Lavinia Forster, daughter of Thomas Banks, guides the education of the Eliot sisters in Paris 1826

 

The two letters written in 1826 transcribed below were written by a youthful Harriet/ Harriett Eliot to her father Major Eliot in London; she and her sister Eliza, who contributes a line to the first letter, are being polished and finished in Paris at an expense which may be placing a strain on the resources of their father. The first letter emphasises their frugality and the second the impressive educational and social opportunities which Mrs Forster is making available: virtually every name Harriett mentions can be followed up on a Wikipedia page. But the Eliots themselves remain elusive – I will amend this piece if I can find an account of them. The central figure of Mrs Forster, in whose Parisian family home they are staying and who is clearly charged with or taking responsibility for their education, is less elusive though fragmentary. 

It is easy enough to locate Mrs Forster in relation to her father and husband, less so in her own right. Lavinia Forster was born in 1775 the only child of the monumental sculptor Thomas Banks RA (1735-1805). She was clearly provided with a more than adequate education, evident in known work which she published. In 1799 Lavinia married Edward Forster (1769-1828) who like her father was from a fairly modest background but talented and ambitious. Forsaking the Law, Forster became a clergyman in 1796 but as well as becoming a fashionable London preacher launched publishing ventures which produced stylish (and expensive) illustrated editions of classical works in their original language or translated. Eventually, the costs outran the revenues and what my sources refer to as “financial difficulties” led him in 1815 to quit London for (cheaper) Paris, taking with him wife and children.

By that date, Lavinia had at least two pieces of published work to her credit. In 1802, she provided the numerous, fine-line illustrations for her husband’s edition (in original Greek) of the Anacreon or to give it its full title, Anacreontis Odaria ad textus Barnesiani fidem emendate, which was successful enough to merit a second edition in 1813. 

Click to Enlarge 

Then in 1807 she published under her own name a long article in a short-lived London periodical The Director, edited by Thomas Dibdin (a clerical colleague and friend of her husband) analysing and paying tribute to her late father’s monumental sculpture Achilles Mourning the Loss of Briseis. 

When her husband died in 1828 at the age of 59 she edited and published, probably as a fund-raiser for herself and her children a volume of Sermons Preached a the Chapel of the British Embassy and at the Protestant Church of the Oratoire in Paris. 

In Paris, Edward Forster started out again as a preacher but more likely solved his financial problems when in 1818 he secured the post of Chaplain to the British Embassy, a post he retained until his death in 1828. By the time these two letters were written he was already in poor health and no mention is made of him by Harriett. I hazard that an energetic Mrs Forster had turned their home into a pension-cum-educational establishment for paying guests; a main attraction would have been the access to Parisian cultural and social life which she was able to supply, relying both on her backgrounds as daughter of Thomas Banks and her connection to the British Embassy. A nice vignette in Hariette’s letter describes the presence of a seven-year-old child, Clelie, who happens to be the daughter of Giuditta Pasta (1797-1865), an outstanding operatic soprano currently performing in Paris. Bellini wrote a lead part of La Somnabula intended for her and Donizetti the title role in his Anna Bolena. Other characters appearing in the letters include Francois Gérard (1770-1837), first painter to the French king.    

Lavinia Forster had in her possession works by her father and later in life donated or bequeathed them to a number of institutions including the Royal Academy, Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum. Many more of her father’s works (and perhaps also her own) passed down in her family and are now held institutionally.  

But I close on a small note about material realities. Both letters were written in Paris but were carried by hand to London before being posted at Charing Cross for local delivery, thus saving expense. But who carried them? The first letter is annotated bottom left in a crabbed hand “E Forster”. At this period, when all letters were handwritten, it was common for government officials to indicate their responsibility and also to claim legitimate free of charge use by writing their name or initials bottom left. This letter was most likely carried from Paris to London by a British Embassy courier who would have arrived from a Channel port at the coach station of Charing Cross before turning the corner down into Whitehall. The second letter is not endorsed but was also carried privately using the same route.

Transcription first letter

Addressed to: Major Eliot   23 Bedford Place Russell Square

No dateline but written in Paris

Endorsement: E Forster [Edward Forster, Chaplain British Embassy Paris]

Posted in London at the Charing Cross office, charged 2d, London transit mark A[after]NOON 24 FE 1826

Docketing note: Harriet & Eliza Feby 1826

My dear Papa

You need not make yourself uneasy about the letter there was not the least hint given about money it was in French and about different things Paris news &c the only part that in any way related to our staying was that in speaking of Paris I said that we found Mrs Forsters family so pleasant & Mrs F herself such an agreeable woman that we should regret very much leaving her, that you had not yet spoken to us upon the subject but that we were in daily expectation of hearing from you, it was written some time ago soon after Mrs Forster left France, I didn’t [?] send it to you as I did not then owing to your long silence know whether you were at Manchester or in London. It must have been received some time as I gave it to Mrs Forster to send nearly a month ago. What do you mean by saying that you think of taking a house out of London for us all to live in pray explain this to me in your next letter are we to be with you alone or with mamma or grand papa  We will endeavour to be as sparing as possible in cloaths washing &c you will find our cloaths come to considerably less this year as we shall not have to buy leghorn hats pelisses silk gowns & dress gowns for me as we have a good stock which will last a long time, it is that sort of things which are so expensive, we shall now only want shoes & such kind of necessary articles of which we shall use as few as possible I have been thinking about the masters & think there are several which we might do without for instance there is a master for Geography  & the globles [?] &c Dancing is no longer necessary I suppose you are not particularly anxious for us to figure in a ball room like opera dancers we know a great number of steps & can dance at least like gentlewomen also I think I might do without Italian Emma [Mrs Forster’s daughter] & Mrs Forster are very good Italian scholars & I do exercises with them every day with the master I only read for the pronunciation There then remains the Harp piano singing & drawing masters  I should feel sorry for Eliza [ her sister] to leave off the piano as she is now making great progress & I think has some talent for that as well as for singing & certainly  has a fine voice, for myself drawing & the Harp is what I should give up with the most regret, but do as you please dear Papa what ever you decide upon for us to leave off, I will practice by myself, let me hear soon,

