to pass in this company, in which learning was as little disfigured by pedantry, good taste as little tinctured by affectation, and general conversation as little disgraced by calumny, levity, and other censurable errors with which it is too commonly tainted, as perhaps been known in any society?” -- Works of Mrs. H. More, vol. 1. p. 12.
Mrs. Montagu being left, by the will of her husband, in possession of his noble fortune, lived in a style of the most splendid hospitality, till her death, which happened at an advanced age, 25th August, 1800.” J. B.
LONDON SOCIETY: HIGH & LOW
(from Joshua White's "Letters on England", written in 1810)
People out of London, speak of it as the “town:” thus they say “he is gone to town; he lives in town,” &c. Many in London use the same language. This, however, by residents, is more particularly applicable to such as reside in the western or court end of London, that is westward of Temple Bar, which divides Fleet street from the Strand. The former is the most modern and most beautiful part of London. The streets are more regular, and the buildings more splendid. St. James Palace is in this quarter of the town; but excepting as the occasional residence of his majesty when he leaves his favourite Windsor, it has nothing in its exterior appearance which would entitle it to the appellation of being either neat or elegant. Most of the noblemen and people of rank and fashion reside in Westminster, which strictly speaking, may be said to extend westward from Charing-cross.
The city, or trading part, occupies a space of more than half a mile round St. Paul’s cathedral, having this for the centre. The state of society in these two grand divisions of the city is very different, and strangers seldom fail to remark it. In that which is justly called the abode of fashion, there is nothing of the bustle and tumult of business; and during the summer months many of the inhabitants quit their dwellings for the pleasures of Margate, Brighton, Matlock, Bath, and other places of genteel resort. Such is the difference of population in winter and summer, that a gentleman remarked to me that there was “nobody in London.”
The reverse of this picture is, however, presented in winter,
when the retreats of summer, the numerous watering places, &c. pour their
swarms into the metropolis: then the reign of fashion is resumed, and rank,
splendour, and gaiety crowd the Mall, St. James’ street and Piccadilly.
It is a circumstance well worthy of note that this overgrown place is so well governed, solely by the invisible agency of the laws, which preserves such an immense mass of people in unity, without the aid of the soldier’s bayonet, or the despot’s sceptre. By them, order and harmony is diffused, and the gigantic mass is governed and regulated. So far as my own experience extends, I can say that I have passed through various streets in the metropolis, alone, and at all hours of the night, and in no instance was I ever molested or insulted. We are apt to unite the idea of continual personal danger in an association with the huge and heterogeneous mass of the people; and when we reflect on the luxury and voluptuousness which abounds in one class of the community, and compare this with the depravity, wretchedness and poverty of an immense multitude, it is a subject not less of surprise than of curious speculation, to ascertain the means which prevent the latter from making encroachments on the former. On the one side are beheld gaiety, splendour, and the extravagance of wealth; while on the other, squalid wretchedness, and the utmost degradation of poverty, are presented on all sides, and in every street. It is not then a singular and interesting fact, that where there is so much depravity, opposed by so great a portion of extreme penury, that more frequent, dangerous and violent attempts are not made by the victims of the latter to lessen the enjoyments of the former, and produce a more equable distribution of pleasure and wealth?
Though it is not possible for human wisdom to devise a code of laws to prevent petty thefts, in such a place as London, which is without walls and without gates; yet, perhaps, no city in the world of similar magnitude can boast of so great an exemption from enormous violations of the laws. The high-way robberies and murders that formerly were so frequent on the great roads leading to the city, have diminished, and the footpads that were wont to infest Hounslow and Bagshot heaths, now seldom molest the peaceable traveller. I do not mean, however to controvert the political and moral axioms that much vice prevails in all large towns; that the larger the worse; and that London, as being the largest, presents more objects of vie and more of distress. Various modes for the supply of the ordinary wants of life are here resorted to, which are unknown and unthought of in other places, and which are unnecessary where there is a less division of labour, and a more equal distribution of property.
In a population of more than 800,000 souls, an immense number are doomed to disgusting employments from day to day to secure the most scanty means for a wretched existence. In a comparison with the large towns of the United States, how vase is the disproportion of mendicants! how seldom is the passenger in the streets of the former stopped by the urgent solicitations of the wretched pauper! But in London, especially, the number of objects who throng the streets, and in a tone of the most humble supplication, ask passengers for a penny, or a half-penny, is disgraceful to the community of which they are members. They ask for a pittance, which, poor as it is, perhaps is required to supply the cravings of a half famished child. And who would deny this small boon? who is there that possesses so little of the “milk of human kindness,” as to refuse an aid so easily afforded? “Be charitable to the poor and to the needy,” is an injunction which all should remember. Riches are unstable things; and he, who to-day is wallowing in luxuries, and in the possession of thousands, may, to-morrow, want that aid which he has indignantly refused to the poor mendicant. Spurn not from your door the wretched victim of poverty and distress, for to him who is kind, shall kindness also be shown.
The proper use of riches is to purchase the conveniencies and
the comforts of life, and to diffuse blessings where the stern decrees of
fate have denied them. What a noble employment of money is this? How enviable
is the state of that man, who whilst he provides amply for the wants and cares
of those to whom duty and affection oblige him to attend, still looks around
with an inquisitive compassion for objects of distress, that he may distribute
blessings and supply their wants! On the contrary, how despicable is the condition
of him who hoards his ill-gotten wealth, and thinks of self alone! What consoling
reflections will soothe the pangs of disease, and support the mind in the
agonies of disease, of him who has been a friend to the poor and the distressed,
and again, what will be the feelings of the wretch whose sordid soul has never
allowed him to perform one generous act! The state of the one is truly enviable
and to be coveted, while that of the other is pitiable and to be detested.