Last night I was at a concert at Mr Jennings[probably Robert Jennings, London-based publisher of books about Paris] & he desired to be remembered to you, we have been to two dances this week & have just received an invitation to a very grand ball at Monsr. Lafitte’s the banker but of course we shall not go, as it is on Sunday. I will set about the drawing for you as soon as possible, I am now finishing one for Mrs Forster’s birthday she will not receive bought presents but we all give her a trifle of our own making. It is copied from a beautiful lithograph called La retraite coupée  between a Turk & a French Dragoon [a famous work by Godfroy Englemann, contemporary and prominent Parisian lithographer]. With the master I draw from a bas relief of the nine muses, which has been lent to me, we have also a jointed figure of a Roman Senator which we have draped in robes to study drapery from, Eliza begins to draw Landscapes in seppia very pretty in a good, bold style but I do not think that [she] has much idea of figures, with the money [seal torn here, probably which]  you were so kind to send me I have bought a small [torn here] of books which are to me invaluable chiefly treatises on … French language, the participles, verbs &c which cannot be had in England & without which it is almost impossible to have a complete knowledge of the language & write it elegantly. We have also bought a few of the best French authors

In a different hand:

Harriet is obliged to attend the harp mistress & therefore begged me to finish this letter for her I believe she has nothing more to say nor have I either excepting our kind love to all &

Believe me my dear papa your very affectionate child Eliza Eliot

 

Transcription second letter

Addressed to: Major Eliot   23 Bedford Place   Russell Square

Datelined: Paris April 25^th 1826

Docketing note: Harriet 25^th April 1826

Carried by hand from Paris to London and put into the post at Charing Cross, dated postmark  2 MY 1826

My dear papa

It is very long since we have heard from you, more than a month, I think you must have left town Aunt Eliza mentioned in her last letter that you had been staying some time at Blackheath. Mrs Forster gave us a few days ago a sovereign which you had begged her to keep till we wanted money, it could not have come more opportunely for I was actually soulless, we both thank you very much for it dear Papa. [The previous letter refers to Mrs Forster leaving France presumably for a visit to England]

I have not much to tell you for almost all the gaieties of Paris are over, Aunt Eliza tells me that a Mr Schalch of the Artillery [John Schlach, Major in the 6^th Battalion of the Royal Artillery ….] is coming to Paris in a short time & will bring a letter from Uncle Frank by way of an excuse to call; do you know any thing of him? We have had beautiful weather here for this last week it is just like summer we went yesterday to see the models for a monument  to be erected to the memory of General Foy they are all by different artists & exposed in the bazaar for the public to give their opinion, they have been there about a fortnight & I believe the election is to be made tomorrow. I see by the journal that the Duc de Rivière capitaine des Gardes du Corps is appointed to succeed the Duc de Montmorenci as governour of the little prince. We have also had grand illuminations here on account of the bill for the droit d’ainesse having been rejected it seems to be a subject of universal joy the whole nation was so much against it [ a Crown-initiated bill to restore the pre-revolutionary inheritance rights of first-born children, intended to strengthen the traditional aristocracy] . Your drawing is finished but the difficulty is getting it to Manchester should you be there. I may soon have an opportunity of sending it to London but it is a chance if I meet with anyone going from here to Manchester. Mary [ possibly another sister?] continues to practice very assiduously and is learning a piece of Kalkbrenner [Friedrich Kalkbrenner, German composer long-term resident in Paris] I suppose you have heard the music of the Dame Blanche it is very much admired but does not strike me as anything remarkable [ now a received view of La Dame Blanche , a comic opera of the French composer François-Adrien Boieldieu] - every thing gowns capes ribbons gentlemen’s pantaloons &c are  à la Dame Blanche as they were formerly à la Jocko [Jocko, ou le Singe du Brésil, a melodrama which in Paris  starred the famous acrobat Charles Mazurier as the ape Jocko] There is a new piece preparing at the porte St Martin [ Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin ]  under the direction of Mr [Thomas] Cooke the London actor, it is from the story of Frankenstein the scenery & dresses are to be very good & it is expected to have a great run [it did; Cooke played the Monster in  Le Monstre et le Magicien for eighty successive nights].  While I am writing this letter Madame Pasta’s little girl Clelie is standing by my side cutting out paper dolls, she frequently spends the day here being at school in Chaillot – it seems so extraordinary to hear her talk Italian continually but she understands French perfectly, she is about the size of Belle & would be very handsome if her eyes looked the same way. The fine collection of Pictures Statues & in short – the whole museum of the late Baron Denon [Vivant Denon] is to be sold by auction the beginning of next month, the catalogue only consists of two large volumes I was looking over it this morning & thinking that you & Mr B.O. Brydon would like to have Fortunatus’ wishing cap & inexaustible  purse, it is said to be the finest collection in France & every one regrets that the French government does not buy it entire, it is really a pity to seperate such a large collection which the Baron has spent the greatest part of his life in assembling. A few days ago I accompanied Mrs Forster to the atelier of Gérard the king’s painter he was working at a picture of the Dauphin but it was so little advanced that we could not form any opinion respecting it. I was very much struck by a portrait by him of Marshall Beresford [ Viscount Beresford, Marshal in the Portuguese Army during the Napoleonic Wars] it was at a little distance like a living head, there was also a portrait of Gerard himself by Thomas Lawrence. We have been to the Chapel in the Tuilleries again & saw much better than we did the last time we were there, we had tickets for the gallery & stood next to the Dames d’Honneur so that we saw the royal family during the whole of the service after it we walked through the Salle des Maréchaux where all the officers noblemen &c were waiting to be admitted to the king’s presence the Duke d’Angoulême passed close to us accompanied by Prince Talleyrand & the Duke de Biron Gontaut [usually rendered Gontaut de Biron]  If it is fine on Monday we are going with a large party to a review on the Champ de Mars, I expect it will be very hot & dusty.

Since I began this letter I have heard from Aunt Eliza she mentions John’s departure for Ceylon and a variety of other circumstances with which I daresay you are acquainted. Baron Denon’s collection is to be viewed today tomorrow & the day after & the sale begins on the 1^st of May. The Forsters are going on Friday night to a grand amateur concert give for the benefit of the Greeks [whose War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire was faltering at this time] as the tickets are a napoleon each of course I do not think of it. There is a grand ball at the Ambassador’s next week and Mrs Forster regrets very much not being able to take me, she desires me to ask you if you do not know some one who could introduce me to Lady Granville [wife of the British Ambassador in Paris, 1824-1828] & could write a letter of introduction for me, do pray papa try and do something for me it would be such an advantage some of the Phillippsons know them now do not forget for Mrs Forster charged me to tell you and let us hear from you soon you have not written for so long. God bless you dear Papa.

Your affte Daughter Harriett Eliot

 

References

Wikipedia: Thomas Banks (sculptor)

Wikipedia: Edward Forster (writer)

Wikipedia: François Gérard

Wikipedia: Giuditta Pasta

Wikipedia: Vivant Denon

Wikipedia: Thomas Cooke (actor)

Wikipedia: Godefroy Engelmann

Wikipedia: Friedrich Kalkbrenner

Wikipedia: La Dame Blanche

Wikipedia : Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin 

The Grand Tour: George James Watson Farside crosses the Alps in 1828

 

Click to enlarge

There must be  thousands of letters extant which record 18^th and 19^th century Grand Tours of Europe written by wealthy young British men and women. This one starts unpromisingly but becomes more interesting as the 24- year-old writer provides detail and atmosphere. I find notable the description of the Great St Bernard Hospice, later visited in the 1840s by Charles Dickens and providing material for a chapter in Little Dorrit. 

I have no details of the writer's later life, rather complicated by the fact that his children appear to have taken their mother (Hannah Hutton’s) surname – that most likely would have been a not-uncommon condition of an inheritance.  His own family of Watsons and Farsides had owned Bilton Park since 1741; it passed to the writer’s older brother but after his death in 1831 descended to an infant grand-daughter Georgina on whose behalf the writer of this letter acted as a guardian. The house is now a care home.

 

Transcription

Addressed to: Mrs Watson   Bilton Park   Knaresboro   Yorkshire   Ingliterra

Datelined: Milan, Piemont Italy   August 15^th   1828

Postmarked MILANO (no date) London foreign mail receiver mark AU 26 1828, charged 2/8 (2 shillings and 8 pence) on arrival.

Dear Mary & Mother

As I think a Letter now & then acceptable from one at a great distance it is my purpose to give you one from the most remarkable places giving an account of what seems most worthy of your knowing in doing this I shall merely state things & places as they appeared to me without reference to any opinions of others. But the statement will be far short of what it ought to be were I in a state of health to give it The Fatigue & Heat of travelling is altogether unsupportable so much so that it deadens & stupefies all my faculties & my most anxious thoughts are directed to the restoration of my health & the completion of the present Excursion.

If I recollect rightly I gave an account of myself as far as from Paris to Geneva I spent my time stupidly enough at the latter place in a Pension (a boarding House) paying for everything 10 Napoleons pr. Month (Napoleon is 16 shillings English). It is kept by two old French Ladies there were six English Ladies & Gentlemen bsides myself old maids & Widows prosing & stupid to a degree insupportable, decent dinners, plenty of wine, good beds, an immense tall swiss waiting woman, a few fleas, rather warm, reading French aloud to the old Ladies by way of Improvement, Tarts & beer, Tea, & Cards for those who liked. Geneva is an ill & irregular built Town some of the Streets & Houses are good it is situated above the lake of the same name & is strongly fortified with dry & wet ditches the Ramparts serve for pleasant promenades particularly that of St. Antoine which commands a fine viewfront of the Lake to the left the mountains of the Jura & to the right commencement of the alps topped by snowy mountains in the distance of which the chief is Mont Blanc. The water of the Lake is a of a pellucid Blue such as you have no conception of Its length is 18 Leagues & greatest with 3 ¼ leagues there are three large Steam Boats constantly plying  on it, there are a good many English Residents on the Banks of the Lake & all over the Canton Vaud indeed every place is crowded with them. It is by no means a cheap place & the English are cheated everywhere by authority of Government a Swiss Tradesman in Geneva demands one third more than he intends taking Gold is the Swiss Idol all seems swallowed up in the passion for that Metal but its time to leave Geneva to give an account of how I got to this place. A Scotsman in the same Pension & myself determined on making an Excursion into those parts of the Alps & Italy which could not be conveniently seen in the Journey to Rome & Naples (where I propose spending the Winter). We determined on being as independent as 20 Napoleons for Knapsack (containing a change of Linen) could make us. On the 3^rd of August last we accordingly left Geneva at 5 o’clock in the morning in a carriage with two Horses & arrived at St Martin 12 Leagues ( a league is 3 English miles) by 6 o clock the same Evening lamenting the slowness of Swiss travelling & the civility of an English Postillion, we dined there & obtained the first & nearly the only view of Gigantick Mountain of Mont Blanc its base & part of the summit was covered with clouds which in a few minutes dispersed & shewed us the very summit covered with snow (which I may venture to say must have existed for Ages it being that day very hot. The mountain is of such gigantick proportions as actual seeing for yourself only can give  a just idea picture to yourself snowy Hills driving gradually from the bottom of the Red Bank to the Hamilton Hills the comparison is perhaps too great but giganticks can only be represented by paper giganticks. The Road from Geneva to St Martin lies thro’ Vallies surrounded by enormous precipices some covered to the top with dark green pine trees others naked & rocky some pointed like needles others blunt & in ridges waterfalls of 800 feet High, the road quite level generally winds by the side of some furious river whose source is the Snow & ice from the Lofty Mountains of the Alps, I cannot picture the verdure of the Valleys Studley Park may give you some idea were it interspersed with a few vineyards & yellow corn fields. To go on with our journey

From St. Martin we took a guide across the Mountains to Chamouny [Chamonix] we started on foot by 3 o’clock in the morning & got there by 10 – 6 Leagues I was dreadfully tired, spirit alone carried me thro’ Chamouny is a most extraordinary long narrow Valley lying at the very bottom of Mont Blanc & surrounded by pine clad Hills of prodigious Height fancy 30 of the precipices at fort Montagu placed one on another The weather was wet & so dismally cold & damp that I went to bed till dinner when we had a large fire of wood (no Kippar coal).The next day we ascended an enormous mountain on Mules whose slightest false step would have sent me to rest not with my ancestors but broken rocks, Pine Trees goats & wild strawberries The Mules I cannot too much praise for their sagacity & caution, picking their way over narrow & shelving & rocky paths it is at first enough to make the strongest nerves qualmish my nerves however kept steady & putting my bridle on the Mules neck I ascended & descended not caring one way or the other. I felt very unwell from the former days fatigue. The Mer de Glace is to all appearance a Sea of 18 …[letter torn; see Wikipedia for the dimensions] long & 2 …. in a Storm [?] it was bitter cold & damp, Brandy… gave Life 6^th Aug left Chamouny for Martigny 9 Leagues this days Journey I performed on a Mule my companion the Scotchman walked. This Road was if anything more terrific than that of yesterday but I should lie if I attempt to describe the Scenery which was hid by clouds & Rain the latter of which we have had plenty I saw the Tops of Hills far above the Clouds, Forests Enormous Masses of Stone & Wild Rasps [Raspberries] & Strawberries innumerable. 7^th from Martigny to the Mountain & Hospice of the Grand St Bernard on a Mule, 9 Leagues a most fatiguing Journey. The Hospital or Convent of the Grand St Bernard is a most laudable & excellent institution it is the highest known habitation in Europe situated amidst snows & Glaciers & on the Road to Italy. It has been instituted 800 years & is for the purpose of giving assistance to travellers who may go  by this Pass into Italy many are the unfortunate  Travellers whom its kind Fathers have rescued from miserable deaths. The Convent is obliged to entertain all who pass that Road without remuneration of any kind.

Napoleon passed by the Pass of the Grand St Bernard before he surprized the world with his Military genius. We had excellent fair Chamois Pastys Wines &c heard Mass & for four of us gave two Napoleons. We saw the Dogs which accompany the Fathers in their search after benighted & snow buried travellers. Those who are found dead in the mountains are put into a Charnel house & by reason of the extreme rigour of the climate their bodies are preserved for a hundred years or more they present most ghastly & terrific appearances. Mothers & children then in the Agonies of death with Teeth as white as snow  & long hair & beards clothed in rags of moth eaten clothes (they are put in as found) there was one immense Tall woman who grinned a ghastly smile. I shall not  get to Milan at this rate [he has filled three sides and is now writing on the letter flaps] 8^th [August] from St Bernard to Martigny 9^th Martigny to Tortoigne [? cannot identify this place] enormous mountains long walk & benighted I can no more you shall have another from Geneva please God I get there in safety. [This letter is posted from Milan; presumably he doubles back to Geneva and then goes southwards again] I have walked a great part of this Journey. I propose staying a month at Geneva & studying French & leave for Rome 1^st October. I stay there until Easter 1829 & then off for Vienna, Russia, & if things are quiet as far as I can get. In the mean time Regards to all Friends particularly Sr J[ohn] & Mrs Slingsby [of Knareborough] & believe me my Dr. Mor & Sister yr. ever affecte. Son & Brother Let me hear the news particularly any politics George James Farside  

 

References

Wikipedia: Great St Bernard Hospice

Wikipedia: Mer de Glace

 

Drink is the curse of the landowning class; Hamilton's Whiskey shop on the Isle of Arran 1856

 

The wealth of the Dukes of Hamilton came from the Lanarkshire coal mines under their land and which eventually undermined and required the demolition, as unsafe, of the vast Hamilton Palace set above them. Their second Scottish residence was at Brodick Castle on the isle of Arran from which this letter was addressed, though posted in the mainland small port of Ardrossan between which and the island boats plied their trade. 

The eleventh Duke of Hamilton, the “His Grace” of this letter, inherited his title in 1852 but before that had taken little interest in his Scottish properties while living mainly in Paris and Baden. On becoming duke he bought a large house in London. Their recent past history had not particularly endeared the Hamiltons to the islanders: in 1829 as part of what are now known as the Highland Clearances, the Hamiltons cleared hundreds of people from small farms and gave over the land to sheep. Unusually, however, the Hamiltons offered to subsidise emigration to Canada and provide land there; many accepted the offer.

The 11^th Duke’s affairs in Scotland were managed by agents and this letter is from one agent writing to another, Daniel Robertson Souter based in Edinburgh but also it seems at Hamilton Palace. The Bodleian Library archives correspondence between him and the Hamiltons. The writer of the letter, Francis Townley (1793-1859), was the duke’s Land Steward at Brodick Castle and may have been a native of Arran and was buried there in the Kilbride old churchyard at Lamlash where his son William (mentioned in the letter) erected a memorial tablet which can be found photographed online. I cannot get a purchase on the reference to “the Major & Family” who may be resident at Brodick Castle.

The subject matter of the letter is interesting: Townley wants to close a “Whiskey shop” both because it causes drunken absenteeism among the estate’s labour force and because it would be welcomed by “the poor Labourers families” – in other words, their wives and children. The postscript to the letter indicates the sensitive character of his proposal.

 

 

Transcription

Addressed to: Daniel Robertson Souter Esqr   Hamilton Palace   Hamilton

Datelined: Brodick Castle 12 May 1856

Despatch postmark ARDROSSAN MY 12 1856; receiver postmark HAMILTON MY 13 1856. Docketing note: Mr Townley 12 May 1856

My dear Sir

I was sorry I did not meet with you last time I was out as I had several matters to speak to you about in particular that of Hamilton’s Whiskey Shop when Miss Jamison leaves it will then be the nearest House to the Castle. I assure you it is a perfect Nuisance, and it’s removal  would be a Great Boon to the poor Labourers families, and of infinite importance to His Grace if we loose the Efficient service of one day Each of the men Each month [? looks like math] would amount to nearly £120 per Annum and I am sure I am not wrong when I say we loose twice that amount, the Licence can easily be stopped if attended to at once I named it to Mr Leighton when I was last out,  I have also named it to Mr Paterson & trust it will be put a stop to as the new Inn will supply any Comfort of that sort that may be required.

I hope you will Excuse my being so troublesome to you, the Major & Family are well with the Exception of Miss Josey whom I think has got a little cold, Many thanks for your kind & polite attention to my Son

I remain my dear Sir with much respect yours very faithfully Francis Townley

Daniel Robertson Souter Esqr Hamilton Palace Hamilton

P.S. Have the Goodness not to let my name appear in this matter as they would devour me

 

References

Wikipedia: William Hamilton, 11^th Duke of Hamilton

Wikipedia: Brodick Castle

https://talesfromthefamilytree.wordpress.com/2021/08/01/the-mcmillans-of-arran-and-the-highland-clearances/

 

 

 

Henry Mackenzie author of The Man of Feeling (1771) pleads the insignificance of his Life

 

In 1771 the London publisher Thomas Cadell published anonymously The Man of Feeling which became a best seller and still serves as an exemplar of the eighteenth-century Sentimental Novel. It was also stylistically innovative, something not always appreciated at the time. The author was Henry Mackenzie (1745-1831), an energetic lawyer and from 1804 Comptroller for Taxes in Scotland, who combined this professional career with extensive literary and journalistic activity and in 1783 co-founded the Royal Society of Edinburgh with Sir James Grant of Grant whose sister Penuel he had married. That explains the dateline of the letter transcribed below . 

In the letter Mackenzie pleads the insignificance of his life as his reason for refusing to collaborate beyond a bare minimum on a proposed biography. In contrast, in  1808 he was involved in the production of an eight-volume collection of his works by his original publisher Cadell.  In Robert Chambers’ 1853 Biographical Dictionary of Eminent Scotsmen the biographer says that, except in one case, when asked for his recollections of famous men, “he never could be persuaded to commit them to paper”. In the present instance, it could also be that Mackenzie, a lifelong Tory in politics, had his doubts about collaborating with Richard Phillips (1767-1840) in the recent past a political radical who in 1793 had served jail time in Leicester for selling Paine’s Rights of Man; Phillips was also a life-long vegetarian. About Mr Ritchie I discover nothing.

In 1803 Phillips included an entry for Mackenzie in volume 5 of his vast six volume Public Characters (a book with one of those sub-titles which goes on forever); it occupies twenty pages (pp 351-371) and is now  online with  open access. Also currently (August 2026) online I discover a later version 1823 of that biographical entry, torn from the original volume,  annotated with factual corrections in what may be Mackenzie’s own hand. No full-length biography was published until 1931 on the centenary of his death.

The letter was written on inferior paper which has aged badly and is now falling apart.

Transcription

Addressed to: Mr Philips [sic – spelt as the usual Phillips at the end of the letter]    Bookseller    No. 71 St Paul’s Churchyard    London

Datelined: Castle Grant Inverness-shire   16 August 1800

Postmarked NAIRN [the nearest post town], transit postmark of Edinburgh AU 22, London arrival mark AUG 23. Unusually, the letter is enclosed in an outer wrapper which doubles the postal charge paid by the recipient and is calculated to a final total of 1 shilling and 10d (written as 1/10) and equivalent to about £7.50 in 2026. Postage charges did not drop significantly until the introduction of postage stamps and Penny Postage in 1840.

Sir

Having left Edinr. [Edinburgh] on a journey to the North I did not receive your letter till withing these two Days.

I mentioned to you in London, very sincerely, that the Circumstances of a Life so private as mine were of too little importance to be recorded, & that O reall had no “Tracts or Notices” wh I think was the phrase in Mr Ritchie’s Letter, to communicate. That my publications were before the World, & that any one had a Title to make what remarks on them they might be thought liable to. That any Information as to Dates, which was one object of Mr Ritchie’s Enquiry, that my Memory or Papers afforded I should very willingly give him if he would let me know those which he particularly wished to be informed of. This, Sir, was the precise Extent of my promise, which, if a Life so insignificant as mine shall still be reckoned an Object for such a Work, I  ..… willing to abide me. I shall return to Edinr. about the Beginning of Sept.

I am, Sir, Your most obdt. Servt   Henry Mackenzie

Mr Phillips [sic]

 

References

Wikipedia: Henry Mackenzie

Wikipedia: Richard Phillips (publisher)

Wikipedia: Sir James Grant, 8^th Baronet

https://blog.nls.uk/henry-mackenzie-and-the-man-of-feeling/  Author Robert Bettereidge 2021

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Public_Characters/6QxEAQAAMAAJ?hl=en

https://www.abebooks.com/Henry-Mackenzie-Scottish-Novelist-Autograph-Signature/30986377216/bd

The Shakespeare scholar Mary Cowden Clarke writes to her friend Helen Tagart from Nice 1850

 

The writer of this letter Mary Cowden Clarke born Novello (1809-1898)was connected to several overlapping circles of literary and musical figures in the Victorian period, including notably Charles Dickens, but was also an author  in her own right and in collaboration with her husband, Charles Cowden Clarke, who was business partner of her brother Alfred Novello in a very well-known music-publishing business. She published a significant Shakespeare Concordance in 1846 and in the year this letter was written published The Girlhood of Shakespeare’s Heroines

The recipient of this letter, Helen Tagart, was the daughter of Helen Martineau and Edward Tagart, the latter a prominent Unitarian minister and considerable scholar (Linnean Society, Geological Society, Society of Antiquaries). In the 1840s Charles Dickens attended his London services.

The style of this letter is self-consciously literary – adjectives, allusions and alliteration. The content provides the explanation of why the Cowden Clarkes relocated permanently to Nice and later Genoa. Nice as Nizza was part of the Italian Kingdom of Savoy until 1860 when it was ceded to France.

Transcription

Addressed to: A Mademoisellle Mademoiselle Tagart       Poste Restante      Genève En Suisse   redirected to       Hampstead prés Londres

Datelined: Casa Salvi   Nizza   Sep. 8. 1850

Postmarked NICE 9 SEPT   London PAID mark 29 OC 1850

My dear Helen

A letter from Lake Leman’s shores & from you, was indeed a delight. Many thanks for giving me so great a pleasure. I was rejoiced to find you had had so charming a time. It must have been surprisingly pleasant, because I know you set out with brilliant anticipations which it seems even more than fulfilled. The “next week” you speak of promises no anti-climax; to be circling round that grand old snow-head, for several successive days, with the freedom of a ..... [?] & the intelligence of a human being, is a glorious privilege. I’m glad to think it is yours.

We also have prospered in our journey. We reached Paris that same night. It is something to be able to breakfast in the bed at Craven Hill & the next on the Boulevard des Italiens. We speeded on so well, that we reached Aix on the Monday night! But here was out first check. No places to be had on to Nice; & we had the satisfaction of loitering about, idling away a whole day, lounging  by fountain brinks [?], eating an occasional ice, finding out the deepest shade to sit in - & like truly lazy people giving profound and lengthened attention to the subject of dinner and at night having been in bed about one hour & a half we were aroused by the agreeable accident of a [letter torn here] the police who came at the extremely eligible hour of ½ past eleven to inspect our passports! Whether it was that our roving about for the whole day in sight of the whole town without any ostensible object but to obtain shade, rest, & a cool draught of water, seemed to them a suspicious circumstance or us it is impossible to say. Alfred was extremely explicit, told them his name, his pre-name, his father’s height, his grandfather’s birthday, his great-grandfather’s dinner-hour, with every other particular that cd. be important they shd. know about us. 

We found my dear Mother & all our dear ones well & happy to see us. The little Italians are charming children, & made friends with their English relations immediately; knowing them all intimately already, by name. We have enjoyed our days intensely hitherto with all the delight that quiet pleasures possess for us who are just on the borders of the land where the “yellow leaf” flourishes, yet with enough of the “salt of youth” left in us, to give zeal & keenness to our relish of happiness. We bathe in the blue depths of the “Mediterranean flotes” [?] or rather, on its safe shelvy shore. You can hardly believe the difference there is between such sea-bathing as this & the shivery, chilly, gasping plunge into Brighton or Worthing waves. Here the water is almost tepid warmed thro’ & thro’ with the glorious sun & basking beneath the soft Italian air.  After a bathe such as this, we come in with a hearty relish for our breakfast, where a propition of grapes, peaches, laughter & talk form the agreeable adjuncts to the substantials. Charles reads aloud to the working party during the forenoon; & in the evening Clara [ Clara Novello, her younger sister and a leading European concert soprano from the 1830s; she married Count Gigliucci in 1843] either brings the tears into our eyes with her glorious voice, or makes us shriek with laughter by her ludicrous exaggerations & descriptions in story telling [ letter damaged here] sometimes drily follows up some [?] of her histories with: - Fortunately, they all know you, Clara !! [ In 1843 she was detained by the authorities in Rome during a dispute; her jailer Count Gigliucci fell in love with her and they married a few months later].

Gigliucci speaks English with much more fluency now, than when first I met him, wh greatly adds to the pleasure of his society – since now we can all join in conversation together. Do you know that sometimes now, while revelling in the delicious warmth of this atmosphere – the greatest exertion we can achieve being to loll upon a sofa in a muslin wrapper eating figs – I can scarcely bring myself to believe how a fortnight ago I was shivering in a silk gown & endless petticoats, & actually stealing to the kitchen fire that I might enjoy a good toasting through & through!  It wants some courage to exchange the one climate for the other; & I already find myself wincing when I look forward to the necessity for encountering the wintry North on our return. I look up now from my paper, & behold a blue expanse of sea & sky – nothing between the window-frame & Corsica – all glittering & sparkling in the rich noontide sun & air; & then I think of the damp clinging fog that will embrace us the most ungenial welcome that will hang about us on the instant of our reaching home & will hold us in its grasp for many many months to come; I own I feel anything but attracted towards my Native Land – and have a “soul so dead” as I shudder at its bare thought.

Sabilla [Sabilla Novello, a younger sister of the writer] bids me give you her best love, & to say she was much disappointed not to see you at Nice, as she had hoped for the winter. My mother also, & all the family party here who know you, desire me to add their best remembrances to your father & mother [ Reverend Edward Tagart and Helen], your sister & yourself. We were much amused with the account of your indignation & disappointment at the performances at Fribourg. However, the Bach treat on the Berne organ must have compensated. We were greatly entertained by your letter, dear Helen; & again I thank you heartily for giving me such a pleasure. It was doubly kind of you, in the midst of such hurried travelling & so much actual enjoyment, wh makes writing a task unless to one whose [letter damaged here] & be sharing with us our present pleasure, & to take the next best means of having them with us in spirit. I feel tho [?] I am writing incoherently, but if you knew the divers conversations that are going on around me you wd hardly wonder. Here’s little Mario tugging at my knee with an infinitude of questions to “la Zia Victoria” [ Aunt Victoria, the child using Mary’s middle name] there’s Giovanni chattering & Zio Carlo – there’s Alf [Alfred Novello] & the Count talking politics. Clara & Cecilia consulting about a pattern – Sabilla &  my Mother confabulating – the whole family a Babel that makes my head less “in a concatenation accordingly” than cd be wished. But you will forgive the incoherency of the writer for the sake of the pleasure she is enjoying in the midst of so many beloved voices & faces. In accordance with your suggestion, I shall post this letter to Geneva, where I hope you may receive it in safety. We shall set out from here about the 23d of January, as we must be in England by the 5th of next month. There is one consolation in returning. There will be two Copperfields!!! [Dickens’ book was published in serial instalments 1849-50]

With kindest regards to your fellow-travellers & with best wishes for your & their continuanace in your prosperous journey & safe return. I am

Dearest Helen   Your affectionate friend    Mary Cowden Clarke

 

1805 Order of the Garter Installation ceremonies at Windsor, a foreign visitor narrates his experience

 

I guess that all societies have or had ceremonial occasions and that many of them offer or offered ceremonially awarded personal distinctions marked by additions or changes to one’s name and sometimes dress. In stratified societies, ceremonies are rather obviously differentiated by the number of people involved, the expense incurred, and the time they take – the last is, I suspect, often overlooked but it is obvious that though it might take an hour to bury a labourer it will take at least a day to bury a king.

In the United Kingdom’s order of precedence, Knights of the Garter (KG) are limited in number and placed third after holders of the Victoria Cross and George Cross, both awarded exclusively for personal bravery. The Order of the Garter dates back to 1348. In 1805, after a lapse of thirty-four years in conducting its ceremonies, King George the Third decided to hold a formal Investiture of seven new Knights of the Garter who really would have a garter put on their leg and who would then continue to the second part of the ceremony, an Installation which assigned them Chapel stalls .

The ceremonies took place in Windsor Castle and the Chapel of St George but were not repeated until revived in 1948. The 1805 event was badly organised as has been recently documented by Kate McQuillian (see References) and clearly failed to impress the foreign attendee who wrote this letter in occasionally dubious French and transcribed below. Unlike Wikipedia, he spares us most diacritical marks but that may be because quill pens tend to turn them into ink blots. He is writing on paper with an English watermark (T BOTFIELD) which suggests he has been in England for some time and is not simply passing through.

He compares the Installation unfavourably with the ceremonies conducted -   chez nous he writes - in Sweden for the Order of the Seraphim.

The tone and content suggests that he is familiar with the recipient who is Colonel Alexander Campbell, currently living at the Gatcombe House in the Isle of Wight which came to him from his wife when they married. But in his own Scottish terms he is Colonel Alexander Campbell of Ardchattan (1776–1844) described online as an army officer, excise (Customs) commissioner, and landowner. He is no older than 29 when he received this letter and the writer may be of similar age. I have translated the letter less than literally with a view to preserving something of what I take to be its informal style as well as its exasperated content.

But who was the sender and how were the two men connected? The writer supplies his forenames “Charles Frederic” very clearly but his surname is illegible. I think he is either a Swedish consular official or merchant or both, perhaps based in London but heading now to Edinburgh which at this period had close trading links with Sweden. That he can write in French allows for the possibility that he had some diplomatic role, but why he should write in French to Campbell I don’t know. Maybe his French ws better than his English. The “Charles Frederic” could be a rendering of a Carl or Karl and Frederick or Friedrich.

 * 

Transcription

Addressed: to Collonel A. Campbell at Gatcomb House    Isle of Wight    Hants.

Datelined: York ce 2 de Mai [this second of May] 1805

Despatch undated postmark of YORK 196 [ = 196 miles from London], weak London transit mark, charged 11d on delivery.

*

Monsieur

Deja depuis 3 jours je suis ici et je ne crois point de pouvoir partir avant après demain. J’ai

I’ve been here for three days and don’t think I’ll have any strength to leave before the day after tomorrow. I

gagne un retraicisement terrible a la fête de Windsor. Je peut Vous assurer Monsieur que je

suffered a terrible setback at the celebration at Windsor. I assure you Sir that I

 regrette bien d’y avoir été premierment parce que cela m’a couté un argent immense et que 

thoroughly regret having been there first because it cost me a great deal of money and that

cela n’a pas du tout surpassé l’idée que j’eu avois eu auparavant et je co XXXXX que cette fête

that has not at all exceeded the idea which I could have had previously and I coXXXXX that this celebration

m’oblige arester ici dans une ville qui estime des plus ennuyeuse que j’aye jamais vu [ ?] ma

obliges me to remain in a town which I reckon among the most tiresome I’ve ever seen [in] my

vie. J’ai reste hyer et avant hyer comme il faisait tres mauvais tems dans ma chambre.

Life. I stayed yesterday and the day before in my room  because the weather was very bad

 Aujourd’hui je suis sorti un moment pour prendre l’air.

 Today I went out briefly to take some air.

Je ne Vous fais point de description de l’installation; Les Gazettes en ont été pleines Je ne peut

I won’t give you any description of the Installation ; the newspapers are full of them. I can’t  

 dire rien autre chose que, Je trouve que la fete que nous avons chez nous en Suede tous les

anything other than that I find the celebration which we have at home in Sweden every         

deux ans de l’installation de l’ordre du Seraphim est bien plus brillante et gulie [?]. J’a quitte londre  

                                                                                                                                                                                            two years for the installation of the order of the Seraphim is much more glittering and “gulie”. I left London

pour me rendre a Windsor le 23 a 4 heure du matin  j’y fus arrivé a [ink blot] heures. Je me suis

to get to Windsor the 23 [April] at 4 o’clock in the morning I arrived at ? o’clock. I

toute de suite rendu au chateau dans les apartements ou étaient rassemblé le Ministres étrangers.

went straight away to the castle apartments where the foreign ministers were assembled

a neuf heure nous nous rendimes a ‘Eglise dans la Loge des ministres étrangers qui est vis avis

at nine o’clock we made our way to the Church and into the stalls for foreign ministers which faces  

de la Loge de la Reine Le Roi et la  cour comme ainsi chevailleurs ne sonts arrivées que vers 

the stalls for the Queen the King and the Court as also the knights who didn’t arrive until around

les onze heures la ceremonie commenca et enfin elle dura  jusqu’à vers les 5 heures nous fumes

  eleven o’clock the ceremony began and eventually lasted until just before 5pm. We were

 alors dans la St Georges Hall ou le Roi dinait en public cela dura jusqu’à vers les huit heures

 then in the St George’s Hall where the King dined in public that lasted until around 8 o’clock

alors enfin nous nous rendimes dans les autres sales a manger ou nous eumes nos diners. a dix

 and then at last we made our way into the other dining rooms where we had our dinners. At ten   

heures il y eut cour chez la Reine mais comme moi je n’était point presenter a elle je ne pus y

o’clock the Queen held court but as I was in no way presented to her I could not

assister je redescendie dans les appartements des Ministres Etrangers et je fis chercher mon

 attend I went back down into the apartments for the Foreign Ministers and sent for my

carosse qui ne vient qu’a minuit. la fatigue de cette journée et le froideur dans l’eglise comme

carriage which did not arrive until midnight the exhaustion of this day and the chill in the chapel as

dans la nuit en retournant me rendit déjà a Londre tres malaise et puis la nuit j’ai passe au chemin de Londre ici y a contribuee je suis terriblement enrumés.

during the night coming back left me already feeling unwell in London and after that the night I spent on the road from London to here has contributed [to the fact that] I have a dreadful cold.

Je vous remercie infinitement pour le paquet de letre que vous avez eu la bonté de m’envoyer

A thousand thanks for the packets of letters [of introduction?] you have had the kindness to send me

pour Edinburg. Je vous prie de presenter bien mes respects a Madame Votre Epouse et bien mes compliments a Mons. Votre frere ayant l’honneerur d’etre Monsieur Votre tres humble Serviteur et ami

for Edinburgh. Please offer my respects to your wife and also my compliments to your brother. I have the honour to be Sir your very humble Servant and friend

Charles Frederic XXXXXXX

Click to Enlarge

 References

Kate McQuillian The 1805 Garter Installation (2023)  https://www.stgeorges-windsor.org/1805-garter-installation/

Wikipedia: Order of the Seraphim

Wikipedia: Order of the Garter